After an intensive 3-month training period, I have become the senior traveler in the C4 region of Central America. People ask me for advice, currency exchange rates, translation services, and geographic references (“is this Granada?”).

I’m a big ol’ know-it-all, so this feeds my ego much more than any “do you have a boyfriend?” conversation ever could. In elementary school our awesome music teacher created a musical called the Appletree Kids and one of the characters was a Hermione Granger-esque know-it-all. Andrea Somethingorother got to play her and I was SO JEALOUS.

The idea that I’m the seasoned traveler in these parts is also, of course, ridiculous. Because, besides a general idea of how the buses run in the country I’ve already visited and empathy for being the solo foreigner on a bus full of native-Spanish-speakers with funny accents and little comprehension of the phrase “mas despacio por favor“, my knowledge is rather slight.

I mean, I do know the exchange rate. And being that I made the mistake on my last time through Nicaragua, I know that it’s best to carry exact change in USA currency for immigration. I also can infer that this is indeed Granada based on the fact that the ultimate stop of our bus is Granada and the driver has turned off the engine.

Maybe I’m just not losing as much in the translation.