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When I was 19, I went to Germany to visit my boyfriend who had just been posted there by the Army. It was a great opportunity for an adventure away from my hometown.  He had somewhere for us to stay for a month; I just needed to come up with the airfare. I didn’t know I was moving. But he proposed and this adventurous holiday destination became my new home for the next three years.

The marriage only lasted about two of those years because, well, we were young. Getting married was advantageous because the army looks after its own, and it meant he could live off base with me and I would get all the benefits of being an army wife, like preferred hiring on base. It meant that I had a partner and a community to make the move to a new country a whole lot easier. I made Canadian friends through my job and explored the countries around me.

It was easy to live in the Canadian bubble, and plenty of soldiers and their families did just that, but I wanted to try to experience the real Germany. I had taken two years of German in school, so wanted to practice and improve. I would speak my broken German to waiters and shop clerks and in Lahr, used as they were to Canadians, I would be answered in English. I kept at it and the further afield I went the more German responses I would get, but it was a challenge. I certainly never became a fluent speaker, but to this day, I’m pretty sure I could get directions, a hotel and a meal with my beginner German and that universal miming language one tends to pick up traveling. 

One of the surprising benefits of not speaking the language fluently was a more peaceful existence as I went about my day. I would be on a bus or in a restaurant and be near people having an audible conversation and yet I could easily tune them out as I couldn’t follow the rapid German they were speaking. As I traveled around town I couldn't unthinkingly read every sign, shop name and billboard I passed. Even though I did sometimes use it as an opportunity to improve my German, most of the time it was bliss.

On my recent travels to some Spanish speaking countries in the Caribbean I’ve enjoyed this same unique peace. I now realize just how bombarded we are by media messages and our fellow man in big cities. Enjoy the peace; it’s the old school version of unplugging from technology for a time, giving you a chance to be alone with your own thoughts and not the words of others.