Dang, those Mayans must have had thighs of steel to climb all these stairs! This is me at the Mayan ruins of Tikal, Guatemala.

That's Franish for "Do you speak the bathroom?"

Never heard of Franish, you should meet Angel, our web and layout designer at the Daily Sentinel. That French-Spanish concoction is all hers.

But I just got back from a little foreign language experience of my own. I spent last week in Guatemala, the Central American country just south of Mexico. My boyfriend Titus is teaching there for the semester.

That meant dusting off the "Spanish" file in my brain, which mostly includes colors, body parts, and directions to the post office.

Let me tell you, there are only so many conversations about the post office you can have. Especially since Guatemala's postal system is pretty defunct.

Here's one highly important move they don't teach you in Spanish class: the "smile and nod."

That way, whenever conversation leaves the comfy realm of colors, body parts and the post office, you can continue to appear "inteligente."

Warning: Do not test the limits of the "smile and nod." The maneuver is only designed to be a short-term survival method. When your conversation partner's facial expressions change to offended, disgusted, or irate, it's time to employ another happy word we learned back in the classroom.

"Adios!"

Despite a few bungled conversations, having high school Spanish really did help make my travels in Guatemala amazing.

Because I knew a little Spanish, I got to hear about a guide's encounter with a jaguar. I got to climb a steep Mayan pyramid that a worker at the site told me about. And I got to the bathroom every time I needed it.

One of the coolest moments, though, was when Titus and I were sitting at a supper table with four or five different languages bubbling around us.

I couldn't understand what the guy next to me was saying - later we found out he was from Israel and spoke Hebrew. After a few minutes, we realized we had a common language: Spanish. We talked for the next hour about culture and education and travel and family.

Sometimes it worked. Sometimes we got lost. And yes, sometimes we smiled and nodded.

But there's just something about diving into a second language that makes communication precious.

Or, as they say in Spanish, "correos."

Oh wait, that means post office.