I’ve garnered a whole arsenal of unconventional knowledge in my time at Loyola.

I now have the ability to create a respectable paper in just hours before its due date, to shower in a two-square-foot space, and to concoct a decent (albeit nutritionally questionable) meal in a microwave.

But aside from my new repertoire of skills, I’ve also picked up a few nuggets of wisdom – like the fact that a spacewalk isn’t always a spacewalk.

The name may not sound familiar, but surely you’ve experienced one. In the place you call home, they might call it a moon bounce, a jump house or – my personal favorite – a bouncy castle. Whatever the preferred term is, I was amazed to learn that the name for the inflatable bouncing mechanism popular at birthday parties and Loyola events is, in fact, region-specific.

Not that this is the first time that I, a local, have experienced a language clash with out-of-staters.

I grew up in a city that ends its sentences with prepositions and mispronounces any word containing “oi” (or any vowels, for that matter). But I consider the confused faces when I drop a “y’all” as much a part of my learning about other states as hearing about snow, competent politicians and this alleged phenomenon of “last call” in bars.

But even those not cursed by “Y’at” tendencies can relate to the inevitable communication problems that come with being mixed with students hailing from all over. We’ve all learned the hard way that “brake tags” are “inspection stickers,” going “tubing” is also known as a “float trip” and that “soda” is synonymous with “pop” (although I contend that it should always be called soda). Anyone can relate to the confusion that follows when state-specific slang rolls off the tongue.

We may have lost a lot in recent years – our majors have disappeared overnight and our faculty is leaving us in droves – but one thing we still have is a motley crew of students representing the entire country (and even other countries!). Everyone brings things from home – whether it’s slang, non-spicy foods, strange accents or endearingly infectious excitement about Mardi Gras – that can make even the most jaded locals giddy.

So the next time you experience the awkward silence after nonchalantly mentioning a Spacewalk, consider it a lesson. I have learned that there is a world outside of New Orleans, one of bouncy castles, float trips and proper grammar.

But never “pop.”