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The Daily Tar Heel
Dispatch

Open all doors inwards

I've been in Granada for about a week and a half now, and it's felt like a vacation more than anything. This weekend I finally had an epiphany that I'm actually not going anywhere. I will be living here for the next four months. This thought is mostly wonderfully exciting, but also a tiny bit terrifying.

I can find my way around some of this incredibly beautiful city now, and I’m feeling more and more at home. But even as I start to feel comfortable, there are lots of little differences that consistently remind me that I'm in a foreign country. Here are a few.

1. Everyone speaks Spanish here. (I know, what?)

I am not the world's best Spanish speaker, but simply listening to life happen for a week has helped me a lot. I can understand most of what I hear, and what I don't I can usually figure out through gestures and context.

Speaking, though, is another story. I'd never thought before this experience about how much of your personality is determined by language and vocabulary. If you can't express yourself eloquently, you can't have a personality. It's frustrating to find myself unable to be sarcastic, or joke around, or express gratefulness and politeness as much as I'd like to.

I can already tell that I'm improving, though, and what a valuable experience this is going to be. And plus, everyone is always very nice and patient about my language difficulties, so it’s not bad.

2. There is no ice here. Except in alcoholic beverages. I never thought about missing cold drinks, but I do.

3. All the doors open inwards. This may not seem like a big deal, but it still throws me off every time I open a door, which is often.

4. There are babies everywhere all the time, even at midnight. People here don’t seem to keep as short a leash on their children as in the United States, or set as early a bedtime for them. It looks fun.

5. No one appears to be fazed by engaging in public displays of affection anywhere, at any time, at any age. I love this. Why should they be?

6. The public seems much more aware of energy use. One of the things stressed at our program’s orientation, and one of the first things our host mother told my roommate and I, was about the importance of conserving power and water. Everyone takes “navy showers,” we were told, and you never turn lights on unless it’s totally necessary (read: unless it’s night.) Most buildings don’t have air conditioning or fans— just open the windows. I’m realizing how absurdly extravagant the amount of energy I use at home is.

I know that most of these thoughts are blatant stereotypes, but I don’t mean them that way. They could be entirely wrong, but they’re some of my first impressions of the Spanish lifestyle.

In closing, I would like to say that my roommate got hit by a motorcycle this weekend and the driver didn’t even stop. Welcome to Spain. 

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