a year in another world

A year away from home. A whole year has gone by. So I have realized some of the ways I have changed and have become a part of this culture or that this culture has become a part of me:

I consider 1:00pm to be morning time still and 8:00pm is still the afternoon.

Shaking hands is sooo akward when meeting someone, we gotta kiss on both cheeks!

I like to eat any part of the pig, I never thought much about ham until I got here and became surrounded by people who love to eat ham, pork, (other cuts I don't know the names in english...). I even ate pig skin at a bbq the other day. You can't really even find turkey very easily here.

A "normal" size coffee would be about 1/3 of a tall at starbucks.

If I go home at 5:00 in the morning; that is getting in early.

I am shocked if I don't get free food with a drink I order. (When Katie Smith and I went to Sevilla we went out for tapas and I found out that they charged us for the tapa and the drink! I was kind of mad, I found out that only in Granada the tapa is free.)

I think I forgot how to drive a car. I walk everywhere and a 20 minute walk is normal for most places I go.

The guys in the pointy kkk looking hats (photo above) are perfectly normal to see walking thru the streets in the processions of holy week, its also normal to see them drinking and smoking in the bars later.

I find myself clapping with my hands positioned like in the photo above. Clapping is an artform here, not just a way to express approval.

Olives and olive oil are its own food group now... for real I saw a spanish version of the food pyramid.

I wear pointy boots...

Most of my thought reactions to something are in slang spanish. Like "venga ya tia"

I get dressed up to go to the grocery store.

3:00 is lunch time and it's by far the biggest meal!

I think I have like 5 maria's in my phone.

When people ask where I am from I tell them "Granada! :)" just to see if they'll believe me... they don't believe me.... i guess I still have an American accent... or maybe its the whole blond thing... I don't know, but somehow over this year, this place has become home to me in so many ways. There are many things about the culture that if I would've known before I might not have come, but now those are the things I treasure.