Some of the most immediately notable things are the small, every-day differences:
- The flushing mechanisms on toilets are strange. Sometimes I stand in the bathroom for five minutes trying to figure out how to flush.
- There is no central heat here. It makes sense because the weather is generally so mild, but on a cold, rainy day like today it's truly freezing in the Comisión and at home. As a matter of fact, I think this is great; much more environmentally friendly, and everyone gets along fine bundled up and drinking plenty of hot beverages. Furthermore, the radiators have are old-school-- if you peer inside, there's a fire burning... and we do a lot of peering as we huddle around the radiator warming our hands during class breaks.
- I am useless at lighting the gas stove. I keep singing my thumbs.
- The dollar is incredibly strong here. For about US $2.50 or less, I enjoyed an enormous afternoon snack of café con leche, delicious fresh orange juice, and three (big!) medialunas- delicious, sticky sweet croissant-shaped pastries. Yesterday I went out and spent more money than I intended to... but it was still only about $10.
- Speaking of oranges, the streets are lined with orange trees bursting with fruit. It's beautiful; I'll make a mental note to take some pictures.
- There are a fair amount of stray dogs here. I feel sad when I see them, but mostly because they are really cute and I want to pet them but obviously don't. They actually seem pretty well-fed and healthy looking, and I have to think there's a lot of worse fates a dog could have. Although it is heart-breaking when they are curled up so very tight right outside a bar door on a cold night, enjoying the occasional blast of warm air from inside.
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