Differences part 4

Bus drivers:

-Often will have conversations with people on the bus, and not reserved 'I'm driving' sort of conversations.

-Eat while driving

-Listen to their ipods if not to loud music on the radio

-Smoke, a lot. In fact, just yesterday morning I had a bus driver (who for whatever reason looked incredibly insulted when I showed him that I was a student in order to get the discount that is rightfully mine) who actually stopped the bus, got off, walked into a convenience store, bought a pack of cigarettes (I was watching all of this half in awe half chuckling to myself), and returned to the bus. He then proceeded to pack his cigarettes, open the packet and start smoking all while driving aggressively through traffic.

Gym:

-The idea of not resting on the machine you are using is completely non-existent to most of the people who lift (which is odd considering the signs posted on the walls regarding exactly that).

-When I go to the gym in Eugene (or anywhere else) everyone else is a lot stronger than me, and I'm always in awe of how much they lift, here, I seem to be one of the people who lifts the most. I don't really understand this...

-Most of the weights are in Kilograms which is really inconvenient when I'm trying to remember how much I did in eugene and match it here ("Okay, let's see, I was squating 205 in Eugene, so I need two forty-fives and two thirty-fives. They only have 20 kilo (44lbs) and don't use anything close to 35lbs. So I'll just take the 10 kilos (22lbs) and add a 5 kilo (11lbs) to each side so that's 199lbs total..." This doesn't seem like much of a problem, and it's not, but it's just a little bit funny trying to work everything out to a close equivalent.

People in general:

-Automatically you are very interesting and worth staring at just because you're white. I get so much attention here when I get back to the states I'll probably go through withdrawals like some child-actor.

-Generally people assume that you don't speak Spanish. At all. People handing out papers on the streets (for shows or stores or cafes or etc..) will be handing them to everyone that walks by, but then they see you and completely just leave your group unpapered. Some people might feel this a boon to being white, I just kinda feel insulted.

-People look at us as a chance to practice their English, which would be fine, except for the fact that we are here, specifically, to practice our Spanish. I have had a surprising number of conversations where I am speaking broken Spanish, which is being matched by their broken English, and neither wants to switch to their respective mother-tongue.

Buildings:

-The buildings here are mostly really old.

-Many of these previously mentioned old buildings are filled with restaurants or cafes or clothing or sun glasses or just about any combination of the two. Oh, or bars. It's really strange to see these old buildings, all ripe with history, turned into these establishments of everyday life.

Alright, that's all for now. Must complete my mountain of homework before I head to Cuento de juego tres (Toy Story 3).

Much love,

-Connor