class is still hard but i actually like going.. who knew?? but the teacher today for publicidad y medios talks so fast!!! it's not fair haha. but we do cool things like watch funny commercials and ads and discuss them and talk about what kinds of hidden messages are in them. maybe if it were at UCF it'd be boring but i like it!
i have some more random things that i find interesting or very different. i might sound ignorant naming all this stuff, or comparing it to home, but i think it's funny to think about anyway! i KNOW i'm not supposed to compare everything to home but some things seem so odd to me. i like it though, it's cool to live with all these new tendencies and happenings =) i digress:
+ the comma vs. the period.
when we write numbers in the US, such as one thousand, we use "1,000," but here, you would put "1.000"
also, when writing a percent, here you would put "1,37%"
and when you say it, you say "uno coma treintisiete por ciento," actually saying the word comma! okay maybe i'm too easily amused...
+ crossing the street is no easy task.
when you get a walking signal, cars will still pull up to the very very tip of the crosswalk so that they almost touch you if you're in it, and if no one is actually crossing the street, the cars just go right through.
on the other hand, you don't necessarily need a green man to let you cross on foot. people go whenever they want and sometimes the public buses are laying on their horns as they barrel up to the crosswalk to let them know they're coming
+ the generosity amazes me.
i was in the market with marta and we bought some food and were about to leave, when she saw at the front by the door they had onions and she had needed some. so she grabbed one and tried to go back up to the counter to pay for it, but the guy said, "that's all?" and not only let her go with it, he handed her another. two free onions! what a guy.
also, as we left, marta said that would never ever happen in prague, and i told her same here. in fact, we mostly have big grocery stores that keep tabs on everything anyway so it's pretty much impossible. then she told me the more she hears about america, the more she thinks twice of it. she said she pictured it so different from what i've told her. kind of sad! but she thought of it as a "Disney World" kind of place where everyone is happy-go-lucky and super friendly and generous. i guess in some places it can be but i've never gotten a free onion before.
+ pan.
i see more people on the street with a loaf of bread under their arm than cell phones attached to their ears. seriously, i think it's a requirement to carry one like a weapon or something. bread with everything here! those pastelerias bank.
+ cash.
nobody uses credit cards here! it's like foreigners only. i've gotten weird looks busting out my visa before.
also, i've become one of those people on the metro who stand by the doors pressing the button for them to open before the metro is even stopped in the station. okay maybe that's just when i'm running late for school, because otherwise it's pointless. but when i first got on one of those it made me crack up how people rush to the doors and crowd around it before we are even in the station!
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