Have I been here before...?

*precursor*
After 2 months at home in Chester, CT substitute teaching and interpreting at various medical appointments around the state, after taking weekend getaways to Ithaca, NYC, Boston, and DC, after experiencing the horror that is the US economy and job market, I was left with only one option: get out. fast. My only dilemma was where. I considered returning to my first Latin American love: Mexico, but decided against it as I had already dedicated 6 months of my time (3 years if you count a certain Latin love affair) there and wanted to be fair to the other Latin American countries (and other potential Latin love affairs). So after debating it, going back and forth way too much and having too many restless nights, I made my decision: Medellin. I came here back in December for a week and loved it-perfect climate, pretty clean city, easy to use public transportation, and very friendly people. So I bought my ticket, one-way. What was I going to do in Medellin for who knows how many months? Ni idea. But I had somewhere to stay and some random Colombian friends who I'd met back in December for all of one week so, why not?

I arrived two days ago and not much has changed, which is nice. The same crazies are still there, people are still selling cell phone calls for 8 cents on the street, and rain pours down from clouds that emerged out of nowhere for an hour followed by blissful sunshine, like in December. But apparently I missed some things when I was here last time. My first day while walking around with my friend Giovanni, we kept running into his friends and he would introduce us. I would proceed to do the kiss on the cheek, but after a few of these meet and greets, Giovanni turns to me and states: "oye eso no se hace aqui." Apparently if I do not know the person I am supposed to just shake their hand and ya, no beso. Boy did I feel silly after that. Nonetheless, I was struck with recollections of walking with Miguel into a bar or room in Mexico full of all of his friends who were strangers to me and having to make the rounds and kiss all ten of 2o of them on the cheek. I distincly remember getting tired of it that by the end I would lean my head into theirs and end up slamming my cheek into theirs. Well, glad we cleared that up.

Another thing that has managed to slip my mind which astounds me after having to ingrain it into the brains of 16 year-old teenagers the entire summer in Costa Rica is: Don't put toilet paper in the toilet! AHHHH. Luckily I've managed to realize my mistake now (after 48 hours here!) without any embarassing toilet clogs and having to figure out how to say plunger in Spanish.