Paciencia.

I need paciencia with the pace of culture, paciencia with learning Spanish, paciencia with my life direction, with jogging slowly instead of sprinting. So much patience required here.

The pace here is hardly comparable to the US, except to say that they are opposites.

The art of greeting, instruction, conversation, and goodbye are painted with words and curated by paragraphs. The abundance of time that’s set aside to greet a group of people is so mind-numbingly slow to me. Perhaps it is because I can’t translate everything that’s being said.

Greeting: There is the physical act of greeting. That includes kissing the cheek area of the person to whom you are being introduced. In business settings this is different, and depending on the gender mix, it will not include a kiss. But if you are starting a session or greeting a group, there is something called: Palabras de Bienvenida. You just stand and say hello a bunch of different ways, talk about yourself, talk a little about the group you might represent, talk about how great the group of people joining you are and how much you appreciate them, and be on your way. It’s a greeting with no substance of any kind, it’s only a “Hello” but it is a Hello spread out over 500 words.

Instruction: The instruction giving process is perhaps the most absurd to me. You give the instructions, you give them again, you make sure everyone understands, then you repeat the instruction two more ways, make a joke or two, ask how everyone feels, hover, and when your departure is long overdue by 4 circadian rhythms, THEN AND ONLY THEN SAYETH THE LORD, do you consider addressing another topic.

Goodbye: You must do it right. Take the time. Shake the hand, kiss the cheek, kiss every cheek in the room and shake every hand. Take the time, do it. People come first here, not clocks.

All of this is a major adjustment to my inner clock. What is a reasonable pace in Atlanta is breakneck here.

And learning a language is hard! I make at least 79 errors a day. The words come out wrong so often. The verb is completely wrong. “Go” instead of “Have.” This is asking so much patience and acceptance of myself that I could not have anticipated. Today I started to say syllables that sounded Spanish except they weren’t actually words at all.

Amanda likes to run. She runs two hours if she can. She runs at a manageable pace for a 2 hour distance. I like to run more quickly to get it over with, and then eventually walk when I don’t feel like running anymore. I like to ride the emotion of the song on my headphones. I’ve been running a bit more slowly with her now.

What will I do after PC? Who will I meet during this time? Will I ever fall in love? What is my next career move?

Paciencia, Paciencia, Paciencia.