What kind of animal is your sister?

(Two blogposts in one day! What´s happening?? Crazy.) We just wanted to share some thoughts we have about our stay so far, that is not about what we have been doing, but about some of our new experiences!

There is nothing like "one" Colombian culture. Colombia is very diverse, with a lot of different people and behaviors. So one of our purposes here - to get to know the Colombian culture - is kind of difficult, when social norms, people and behaviors are different from city to city. It will be interesting to visit other places than Armenia and Bogotá to see how people do things. But still, there are some things we can point out that we have noticed these three first weeks:


Greetings
There is always a bit uncertainty when we are greeting and meeting people - is it only a handshake this time? Is it one small kiss on the cheek? Is it a kiss and a hug afterwards? Two kisses? Or nothing, just a smile and "¿Cómo estás?"? Sometimes we reach out a hand, but the other person goes for a hug. Sometimes it is the opposite. This is kind of funny, and we just laugh about it. People are so friendly, and meeting new people is always nice.

Bags
Milk in bags. Yoghurt in bags. Water in bags. We buy small (or big) plastic bags with liquids, and we are always afraid they will break. So the following question is - how do we store these bags when they have been opened? Solution: keep them in jugs in the fridge! This is new for us.

Money
Everything is payed for with cash. Often we pay with a 20 000-note, or even a 50 000-note, which feels strange. But - thousand Colombian Pesos are about 2.8 Norwegian Kroner, and we often struggle to realize how much (little) things cost, but our brains are getting better (at least Mari´s). Still, we feel nervous walking around with 100 000 pesos each in our purses, but really, it is only about 300 NOK...

Measuring heights
In Norway, when we are talking about how tall someone is, we hold up our hand with the palm facing down. If we present our siblings like that here, Colombians will laugh at us and say something like "What kind of sister do you have?". The reason is that when they talk about heights, they hold the palm of their hand vertically, with the little finger pointing down. When the palm faces downwards, they talk about animals (not people). Good thing we sorted this out, haha (or jaja, as written in Spanish).

Weather
Some people might think it is super-warm where we are, but no - we live in the capital, 2600 meters above sea level. This equals the Norwegian weather in fall. Some days are gray and rainy, other days are more sunny, but it is never very warm. In other cities, for example on the coast, it is always around 30-40 degrees. So as a conclusion - Colombia is varied and diverse, and we are learning new things and how to adapt every day.

Picture from yesterday, when it suddenly started to rain like crazy, and we ran to find shelter.
With Felipe, Daniela, Rebekka and Mari.