¿Que Talle?

SIZE SIZE SIZE...everyone is obsessed with size here. Not one day has passed where people haven´t goggled at my height or who knows what. It´s true, I´m tall, but people look at me like I´m a freakin´gigantor. It doesn´t help that everyone here is much smaller and shorter than in the U.S. At the mall the other day I saw my first Colombian guy over 6´3"...i think this guy was hitting about 6´7" and even I was so taken aback I think my gaze lingered a little too long. And then I felt bad because I realize his life is like mine on a much grander scale.

Not only is height an issue here, but weight or size in general. I still have yet to understand my host dad, he´s very confusing and a little crazy, and he thinks that I don´t understand Spanish so generally our conversations go something like this: him- Como estas? me-estoy bien him-no no no, (hands waving) como estas? me-si, estoy bien, him-NO NO NO, (pointing at me) COMO ESTAS??? He once branched out our conversation in order to ask me, what size Tshirt do you wear, XXL? Um, well no, but thank you sir. When I told him that mediums and larges (larges here because everything´s smaller) fit me just fine, he said, (I imagined it to be something out of the Spanish version of Office Space) "Yeah...I´ve been meaning to talk to you about that, I´m pretty sure you´re going to need to wear an XL when you´re pregnant." Well, all right thanks for the heads up...I´m not sure maybe he pegs me as someone who will be pregnant a lot in my life and should start getting my wardrobe ready now.

Today I had to go up into the mountains for work so we had a driver come and pick us up and drop us off, it was a little different than a taxi. But I live the farthest outside the city so when I was the only one left in the car he started asking me about the U.S.-if we eat a lot or a little, is everyone fat, is everyone tall, and then, "How much do you weigh?" I was like whaa? haha, I told him I didn´t know in kilograms, but he was like probably so and so, and I just said si. Then I told him in the United States you shouldn´t ask a girl how much she weighs because she´ll be offended, he said it´s the same here...so go figure.

He actually was a really nice man and I was proud of my conversational skills when I left. The past few days I´ve been feeling like I´ve hit a wall because I still don´t understand everything...but I realized when I got out of the car I had just talked with a complete stranger who spoke no English about the commercialization of the farm industry in the United States and the economic aftermath, the side effects of pesticides, and why recently there has been a push for community gardens, family owned farms, and organic produce. Perhaps my Spanish has improved a little. :)