Wednesday 22 May 2013

Stay Calm and Never Panic


A lady said to me the other day "You must be so brave" now I know Casa Chaos can seem daunting , but it isn't really that scary. However, it wasn't Casa Chaos she was referring to, but living abroad. This made me chuckle, as to be honest what am I really risking?

Living abroad provides numerous amusing amounts, and whole new ways to mess up on a daily basis. Any dignity that you may think you have built up over the years, soon vanished as you go through the linguistic and social pitfalls of daily life. The language here is filled with sneaky ways to trip foreigners up, and ensure that you make an idiot of yourself.

For example the word "huevos" literally translates to eggs, but this is often used by the old Canarians to describe their testicles. Therefore, be careful when you are at the farmers market asking whether they have eggs, as often they will reply with "yes, two large ones" This of course causes huge amusement, and you will have no idea.

There are dangers everywhere, but to be honest GC is not an active war zone, there are no flesh eating zombies, in fact, there are very few risks when living here. What this lady considered to be terrifying, I deal with every day, and have come to love the quirks and issues the island brings.

I once asked a Canarian man if he had ever been to America, this was met with shock as he couldn't think of anything worse. His reason was that he could not wander down the street with an open can of beer, which was enough to put him off ever travelling to the US.  Everyone is scared of different things, but living abroad, piece of cake!





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