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I think that while I´m on holidays I´ll write less than usual for the simple reason that I´m at home, in Spain, and that everything is familiar, so I can´t write about "reverse culture shock", that is, culture shock that our own culture causes us when we come back after a long absence.

But for the last week, the only thing that has surprised me because I had forgotten about it is that most Spaniards and most of my friends are chainsmokers. Bleh.

Something that I missed and that I'm glad to see again is that everyone drinks alcohol, especially with meals. I have lived in two places where people don´t understand that alcohol is no big deal and that it is okay to drink a glass or two everyday/most days rather than all or nothing. In Scotland, the first of those two places, I disliked that people couldn´t drink without getting drunk; in Ithaca, I dislike that alcohol seems to be demonised and that it is not as easily available as I´d like it to be.

Apart from those two little details, meeting relatives and friends and sleeping ten hours a day in my own bed, there isn´t really a lot to tell, I think. I can always talk about poetry, though.

Glad you're enjoying your holiday break, Nia. It sounds wonderful!