Everyone warns you about the paperwork, the English, the winter. Nobody warns you about the small things: the ones that catch you off guard in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday. These are mine.

1. Strangers talk to you

The cashier asks about your day. The person in the elevator comments on the weather. At first I thought everyone wanted to be my friend; then I learned this is just small talk, a kind of friendliness that floats on the surface. In Colombia our warmth runs deeper but belongs to people we know. Here it’s offered to everyone, and belongs to almost no one. I’ve learned to enjoy both.

2. Dinner at six

In Colombia, lunch is the meal: the big one, the one you plan your day around. So the first time someone invited us to dinner at 6:00 p.m., my body was confused for a week. Six o’clock is not dinner time. Six o’clock is “coffee and something small” time. I’ve adapted. Mostly.

3. Everything is far

I used to walk to the tienda, to the salon, to my aunt’s house. Here, distance is measured in minutes of driving, and there is a parking lot the size of my old neighborhood between me and the milk. The car is freedom, they say. Some days it feels like a membership requirement.

4. The silence

The first weeks in an American suburb, the silence felt loud. No street vendors calling, no music from the neighbor’s window, no motorcycle with a speaker announcing avocados. Just… birds. I missed the noise more than I expected. Sometimes I still open a window hoping to hear an avocado guy who never comes.

5. Ice in everything

Water arrives at the table full of ice. In January. When it’s snowing. I have questions that no one has been able to answer.

6. Good Colombian coffee is everywhere here

This one hurts a little: it’s easier to find excellent Colombian coffee in the United States than in many Colombian homes, because Colombia exports the good stuff. Those beautiful bags labeled Huila or Nariño single origin? Here, they’re at the supermarket. I drink better Colombian coffee now than I ever did growing up, and I have feelings about it.

7. How Colombian I became

The biggest surprise wasn’t the United States at all. It was me. I cook more Colombian food than I ever did in Colombia. I talk about my country constantly. Living far away didn’t make me less Colombian; it concentrated it, like a good agua de panela left on the stove.

What surprised you about living between two cultures? Tell me on Instagram or TikTok, and there are more stories coming in Between Two Cultures.