Last week, I was getting a haircut at the local salon here in Oviedo. The nice lady cutting my hair and I had an interesting conversation about relationships at my age (21) in Oviedo. Specifically, we talked about friendships here versus in the United States. She told me that multiple clients who were studying abroad in Oviedo had a difficult time making friends with locals. I asked her why, and she started to explain some differences between Oviedo and the United States based off of her two-year period living in Nashville. In Oviedo, it is much less common to have people over to your place. This is because most young adults live with their parents until their late twenties, whereas in the States, people move out as early as 18. Parents and grandparents here generally don’t like having a lot of people to their place, so instead, it is much more common to go out for food or drinks. This is the main type of socializing here. Another important observation she made which I completely agree with is that the population here is very old on average compared to other cities. This is a very obvious feature of Oviedo. Walking on the streets, there are older ladies and men everywhere. Because of this, along with the mentality of Spanish people in general, life seems to move much slower here which in turn makes building friendships a bit longer. In my experience here, life definitely moves slower, and you can even notice this on the streets because people literally move slower than other cities I’ve lived in. I have met many people that I could see myself being friends with, but it might take another week before I see them again, even if we agree to meetup over text. On the other hand, at Rollins, I see everyone (friends and acquaintances) almost every day making it much quicker and easier to build relationships. By the end of my haircut, we agreed that patience is very important here when it comes to building relationships. I have kept our conversation in mind ever since, and I’ve been paying more attention to her observation because they are true. I’ve been trying to be more patient because I understand that good relationships take time, especially in Oviedo.