…sneezing

Something foreign sneaks into your nose, tickling through your face. You roll your eyes toward space and contort your mouth, trying to fight the inevitable. In a fraction of a second, air explodes from your sinuses at almost 100 miles per hour. The nerves won the tug of war with your willpower, and whatever it was that needed to get out of your nose is gone.

Everyone sneezes. Sneezing is good for you. It protects your body from harmful contaminants or anything unfamiliar to your body. Spain is full of unfamiliar things, and I’ve been sneezing. The surprising thing about it, though, is that the locals don’t sneeze. It’s been a week of new sights and, specifically, smells, but I have yet to see a Sevillan sneeze. The cigarette smoke that lingers along the streets has made me sneeze. The roasting pig legs which hang from the ceiling until their time to cook have made me sneeze. The pungent incense sold on the street corners during the late hours of the night has made me sneeze. The flowery perfume that trails groups of women has made me sneeze.

I’m sneezing because it’s foreign. My body hasn’t had time to become familiar with these smells. The locals live in these smells – their bodies recognize the smoke, the meat, the incense, and the perfume. It’s not foreign to them, so they have no need to sneeze. My body realizes that things are different and unfamiliar. Every time I sneeze, my body rejects something from this new environment.

There will come a point when I will stop sneezing. Slowly, my body will begin to recognize the smells that won’t be new for very long. My nose will accept the odors that it never took time to analyze. The things that trigger nerves now will no longer be foreign at some point. Eventually, I’ll stop sneezing.