Smoking in Arequipa….Let’s Just Do It EVERYWHERE!!
Living in America definitely has its perks! One of them being that people can no longer smoke inside (in most states) and ruin the lungs, time, hair and clothing of their fellow attendees. There is typically a dedicated ‘smoking area’ where people can decide to ruin their own lungs and the rest of us not have to suffer through it. The best of these scenes is when it is 20 degrees outside and the smoker decides that though their feet are burning because of the cold, that they just need to get that cigarette ‘buzz’ with their drink. It is a very interesting phenomenon to me.
Let’s move right to current day Arequipa, Perú. I have had two smoking incidents that really made me scratch my head and question whether or not I was going crazy. Like literally, I was minding my own business and then all of a sudden my nose and throat began to burn. Not only am I a million degrees above sea level….but I am fighting my way through cigarette smoke. Here are two examples that really still stump me to this day.
Work. So today actually, as I write this post, have smelled cigarette smoke twice. This is a completely new idea to me as I cannot think of any one place in America that allows you to smoke in your place of work. Unless, of course, you work outside in a field somewhere. I work in an office building where people (some of us…and usually not me) dress up nicely and make an effort to be very professional at work. So the idea that I now have a headache and can barely breathe because the woman beside me needs a cigarette to get through her day is amazing to me. Let me be clear and say that there is no circulation….no open windows….no real place for the smoke to escape to. Just a cube wall that allows her smoke to come straight into my life. My hair and my clothing will smell as if I just had an amazing time at the club, when in fact, I was sitting in my cubicle at WORK. This is mind boggling to me and maybe I’m crazy, but I just never imagined that people would choose to smoke indoors on the job. ESPECIALLY if you are the only one doing it. Think about your neighbors….and stop being selfish. Take your raggedy cigarette and your 18-octave-too-deep-voice (bc you smoke a pack a day) having self OUTSIDE! And please note that I am the only one who seems to notice or care…of course.
Gym. Yes people, you read it correctly….AT THE GYM. As I’ve mentioned in a few other posts, I have begun going to the gym about 4 days a week and though I hate the monotony of it, I am enjoying it because I am actually starting to see results. On one of these faithful visits I was on the treadmill when I began to realize that my nose was burning and that I could not breathe. Then I went on further to deduce that it was because my lungs were filling with cigarette smoke. Like really?? Who in the world does that? ‘Yup…just finished working on these abs..let me light up a cigarette’. And just as in the first example, no one seemed to be appalled and bothered by this except for me. I was the only one looking around like a maniac to see who had the nerve to be lighting up in the gym. *Sigh* I never found him/her, but I was aggravated just the same. I pushed through and finished my workout, but it was definitely not a pleasant experience.
So there are the two examples of why I, now than ever before, hate cigarettes and cigarette smoke. If you decide that smoking is ‘your thing’ do us all a favor and go far, far away to smoke because some of us have allergies and cannot handle it. I had big plans on putting this in the ‘Annoyances of Latin America: Part II’ article that I plan to write, but I quickly decided that this needed its own post after this woman lit up her second one in my presence. I am utterly annoyed, aggravated, wheezing, sniffing, eyes watering, etc….which are all caused by cigarette smoke and fresh spring pollen. Thank you cube neighbor….you are now on my list!
That is all….
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