# @alina_kaba on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DSgFSJaDXzQ
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/61802710-alina-kaba-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/828d820421.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-12-20T22:01:39.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Alina Kabakova (@alina_kaba) — https://gondola.cc/alina_kaba

## Caption

Glimmer 5/15: The year I started noticing

First year in Spain: I fought for my life.
Second year: I fought to continue living.
Third year: I finally exhaled.

And I started noticing things.

Small cultural differences that somehow felt like freedom.

People eat dinner at 10 PM.
They kiss twice when greeting.
They talk LOUD.
You can go to your local coffee shop in pajamas.
Nobody cares.

Pink hair?
Tattoos?
Yesterday’s outfit to brunch?
Nobody blinks.

And here’s the interesting part.

Spaniards are incredibly warm and caring.
They ask how you are and actually wait for the answer.
They invite you to their grandmother’s birthday after knowing you for two weeks.

But at the same time, they can be… beautifully inattentive.

They won’t notice if you wear the same shirt three days in a row.
They won’t judge your choices.
They won’t stare because you’re different.

They just let you be.

That kind of invisibility feels like a superpower.
Not because people don’t see you.
But because they see you and think:
“Cool. She’s being herself. As she should.”

I remember the moment I realized this.

I was walking to work for the first time without a wig.
Very short hair.
Still recovering.
Still figuring out my style.
Still figuring out who I was after everything.

And nobody cared.

In the best way possible.

That’s when I understood:
Here, you’re not weird for being yourself.
You’re just… you.

And that’s more than enough.

The freedom to simply exist.
Exactly as you are.

To be seen when you want.
And not seen when you don’t.

And I think that the moment I started noticing the good things,
the lighter chapter quietly began.

#glimmer #dreamlife

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## Tags

dreamlife, glimmer

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