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| This is a mural of God and pictures of events in the Bible. |
Let me start this off by saying if you ever study abroad, do not go into another country comparing/contrasting and expressing your views to the people of that culture. The best thing to do is to take in the new experience and just go with the flow. There are things that you are not going to expect when entering another country. Nothing will ever be the exact same as being home, but the experience allows you to cherish the things we do not usually appreciate as much. For an example, hot water! Yes, hot water. Here, people preserve their hot water. You have to turn a switch on to receive hot water, and then for the first 15minutes it is not so hot, it is lute warm. So imagine taking a shower early in the mornings. It is not the best, but hey, I have to do it. You learned of one culture difference I came across being in this country and that was the kiss on the cheek for greetings of female-to-female and male to female. As the same in the US, the males greet each other with a handshake. Another big thing I have seen while being here was the way males recognize a nice looking woman. No matter where you are or what you are doing, if a male notices you, they are sure to let you know. For an example (and the most popular one), a female walks the side walk and a male spots her walking as he rides by, she will either get honked at or whistled at. To this day, it is still very uncomfortable because I am definitely not use to that, but the females here are and they continue with what they were doing. Another significant difference is personal space. It does not exist! In the U.S, if someone invades your personal space, it becomes a bit of a problem according to the situation or it makes you very uncomfortable. I have definitely experienced this multiple times while I have been here. First experience; after class, I decided to go home so I waited a little while for a bus. One finally arrives and it is empty. I pay to pass and I sit and wait for a few others to get on. Let me remind you the bus was totally empty, BUT one woman decided that she wanted to skip every open seat and sit right beside me. Definitely shocked me!! Like seriously, all the open seats she passed, but she sat next to me??? Until this day, I still do not understand. Another experienced I faced was on Independence Day of Costa Rica. The streets were full with tons of people. When it was time for the parade, people were on top of people LITERALLY! It was definitely pass my comfort zone. The next thing I am going to talk about is a little funny, but it is true. There is a famous saying “Arrive on time, you are late, Arrive five minutes early you are on time.” Well for those who haven’t heard this, for an example, if you have a job interview at four and you arrive at four you are considered late, but if you arrive 5 minutes until four you are on time. Well guess what, that does not exist here! In this country, there is something called “Tico Time.” (Ticos are the name of the people here. Just like people from Mexico are called Mexicans.) Time does not exist here. If a friend from here tells you to meet him/her at 2pm, that could mean for them anywhere from 2:30 to 3:30 at the earliest before he/she arrives. SERIOULSY! Even my teacher is never on time for work. Class starts at 8, but because of “Tico Time,” sometimes it doesn’t start until 8:30 latest. Oh, let me mention that my class is 2 1/2 hours long and in between we take a break that is only suppose to be 10minutes and that ends up being 30minutes. It’s crazy I know! J . The next thing is somewhat funny as well. Anywhere you go, you will be judged or there will be stereotypes based upon where you are from. One thing as Americans entering this country, we are going to stand out tremendously and there for we have name, Gringo/Gringa. I’m sure you are like “what?” Well this only means white male/woman, blue eyed, typically blondish hair. Very stereotypical saying that I do not have two of those features, but in other ways people here will categorize you as that. For an example, you are spotted as a gringo/a if you talk really loud when the person you are talking to is right beside you. You are spotted as a gringo/a if you stumble across your sentence saying umm, I do not know, uhhh, how do you say, or you know what I mean. In addition, you are spotted as a gringo/a if you are running across the street hoping to not be hit by an oncoming car. I think that was the funniest thing a Tico told me that. Driving here is very different than in the U.S. Reason being is because pedestrians do not have the right away here. You are considered very fortunate to have a car in this country because most people cant’ afford one. It is also not common for a fairly young person to have a car. After talking with a Tico, I was told that most people below the age of 25 do not own a car, and he in fact is 23 and does not have a clue how to drive. Honestly, I do not blame him though. I would not want to drive here. People drive sooo crazy here. Stop signs to drivers here are yield signs, people pull out into oncoming traffic, and people are very impatient drivers. When I say impatient, I mean it because they honk their horns for everything. Example, there is a lot of construction taking place in this country and you would think people would understand if traffic is stopped for about 5mintes, but sitting in traffic all you hear are horns honking. It is so funny to me, but it is how life is here. Very fast pace and condensed. There is sooo much I can talk about, but this Blog is getting a little long and I applaud you if you have gotten this far in the reading. I will be sure to add more down the road. These are only some things I go through or see daily. Being here so far has been an eye-opener of how differently things vary from place to place and how we as people do not see it as normal because we are captivated in how we do things. I have been enjoying everything so far even when I have been uncomfortable in a situation. The biggest advice I would give someone at this point would be to just go for it and not be scared to mess up because along the way, someone is going to correct you. Stay tuned for more crazy things as I adventure in Costa Rica J
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| My Host Mom's Birthday. This is what a traditional cake will say |
I bet you are wondering what happened leading up to 6 weeks, well I’m going to tell you. You learned about my 1st day, my 1st week, and some of the culture differences now I’m going to tell you about the different things I’ve done here besides go to school to learn Spanish. Spanish is all around me 24/7, so I don’t necessarily have to go to school to learn the language. I have been many places where I’ve had to come in contact with someone who speaks Spanish, for an example, the 1st real weekend in Costa Rica, the family and I went to Puntarenes Beach. This is a beach on the Pacific side and it is so beautiful. A beach in Costa Rica is totally different than in the States. Some of the beaches in Costa Rica are like having a park on the side of the ocean. There are stand of food and places to just sit and relax if you are not in the ocean. My 1st contact with a Tico outside my family and school was here when I had to order something I wanted to eat and man was that hard. I also got to meet a part of my Host Dad’s family and see how differently they live along with the traditional things that are done in Costa Rica. Another place I visited within the 1st 6 weeks was with my program to Volcano Poas and a real coffee plantation. Volcano Poas is one of the few active volcanoes in Costa Rica and I was at the tip top of it. (Check out some of the pictures). The coffee plantation was huge and very GREEN! The coffee plantation of “Café Brit” is famous because it’s the best coffee due to the soil of the volcanoes that surrounds it. Our visit there was a lot of fun because our Tico tour guides were very funny. They knew how to keep our attention even though they were only talking about coffee. The 3rd place I’ve visited was a dance club in Costa Rica. You might be saying “huh?” but trust me it is very different. As Americans in a different country, you have to be aware of culture differences such as for females never accept a drink from a male because that means you are accepting him and you are willing to go with him if he asks. (Not in all cases, but most). The best part about this experience was getting to meet new people. Not all the experiences were the best, but it forced me to step out my comfort zone and try to speak Spanish. Another place I visited within the 5th week of being here was a beach on the Caribbean side.(YES the Caribbean!) It was beautiful. Being in a different country, one of the few things people are scared to do is travel hours away without knowing much about the place, well I did it. A group of us stepped out of our comfort zone and traveled 5hours away to Cauhita. There we experienced a total different style of living. It was very different there because the cost of living is very poor. There weren’t many places to see besides the beautiful beaches. It made us cherish more of the things we have because there it wasn’t much, not even compared to where I actually live in Costa Rica. There in Cauhita, we took a tour through one of the national parks there and saw monkeys, sloth’s, different types of birds, and a lot of different insects. I can say enough how beautiful it is to travel and see things you have never seen before. Within the first six weeks, it has been such a life changing experience. It is very overwhelming because you are trying to learn a new language, but at the same time you don’t want to overload yourself with stress of trying to learn it. I learned that by just going out and doing things instead of locking myself in a box because I’m scared. The best way to learn is to go out and get into things, talking to people even when you don’t know what you are saying and volunteering. Speaking of volunteering, I am currently now volunteering to assist a Spanish teacher teach English. You may be thinking how am I going to learn Spanish if I’m teaching English, well simple, I help them learn English and they help me with Spanish. It is great trade off. I couldn’t ask for anything better. The first 6 weeks here have been amazing. Yes, I miss my family and friends a lot, but that’s when I go out and do things so that I won’t get home sick. The best way to deal with home sickness is to occupy yourself. In the states, I use to sit at home and complain of how there was nothing ever to do and coming here doing the things I could simply do at home was a shocker to me. It amazes me how being in a different country changes your outlook on things. ONLY BEING HERE FOR 6 weeks! 
