“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” -Jawaharlal Nehru

 

Last week I did a comparison of physical differences between Iowa and Costa Rica. This week I am going to outline the cultural differences.

	Iowa	Costa Rica
My Address	7233 Wagner Road	10 m south of  KFC, The California neighborhood, The house with the yellow canopy
Dinner time	5 o’clock	7 o’clock (I’m about to eat my homework)
Usual Breakfast	Cereal, Toast, Pancakes, Oatmeal	Rice & Beans, eggs, tortillas, and fruit
How dishes are washed	Dishwasher with soap	By hand without soap
Use of car horns	Very occasional	Used extremely frequently to signal, to hit on girls, and for no apparent reason at all
Number of locks to get inside your home	1 (and it is often not used)	3
Friendliness of Strangers	Very friendly	Very friendly
Method of hitting on girls	Talk to them, ask them on a date	Honk at them, whistle, tell them they are beautiful (even if you are a checker at the grocery store), hiss (I’m not kidding)….
Fashion of College Women	Anything and everything	Clothes that are three sizes too small (and this goes for people of all shapes and sizes)
Pace of life	Very fast	Very laid back
Weekend activities	Catch up on things you put off during the week	Go to the beach and relax
Number of cars/family	usually 2	usually 1, my family doesn’t have one though

These are just a few of the random differences I have noticed since I’ve been here. I have no complaints. This country is wonderful; the people are amazingly friendly and understanding with my basic knowledge of Spanish. It is so interesting to observe different cultures. For a place so far away, Costa Rica has really made me feel at home.

Q&A

Q:Fantastic tree!! Do I get an award for being your best fan? Just wondering. LY! Mom

A: Isn’t that tree amazing? And yes you get to come visit me in less than a month! You lucky duck!

Q:I got butterflies in my stomach just reading about your jump from the falls! I couldn't even jump off our dock with a lifejacket on :)
Great pictures and video.
"Not-so-brave" Grandma.

A: Oh, grandma, you make me laugh! And I’m glad you enjoyed my pictures and video!

Q: Sounds and looks like you had another great weekend. I can't wait to get there!
Love, Gail

A: I can’t wait for you to visit either! So many people have told me that Arenal (one of the places we are going) was there favorite thing in Costa Rica. We are going to have a great time.