Cultural lessons

Our situation here at language school is very different. We are like children all over again, trying to figure out not just the language but also the culture. It can be frustrating at times. Here are a few things we are still trying to figure out after almost four months here:

• Haircuts? (on Saturdays you need an appointment but every other day of the week you may walk in .... or so we think)
• Whether or not to tip? (don't tip your waiter but do tip the guard that watches your car outside of the restaurant)
• Why can't we pay our bills? (we go to pay them and, for some reason, they won't let us pay the bill. The only thing we do understand is that we still need to pay the bill...somehow)
• When shopping...why can't we start loading our things up on the counter while the person ahead of us is paying for their things? (Apparently this is very rude...but it is not rude to stand in front of somebody when they are trying to pass you in the aisle.)
• Why do the taxi drivers start yelling at us when we close their door? (Don't ever slam the door in a taxi, even if you have to re-open and shut the door a zillion times just to get it to latch)
• Why does everybody think we're German?! (Yes, we are white, blue-eyed, blonde and tall...we did just discover that there is a rather large German population in Southern Costa Rica - perhaps this is why we are immediately taken for Germans?!)
• Why is it so dog-gone hard to make a hotel reservation? (Call, call again, ask the right questions, call again, give the correct email address again, fill out first form, email form back, receive second form, fax this one back, call again, ask language school secretary to write a letter to prove we are students, fax that, call to confirm and bam you've got your hotel reservation!)
• When driving...why does everyone cut us off, walk in front of our car, or pull out in front of us? (HONK! A few short honks at every intersection will warn others not to get in your way. If someone is taking too long and is in your way, let them know they need to move. If you don't honk, then you don't care...In the U.S. honking is rude but here it is just another way of communicating, nobody will ever be mad at you for honking at them, they expect you to!)

So much to learn! But, as we learn little by little, we find ourselves actually seeing the logic behind many of these cultural practices. Many times we embarass ourselves without really knowing why. Sometimes we look very rude but we think we're being kind! We have learned that we must un-learn many things from our own culture and re-learn how to do things within this culture. Gratefully, we do stick out here and so the Costa Ricans are very understanding when we screw up...and once we open our mouths to try to say something intelligible, then we are just plain pitied!!!