Thursday, May 1, 2008

My first Tico and Tica friends

On Tuesday I witnessed a major change that is slowly spreading through Central America. People here generally tend to accept each other as they are, and women rarely worry about weight issues. Now, however, women are starting to worry accessively about their bodies and are buying diet products to help lose those extra pounds (or kilos) by any means possible. My host mother has been on a diet ever since I arrived in Costa Rica, although basically it means she wakes up at 5 am to go walking. The only thing she needs is a lesson on nutrition and stop eating bread with rice with pasta at every meal. Her newest kick began on Tuesday, when I was herded into the apartment next door for what I thought was just a tour of our neighbor's home. I ended up in the middle of an Herbalife sales pitch, much like a Pampered Chef party but for juices that will help you lose weight as well as supposedly preventing cancer, heart disease, etc. The juices tasted terrible, so there is no way anyone would want to drink them for the hell of it. I was having to take them like shots just to get them down. Anyway, my host mother thought it was the best idea in the worlds, especially when the sales woman showed her own before and after picture and the weight she had lost. One of the charms of Central America is that the people are so accepting and do not obsessed with their weight, but sadly American culture is pushing its way in. Most of the Americans we have met that now live in Costa Rica do not speak a word of Spanish, and it is easy to feel as if you have never left the States at all with all the American stores, restaurants, and entertainment.

To combat this American-izing of Costa Rica, I have tried to make friends with a few natives, known as Ticos and Ticas. After the Herbalife party, a woman approached me and began to speaking in broken English. She said that she loved learning English, but after the birth of her daughter four months ago (who is still in the hospital in San Jose for an enlarged heart), she has not gone to any classes. She invited me to come to her house this weekend to practice our English/Spanish, so now I have my first Tica friend that is in no way related to school.

My first Tico friend was discovered yesterday when I tagged along to a coffee tour with a group of students from Simpson College who are attending my school for the week. Their tour guide was a man that reminded me a lot of Adam Sandler, but Latino. He told me that next week when he was finished with the Simpson group, he would take Kathy and me to the local hotspots in the area. I'm excited to get out of the tourist areas and meet the locals. I feel that there will be a great upcoming blog after we meet up with him, since I'm pretty sure he was snorting something while we were on the tour of the coffee plantation.

This weekend, Kathy and I are going to the beach since it is a three day weekend. More later.

1 comment:

bitchinkitchen said...

hey, well done on updating twice this week. I'm thrilled that you are fighting the system and encouraging the local culture. You should just refuse to speak English the rest of the time you are there as a sign of solidarity. Just a suggestion.