Culture shock and not so much

Sunday is certainly the day of rest whether you are in Costa Rica or in the United States. This lazy Sunday morning I also experienced my first big rain in this tropical town. The cool air of the rain felt very nice as my host family and I sat in the living room with the door open and relaxed. The day consisted most of watching futbol- just like the U.S. Sunday is the day of lots of futbol just the kind where you use your feet. All day my host "dad" watches soccer- and there is tons of soccer here. It certainly is THE SPORT in Central America. And just like Americans yell at the T.V. during football games, my host parents yelled at the T.V. with lots of emotion during their favorite team's game. My host dad even had to go on a few smoke brakes to deal with all the stress. Between games we watched TNT and programs on the History channel- its really not much different than home. Some of the programs are in English with subtitles others are dubbed over in Spanish including Batman Begins. It's very interesting too because their lip movements match the Spanish words, there must be some technology to change the actors lips only as well. Today I also went on a long run around 1.5 hours, and went up closer to the Volcano and saw more of the town. One culture difference I have been noticing in the machismo attitude with men here- they check out girls up and down, especially girl's backsides with ease. I could definitely feel eyes on me this morning as I passed, but that's fine with me if I can get some good runs in. I finished my run at the track here in town. There I could see how some aspects of the culture are really not different with all age groups. A group of youngsters around the age of 2-4 playing around on little tricycles and the boys then throwing them of a little ledge and laughing just as any young American boys. There was also a group of younger teenagers walking around in a group in a way that they thought they were the coolest kids around, just like kids in the Northpark Mall. And right next to where I was stretching after my run, a group of young adults were playing soccer, much like some of my friends in Joplin. I also got to get into a few social issues with my host family today- we got on the topic of gay and lesbians, and even though both of them identify themselves as Catholics, they don't really see homosexuality as a big issue which I would say is similar to our generation in the United States, both are more accepting than some older generations. On top of that, we listen to the same music as last night I explained what some Blink 182 and Bob Marley songs were about in English and listened to a very good Spanish version of Beyonce's "If I Were A Boy," one of my host "mom's" favorite songs. And certainly like my generation in the U.S., facebook is very popular here- but here they call it simply "face" which is sometimes confusing for me, but awesome how technology is definitely bringing cultures together as well. It's really neat to see how although many things are different here, like most obviously the language, in many areas, people are really not that different. The cold shower, although, is still way different than at home.