Culture shock

Culture shock is a strange thing. You go into a foreign country, go through the stages of culture shock and finally feel ok about living there, and then return to have oddly similar feelings as you re-enter your home culture.

There is plenty to say about culture shock, or reverse culture shock. The thing about living in another country is that you're supposed to feel stupid and ask dumb questions and look and feel out of place. The strangest thing about returning home to your home culture is feeling out of place and being afraid of looking stupid, since it's what you've been dealing with the entire time you've been out of the country. But again, you're supposed to feel that way in another country. You're not supposed to feel out of place in your home country. It's your home.

In Costa Rica, to pay for anything with a debit/credit card, you automatically hand over your plastic card along with your ID. There is no machine that you slide it through; the cashier does it for you. One time while we were back in the U.S., I was at a convenient store and handed over my debit card and ID. The person looked at me oddly and said "you can swipe it right there". I felt stupid. And even stupider when I awkwardly went to figure out the scan-the-card-yourself machine with a red face.

In Costa Rica, if there is a car waiting to get into traffic and you are the one who will let them in, you simply flash your lights at them. I tried being nice one time here in the U.S. and flashed my lights at someone waiting to get into traffic, and nothing happened. So I awkwardly kept going, trying to remember what social cues it is that you do to let someone into traffic.

I'll continue to write more thoughts on this matter in other blog posts. For now, here are some ways that Costa Rica continues to affect my life:

-I never ever go through the self-checkout line in a store. That is super intimidating for a person who tries to lay low under the radar and not look stupid!

-The other day as I was putting together a burrito, I found myself missing sour cream from Costa Rica. It is much more runny and spreads over burritos easier, rather than in clumps.

-When the trees rustle, I often catch myself looking to find a monkey, rather than a squirrel.

-Whenever there is a product that comes in packaging with Spanish, I read the Spanish and don't think much of it until I realize that there's probably English too, and the normal thing isn't for everything to be written in Spanish.

-When our house got cold in the winter, I naturally went and got a sweatshirt and extra socks on, without realizing I could simply turn up the heat a little (we didn't have heat in our home in Costa Rica).