I made it until now, about 2 weeks before I leave, without any major cultural clashes. The only thing I can think of was being told that I couldn't cross my legs in church and having to always remind myself of that. Another was that people here think that shorts are inappropriate more often than not. Pretty minor if you ask me. Today, though, I had my first few golpes, or hits. What specifically they were about isn't really important. What is was how I felt. I was talking to my tico friend, Melvin, and we encountered our first disagreement. We were talking about showering and how often people should. Ticos here are very, very, very clean. It was weird how we both just couldn't see eye to eye on it. We decided that it wasn't anything and we just joked about it. After about another hour, we hit another bump. He obviously felt very differently than what I had been raised to feel. It was odd. I couldn't get past the fact that once again, we were completely different. We were on such completely different sides of the world on this issue, that I knew he was seeing me differently now. It hurt a little bit to be perfectly honest.
What I've come to realize is that I cannot judge anyone. Culture is something completely different for every person. It is what defines what you think and how you feel. No, I cannot be upset about us seeing the world differently. It's not my place to judge. I think that it just reaffirms the fact that you need to understand why you think something and why someone else may think differently. You just need to remind yourself sometime that every person is different. To each their own, or, a cada persona su propio.
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