San Jose

¿What´s it like you ask?
For me, the best comparison is its kind of like New York, but much shorter. The buildings are obviously shorter, and yes, even the people come up shorter than my 5 feet and 6 inches. A few guys are taller than me, but nearly everyone falls under 5 foot 4 for some reason. It makes me feel like a gigantic American. Not only do I stick out because of my Norwegian complexion , I´m also slightly taller than your average Jane/Joe. I did however notice that many many people here also have an obesity problem, as the US does, but are not at all worried about hiding it. People, and when I say people I mean ladies, here like to paint their tops on and maybe even let that belly button catch a little sun and air out. No belly button rings here though.

However,
there is a large amount of youth, and when I say youth I mean people under 25, that have their lips pierced. There is actually a pretty big population of punks here, kind of like the skaters of early 2001. Little does San Jose know that they are BEHIND in the times. The cool thing in the states now is Geek Chic. Men dressing in button up shirts untucked and sweater vests over designer jeans and nice shoes with wide rimmed glasses. I could open a shop here and make millions. (That's a funny joke because here, the colone is the currency. Two American dollars is 1000 colones, but they say one mil instead of one thousand. See how funny?)

I got a great hammock that I´m excited about and much to the chagrin of my father, I will make him hang it on our back porch. Don´t worry mom, it´s the kind that even you won´t be able to fall out of!

In San Jose, people are not as worried about being clean. There is tons of litter almost everywhere, and anywhere a man wants to go to the bathroom, he does. Like when a Tico, and when I say Tico I mean Costa Rican, stepped right off the bus in front of Caitlin and I and shoved past us to the corner of a building. You just don´t get that kind of treatment in the U.S. often...

On 95% of the billboards, and on 95% of all the television here, the advertisements are full of American looking blond European descent folks. Almost all of their TV shows are shows from the US just dubbed into Espanol. I can´t really imagine growing up in a country that is 1/3 the size of South Dakota where almost all entertainment and adds are from someone speaking a foreign language and dubbed into English. Its an odd concept.

See you tomorrow America!

Love,
Caroline