Culture Shock and Coffee Socks

This is a Costa Rican coffee maker.  Basically it works like a drip coffee maker:  the little sock-like bag is the filter, and it rests on the metal stand.  Place coffee grounds in filter, and position your cup just so… pour boiling water over the top, and voila! Coffee!

Like so many things we are learning in Costa Rica, it’s different but it works, and it’s kind of  fun. The coffee maker, the way people love on babies, and the laid back sense of time are all small cultural differences that we have happily accepted.

This is the way culture shock creeps up on you. It’s not the big things like riding the buses, and speaking to your neighbor in broken Spanish. It’s not even the driving, which seems dangerous and scary until you learn the unwritten rules.  No, it’s not that.  It’s the little things.  The smells are different.  The bathrooms are different. Holidays, price of gas, and family relationships are all different.  And sometimes it’s frustrating when you just want to have a PB&J and a glass of milk, but you refuse to be the gringo who gives in and buys the $8 jar of peanut butter!  

It’s all the little things that add up to one huge realization… you are no longer at home.  That is culture shock.

You get beans and rice with your breakfast. 

But at least you can count on good coffee. People drink it sweet here, and with leche.  But we can all agree on what is good coffee. It's a universal language. So, I’m going to sit back, pour my coffee through a sock, and enjoy the culture. Shock.

Oh, and that coffee maker?  It was free.  So take that, Starbucks.