One thing that has surprised me so far while living with my host family is the large variety of foods that they eat on a day-to-day basis. When learning about coming on this trip, we were told to expect a lot of the same foods, like gallos pinto for breakfast, and a lot of meals that feature beans and chicken for lunch and dinner, but we have not had either. Since being here, my host mom has served us a large variety of foods, and not one meal has been the same. For breakfast this morning, we were served pancakes and eggs, which surprised me, as I was under the impression that pancakes were primarily an American food. We have had pork, fish, and chicken based meals, all with different sides. Despite the amount of different foods we have been served, all of the meals that she has prepared for us have been amazing, so I am pleasantly surprised by the variety.
Our time today at the market definitely reflected my first impressions on how Ticos live. While walking around the market, and doing the scavenger hunt, we had to ask the workers for assistance in translating the products. Even though the market was full of people, the workers were more than happy to assist us in our scavenger hunt, whether that was pointing us in the direction of a product, or taking cows stomach out of the case so we could take a photo. Also, they were very accepting of the language barrier, as we were unsure of a lot of the names of products on the page we were given. Going into this trip, I was under the impression that Ticos were very kind and accepting, and our time in the market definitely reflected that.
