Face Like a Farmer

Sometimes, Costa Ricans can be very indirect when talking about their desires. When it comes to general perceptions and observations, though, they are blatantly direct. It can seem offensive to Americans, but they don't mean to be insulting; it's just their culture. The reason I say this is because of a particularly interesting conversation that happened today.

I just returned from spending the afternoon in downtown San José with a few friends. We were eating POPS ice cream (AMAZING.) in the National Theatre plaza, observing all the attractive people, homeless Nicaraguans, and horrendous fashions. This Tico popped up on the bench next to Jessica and started talking to us. He could speak a little English and obviously wanted to practice, even though we ended up speaking mostly Spanish. His name was Warner, like "Warner Brothers". Not a traditional Costa Rican name, right? According to him, it was a name his mom selected after drinking too many beers and watching a Warner Brothers movie while she was in the hospital giving birth to him. Well, Warner had lots of opinions to share with us. He rated us all on our Spanish-speaking abilities, how much we look like Ticos, and asked the general questions about what we were studying, etc. My favorite quotes:

To me: "You're from Idaho....I am not familiar with this pueblo, but you have the face of a farmer." WHAT does that mean?

To my friend Emily: "Maybe your Tico friend doesn't like you because he thinks you're a lesbian. Your shoes [a pair of Converse] are mostly lesbian shoes."

Basically, this was just a really hilarious and random encounter and he ended up talking to us for about an hour. While this guy wasn't really your typical Tico, it just shows how they are friendly and funny people...often with no verbal filter.