Cultural Differences

When living in another culture there are plenty of times when it is difficult to understand traits of the culture you are living in. Even more difficult is the explanation of things in your own culture that the local people here find strange. This last weekend, daylight time kicked in across the US. Now how do you explain that concept to people who live on the equator where each day is the same length the entire year around? Why would anybody go messing with the clock to gain something? What is it that is gained? Is it so valuable that everything from work schedules to airline schedules are disrupted twice a year? How does it "save time" as the name implies?

On this end of things we have the strange (to us) idea that the customer is responsible for having the correct change. Even the large shops with cash drawers full of change will ask if you have the odd amount of your bill so that they will not have to return change. Saturday morning this got complicated. We shopped in Puyo's largest department store. The transaction went fine. However, when I discovered I had no change to buy tomatoes from a vendor outside, I went back in to ask the store to break a $10 bill. I was refused. MJ suggested I buy something more. So, I bought a candy bar and waited in the same check out line where I was refused change. I laid the candy bar down along with a $20 bill. I stood with my hands on my hips. She became upset when I said I had no change. She made the change in a big huff, I thanked her and left the store to buy my tomatoes. (The store does not sell tomatoes).

In a future blog, we will demonstrate with pictures that sidewalks are NOT necessarily intended for walking on.