Appearance/Hygiene

In Costa Rica, appearance and hygiene is everything. The way you present yourself, presents who you are as a person, aka: People judge you HARD CORE on how you look. You may say, "ehh, everyone does that." But here, it goes a little farther than that. Por ejemplo: If you have dreadlocks you automatically put into the "that person smokes" category. If you have a low cut shirt, or you can see lots of cleavage, you are put in the "tierrosa" category....you can guess what that means. All in all, people like to present themselves in a good light.

It is pretty much a requirement to shower AT LEAST once a day. There are people who will shower three times a day if they need to, and it's because its really hot in some places! Luckily  I live in a place that isn't too hot, or too cold, so I shower once every morning, and I am good for the rest of the day! The way you smell also is important, so people put on perfume/cologne every single day, and sometimes you can smell it a mile away! Another thing is people brush their teeth after every meal. One day I went out to lunch with my friends, and after we ate, they all went to the bathroom to brush their teeth, and put on more makeup, and i felt like a freak because I hadn't brought my toothbrush let alone makeup....I felt like a scrub! 

The clothing, you would think, would be people wearing shorts every day-at least that's what I thought! Nope...the majority of the teenagers go out with skinny jeans on. Also, people dress up. Por ejemplo: when my mom goes to the supermarket-she has on her dress, her heels, her makeup, shes got her hair nicely styled....and she's gone for how long? An hour?! I wonder what she would say if she saw the people of the US in Walmart (aka sweatshirt/sweats/pjs!) 

The majority of the woman here, like to wear tight things, this can be a good thing, and a bad thing..............some people should not wear tight clothes, and I don't mean to be rude, I'm just being honest! Also, I've noticed people like wearing shirts that say things in English. Some are cute, others funny, and some just plain weird, and I wonder if they even understand what's written across their chests. The other day I saw a woman with a shirt on that said, "Warning: I am easy". .....ummmmmm! The clothing is "Ropa Americana" and there isn't as wide a range of styles. In the US, you could have a hipster style, preppy, casual, athletic, punk, vintage, formal, hippy-cowgirl (*cough *cough-Graceeee!), but here, its skinny jeans. Heels are also worn A LOT! 

So that is the "fashion" I guess you could say. All in all, I haven't bought a lot of cloths here (only a sweater) because I brought a lot of cloths with me, and I don't even wear some of them. I remember when I was packing with my friend Carrie, and she kept asking me if I needed some of the clothes, well....nope. But oh well! I'll just make sure to give out clothes once I leave!