5 Social Faux Pas Every Expat in Costa Rica Can Avoid

People are more or less the same wherever you go.

We remember different foods from our childhoods, but most of us love our Grandmothers.

We like different music; but the generation before usually despises the next one's favorite.

Everybody likes a barbecue!

Humans are social animals - we want to connect, belong, have a purpose, and have our basic human dignity recognized, and we meet those needs through culture.

That said, culture is a social construct and what might seem innocuous to a visitor from the USA may be regarded as uncouth by our Costa Rican hosts.

Here's what you need to know to avoid the most common social faux pas…

Tastes like chicken.

Honeymoon in Costa Rica, or The Adventure Begins

Seattle,  2014.

We are planning OUR WEDDING!

Fancy dresses for me and our four daughters!  My hot husband in a dashing tuxedo, looking like a magazine cover!  An epic party with all our friends and families!

Fancy food!  Fancy drinks served in fancy glasses!

FLOWERS EVERYWHERE!

And it only costs a bazillion dollars and your first born child!  Um, no.

Ahem.

Planning, shall we say, is not my strong suit.

As I started investigating All The Things, the first thing I noticed was the expense.

It was … sobering.

Thousands of dollars for a poofy dress to wear ONCE?  Most of these dresses cost more than my first car!  Matter of fact, most of them cost more than my CURRENT car, and I wear her every day!

And I have to buy four more dresses for our bridesmaid daughters?  Seriously?  Four girls, four different personalities, opinions, and complexions -  united only in the guarantee to hate anything I pick.

A VENUE.  We didn't reserve a venue a year in advance, and it would be $900 just to get a room at the library for a few hours.  And the park?  Nuh-uh.  All the spaces are already reserved!  Shoulda booked last year!

The stuff!  Flowers and centerpieces and gifts and photography and accessories and invitations and postage and a quadrillion other things I've never heard of or thought about.  To this day, I STILL don't understand "chair swag."  Or why a table might wear a skirt.

It would make a saint cuss.  And I ain't a saint.

As my fiancé and I looked over the budget, nausea rose and my eyes started to gently cross.

"To hell with this," I said, "Let's spend the money on our honeymoon!"

"Works for me," he said.