GST Bloggers: Blog #5

One thing that I have definitely missed while I have been in Costa Rica has been desserts and chocolate. Here, in my home stay, we never have dessert, and only on probably three occasions, we have eaten like a bite of chocolate. For these reasons, it was interesting when I asked my host mom when and how chocolate was eaten in Costa Rica and she said always and frequently in desserts. I guess it is eaten frequently in the country, just not in our house. But, still it seems like desserts and chocolate are not eaten nearly as much here as they are in the U.S.

I have been wondering where and when my host mom bites her fruits because it is always interesting every morning to see the new fruit sitting out, and I rarely have the same fruit two mornings in a row. When I asked where the fruits and vegetables in our house were bought, she said the supermarket because it is easiest to get everything there. She said she goes twice a week to buy fresh products. At home in the U.S., we do all of our grocery shopping at a supermarket as well. And while we don’t go twice a week to the store to get fresh foods, we go there at least that many times to pick up items we forgot.

The only farmers market I have been to before was much smaller than the market we visited as a class. This market we visited was huge with tons of vendors and a variety of products. All of the vendors had their products laid out in a way to make them marketable and attractive, however, they were definitely presented in ways that would not be appropriate in the U.S., such as in random bottles. This is similar to way the products were presented at the market I had visited before. There were so many people shopping at this farmers market. It was a variety of people, young and old, and many had brought their small children with them. The interactions between sellers and customers were fairly to the point. When I bought something, the seller let me sample it, asked if it were good and then I purchased and that was it. The variety of products offered at this market, from fruits and vegetables to live fish and underwear was pretty astounding. At home, the markets typically just have the basic locally grown fruits and vegetables. It was very interesting to see the chaos and the energy that was definitely present amidst the sellers and their stalls and the people trying to buy their produce for the week.