Small Town versus my Country

Katherine Ortegon M.
May 26 -2009


In my case, I arrived a week ago; I am from Cali, Colombia, and I found many differences between Carbondale and my country. First, this place is very quiet; usually in my country you are listening to motorcycles, vehicles, and people talking all the time; this means that the level of noise is higher.

The second most important difference is the distance between your house and for example, the supermarket. Here you need a car for almost everything you need to do, such us go to the movies, or go to the supermarket, but in my country you can find a small store each block and you can buy what you need. It is related with the third difference, the transport system; in summer you can only use one route available and It works very punctually each hour. In my country you could find fourteen or more different routes all the time, and they stop in any place at any hour. Sometimes it is very funny because you can see the people running behind the bus, and it never stops; in my country the bus stops and the schedule is not respected.

Finally, the clear difference that I found is in the people and their food customs; for example, a common practice here is to eat fast food like hamburgers and a soda, because nobody has enough time to lunch or it is common do a picnic where everybody chooses the food they want to eat. In my country you have at least two hours for lunch and take fresh food with natural juice; the picnics are unusual because we are accustomed to inviting other peoples but whoever invites is the only one who cooks for the invited; each person receives a food portion according to the amount prepared.

My life here has changed 180 degrees, but I am understanding the American culture, because I think that although we are from different countries, each of them has positive aspects. I have much to learn from other cultures, and I would like to take the best of them.