Cultural Quiz 101

Situation 3

You meet a Tico at a party, hit it off right away and swap phone numbers. You call your new friend shortly afterwards to ask him to dinner a few days in advance. He gladly accepts - but on the night in question never turns up. Next time you bump into him, he offers no apology or explanation. Do you:

A. Feel insulted and resolve to reduce your circle of friends to those who take social engagements seriously.
B. Decide, next time, to only ask him out on the spur of the moment when there's no chance for forgetfulness or mind-changing.
C. Invite him to dinner again in a week's time.


If you answered A, there's no point taking it to heart or feeling paranoid- Ticos are just notoriously incumplidos. To you, simple forgetting about an arrangement, or turning up two hours late may seem tantamount to rudeness, but if you confine yourself to friends who share your attitudes about time, you will probably find yourself with a rather small social circle. Answer C will probably see you being stood up again. B is probably the best answer. Call up one evening and ask what your friend is doing. If he's going out, he'll probably invite you along. If he has no plans, suggest meeting up.

A single humor post from Costa Rica real estate.