Over the past two weeks of living amongst the locals in Costa Rica, I learned many things. From the time we touched down in this country, I could already feel the difference in atmosphere. I?ve traveled to nearly 20 separate countries throughout my life and the biggest thing that stuck out to me in this country compared to the others was their unswayed happiness towards life. Their quality of life is significantly less than the US, which I kind of expected coming into the country, but the people of Costa Rica as a whole seem far happier regardless. The business culture seems to be quite similar. People are happy but also are much more relaxed and less worried about careers. They go off of “Tiko Time,” which basically means they are late for everything. Most of their business is done within the country and it seems there are significant barriers to getting products to other countries. The main business they receive is from tourists. There are lots of tourist destinations throughout the country which seems to make it hard to become successful with so much competition. Our extended stay at the homestays was quite intimidating at first but turned out to be a great experience that I would never have traded for a hotel room stay. We got to do many different excursions throughout the country from going to the beach and visiting La Fortuna volcano and waterfall, to various different educational tours. We also got to volunteer at a local school, attend educational lectures from a local professor over the economy, and even got a personal presentation from Costa Rica’s US ambassador. Even though there were a few kinks in the trip being that it was a first-time study abroad in this area, this trip was an amazing experience and I would highly suggest it to future students.
Center for International Business Studies Blog