<\/a>The first time I ever traveled anywhere without one of my parents was in 1961, when I was 18 years old. It was also the first time I got on an airplane. My destination was Germany. A young handsome soldier who was in the Army had given me an engagement ring just prior to shipping off to Germany.\u00a0 We had been engaged for one year and he decided that he wanted to get married before his tour of duty was up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt is hard to remember what was more exciting – the thought of getting married or the trip to Germany. The day I left Omaha, Nebraska, you would have thought a movie star was taking off from that small airport.\u00a0 Every relative I can think of was there sending me off.\u00a0 It was one of the most exciting days of my life.\u00a0 I had to fly from Omaha to Chicago and then to New York.\u00a0 When the plane took off from New York, excitement began to set in about my new adventure in life.\u00a0 I never really thought about people speaking a different language until I had to change planes in Belgium.\u00a0 While on the flight from Belgium to Frankfurt, Germany, they gave me a meal on the plane that was lox, cream cheese and a bagel.\u00a0 To a Nebraska girl, the lox looked like raw fish.\u00a0 It was at that moment that I began realizing that I was not only leaving my town and my country, I was entering into another world.<\/p>\n
It is very hard to visualize a different world, when your world has been the town you live in and the communities surrounding you.\u00a0 Even though my family traveled to California, Missouri and Tennessee, I still saw some of the same things in these areas as I saw at home in Omaha.\u00a0 There was not a lot of difference – the dress was the same, the language was the same – the only thing different that I remember is that in Tennessee they ate grits.<\/p>\n
In 1961 there were no African Americans working at the airline counters, none were working at the ticket counter and there were absolutely no black pilots. The only black person I saw was the guy handling the luggage.\u00a0 From Omaha to Germany I saw one black person who worked in the airport.\u00a0 When I got on that airplane my world turned white and the first black person I saw was Charles when he picked me up at the airport.<\/p>\n
What a world it was. That first experience of meeting the challenges of the unknown are unforgettable.\u00a0 Someone spoke to me in German and all I could do was smile and hunch my shoulders to indicate that I did not understand what was being said.\u00a0 They eventually sent one of the airport attendants who spoke English over to help me.<\/p>\n
It was then and there that I was hooked for life on traveling.\u00a0 My world became so much bigger. Traveling is exciting, educational, rewarding and liberating. Things I’d read in books about Germany and about people in other countries just seemed to burst open in my mind.\u00a0 I was never a good student in geography or social studies, but, if after that experience it would have been possible to take those courses again, I would have done great.<\/p>\n
This is why when people write and ask me “how are black people treated in Costa Rica?” I almost laugh.\u00a0 My world changed from seeing some black people (because in Omaha at that time, black people were less than 1% of the population), to seeing all white people.\u00a0 Plus the people spoke a different language, one I did not understand.<\/p>\n
Now we are living in a time where you cannot board an airplane and not see black people.\u00a0 The thought that we would now stay home and not visit other countries because we are unsure of how we would be treated is amazing to me.<\/p>\n
I never will forget, when I was in Germany, the old lady who asked me, \u201cdid we grow tails after dark\u201d.\u00a0 She asked me that because that is what the white soldiers had told the German people about the African American soldier.\u00a0 You see, the African American soldier was restricted from being off-post or off-base after dark.\u00a0 The Germans wanted to know why and the white soldiers told them it was because the African American soldiers grew tails after dark.\u00a0 In order to prove myths like this and others as lies, we need to travel and tell our own story.<\/p>\n
We so often lump everyone in the same basket. Our opinion is that everyone who speaks Spanish is the same, with very little variations.\u00a0 People who live in New York or Miami know the difference but most people outside of those states believe that all Hispanics are Mexican.\u00a0 A lot of my visitors come over looking for Mexican food only to be very disappointed.\u00a0 Costa Ricans do not eat hot spicy foods.\u00a0 If you go into many of their restaurants they do not have black pepper on the table.\u00a0 There are some Costa Ricans that add a little spice but not many.\u00a0 Costa Ricans are more reserved in their dress and their actions than Mexicans.\u00a0 Costa Ricans are not \u201cparty people\u201d in comparison to many other Latin cultures.\u00a0 Their music has a similar beat but they are a little more conservative.<\/p>\n
Traveling teaches you so much about people and their way of life. There are a lot of things young people would enjoy when visiting Costa Rica. There is so much to explore and to learn.\u00a0 Unfortunately, most of our visitors go for things that are tourist \u201cfun\u201d attractions and hardly ever venture off the tourism path.\u00a0 Costa Rica is much more than zip lines and the beach. Costa Rica is exciting, and traveling here will give you an opportunity to discover the people, the climate, the culture, the country, and its rich history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first time I ever traveled anywhere without one of my parents was in 1961, when I was 18 years old. It was also the first time I got on an airplane. My destination was Germany. A young handsome soldier who was in the Army had given me an engagement ring just prior to shipping… <\/p>\n
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Continue Reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nTraveling Changes Your World - La Terraza Guest House<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n