my weekend

Culture shows herself in many ways.  A very easy way to observe her power is look at how different culture groups take trips.

Recently, I went to Kenting with 5 beautiful Taiwanese girls, and then I went to Kenting this weekend with two American families and some other (mostly) American friends.  The juxtaposition of the two weekend trips (both 3 days long) to basically the same place is a showcase of culture herself.  And perhaps words alone cannot portray the true depth of the all differences I experienced on these two trips; nonetheless, this is my meager attempt to do so.

Differences:
# of pictures taken on Taiwanese trip: close to 300
# of pictures taken on American trip: 6

# of places visited on Taiwanese trip: too many to count
# of places visited on American trip: 3

Time spent at each place on Taiwanese trip: too short to time
Time spent at each place on American trip: 2 hrs to several hours

# of times places were revisited on Taiwanese trip: 0
# of times places were revisited on American trip: same beach 2 times X 2 beaches

# of times to "Kenting Street" on Taiwanese trip: at least 2
# of times to "Kenting Street" on American trip: 0

Swimming on Taiwanese trip: only in hotel's pool
Swimming on American trip: every day at the beach

Sun on Taiwanese trip: umberallas and sunscreen were both used by all
Sun on American trip: I was the only one to use sunscreen

Similarities:
Both trips were fun.
Both trips had lots of laughing.
Both trips were a time of relationship building and relazxing.
Both trips music was listened to while in car (albeit different kinds of music).
Both trips had good food (albeit different types and eaten with different "rules.")

So, as you can see . . . this is not a judgmental thing saying one way is better than the other.   I totally enjoyed both trips!  It is simply an attempt to look at how culture influences the things we do and how we do them.