Marco CP#2

James and I met at Maple Steer restaurant on Call street by campus. We talked about traffic in Panama and areas on the Caribbean that are worth visiting. Mostly we talked about food and people. I explained that drama and emotion are paramount to the latino people and that expression vocally ones appreciation for one another is a really important thing. This seemed to surprise him so I explained some differences in the cultures that shocked me. People say that driving in Tallahassee is a nightmare, I think it's fantastic. In Panama it's a real nightmare. People have an incredibly selfish mentality. Not only on the street but on a day to day basis. A perfect example I used was that once the Japanese government offered to clean the bay of Panama which is infamous for being dirty, all they asked was to keep the trash they found in the bay, Panama's response "How much will you pay us?". Needless to say Japanese government left it at that. We then talked about food. James introduced me to the concept of a table farm; the idea is that it is a restaurant that has a menu per day and everything on the menu that is served is raised/harvested on site. The meal is cooked in a larger portion and is eaten as a family style (everyone at one large table) at a flat rate per seat per person. We went on to talk about how the Northern and Southern part of the US are different in certain mannerisms and how in Panama the same thing occurs in the capital and out of the capital.