I have never stood out more in my life than I did when I arrived for my one-week stay in Chame, Panamá.

The stay was part of a two week trip I took with the Spanish department.      When it came time for me to spend a week in the small town of Chame, one hour outside of Panama City, I came to realize just how many differences there were between our two cultures. When stepping into my new home, my first cultural shock was the large number of cockroaches scurrying across the ground and tiny lizards crawling up the walls. It was the one time I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Nonetheless, I soon grew accustomed to this, as I also adjusted to other differences between my homes in Chame and St. Louis Park.

One of the most apparent differences was in the bathroom. My house did not have a shower, instead we had a bucket of water to bathe with. Since the house had no air conditioning it made for some very heated moments. Luckily my family had one fan, which they always put in front of me, to keep me from having a heat stroke in their living room.

The outdoor kitchen also took some getting used to, along with the lesser concern about germs. My mother lovingly prepared all our meals by hand, never using so much as a cutting board. We also ate using the same dishes every night, occasionally with food from the previous meal still lingering. This came as a shock coming from a family and culture where keeping things clean is one of the top priorities.

But despite the obvious differences our two cultures have, many similarities did not escape me. In Panama, family is of the utmost importance. While driving down the highway we would always pull over to stop at roadside stands to meet a cousin, an uncle, a sister or family friend, even if it was out of our way.

My experience in Panama changed my life for the better. I started out feeling like a complete outsider and ended up feeling like part of the family.  Instead of looking at each other and counting our differences, I looked at the country of Panama with my family and we appreciated the same things.