What culture shock?

We have been in Cuenca now for about 48 hours, and so far, we love the city. It's beautiful, with colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, mountain rivers (more like streams) running throughout, and parks and green space everywhere. Our apartment is located right on the primary river running through the heart of the city (Rio Tomebamba), with a pedestrian bridge right across the street that leads to a huge stairway up to the city center. We're staying in a nice little two bedroom apartment, which let us rent by the week - a perfect place to help us get acclimated to the city.

Our apartment building is directly behind the boys

On our first day, we walked down to the park at the end of our block, which was recently updated with new playgrounds, even with a fun little zipline for kids. What I love about the park is how it encourages the citizenry to exercise - there's a track that skirts the border of the park, and various exercise equipment that people can stop and use. I don't usually hit the gym, so I don't know the proper names, but there is a ski-type elliptical, a rowing machine, and various other devices. People would stop, generally in their everyday clothes, and work out for a few minutes. Talk about removing the intimidation factor from gyms - no one would feel self conscious working out here! Around 3:30, school kids were out running, seemingly doing their own cardio exercises without a teacher or coach leading them. It was stunning. The boys had a ball playing, as they always do.

Shannon on the 'elliptical' - in heels!

We then hit the supermarket - which was clearly a place for expats. You want mac-and-cheese? Check. Prego spaghetti sauce? Check. The prices matched the target market - our bill was probably as much as we would have been charged at Schnuck's.

After we prepared dinner - yes, we copped out and went with something easy and had spaghetti as we were exhausted and didn't feel like working, I asked the boys, "So, what do you think of Ecuador?" Expecting to hear about how this or that was weird, I was surprised to get shrugs. We love the mountains, they said. What else, I asked? Did anything seem weird? Again, shrugs. I didn't push the issue after that, but it did get me thinking. What is that weird? Well, hearing Spanish everywhere instead of English, for one thing. Being the only blond-haired, pale-skinned people around, for another. But beyond that, it really isn't that different.

I thought back to my first real trip out of the country. (For the record, I am excluding a trip to the Canadian Rockies and a one-hour border crossing to Mexico). In the summer of 1994, at the age of 16, I went on a school-trip to France and Spain. And man, EVERYTHING was different. Coke tasted differently, and cost $2 a bottle. I had to buy water - remember when that was weird? The cars were completely different than anything we saw on the road back home. The dress was completely different.

Fast forward twenty years to the global economy, and I begin to wonder - is anything really that different anymore? Of course, I have traveled a great deal in those twenty years, so I am inured to the differences, I suppose. Nonetheless, when I look around Cuenca, things don't look too different. On the road, we see F-150s, Honda Pilots, Hyundai Sonatas, Chevy Aveos, etc - unless they're an old car, they're the same as what we see on our highways. Young-ish people (under, say, 50) People are wearing blue jeans, Patagonia fleece jackets, Nike shoes. Only the older generation is dressed in what I would call traditional garb. People walk around on their iPhones, run on the track with headphones, and kids slide down the same slides they do at home. Granted, we are in a big city, and I'm sure when we get out to the countryside, that will change. But to experience culture shock, it really isn't there.

Beyond that, I thought about my kids again. In their short time on this planet, have they had a chance to set in enough prejudice about the "way things should be"? There's a lesson somewhere there, I think.

We named this blog "Same same but different" in honor of a t-shirt Shannon and I saw everywhere during our honeymoon in Thailand. Though we saw it everywhere, we never really got it. Here in Cuenca, though, it really fits. Right now, Shannon is sitting on the couch doing something on the iPad. The boys are playing with toy cars on the living room floor (we let them pack some toys), and I've been working at the kitchen table on my laptop. In many ways, it's pretty much the same as life back home, but not quite.

That's only day 1, though. We'll see how we feel next week!