Intercultural Competency

"Living like a local" means to me that you learn the different culture that you are in and try to live it to the best of your ability. I feel as if living like a local can help many aspects of your experience abroad. When I go abroad in Puerto Rico, I want to try to see all of the different culture points on the island and learn about their history. I think that learning a different culture starts off with learning a little bit about the country's history. Then later, you can start to learn about more modern culture and how they live their lives on an every day basis. While I am abroad, I also want to be in more rural areas where the culture is rich instead of places where there are tons of tourists and resorts. Those types of places seem to be a lot more Americanized and that is not want I want to experience while I am abroad. I want to get the full experience of the Puerto Rican culture. I want to immerse myself into the every day culture of Puerto Rico and live like I am originally from there. I think that this would be the only way to fully understand how these people live on a daily basis.