Some Belize Things That Make Me Smile:
-Belizeans LOVE Celine Dion. Yup, you heard me, the one, the only Celine Dion. And I don’t just mean a few people, they ALL do. Even guys our age droll over her! We can’t figure out why, but they do. You will often walk by a bar blasting Celine. They even have reggae remixes at the gym we go to and I never thought I would be riding an old school bus through the dirt roads of Belize and hear Celine Dion being played through the bus stereo. I am certain that the whole country would shut down if Celine ever came here.
-Karaoke, Karaoke, Karaoke. Belizeans love their Karaoke. Now that would make you think that they are good at singing Kareoke, but that is not the case my friends. It doesn’t matter how bad you are, everyone seems to sing Karaoke. And unlike most Karaoke bars I’ve been to, the participants are stone cold sober. We were surprised at the number of slow songs they like to sing. In addition to Celine, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers are big hits. We have yet to have our first performances, but I feel as though the time will come soon enough.
-Belizeans are quite friendly and it is not enough to simply say ‘Hello’ to someone when you are passing by. A “Good Morning’, ‘Good Afternoon’, or ‘Good Night’ is the appropriate greetings here. The ‘Good Night’ took us a little to get used to as we tend to only say that to someone when they are going to bed. The Canadian ‘How’s it going?’ is replaced here with ‘Y’all right?”. You will quite often walk by someone who looks mad at the world, and as soon as you say ‘Good Afternoon’ to them, they are a completely different person and quite friendly back to you.