cold/warm
Well, first of all, in Colombia people are very friendly, they care about the neighbors, about the neighbor’s relatives (even if we don’t know them) To be honest, we care about everybody, we love to know about people’s life and stories, we gossip all the time, it’s weird, but it’s almost like we care TOO MUCH about what other people say about us, that’s a major difference between the US and Colombia.  For example, that’s the reason why ladies look nice all the time, can you imagine a lady wearing sweat pants and a huge T-shirt walking around Chipichape or Unicentro? Here in Colombia ladies are “competing” all the time, we have a secret beauty pageant going on every day, and of course, all ladies want to be the prettiest.
It’s not that we are superficial or shallow, but it’s always good to look good! I have nothing against that, and it’s even healthy because we always watch what we eat, because nobody wants to have an extra pound in the perfect figure land.
In the US people in general don’t really care about what they look like, they don’t really care about saying hello to neighbors, and they don’t care about what unknown people have to say about them (I know because that’s what I went through when I was there)
Ladies want to be the prettiest and Colombian men’s concern is to have many girlfriends, most Colombian men, about 90-95% are playboys, we even have a saying for them!  “Among 1000, 1 is good, and among 100, none”

Straight to the point/ Talkers
We love to talk! About everything and anything, socializing is a big part of our lives.
People even talk to complete strangers for hours, there’s always something to talk about.  Here, you can have a party in 1 hour, if I feel bored or I have nothing to do, I make a couple of phone calls and I have about 15 people to go out with.
On the other hand, we have most Americans: A very good friend of mine from the States once told me “I called a friend once and asked him to go out to have a beer and he told me he was tired, then I call another friend and told me the same thing… After a few times I just stopped calling people and stayed home by myself doing nothing” Some Americans won’t talk to you unless there is something they have to say, it’s always funny during the appointments in the agency, the men ask the 10 basic questions (hobbies, future goals, etc) and after 15min there’s nothing to talk about, and then they tell me, “there wasn’t any chemistry” Well, how can you possibly find out if there’s chemistry after asking 10 questions?

Music and rhythm
When some US men come to Cali and they go out to night clubs it’s unbelievable... They move with no rhythm, they move their bodies but they don’t follow the music, I haven’t really understood this, for example, my little cousin, when she was 9months old she heard music and she moved with the music, and she couldn’t even walk!   This is another major cultural difference, specially because dancing is a big part for most Colombian people.

I’ll think about a few more things, and I’ll let you guys know,
In the mean time, I’m always open for questions,
Chao
Carolina

Speaking of musical taste, I found it very interesting to hear American music from the 70's & 80's on a couple of Cali radio stations. What caught me a bit off guard was the number of teens & those in their early 20's listening to hard core rap. Most of the listeners had no idea, what the hell they were listening too. They LOVED the beat, but they didn't have a clue about the lyrics....

Don't you know???

White men can't dance!!!

thanx for any input

the second article noted an ALARMING trend.  It did a study of 2000 or so white men/women for 30 yrs.  It founded that by the time they reach middle-age, 90% of women and 70% of men were overweight, due to all the contributing factors(less exercise, slower metobolism, eating habbits, etc.,).