Relationships, Nicaraguan Style

So if there is one thing I have learned about relationships here is that I would never be able to carry on a Nicaraguan one. Over the past week, I got an in-depth glimpse into how relationships work here, mostly because of all the gossip and constant discussions at work. Several key learnings:

1. Both women and men get extremely jealous (sometimes for no reason at all). And rather than being a temporary state of mind, jealousy appears to be a key personality trait.

2. Men are super macho. (I guess it's no different in most other Latin American countries.)

3. You cannot do anything independently of your boy-/girlfriend without asking for their permission first. And I am not exaggerating when I say "permission." When my colleagues mentioned this, I laughed out loud. They all asked me why I was laughing and when I replied that I would never stand for that, one of them asked me, "You mean if you want to go out with your friends or a guy friend, you don't have to ask your boyfriend?" Needless to say, they were quite surprised at my answer.

4. Each person's relationship is everyone else's business - at work, at home, among your neighbors, among people you don't even really know. If you simply talk to someone of the opposite sex on the street, you will be spotted promptly, and your significant other will be informed soon thereafter. (At least that's how it is in Leon - a town of 100,000.) And then the unnecessary drama begins.

I don't understand relationships here. Well, luckily, I don't really have to.