Differences in Life

So I have been in Costa Rica for almost 3 weeks. And I have had so many mixed feelings, I don’t even know what to do with myself at times. I know that I miss Spain more than ever. I used to complain about Spain all the time, but I did actually really love it there. I loved the fact that I made a whole life for myself, in a foreign country. I loved that I was able to get a phone, an apartment and jobs, a boyfriend and a new life. I thought it would be so easy down here, since I had done it all already. We prepared to come down here based on what we knew of Madrid. Well, about the only thing Madrid and Costa Rica have in common is the fact that they both have Spanish as their native language. The similarities basically stop there. Here are a few observations of my life and times between these 2 very different places:

Madrid (and Spain in general, but mostly Madrid):
--Phones were easily obtainable
--Apartments were plentiful
--Grocery shopping was pretty easy once you got the hang of it, and it was convenient
--Public transportation was FABULOUS and very easy (again, once you got used to it)
--The city was relatively clean, thanks to the LIMPIEZA people that swept the streets every day
--Going out options were great, and we could decide at 11pm or later we were going, and be the first ones there, even at 1:30am
--Daylight savings time was very different—it didn’t get dark in the summer till 9:30pm or later
--Money was in normal amounts
--The city (well, Europe in general) had charm, you were proud to show people where you lived and you were excited to see new places and parts of the cities
--In my opinion, people could have been more patient with me (I felt they were abrupt, and at times, outright rude, especially at Work Center—a Kinko’s style copy center)
--The thrill of living in Europe never quite wore off

Costa Rica (well, you’ll figure out which parts refer to San José in particular)
--Phones not obtainable at all unless you are a resident (and not just a foreigner living here temporarily, an actual resident/citizen of CR)
--Apartments in beach towns and San José not so available, especially in high season
--Public transportation has no sense of organization whatsoever—public city busses list the main landmarks they are going in the front windows and you have to guess where they go otherwise. --They also all have different prices depending on the route
--The city is filthy. Not just dirty but disgusting. Trash piles up everywhere, sidewalks are a disaster, and liquid runs down sidewalks from who knows where. You might be hit with random trash/fish/beer/old food/maybe even death stenches at any point while walking along the street while trying to avoid being hit by cars or busses or both
--Night life appears to start and end way earlier than Madrid
--It gets dark at 6pm all year round here, no matter what
--Money is in the astronomically large amounts.
500 colones = $1. 10,000 colones = $20. So when I go to the grocery store and see over 6,000 on the register I have to remember that is only $12
--We haven’t mastered grocery shopping yet since we are only buying one or 2 days’ worth of food at a time (we haven’t spent more than 3 nights in a row in our place in San José yet)
--If anyone plans on visiting me while I am here, I would be embarrassed to call San José “home”. It is nasty, hence the reason for moving to the beach.
--People seem to want to help you, they are relatively good at giving directions, and even when they don’t want to help you they at least say “con gusto” (with pleasure).
--The American dollar is actually worth something here. Actually our apartment in San José and the new one in Jacó prefer the rent in dollars, and some of the ATMs give dollars. You get your change in colones, but our American money goes pretty far here.
--The climate is enjoyable. I am not freezing my ass off like in Madrid. I actually have a tan, and it is only January. Instead of needing more and more clothes, the heaviest I can find, I am trying to wear my lightest-weight clothing. I will probably live in flip-flops till I get back.
--Communication is easier with my new laptop (thank you again Mom) but my calling card won’t work in the public payphones
--People actually exercise here besides Kurt and I

So, there you have it. A comparison of my two new cities. Let’s see how Jacó treats us. Life in Madrid may have been a bit easier, but I froze to death. Life in Costa Rica might be great, we’ll see.

By the way, for all the complaining, moaning and groaning I did about Spain, I really, really miss it. As the saying goes, “you never knew what you had until it’s gone.”
So true.

Pix of our apartment in San Jose

No particular reason for this post other than to show you photos of our soon-to-be-former apartment in San Jose. This is our "kitchen". Most apartments have kitchenette style stuff like this. Check out that stove. Whew, wouldn't want to cook too much at once!
Yes, those are electric coils in the shower head. Electricity and water. Who designed this?
Our living/dining room and kitchen.
Looking onto the mini rainforest-like gardens in the center of the complex. Yes, we will actually really miss this, they are really nice.
Bedroom. A big bed!! Whoo hoo! Not quite the itty-bitty bed like in Madrid.


A view of the upstairs/downstairs looking towards our apartment.

House Hunting in Jaco and New Friends

Tuesday had us back on the bus to Jacó. Kurt and I had pretty much decided to go on a “business trip” to see what we could find. We had figured that San José was not the place for us, neither were Tamarindo nor Coco. So we headed back to the bus station, trying to get the 10:30 bus. Not only did we not make it on the 10:30 bus because it was already sold out, we paid over 2,000 colones for a taxi to get us there on time. So we overpaid for a taxi to have to wander around San José for an hour and a half cuz the next bus wasn’t till 12noon. Jeez, this gets better and better for us every time we travel. Ha.
We thought we would be in Jacó by 1:30 at the latest, and now we wouldn’t get there till about3 or so, depending on the speediness of the bus.

We arrived in Jacó sometime before 3pm, and on our way out of the bus I happened to ask a couple that had been sitting near us if this was their first time in Jacó. They said yes, and we mentioned that we had been there before and that we knew of a cool place to stay. So we started chatting, found the hostel, and decided immediately to share a room between the 4 of us. In America, this never happens. Never do you meet total strangers on a bus in a random city/town and then say, hey you wanna shack up?? But, when traveling, you do different things, and end up meeting way cool people doing so.

We headed down towards the beach and grabbed a beer, and then it was business time. Since Kurt and I had been in Jacó about 9 days earlier, we had picked up a few newspapers and magazines with apartment listings. So I started calling. More bad luck. Because it is summer here in Costa Rica, apartments are not so readily available. To the point that most of them are rented until April. April??? Yikes! We did get to see one place, but they only rent by the day. We found out through our searching that everyone wants to rent by the day, but not by the month. Okay, they want to live day to day on income and not secure themselves for a month or several months at a time?? That makes PERFECT sense.

We grabbed some dinner at the same place we had eaten before, Soda La Flor. Here in Costa Rica, a “soda” is a place to get good, cheap, typical Costa Rican food. This normally consists of rice, beans, a small salad of sorts (maybe a scoop of potato salad or something) and small portion of veggies, and some sort of protein, such as chicken, steak, fish, or a pork chop. This particular Soda happens to have excellent steak and fish as their main dishes. You would as for a “casado con (here is where you fill in your main protein-- pollo, bistek, pescado, chuleta)”. So this type of dish, with all that food, runs you around $3. Yes. Fabulous food, and CHEAP. This is where Costa Rica wins over Spain. We overpaid for not so fabulous food many times in Spain, but I really haven’t had a bad meal yet here.

Our hostel had a pool so we went swimming and mapped out a plan for the morning. Too bad our hostel didn’t have any more 4 person rooms for the next night, so not only did Kurt and I have to look for apartments and jobs, but we also had to look for a new hostel. Luckily, we found one basically next door to the other one and since our new friends were going to stay at the first one, we could still use the pool and free Internet. The first hostel is called the Hotel De Haan, and we recommend staying there. Apparently they were rated the #1 budget hostel in Jacó by Lonely Planet, so it is pretty popular. The second one is called Cabinas JacoMar, and had decent sized rooms AND a refrigerator in the room. Since it is about a jillion degrees in Jacó, this is pretty convenient.

Small crisis solved, the 4 of us ate breakfast (ask for gallopinto con huevos con jamon). This is a rice and beans dish with scrambled eggs and ham. Yummy. $2. No joke.

Our new friends, Cam and Nicole (from Vancouver, BC), headed off to do their thing while Kurt and I got down to looking for places to live. We called a few more places, went to a few real estate agencies, and wandered around. We did stumble upon an Apart Hotel, and the guy said he didn’t have vacancies at the moment, but would have one coming up shortly and we could look at one that someone was moving into that afternoon. It was awesome. One bedroom, bathroom off the bedroom, a living room, small kitchen area, and only $320 per month with $100 deposit. He said he was going to evict these girls that were living there cuz he didn’t like their behavior (ladies of the evening, to put it mildly). He was really cool, and asked us to come back at 10pm cuz he would have a better answer for us then after he chatted with those other girls. Kurt and I really liked the place, but didn’t want to jump in with both feet with the first good thing we saw (we are trying to learn from past feet-jumping).

By the way, I should mention that not only was it a jillion degrees, we happened to be walking around right in the mid-day heat. Fun. I didn’t even bother with makeup since I sweated it right off as soon as we started walking around. For that matter, can we just walk around in bathing suits, too? HOT HOT HOT HOT is all I can say. And thanks to my wonderful genes in my family, I am a sweaty girl. Gross.

We met up with our friends, grabbed some lunch, and decided to take a bit of time off and rent surfboards. I was hesitant, but they persuaded me to rent one, too. Off we went to the beach, with Kurt (now a surfing genius) to instruct me. He did say he wasn’t sure how to teach me since he had only done this about 3 times now. So I attached the cord to my ankle, and headed into the water. I am not kidding when I say the waves were the biggest I had ever seen. I have no clue what I am doing, and now the waves are way too big for my liking. I spent most of my time trying to get out to catch a wave and not die in the process. I took several tumbles and then got out for a while. Of course, then the waves died down. When I decided to go back in about half hour later, the waves got big again. It was like they knew I was in the water or something! I think I managed to get up to my knees but that was about it. It is pretty scary when I wave comes at you and you have a split second to decide whether you can duck into it, ride it, or let it kill you. I would try and duck into it, but somehow they just killed me every time. Enough.

We went to dinner, and started chatting with a couple next to us from Canada (by the way almost EVERY single person we met down there was from Canada), and they said they had met some girl who had rented an apartment for cheap, and told us where it was. We left money with our friends, and started walking. Good thing it was on the opposite side of town, and that it was still hot. FABULOUS. We got a phone number from some people sitting outside, and then waited forever for some guy to get off the first pay phone we saw. I had borrowed a pen from a lady that worked in one of the tiendas, and thanked her for its use, explaining that we were looking for an apartment. Kurt always makes fun of me for talking to random people and telling my/our story, but this time it sorta paid off cuz her friend, who was walking away at that very second, rents apartments. Not only rents apartments, but BEAUTIFUL apartments. Too bad that they cost $1000 per month in high season, but since we are heading into low season he might be able to make us a deal. Too bad we are BROKE and wouldn’t be able to afford his discount either.

So we headed back to the place where we had met that guy earlier, and more bad luck. He said the ladies of the evening wouldn’t be leaving after all, so he had nothing for us. Kurt is convinced they gave him a blow job and that is why he can’t kick them out anymore.

Thursday had us searching again, this time looking at another beautiful apartment that isn’t quite finished being built yet. Gorgeous, but again out of our price range.

We went searching for something else, another lead from one of the real estate agencies, but stumbled upon some other hotel that I had seen that was looking for help. We went in, asked around, and found the person we needed to talk to. I told Kurt that some day we would stay in one of those places. Schmancy. Turns out, they are a time share (ahh, so that is what everyone meant when I asked about “empleo” and they responded “tiempo compartido”. Time share. I get it now). The employment they have to offer is having “recruiters” out on the main street to come and hear the presentation about the time shares (they prefer to refer to them as “frequent visitors clubs”. Clever.). So we would be the people out on the street, get interested people with the right bank account to go hear the presentation, and if they buy, we get a percentage. We get $15 for every person we bring in, and 2% of the total sale. Sales start around $5000 US. So if you bring in someone and they buy, you basically get $115. Not bad!!! Now all we have to do is find a place to live. Can’t we live there for the time being???

Back to surfing, where I sucked again. It is hard enough keeping me afloat, but a surfboard too? And every time I wiped out, I had this thing attached to my leg that dragged me around too. One time I wiped out and the leash to the board wrapped around my legs and tangled them together. Scary. I am done now. I am wiped out, and bruised and a bit scared. See ya ocean.

We decided to try and enjoy our evening and not think about house hunting, and spend the last night with our new friends. They were heading up to Monteverde and we were going back to San José Friday, with or without finding something.

Friday I woke up and thought, today is the day. It had taken Dusti and me 3 days of searching in Madrid, and just when I had gotten tired of looking, we found our dream apartment. Today was the day. We went wandering, and after many strikeouts, we decided to cut down some other street thinking it would connect with a main street. It didn’t, but at the end of one street we saw an apartment building. Turns out, they happened to have one apartment available, and it is beautiful, AND within our price range, with the possibility to get our deposit back with 15 days notice. We took it! So now we have a new home to look forward to!

We are back in San José trying to rent our current apartment because the managers said the only way they could give back our deposit here is if we find someone to rent it. So Kurt and I have been out putting up signs and crossing our fingers.

I am happy about our decision and will also look for other employment if necessary in Jacó. One shop emailed me about working there, so hope is not lost. A little time, a chunk of money, but as Kurt’s friend says “life is a series of tradeoffs”. So we are trading our apartment and 5 job offers here in San José for happiness and relaxation, and a new career field and new connections.

Stay tuned.

Job Hunting, Decisions, Tamarindo and Coco

So I join you once again, back in San Jose. Kurt and I went on 4 job interviews last Monday and Tuesday, and basically have 4 non-official offers from all of them. The pay is decent (by Costa Rican standards), so now it is up to us to figure out which one we want. Except we don’t want any of them. We have pretty much decided to give San Jose a thumbs-down in terms of living. We didn’t come down here to be miserable; we came to teach English as a means to make money. A means to an end. Only, right now, it seems that San Jose would be then end. Not the means. So now we are left wondering what to do.

To back up a bit, lemme tell you a bit about our search. It started last Monday morning, when we had previously set up an interview at 10am. Well, we had come back from Jaco Sunday night to be sure we were prepared and ready for our interview. Costa Rica’s hot water supply is dependent upon electricity. No electricity, no hot water. It rained all night Sunday night. Can you see where this is going? So we got up Monday morning, and lo and behold, no power. Which meant no hot water. Which meant no way to shower and get ready for our interview. Luckily, the person we were interviewing with was very cool and we rescheduled for later on in the day, thus making it a smidge difficult because we were supposed to have another interview in the afternoon.
Anyways, we went to the interview, it all sounded fabulous, and then tried to get to the other place. The guy said he had to go to the bank for an hour or so, could we please come tomorrow? Sure.

Kurt and I got on a bus headed to downtown to at least try and find that guy’s place so we didn’t get lost on Tuesday. Wow. What a disaster. We got dropped off somewhere in downtown San Jose. Remember how I told you there were no street signs or addresses? Well, downtown has street names but we didn’t know in which direction they were headed. To make a long story very short, 2 hours later we finally found the bus stop we needed to head back to our apartment. Forget trying to be on top of things and find that other job place. We went on another interview (this time only about 10-15 minutes walking from our house), and again, it went very well.

Tuesday started with us taking a bzillion different busses to another interview. We found it finally (thankfully these people here aren’t too bothered by a few minutes’ late), and again, things sounded great there too. A drawback is that they won’t be up and running with classes until February. Hmm.
Now to find that other interview. Our appointment was supposed to be at 1pm. We didn’t get to leave the first interview till 12:30. We tried calling the guy to get better directions, but no answer. We ended up getting the most lost we have been, and finally showed up for the interview at 2:30. These busses are absolutely terrible. And since we are trying to live on a budget we didn’t want to hail a cab cuz they cost at least 300 times what the bus costs. Another good interview, although they want you to teach the occasional Saturday. Saturday? I don’t think so.

Tuesday night, we sat wondering what to do. I tried making a pros and cons list of all our academies (we figured 4 interviews were plenty to choose from), and instead came back to our idea of the beach. One of the interviews had said there may be a possibility of working in a resort up in Playa del Coco (in the Guanacaste area, northwest of San Jose about 5 hours). So instead of trying to commit to one academy over another we decided to head up that way and see what we could find.

The busses in Costa Rica are said to “take longer than listed” and “rarely, if ever, be on time.” So when the guide book said the bus to Tamarindo would take 5 hours, we wanted to believe them and figured we would be in Tamarindo around 4:30pm, since we were on the 11:30am bus. 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6. 6:11pm. Finally!!!!!!! As it turned out we were apparently the equivalent of a city bus, you know where you have a roundabout route and pick up and drop off passengers in various places, because we stopped in every random city, town and housing place just to pick up and drop off people. Also, apparently we were the UPS service as well cuz we would stop, drop off a package and then be on our way again.
When we arrived in Tamarindo, everything was pitch dark. We found out later the whole town had lost power, but it is a bit strange arriving in a city, almost 2 hours late, in blackness. TRAVEL TIP: Pack a flashlight.
Being the seasoned travelers that we are now, we think we know a bit. For example, a guidebook is supposed to help you, guide you, and find things that you, the never-before-visited- traveler does not know where to look. Before leaving for Costa Rica, Kurt and I did extensive research on the travel guides we wanted to take. We finally decided on 2 different books, one specifically catering to budget travelers. So we looked in that one, and not only were they wrong about the price of the hostel, they had it listed on the map in the wrong location!!! Now, I don’t know about any of you, but when I travel for a long time, the last thing I want to do when I get somewhere is end up lost. Especially in the dark. But that is exactly what happened. We ended up finally finding the hostel, the Cabinas Coral Reef, and I have one word for this place. DISGUSTING. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT ever stay here. We ended up here only after searching for 45 minutes in the dark because the book told us the rates were cheap. More like the actual accommodations. We had found another place, the Cabinas Dolly, and left there because they told us $24 for a double room, no bathroom. The Cabinas Coral Reef was supposed to be about $10-15 for a double room. Not only were they actually $25, there were roaches in the kitchen, our fan had no cover so you could in fact slice your finger or some other part of your body off just by walking too close, but the bathrooms, especially the shower, were unusable. To the point that Kurt and I put on our bathing suits and went to the beach in the dark and washed up there. Yes, we “bathed” in the ocean because it was CLEANER than what they called a shower in that place. When we went to dinner and had a few beers later that night, I tried to use the bathrooms in those places just so I wouldn’t have to in our hostel.
Anyways, the next morning we went running to the Cabinas Dolly and gladly took a room there. THEY ARE FABULOUS! The lady felt bad about not having a “cama matrimonial” which is what they call a double bed, but we didn’t care. The hostel is right on the beach. And CLEAN! There are shared bathrooms in the courtyard, and they are spotless.
On the beach, we ended up meeting another couple traveling on vacation and hung out with them throughout the day and evening. They met under similar circumstances as Kurt and I. They were studying abroad through their university (Sacramento State) and met in Florence, Italy and 3 years later are still together. They were great and it broke up the monotony of only Kurt and me.
Friday morning, Kurt and I decided to head to Playa del Coco, and had figured out that we had to take 2 busses to get there. The lady in the tourist office (who by the way couldn’t be bothered to get off the phone and help me) pointed me to the bus schedule, and I figured it out. We were trying to travel as cheaply as possible, so Kurt ran into Subway and got 2 sandwiches for lunch (their daily special sandwiches are less than $2). The bus was supposed to arrive at 8:50am. Remember how the busses are “rarely, if ever, on time”?? Well, it arrived early!!! So here I am standing far enough away from the street to not be able to run after the buss, but close enough that I could see that it was probably the bus we needed to take. I had our big backpack, the day pack and a smaller bag with snacks and water outside with me, Kurt was still in Subway, and the bus was pulling away from the curb. CRAP! Here we are trying to save money and the god damn bus shows up early. So quick thinking, I said to Kurt, why not get a taxi and try and catch up to it? Well, great theory. For as slow as the bus was getting out to Tamarindo, we figured we could catch up to it. But, this bus was obviously traveling on warp speed. We never did find it, but the taxi driver let us out about 12 minutes after we hired him, and said the bus had to stop at this stop (there were about 20 people waiting anyways), and then charged us $8 (4,000 colones). So what was supposed to cost us the equivalent of about $0.20 ended up costing $8. Why oh why does this always happen? We were trying to save, and what happens, the freakin bus screws us, in every way.
Well, we did manage to find out way to Coco. The actual distance between Tamarindo and Coco is probably less than 50 kilometers (30 miles). The way we had to go on the bus was over 100 kilometers (60 miles). Oh the fun of traveling.
Hostel hunting went all right (since we ignored the guidebook this time and asked locals) and although the bathroom wasn’t ideal, the room was not too badly priced ($10 per person per night, not bad). Kurt decided to nap (big surprise there) and I went for a walk along the beach.
Where are the white sand beaches everyone has talked about? Coco is not known for its surf, it is more like a bay, with little if any waves. But the water isn’t as warm as it was in Jaco, nor is it very clear. Oh well, at least it is a beach and not crappy smoggy San Jose.
Later in the afternoon we managed to find a supermarket and get our tix back to San Jose. We also realized with our 4,000 colones cab ride we were gonna be a bit broke soon. So we ended up having to eat dinner on credit card, something we had managed to avoid. Dinner was a whole other experience (not for the food, that was wonderful), but the conversation. That will be in another blog since this one is turning out to be very long.
Yesterday we rented snorkels (Would you like to trrry some snorrrrkel???) and flippers and walked all the way around the beach to try and snorkel. Now, I have done my fair share of snorkeling, from the beach in Cancun and from being dropped out in the middle of the water off various islands in the Caribbean. But you would have thought it was my first time in the ocean, period. We had hiked to these rocks and were trying to push off from them, but for some reason I freaked out. My mask wasn’t staying clear, the water was murkier than the Caribbean, and the plants/moss were right under me, which freaked me out beyond belief. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t get myself to push off from them. Kurt came back and helped me and I panicked in the water and almost hyperventilated. I managed to get out into regular water but every time I came near those underwater rock cave things, I swam as fast as I could to get away from them. We did see some fish, some interesting ones at that, but I didn’t get the same experience as in the Caribbean. Plus, when trying to swim in to the rocks, I had to glide over the mossy rocks (yikes) and grab hold of one. Well, I managed to slice my hand open in the process. Great. Freaked out and now injured too. Blood in the water. I sincerely hope there are no sharks anywhere near by. I can hear the music now, da dum. Da dum. Da dum. Flashes of Jaws are running through my head with my arm dangling off my body. Fabulous.
We had to hike back through all the rocks (why didn’t we wear shoes again?) and then find something for lunch. Although we had rented the snorkels all day, my venture in this water was finished. We have also realized our money situation is really bad at this point. Our ATM cards don’t work in the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica machines, and guess what was the ONLY atm machine in the whole town? Yep.
So we ended up back at the supermarket buying bread, pb & j, fruit, chips and cookies. Wonderful.
We ate at the same restaurant as Friday night, the Louisiana Bar and Grill, or something like that. Highly recommended if you ever make it out to Playa del Coco.
The bus ride home today went much better than Weds, meaning when it said 5 hours it really only took that long.
Now we are back in San Jose, trying to figure out how to get our landlords to give us back our money to try and move to the beach. Kurt jetted in, showered and bailed out to watch the Bronco game.
However, rumor has it they lost. I better put on my protective clothing cuz he might be in a bit of a bad mood on that one.
Gotta go get my suit of armor on. Feely—OUT!!!

Jaco

Jaco
January 15, 2006

Here we are back in San Jose after a fabulous weekend in Jaco. No, it is not pronounced Jah-koh, more Hah-koh. I had been to this beach when I was in CR a long time ago, and remembered really enjoying it. Plus it is only about 2.5-3 hours by bus from San Jose. So after kicking ourselves Friday afternoon about our potential “stuck” situation, we packed up quickly, and hightailed it down to the bus station to try and make the 3:30 bus. At least some sun and surf might help us clear our heads. We made it down to the bus station, bought our tickets, and jumped on the bus. By the way, where we paid a fortune in Spain for expensive transportation we are making up for it here. The bus fare was $2.50 each. Yes you read that right. Two dollars and 50 cents. Round trip equals $5. That is it!! For a beautiful tour through the mountains and sorta jungle like atmosphere that is the Costa Rica I remember and love. We got to Jaco around a quarter to 6 Friday evening, and immediately made friends. These girls gave us half a box of Pizza Hut cuz she had ordered wrong (hey it’s free, our favorite word), and then this guy came up to us and asked if we minded if he tagged along. He is from Australia, had been living in London the last 6 years and decided before going back to Aussie land he would pack up and travel around Central America for a while. We said sure, thinking awesome, more friends since we had very few in Spain. His name is Dean, and it turned out to be the best thing for him to tag along, cuz we spent the whole weekend together. We walked around looking for accommodation (who needs reservations in advance), and found a great room right in the center of town, and because we were now 3 people, our cost went down. Splitting a room 3 ways is cheaper than 2 so hey whatever works. We looked in the guide book for some dinner suggestions and found something called “Soda La Flor” (flower soda??) and were treated to some of the best food in our lives. A typical Costa Rican dish involves rice, beans, some sort of salad, a slice of plátano (fried banana) and your main portion. I chose bistek (steak), so did Dean, and Kurt chose pork chops. YUM is all we can say. All that food for $3!!! No joke. I ordered an “agua fresca natural”, which is basically a fruit mixed with water and ice, sweetened. I picked this fruit called “cas” which I had eaten before. It is the size, shape and color of a lime, but the taste is indescribable. It is fruity, and has a bit of texture to it, the texture best described as gritty, I guess. Taste, well, I really don’t know how to describe it, but just trust me, try it whenever you all make your way down here and you won’t be disappointed.
After filling our bellies, we decided to head off to a local watering hole to swill a few beers. We ended up swilling about 4 beers, 2 guaro/ginger ales and 2 mojitos each. Why oh why do I always try and keep up with the big boys? I asked Kurt before we left if he had the appropriate medicines we would need for our trip (advil, alka seltzer, etc), and he said yes. Well he is fired from medicine cabinet duty while traveling anymore cuz he did not in fact have any of the above mentioned items, so yesterday when I woke up, I had a screaming, moaning, excruciating headache. Rewind a bit: Guaro is a local drink here that they call “fire water.” It is odorless and tasteless, but you can drink it in any number if ways. Mixing with Coke, Pepsi, Squirt, Ginger Ale, Orange soda, Sprite, shooting it like tequila are just a few ways. I prefer it with ginger ale, so the proper way to order this drink is to ask for a “cacique con gin” (kah—see—kay kohn gin). Don’t ask me why it is Cacique Guaro, just try it, you’ll love it just like the cas.
Anyways, Kurt and Dean went out to rent surfboards while I stayed behind and tried to sleep off some of my monstrous headache. Kurt wanted to learn how to surf, and Dean knows how, so he was gonna teach Kurt. Kurt came back and got me, and I managed to get up and put myself together enough to make it down to the beach. Holy smokes the heat was intense. Although Costa Rica is still above the equator, for some reason their seasons are opposite the United States (or the rest of North America, I guess). So right now it is summer here. The beach is not as pristine as one would imagine. It is actually not so pretty at all. The water is warm though. However, when you go in the water, there is so much sand you immediately feel like you are 5 again with all the sand in your bathing suit weighing you down. The boys finished surfing for the morning and we decided to find some breakfast. My head still screaming I was happy to get out of the sun. We found a place (which we ended up eating at this morning as well), had some breakfast, I found a pharmacy and bought some much needed ibuprofen, and then we went back to take a nap. We had decided to avoid the mid-day sun, so after snoozing (and sleeping off the majority of my headache) we headed back to the beach. Theft is big, so while the boys are surfing, I can’t stray too far from our towels. The guys surfed for a while and I stayed and tried to tan. Being as white as I am, this was a bit difficult. After some sun, sand and surf, we went back to our soda La Flor place, had another awesome dinner (this time I tried guanabana, another fruity drink, looks like skim milk and again, indescribable taste. We decided not to spend a fortune on booze, so we went to the supermarket and bought our own, plus tried to find some cards.
Kurt and I, before coming down here, had discussed trying to find jobs on the coast, but my biggest fear was the lack of availability. However, that might be as an English teacher. Truth be told, I don’t love teaching English, but it is a good way to make money while living abroad. So when I passed a few shops and they had signs in their windows asking for help, I inquired. The biggest requirement seems to be the need to speak English. Check. So I asked in 2 places, one a souvenir shop, one a surf shop, and left my email with the surf shop. The average salary here is the equivalent of about $300 or so a month. Being an English teacher in San Jose, you can stand to make more than that. A good salary is about $7 per class. This is double what a Costa Rican can make. So if you average 20 hours per week, at $7 per hour, you make $140 a week, or $560 per month. With rent being less than $200, and your best meals costing about $4 including your yummy fruity drinks, this makes for pretty good living. Remember, this is basing the fact that one is teaching English, or at least working in a job that makes between $6-$8 per hour. The souvenir shop job?? $1 per hour, plus 5% commission on sales over $4. So, umm, yeah, living on $1 might be a bit tight. However, now Kurt and I are wondering, can we find other things out on the coast to supplement? CALLING ALL READERS: THIS IS AN APB AND ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT WORKING ONLINE. Our theory is this: if we can find a small bit of work in the beach town (working in one of the shops or in a bar or restaurant) and supplement with Internet jobs, we are on the first bus out of San Jose, and beach life, here we come. But we need your help. Seriously, if anyone knows any way we can work online, please drop us a line.
Today we got up and went back to the beach, and just generally wondered if we really could make it living on the coast. If we can find things, we are going to offer our landlord to keep a week’s worth of our rent and deposit, and beg for the rest back. Cross your fingers for us.
We headed back to San Jose after changing our clothes in the bathroom of Pizza Hut (I was wet from being rained on at the beach, and no I couldn’t shower before leaving the beach so when I got back here to San Jose it sure was interesting when I went to the bathroom and left sand all over the place. 5 year old, all over again.) We almost missed the bus cuz the people at Piza Hut took so long to make our little pizza we ordered with 15 minutes to spare before the bus left. By the time they finished it, we had more like 15 seconds to spare.
Tomorrow we have 2 interviews, one of them offering the possibility of working on the coast. So we’ll see. Tuesday we have 1 interview, and our backup plan is that if we can’t get our moola back, we stay in San Jose, work as much as we can for this month, and then bail and head out to the coast.
So that is that for now, I leave you to go and search for online jobs with the hopes of finding one. It is raining here, and it poured while we were on the beach today. Too bad I had left my brand new raincoat here in San Jose.

Life, Phones, Buses, Homes, etc.

Life, Phones, Apartments, Buses….
January 13, 2006

And we’re back from that long commercial break. So when I left you all, I was getting on the plane in LA, hoping to get to San Jose safely. I did, with a run-like-in-Home Alone-moment in the Panama airport. I got on the flight to San Jose and lo and behold, when I got through customs, both bags were there! How nice of them to put them both on the flight.
I managed to get to my hostel, after 3 men immediately descended upon me when I walked outside. What part of me said “I need help”? The part that I had bags that collectively weigh more than me, or that I was dragging the 54 pound backpack because it was too heavy, or that I was looking around wildly for a sign with my name on it. Well, being female in a foreign country, they were all too eager to help. After a few phone calls, and 2 of them rushing off to be the first one to get their van to me, I managed to get in a van, and was whisked away to my hostel. I didn’t remember any of the city until I saw the Mall San Pedro, a landmark I used when booking our hostel. I only used this cuz this is how everyone uses landmarks and addresses here. I should point out that there are in fact no addresses. Here is a typical way of giving directions: “from the mall San Pedro, walk 400 metres north, 200 metres west, look for the red building on the corner with flowers out front.” RIGHT!!!!! By the way, I have no idea if there really is a red building 400 metres north and 200 metres west of the mall, it was just an example.
Anyways, I checked in to the hostel, fixed myself up a bit, and went exploring. Since Kurt wasn’t coming for several hours, I figured I would head to the Mall and see about trying to get phones. Well, I found a phone store, and um, I don’t know if cell phone theft from stores is common, but apparently they have some issues or something cuz there was a guard outside, with a huge machine gun. Yikes!
So I asked in that phone place, and at several kiosks in the mall about getting a phone. In Spain, we went to the store, bought pre-paid phones, they hooked em up, and voila! Chatting away we were. Or texting I should say. So we thought we would do the same here. Not so much. You need a residence to get a phone here. The big question is this: how to look for a residence with no phone? But no residence, no phone. Um, ok.
I walked around the mall, decided I was hungry, and went to the food court. Am I in Costa Rica or America? KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Quizno’s were all choices I had. I went to KFC, ordered some food, they even had root beer! I asked for root beer, and then she asked me if I wanted “original or crispy”. Only I didn’t understand at first with the accent (or ree gee nahl o krrrreeeesppeee). Original or krispy what? Root beer? Cuz that was what I was thinking, since I had just asked for root beer. OHH, original or crispy chicken! Original, I answered.
I tried to use my calling card to call home in the public phone, but it didn’t work. “Numero prohibido.” Prohibited number? Uh oh, this isn’t good. No residence, no phone. No allowed number to use my calling card? This is getting better and better.
I continued walking around the mall, and then went back to the hostel. By this point it was only a little after 3pm, Kurt isn’t due to arrive till after 9. Great! I bought 2 newspapers, and went back to read them, but fell asleep. I had gotten up Monday in LA around 8:30. I slept a little on the plane, but who gets good sleep on the plane. And I had a fabulous travel pillow received from Aly for Xmas, but where was it? In my checked bag. Wonderful planning on my part. So I fell asleep. Now, in Spain, I always made fun of Kurt for all of his siestas, but hey one needs her beauty sleep now and then right? I woke up, went out looking for some dinner (this time I found Subway), and went back to wait in the hostel for Kurt. I had asked to go to the airport, but they said they would charge both ways for 2 people, so I stayed put. Finally after 11, he showed up. Whew!!!

Wednesday, Jan 11
We slept in, and fooled around a bit emailing home and looking for apartments. This was going to be a challenge I told Kurt because of the phone situation.
We went back to the mall, and attempted to use the ATM to get money. Both of our cards didn’t work in one machine, so we got a little nervous. Then we found another, and Kurt’s worked, but me, not so much. I went into the actual bank part, but needed my real passport not a copy to get money out. First rule of thumb, never travel with your passport. So while I can’t have money, Kurt can be my sugar daddy. Works for me!
We left the mall, after finally having some typical Costa Rican food: rice, beans, chicken and mushrooms, and a small salad. All for the equivalent of $3!!! A plato del dia in Spain would cost over $12! I could get used to this, since KFC only cost about $4, and Subway about $3 per sandwich. Another bizarre thing is that a lot of stuff is listed in American dollars. Big prices, like rent on apartments, not small things like food. So we went walking towards the university, and found 2 language schools on the way. One from here, one Berlitz, a worldwide school who wouldn’t so much as look at us in Europe without papers. Well the guy from Berlitz chatted with us for a while, but their pay is horrendous. One thing about working abroad is that your pay by American standards is terrible, but by that country’s standards it might be okay. When he showed up the pay, and it comes to less than $4 an hour, um, thanks, but no thanks. The good news is I was able to get money from an ATM, apparently you can’t withdraw from savings, only checking accts.
We walked all over the place, tearing off little apt advertisement signs. We just kinda explored, then decided to go back and try calling some places. Our hostel let us use the phone for free, awesome, and we set up an interview to see one place immediately, and one the next morning. So about those directions:
Here they were for the one in the morning: Go to the Banco Nacional de Costa Rica next to the Outlet Mall, walk 500 meters south, and 100 meters west. It is the yellow building with palm trees out front. See you at 10:30!!
I thought Dusti and I had troubles finding places!!! Spain may not have been the best street-labeled place, but at least they had made the attempt!!
We did go see one place (meet me at the dining hall on the U. of Costa Rica campus—again, sure). That was a studio, and about $250 per month, not bad, but really tiny.

Yesterday we got up and had that fabulously well-marked appt. We asked the guys in the hostel, and they told us which direction to turn (right at the bank, right again after that). Holy smokes, what a brilliant system after all! There was the apartment building right there!!! We were shown 3 different apartments, 2 downstairs, one upstairs. One bedrooms, so at least an upgrade from our studio in CO.
They said the lease was a minimum of 3 months, but preferred at least 6. So here comes the dilemma: take this apt, not knowing if we want to stay in San Jose, but get out of the hostel and unpack a bit, and have a place to call home, but this is only the second place we have seen. Kurt and I, being the awesome decision makers that we are, took the place. Also, keeping in mind that if we decide to bail, we lose out on our $375 deposit and $375 rent for January. Nervous the whole time, we signed the lease, went to our hostel and “moved out”, and schlepped our crap about 1 mile or so through the non-sidewalked streets and ran across the road (escaping from TJ-style) both times. Again, being the awesome pre-planners that we are we had tried to bring as much crap as we could, but that meant our suitcases and backpacks weighed a TON.
We decided that we needed a few necessities for our new pad, so our new landlord dropped us off at the Hiper Mas (after he took us to the bank to get out money to pay the rent and deposit). Hiper Mas is like Hiper Cor in Spain, a sorta of Wal-mart super center place. Well, we were told to take the “Periferica” bus home, so we asked where to pick it up. I should mention here that the Spanish word “coger” in Spain means “to take”, as in “take the bus” or “take the metro” or whatever. It is a very normal word in Spain. However, in Latin American Spanish, “coger” means “to fuck or screw”. So one must be very careful when you ask where you can “coger el autobus” because in this case you are asking “where can I fuck the bus??” Nice. And it can make for some interesting looks from people. So we asked some crazy looking lady where the Periferica bus picked up and she said across the street. More TJ dashing. Then we asked over on that side and some guy told us on the other side. Now Costa Rica is modern enough that there are only 2 sides to a street. So now what? We dashed TJ style back to the first side. The bus showed up, we got on, and well, an hour and a half later we found our stop. Apparently the crazy lady was right, cuz in reality we were only less than 2 miles from our place. The good news is that we got a tour of San Jose. The bad news: massive DUMP.
I had been here in college, 8.5 years ago, and spent the majority of my time in San Jose. What happened in the last 8.5 years? Holy smokes this place looks awful. Dirt, filth, trash, graffiti, you name the nastiness, it is here. This is not the San Jose I remember. For more info, read Kurt’s impressions on his blog (http://www.coffeeandbananas.blogspot.com/)
This is supposed to be what is classified as a 2nd world country??? I don’t even want to think what 3rd world looks like then. We did finally make it home, and unpacked a bit.

Friday, January 13
We got up in our new home, got on the Internet to see about jobs and such, Kurt made a few phone calls, and it turns out that we may have jumped the gun a bit when signing a lease. Apparently this one lady has jobs, plenty or them, better housing for cheaper, and even an opportunity on the coast. CRAP. Remember how we said the worst we lose is the money invested? Well, when you don’t have that to spare, it hurts to lose it. Now we sit and wonder what to do. We set up a few interviews for next week, so what more to do? Now we’re off to the beach, no sense in sitting around and banging our heads into the wall, might as well get out and see a bit of what I remembered to be a phenomenal country. Stay tuned for my next adventure from Jaco.

The Journey Begins

January 9, 2006

The journey begins…….

So here I am sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to take off to Panama City, with connecting service on to San Jose Costa Rica. For those of you just tuning in to my life, let me give you a very brief background. I am a teacher by career, but in my third year of teaching, something didn’t feel right about my life. So I found out about a program in Spain to learn to teach English, applied, was accepted, booked a ticket, and got on the plane in June 2004. While in Barcelona, I met a bunch of people just like me: discontent with life in America, looking for a change, and deciding to try out Europe for a while. I arrived in Barcelona not knowing what to expect, but what I got was the best year of my life. I traveled extensively throughout Europe, made some awesome friends, earner money, got overseas teaching experience, and yes, met the person I will spend the rest of my life with. At first it was just harmless flirting in class, although I know deep down he wanted me from the first moment he laid eyes on me. He will tell a different story, but this is my blog, not his. We became friends, one thing led to another, and now here I am a year and a half later, waiting to board a flight to Costa Rica, where we will begin our next adventure, together. Kurt is from Colorado, I am from Los Angeles, and we met in Barcelona. What a story! After our class ended in Barcelona, I traveled with my roommate Dusti to Ireland and Scotland, and then we moved to Madrid. We managed to find an apartment, and jobs, but sadly Dusti returned back to the US the end of January. I got a new roommate, Lucia, from Spain, and the best thing I could ask for if it couldn’t be Dusti. Kurt and I stuck together, never having spent a millisecond in the US together, not knowing if what we had going over there was a fling for the year, or something more. We tried life out here in the states, me visiting CO, him visiting LA, but all the while thinking of traveling and teaching abroad again. We had pretty much made the decision for Costa Rica, but didn’t know if we should try and go down in late August/early September, or do something else for the fall. We decided to wait a few months, try and save a bit of dough, and go down in January. I moved to Colorado, a HUGE change from LA, and Kurt went back teaching at Colorado State University. I was not able to secure a teaching position because despite having 3 years’ teaching experience in LA, a year abroad, a Master’s degree, teaching credential for California, and meeting No Child Left Behind standards, the state of Colorado will not permit you in the classroom for instructional purposes without a teaching license. So I found a different job, working in an orthopaedic center, and Kurt and I tried out living together. Obviously, it worked out all right since we are headed off to another foreign land together. For those who know me, I hope you enjoyed me emails, comments, analyses, anecdotes and whatever else you got from my mass emails from Spain. This time I am trying something else, this online diary, a view into my thoughts, opinions and experiences. I will post pictures, try and humor you, and above all hope to entertain you. Stay tuned for more from this new tica! For those tuning in to my life for the first time, go easy on me, this is my first blog and I learn as I go. Enjoy, and bienvenidos!!!!