Ohhh Car...and other acquired knowledge

hmmmm...it's been quite a while.

buying a car in Costa Rica, like in any other place, I'm sure, is a total crapshoot when you're in the market for a used car. The difference is, in Costa Rica there's a really high likelihood that you'll be on curvy roads with steep dropoffs when your breaks and/or steering fail...yup...It really happened.

Things I've learned recently:

Children do not trick or treat in Costa Rica, at least not near us.

My generation is the one getting into the idea of Halloween, but still only about 1/2 the population polled recently planned on dressing up.

Here, the idea is still, for the most part, to be scary for Halloween...THAT's a big difference. lol.

"Cars are holes into which to throw money"-Dad

"Lo barato es caro (That which is cheap, is expensive)"-Jairo

Having a license to drive, or a licensed driver to take one driving could be equated to having gold here.

Eating turtle eggs helps to clean the beach because there are actually too many turtles trying to lay their eggs in the same place.

Rice cookers and I are not friends.

Nothing lasts in the fridge for more than like...3 days...max.

Light bulbs cost less than a dollar.

The buy/sell rates of currency make absolutely ZERO sense to me...and cost me $100 to change colones to dollars back to colones in order to make the car payment.

Banks started charging 50 cents per ATM withdrawal as of August something.

Earthquakes are cool...as long as they are just at tremor-status.

Sometimes just a long girl-chat is all you need.

If a girl walks by any number of men, every one of them is guaranteed to at least look her way.

"Picadillo" is a food, "pesadilla" is a nightmare

I don't know that I will ever adjust to knowing the date based on the local seasons other than those experienced in WNY (It is ridiculously odd to me that it is going to hotter here the closer we get to Christmas, for example).

a good quote

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be." Marcel Pagnol

On Living Alone

Living alone is still not fun. Days have been rather decent but coming home at dinnertime to an empty place is rather depressing.

I've decided that I'm not going to wait for people to make plans for me, though. I took some initiative to call a friend to go out tonight. I am not really feeling a bar/dancing scene. I don't think I'm comfortable going out without Jairo knowing or being with me, but I guess it's just because it's new. Times like these I miss Starbucks, Higher Grounds and the like...anywhere, really, that has a place to hang out after work but before people hit bars/clubs.

Leavin the house at 9:30 pm doesn't really appeal to me as it has basically been my bedtime lately. But I am going to try and go at it with a positive attitude.

At least it sounds like there is a cool storm brewing...better grab an umbrella.

Grown-Up Style...

If being a grown-up means trying to manage paying tons of money for an apartment and food, doing your own laundry, and being alone a good portion of the day when you aren't at work...I don't want to be one. I don't miss college, but I do miss communal living. This does not come as a surprise to me as I am a super-social person and I've never really sought out "alone-time." But this is the beginning, so I am hoping that I get used to this or find ways to fill my time or make friends so that it isn't alone-time anymore. Only time will tell.

I have discovered that my tupperware containers do not keep out ants. This is disturbing. I guess I'm going to have to store everything in the fridge. Also...the ants are garbage-divers. Which means I currently have an entire colony on a two-way highway between my garbage can full of the crackers they broke into in the tupperware and wherever they call home.

Lusbin showed me the plans he received for an addition to a structure here in Sámara. Seeing the plans, sections, and elevations made me realize how little I may know about construction. I can understand what the drawings say and mean. But how on earth does one go about ordering everything that they need to do once they have them? I think there is a schedule somewhere probably (I only saw the page he was reviewing) but it scared me a bit, to be honest. Sometimes I wonder if I really learned anything at all.

I like designing. But for me, my excitement tends to stop at the schematic phase. Beyond that, I'd rather be on the receiving end, learning how to build it once the detailed drawings are completed. I guess that's a cop-out.

It's only 8:30 and I'm tired. I think the reality is that I'm alone and therefore don't recognize how fast or slow time is passing. It's been dark since I got home.

I need a shopping list. Starting with dish soap and toilet paper. And shampoo. You'd be amazed what a difference using Costa-Rican-bought shampoo makes for your hair in cold-water showers!

Had a celebration for "Children's Day" (which is technically September 9th) today, on Grandparents' Day. I found that amusing.

So many children around give one both joy and frustration. When you spend enough time with the same kids, you see the bad side. I think seeing the bad (no matter how small an amount) is enough to keep me from ever having children. Just saying.

Back to work tomorrow. I'm slightly nervous. Even though I was on vacation, I feel guilty for not answering emails and such. I think that's the 19 years of schooling in me that say if you have things to get done you stay up til they are done by the deadline...and with no deadline...it automatically becomes "it needed to be done yesterday"-esque. I need to just breathe. This is a stressful job, but I am still learning. It will get better as I go.

Quick update after a long drought

I'm going to post a few pics...I know, I know...finally.

But first I'm going to share some things I've learned/noticed/etc.

I learned how to separate a good corn kernel from a bad one...quickly.

I learned how to fish with a home-made net.

I learned how to fish with a hook, live bait, and a string.

I made rice krispie treats with costa rican cornflakes...so i guess that would make them costa rican corn flake treats...but rice krispie treats is easier to say, so I'll stick with that.

I adopted a kitten less than a month old, and successfully "found" it someone to adopt it long-term just more than 24 hours later.

I went to visit Monteverde.

Contrary to some sites, there is no direct bus from Liberia to Monteverde.

There are only two buses to Monteverde that pass through la IRMA...the last is at 3:30 pm.

It didn't rain at all during our trip to MV...I'm thankful because it is already the last time Jairo will ever go with me by bus, and that would have been enough to keep him from wanting to return EVER.

Never again will I mix multiple cups of coffee, with multiple shots of homemade sugarcane alcohol (guaro), with sugar cane juice, with cheese factory cheeseburgers, with a mint chocolate chip milkshake, with a walking trip at dusk into the woods to climb the strangler fig after 4 hours of horseback riding. I will also never order "mondongo en salsa" (cow stomach in sauce) again (especially not after getting sick from the previous combination just an hour before).

There is more, but I'll save it and get to the pictures.

Gripe...Gree-pay.

soooo...it's been a while.

First off let me say this: Gripe is NOT the same as the flu...it is MUCH worse. It is a mixture of cold and flu which changes depending on the person and the incident. It typically lasts 3-7 days. In my case it was accompanied by vomiting, cold and hot sweats, headache, body pain, extreme fever, and lack of brain functioning...ok the last one was just a result of all of the other things...but seriously. NOT FUN.

On a high note, however, it was not Dengue fever, which has been increasingly prevalent recently in Costa Rica, especially in the Guanacaste region and in my neighborhood in particular. This I attribute to the open-air housing that we have which allows the mosquito creatures free access to our bodies, the way in which Dengue is transferred.

Needless to say, after my experience with gripe...which started out as the sniffles and ended by knocking me out of commission for 2-3 days, I do not want dengue and I have stopped using repellant sparingly.

Back on the Rich Coast (the Pacific one...)

WOW...I forgot how hot it is here. Walking into work drenched in sweat...it's been a while since I last had that experience :)
Hooray for Air Conditioning!

Colette is here (my first friend in life, and my first visitor in Costa Rica) and I'm super excited! I think she may have been frustrated without speaking Spanish yesterday and nervous to take on my day at work without another English speaker in the house but she's uber smart and sweet and I'm sure she'll do just fine-plus she's heading to the beach and we got here early enough that I could show her around a little and introduce her to a few people like Hector and Ana.

Today's Yari's birthday and tomorrow is the last US game of the first round of world cup...we need a win!

I had a great time at home. I miss my friends and family, but I'm glad to be back to the grind...there's something to be said for a basic schedule that was difficult to be without this week-haha.