One word: trango

Here are a few bits of info I've learned about Costa Rica:
The water really is fine to drink, at least here in Quepos. I drink about 3 liters out of the tap every day.
There is a reason that "hot water" is advertised at hotels: it is a luxury. You should be prepared for cold only showers.
Costa Rican coffee = awesome.
Toilet paper (or anything else not produced from your body) cannot be flushed in most toilets. However, my home here has some sort of special plumbing so I can flush toilet paper. Whew!!!
Sidewalks? What sidewalks??
For about $3 US, you can get a casado: a meal w/ rice, beans, salad, plaintains, salad and meat.
Sometimes the power goes out. Sometimes there is NO water. Deal.
Costa Rican men are called "ticos" and women are "ticas".
If you're running late, you're really just on schedule for "tico time." Relax.
Monkeys like to steal whatever they can from your bags. They know how to work a zipper too.
______________________________________________________

I'm slowly acclimating to life here in Costa Rica, although the whole "pura vida" thing is a hard concept for me. I'm so used to rushing everywhere, always having something to do, that truly relaxing is not easy. So, I don't really relax and my days are pretty filled with activitiy. I joined the local gym: Gimnasio Musculo Mucho which is actually air conditioned (score!) and am now one with the local meat-head population. A few of my fellow students joined as well and I love how well we all get along. It's on my way home from class, so no excuses! Well, aside from the fact that it's really freaking hot here and the humidity makes it difficult to breathe at times. However, no complaints! Better than the 47 degrees I see Boston was today.

I'm picking up more and more Spanish every day and at times find myself thinking in Spanish, which is a very good sign. I was quite discouraged the other night, as I've felt alienated in my host house because I don't understand more than 2 words out of every 50 that are spoken. However, my host dad asked me out for beers two nights ago and he took me to a local fisherman's bar. He works at a seafood export company and is in with the local fishermen. After making our way down a couple of alleyways and down a dirt road, we arrived at an open air bar, complete with view to the Pacific. This is a place I NEVER would have gone on my own and I'm psyched he took me there. He introduced me to a new drink: trango. The waitress brought over two shot glasses, two tumblers of ice and made the drink in front of us. Basically, it was Costa Rican rum, poured over ice. On top of that, a little Pepsi (from a glass bottle). Then, she brought a plate of cut up limon (a green fruit that is orange on the inside and kind of like a lemon, but much sweeter). We squeezed the limon over the drink and stirred. Really, really good! Next, he ordered me ceviche (which I absolutely loved) and some sort of white bean soup with pork. I have no idea what part of the pig it came from and don't want to know because it was fantastic!
Victor, my house dad, speaks less English than I speak Spanish and we spent a couple of hours practicing my Spanish and actually communicating. It was amazing!!! He was totally patient and encouraging. I actually know more than I thought I did and he was a very good teacher. This was definitely a turning point in my trip so far and at a much needed time when I was feeling very overwhelmed. He reminded me that I had only been here a few days and it would come with time. I'm so grateful for his invitation and this, I am sure, will be one of the highlights of my trip. This was the truly authentic Costa Rica I wanted to see and feel.

On that note, I'm off to study and hit the gym! I welcome all emails from people and any news from home!!!

Class begins!

Yesterday was my first day of class and I love it! My fellow students are all pretty great and the staff is wonderful. Yesterday, we all went out to breakfast at this place in Manuel Antonio in a plane that crashed in Nicaragua and was taken here...an amazing feat to think of when you see how shitty these roads are and how steep the hill is to get there! The restaurant overlooked the jungle and the ocean, an amazing vista complete with a monkey to entertain us.

I took my first lesson in Borucan, a native language and it is HARD! I can totally appreciate how difficult it is for someone to be thrown into a new language cold. It was frustrating and I hated how confusing it was, but hopefully today's lesson will sink in more. We're planning a trip this weekend to visit the Borucan people, as one of the teachers here is a native Borucan. I really can't wait b/c it sounds absolutely amazing! There will be plenty of pics to share from that. It's been difficult to find somewhere to unload pics from my camera, but I think I might be able to at my host family.

Speaking of the host family, that's a strange situation. My room is very nice; clean and with two fans, both of which I appreicate! However, in order to go to the bathroom, I have to go THROUGH my host daughter's bedroom. No big deal if she was like 8 or 9, but she's 24 and I feel like I'm totally invading her space. Oh well. I'm sure she's used to it and I will get to be too. It's such a different culture when it comes to personal space and privacy and I'm so not used to it all. For instance, I came home last night and interrupted my host family's chanting of the rosary in the living room. Hey, that was nice. I felt like an ass for having to walk through that. My host mom has this giant rosary hanging over her bed (like 4 feet tall/wide) so clearly they're into this church thing. In my room, someone had gone through all of my stuff, refolded all of my clothes, made the bed and organized everything. I didn't really love that so much and was not sure if I could be offended though. The family has a housekeeper and I hear that they love to micromanage their charges' lives. Not so cool to me. Oh well...all part of the culture I guess.

I'm on a break from class right now and will update more later.

Arrival

So, I made it. I was up at 4am on Friday morning, mostly because I was in pain from trying to swallow and my throat was too swollen to accomodate my saliva. Nice. I couldn´t wait to get on a plane. I was super early for my flight but I did not care because it was better than sitting at my house in pain. At least I was in pain with coffee in hand at the airport.

My second flight from Charlotte to Costa Rica was late and I missed the transfer and the bus to Quepos. (Incidentally, I discovered that Quepos is pronounced like KEPos w/a K like ketchup sound, not the KW sound I assumed.) After clearing customs, I was surrounded by taxi drivers, looking to take this white chick somewhere expensive. I must look really conspicuous. As far as I could tell, the darker skinned people were not getting nearly as much attention as I was. Great. Way to blend Katie.

I took a cab to San Jose, a place, for the three hours I spent there, I would not recommend visiting. It´s smoggy, crowded and well, crowded. Not my idea of fun. I was dropped off at the Coca-Cola bus station (No joke) which happened to be closed. So, I had already missed the last private bus to anywhere, decided I hated San Jose and did not want to spend the night there and was determined to get myself on some mode of transport out of the capitol. I used my handy 50 words of Spanish to discover that I might be able to directly pay the bus driver the appx $5 fare if there were enough seats. It did not look good once I saw him shaking his head at me. However, some helpful guy told me to put my luggage in the hold under the bus and I´d have a better chance of getting on. This was not exactly what I wanted to do: separate myself from my bags with the hope he´d let me on the bus. However, I brought him my bags at the side of the bus and the driver told me something, which I took to mean sit in the back so, I just got on the bus and sat in the back. Ha! I was on, my bags were on and I was not getting off. I just hoped it was the right bus. Right. At least I was getting out of San Jose.

It turns out it was the right bus, I was exhausted and tried to sleep, ignoring the huge drop offs on the side of me, assuming that the driver was better than I at controlling this huge thing. By the way, I had imagined this to be the least safe and most uncomfortable way to get to Quepos. At five dollars, I assumed that it would be me, some half naked men and free roaming chickens on the way to Quepos. Shows how ignorant I am. This is the best deal in town EVER! It was a coach bus, just without air conditioning (but totally functioning windows) and no bathroom. Big deal. It looked safer than the Fung Wah, so I was psyched at my ignorance. The $29 alternative that I was going to take should have been plated in gold or something! We made a stop at some random side of the road food stand w/bathrooms (and running water). I got something for dinner. I know it consisted of rice, beans and something else. It might have been sheep brains, cow intestines, chicken livers, who knows. I surely don´t want to know. It was good and perfect for the bus ride. I could actually swallow it without too much pain and it woke me up some so I could make sure I was awake for my stop.

I didn´t get to see too much scenery since it was so dark and I assume this was for the best. I did move up to the front of the bus when I saw road signs for Quepos and kind of wish I hadn´t. I could see out the windsheild when we came up on what some might refer to as a bridge. This is no Army Corp of Engineers undertaking to say the least. Basically, it looked like some pieces of rebar and a couple of pieces of sheet metal thrown across two supporting beams. No shit. I seriously wanted to take out my camera and document this in case the authorities needed to describe the scene to my family when my body was recovered. However, I thought the flash might scare the driver and it might be kind of rude. I am totally going back there to get it on film though before I leave.

We finally arrived in Quepos, I have no idea what time. Late. I found my hotel, mostly by accident. Took a shower (pictures of the "shower" are forthcoming as soon at I find my camera) and fell into bed.

Now I´m here, still sick but at least not traveling anywhere for the next few days. Phew!

Hope you all are well back home and had a great collective Thanksgiving!

T-Minus Twelve Hours

My last day of work was last Friday and I received a very nice send off from my co-workers. (Thanks to all.) Of course, I was back in the office on Monday, so no one was able to actually get rid of me that fast! Don't worry though; I really am gone now. Well, for the month at least.

I just returned from the big turkey fest at my mom's house and am burning up with a fever and my throat feels absolutely raw. I can't wait to get on the plane tomorrow. Worse, I feel sorry for the schmuck that has to sit next to me. However bad I feel, I wouldn't have missed Thanksgiving for anything. I love my family so much and I'm going to super miss all of them while I'm gone. Just as an FYI to the person whose name I picked for the Christmas thing is getting his or her book in Spanish. So, everyone should start brushing up.

I finished packing last night, but for a few items I have to shove in there last minute (like the water purification system my mom bought me. Thanks Mom!). Thanks to my packing list, I think I have everything that I need. Really, as long as I have my iPod, sneakers and headphones, I'll be a happy girl and those three things are going in my carry on.

I spent the last few days running around, seeing friends and family and picking up all those last minute items that really seem to add up. I did manage to squeeze in some fun and I had a great time at dinner on Saturday night w/ some of my favorite people ever. The six of them, plus alcohol and Indian food...what could be better? According to Simon, we had a super authentic experience since the service sucked and he says this is a true sign of authentic Indian food. Thanks for the clarification Simon.

I ran out yesterday to get gifts for my host family, about whom I know almost nothing but their sexes and ages. However, it's the thought that counts and I do hope that they like what I've picked out for them. I consider it a bribe to not feed me cow stomach or other delicacies so it was definitely money well spent!

I hope everyone sends me good energy to get better, to be safe and to return home with lots of good stories.

Hasta luego todos!

The Day After

Yesterday was my last day at work. Leaving a job that provides stability to venture off into something totally foreign to me, with definite instability is, in one word: frightening. However, I am confident in the thought I've put into this and it all still feels right to me. It's a waiting game for me right now. I'm in limbo for the next week until I step off the plane in CR because I honestly have no idea what to expect.

I received information about the family I'll be staying with and I got the "address" of the house as well. Apparently, Quepos doesn't believe in street names or numbers. The actual address of the house translates to "in front of the public school." Um, what? I'm still trying to understand how anyone gets any mail in the city. The directions came with a hand drawn map and turn-by-turn instructions using landmarks instead of street names. But hey, I'm used to that coming from Boston. Usually it's "Go past two Dunkin' Donuts, turn left at the homeless guy, at the Starbucks go right and it's the third one way street on the right". So, it's really no stretch for me to find my way around like that. One thing that I was psyched about were the waves that were drawn in the map; it looks like I'm mere seconds away from the water. What more could you ask for?

Ave Maria and other pitfalls

It's been a couple of weeks since my first post and things are moving along smoothly. I have my plane tickets (for a mere $30 thanks to my frequent flier miles), my bus transfer to the bus station from the airport (aeropuerto) and my bus ticket to Quepos from the bus station. I decided to splurge and go for the air conditioned coach bus for the whopping sum of $29 for the three-hour journey. I pay more than that for the gas in my car to go that far! I was able to make the reservations on line and in English, making me wonder just how 3rd world this place is.

I have been having the debate (mostly with myself) about whether or not I can drink the water while there. I've found plenty of sites online that say you can and it's safe. Of course, I can really find plenty of sites to say just about anything I want them to with all the misinformation online so I don't know how true they are. However, my need for coffee and my desire to be as unobtrusive as possible in my host family's house is going to have to outweigh any possible ill-fated outcomes. I'm packing the Imodium and crossing my fingers. Please don't let those be my famous last words!

I have also been talking with my career coach, Linda, about other things I might encounter while in Costa Rica that will be uncomfortable for me. Right at the top of that list is the dreaded CHURCH. Since most Latin American countries have huge populations of Catholics (who actually practice Catholicism and go to church), I'm afraid I might be asked to go with someone to church. I think I'd rather have to have something go wrong with the water than to sit through a Catholic mass. However, in the spirit of immersion, I've decided that I'm going to do it. After all, if the mass is in Spanish, I'm not going to have any idea what anyone is saying anyway. I was kind of surprised that this was my top concern though. Sometimes I forget how traumatizing it was to be forced to go to church as a kid. Thanks mom. (Just kidding. I know she meant well and surely did not foresee this outcome!)

I'm really excited to be in CR leading up to Christmas though. I remember this time of year was my absolute favorite in New Mexico. I loved all the decorations, the smell of pinion in the air from people burning the wood in their fireplaces, the overall air of festivities and happiness that saturated Santa Fe...all great memories. I hope that being in another highly Catholic setting will be just as positive; where the emphasis is less on church and more on family traditions and good will.