Liga wins...I resign

Okay, okay, so the two aren't really related, but it's the best I could do today. It's hot here. By hot I mean that typing on my keyboard is causing me to sweat (and the oscillating fan in my office is already running at max speed). If there's one thing I've learned about living this close to the equator, it's that the concept of siesta should be mandated by law in these countries. Really, if the offices aren't going to have airconditioning or good ventilation, we should be allowed to take a break during the hottest time of the day (and lunch in the cafeteria doesn't count. It's the one place on campus that is consistently hotter than my office). Alrighty...enough bitching. On to my primary topics today: soccer and leaving CR.

Soccer:
The Costa Rican national championships were held last night, and the winners were....Alajuela! Alajuela is a town close by where I live. The adults and kids in The Ciudad generally size you up by the soccer team you root for. Here there are two choices "la liga" (alajuela's team...no idea why they're called "the league"...but whatever...) or "Saprissa" (san jose's team). My little hsot cousins asked me very seriously last week "esta ligista or saprisista?" They wouldn't take "no se" or I don't know for an answer, so I chose la Liga (an important political choice given that my host brothers are both ligistas). The cousins were disappointed, as they were wearing their purple best (Sparissa's colors).

Just a bit of cultural curiosity...only the players on some of the costa rican teams in the 1st division are full-time professional players (basically thoise who play for saprissa and la liga). The rest of the players have full-time jobs (one of the star players for the team opposing la liga in the championship is a farmer. He has to leave insanely early for the games because he has to take a public bus to the stadium where he'll be playing!). Can you imagine what would happen if, say, the Cleveland Indians or the Greenbay Packers had to have day jobs? The thought rocks my world.

One bit of annoyance, it's impossible to get Costa Rica league play results in English on the internet. Now I'm going to have to remember Spanish so I can read the results in La Nacion (the CR newspaper). For all of you soccer fans out there, the Costa Rican national team has an important game this Friday against the UNITED STATES!! Warning...this could get ugly in my household. Maybe I'll escape to the beach for the weekend...

Oh, and I offically submitted my resignation today. Whopee! It's off to Boston for me...three months from now...

Driving crazy

By comparison...stats on drivers in the U.S. by state. Sadly, I've lived and driven in three (soon to be 4) of the top 12. Fertile training ground for the CR driving experience!

Victory is mine!

I just sucessfully made my first doctor's appointment in Spanish! Woo-hoo! Am Spanish goddess...can do anything in Spanish! Rock on!

Please...let there be light

Seiously, today started out really well. I had a great morning with my host family. Coffee, bread pudding and fresh baked white bread for breakfast, and all of the kids were in school by 7AM allowing me, my host parents, and Fresie (the women who cleans our house) to have coffee and a nice chat in relative peace and quiet.

Yesterday, my host parents were quite stressed out from their respective job responsibilities. So I decided to return the favor they granted to me the last two weeks, while I was so stressed out, by cooking breakfast for Fresie and doing the coffee and dinner dishes. This allowed them to get ready for work in the morning without having to rush, and to spend some quality time with their kids in the evening. A small but fun way to love my Costa Rican family.

Well kids, it's been another fun work day here in Paradise. The power just shut off at work, giving us all a ten minute coffee/gossip break. (And the gossip was good too...demotions, controversy, people up in arms, the works!) You should know that in El Rodeo (the town where I work) power outages are frequent and seem to be the tropical equivalent of snow delays. Because we're a global institution with all of the trappings of a modern firm (computers, and intranet, a web page, servers, etc.) you would think a little thing like the power going off wouldn't keep us from our important work. You would be wrong.

Apparently this lack of power phenomenon is not a country-wide epidemic borne of bad infrastructure (as in many other parts of the "developing"--i hate this term, anyone know of something better--world). It is a phenomenon solely of this little part of the country I reside and work in, Ciudad Colón and El Rodeo. I asked my host Mom, who is Costa Rican but not originally from The Ciudad, and she says the authorities claim to not know why the power and water go off so often. She says if you call and ask why, their answer is " Because." Ha! I love it! I especially love that this is an accepted answer. Can you imagine if ConEd or BG&E orPEPCo answered customer complaints with "Because"? They'd have picketers, local news and senators at their front doorstep by the end of the day. Not here. Here we live in the wild west, where laws are a suggestion, a guideline if you will.

Speaking of guidelines, this just in from the US Embassy in CR Consular Information update:

"Costa Rica has one of the highest vehicle accident rates in the world. Even the most experienced drivers are challenged by the disregard for traffic laws and driving safety. Traffic laws and speed limits are often ignored; turns across one or two lanes of traffic are common, and pedestrians are not given the right of way. Although improving, roads are often in poor condition, and large potholes with the potential to cause significant damage to vehicles are common. Pedestrians, cyclists, and farm animals may use the main roads. Traffic signs, even on major highways, are often inadequate. "

Hoo-boy. Seriously, on the nearby 4 lane highway here there are graphics of a heart with a halo over it painted in yellow on the pavement at irregular intervals. I recently learned that these indicate the places where pedestrians have been KILLED trying to cross THE HIGHWAY. The signs remind me too much of the coins in Super Mario Brothers. I half-expect the car or bus I'm riding in to go DING! and our gasoline level to increase when we ride over top of them...

cultural rebel

Am leaving the office at 3PM today to get some banking done. If you think that banking is easy and fun, you clearly have never banked in another language in a "developing" country before. As my spanish teacher says, going to the bank can easily take three hours in Costa Rica. What in the world could possible take so long? Well...the computer system shuts down, you don't have the right paperwork/counter/person/spanish language skills, waiting for your turn in line doesn't apparently apply to some people, or it might be friday (which induces crazy lines inside the bank and at the ATM outside). Just realized I forgot some critical documentation at home, so I have to trundle back to my house before heading back to the bank. Oh, Costa Rica...

In addition, I have made plans to do coffee with one of my good friends down here, whom I will call Swiss Miss (she's from Switzerland). She is definitely one of the good parts of my costa rican adventure. She makes me laugh, keeps me sane, and talks about spirituality with me. All much needed qualities in a friend in CR. This meeting does, of course, mean that we are both cultural rebels in CR. Costa Rica has a coffee culture. Costa Ricans have an affinity for the coffee plant, coffee plant flowers, coffee beans (raw or roasted) and the final brew. But this is not a cafe culture, in that you are supposed to drink your coffee at home around 3-4 PM with family and/or friends, not in a retsaurant or cafe. (I guess it's like tea time in jolly olde England.) So, only us gringos meet each other for coffee, mostly at more expensive establishments who gear their menue to foreigners (e.g offering coffee AND ambiance).

I forgot one thing that is great about Costa Rica in my earlier post: my host family. I live with the best host family on earth. They make me laugh, cheer me up, cook me yummy food, and teach me how to speak better Spanish and how to be a better person. The family has happily adopted me, and their house has quickly become my home away from home. I can come home in the evening to a host father who is dancing around the living room doing his best Mr. Bean imitation, two host brothers who are inevitably trying to convince me to play playstation, a host sister who walks around listening to her CD player and singing out loud ("yo soy rebelde...") and a host mother who has become one of my best friends in costa rica. One of my best adventures yet!

My Life in "Paradise"

I realized yesterday that I need a little bit of inspiration if I am going to make it through my last three months in Costa Rica. Blogging appears to be less expensive than therapy and less trouble than trying to get spiritual direction in Spanish. So here I am.

Before you get all "poor you, living in Costa Rica" on me, I'd better explain a few things.

1. I do not live at the beach, or anywhere close/convenient to a beach. I live in the central valley in a small town called Ciudad Colón (helpfully labeled "Cd. Colon" on the map link) which is about a 25 minute drive south west of the capital "city" of San José and 3.5 hours from the closest beach. Lest you Spanish Speakers be fooled, the locals here refer to the town as "villa colón" which may even be stretching it a bit. For a virtual tour of my town click here (and then click on "Virtual Tour" and "Visit Ciudad Colon"-- Hey, don't blame me for the # of clicks, consider this your introduction to Costa Rican efficiency). I assure you, the virtual tour does the town justice, it really IS that exciting. Much more will be written on The Ciudad in the future.

2. I work here. In a real, 5-day-a-week, salary-paying, 8AM-4:30PM job, at an English-speaking firm complete with a one year contract. If you're wondering why I don't just pick up and leave, the answer is that breaking contract=losing salary before starting grad school in the fall AND letting The Ciudad get the better of me. So that's just not going to happen.

3. I moved here as a leap of faith. Yes, I'm one of those spiritually oriented people, my particular brand is Catholicism. Before making the big move down to CR, I actually worked for the Catholic Church (more to come on being a woman and working for the Church). After much prayer and reflection, I knew that I was supposed to come down here. And I'm still convinced that it was the right choice. It was just a much more difficult choice than I originally thought it would be. Grr...spiritual growth.

Life in The Ciudad has been hard recently. In the past two weeks one of my students went crazy (literally. hospitalized-on-happy-pills-for-five-days crazy), I witnessed a mildly-violent robbery (same student...boy, she's got some bad luck), and I got juan santamaria's revenge (or whatever the Costa Rican equivalent of Montezuma's revenge is...)

Still there are some good things about The Ciudad. The view on my walk to the bus in the morning is breathtaking. Sunshine (it sunshines every day in the morning and then rains in the afternoon. ahh...variety! Oh, sorry...trying to be positive...right...good things...) surrounded by rolling green hills, it's quite beautiful. The view from my office window is of palm trees, tropical flowers and gardenias (which have just finished blooming) all part of the national preserve where my office is located.

Speaking of work...it's time to get back to work (read: go to lunch). And you know what lunch means...Rice and Beans! woo-hoo. Let's hear it for the costa rican staple foods. Hopefully we'll have something more inventive than fried chicken as an accompanyment...cross your fingers for me...