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!