Culture

English Class

Tonight marked the first English class for the branch. Rebekah is teaching it. We meet on Wednesday nights at 5:30 PM for one hour. We will have lessons for at least as long as Rebekah is here (early April) and perhaps longer if I decide to take over for her. As it is now, I am just the assistant to help her communicate with the non-English speaking students. Continue reading English Class

Wedding Traditions

As I sit here writing this blog there is loud music blasting next door. The sister of our next door neighbor is getting married. The event does not happen for another two weeks. However, here in Costa Rica they have several parties before and after the wedding. Our neighbor invited us over for a few minutes to enjoy the festivities. They had a full mariachi band playing (I had no idea that they had mariachi bands in Costa Rica). Anyway, for this particular party, all the women stay inside the house with the lights turned off. All the men are outside the house. As the mariachi band plays, the fiance goes to the door with a boquet of flowers. He knocks on the door. The bride comes to the door and they kiss. The lights in the house are then turned on and the women come out to enjoy the mariachi band.

It was kind of fun to watch. I think traditions such as this are a wonderful thing.

Driver License

I decided to get a Costa Rica driver’s license. I read several blogs and talked to an American who recently got his. Most of the blogs said it is well worth the money to hire a Costa Rican to help you through this process. However, after reading up on the subject I decided to go ahead and try doing it on my own. Here is how it went… Continue reading Driver License

Off to School

This morning we dropped our kids off at school! There is a single small private school in Puriscal that is “bi-lingual.” I put “bi-lingual” in quotes, because they only have two periods during the day in which they teach and speak English. Continue reading Off to School

Home sweet home

Our first home rental in Costa Rica

So we found a place to stay, at least for a while. We are still hoping to find a bigger place (actually, we may have found that place already, I’ll explain a little later). We just got our high speed internet connection setup this afternoon.
For now we have rented a good sized Tico style home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We moved in Monday (yesterday). We bought a washer, dryer, and sectional sofa with sleeper bed on Saturday. We also ordered a dining room table, queen bed, bunk beds, and TV stand from a furniture maker in Sarchi. However, these won’t arrive for a couple of weeks. Continue reading Home sweet home

Driving

Driving in CR is quite an experience. Here are some interesting facts.

Road Damage – If a road becomes damaged as in the photo at left, it may or may not be fixed. When this road collapsed, an alternate route was selected that goes over a dirt road and simply bypasses the problem area. When half of a road collapses, it is common for the government to put up a yield sign and simply turn that section into a one way road. Continue reading Driving

Car Buying

Here are the steps to buying a car in Costa Rica:

Look in the newspaper for adds on used cars. Realize that there aren’t many adds in the paper and abandon this method.
Go to craigslist.org/costarica and search for the car you want. Hopefully you will find one that is owned by someone who speaks English because this makes communication somewhat easier. Continue reading Car Buying

House Hunt

Today is my birthday! I am now 46 years old. We wanted to go to a movie last night, but could not find anything that was appropriate for the whole family. The rating system here is quite different from the US. Sex is acceptable for young people, but violence is not. Therefore, a lot of movies that are rated PG13 in the US, are rated as being acceptable for everyone here. Anyway, I’ve gotten way off the subject! Continue reading House Hunt

La Feria

Yesterday we went to the feria in Puriscal. The feria is essentially a farmer’s market where local farmers come to sell their produce. This is a common occurrence in most towns in Costa Rica. Continue reading La Feria

Costa Ricans are Caring

Today as we were returning home, a man fell out of the back of a bus! It looked like a school bus and it had several sacks of something in the back. The man must have been sitting on the sacks and leaning against the rear door. As the bus began to accelerate up a hill, out he fell. I was amazed and encouraged to witness people run from all directions to assist this poor guy. Continue reading Culture