Touch Down in San José

Well a first impression should usually be told fresh, but even though I am typing this up 9 months after my first views, smells, tastes, and experiences in Costa Rica, I remember it all with precision.

 I am going to start this off a bit negative. When I first arrived in Costa Rica and was on my way to a host family trying out my rudimentary Spanish on an uninterested taxi driver the views from the window were less than impressive. In fact, for the first few days in San Jose the only thing I could think was ‘how ghetto is this.’ After spending the tail end of 2011 in Western Europe and Christmas in Canada the small, somewhat ramshackle houses surrounded by fences topped with a variety of barbed wire, razor wire, and cemented-in broken bottles did not create the most welcoming feeling. I spent the first week walking around the pot-holed streets in fear. I felt like a target. A fresh-faced gringo plump and ready to be robbed. I tried to stick to main roads, common routes, say hello to shop keepers to create a local rapport—keeps away the stares as the gringo trods through the neighborhood. I really wasn’t so sure I had made a good decision in going to Costa Rica.

Now this grim impression quickly changed. Costa Rican people, usually referred to as ‘Ticos’, are some of the friendliest, chattiest and most selfless that I have ever met. And you will meet them! Soon enough I was telling my life story to the fruit seller, flirting with the women in the central market, being invited to dinners and parties, and stumbling my way through Salsa, Cumbia, and Merengue footwork.  If you lend your time to a Tico, you will more often than not be honored with their fantastic company.

As I got to know the people and the city, I felt more comfortable. Where I once saw a scary shack, I saw a happy family’s home. Where I saw a sketchy back alley, I saw my favorite place to get away from the crowd and sing a tune on my way to the bus stop. Dingy became cozy; awful become laughable, and dull became cultured. Most guide books and travelers will tell you to skip right past San Jose and make your way to the nearest beach, but quite honestly, for a city of it’s size, age, and location San Jose has a lot to offer. There is not an abundance of architectural beauty or history like in Europe, but there is a lot to encounter if you just look.

 A weekly arts festival in the central parks of the city is ran all summer with events for all ages. There’s live music, free yoga and dance classes in the park, craft tables, game tables, parkour workshops, a skateboard course, and all of it is for free (sponsored by the government.) The national theatre offers cheap entrance for local and national acts of theatre, ballet, orchestral music, and so on. There are bands, galleries, exhibitions, wine and cheese tasting, city bike tours, used book fairs. A range from cheap but delicious restaurants, to more artsy or posh venues can be found. A great student area, San Pedro, offers some of the best places for conversation over nachos, patacones, or a variety of sweets.

Once it’s put down in writing, San Jose sounds down right cosmopolitan. I am not really sure if that is the right word for it. But it is a place that welcomes you and soon starts to feel like home. After a few months of living in Costa Rica’s capital I can say I felt right at home. I attribute this a lot to the people, but that out of any place I have lived so far Costa Rica has felt the most like a home away from home. 

I am not going to get too sentimental now, so I will leave my intro to Costa Rica there, and publish some more details about the specifics soon as I can.

¡Pura Vida Mae!

A Catch Up!

Well, the name of this blog has never rung truer than now! I have fallen off the face of the earth! Hidden from sight and sound. I have been living in Latin America for nearly seven months without an update and spent three months trekking through Europe last fall without much more than a few mentions.

So I apologize for that, and for those of you who maybe I have not spoken to in months and months! I will state now that I still value you all and now have a steady internet connection on which, quite honestly, I have been wasting too much time so I have decided if it’s going to be eating up my time I need to get re-connected instead of just dilly-dallying around.

Well, usually I write just about places and things that I have encountered and don’t gab on too much about my personal life, but I have decided to publish something short just to get re-acquainted and then I hope to start getting my travels (and foods OF COURSE) all caught up.

I moved to San Jose, Costa Rica in January and was meant to work there for a full year. I got all settled in and was on a roll with life in general. I felt really comfortable, stable, productive, when all of a sudden our school announced it would be closing its doors in June and that all of us would need to find new employment. There were some local options available, but between half of the people I knew leaving the country and having to find work and sort out a new visa with a new company if I were to stay I decided to leave. Since I wanted to stay in Latina America and continue studying Spanish I applied for jobs in Colombia and in Ecuador. Sadly I was denied the post in Colombia, but instead ended up coming to Guayaquil with a friend I had been working with in San Jose named Hanna--my now room mate. It has turned out to be a blast!

So now I am here working with an English school whilst committing a lot of my time to continuing my study and practice of Spanish, and also French.

… French?

Yes, it seems a bit random but I scored a scholarship swap in San Jose to study French with the French Alliance there and so now I am paying to continue with the one here in Ecuador. So maybe by Christmas I can function to a decent level in three languages. How exciting!

Otherwise life has been visits to the beach, volcanoes, cultural events, dance parties on boats, nights out at the cinema, BBQs, and just trying to experience as much of this area of the world as possible. I have been able to connect so much deeper by having the language and thus being able to get to know locals like I have never had the chance to do while abroad before.

That’s me in a nutshell, so thanks for reading if you have, otherwise send me a message if you would like to catch up.

I will be posting about San Jose soon as requested by my lovely sister-in-law. So please, bated breath.

Hasta Pronto!