My life in Escazú, Costa Rica is going very well. I have fun at work (at least almost always…), practice a lot of Spanish, meet more and more friends and just enjoy being here heaps. But it’s quite a different life from the one I lived in Switzerland. It’s a lot more relaxed and the things and places and all those details are definitely different.
For example, every morning, I get woken up by noise from the huge construction site next to our house. And that special alarm clock doesn’t go off at eight o’clock, no, the workers actually start at six am every day but Sunday. I have gotten used to it now, and it doesn’t bother me much anymore, but I still think it’s a very early time to start working.
Then when I walk towards the town centre, the streets are not quite similar to Swiss ones. Mostly, all the streets are straight, so the town is split up in blocks. But not only that but also the houses are different. Most houses only have one level and are quite small. And when you walk along a street, it definitely doesn’t get boring because all the houses have something unique about them and they’re usually painted in bright colours. =)
Something else about Tico homes is: People just keep on coming and going, and mostly they just enter and leave again without knocking or anything. Of course, they know the family but at the start it seemed a little strange still. But it makes life more interesting because you never know who might come in and bring the latest news. =P
And speaking of houses and streets, addresses in Costa Rica are a little special. You don’t use a street name and number to say where you live, but you give a whole direction. So, if you write a letter to someone, it might look like that:
Señorita Sara
Del Banco National 100m sur y 275m este,
Casa verde a la derecha,
La Sabana,
San José
Crossing a street in Costa Rica is different as well. Since people here live with Tico-time, which means they take everything more relaxed, getting from one side of a street to the other is nothing stressful. Usually, you just stand there wait until no car is in close site and then you cross. That can very well take a few minutes, but it’s not worth it to get angry or stressed about it. At least no one does here. Sometimes, cars even stop to let you cross even though they wouldn’t have to., because usually there aren’t any zebra crossing sites.
When it comes to food, Ticos eat a looot of rice. Often you get it with every meal, including breakfast. And along with that you get beans. Gallo pinto, one of the most common dishes in CR is also made up of these two ingredients. You usually eat it for either breakfast or maybe lunch too.
In general, food is not very spicy. And something very delicious to eat in Costa Rica is fruit. There’s a huge variety of fruit and it’s incredibly sweet (naturally, not from added sugar or anything =P). And I’m lucky enough to get yummy fruit for breakfast everyday. =D
And something else you encounter a lot here are dogs. They are everywhere, really. But surprisingly, I haven’t seen any in really bad condition. But it seems as if all those dogs you see out on the streets actually belong to families. They just go for a walk themselves, which is very handy I think. =)
That’s it for the moment. And apart from a hike in the local mountains last weekend, I haven’t done anything very special in the past few days. But I’m sure I’ll have more to write about again soon. =)
Hasta luego!
Karin
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