So, my family and I are in Costa Rica now. We arrived VERY late Thursday night after weather problems. We were so tired and stressed since we had no way to get ahold of the driver who was to pick us up from the airport (which we were late 2 hours by this time) and no way to know how to get from the airport to our new apartment house where the older parents of my contact and property owner, Monica, were waiting for us to get in so they could open the gate to the houses. We were STRESSED. My youngest daughter, Laynie, was on the plane crying so I had her write a little journal entry. She expressed it all very well: "6-30-11: Costa Rica Flight. I'm sad and happy. I'm sad because I miss my friends and family. I'm happy because I'm going to COSTA RICA!!!" That pretty much summed it up for all of us.
After getting our 9 BAGS!, and going thru customs and immigration, we found ourselves at the mercy of several people "helping" us get our bags from the exit of the airport 50 feet away to the cars which were thankfully still waiting for us. Our only problem was that we didn't have many small bills for currency yet, so some "helpers" received massive tips and others did not. It was a great lesson for us - Be Prepared!
When we finally arrived at the hacienda, we put our VERY tired girls to bed (crying); crying for Duchess, their friends, their home; crying from anxiety, fear and tiredness. Pobrecitas :( After all that, Jay and I got situated in bed and he asked if I was doing okay That's when the flood gates opened and my tears would not stop flowing. Sobbing, I told him how scared I was, how overwhelming it all had been, how anxious for all our upcoming events I felt, how much i missed Elli n Seiji and the kiddos, how I just wanted to go home now and unload on Cindy and Jeff, feel safe in my own home, etc. Sobbing, I was scared for our safety, arriving so late in the night that we could not even tell what the area looked like except wet and very dirty. I finally fell asleep after Jay's constant reminders that all would be okay in the morning and that if anything, we would have a great vacation and leave early if I was still so uncomfortable.
Friday came and was our first official day in Costa Rica. We met our neighbor, Marisca- who had told the director of my language school of the apartment hacienda we were to rent. We also met Monica, her baby, niece, mother, sister, father, etc. It was nice to get some perspective on this place, our new temporary home, and on the towns that seem to be connected to each other making it so difficult to see where one town ends and another starts. I took an extra-long time getting ready to meet the director, David, in Heredia at the IPED school. I was nervous and stalling, I guess. The girls, Jay, and I headed down the street to pick up a bus to head to the center of Heredia. The buses don’t run on routes per say or even have particular stops or places to get picked up, but we had been told a common place to get picked up as well as what color buses to take and not take. As the bus stopped and we all got on, I realized that we’d have to sit in different places on this full bus, Yikes! So, Jay found a spot for him and the girls and I sat beside a young girl about 18 or so. It was actually great because even with the fear of not knowing anything about the area and being nervous to speak Spanish, I got too curious and maybe a little scared so I asked the young girl, “Estamos en Heredia ahora?” (Are we in Heredia now?) She smiled and said, “Yes, I can speak English though. Do you need some help getting somewhere?” It was sweet, really. She could see I was a bit out-of-sorts and was offering me an olive branch to let me know it would be okay. We talked for a bit until the bus stopped at the central park in Heredia and we all got out of the bus. A man that Jay and the girls had been talking with on the bus had gotten out and waited for us so he could give us exact directions to the IPED school. People were so friendly; it really helped to calm my nerves and anxieties. We found the school, met David, met other students (another family with a baby boy) who would be starting classes at the same time, and got directions for where to go for all of our errands. Who knew there was a Wal-Mart in Costa Rica?! Or that the clerks there hated their jobs just as much as in the States!
The rest of the afternoon evening went well with lots of settling in, reading, journaling, talking, and a general awe over where we were blessed to be. Saturday was another errand day since Wal-Mart (in Heredia) ended up being so expensive and full of such negativity. We set out in San Joaquin about noon to find a better grocery store that was cheaper. We found Pali where everything was cheaper than Wal-Mart and the clerks were helpful and didn’t sneer at us when we tried to speak broken Spanish to them. We did, however, get stared at – A LOT! But, people were just curious to see an extremely white family speaking a bunch of jibberish trying to figure out the exchange rate and calculate the cost of each item. It was a reminder that we definitely stick out. As we left the store the girls were able to get their faces painted like beautiful butterflies for a promotional event.
We headed the opposite direction, back into Heredia for a late lunch and wound up at Nachos restaurant – which David had recommended to us. Our waitress was wonderful, helping us with how to say certain things, how to order, which futbol (soccer) team was Costa Rica so we could cheer for them also and she even gave Laynie a little pad of paper so that she could write down the words she was learning. During our lunch it started to downpour, but we were not deterred. We put on our raincoats and headed out to find cute shops and see what we could find! It was awesome and the girls LOVED it! A torrential downpour in Costa Rica! Why did that seem to be better than a downpour in Iowa? It was so fun to watch the girls sloshing around in the puddles, but we finally headed “home” and spent our evening making dinner, reading, watching Spanish television shows, etc.
