I lucked out… At first I was a little uncertain of how things would go living with Veronica and her mother. When I was in Spain I also lived with a mother and her two daughters and I did not have a very good experience, not that it was a bad experience but it was not great. The family in Spain was never home and never made the effort to get to know me or introduce me to the culture in Spain. This time around it is the complete opposite and I love it! Veronica, my housemate who is 24, has been absolutely amazing. She is super patient and understanding with helping me with my Spanish and she is so welcoming to me being here. Anytime she goes somewhere she invites me and genuinely wants me to go with her. This weekend we were on the go the entire time and it was great! I am definitely getting the true Tica experience! On Saturday morning we went to the fruit market that was less than a half a mile down the road! The fruit was so cheap and I bought two fruit I have never had, water apples and a guanabana! Both were sweet yet tart and very RICO! (Rico comes from Costa RICA… it took me a while to pick up on that) After Veronica, her friend Natalia and I went to downtown San Jose where they signed up for a Math class. Then we went into a few shops and they showed me the touristy spots in downtown San Jose which included the National Theater and a statue of a fat women. Haha When we left downtown we went to Veronica’s sisters house (which was huge and so nice) where her mother was visiting, see below about her sister Susana. Saturday night we went to a futbol game with two of her friends! By Sunday I was surprised she was not sick of me but apparently not because we were off to her sisters house and then out to dinner with her family! I am so thankful for how welcoming Veronica and her family are!
A Water Apple:
Veronica and I Next to The Fat Lady Statue aka "La Chola"
The backside of The National Theater
The Front
Family- Veronica’s family is hilarious! Louisa, Veronica’s mother is super nice, she works at the hospital in San Jose. Veronica’s sister, Susana, who is married and has a son is a nut! She is too funny! She says that Veronica is like her daughter since she doesn’t have one! She is always cracking jokes and very out going. Susana, her husband and son all speak a little English so they helped me get a cell phone plan this morning. Susana’s son, Danny, wants to go to Harvard; he’s eleven. Veronica’s grandmother is adorable and was so happy to meet me! She has a Chiwawa that is so fat that its head looks soo awkward on its body; it was so ugly it was cute! Veronica’s brother is married to a Tica who works for IBM and speaks fluent English which was nice to have someone clarify things when we at dinner with her whole family!
The Mountain View Next to Veronica's House
Typical House Colors: Lime Green, Orange... Totally Normal
Culture and Things I have Learned
There are so many American stores and restaurants here it is insane everything from McDonalds, Denny’s, TGIF Fridays, KFC, even Hooters and Taco Bell! Clothes stores are basically the same as home too, Steve Madden to Areopostale.
Tico’s eat out for many of their meals and much of that is at fast food restaurants. This is especially true for small families because it is quicker and cheaper to by food out. It is typical for them to have their big meal at lunch rather than at dinner like most people in the United States.
Service is also very different than it is in the United States, most people have a cleaning lady or someone to cook meals for them, depending upon how wealthy they are but even average income family’s have a cleaning lady. They also have “watch men” or “watchiemen” that literarily help you park and watch traffic when you pull out on to the street. I have only seen this in busier areas with small parking lots.
The tap water in Costa Rica is drinkable. However, many westerners are not used the different minerals in the water and get sick the first few times they drink the water. Being unaware of this I assumed that when Veronica handed me a glass of water from the sink the first night I took that as the water from the tap is okay to drink. Come to find out two days later (after it being the only thing I drank for 2 days) that is does make many westerners sick. Luckily, I was not one of those westerners. So a heads up to anyone coming to Costa Rica, it may make you sick for a day or two until your body gets used to the minerals so you can either suck it up and get used to it or drink bottled water.
Below is a picture of the San Jose National Stadium. It was a gift from the Chinese to represent the "permanent monument of the friendship between the people of both countries"... google it to learn more.
Left to Right: Veronica, Me, Natalia, Yeimy (Pronounced Jaime)
We Root for LDA! (The little men in Black)
Although Costa Rica is very developed in terms of having the same restaurants and stores Costa Rica is still an underdeveloped country and there are a few things that are not as advanced. One of my first days of training at Trackit, Wirlan told me that there is no address system in Costa Rica. There are also no road signs or street names… I don’t understand how they know where to go. This makes things a little difficult for a GPS company and for the mailing system in Costa Rica. Trackit has found a way around this and based their maps off of using points of interest as destination points. For example, say you were trying to figure out how to get to a friends house, they would tell you its next to a McDonalds in xxx town so you would go to points of interest and find the McDonalds in that town and get the directions to that McDonalds. There are over 22,000 points of interest so it is a pretty efficient system for the lack of an address system. In terms of the mailing system there are still many problems and many people lose their packages or letters. Roads are also very much in need of a make over and I am not just talking about one or two… So many of the roads have massive potholes that Ticos are very aware of for the well being of their cars. This makes traffic slower and more dangerous when people swerve into other lanes to avoid the potholes. There are also roads that are so narrow that they should a one-way street but that is NOT the case, I am appreciative that Veronica is a good driver…
