Day 12-16 (Spanish School Registration)

Day 12 - Today, Monika of B and B Grecia offered to walk me to the school I will be attending for Spanish Lessons. (Hey, everybody needs their hand held on the first day of school. HA!) I will be studying at AC-CE (Academia Centroamericana de Español) which is located within downtown Grecia. I start Monday, April 9th, 2007. WooHoo!

Day 13 and 14 - Una Araña (a spider) fell on me today. Eeek! (I didn't look up....who ever looks up. Ha!) It'll take me two days to recuperate. Oh! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIEGO! Tonight, I was suppose to go and toast a drink to Diego with a few of Diego's friends at Bar Saprissa located in Downtown Grecia...but, I'm still shook-up about the spider falling on my arm this morning. YEEEESH! EEK! ACK!
To help me calm my nerves, I drew a White-Faced Capuchin Monkey:

Capuchin Monkey


Day 15 - There are several resident housing along the way to downtown Grecia. Too bad they have to have bars for personal security, because the resident have beautiful, well-kept lawns and gardens and the architecture is gorgeous, like these two:

A Resident's House


Day 16 - After going to Perimercado to pick up a few things, I decided to try an Italian Restaurant, Cucina Italiana. The pizza was delicious too!

Day 10-11 (Grecia - Time to Leave the Nest)

Day 10 - Before setting out for Downtown Grecia, I had to do a little laundry. Now, I was warned before Costa Ricans don't use Dryers…Washing Machines, but no Dryers. I haven't seen (nor used) a clothes line since my great grand-mother was alive back in 1981!:



My week worth of groceries are starting to dwindle, so I have to venture out to downtown Grecia!

This is the hill I walk up to start my way into downtown Grecia. Yesterday when I walked down the hill…something that looked like it came straight out of "Jurassic Park: The Movie" came running out! It was an Iguana! I researched and found out that Costa Rican Iguana's help preserve the rainforest. Cool! Diego says I let dinner go…YUCK! I wish I could've gotten a picture of him, but he was too fast:



The Downtown Grecia area fills up quickly with the regulars as well as tourist. I drew a map of the area in my Moleskine and carry it with me always. Downtown Grecia is exciting. There are stores everywhere on each corner. (Resident homes, Bakeries, Shoe stores, grocery stores, ice-cream shops, Dentist offices, Gas Stations, corner stores and a HUGE bus station) Downtown Grecia has everything for all the residents and visitor needs. I went to this store called "Perimercados". It is the more expensive one to it's competitor "PALI". PALI is a division of Wal-Mart. Hahahahaha! Oh! There is a Super Wal-Mart located off of the main highway in CR.

During my venture out today I snapped a couple of pictures:

In the distance is Alajuela


The Metal Church - Grecia is well-known for this unique Catholic Church that is made entirely out of steel.


Day 11 - Today I met the coolest people in Grecia…Karl and Monika, they are the owner/operator of B and B Grecia:BackPackers, a fantastic bed and breakfast located in the heart of Downtown Grecia:

B and B Grecia:BackPackers
Tours•Homestay•Language Learning
(Photo Taken from Website)


Click here to check out their website for more photos and information on their bed and breakfast. (The master suite has a private jacuzzi!) They also run weekly and weekend adventure excursions. Karl is going to put together a mountain biking day trip in late April and hopefully I can join in on the fun!

As I walked back home from B and B Grecia, I stopped and took more photos:

Grecia Central Park


Um, where do the coins go?


Alajuela from the sidewalk

Day 6-9 (Grecia - Mi Nuevo Casa)

Day 6 - So, with any house that hasn't been lived in in over 2 years there is bound to be non-human residents. Meet Ratón:



Ratón wasn't welcomed and I wanted him out. Immediately! So, instead of killing him I sweeped him out of the house. (So Costa Rican) But, NaNa had other plans for him. Poor guy. He didn't stand a chance. I tried to set him free...really I did. HA!

After Ratón left this world to be in the next, a few more of his cousins decide to come out. All these new introductions seem to come about when the housekeeper, Cynthia did her first weekly cleaning (she comes once a week). Cynthia speaks no English. Nada. But boy can she clean! She brought the life back into this house! I think when Cynthia cleaned outside the house, she must have put down some type of insecticide around the house because every National Geographic creature has come out!!!

Day 7-8 - I discovered BAYGON will help control the hormiga (ant) population. NOTE:CR doesn't have FDA regulations. Enough said. HA!:



Day 9 - BAYGON kills Geckos? Yep, geckos...I'm definitely in Costa Rica. I can take my binoculars out, sit outside on the porch and bird watch. Amazing.

I also brought some art supplies with me so I could capture my Costa Rica experience in Charcoal and Conté:

Tree Frog

Day 4-5 (Grecia)

Day 4 - This house is pretty neat! Best of all...my highspeed cable internet works which also means...my VONAGE box works! I spent the whole day emailing and calling my friends and family...yeah. Oh! This house came with something extra...meet NaNa:



NaNa (sounds like, Nah Nah) is Diego's dog. His Uncle Jovel is now NaNa's caregiver. NaNa (or Nita) is the protector of the property. So glad she is around and she likes me. Here are a few more pictures of the house:

Living Room/Dining Room


Kitchen


MasterBedroom


When I am sitting in the dining room at the table, NaNa lays right by my chair. She is so awesome:



Day 5 - First start of the week, found out that my cable provider's main U.S. channels are Denver, Colorado stations. This means the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) are entirely in English. No voice-over, no subtitles.

Later, Jovel and wife picked me up and I went grocery shopping. Used my credit card too. HA! Costa Ricans (or Ticans) are nice people.

Day 2-3 (San Isidro)

So, while I wait for Jovel to get my house ready (add a refrigerator, microwave, washer machine, the essentials...) I hung out at his house in San Isidro. (Not the San Isidro on the map...this one is in the Alajuela providence.) San Isidro is minutes from Grecia. Grecia is within the providence Alajuela.

Waking up in a unfamiliar country, I didnt know what to expect, but with my 18 hour travel time to get here from Los Angeles (with a 10 hour lay over in Atlanta) I was too tired for nervousness.

Previously early in the morning (12:30am), Jovel and his wife (I slept in Monica's room and she stayed at her Grandmother's house.) showed me around a little. "Este es el baño...Este es la cocina...Este es el leche...) To tell you the truth, I was to tired to translate to myself, but I understood what they were showing me, because I was on my own the next morning.

Day 2 - I wake up, and the first thing I do is look around the house and check out their cable tv.

Either the American shows have Spanish voice-over or in English with Spanish subtitles. Ha! My Spanish is going to be so-ooooo much better after these 3 months.

"Van Helsing" in Español...SAH-WEET!"

Later that day, we went to Mall Alajuela. This mall had USAs entire fast food franchise: McDonald's (two of them, one serves desserts only.), Taco Bell, Quiznos...) Pretty cool mall, here I will be able to go to the movies. CR gets new release USA movies 1 month behind though. Thinking about going to see, "300" while I am here. Should be interesting. In English with Spanish subtitles. HA!

Day 3 - I hung out at the Quesada's casa and got outside this time. Jovel's house is BEAUTIFUL. He built it himself. The trees are gorgeous. I took a picture of the treehouse (1st time using this camera too.) he built for his children when they were younger:



Jovel drove me to Grecia where I will be staying. Driving towards Grecia you have to drive through Downtown Grecia. My rental house is 3 blocks from Downtown Grecia.

Day 1 (Juan SantaMaría Airport)

WooHoo! Starting this Blog at last!

Now, when I was presented this special opportunity to visit CR, I didn't know where it was on the map...I know, right? Stupid American. I will be staying in (Grecia) Alajuela, Costa Rica.

My first few days in Costa Rica were maddening. It wasn't until the plane actually landed in Juan SantaMaria Airport(9:00pm - CST) that I realized, "I am RLY in Costa Rica?" and thought to myself, "I have some nerve flying off to a distant country and not knowing the language I might add. And solo."

This to me is what being a human being is all about. Experiences. Life unknown.

So, as I step into the airport I quickly follow my fellow flight passengers to the baggage claim area. ¿Come se dice "Baggage Claim" en Español? Good thing there is a universal language of visual design in this world. I just followed the pictures. Following images of a woman pointed me to the bathroom too. Hehehe.

But before baggage claim...customs. I hate this part. I don't know why but entering another country with a foreign passport stresses me. I always mess up on those "Foreign Country Entry/Duty Forms" the airline passes out to while you are on the plane. I always fill them out wrong. But, customs wasn't so bad. The line moved along quickly.

Baggage claim was interesting. Being that I am in CR for 3 months I took with me one (1) large suitcase and one (1) medium size suitcase, a rolling tote and a carry-on. Four (4) pieces total. Two were checked and right there when I landed...

"¿Esté?" - This?

An airport worker points at all bags going through the x-ray machine to find which ones were mine. I am RLY in CR.

My co-worker's (Diego) family met me at the airport and Diego's uncle Jovel held up this sign for me to see:



Jovel speaks no English but tries for me. His lovely wife spoke no English as well, but that didn't stop her from trying either and their super cool daughter, Mónica spoke English. She teaches English at an Elementary School in San Isidro.

My house wasn't ready for me, so I stayed with Diego's family for the next two days.