Hola Amigo!

Heya!

Well I have now spent a month in Costa Rica and have had a blast, met some crazy cats and discovered alot. This country is gorgeous, and the people are cool. I have lined up an english teaching job here for november onwards (teaching english to business classes) so it's nice to have something in the line of finances. I have also made some curious observations that I would like to share.....

Adapting:
Directions here aren't straight forward. Everyone goes by landmarks rather than street names. For example, "150m south from the national theatre, then 50m west and 2 blocks to the right"...needless to say a compass is necessary. I however, have taken these landmark directions to the next level, operating only on indefinite landmarks, for example; "left at the large pile of garbage, the second right after you walk past the homeless man sleeping in a doorway and then left at the hooker that looks like a transvestite". So far it's been working out great, no one has ever bothered me for directions a second time....

Complaining:
Everybody smokes. EVERYWHERE. It surprises me how used to non-smoking venues back home I must be, here everyone smokes in restaurants, confined spaces, even in a dodgy movie theatre I went to. I finally spat it though when I was at a backpackers and decided to live luxuriously and spring for a private room, the one I got had a window that backed onto the smoke-friendly kitchen.....don't get me wrong I don’t care if people want to smoke but I draw the line at passive smoking in my sleep!

And a funny, but not-so-funny, story:
Yesterday I was walking along in the morning down a street with not too many people towards the main city of San Jose. Now, San Jose is a big city, very safe in the daytime to walk around, ok in the evenings and not the sort of place I would linger after dark. Being by myself I am just that little bit more aware of any isolation and tend to be, as it turns out, a little more jumpy than normal....So as I am walking these two guys, about my age, decide it would be hilariously funny if they jump out of a doorway and scare the foreign girl walking towards them. Just for kicks. Fortunately my limited Spanish does include cuss words, which i then backed up with english ones to make my message perfectly clear, and unfortunately for one of them it appears that I have quite blindly reactionary reflexes of the swinging arm kind. Even more unlucky for him was the fact that I was carrying a REALLY big book. I think his nose hurt more than his pride at being whacked in the face by a "gringo". It took me about 24hours to see the funny side of the situation.....

Have some fun and I will post again when i finally track down that brother of mine in Argentina somewhere.....last i heard he and his mate had found a $15 all you can drink buffet in Mexico.....

luv Kate