Life here in Costa Rica has been interesting to say the least. It’s hard to believe that we have
been living here for 2 weeks tomorrow. We have had to embrace an entirely new & different way of life! It is hard to put it into words unless you have lived it!
We get asked every day ... "What has it been like so far?"
Well ...
... The ATM machine ate Laura's debit card the first time she used it.
... Uber life has made for some interesting conversations & experiences, We have ended up with drivers that don't speak English but try their best to communicate with us, pretend they don't understand our Spanish when we try to communicate with them so the entire ride is silent, or speak enough English & help us navigate the city!
... Our phone service has not worked the way it should (surprise!) & we switched companies.
... We are waiting on the internet company to come for an appointment that was 9 days ago.
... We had our first bus experience. It only took us 3 1/2 hours to go 30 miles!
... We are holding our breath but no puppies ... yet!
... We have experienced San Jose during the time of the "bull". We have watched coverage from the bull fighting & bull riding here in San Jose about 5 minutes from our side of town. It is nuts!
Here’s a recap of what the last week in Costa Rica has been like for us!
Last Monday afternoon
What started off as
a great day touring our school ended up in a stressful day to say the
least.
Chesney & I decided to walk
to an ATM together to add some money onto my phone (everything is pre-paid
here). The ATM experience went great! I was able to enter in the amount that I
wanted to withdraw & got the cash … but then my card did not come out of
the machine! I had just joked with
Chesney that the ATM better not keep my card & sure enough it did.
I went into the bank & did my best to explain
in Spanish what happened. The lady took
down my information & made a copy of my passport so that she could contact
me the next day whenever it was retrieved from the machine.
After that, I went to add the pre-pay data to my phone & it sent me a message saying that there had been an error (the whole pre-pay process here is very complicated!). So we went to the Claro store in the mall to speak with someone directly about my phone.
NOT what you want to
happen to you on your first solo ATM or phone experience.
The internet company never showed up to get
our wifi installed … so it was overall a pretty frustrating day. The kind of day when you just have to remind yourself to exhale & that joy will come in the morning!
Tuesday
Since it was Chesney’s
last day in Costa Rica, we decided to do something tourist-like! We took an Uber about 30 miles from San Jose
to a cute little town called Sarchi.
This town is apparently a popular stop for tourists here in Costa Rica
because of its history & heritage.
We really soaked up our time in Sarchi & got to see some amazing
things.
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| Making a new friend with the artist |
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| All smiles :) |
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Wood working factory that had been there for over 90 years ...
and completely powered by water pressure! |
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| Some of the work from the artist that we met! |
We ended our day
with a 3 ½ hour bus ride home. YES … 3 ½
hours to go 30 miles. The traffic coming
back to San Jose was horrific. Believe
it or not … Josie did not cry ONE time!
I was so proud of her. She was
such a trooper! I think I was more of
the toddler about being stuck on a bus than her!
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| First Costa Rican public bus ride! |
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| She was in the zone :) |
We came back to the
house & got some Chinese take-out.
There is a Chinese place just a few blocks from our house! It was delicious & they gave us a TON of
food for a great price. We are excited
to have that spot nearby for the days that we are missing food from home!
Wednesday
Chesney’s time in
Costa Rica was already over ... We intended
to take her to the airport & called a driver on Wednesday morning to pick
us up. He informed Daniel that the road
coming back from the airport was closed for 24 hours! We would have no issues getting Chesney there
but trying to get back into the city would be a nightmare. So we decided it would be best to send
Chesney with a driver to the airport & say our goodbyes at the house!
Josie was genuinely
so sad to see the van pull away with Chesney in it. She kept saying “But Mommy … Chesney is a
part of our trip!” She doesn’t quite
understand just how long this “trip” is for us!
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| First UBER ride without Chesney :( |
We spent the rest of
the day trying to get our phones set up for a monthly plan. Since the internet company had not shown up
yet (our appointment was for Monday & it was now Wednesday) we decided that
it would be best to get on a phone plan with unlimited data so that we weren’t
continuously burning up the pre-paid data on our phones.
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| New desk clerk at MoviStar Phone store |
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| Someone took a photo of their daddy :) |
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| Under a bridge we walked across from the Mall to PriceSmart |
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Uber drivers are apparently supposed to have candy with them in their cars at all times for their passengers.
On the way home an Uber driver stopped to get candy for Josie
because she asked him for some & he didn't have any in his car! :) |
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| Happy girl with her candy! (bright flash mommy!) |
We also stopped by the bank to check on the status of my ATM card. The lady that helped me said she had tried to call me on Tuesday but her call did not come through. This was another reason for us to switch carriers because we did notice in Sarchi that we didn't have great service. BUT, I got my card back! Thank you, LORD!
Thursday
Friday
We had sort of a 'blah' start to our day on Friday. It was overcast, neither one of us were feeling that great with some sinus issues, and we were feeling sort of down. We know that this is all a part of the process ... and I think with the weekend ahead of us knowing what we were missing out on ... it was just a tough morning.
So we decided we would take an Uber into town & try to find a puzzle or board game that we could all play! We still do not have wifi or cable so we were starting to feel a little stir crazy watching Aladdin for the 48th time since we have been in Costa Rica ... I may or may not be exaggerating!
We ran to a few places but quickly realized that the crowd was too much! Everyone was out for Christmas shopping ... so our plan didn't really work out with the long lines. So we came back to the house, walked to the park (it started raining on us!) and then came back home to watch Ratatouille. Josie had never seen it before & she really loved it!
That evening, we went to Micah & Bre's house (our big brother & big sister) for some dessert & games. We taught them how to play greed & think that they may be hooked! We really enjoyed our time with them & Josie did, too. She didn't want to leave & in the Uber on the way home she asked if she could have a sleepover with Ms. Bre soon. It fills my heart to know that she is embracing life here with our new friends!
Saturday - Christmas Eve!
We had a low-key day for the most part. We made a trip to Wal-Mart for some groceries
for the week & then spent the afternoon making homemade chicken &
dumplings. We enjoyed experimenting with
what we could find here! We watched a
few movies together before heading to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at
International Baptist Church in San Jose.
It was a beautiful service & Josie kept telling everyone that spoke
to her “Feliz Navidad!” It was the most
precious thing!
We came home from service & baked cookies! Josie girl had so much fun baking with us.
Sunday - Christmas Day
I'm pretty sure we were the only parents of a 3 year old that waited and waited for their kiddo to wake up on Christmas morning! Josie slept until 10:45 (Costa Rica time) and she only got up then because we woke her up. She loves to sleep for sure!
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| Finally awake :) |
We spent the morning & early afternoon at the house. Around 3, we went over to Micah & Brea's house for a Christmas get together with other families from our school. It was a great time of fellowship. We were so glad to meet other families from ILE & get to hear some of their stories. We played some games, watched the bull arena activities that are taking place in San Jose on TV, & had a great time of fun! We look forward to more nights like this with the families from ILE!
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So far, this week has been very low-key for us. We have struggled a lot the last two days. We have battled feeling all of the heart tugs of so many emotions after making it through our first Christmas away from our families, frustrations piling up from living in a city when that is totally not our "norm", and feeling really stir-crazy as we wait for orientation & school to start next week.
It's definitely not all smiles. But we know that it's part of the preparation for what lies ahead.
We have spent a lot of time watching movies & going to the park to soak up our final days before the whirlwind of school begins for the three of us.
We know that once school starts, life will be so different here! A routine will help us all but also take up a lot of our time with Josie so we are making the most of our days this week.
We went downtown on Monday & ran into a crowd of hundreds of cowboys & cowgirls on their horses! It was really neat to see. We did some walking around downtown & saw more of the city.
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| Market with her daddy! |
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| Littlest cowboy that we saw :) |
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| National Museum |
What a whirlwind, right? And it's only JUST begun!
Please continue to pray for us. We know that the range of emotions that we will face this year are not going to be easy ... but we know that through HIS strength ALL things are possible!
