The Flight
Woke up at about 2:00 get to Pittsburgh at 4:00 to make a flight at 6:00. I slept most of the ride. Plane went from Pitt to Atlanta and got there at about 730-ish. Hung around the airport till the plane left at 10:00. We got to Costa Rica at about 12:30 their time. I think. The time zone change and daylight savings and everything was to much work to figure out at the time, and I don't want to break something trying to figure out how long I was actually on the plane. We flew over Cuba apparently, but I could see it through the clouds. The inflight meal was better than I expected, but nowhere near very good. There were little screens on the back of the seats, and we were able to watch movies or TV or play some games on them. It made the 4+ hour flight much more enjoyable.
Costa Rica
The architecure here is weird, but the first thing any one from the US will notice is that EVERYTHING has bars on it. Peoples porches (or yards if they have one) are either surrounded by a large fence, or entirely encaged. Then the main door has another large metal gate over the door itself. Robbery seems to be fairly big down here. My dad has told us at least 7 stories of times he was robbed or was almost robbed. "When you see guys walking down the street with their hand(s) in their pocket, they've probably got it on a knife. Don't mind them. It's for protection. It the people who put their hands in their pockets when you get near them that you should be warry of." Little things like that make me realize what a large difference there is between the US and here. The US and most anywhere even. Despite being a bit parnoid, I've still noticed that the people here are, for the most part, very friendly. I still wouldn't want to walk around at night though. The stores here have armed security guards for a reason.
We've eaten at a couple places around here now. Rice beans and chicken seem to be the staple diet. I have had something that is both genious and simple. Refrsca naturals. They're delicious drinks, and very easy to make. Step 1. Choose fruit. Step 2. Put fruit in a blender. Step 3. Blend with either water or milk. That's it! They're not like fruit juice, or smoothies, so I'm not jsut getting worked up over nothing. The Banana/milk combo is my favorite so far.
The money changing thing is kind of annoying right now. $1 USD is basically woth 500 colones. It's simple math to figure out, but it's a real pain to have to do it every time I want to buy something.
If anyone wants to commit suiced on vacation, Costa Rica is the place. My reasoning: the showers are deathtraps.
See that machine? That's what makes the water hot when it comes out of the shower. See those long thin things running from the wall? Those are electric wires. ELECTRIC wires, with a little bit of tape, mere inches from water that is falling on your head. I've gotten used to it, but I'm still praying that that's not where my hot water will be coming from in China.
San Jose
My dad met us outside of the airport. Him and his landlord, Lolo, drove us back to his place just outside of the downtown area. Lolo is a cool guy. He's a bit like a stereotypical grandmother though. He's got all sorts of stuff hanging up on every wall of his house. He makes a living renting out rooms to gringos (Foreigners) and running a cafe directly across the street.
The first night we went to see where my dad works. It's a company called Datascension. It's a "call company." They call people and ask their opinions on things. His job is to help them have more of an American accent. Basically, it's so the people getting called don't think it's coming from India or any other country for that matter. The company owns the top 3 or so floors of the San Pedro mall, and it's only a 5 minute walk from Lolo's. It's a pretty cool mall, but I'll talk about that later.
San Jose has this weired attempt of a tourist attraction called "The Cow Parade" There are about 130+ life sized painted cows scattered throughout the central part of the city. Some of them have been fairly interesting, but I've mostly been left questioning the minds of whoever's idea it was to put cow statues nearly freaking everywhere.
To be continued
I should have done this earlier. Uploading these images takes forever on this internet connection, and the guy upstairs is hogging all the bandwidth. I'll post the rest some time tomorrow.
Comming up:
Puerto Viejo - We go to the beach and I get a sunburn.
San Jose again - We visit one of my dad's friends in Prison. lol wut?
San Pedro Mall - Totally awesome.
6 comments:
"Him and his landlord..."
It should be HE and his landord. Are poor Chinese kids going to be "educated" by someone like you, without even a degree? We need a plan to save them!
1. Grammar isn't as important on teh internets, but point taken. I usually try to type better than I actually speak. I guess that still needs some work.
2. Don't worry, I've got a couple grammar books to study.
3. I should be teaching "spoken English" rather than "English Grammar."
4. I plan on getting my degree while I'm over there.
5. I can't believe I've got someone reading this beside my relatives and friends. Hooray!
Point taken mate, I was just being ironic, no worries! But will you get your degree at a Chinese University? Wish you best of luck in China. Great place, although quite messy at times.
I'm going to be taking online classes. My certification teacher recommended a nice inexpensive one, that looks fairly nice. I still need to check it out a bit before I make any commitments. I don't need to rush anything.
I'm guessing you found my blog from Jonna's. I've been reading hers for a while. I think it's better than reading a cruddy travel guide. Much more interesting too.
Do you know what your accomodations are going to be like in China yet? (Sorry if this has been answered already, I haven't read your entire blog.... yet.) The shower pictured in this post may be quite a lot better than you get in China, FYI.
sorry, typo in my URL in the above comment
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