CR091509 Tuesday, Costa Rican Independence Day 2:34pm, after the parade
I woke up this morning at 6:30 when the fan stopped. I lay there thinking of all of the things I would have to do differently today if the electricity did not come back on. The car is in the garage. Walk to the bottom of the hill, catch a bus to Liberia to see the parade. It stays off for about 15 minutes, long enough to make the clock start blinking and kill the alarm. I am dimly aware of this as I fall back to sleep.
Oh, well. Guess we’ll be late for the parade. This is good training for me. It’s an effort for me to adapt to Costa Rica’s pace. Kassidy has still not started school. The next step is to meet with the school psychologist before she can be admitted, but she was placed in 7th grade based on her entrance exam. I think. It’s what I was told, but things keep changing there, so I’m not positive.
My muse starts composing from the minute I wake up. She is unhappy that I am getting up to go to a parade instead of sitting on the balcony to greet her. She punishes me by continuing to speak in my head in an “I had a farm in Africa” kind of monologue and I am helpless without a pen. I listen and hope I remember it later. I don’t.
Last night we went to Playa Hermosa to see the children from the escuela play music up and down the beach in the local celebration of Independence. We couldn’t find them. Wrong beach, we were told. It’s down at Playa Panama. We decide not to chase the parade and instead go home and sit next to each other on the bed studying. She is working on American History and I am reading Los Cuatro Acuerdos because the on-line Advanced Spanish class starts today. I am also learning about the Ice Age because this is the only class I had taken on to home school her in, assuming that the Costa Rican curriculum probably won’t cover 7th grade American History. We went grocery shopping today and came home with Kassidy treasures: spaghetti with alfredo sauce. I eat beans. Seriously… no one over 30 can really eat alfredo sauce.
We are bibliophiles and we are so addicted we should join a support group. They should hold it at a book store. We brought 50 pounds of books with us to Costa Rica and when we arrived began collecting more. I’m trying to read them as fast as I buy them, but when I hold a book in my hand, I just can’t help myself. I think of Jason every time I see books in Spanish. There was a section in the grocery store. We bought only two each. We have had to create new bookshelves here.
Yesterday while I was writing the burglar alarm went off. I walked out of our room and saw a man walking in the front door with a key in his hand. He walked over to the alarm panel and entered in the code and the alarm stopped. I’m not sure what the point of a burglar alarm is if the burglar has a key and the code. He is the property manager, Tim. If he were Costa Rican, I would explain that this is a culturally unacceptable practice and that we prefer knocking, but he is American. So, cocky as he is, I’m sure he’s aware from my stunned voice that I find his presence here to be entirely intrusive. I tell him so at the end of our visit, but am kind about it, because he has successfully jerry-rigged the house so that it has internet access. He says he came in because he honked and knocked and I didn’t answer. Mmm… I wonder how Chad or Johnny Mac or Andrea might respond to this philosophy and am fairly certain it would have something to do with Clint Eastwood.
Kassidy has taken to wearing jeans and long sleeves and it turns out this is her version of a burka. I encourage her to go ahead and wear shorts to the parade. It will be very hot. She does and she looks young and, surrounded by so many families here to watch their children play in the band, no one looks at her at all. I think she relaxed a little.
We finished out the day by going shopping for birthday presents in Playa del Coco. Tomorrow we will find a post office and experiment with international mail.
There is a barbeque outside. It’s a regular charcoal grill. I look at it and dream of grilled fish, prepared by whomever the next person is who comes to visit who knows how to use a grill. It had been on my list to learn to grill (Have I not mentioned the “list” yet? More on that later. It’s probably enough by way of explanation to say that “Move to Costa Rica” was once on my list.), but my grilling lessons were on gas grills and this is too intimidating. Maybe I’ll find some directions on-line. “Learn to grill” is beneath “learn to scuba dive”, so it may not be next.
I need a desk. I’m told that to get one I may have to have it made. There was a furniture store in Liberia and I saw this one. I’m thinking about it, but he said he could build me a different one in 15 days. This one is 6500 colones – roughly $125.00. What do you think? For a desk I can’t bring back with me?
Also…I bought a hat. I know. It doesn’t seem like news. But I tried on another one and Kassidy said, “No. You don’t wear wicker.”
SPANISH LESSONS
To be drunk is anda boracho. Toda la gente anda boracho. Uf! Ellos andan muy borachos. Pedro, who is painting the second half of the house now, asks about designated drivers in the states. Here, he says, they keep drinking. They drink less, but the person who drives still drinks. I realize that this means that I am the permanent designated driver, since I feel strongly about my definition.
The words I need in Spanish that I don’t know are paved and dirt. When I’m asking for directions here, it’s important to know if they mean turn left at the first paved road or turn left at the first dirt road.
I took some “I don’t think that word means what you think it means” pictures today at the parade. In Playa del Coco there were packs of cigarettes with warning messages on them. Not to be missed. At the gas station in Sardinal there was a sign prohibiting smoking INSIDE the gas station. Right. Very smart.
Buses stop at bus stops and also anytime someone waves them down. This is done with the arm raised, palm facing down and then the arm makes a rapid and repeated downward motion.
When you walk into a store, one clerk follows you and stays constantly a few paces behind. One fun thing to do if you’re bored is to walk rapidly and then stop abruptly and see if they walk into your back.
There are bikes everywhere. No one wears helmets. Seeing a second person on the cross bar or the handle bars is common. Adults transport their children this way. We saw a couple driving in Liberia with a baby on a front passenger seat lap. We saw two people on a scooter with a baby between the mom’s legs on the floor of the scooter. I was shocked. Isn’t that against the law??? The police actually saw her and stopped her. I could not hear the conversation, but they must’ve told her, because a minute later the second passenger had hopped off and was hailing a cab. The mom drove off with her baby still between her legs.
Desapacio is posted on all the road signs. I haven’t heard lento at all.
A very happy birthday to a friend who has known me long enough to remember when I was jail bait, who kissed me on the cheek and left the smell of patchouli on me, who made me feel important when I was just a groupie and to whom I send a strong hug and sloppy kisses. Love you, John Horn.
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