Warning: Incoherent Rambling!
Hi all,
Since this is the first post of what will hopefully become at least two over the coming months, I figured I'd start with background as to the what, why, and where this is going to be about. Odds are if you're reading this you already know I'm living in Costa Rica for at least a few months. Since I'm usually pretty horrible about staying in touch over long distances but don't want to lose touch completely, I figure a blog is a good way to let people know what I'm up to without clogging up inboxes. And, to be honest, it cuts down on the number of emails I'd have to write.
I'm also guessing that most of you have never been to Costa Rica, so I'll try to spend at least some time being genuinely informative about things down here. The rest of it will be about whatever I damn well please but I'll try to put a warning label up top with a general theme. Expect some combination of me telling tales of my adventures, reacting to things in the news, making jokes, and doing all of the above with tongue firmly in cheek.
So let's get this train wreck rolling with some of my first impressions, now that I've been here for a month.
The Good
1: The climate. The weather's been absolutely gorgeous the entire time I've been here. I'm told it will continue to be up until May or so, at which point the volume of rain will make London look like the Sahara. Also, the sun is up from roundabouts 6am-630pm every day. I'm told this will not change significantly.
2: The people. I've been able to build something of a social circle fairly quickly, thanks mainly to the active couchsurfing community down here (google it if you're unfamiliar). There's a good mix of expats and locals, which has the unfortunate side effect of making it a little too easy to use English in conversation. My landlady has been great, too, which helps.
3: The cost. There's simply no way to complain about paying ~$2 for a beer pretty consistently, and even the restaurants are cheaper than up north. Electronics are decidedly more expensive on the whole but getting new glasses (and having my old lenses ground down to fit the frames) for just under $30 was a nice surprise. Haven't explored groceries yet (since the landlady cooks as well), but they look to be pretty cheap as well.
The Bad
1: The roads. You really need a 4x4 here, because the roads are pretty poorly maintained by N.A. standards. The highway is generally better taken care of, but that's just it. It's THE highway, as in I don't think there's another one around here. Granted the entire country's population is less than the NYC metro area but the infrastructure is just one of those things that let you know you've left the "developed world."
2: Cell phones. There's only one cell phone company here, and it's a state-owned monopoly, so that ought to tell you something right there about its efficiency. Granted this isn't exactly Zimbabwe when it comes to the level of governance, so the network is (reasonably) reliable, but non-residents can't get cell phones (no prepaid lines either) and they're out of GSM lines. That's right, there's a minimum one-month wait list for a non-3G phone line. This would be fine except the cheapest 3G phone costs over $200. So I'm using skype and land lines whenever possible, and consoling myself with the knowledge that the money I'm saving on my U.S. phone by removing everything but the most basic features more than offsets the hideous roaming fees I'm charged when I am forced to use my cell.
The Ugly
1: International chains. It seems somehow wrong to walk past a Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and McDonalds all within 5 minutes of each-other outside the U.S. and Canada. It's not like they're lacking for food choices here either; despite a mild over-reliance on rice and beans Costa Rican cuisine ain't all that bad. Besides, there are plenty of decent foreign-style restaurants from Lebanese through Brazilian and beyond. Just a pet peeve I suppose. Oh yeah, and we have Wal-Mart here. Not literally, mind you, but their local subsidiary that offers Smirnoff for $7. I'm ashamed to admit I know this from firsthand experience.
How to Speak Costa Rican
Even if you speak the language, whenever you arrive in a new country you're going to get tripped up by the slang. Whether you're a New Yorker staggering drunkenly around London or a Berliner staggering drunkenly around Montreal, each country (and even city) has words and phrases you don't find anywhere else. As a public service, I'll try to translate some of the more common bits of slang you'll encounter down here once I learn whatever the hell they mean.
Tico/Tica: Adj, meaning Costa Rican. Given that the official word is Costarricense, I can understand why someone decided to shorten it.
Ex: Vamos a un restaurante tico por la cena esta noche (We're going to a Costa Rican restaurant for dinner tonight)
Pura Vida: Adv. Essentially means "fine" or "good," and is a common response to questions like "How is it going?"
Ex: Como va todo? Pura Vida, y vos? (How is everything? Good, and you? Oh yeah, that's another thing, certain parts of the country use vos instead of tu and use the vosotros conjugation. If you don't know what the bloody hell I'm talking about, don't worry about it. People usually understand tu as well.)
Mae: Noun, informal. Pronounced like eye with an M in front. Means "dude," "guy," "buddy," etc. Gender neutral, mostly used with guys though.
Ex: Tranquilo, mae! (Take it easy, dude!), No es un taxi verdad, es solo mae con carro (That's not a real taxi, it's just some guy with a car), Oye mae, donde esta el bar Cholo por favor? (Hey buddy, where's bar Cholo?)
Picha: Noun. Refers to male genitalia, not used in polite conversation.
Ex: Que picha, mae! (Dick move, guy; equiv. "what the fuck, dude!")
Also, there's a slightly different pronunciation of "Hijo de puta" (son of a bitch/whore) in that the d is effectively silent. May not seem like a big deal, but one of the locals spent a good while trying to teach a German girl the tico way because the Mexican pronunciation seemed to bother him. He may have been drunk.
I'll post more in future updates as I run across them. For now I think I've gone on longe enough.
Stay classy,
Matt
