After the rain

The weather has taken a turn for the better, with much less rain this week. Sometimes I’m inclined to forget where I’m living at this stage, and I start to take things for granted. But this evening when I went down to the supermarket in the lovely clear evening sunlight it was beautiful to see the mountains to the North, South and East. The city of Heredia isn’t very beautiful, but the location is.

Ceviche
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After class the other night, one of the students popped back and said that he and his wife were going into the neighbouring city of Alajuela to have some ceviche. Ceviche (pronounced seVEEchay) is dish of raw fish, marinated in spices. So I headed out with them to Alajuela. An opportunity to practice my Spanish if nothing else.

We arrived at the cevichería in Alajuela, which turned out to be just a counter on the street. Ceviche is served in a tall glass, looking a bit, I guess, like a sundae. I have to say that although a ‘drink of fish’ doesn’t really sound very nice, it was actually delicious.

Still no travel
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You may remember that I had intended to travel away a couple of the weekends while I’m not working Saturday. I guess with all the rain it just seemed much more comfortable to stay in the apartment and socialise locally.

I’ve only one weekend before working the four remaining Saturdays before the Christmas break. So I’m hoping to head away, probably to the Pacific coast, next weekend. Several of my friends are going to Nicaragua on a border run. Unfortunately I join them because I’m out of visa compliance.

Long Christmas break
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The Christmas break is quite long this year. We break up on December 15th, and classes don’t start again in January until 23rd. We can stock up on private classes in that time if we want, but I think I’d like to just have the time off. In addition, my mother is coming on holidays for a few weeks from December 27th, so it will be ideal to have the time off for travel.

Shortly after she goes back, Jack’s planning his return to Costa Rica, sometime around the beginning of February. It will be five months since he left, and he’ll be returning in the beautiful summer months.

New neighbours
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Two older American guys have moved into the apartment next door. There had been a young Canadian girl. So I’ve now got Americans on all sides. Carlos, the landlord, threw a barbecue for the tenants (there’s only 4 of us) yesterday to welcome the new arrivals. They seem like guys who have come down here to retire. There are a lot of Americans who come down here to retire, because it’s much cheaper to live than in the US. I had wondered first off if they were a couple, but there have been quite a number of female visitors coming in and out in the meantime so I’ve discounted that theory. And they’ve only been here since Tuesday.