Oscar and the Oscars

The Presidential election is finished, taxis are disappearing into potholes and the teachers at Intercultura are still partying.

We have a President - Finally
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Oscar Arias is now the President-elect following the resolution of all queries of irregularity, and the acceptance of the result by defeated candidate, Ottón Solís. Absolutely none of the hoopla that surrounded the election itself was evident following the confirmation of the result. I think everyone is just relieved it’s over.

Lent
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Although Costa Rica is a very catholic country, Ash Wednesday was far less visible than it would be in Ireland. Only one of my students even mentioned the day, and I saw absolutely no-one with the ashes we always see at home.

Pool party
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Sunday saw Jack’s first pool party since returning. One of the new teachers, Heidi from the US, had a party that started at 11am! They like to do things earlier here to take advantage of the light. We arrived at around 2pm and hid in the shade from the strong sun. She lives in a large beautiful apartment near San José, and there is a communal recreation area including a weights room, swimming pool and kitchen / bar area. We were in our element!

Los Oscars
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It was great to be able to watch the Oscars without having to stay up all night. They started at an ideal 7pm, and ran until some time after 10. We’d gone to see Brokeback Mountain (Or The Secret in the Mountain, in Spanish) on Friday. Entry was only €1.70. I really enjoyed it, and was hoping it would win best picture.

That said, I really love Crash (High Impact, in Spanish). I’ve seen it many times, as I use it with my students for class and we have a discussion about racism and discrimination in the context of the film.

I also use The March of the Penguins for class, and so felt I am very up-to-date with my audio-visual materials when watching the awards.

Potholes
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I’m not sure when the road infrastructure was built, but it’s certainly never been repaired. Many of the smaller roads are unpaved, but the even the paved roads have enormous potholes. When we were coming back from Puerto Viejo the traffic ahead was weaving in and out like drunken drivers trying to avoid the holes. But this week came the story to top it all. A large 4 wheel drive taxi drove into one and couldn’t get out. The pothole was 2m deep, and the taxi had to be removed by a crane.
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So that’s another week’s mail. This week is probably going to be quiet enough, in preparation for Sharon and Niall’s visit, and the Paddy’s day celebrations next week. The school want me to organise a party for the last classes on the Thursday, and a pub crawl for the teachers afterwards. We’re also hoping to try out the new Irish pub in San José, called Irlanda Tica. So for this week,

Pura Vida,

Éamon

Today’s headline in La Nación: State insurers paid c1,100 million to assaulted carriers