Working full time

My lovely part-time existence is coming to an end, as two teachers leave, and I’m taking over some of their classes.

Teaching full time
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Two of the teachers are leaving to return to America, so I’m getting a lot more classes this week. I was working on Saturday, with a class of Costa Rican school girls. This week I’m working full time, including a student that I’ll have to leave my Spanish classes to teach privately in the morning. It will only be for the month of June though. The semester finishes on 30th June. We’re hoping to buy a car and travel using the apartment as a base during July. There are such beautiful places in the country that are difficult to access without a car. We’ve been quite stuck in Heredia since moving here. It’s lovely and safe compared with San José, but it’s quite basic. There are many places nearby, national parks, volcanoes, waterfalls, and rain forests, and when we have a car it will all be accessible.

Mexican evening
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One of the American teachers, Monique, had a Mexican evening last Thursday. It was a good night, tacos and mojitos. Mojitos are a cocktail from Cuba, but it all fitted in.

Visas
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I don’t think I ever told you the story with visas here. People from Ireland only get a 30 day visa on entry. Strangely everywhere else, including other EU countries get 90 days. A lot of teachers go over the border to Panama or Nicaragua to renew their visas – you just have to stay outside for 72 hours. However, we Irish just do what do best. Go illegal. So since 5 May Jack and I are ‘overstaying’. This means that land border crossings could be problematic, so we’re probably best to stick to air travel when leaving. They apparently never check at the airports!

Wedding in August
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My sister Sharon is getting married in August. Now weddings are a very unusual commodity in our family, so there’s no way I’m going to miss it. Timing is difficult, because the new semester will have started. So I’m probably going to only be able to get a week off, which with two weekends will give me about 10 days. Jack’s probably going to stay at home longer. So we’re probably arriving back around the 26/27 August, and I’ll return on 4 September. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up with some of you then.

Useful technology – Part III
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The iPod. My God it’s amazing. Jack has one since last Christmas 12 months. It has his entire music collection on it, which is very extensive. He now has external speakers so it’s our home stereo system. We have almost 5,000 songs on it, and Jack is still downloading to beat the band. Fantastic.

So that’s it. Another week has whizzed (whuz?) by. We’re nearly in June, then it’s a travelling around CR in July, and popping home in August!

Hasta la proxima semana.

Spanish lessons, early starts

Folks,

This is the week that I began my Spanish lessons, we said good-bye to Sophia, and Star Wars comes to Heredia.

Spanish Classes
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I eventually met with Marcello, the director of the Spanish school, and enrolled for classes which ran from Tuesday to Friday. We had a brief chat in Spanish, and he put me onto book 2, as he felt I was above basic beginners. I was in a class with 3 others. Laura from Georgia, USA, and Philippe and Caroline from Quebec in Canada. I’m so lucky as they’re paying $250 a week for tuition. Classes run from 8.30am to 12.30pm and are conducted totally in Spanish. Talking in the language for 4 hours a day makes a real difference and I can feel it already. However, I was to go onto book 3 today (Monday), but there isn’t a book 3 class this week, so I’m not back for class again until Monday.

Adios Sophia
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You may remember me mentioning Sophia, the English girl we met with Shane. Well, we bumped into her in Más X Menos (the supermarket) on Monday. She was amazed how things had gone for us on the job front, and in having a furnished apartment, with phone (“Can it receive international calls???”) and internet connection. “Oh my God, you guys are just so jammy!!”

We were so raw when we met her before, and we are probably inclined to forget how much we’ve done in those few weeks.

The Irish Quarter
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Sophia rang us again on Monday night, to say she was having a few drinks Tuesday before returning permanently to the UK on Wednesday. We joined them in the local bar, El Bulevar, and met up again with the Universidad Interamericana crowd that works with Shane and her. We hadn’t seen Shane in ages, and discovered that our apartment is literally 50m from his. You can actually see his building from our balcony. We were saying that this end of Heredia is fast becoming the Irish Quarter. Or Little Kilburn as Jack called it.

La Guerra de las Galaxias
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Thursday saw the opening of La Guerra de las Galaxias – Episidio III: La Venganza de los Sith. Believe it or not, Jack had never seen any Star Wars films, and didn’t know the story. So we got out Episodes I and II on DVD in advance. I had to shield him from all reviews so he wouldn’t know who became Darth Vadar. We went to see Revenge of the Sith on Friday, and got out Episodes IV, V and VI over the weekend. He must be one of the very few people to have seen the films in the correct sequence, and without knowing the plot twists!

Useful technology – Part II
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Following my mail last week, my friend Paul Lloyd living in London mailed back and told us about Skype. Skype is a telephony product you can download for free. You can phone, for free, from your PC to anyone with Skype on their PC. However, you can also break out to a normal phone if you pay for it. It doesn’t matter where you are phoning from; it’s the destination country that determines the cost. For Ireland, the cost is just 1.7 euro cent per minute for landline, and 19c per minute for mobiles. We had been using telephone cards at 50c per minute. It’s amazing. It means we can now make long calls. Jack was on the phone for 1 hour 12 minutes last week for €1.23! It’s cheaper to call my mother in Ennis from here than it is from Dublin!
Anyway, I have to head off now to prepare my classes for this week. I can hear the rain on the roof so I know it’s lunchtime!

Hasta la proxima semana.

Here comes the rain again

The rainy season has really hit with a vengeance now! It usually just rains for an hour or so in the afternoon, but yesterday it started at lunchtime and continued on and off right into the night. And when it rains it’s really torrential, and so noisy against all the tin roofed houses.

The ‘Green’ season
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I’m sitting on the balcony as I write. Because we’re in the Central Valley we have the mountains on both sides, and I can see them both now completely covered in clouds. This season is referred to in most of the guide books as the rainy season, and by locals as invierno (winter). The government is trying to reclassify it as the Green Season, which is regarded as more tourist friendly. It’s still t-shirt temperature, but you definitely need an umbrella. I usually check the mountains before setting out, because rain always comes from one or other mountain, and then I know whether to bring an umbrella or not.

Pressure cookers!
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When we met Fionn, he was just back from Cuba. Fidel Castro gives a television broadcast to the nation on a Thursday night. While Fionn was there the broadcast took for 4 hours, and it was entirely about pressure cookers. Fidel was giving a speech to the parliament, and he explained how he was importing hundreds of thousands of pressure cookers from China, to help save energy. One is to go to every household in the country. While he was making his speech, he was calculating the savings that would be possible, using a calculator as he did the permutations. He stumbled through a few calculations and made some mistakes, and was corrected as he went by members of the assembly calling out the correct answers as they shadowed the sums. ‘No Fidel, I don’t think that’s correct, you divided instead of multiplying’!

We’d love to visit Cuba while we’re here, but we’ll wait until our Spanish is good enough to follow the Thursday night speech ourselves.

Socialising
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I went out with the teachers from the school on Thursday night. There are no classes on Friday, so Thursday is the big night out. No matter how you get on with people in work, it’s only when you go out on the rip with them that you really get to know them, and I’m happy that they’re a really nice bunch. I’m getting more hours this week, and two teachers are leaving at the end of the month, so I should be full time by then. I’m also told I can start the Spanish classes, so I just have to arrange that with the Director of the Spanish department. After that classes should be for four hours per day five days a week, so I’m hoping I’ll make quick progress.

Useful technology – Part I
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I really have to sing the praises of having the broadband internet connection. When you’re living so far from home it really helps you stay in contact. Quite apart from email (which you can do from cafés anyway) we can now watch the RTÉ 9 o’clock TV news every day. I was also able to get the BBC coverage of the Westminster election in its entirety, with Peter Snow and the swingometer and everything! We can get RTÉ and BBC radio live and also get archived shows. It’s tremendous.It’s now just 5.30. It’s still bright but very cloudy. I can hear the distant rumble of thunder, and see lightning over the mountains to the north. But for the moment the rain has stopped. It will be dark shortly after six. There isn’t much of a difference in the length of daylight between seasons. It’s fairly much 12 hours light, 12 hours darkness, all year round. One thing I definitely miss as you all head into the summer is the long summer nights.

Looking forward to the week ahead, have a good one.

Hasta la proxima semana.

Making a home

It’s so great having a kitchen again! We haven’t eaten out since we’ve moved in. There was very intensive cleaning required, but now with a few of our own touches it’s becoming a home.

Work
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I was expecting a slow start to work. I was only supposed to be working 1½ hours on Monday, my first day. However, another teacher was sick, so I was summoned to replace him, and ended up with a seven-hour day. All in all I did ten hours this week. I’m enjoying it. The staff are very helpful and I’m having a good laugh with the students. We have a weekly staff meeting on Wednesday. This week one of the teachers was leaving to go back to the States. To mark the occasion a Mariachi band marched into the room in the middle of the meeting and sang and played for 25 minutes! It was excellent, and something I’d recommend to liven meetings up.

Cost of living
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Although the cost of living is regarded as high by Central American standards, it’s quite cheap coming from Ireland. The currency is the Colón, named after Cristobel Colón (better known to you and me as Christopher Columbus). There are just over 600 Colones to the euro. Bottles of beer are anything from 85c to €1 in a bar. Cans in the supermarket are around 49c. The standing fare for a taxi is 47c, and a taxi journey around Heredia is less than 70c. Imported items, however, are more expensive, and not much cheaper than home.

Tico bureaucracy
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Costa Rica is a very bureaucratic country. To get the cable installed I had to fill in five separate forms with roughly the same information. Each was at least in triplicate. I also had to give a photocopy of my passport. Joining Videomanía, the local video shop required only one form, but a copy of my passport plus a copy of one the triplicate copies from the cable company. Our next project will be to open bank accounts.

The local shopping mall
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There is a shopping mall here in Heredia. It’s a good walk, but short by taxi or bus. It’s called Paseo de las Flores, or The Walk of the Flowers. It’s very western, with a food hall, bookstore, and a really well-stocked supermarket. Heredia has all the American fast food outlets McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Subway, etc. In contrast, the Mercado Central in the town (the Central Market) is very basic. There are loads of vegetables and fruit (the fruit here is really beautiful). Some vegetables I wouldn’t have a clue what they are. There are some that float in boiling water and look like chestnuts, bean pods the size of a hurley and a strange brown root vegetable that looks very suspect!!

Mobile phones
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We’ve discovered a bit more about the situation regarding mobile phones. Apparently the two presidents preceding the current one, Abel Pacheco, are in jail because of a scandal regarding the awarding of licences. So it’s a very touchy political subject. A new contract has been awarded to Ericsson only a couple of weeks ago, and the new system is supposed to be up and running in October.

It’s now just after 8.30pm, and the dinner is on. We’ve rented out Star Wars Episode I for later. It’s getting more like home!

Hasta la proxima semana.

Start of Normality

Delighted to be in the apartment. The previous tenant moved out Wednesday, so we moved in Thursday saving over $100 on the hotel!

Eamon, el Profesor
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Thanks for all your good wishes for my interview. I've been taken on in the Intercultura school in Heredia. Turns out it's just three minutes walk from our new apartment. Only a few hours at first. Six hours training last week, and 4.5 hours teaching this week. I could get used to this! There's a teacher leaving at the end of the month, so I'll pick up extra hours as I go along. When I get to 15 hours per week I get free Spanish lessons. I also have an email message from another school, so I may pick up some more hours there.

Jack, el estudiente
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Jack's going to start Spanish classes initially, so he can master some of the language and get more options workwise. Currently, the most likely option would be with a sports book. These are offshore gambling operations from the US betting mostly on baseball and American football. It's call centre work, it pays well, but it's boring.

The apartment
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We moved into the apartment on Thursday. It's a grand size, but it was filthy, so we're still cleaning. We are on the first floor, with a balcony entrance, shared by three apartments. We're trying to lay claim to the balcony territory by sitting out at night having a few beers. We have a spare bedroom, so any of you planning a trip ...

Our address
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Our official address is as follows: De la Gobernacion de Heredia 300m al oeste y 10m al Norte(From the Town Hall of Heredia 300m West and 10m North). So we have decided to get an apartado (post office box). So the address for correspondence is more simple.

Apartado 88-3004
Costa Rica

That's it!

Phone, internet, cable
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As I mentioned before, acquiring a phone is difficult in Costa Rica. It's like Ireland in the seventies. People who have a line bring it with them when they move. Unbelieveably, we have a phone. The boss at the language school was incredulous when she heard I had a phone andI'm only here a wet week. She's here five years, and she doesn't have one. We will also be connected to cable and internet tomorrow. We'vebeen lucky with internet so far, as we slyly connected to the hotel's wireless network while there. This is the first update I've had to do from a cafe. Our phone number is 00-506-262 6898 (and we're 7 hours behind).

The Irish mafia, part II
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We met up a couple of times during the week with Fionn from Monaghan, a friend of Liam Branigan's. He works in a sports book, so will put in a word for Jack if he wants to pursue that option. He's been a great help and showed us around a bit and brought us to a few bars. Unfortunately he's only going to be here another couple of months. One of the bars we went to was the busiest bar in Costa Rica. Still it was nothing compared to how busy the Village was the Saturday before we left.

Winter!
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The weather has been really hot and clammy. Everyone told us that today (1 May) is the start of "winter" (or the rainy season). Right on cue, we've had a tremendous electrical storm. Really loud and with incredible rain. I now see why the gullies and drains are so big. But it all stopped as suddenly as it began, and it's much fresher since.

That's it for this week. Anyone who's sent me mails and haven't got a reply I promise I'll reply to as soon as the internet is connected. Heading back to the apartment now with the cheese Jack needs for his Tuna Bake...

Until next week!

Habemus Casa!

Folks,

We’re really sick of hotel living at this stage. But the great news is that we have today got an apartment and will be moving into it next Sunday!

Hotel living
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We’re in La Amistad hotel since moving back from Manuel Antonio. It’s ok, but after a while you really need your own place. In particular, a kitchen. The joy of being able to buy something in the very well-stocked supermarkets and cooking it. Rather than always resorting to the very limited restaurant scene.

Meeting with Shane & Sophia
======================
Last Sunday, we met up with Shane from somewhere near Drogheda, and his English friend Sophia. It was brilliant to talk to people who’ve done all this already. They recommended finding a job first, and then choosing an area for an apartment that suits. Sophia also had information on language schools, an English language theatre group and a writers group. We arranged to meet up with Shane and his work colleagues in the suburb of Heredia on Thursday. It was a VERY drunken night that ended up with Jack singing ‘Downtown’ at a local karaoke.

Addresses
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One of the strangest aspects of Costa Rica is that they don’t really do addresses, although the downtown area is organised on a grid system, with Avenidas north to south, and Calles east to west. There is an Avenida Central and a Calle central, and the odd and even numbers then go off in different directions. But addresses never use these numbers. They give directions from the nearest landmark! This hotel, for example, is on the junction of Avenida 11 and Calle 15. But the address is “From Calderón Guardia Hospital 100m west”. And 100m doesn’t necessarily mean 100 metres. It means one block, regardless of size! For this reason, foreigners (or gringos as we’re called, although that should only apply to Americans) usually hire out “Apartados” or post office boxes.

Work
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I sent my CV out to a number of language schools, and have an interview in one in Heredia tomorrow. Although they’re not taking full-time staff on I’m told by Shane and his colleagues that they wouldn’t be interviewing me if they didn’t have something in mind. So fingers crossed!

Our apartment
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We’re so tired of hotel living that we decided to look for an apartment in Heredia even though we haven’t work yet. Even if it’s just for the first few months. We spent a thoroughly disheartening day wandering around and looking in papers and on supermarket noticeboards. On the way home I bought the English language Tico Times, and found an ad for a furnished apartment in Heredia, with phone (like gold-dust here, a long story for another time), internet connection, washing machine, TV and cable. We went there today and it’s fine. It beats the hotel hands down and it will do for now. So we’re really delighted and moving in on Sunday 1 May.

We’re off now to meet the other Irish guy, Fionn tonight. Fingers crossed or pray to your God for my interview tomorrow.

Keep in touch.

Until next week!

Adios,

Éamon & Jack

Iguana on a hot tin roof

Folks,

We’ve had a great week. We went to Manuel Antonio and had a wonderful time on the beautiful pacific coast. The update is slightly longer, but will be back to normal next week!

Getting there
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As ever, the journey to Manuel Antonio was not without event! Our taxi to the airport should have taken 20 minutes, but took 45 as a truck had crashed into a bus on the motorway. We got there with minutes to spare. The domestic terminal is a tiny hot overcrowded building right next to the tarmac. When we went onto the tarmac to board, we were confronted with a tiny 6-seater Cessna! It was so small that Jack had to travel in the co-pilot’s seat, with the steering thing moving around in front of him. It was so small that the plane was buffeted about with every little gust of wind. I was so nervous. But the views were incredible. Especially when we came out of the cloud and saw the pacific coast for the first time.

Manuel Antonio
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Our flight was to Quepos, and it was a short drive by bus to our hotel. We had a small villa up the hill looking over the rain forest to the pacific. There were extensive grounds, patrolled by many squabbling iguanas. In fact, we were woken each morning by the sounds of an iguana clambering across our villa’s tin roof. Manuel Antonio is a popular coastal resort, popular with American’s, gays, and (I guess) gay Americans. It was a short stroll to the beach, and we went there every day.

Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio
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The highlight was our visit to the national park in MA. It was just a walk from our hotel, and it was magnificent. We just followed the trail paths and saw a turtle swimming off the beach, three snakes, a family of monkeys passing in the trees overhead, a couple of sloths high up in the trees, iguanas, cicadas, a racoon, and lots of strange red-legged crabs. To cap it all, we discovered a small secluded beach that we had entirely to ourselves and skinny-dipped in the warmest sea water I’ve ever encountered.

Ollie’s Folly
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One of the most interesting places we visited for a meal and a drink was a restaurant and bar built around and inside an old war plane. It was purchased by Oliver North as part of the Iran/Contra deal to support the contras during the war in neighbouring Nicaragua. It was captured in Costa Rica before it got to Nicaragua and is now known as Ollie’s Folly. The restaurant is around the plane, including under the wings, and the bar was inside the plane itself.

Back to San José
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The flight back was less eventful, given that it was an enormous 12-seater plane. I know we’ve given San José a bad press in our last email, but we’re now going to check out the outer, wealthier, suburbs. We’ll probably have to live here for a few months anyway until we get oriented. Also, the Irish mafia is coming to the rescue. We had a couple of contacts leaving. One is a guy called Liam Branigan, who some of you may know. He used to work in Irish Life, although I don’t know him myself. Anyway, he’s now in Cuba, but has put us in contact with a friend of his, Fionn, who’s in Cuba for the week, but will be back Friday. I’ve also contacted a guy called Shane, who was in the same language school as me, a couple of years before. He’s now living and working here, and we’re heading off to meet him at six.

It will be great to talk to someone with experience of the place, and we’re logging off now to compile a pile of questions to ask him.

Keep in touch. Don’t be afraid to send reply emails! We’re hungry for news!

Until next week!

Adios,

Éamon & Jack