¡Pura vida!

After a very long hiatus from travel writing, I have finally found myself traveling again and that means I´m finally doing some writing! Three days ago I embarked on my first vacation from the real world. After almost exactly a year working as the Housing Director at EF International Language Schools - Los Angeles, I have finally put on my backpack again and set off on another adventure. This time I´m in Costa Rica with the purpose of improving my Spanish by taking a two week course at the EF Play Tamarindo school. No, EF did not pay me to go, and no, this vacation is not free. I did get a nice discount though. I hope to improve my Spanish and I also hope that by being a student and living in both the residence and in a host family, I will be ale to improve my own work back in Redondo Beach. I forgot to mention that I also plan on doing as many adventure sports as possible, interacting with locals, making international friends and having the time of my life.

As always, my adventure began on the airplane. From LA to Panam City I sat next to an older gentleman who was traveling with his wife. They are both avid travelers and have been to many different countries. I found out that although they love traveling, they have no desire to go to Africa or the Middle East. When not traveling the world (they go on 3-4 trips per year), they own and operate a pizza parlor! Pizza parlor owners hold a special place in my heart since my first job was at the pizza parlor that y friend´s dad owns. Thank you Krumeich family for that! Anywho, the guy on the plane kept me company between my intermitant naps on the red-eye flight. My luck continued with the flight from Panama City to San Jose. I ended up sitting next to a Colombian-born Jew who has lived in Costa Rica for ten years and who is married to a Lebanese-Catholic Costa Rican woman and who works in the family business of developing hotels. I can honestly say that he was the most interesting person I´ve ever spoken to on an airplane. We spoke about life in Costa Rica, adventure sports, Costa Rica, Israeli and Lebanese food, the hotel and tourism industry, we exchanged family history and in the end, he gave me a list of places to go while in San Jose, and he gave me his card and told me to email him when I plan my trip to the Arenal volcano next weekend so that he can make sure I get into the hot springs for free. He apologized for not giving us a free night in his hotel; he said that if it weren´t high season, he would have. He was incredible. I guess I should mention that I am traveling with my sister. She booked the flights and didn´t pick our seats so we each ended up in the middle seat in the same row, with the aisle between us. Thanks to her not choosing an aisle seat for both of us, we were forced to meet new people. I almost wish we end up separated again on the flight back because it was great.

So far, here is my impression of San Jose
-I´m staying at a hostel called, Kaps Place. It´s cute and quiet and I ended up there because a friend reccommended it. That friend is actually the one whose parents own the pizza parlor. Thanks Katie!
-There´s a lot of traffic and too much pollution for me.
-Gallo pinto (rice and black beans) is an amazing breakfast.
-Tamarindo juice is very good but strong (tamarindo is a fruit).
-So far, I don´t have the urge to live in San Jose...I determine whether I like a place or not based on if I could see myself living there.
-From what my airplane companion told me about the rest of Costa Rica, I imagine that I´ll have a really hard time leaving this place...the odds are likely that I´ll want to live hjere. I should start preparing myself for reverse culture shock now.
-I´ve noticed that many of the woman are overweight. A large number of women have simliar-looking stomachs. I´m curious to find out if it´s just San Jose or if it´s nationwide. I have noticed an alarming number of frid chicken and ice cream places...I assume that´s the culprit.
-San Jose is a really easy city to navigate. Avenidas go one way and calles go the other. It resembles New York in that sense.
-Sodas are cheap restaurants that offer great lunches at an amazing price.
-I´m ready for LA PLAYA...San Jose is not for me!

¡Pura vida! as they say in Costa Rica

*I wrote this in my journal a few days ago. I´m now in the provence of Guanacaste. I´m typing on the computer at my host family´s house in Santa Rose and I just tried to do spell check but it must be set in Spanish mode since it highlighted every word. I´m sorry if there are any spelling mistakes in this post!