All together now...

Sunday - July 16

Well, we are now a reunited family! Norma and Niall arrived in San Jose on Wednesday evening, tired, but no worse for wear. The trip was mostly uneventful, both for Norma and Niall, as well as for me. The only glitches were Niall forgetting his shoes in Cazenovia (yes, he managed to arrive at the airport in only his socks!), and then Niall forgetting his jacket on the plane when they arrived in San Jose, which actually proved fortunate in some ways… Mostly in that it forced Norma to go back onto the plane & look for it, where she discovered that she had left her PURSE on the plane! Oh well—all’s well that ends well. Although it did mean she ended up in the customs line from hell. I ended up waiting for almost two hours wondering what was going on, and finally they appeared, weary but happy. After spending the night in San Jose, we drove up the mountain to arrive at our house, safe & sound about mid-day on Thursday.

Since then, we’ve been mostly getting settled, acquiring all the things that are needed for three people instead of just one (like a dining table & chairs). We’ve also now got the humming bird feeders up, and Niall has a “repelling” rope set up in the front yard, so thing are really starting to feel like home. We even tested the blender last night with margaritas, which we sipped while watching the sun set over the Gulf of Nicoya from our second floor living room! The view is just gorgeous here, as you can see about 60-80km to the west on a clear day.

Today we took our first walk together—about 5-6km out toward Las Nubes to the north. Norma has begun to shop property already, as we got to look at a nice piece of land just up the hill from where we are now… we’ll see ;-) The walk was a bit short, as it started to rain and we turned back a bit early. Unfortunately, we didn’t see too much in the way of wildlife, but we had quite a bit around the house lately. The howler monkeys have been calling lately, only about 50 meters down hill from us, and the bird feeders are just beginning to attract attention from the humming birds. If our last feeder was any indication, after about a week, you can’t keep the crazy things away; we we’re filling the feeder twice a day! The animal photo of the week is of the great big walking stick I found just outside our back door. He is very impressive—on the right tree branch, he is indistinguishable from any other twig.

One more thing that is now beginning in earnest is our attempt to become at least conversant in Spanish. I’ve been doing pretty well on my own, but with a house full of English speakers, it takes a bit more effort. We’ve begun taping labels on all the house parts & objects around the house, and we are trying to say almost everything we can in Spanish, particularly when we are all together downstairs in the kitchen area. For now we are mostly limited to a lot of “Yo quiero….por favor” (I want… please) or with Niall, “Ven aqui!” (come here!) or “Cierra la puerta!” (close the door!). My best language workout of the week was getting the car worked on, and trying to explain certain sounds or other things that seemed to need fixing or adjustment (it’s hard enough explaining that stuff in English, much less in a language you are just learning! – NPR and Click & Clack have made a fortune on the comic opportunities for misunderstanding). In the end, I managed to get the oil & filter changed, all the various suspension & axel parts greased, the steering belt tightened, the timing belt housing re-aligned, and the fuel filter replaced. Everything seems in good shape now, and the whole experience reinforced my understanding of the great paradox of auto ownership in Costa Rica: cars cost much more than in the US, but they a very inexpensive to maintain once you actually buy one. The whole thing, including two guys working for almost two hours cost US $35.00 (no, not the hourly charge, the whole thing-- parts and labor). Then as I drove out of the garage, the owner/mechanic gave me his home phone number and said to call if I had any problems over the weekend. Amazing…

That’s about all for this week. Next week, check in to find out how everything goes as Niall starts school!