Costa Rica

So. I suppose I'd better summarize my first impressions of San Jose before I lose them to the general excitement of everything. Here we go:

It is very wet, rainy a lot, but not actually that humid feeling. When the sun shines it is quite warm, but when the clouds cover the sun again (as often happens!) it drops by several degrees instantly, and then it feels chilly/cold. It was sunny the second morning I was here, and the sky is clear again this morning. I think this will be a trend - sunny mornings and rainy/cloudy afternoons and evenings. Maybe, if I'm lucky, it will be sunny just long enough to get me home... but I doubt it.

It's strange to walk around the town. The sidewalks are all damaged by the rain, from cracks in the wealthy neighborhoods to barely even being sidewalks once you leave them. There isn't much of a transition from rich to poor neighborhoods, either. One minute you can be walking by big houses on a fairly stable sidewalk, and the next can have barely a sidewalk at all, covered in trash (including at least one smashed toilet!), next to small houses made at least partly from sheet metal. That's probably why the rich - well, nearly everyone, really, but the rich really go all-out - have huge fences blocking their homes from the outside world. And guard dogs, security guards, and electronic security systems, too. Very few houses have anything you could call a yard. I think this is partly due to the fences, and partly due to the fact that the houses are built practically against each others' walls. It's like Europe in that way, actually.

My family is super friendly and humongous. I have a feeling I will be seeing everyone, every evening - though that may only be true on weekends. I wish I could speak Spanish better so I could actually chat with them, rather than just communicating. I think they are Catholic, but not extremely religious. I'm not even sure they went to church yesterday. They did make a huge lunch and no dinner, though, and one had a beer with lunch (apparently that's just a Sunday thing though). Fito is really cool about explaining everything; Manuelo also but he's not around as much. Fito is also happy to just play WiiSports in silence, which is not as fun as with lots of banter, but is fun just the same. It's interaction, anyway, and there is a tiny bit of banter despite the language barrier.

They drink a lot of fruit juice here, and eat a lot of bread and rice. No beans yet, but possibly this morning :-P. I don't think Fito likes what his mom cooks - he complains about it a lot. We had pancakes for breakfast yesterday, and he only ate bread and a cookie until she made him some eggs. She made them wrong and he only ate about half. They have Red Bull here, for about the same price as in the States :-). Food is expensive.

I suppose that's enough for now... time for breakfast!