- "Oh, it's just a gecko..." This was Dan's nonchalant, reassuring answer to my question of what our friends' dog was barking at late at night when we were housesitting for them. We just didn't say things like that in Kansas. My response was simply, "oh, ok," which was quite the contrast to when we first got here and I cowered under the blanket on our bed until Dan chased the gecko hanging out on the wall above our door out of our apartment! (Why I was scared of a gecko, I do not know...)
- "How many piñas did you get at the market?" We rarely ate pineapple back in the States, but here we eat it almost every day. It's so good and very common here. And, for some reason, we never call it pineapple any more; it's always piña, whether we're speaking Spanish or English.
- "Do you want gallo pinto or arroz con pollo for dinner tonight?" We've been enjoying learning how to make traditional Costa Rican food. Even though we didn't know what these two dishes were before moving here, we know prepare them on an almost weekly basis.
- "We have a lot of homework tonight." The transition back to being students has been interesting for us. It's been a while since either of us were thinking about our own test scores or staying up late to finish preparing for the next day's presentation.
- "Do you have your rainjacket and umbrella?" We obviously asked this question occasionally in Kansas, but definitely not daily as we do here. When we leave for school in the morning, it's usually sunny and clear. By early afternoon, it's almost assurredly raining. Because of this, we never leave home without an umbrella.
- "Oh, the roof's leaking... Can you bring me a bowl?" Along with the rainy season comes a leaky roof, at least in our case. It's only in one spot and as long as we can get a bucket or bowl under the leak right away, it's not really a problem.
- "Wow, it's 7:00! We really slept in!" I could count on one hand the number of times we've said this since moving here. While it certainly has a lot to do with being new parents (and not just living in a new culture), I definitely did not used to consider 7am a luxurious sleeping-in time. The days start early here, with the sun beginning to rise around 5am. Costa Ricans in general get up with the sun and from our neighbors' sounds of laundry, showers, and breakfasts being made starting around 5:30am, sleeping in past 6am is uncommon for us now.
- "Can you drain the washing machine for me, please?" Refer to our previous post entitled "Laundry, Costa Rican style" for an explanation of this one!
- "Is that a ficus tree!?" We love the tropical plants and flowers that we see everywhere here. We are constantly surprised by seeing what we used to think of as a houseplant growing in someone's garden or in the park. We've even see poinsettias growing on the side of the road. We used to have a little ficus tree in our apartment in Kansas City. We saw this ficus tree when my family was here visiting (that's my mom and brother under it):
This list could go on and on. We are learning a lot from our experiences and it's fun to recognize that things that seemed strange when we first got here now seem completely normal and familiar. We still have a lot of learning to do, though!
