Just a gecko...

Every once in a while, one of us says something that reminds us that life really is different for us than it used to be. These comments or questions are never really anything very significant, but they are different enough from anything we used to say that we realize life has changed since moving to Costa Rica. Here are just a few examples:

• "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!

¡Feliz cumplimes!

In Latin America, it is not uncommon to get your face knocked into your own cake on your birthday. That's right; your friends or family wait until you've just blown out the candles, and before you stop leaning over your cake, someone pushes your face right into the cake! ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

I remember experiencing this years ago with some friends from Chile and Colombia. I was a little shocked at first, but I participated fully in the all-out food fight that followed. Conveniently, I don't have the photos of that event here in Costa Rica, so they can't make it into our blog!

We have yet to experience this rather... um, aggressive... tradition here. Dan's birthday came after only being here for a few weeks and his face fortunately was not shoved into his cake. We did get a cake from our neighborhood bakery in celebration of Timothy turning 6 months old. No, we did not push our baby's face into his cake. But, it seemed that after realizing that he wasn't going to get to eat his own cake, he would take matters into his own hands. Before I could stop him, his hand was in the cake and then he smeared the whipped cream frosting on his foot. ¡Buen provecho!

The disappointment of not getting to eat his cake was reconciled by getting to eat rice cereal for the first time. It wasn't surprising to us that our little guy had no trouble figuring out how to eat from a spoon. He loves to eat and seems to really love both rice cereal and oatmeal. By the time he's done with the bowl of cereal, it looks like he's had his face pushed into the bowl!

Our blog readers can be assured that if one of us ever does personally experience the shove-the-birthday-guy's-face-into-the-cake tradition, we'll write another blog post about it!

Half a year ago...

Half a year ago, our lives were changed. We entered a new stage in life, one that we had been anxiously awaiting for a long time. Half a year ago, we experienced the miracle of new life. We were given the gift of a love we had not yet known and now can't imagine being without. Half a year ago, we welcomed Timothy Daniel into the world. Here's a photo tribute to his first six months:

March 3rd, 2008, the day Timothy was born:

1 month old and already interested in everything around him:

2 months old and CUTE:

3 months old and relaxing in a hammock just a couple of days after our arrival in Costa Rica:

4 months old and enjoying his first visit to the beach:

5 months old and sitting up:

6 months old and "helping" fold the laundry:

We are so grateful for the past six months and are excited to watch our little guy continue to grow and learn! As we say about all good things here in Costa Rica, ¡pura vida!.

Surprise!

We were pretty excited when we came home from school to find this on our front porch:

Muchísimas gracias to Doña Ana Isabel (our landlady) for this blessing!

Laundry, Costa Rican style

When we arrived here, the most obvious surprise and adjustment we had to make was washing clothes. As soon as we saw our washing machine, we knew we were in a different place. As you can see in the picture, even Timothy is a bit confused by it.

First, let me describe this contraption. It is old, probably made in the late 80’s or early 90’s. The original color is that strange yellowish-beige that was so popular in the 80’s, complimented by over a decade of sun-fading. The lettering on the front reads “semi-automatic” and “Super Deluxe.” It has a cycle selector, two timer dials (the only automatic part), two toggle buttons and one buzzer volume control (perhaps this is the super deluxe feature). There is one large basin on the left and a smaller with a tall cylindrical basket in it to the right. It is connected to the water faucets with ordinary green garden hoses. We asked our dueña (landlady) how to use it and she gave us a crash course, but it took some experimenting and questioning to finally get the hang of it. Here is how it works, as explained by the engineer of the family:

Wash
Step 1: Manually turn on water ensuring that “wash” is selected on the “water selector” button and “wash/rinse” is selected on the “drain selector” button so that the water enters the large basin on the left and does not drain away.
Step 2: Add desired amount of laundry detergent.
Step 3: Insert soiled clothing into large basin.
Step 4: Wait for basin to fill to desired level and turn off water.
Step 5: Use the cycle selector to select gentle, normal, or strong (this simply changes the time between agitations).
Step 6: Set the wash timer dial to the desired agitation time for washing (about 9 minutes).
Step 7: Wait for agitation to complete.
Step 8: Select “drain” on the “drain selector” button to drain the water.
Step 9: Wait for the water to drain.

First Rinse
Step 10: Select “wash/rinse” on the “drain selector” button.
Step 11: Manually turn on water to refill basin for rinse.
Step 12: Wait for basin to fill to desired level and turn off water.
Step 13: Set the wash timer dial to the desired agitation time for rinsing (about 6 minutes).
Step 14: Wait for agitation to complete.
Step 15: Select “drain” on the “drain selector” button to drain the water.
Step 16: Wait for the water to drain.

Second Rinse
Step 17: Repeat steps 10 to 16 adding fabric softener to the rinse if desired.

Centrifuge
Step 18: Move as much clean clothing from the large basin on the left that will fit into the basket in the smaller basin on the right.
Step 19: Select “centrifuge” on the “water selector” button.
Step 20: Manually turn on water to run over clothes in the small basin.
Step 21: Set the centrifuge timer dial to the desired centrifuge time (about 2-3 minutes).
Step 22: Wait about 30 seconds and turn off water.
Step 23: Wait for the centrifuge to complete.
Step 24: Place clothes on line or in dryer to dry and repeat steps 25 to 30 for clothes that wouldn’t fit in the basket the first time.

Going to the market...

We have been living here in Costa Rica for over two months now, and are starting to feel more confident in living our daily lives here. When we first arrived, even basic things like food preparation were daunting because we did not find all of the food that we are used to, and because we did not know how to prepare the food we did find! We have a long way to go in the learning process, but we are learning how to use the fresh vegetables and delicious tropical fruits we buy at the feria (outdoor market) to prepare our meals.

Our neighborhood has a small feria that we had been walking to every Saturday morning, but we recently discovered the HUGE feria in Zapote (a nearby town). The 5 minute drive is worth the experience of this market. There we encounter not only rows and rows of every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine, but also vendors selling flowers, baked goods, many kinds of raw meat, juices, clothing, kitchen items, etc. We squeeze our way through the bustling crowds (which is tricky with Timmy's stoller). We are surrounded by the vibrant colors and smells of tropical fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The yelling of the vendors trying to attract us to their produce can be overwhelming because we can barely understand it. There are many surprises as we walk around, including cases of chicken feet in the meat section or juice being squeezed out of some sort of large stalk in the juice section (we're not sure what it is: bamboo or sugar cane?). After an hour or so, we go away with our week's supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Throughout the week, we enjoy fruit salads and meals made from the fresh vegetables. By mid-week, we might start running out of what we purchased at the feria over the weekend, but a truck stops on our street every Thursday morning selling produce and we can replenish our fruit and vegetable supply from his goods until we go to the feria again on Saturday or Sunday.