Karen's journey into the unknown

Just waiting for the rain to stop. First day I´ve come out the house without my rain coat, and of course there is a torrential downpour. I´ll give it 10 minutos. Am going to go out and explore some of San Jose this afternoon. Looking forward to seeing it as I´ve only really seen the school, the mall (there´s a big Nort American influence here) and Felicia´s house (and the bus route). I´m starting to feel more at ease here now. I have a nice routine which I´d like to keep going for longer. I love the school, and learning all this spanish every day. I feel like it is opening up a whole new world to me. And Felicia is so amazing. I love our chats, and the way she has welcomed me into her home with such kindness. I hope we stay in touch when I leave. This morning she made me soya ham tacos for breakfast! I can´t believe you can get soya ham here! Felicia quite likes the soya mince, especially the way it has less fat than real mince (I think she might even buy it when I leave!)

Costa Rica has a lovely gentle pace. I love the way each day the rain interrupts everything and brings a big sense of tranquility.

Every day when I get the bus back to Felicia´s, it is always really jammed with people, but people seem to work together in a way which I´m not used to. For example, the people standing (I´m always one of them), move down the bus in a line to make space for the new people getting on the bus. There is not a big fight for space, every piece of space is used and it is done so in a very respectful style. Also if a man is sitting and an older woman is standing, always the man will get up. I noticed this in the hispanic areas of LA too. Often the man and the woman will talk to each other too, and it will look like they are friends. But it is just the gesture which has brought on a conversation. So it feels really sad that I actually find this kind of behaviour unusual. I often wonder "what would these people think if they were on the metro?" Often too when the buses are quieter, someone will get on and tell a big story, which unfortunately I can´t understand , and then come round selling chocolate bars. Again, the reactions of the people suprise me. Instead of everyone turning away and pretending the person is invisible, people listen to the story and then quite a few people buy the chocolate. I´m sure lots more things go on on the buses of San Jose but I´ve still to see them.

Here I am, staying with an amazing, lovely Costa Rican lady called Felicia, and her funny little dog, Jack and 2 cats, Pepe and Luca. I can say with complete honesty that this is by far the craziest thing I have ever done in my whole life. I never ever thought it would be possible for me to do something like this.

The first night I got here, Felicia had all her family come over. They are lovely people, and I felt quite frustrated that I couldn't communicate with them through language only with smiles and gestures. Her daughter works at the mini golf, so we all went to play mini golf. That was a wonderful way of communicating without language. Bit nerve wracking at first because I was so nervous I was taking 7 and 8 shots to pot the ball, but my mini golf skills improved and i even got a huyo in uno! They are such a loving family and welcome me so whole heartedly, it is quite amazing, to witness. Especially for my reserved British self. There was no winner or loser in the mini golf too, I was interested to note, something which I think sums something up about the Costa Rican people and their attitude to the world.

I'm only getting odd little snatches on computers at the minute, as things are so busy and it's quite hard to get to computers as I don't want to be rude to Felicia, and not really to keen to go out in the dark by myself in San Jose. Have absolutely no bearings at all yet. Although I did get to the school alone on the bus this morning so that feels like another small achievement.

The Spanish school is really well organised, they are very patient and kind, and constantly making sure we are fine and have no problems. The entire class is in Spanish and I learnt so much on the first day, they have pitched it at the perfect level for me. I'm quite plesed because I am a little bit higher than the very first level so my spanish classes must have paid off! Met some really nice people here too, so nice to have interesting chats, although they are in english! My class consists of me and a really fun Norweigan man called Peter who likes sailing and has been to Newcastle lots of times on the ferry! Oh there's the bell for the start of class the bells are funny, like being back at school! Better go, I'll try and write more later, still so much to tell you all......

Just a really quick one to say I made it to San JOse. The bus ride was fine, amazing views and passed all these brilliant little places with people selling hammocks and dried fruit, and other things that I´ve never seen before. The Coca Cola bus terminal is supposed to be the dodgiest part of San Jose, but it looked like nothing compared to LA! So now I´m just waiting for Leonel to pick me up to take me to Felicia´s house, my ama de casa. I have a few phrases ready, about my barrio and my likes and dislikes...but will probably get nervous and say all the wrong words! oh well, at least I´ve done the thing I was most worried about and that was the bus journey. Can´t believe I found an internet cafe just round the corner from the Spanish School! So I´m sure it´s going to be hand gestures and facial expressions a plenty for the next 3 weeks!

I made it to Costa Rica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!here i am, like a dream in the cloud forest, Monteverde!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have had the most amazing journey since I last wrote. LA was so wonderful and I felt so sad to leave Andrew and Lenny and the Californian fun and sunshine. I had such butterflies in my stomach, getting on the plane. I went through Dallas and American airlines hate vegetarians but at least I´d stocked up on vegan delights in LA, I didn´t need their food anyway..... and Dallas just made me think of that horrible programme from my childhood and the way it tried to implant the capitalist mentality into me....(and I probably shouldn´t talk about that on here, because i guess that´s how I´ve got to Costa Rica?)
anyway, i´m diverting......
I suppose what I´m trying to say is that when I got on the plane I felt like I was going to another planet almost. My first view of the Costa Rican people was one of complete warmth. I had such a good feeling as soon as I got on that plane at Dallas. I sat next to a lovely warm hearted Costa Rican lady and we smiled at each other lots and both probably looked quite nervous to the outside world.
So I arrived in San Jose, expecting a complete scary hustle and bustle of taxi drivers grabbing my bag. Instead I had very polite men welcoming me to their country and asking if I´d like a taxi....I´d booked this shuttle which never turned up and one man did get quite persistant, although in a quite unthreatening way, but his taxi was in the parking lot (and I wasn´t walking across a parking lot with anyone), so in the end I just took a red one that looked official to get away from him. So arrived at Casa Hilda, where the owner, Luis made me feel very welcome. My room was a little bit like a windowless cell, but in the morning I had a lovely (much welcome) breakfast of tropical fruits and toast, and had nice chats with 2 couples, Spanish and German. They all seemed impressed I was alone and gave me lots of support and good wishes.
Then the best part.... I got this touristy shuttle I´d booked online to Monteverde. The photo above is of the driver, Pedro. There was just the two of us so we had the most amazing drive and chatted all the way. I apologised (in Spanish) for my Spanish and he was so laid back just saying "we practise". His English was about on the same level as my Spanish (very basic) so we had this most amazing 6 hour drive where he showed me all the sites, and taught me lots of words and phrases and made me feel so welcome and so much more confident about speaking Spanish. I showed him my postcards of North Shields, he thought it looked beautiful! Haha wonder what he´d think if he got the metro......unfortunately I didn´t have the vocabulary to explain so I just agreed that yes it was beautiful.
He took me round all the sites of Monteverde and kept getting out to pick fruit off the trees for us to eat in the car, and stopping to show me howler monkeys in the trees and to look at all the best views. He gave me a Costa Rican flag because he has two, la bandera. Everyone seems to have flags on their car windows, the people seem very proud of their country and it is so so beautiful I can see why. It seems different to the Union Jacks in North Shields. So when I took his photo he had his flag in his hand, and he picked a lovely flower for me to hold and took my photo (but i look awful in it so you probably won´t see that one!) Then when we got to Monteverde, the hotel I reserved forgot about me so Pedro helped me find another room. He gave me his guide book to Central America and said I must contact him if I have any problems in Costa Rica. He was so kind, and wouldn´t take a tip just wanted a coca cola but then a massive storm started and it all went a bit crazy with a torrential downpour and thunder and lightning and he accepted money instead of a coca cola...
Sorry this is really long, I won´t be offended if you are asleep now.
I´ll just say quick about where I´m staying. A lovely cabina with a really nice costa rican family. The man is called Eddy and he is so kind too. and I have my own bathroom and they have a kitchen so I went to the supermarket and cooked myself a lovely meal, so don´t have to worry about the chicken stock and lard for now. Eddy can book me tours so I have big plans for my time in Monteverde, I´m going to see so much crazy wildlife. I already have. Thousands of butterflies flying all round the car with Pedro and vultures flying overhead. I have seen the famous blue morpho butterfly already (blue similar to a kingfisher)and I´ve only been here one day!
So just to let you all know, Costa Rica is 100 times more beautiful than I imagined, I can tell already. I feel completely safe (although obviously totally watching my back and being careful still). The people are amazing and I feel so so unbelievably lucky and honoured to be here.......