Gates and locks and barbed wire oh my
I carry a key ring with 5 keys on it. And I don't even have a car. We have:
- 2 keys to enter and exit our front entrance (a wooden door and a gate)
- 2 keys to enter and exit our back entrance (a wooden door and a gate)
- 1 key to enter and exit the gates around Cincel's property
We have plumbing and toilet paper, but...
...we cannot flush it here. Toilet paper goes in the trash.
Addresses are a little more complex
In the States, addresses consist of a street name and street number, but that is not how addresses work here. While they recently started putting up signs with street names, none of the locals know them and it's not how addresses are given. Addresses consist of directions based on distances, descriptions and landmarks. When I take a taxi home, here is the address I give the driver:
Carretera a Zapote, de la Sede Lechera 250 metros norte, 100 oeste y 100 sur, edificio color crema a la par de un play.While we have a post office box for mail, this is also the address that goes on any package sent through FedEx. It's not merely directions, it's our address!
What's the date today?
They don't write the date the same here as how we write it back home. Back home we write it as month, day, year. Here we write it as day, month, year. Today in Costa Rica the date is 13/1/14. This is hard to remember when filling out paperwork.
My pockets are heavier and make more noise
The currency in Costa Rica is colones. Many things cost 1 mil or more, which works out because 1 mil ($2) is the lowest denomination of bank notes. Everything lower is coins. As a result, coins are used a lot more often here. Basically, imagine if we only had coins instead of bills for $1 in the States. Imagine how much more change you would carry. This is our new reality.
There is a lot of newness here, but we love and embrace these changes. They are part of our new normal.
I remember the first time I went to Vietnam and went to visit someone on 1AGB3 "Main St" so I had the taxi drop me off at the beginning of the street, since #1 couldn't be far. I mean it's even 1A. About 15-20 minutes later after passing a lot of 1AA, 1AB, 1AC... I finally arrived, having covered half the length of the street. Then when I went to Saigon 10 years later, they had a different system. The address looks like 225/15/25 Main St. So you go up Main St to #225 and turn down the alley. You continue until you find Alley #15 (luckily not usually the 15th one) and then you go down Alley #15 until you find house number 25. I like that system okay I guess. It just took a little bit of getting used to.
ReplyDeleteThe TP thing is just nasty. Again 15 years ago in VN, that was the expectation, but I played dumb. The last time I was there, at least in the city, we could flush. The security makes you think you're either in a prison or jewelry store after hours, depending how nice it looks. MT's house had a gate for the yard. And then about 3 inches inside that was the gate across the front door. Then the door itself. Then on the balcony, same jewelry store type of metal gate outside the main door. Let's not even talk about how once inside the house, each bedroom also has said bars.
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