Settling in

I landed in San José at around 10 AM this morning. I spent the last few minutes of the flight looking out the window at the green, hilly landscape. There was even a building that had "PURA VIDA" emblazoned on its roof. ("Pura vida," meaning "pure life," is the closest thing that Costa Rica has to a national motto.) The trip through customs was really quick. I spoke to the customs inspector in Spanish and had a nice conversation about where I was from and where I was born. I had to wait a short while before my ride came, but not too long. The cab manager, Henry, was very helpful and offered to call one of my contacts at Intercultura to check the status of my ride. He said my contact would call back in a few minutes, but my pick-up arrived soon enough with my hostess Zeneida and our driver Hector. Zeneida from the very beginning was friendly and full of pura vida – and even though my itinerary says she's pushing 70, you'd never guess it.

Zeneida lives on the outskirts of downtown Heredia in a home that dons an eclectic mix of extensions. Her bedroom used to be the patio before she had it converted. My room is on the second floor connected to another flat with separate rooms she rents out to university students. It has a private bathroom and shower and a great balcony that overlooks the central valley. Since the extensions grew organically without a master plan, getting to my room involves either going through Zeneida's room and up the back stairs, or going up the front stairs through the separate flat. I have five separate keys to get through all these doors and gates! In addition (yes, there's more!) she owns a small beauty salon attached to the front of the house.

Two other homestay students, Ken and Ellie, are visiting here from Portland. I thought my stay was long, but theirs is open-ended! Ellie is originally from the UK but lived in Spain for three years, so she's quite fluent and of course speaks with the Castilian distinción – having different s's compared to z's and soft c's. (It's funny to hear her code-switch into her English accent!) Her boyfriend Ken originally studied Italian and so is working to catch up with Ellie. They are muy chévere to talk to.

Downtown Heredia is a bustling shopping district that features all kinds of stores, everything from thrift shops to high-end electronics. I took a short walk around earlier this afternoon. It was fun to get a taste of what shopping is like here, though it was pretty intimidating to have people come up to me and say, "En qué puedo ayudarle?" ("How can I help you?") when I wasn't looking for anything in particular. ¿Cómo se dice, "I'm just looking"?

Flying high 'til the morning light

Pura vida! As I write this, I'm sitting at the gate watching my plane get ready. The flight leaves in just over an hour, a 5 1/2-hour red-eye to San Salvador before a short one-hour hop to San José. I tried practicing my Spanish at the ticket counter but since I'm not too familiar with travel questions I had code-switch a few times. I'm a little restless to see what happens when I no longer have that luxury!

I had a lot of last-minute things to do the past two days. On Thursday, DHL delivered the Costa Rican colones I ordered from International Currency Express. They're the same size as good old American greenbacks so my money clip will work just fine with them, though I also have a money belt to keep the larger bills away from pickpockets. The exchange rate is about 500 to 1 (which makes the math easy), so even though the zeroes on a 2,000-colón bill look impressive, the thing is only worth about $4. From what I've read, though, it'll still buy me a pretty good meal.

After I got my cash, I went to the county Registrar of Voters to cast my absentee ballot. My voting streak goes back to 1992 so I wasn't going to get a little vacation spoil it. After that, I went to Barnes & Noble and got the latest copy of Lonely Planet's Costa Rica travel guide – absolutely hot off the press, dated October 2008! Unfortunately, I was unable to find the other book I wanted, Guide to Costa Rican Spanish by Christopher Howard. This seems to be the highest-rated phrase book that specifically targets the uniquely Tico flavor of Spanish. There were a couple of other titles of this ilk available but after seeing them panned on Amazon, I decided against getting them. I guess I'll see what they have in Heredia/San José when I get there.

Friday afternoon, I got my hiking shoes for what I hope will be an exciting trip to the rainforest. On top of that, I got another pair of urban walking shoes. I've read that this style is popular with city-dwelling Ticos so it's my bit of an attempt to look more like a "traveler" than a "tourist." Ticos like to dress well – not necessarily fancy, but clean and well put together, even when they dress casually. Thankfully my sense of style is similar – or so I hope! As a salsa dancer, I have a lot of Cuban-style shirts and my hope is that the style transcends Latin America. In addition, although Costa Rica is not widely known as a salsa hotbed, I'm eager to see what the dancing is like there.

I gave my downstairs neighbors my contact information, added them to my ADT account, then finally started packing. I didn't want to get bogged down with more than one piece of luggage, so I had to decide out what was the smallest subset of clothes I was willing to wear for four weeks. I figured I could always buy some local fashions as well, so it wasn't too grueling of an exercise. I weighed my bag several times to make sure I was still under the 50-pound limit – I think I got as high as 45 pounds. To save money, I went through the house and unplugged unessential appliances, and even forwarded my cell phone to my home voicemail so I could listen to messages online without racking up international phone charges. After one last check, I hopped in my neighbor's car and headed off for the Caltrain station, bound for San Francisco International.

I've done everything I could to prepare. Now it's time to hop on that plane and experience pura vida!

Two days to go!

It's Thursday morning and I can hardly believe I'll be off to Costa Rica in less than 48 hours! I'm excited to get out there right away. There are still many things to do before I leave, but I've gotten some of the more important stuff out of the way. I decided to buy an international cell phone in case of emergency. Mobal has a great deal on a $99 phone that includes $99 in call credit, so the phone is essentially free – plus they don't charge monthly minimums or impose expiration dates on their minutes. I wish I'd've known about them when I went to Europe last year; for that trip I paid over $50 for one week's worth of rental and calls, and of course I had to send the phone back after I was done with it.

The school I'm going to, Intercultura, has two campuses: one in Heredia just outside the capital (San José) and the other on the Pacific coast in Playa Sámara. This offers students the unique opportunity to experience both city and rural life in a Latin American country. In that vain, I'll be taking my first and final weeks in Heredia, and spending two weeks in Sámara in between. I will get to know two different host families in the process.

I've been doing a lot of research on Costa Rican customs, their unique version of Spanish, their transportation system and their interesting way of giving directions. You see, Ticos don't use street addresses like we do. Everything is located in relation to intersections and landmarks. For example, the "address" for my first homestay simply says, "Frente al Registro Civil de Heredia, casa no. 2" – in other words, "Opposite the Heredia Civil Registry, House #2." My other family's address is even stranger: "Las Palmeras residences, 500 meters to the west, in the Cantarrana neighborhood, second entrance on the right . . ." and on and on. Sometimes, directions may be given in relation to landmarks that no longer exist! On top of that, Ticos can be helpful to a fault: They'd rather give wrong directions than no directions at all! It makes me strongly consider buying a Costa Rican map for my GPS just to be sure – although I'll probably still ask for directions just for the experience and to practice more of my Spanish.

This is definitely going to be an interesting trip! I'll write more about my research on Tico culture in my next update.