Letters from Paradise

So this morning I got up at 5:30AM to get ready for my interview at Backpackers Manuel Antonio at 7:00AM. I had set my alarm the night before on my stopwatch, but I had acutally forgot to turn it on. LUCKILY I woke up by myself just before my alarm was supposed to go off. It would have been so horrible if I had slept through my first interview in Costa Rica and it also would have set a bad tone for the rest of my job search. I got to Backpackers on time and Alex, the guy working the front desk, knew that I was coming in so he immediately started teaching me how the reception desk works and what he does every day. None of it seems too hard and I think I am totally capable of doing everything. The only thing that can sometimes give me a hard time is talking to people on the phone in Spanish. For some reason (maybe because I can´t see their face and mouth moving?) it can be very difficult. Hopefully though my Spanish will improve quickly enough that it won´t be a problem for long. I ended up staying at Backpackers way past 10:00AM because Carlos (the owner of the hostel) had to go somewhere in the morning and I didn´t want to leave without speaking to him first. At about noon he finally came back and said that he would call me in the next couple of days with more information. I was really hungry and tired when I left from only getting about 3.5-4 hours of sleep so I caught the bus back into Quepos and went to Palí, a Costa Rican grocery store chain that is actually owned by Wal-Mart and is really really cheap, to pick up some snacks. Then I walked home to Margarita´s house and took a nap until Rachel got back from the beach.

When she got back I told her all about the interview/test-run since she was going to do the same thing at 6:00-9:00PM. After she had left, I just hung around the house reading and writing. Rachel and I both decided not to go out tonight since we both have interviews tomorrow at Spa Uno, and I was still tired from not getting enough sleep the night before. We did, however, end up walking down to Mama Tica´s for a bit to use the internet and see Rich. I downloaded a bunch of book samples for my Kindle (thanks Dad!) which was really exciting since I am about done with my current book The Omnivore´s Dilema.

This morning I had my interview at Spa Uno at 8:00AM. So again I had to wake up early and look cute. It´s interesting taking the bus early in the morning here, it´s a whole different demographic. It´s all Ticos except for maybe a couple gringos going for an early morning surf or tour. In the afternoon there are way more gringos going and forth to the beach. I got to Spa Uno just as the receptionist was opening the doors for the spa and had my interview with Adam, one of the owners. He is American and he owns the place with his wife Molly. The interview went OK, not great, but we will see. Afterwards I caught the bus back to Quepos and went back to Margarita´s.

Since Rachel´s interview was at 12:00, I decided to bring all my beach stuff and go with her on the bus towards Manuel Antonio. While she was in her interview I had lunch at Café Milagro and waited for her to be done so that we could then walk the rest of the way to the beach to meet Rich at 1:30. Since no one has cell phones here we really have to plan things out in advance and be on time for meeting people. I had their hummus sandwich (I am really missing hummus right now, they don´t really sell it here so if I REALLY want it I have to go to Café Milagro or make my own) with plantain chips and a smoothie. I really like Café Milagro, the only problem is that it is kind of expensive. It is definitely aimed towards tourists and therefore has tourist prices... but it is so good!

After Rachel´s interview we walked down to the beach to meet up with Rich. He, of course, was at his favorite bar there called La Esquina en la Playa watching a soccer (he calls it football) game on TV. He was super excited because it was actually a live match from England of Liverpool playing somebody I can´t remember the name of, and he is a Liverpool fan. So we sat with him for a bit watching the match and I learned a new word from him: muppet. It means stupid or idiot. I love learning British words from him! So while Rich was yelling ¨You f*cking muppet!!" at the football match, Rachel and I went to the beach across the street where we promptly jumped in the ocean to cool off some and then I laid in the shade while Rachel laid in the sun. That´s how it always is: I try my best to keep out of the sun as much as possible while Rachel tries to stay in it as much as possible. There under the shade of the mangrove and palm trees I took a nap while Rich, now returned from his football match happy as a clam since Liverpool won, and Rachel took a walk along the beach. After a bit I woke up when the sun had gotten to my legs and made me hot, only to realize that I was burned on my shoulders, chest, and arms from walking down to the beach from Café Milagro with my tanktop on. There were swimsuit lines and tanktop lines and on my left shoulder lines where I had carried my bag down the hill. Stupid strong sun made me look like a freaking leopard. Luckily I had brought my beach shirt with me (with long sleeves of course!) so I put that on to try and keep some of my body non-sunburned. It sort of worked.

We went out and I wore one of my new dresses that makes my waist look really small and Rachel did my hair in this cool updo thing (she is really good at hair and I have already informed her that she will be my hairdresser for life) for our first weekend back in Costa Rica! First Rachel and I went to Mama Tica´s to pick up Rich and then we walked to a restaurant in town called Manchado´s, where our Tico friend Jhonny works. We ordered guapirinhas (soooo yummy) and then Jhonny brought over a free round of shots for us and himself. A great way to start off our night! Afterwards we walked to the liquor store and bought some guaro and fresca to drink before we went to the rest of the bars. We ended up sitting in the bleachers for the Quepos soccer field (aka the football pitch according to Rich) and drinking, which I actually really liked because there were a bunch of other Ticos there doing the same thing so I felt a little more authentic and less like a tourist. Anything I can do to look less like a tourist is a good thing because I definitely don´t look like a Tica. After a while the new people at TEFL came and met up with us on the bleachers and started drinking with us. This caused us to turn into a group of loud obnoxious gringos, which I hate, so soon after we all headed over to Musik, a local lounge/bar. There we met up with Andy & Courtney and everyone was hanging around having a couple of drinks.

At some point Mike, a guy from the new TEFL group, was walking outside of Musik for some reason and a group of guys came up to him asking him for money to buy a beer. He said no, so they robbed him at knife-point (is that a word?). Luckily he didn´t have that much money on him and they didn´t hurt him or anything but it was still scary. This is the first instance of someone I know being mugged and it was right outside one of the bars I frequent. I am thinking that this kind of stuff happens more often during high season, which started in January. I can already tell that there are more tourists here than last time because the beaches are more crowded and some of the prices at the bars/clubs have already gone up. He was also a little drunk so that probably didn´t help the situation. Now I have another incentive to hang out with Ticos besides getting free things and not having to pay cover charges; not getting harrassed or robbed by other Ticos. After Musik we all went to Republic, which is the main club in Quepos, and Rachel, Rich and I got in free because we were with our friend Jhonny. Always a good thing to not have to pay cover!

This morning Rachel and I slept in and then at some point went over to Mama Tica´s to use the internet and see Rich. He was still sleeping though and HATES being woken up so we were just hanging out when Rachel started talking to her Tico friend Dennis online. He invited us to go snorkeling/spear-fishing with him. Obviously Rachel and I jumped on that so we walked back home, got our beach stuff, and walked over to his house (he lives in the same neighborhood). From his house we got some extra snorkel stuff and he drove us to the beach at Manuel Antonio where he got a single kayak for free, and Rachel and I rented a double for $10. We paddled out to Las Gimelas (The Twin Sisters) which are two smaller islands/rocks at Manuel Antonio beach. In the random picture I found on the internet they are on the left.
In the picture they don´t look that far away. They are. I promise. It took Rachel and I about 25 minutes to paddle out to them together. Dennis, on the other hand, took like 15 minutes to get there. He is very into working out and therefore very strong. Rachel and I, not so much. Unfortunately even on the way out there on the kayak I was already feeling seasick. Ugh. I hoped that I would feel better when we got into the water. I was wrong. I felt the exact same bobbing out there by the rocks as I did in the kayak. The snorkeling was actually pretty good though. There were tons of different kinds of fish, none of which I know the name of, and Rachel and I got to watch Dennis as he dove down to look in the rocks for what he called red snapper. I wouldn´t know a red snapper if it bit me. They apparently hide in the crevices of the rocks so he kept diving down with his spear-gun to hunt them. I have snorkeled before in the Caribbean and swam in the Gulf of Mexico a bunch and I have always had to tread water or swim to stay afloat. Here, I am guessing because it is the Pacific, you don´t have to work to stay afloat. The water is so salty that you just float. Normally this would be good for snorkeling because you don´t have to do anything. Today it was not good because all it made me feel was seasick. Dennis did end up spearing what he said was a red snapper, but he didn´t keep it and ended up letting it go. I have no idea why. So after about an hour and a half of snorkeling while nauseus I decided I was through so I swam back to the boat with Rachel where we sat waiting for Dennis to finish hunting fish. I was hoping that this would make me feel better, it did not. I ended up throwing up over the side of kayak. Gross. Luckily Dennis was still fishing so he didn´t get to witness the upchuck of my breakfast. When he finally did come back he brought a little octopus that he had caught with him and threw it in the bag on Rachel, who screamed and rocked the boat, which made me feel even worse (not that I blame her for freaking out, I would have too if he had thrown a live octopus on me). When she touched one of its legs it sucked on her finger with its little suction cups which freaked her out more, leading to more boat rocking. If I had felt better I might have touched the thing just to say that I had but all I could think about was how long it was going to take us to get back to the beach. We finally rowed back in our boat and when we were coming up in the surf a wave came and turned our boat over, and I of course got whacked decently hard in the head as it went over me. Rachel did not. Damn her. What a wonderful way to end that trip. I am glad that I did it, but I feel no real need to do it again. Seasickness is not fun.

When Rachel and I got back to the house Margarita told me that Carlos from Backpackers had called, so I called him back and he offered me the job at the hostel. A little later that night Adam called Rachel and offered her the job at Spa Uno. So now we both have jobs!! YAY!! Tomorrow I have to be at work at 6:00AM (that´s when one of the receptionist shift starts) and Rachel has to be at the spa at 8:00AM so we are obviously not going out tonight. I am setting my alarm for 4:30 in the morning. Ugh that is way to early to be alive!!

Today was my first official day working at Backpackers Manuel Antonio. I had to get up at 4:30AM to be ready in time to leave and catch the 5:30AM bus (the first one of the day) to Manuel Antonio. It was very strange being up before the sun and I literally was walking to the bus stop in the dark. This bus also literally had no gringos on it but me. Just little Kelly and all the Ticos going to work. This morning I worked with Alex again and am catching up on how to do everything and the rules. The job itself is not that hard and I can do everything, the only hard part is the Spanish sometimes, especially on the phone. Only time and practice will make that easier though. After work I went home to take a nap because I was really tired. It took me a while to fall asleep last night because I don´t trust my alarm on my watch just yet. Nobody really did anything tonight since it´s a Sunday so we just stayed in. Not going to lie though, I was jealous of Rachel at work today because she got a two hour spa treatment as part of her training. It was the Warm Stone Massage package and she said it was WONDERUL. I wish I could get spa treatments at the hostel...

Today I had work again, but the afternoon shift instead of the morning one. Right now I can´t decide which shift I like better. One you are tired all day and all I can think aobut is when I get off so I can take a nap, or the other shift where I get to sleep in but miss the rest of the day and it makes it hard to meet up with people to go out at night. In the morning though Rachel has been leaving earlier than me when I work the afternoon shifts so I get to have the room to myself and read on my Kindle. I am totally loving this thing! I wish I had gotten it sooner because it makes my life so easy when I am traveling. The only bad thing about it is that I am scared to take it out of the house for fear that it might get stolen. Right now I don´t mind that too much except for when I´m on the beach and I would like something to read. Oh well there are some compromises in life and I guess this is one of them.

Right now I am finishing up The Omnivore´s Dilema by Michael Pollan and it is really good and interesting. I have become more and more concerned about what I am eating and what I am putting into my body (the phrase "You are what you eat" comes to mind) and this book really investigates some of the questions and concerns I have about processed foods, eating meat and dairy, and the industrialization of our food chain. Today America is facing a huge dietary and health crises, and many of the things that many Americans eat regularly are slowly but surely killing us. This book really makes you think about how we have changed the food chain in our country and how this might not be such a good thing. And if it isn´t a good thing, what steps can we take to go about changing it.

Here are some pictures of my new apartment!!

This is the girl's room. I currently have bottom bunk and Rachel has top.

This is our patio looking out into the rainforest

This is the covered patio area for all 4 apartments to use

This is Richard's bed, but we all kind of use it during the day because it is closest to the AC unit

View from Rich's room out to the patio

Bathroom with hot water.... not that you would want to take a hot shower

Kitchen

Living room with TV and Rich taking a nap

The view of all 4 apartments from the main gate. We are the lower apartment on the right side

January 19, 2010 (Tuesday)

So after going to the beach the first Monday I was here and seeing Andy and Courtney's new apartment, Tuesday Rachel and I woke up and went to Mama Tica's house to begin the job search on the internet. It quickly became apparent that Ticos don't really use the internet for finding jobs, or apartments/houses for that matter. The majority of stuff is found through networking and hearing about things through people you meet. There is also Channel 18 which is essentially a running classified ad on channel 18 on television. So we ended up in the end cleaning up our resumes to get them ready for getting teaching jobs and also made another resume more geared towards more general jobs like maybe at a hotel or something. That afternoon we ended up going back to the beach, which of course we said we were not going to do because we needed to find jobs, but it is so easy to validate it to yourself as "Well we got our resumes ready to find jobs this morning... so we can go back to the beach this afternoon." It is just too tempting NOT to go to the beach here and also the afternoon is just so hot that all you want to do is go jump in the water... so we did.

January 20, 2010 (Wednesday)

Today Rachel and I walked up to the TEFL school to see if any of the instructors knew of any job openings, which of course they didn't, and to print out our resumes to give out to people. Afterwards we stuck around to use the internet to look for more job postings online and I ended up finding a posting in Manuel Antonio for a spa that needed a receptionist. Both Rachel and I applied for the job, we figured it never helps to be picky so we are applying to everything. Then we walked back into Quepos to get some lunch and I ended up getting batido (smoothie) with my sandwich. I am totally loving the smoothies here, just like last time, and currently I am averaging one a day. My favorites are mango, pineapple, and passion fruit (maracuyá) right now. They are sooooo good! Afterwards we went back home to change to go to the beach again... yes I am a beach bum right now and loving it. However, we did bring copies of our resumes to the beach because we planned to stop by this hostel on the way back to Quepos. In December Rachel stayed at this hostel before coming back to the states and the owner had mentioned that he might need some work in January. We walked in and ended up talking to the manager named Gabriela (all in Spanish of course) and both of us got a trial run for the receptionist position. I am going tomorrow from 7-10AM and Rachel is going 6-9PM. That will make tomorrow morning interesting after going out to Ladies Night at Bamboo Jam tonight.... Oh well. Before going to Bamboo Jam Rachel and I stopped by Mama Tica's house to pick up Rich and also to check our email. We both got responses from the spa and we are supposed to call tomorrow to schedule an interview. Yay! So on we went to Bamboo Jam where we paid our cover of 2,000 colones (up from 1,000 in December because high season is starting) to drink all the rum and vodka drinks we wanted until 11:30. The music is reggaeton and I am really loving that right now. So we all danced the night away and I ended up coming home at like 12:30 (not too bad!) and set my alarm for 5:45 to get up for my interview!