Remote in Costa Rica

Church in San Rafael de Heredia 

Well, I might have to rename the blog! I'm passing through here on my way home so that I can visit Greta and Tausha, friends from my English teaching days. So far it's been really fun being here. I definitely have lots of good memories of my three years living here (incredibly, 10 years ago!) and especially of this town, San Rafael, which was the last place I lived.

My apartment is cute (just like the pics on Airbnb) and the guy who owns it, Fernando, is incredibly nice.

He's so nice in fact, that he didn't seem the least bit bothered when, to my horror, I had to ask him to borrow a plunger— new word, émbolo— on my first day here (he didn't have one and had to go the store to buy it), or when I broke the coffee pot into a million pieces on day 2 (he magically had an extra one to give me). I hope I am not ruining his feeling about foreigners staying here. I'm his first!

But the apartment is great. :) This is the view from my bedroom window in the early a.m., afternoon, and at night:

Here's the street it's on. 

Yesterday I walked to town (it took forever) to buy some groceries and while I was at the store I actually ran into another teacher I used to work with at Intercultura, Luke! Luke was my "mentor" when I first started teaching in around 2006, so we go way back, but I hadn't seen him since Greta's wedding about 6 years ago. Needless to say, he was pretty taken aback to run into me at his local grocery store -- it was a crazy coincidence! Turned out he was having a cookout with some teachers and colleagues from his school (he has a TEFL training center) at a country club called El Castillo up in the "mountains" where I used to live, and he invited me. It a great time! This is a pic of the place. It is not what you think of when you imagine Costa Rica. I love it there.

El Castillo Country Club - Monte de la Cruz

Today, being Monday, was my first day working remotely, and luckily that went well. I don't think the Internet is quite as good as Antigua, but it's definitely fast enough to work for a week. Tomorrow I decided to take a half day off work and go visit Luke's school in Barva. It's my birthday, so why not do something fun?

Then I think I'm going to Tausha's to meet up with Greta and the families for pizza. I'm looking forward to it, but a little worried I'm putting them out in the middle of a busy work week. Hopefully not too much.

Money spent yesterday:
$26 - groceries
$12 Uber to and from the country club (about 15 minutes each way)

Money spent today: 
$0 (have not left the house because it's been a non-stop downpour!)