New and Improved!

At the beginning of September Kate and I moved into a new place. Despite the 1 minute walk to our office, we decided to move after a large sum of cash and other items were missing. The scariest/funniest part is that we (and by we I mean ¨I¨)concluded that the complex “guard” was the culprit. There were many factors that led us to this conclusion, the main one being that none of the break-ins showed signs of forced entry (i.e. whoever was responsible had a copy of the keys). Luckily my lap top, ipod, and passport weren’t stolen. Besides, I considered the theft a spontaneous financial contribution to the local economy. If I can reach just one person, than I’ve done my part!

In any case, our new apartment is still within walking distance to work. It’s also bigger, safer, and gets a ton of natural light so it all worked out in the end. When it’s clear the mountains frame our living room and we get some beautiful sunsets. The bags and pillows on the couch are a tactic I’ve devised to prevent the cat from getting on the couch. It works quite well even though we have to explain it to every new guest.

One of the pictures shows Kate presiding over the turkey she made for Thanksgiving day. We had a group of friends from Habitat and elsewhere over for the event which included mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and apple pie. The only thing missing was watching the Detroit Lions lose on Thanksgiving day, as much a part of my Turkey Day memories as eating too much.

We had Rigo and has family over. Rigo is the defacto official Habitat taxi driver, but he´s more of a friend to Kate and I. He´s become to many of us at the office what in another country and context would be termed a ¨fixer.¨ He knows where to get the best deals on anything from furniture, to cars, to tours, who to call for what, etc. Apart from being incredibly helpful, he´s also one of the nicest people I´ve ever met. It was hard to explain the traditon of Thanksgiving to him and his family. There is of course the traditional narrative which is fine when you´re 10 years old. But after reading ¨A People´s History of the Unites States of America¨ or just having a basic understanding of U.S. colonial history, that narrative is about as believable as Santa Claus. So we told him the supposed history of Thanksgiving but then added that it didn´t exactly play out that way but that the important part was that it was a special time to give thanks and share with one´s family, which is the crux of it anyways.

Pura Vida!

In Search of Sun

Apologies for not updating the blog more. Since I had the following e-mail exchange with a friend today I've decided to get back into the blog with more gusto (I've always wanted to drop that word in somewhere):

Anonymous friend: "Schunk: your website sucks. it never gets updated. i'm deleting it from my bookmarks."

Me: "Yeah I agree. If I post something today you have to put it back in your bookmarked pages. Word."

Anonymous friend: "Ok. But you have to increase the pics of poeple and decrease the pics of beaches. i'm tired of beaches. I want to see more party pictures or just random day at the market pics. thank you. also, include a link to stuff white people like."

Unfortunately I only obliged said friend on one of his requests but I'm going to make an effort to show more people pics, promise. Also, feel free to post a random word and/or obscure word and I'll try to incorporate it into my next post.

The height of the rainy season in San Jose was an all-encompassing phenomenon. This year was apparently worse than normal and there were several mudslides and floods that caused scores of casualties throughout the country. It´s one thing to hear about the rainy season but it´s quite different to experience it everyday for several months. It takes a mental toll, especially if it´s your first time (and made worse by not having a car). The saving grace is that it´s not cold, but waking up to rain and falling asleep to the sound of rain were slowly sucking the life force from me. I wondered if this was what Finnish people felt like during winter. Combined with the fact that a bunch of the volunteers that I had become friends with finished in September, I needed to get out of San Jose and get some sun. Luckily the Caribbean side has great weather during the rainy season and I met up with Dieter and Kate, interns at the Dutch and English embassies respectively. Nothing too interesting to report other than the fact that I learned that after you’ve downed half a bottle of rum, putting more stuff in your system is not a viable option. I was also reminded of how exponentially worse hangovers are if you’re traveling. I did get to bask in the sun which made it all worth while, especially since one more weekend sans sun and they would’ve had to talk me down from the ledge at the office. Lastly, here's the link to a blog that highlights the various esoteric tastes of white people: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Pura Vida!

Manuel Antonio Redux

Towards the end of August I headed to Manual Antonio once again. Nothing too interesting to report except for the fact that I had to take the colectivo back on Monday morning at 5am. The colectivo is the local bus that stops every couple of hundred yards or so. I managed to get a seat for the first third of the trip, then I had to stand like I was riding the train during rush hour (except it was two hours long and climbing the winding hills was more like being on a roller coaster while enebriated). On the positive side, it gave me a unique and personal look at the transportation issues that the average Tico faces when commuting long distances. That’s what I told myself anyways.

Pura Vida!