Every Day Life Part 2: Early (Totally Random) Observations...

     We have only been here a week and a half but I love hearing what jumps out at the kids day to day (and noticing what jumps out to Audrey and me).  A few randomly selected highlights...

Jack and I got stuck behind this mini "parade" last Sunday trying to get home.

— Festivals:  Ticos looove their festivals.  Last weekend we were driving back from Arenal and evidently it was the day of a nationwide celebration of “La Negrita” (the patron saint of Costa Rica).  We kept getting stuck in small towns that were basically SHUT DOWN for festivals.  The next day, Jack and I were trying to take a short cut near the house and got stuck in another small neighborhood b/c there was a mini carnival going on…and a parade of people dancing in 10 foot costumes was blocking the one road.  You just have to learn to roll with it here.  One minute if feels just like the U.S. but the next you remember that you can still get derailed on your way to/from a place by cows or 10 foot dancing heads on the road.

Thanks to Google we at least now know WHY Barva has these masks all over the place (mask-making artsy town) but these things are EVERYWHERE in Barva!

— Barva Loves Masks:  Keeping with the theme of festivals and masks, one of the small towns near us is Barva de Heredia.  Unbeknownst to us, it is the “mask making capital” of Costa Rica and a big time arts community.  In addition to the funky sculptures all over their central park, seemingly EVERY street corner has a giant carved mask on the light post.  There is one long stretch through town where every corner has a different Disney character head.  When you first see it, you think “what is UP with all of these paper maché looking heads?!?”

For the price of five items at Auto Mercado you can buy all of your fruits and veggies for the week on market day (big farmers market in local town).

— Market Day, Prices and Grocery Shopping in General:  In the U.S. people will joke about how much more expensive grocery shopping is at Whole Food (aka “whole paycheck”) than say…Star Market.  Here, the difference in prices from one store vs. another is MASSIVE.  The rapidly growing middle class seems to have resulted in a bifurcated retail and grocery structure.  A place like Auto Mercado is far and away the most expensive and the gap between prices there and prices at a small, local Pulperia convenient store is crazy.  A place like Auto Mercado will have tons of US brands (even small organic food labels you won’t even find in Star Market).  But buying a box of cereal at Auto Mercado is way more expensive than in the U.S…and for the same price I think we bought bananas, avocados, apples, mamónes, etc. at the farmers market in San Isidro.  Market day is fantastic, btw.  But it highlights how crazy mark-ups become as food works its way through the supply chain here.

— Costa Rica Seems To Embrace “Targeting Full Employment” over “Efficient and Quick Shopping”:  It is mind-boggling how many people there will be working in a store.  They are clearly NOT all needed but their presence seems to be built into the cost (nothing is cheap unless you go to mom and pop stores, etc.).  It’s crazy to experience the difference between “older chains” and “newer chains.”  For example, there is a HUGE mall about two minutes from the school (with everything from a Crocs store and a Converse store to an Illy café).  There is a Mongé store in the mall, too (an older chain of appliance stores).  We made the mistake of buying a coffee maker there (which, in Spanish is “un coffee MAYker” btw).  It was like a Saturday Night Live skit.  About 10 people were involved in the process.  It took about 25 minutes (and Ella and I were the only ones in the store!).  There were people to show us the “coffee MAYker.”  People to carry it to the check-out counter.  About EIGHT (no joke) different receipts printed.  Many of the copies stamped and signed.  Then another guy who goes to GET the “coffee MAYker.”  Then a security guy who is only about 4 feet from the counter (and again, there is nobody there) but who still has to take 2 of the 4 remaining copies of the receipt (remember…they print about 8) and then takes five minutes making sure you are leaving with EXACTLY what you paid for.  Contrast that with the brand new chain (forget the name) next door to the mall where we bought our blender…exactly like a Best Buy.  Pick out the item.  Check out.  Go.  And MUCH fewer folks standing around in the newer store, too.  It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the retail sector around here over the next ten years as more efficient newer chains clash with more culturally sensitive older ones.

— Costa Ricans Are Still More Chill and Friendly Than in Most Places:  Yes, the idea of “Tico Time” that existed when I lived here back in 1995 (“oh…did I say we were going to meet at 9:00 am?  Well that means sometime between 9:15 and 9:45!”) is kinda dying out as the pressures of a more global economy due their thing here as they have everywhere.  But it is still a place where people go out of their way to let you INTO traffic.  Where kids in a school don’t ostracize a new kid but embrace them.  Where people take time to chat rather than always rushing on the go.  Etc.  That’s something we can hopefully take with us a bit at the end of the year.