I find it interesting that of the two of us, I'm the one who feels more comfortable in our new environment. After all, John lived in Costa Rica for two years. He's familiar with the culture, he speaks the language fluently. You'd think I would be the one with culture shock.
Nope.
I love it here. The weather hasn't bothered me one bit. When we go out, John is complaining that the sun is too hot, the air is too humid. Alex is slumped in his stroller sweating sucking down bottle after bottle of apple juice and water. Me? I'm happily walking around town checking out shops barely noticing the heat. I'm not normally a fan of heat, particularly humidity, but I find the weather to be not just tolerable, but downright enjoyable.
I also love the food. I find myself ordering things that I don't even know what they are (probably because I can't read the menus). Rice with bits of mystery fish? Bring it on! Is that an oyster? octopus? I don't know. I'm eying the street vendors, trying to figure out what they're selling, tempted to try whatever they've got to offer. I'm normally a picky eater, but not here. I'd bet I'll be eating pickles and tomatoes before we leave.
I have to give John credit though, he's probably the main reason I'm so comfortable. I completely rely on him to communicate with the natives. Aside from an occasional "gracias", "si" and "No habla espanol" I haven't even tried to talk to anyone outside the hotel. I did venture to the grocery store the other afternoon by myself and found that smiling, pointing and nodding are surprisingly effective. I'm going to make more of an effort to make use of my High School Spanish from now on though. Most people here speak English but seem to appreciate it when people at least try to speak Spanish.
I'm excited that we get to be here for another 3 1/2 weeks! John's already itching to come home to his comfort zone and routine, but I'm finding that I am craving more of this place. We've walked around the same block every day this week, and every time we go out I want to venture further away from the hotel. I want to explore more of the city. It's just different enough here to be exciting and I want to experience more of it.
The only complaint I have is getting around town with a stroller is difficult. Coming from Utah, quite possibly the most baby / kid friendly place on earth, there are wheelchair/stroller ramps on the flat sidewalks. There's almost always a baby changing station in the bathroom everywhere you go. Here,it appears the sidewalk is just an extention of the business you happen to be walking by, and many are in bad repair. Some sidewalks are cement, some are tiled, some asphalt, some are dirt, most have stairs of some sort. The only ramps are driveways which aren't as common as you'd think they'd be. I have seen exactly two traffic lights during the week we've been here (including all the driving around we did on Saturday), and the traffic is terrible. Lots of horn honking and little cars wizzing around on the narrow streets. Crossing the street is an exercise in faith. You just go hoping you don't get hit.
I haven't seen a single baby changing station, not that I'm surprised, I didn't really expect to see them outside of the US anyway. In public restrooms I've just been trying to change Alex on the counter by the sinks, something he doesn't appear to appreciate. When we were at the shops at the Amador Causeway on Saturday, Alex had soaked through his diaper and shorts and I had no choice but to change him. The second I removed his diaper, he began peeing all over the counter. I put him on the floor, naked from the waist down and attempted to clean up the mess. Of course, even though the restroom had been empty up until this point, when Alex was running wild in nothing but a t-shirt and shoes, and I'm sopping up toddler pee off the counters, several women came in. Alex immediately began to jabber excitedly at them and started doing his hip-swinging dance for them. Naked. Luckily, the women thought he was cute and laughed. But I'm sure they weren't expecting a strip show on a saturday afternoon in the ladies restroom.
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