Pura Vida

And my dream burst like a big bubble!

2011-06-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

It was my dream to have several dogs of several breeds living together in peace and harmony. Well, it didn't work.
After Mia (another 6-months-old Beagle) came to us, we had more and more fights between Babygirl and Merlin. And Merlin would also regularly attack the Beagles. So, I figured that we would probably have to sell him.

But then it happened: all the dogs were playing and Fibi found a toy which all the other dogs wanted as well, so everybody was running after her. But suddenly Babygirl attacked Fibi, pulled her ears, bit her legs with a strength that Fibi cried like crazy. I tried to stop them, but Babygirl didn't let go. It felt like an eternity that passed before I could separate and stop them. Fibi had both of her ears bloody, one now hangs a little lower and her feet had scratches. And my hands didn't look any better. I do feel sorry for Babygirl, but she had to go, so we sold her. Those American Staffords simply get too big to be trusted with a small breed like Beagles. And at the moment we are still trying to sell Merlin because I don't want the same to happen again. Neither Babygirl nor Merlin are aggressive with people or with dogs in general, but when they freak out, it gets bloody.
In the meantime, we are having a little (about 5 months old) American Stafford mix in our home. We are giving him into adoption because he was found abondaned on the streets. He is a very good guy and very cute!

Furthermore, we hope that Nala is pregnant and is going to have her puppies in August.
And Peluche is now finally old enough to be a sire and if he did a good job, he'll be father very soon.

Now we are complete

2011-04-10T18:57:00.001-07:00

Although I already had 5 dogs, after Kal-El’s death I wouldn’t stop looking for a new male American Stafford. And now I finally have it.
A friend of us has a female and she had babies, so he made us a very special price. Merlin is only 6 weeks old, but already looks very strong! Most of the time I just call him “enano” (dwarf) because right now he is the smallest of the family.

And then we got unlucky...

2011-04-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

On a Saturday when Cristian was bringing me to work, we nearly hit a small puppy on the street. It wasn’t of a breed, but we thought we could just bring it home, give it a bath and then give it into adoption. However, we soon found out that she was sick. We didn’t know what it was but it seemed to be serious because she didn’t want to eat and had blood in her faeces. The next day she had already died. We buried her in the mountains close to a river.
A week later, Fibi got sick. She didn’t want to eat and was throwing up continuously. I thought that maybe she had eaten something that wasn’t good for her, but after she was one whole day without food or water, we brought her to the hospital. And the news weren’t good at all: She had parvovirus. It’s a sickness that doesn’t have a cure and once a dog has it, there is only a 50% chance of surviving. And of course, it is highly contagious.
Two days later, Kal-El started with the same symptoms and we also brought him to the hospital. We were full of hope because we had brought him so early.
On the day when the hospital called us to inform us that Fibi is great and can leave the hospital, they also told us that Kal-El died.
We were so frustrated because all of our dogs are vaccinated against this sickness and we lost one and it cost us a lot of money to have Fibi in the hospital.
In general, the whole months of March was filled with a lot of unlucky events. I broke my finger, but cured it myself (without going to the hospital because I didn’t want to wait in line forever), I fell down a whole and hurt my knees, had an accident on the scooter (and got lots of bruises) and Nala bit June because she came close to her while she was eating (the only time when Nala gets aggressive).

We need an even number of dogs!

2011-04-10T18:54:00.000-07:00

Well, normal people would say that 5 dogs are enough, but one day I found a 3-months old Beagle-girl for sale for very little money and she had papers. So, I convinced Cristian to get her as well. Her name is June.

New house, new dogs

2011-04-10T18:05:00.001-07:00

After my family had left, we finally found a good house for rent for us. We had been looking for over two months and were hoping that we would find one before the arrival of my family, but house hunting in San José is a pain. Most of it is way too expensive and/or in very bad shape.
But now we are renting a good-sized house with a yard in the back and a yard in the front in the mountains of San José. The weather is a bit colder than in the centre, but the environment is very nice.
And since we now have more space and a front and back yard, Cristian was of the opinion that we should get more guard dogs, so we got Babygirl and Kal-El. They are both American Staffords.
Babygirl was extremely small when we got her, so that’s why the name stuck. On the contrary, Kal-El was extremely big and heavy for his age.

The Family

2011-04-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

In December 2010 and January 2011 I had my family visit me in Costa Rica. At first only my mom and Olaf (her boyfriend) wanted to come, but then my sister decided to join as well. Since I only had a small apartment at that time, that extra person made me worry a bit. But at least we had one dog less because Nala was at a dog school getting an education! :-P
Before they came, I had made a plan. At first we wanted to spend a few days in San José, then go to Puerto Viejo (the Caribbean coast), come back to San José for 2 days and then go to Playa del Coco (the Pacific coast) and stop by La Fortuna (to see an active volcano) for a day.
After picking them up at the airport late at night and me being surprised that I actually found the way back to the house, we had a quick beer and went to bed. However, the next day it became clear that our apartment was definitely to small to host all of my family, so they decided to spend the rest of the time in a hotel close by.
However, the first day we took a trip to the waterfall La Paz (The Peace). The road to there was terrible and the weather wasn't much better. December is the end of the rainy season and it tends to get fairly cold as well. But my mom and Olaf liked it anyway. My sister didn't because she always finds something to complain about.

The next day we spent in San José. It is not pretty at all, but if you are in Costa Rica, you should at least see it. (By the way, the weather still hadn't improved and it was very windy.)

After that we went to Puerto Viejo in my car. Not surprisingly for me, it was also rainy at the coast. So, we did the best out of the situation and bought some beers.

Fortunately, the next day it brighten up a little and we went to the National Park Cahuita where we saw some racoons and monkeys threw sticks at my sister. And since I had a cold and had worn tennis shoes, Olaf had to carry me over the little creeks.

The second day in Puerto Viejo we rented some bikes and rode along the coast. Finally the sun made it appeareance and I immediately got sunburned. (By the way, the streets in Puerto Viejo all look like that or worse. But they are lined with lots of little animals.)

And here the negative side of Costa Rica: Crime absolutely everwhere!

The day we left Puerto Viejo, we finally had blue sky and endless sun! *lol*
Back in San José, we visited the local zoo and then prepared for New Years Eve. However, my family already left my apartment at 10 pm and I went to bed with my dogs. Surprisingly they did not wake up from the fireworks and slept soundly.

Then we rented a car and went to Playa del Coco. (On the way back from Puerto Viejo, my old car was giving trouble again. It was getting very hot and the clutch didn't work part of the time. So, the safer option was a rental car.)
At the Pacific we had sunshine and endless beaches. So, guess what we did all day!?

However, the next destination was La Fortuna which is situated high in the mountains and again it got rainy and windy.

But we were super lucky and the next morning, it cleared up a little bit and we actually got to see the volcano. (Not everybody who has been there can say that. Because 70% of the days of a year the volcano is covered in clouds.)
And after a nice long walk we spend the rest of the day at a hot spring. (The water was really heated by the lava of the volcano.)
On the way back from La Fortuna I dropped my parents of at a hotel close to the airport and spend the rest of the day there. The hotel had given my parents some voucher to play at the casino and I managed to win around 40$. It wasn't the checkpot, but better than nothing!
I know that my parents enjoyed the trip a lot, but I don't think that my sister did. Because she had been to Costa Rica before, seemed to be bored all the time and the continous criticism of my lifestyle didn't seem a good sign.

Once you start getting dogs, you cannot stop

2011-04-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

At least that seems to be my case.
After we had gotten Peluche (our male Beagle) and saw how well he and Nala got along, I wanted to have another dog. Cristian always wanted to breed dogs, so getting another Beagle (but this time a female) seemed to be a good idea.
After having looked at several internet pages for quite a few weeks, I found her: a bicolored Beagle (3,5 months old). Her owners wanted to sell her because they didn't have enough time or space for her. She is one of the most beautiful Beagles I have ever seen in my life, but she doesn't behave well at all because she was never taught. She was treated like a doll by her former owner: she had to wear clothes, was carried around all day and never once was a single minute alone. She had to go pee in a small back yard and had never been for a walk. Even today she will not pee during our walks, but will wait until we are in our yard.
Other than that: Fibi is a typical Beagle. She doesn't listen, eats a lot, is hyperactive and barks all the time. I love her! :-P

And for Peluche it was also love at first sight:

New Family Members

2010-09-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

I bought 4 more fishes, 3 Kois (well, mini-Kois) and another veiltail.
But that's not it! We also got a second dog. We thought it would be good for Nala to have a friend. Cristian wanted another American Stafford, but I didn't really want to have another dog with that strength and that stubborn character. Nala can be very friendly, but she can also be a real bitch. She doesn't really like strangers coming to our apartment. I guess, it is natural for a guard dog, but it makes receiving visitors a bit difficult. Plus she is also scared of a lot of things and when she pulls on the leage or growls at somebody, she is just enforcing the bad reputation that fight dogs already have.
That is why I wanted to have a dog that's very intelligent and a big people-lover. And the first dog that came to my mind was a Labrador. I am not a big fan of the yellow ones, but would love to have a brown one. However, we have an apartment which is not exactly huge and therefore a labrador didn't seem to be the best idea.
Cristian wanted to have an English Bull Terrier, but I was completely against that. They are fairly aggressive, ugly and incredibly expensive.
But then I saw an ad on the internet where they were selling a 2-months old Pocket Beagle. It's a small Beagle and he was so cute!!! So, we went to see it and bought it!
Nala has always been very friendly with other dogs. But when we brought the little Beagle, she was a bit angry. She doesn't like new living beings in her house. But within minutes she realized that this could be a new friend and she became all excited. So excited that we were afraid that she would hurt the little one while playing. But she also understood that she has to be more careful with the little one. I know, it's hard to believe that a supposedly so mean breed of dog (like an America Stafford) can be so lovely with such a little creature.
By that time we still didn't really have a name for our small Beagle. At first we wanted to call him Frodo because he is small and Hobbits are also small. But then Cristian's sister said: "He is like a stuffed animal with batteries." Because he is so cute and has so much energy. From that moment one we only called him Peluche (which is the Spanish word for "stuffed toy animal").
So far Peluche has tried to chew and eat everything, is continuously playing with Nala and peeing in the house. For housebreaking him I will need lots of patience because Beagle are said to be stubborn! (Didn't I mention I don't want another stubborn breed? Well....)

And here come the pictures:

Peluche:

Nala and Peluche saying Good Night to each other:Nala and Peluche very tired after having played all day:
Peluche and Peter (the 11-months old Golden Retriever of Melissa, Cristian's sister):

Piccolini (a 2 cm "big" veiltail):Pocahontas (the red Koi) and Bambi (the yellow Koi):

Shiva (also a Koi; all my Kois are only about 4 cm long):

No luck...

2010-09-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

And another fish died. This time our bala shark Bagira. Why? Well, I blame it on the petshops. Everytime we buy a new fish we always ask if it can live in a small aquarium and if there is something special this kind needs. We are just beginners and don't know a lot of aquariums.
The petshop told us that the bala shark (Bagira) and the shark catfish (Chispa) will grow to about 20 cm, but that it will take about 20 years. The petshop didn't say anything about other special conditions. Well, in the future we were planning on getting a bigger aquarium anyway, so we were fine with the fact that the fishes will grow more.
However, 5 or 6 days ago, Bagira started to spend lots of time hiding in a corner and not moving much. He also didn't eat. Sometimes he would start floating, but with the head down and tail up. I once took him out of the aquarium and put him into a bowl and fed him seperately. After that he seemed to be better, swam more again, but would still float in that weird position. That was when I started reading about his kind. It turns out that this fish needs an aquarium of about 1,5 m (even when they are small), a lot of oxygen, sand on the ground and that they do not want to live alone. Well, our aquarium is a very small one, we have stones on the ground (like the petshops as well who sell those sharks), we have our oxygen pump on low and there are often electricity blackouts and we only bought one of his kind. So, did he die because he didn't get enough oxygen during one of the blackouts or did he swim so fast that he hit the wall and hurt himself? I don't know, but sure is that we definitely didn't have the right place for him.
Yesterday, I looked at the aquarium and saw all the veitails in one corner...attacking Bagira. I chased them away, but Bagira couldn't turn around anymore; he was swimming with the belly up now. And the other fishes continued attacking him. So, I took him out and he was barely breathing. After 5 minutes, he had died.
So, now we have 3 veiltails and 1 shark catfish left over. And here a little story about our shark catfish. The petshop told us he would grow to a size of 20 cm and that he is a very peaceful fish. In reality, he will grow to up 1 m and when he is big enough he will probably start eating the smaller fishes. I guess, we will have to sell him than. For now I want to keep him; at the moment he is only 4 cm long.

And here the pictures and little explanations (but I am not so sure about some of the English names):
Chispa is an albino shark catfish (Pangasius hypophthalmus var. Albino). As mentioned above: Right now only 4 cm long, but will grow A LOT!
Nakoma is an orange veiltail (Carassius auratus var. Red Comet). She is the biggest. Around 6 cm long and very fat; she eats a lot! (Brida was as big as her.)
Balu is an calico veiltail (Carassius auratus var. Calico). He is the smallest with only 2,5 cm. He only has one eye, but is doing just fine.
And Sophie is a (normal) veiltail (Carassius auratus). She is a bit smaller than Nakoma, around 4,5 cm. But she also likes to eat.
Nakoma, Balu and Sophie belong to the group of goldfishes and are easy to take care of, but they will all grow more. Chispa belongs to the group that is supposedly the hardest to take care of, probably because of the size.
But they are all oriental fishes.

Sophie:

Balu:
Balu and Nakoma:

Nakoma and Chispa (Bagira is hiding in the corner):

Nakoma and Bagira:

Bagira:

Balu, Chispa and Sophie:

Chispa, Bagira, Balu, Sophie and Nakoma:

Brida and Co.

2010-08-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Cristian's sister has an aquarium and since we are living in the same house, we thought we could just buy a fish and put it in there.
So, off we went to a pet store. Cristian and I have no knowledge about fishes. That is why when we chose our fish, we chose the prettiest one (a silver-ornage veiltail) without knowing which kind it was. When we told the owner of the pet store that this fish will live together with a bunch of tropical fish, he came up with a little "ohoh". The fish we wanted to buy was an oriental fish and you should try to keep only tropical or only oriental fish, but not mix them. But the pet shop owner insured us that our fish will be fine since she was fairly big (about 5 cm long). On our way to the car we went by another pet shop and went in to check out the fishes there. And the person who worked there was much more negative about our oriental fish living with tropical fish. He told us that a very tiny tropical fish could kill our new pet.
While we went home, we decided to call our fish Brida. Then we put her into the aquarium and only 10 minutes later the first fishes started to follow and attack her although she was much bigger. It got so bad that we took her out of the aquarium, into a flower vase and drove to the next pet shop to get our own aquarium. While we bought that, we also bought a few more fishes (friends for Brida): Balu (a tiny orange, dark, red and silver veiltail with only one eye which we found out when we had him at home), Nakoma (a big orange veiltail) and Sophie (a small silver and orange veiltail). This time when we put all the fish together, they seemed to get along just fine; like a big family!
A few days later we saw another pet shop and this one had sweetwater sharks. So, we got two tiny ones and called them Bagira and Chispa.
However, a few days ago, Brida and Nakoma started to act weird. Brida was laying with her belly on the bottom of the aquarium and not moving much. From time to time Nakoma would do the same. The next day when I checked the fishes, Brida was already dead and the other fishes were attacking her. So, I took her out and ever since Nakoma is nearly continuously laying at the bottom of the aquarium as well. I am not so sure if she will make it! Let's keep our fingers crossed.
We don't really know what is the reason for our two biggest fishes getting sick. Did we overfeed them? Is the aquarium too small? Is something wrong with the water? But if yes, why are the small fishes all healthy and active?
However, we were really sad when Brida died because she was our favorite because we had her first and she was very beautiful! Unfortunately, she died so soon that we didn't even have time to take a picture of her. That's why I stole one from the internet. Let's hope that there is something like a heaven for fishes!

Once all our fishes are well off again, I will also post some pictures of our aquarium.

If this week continues like that, I will...

2010-07-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

Seriously, I do not know what I will do. Maybe dig a big hole in the back yard and stay in there until the week it over! :-P
So, you probably want to know what happened.
Every Sunday evening Cristian comes to San José and we spent the whole Monday together. Luckily, I do not have to work Mondays. So, usually we start out doing whatever needs to be done: wash the clothes, buy something (in that case, new tires) and then we get Nala and take her somewhere to take a nice big walk. Last time we went into the woods of Heredia. It was really nice because we were the only people there and Nala could run around without a leage. But then we heard some thunder and decided to return home.
Half-way back home we were stuck in traffic for a whole hour because there is a bridge that only has enough space for one car at a time. But during being in traffic, the thunderstorm started and an end-of-the-world-rain started. The streets turned into rivers and we were glad that we had changed the tires (because our old ones didn't have a profile anymore). All the time, we had the windshiel-wipers, the radio and the air conditioning running because our windows had become foggy.
Once the traffic jam finally had resolved we were happy that now we finally can go home and have some dinner. But suddenly our windshiel-wipers stopped working and it still was raining like crazy. So, Cristian and I both leaned out of the windows to see where we were going because you couldn't see ANYTHING through the front window. The ride went like this:
Cristian: Where are we? I can't see anything! Are there any people on the street?
Sabine: No. But go more to the right, there is a big hole. Oh NO, now more to the left, you nearly hit that car.
Cristian: I can't see anything. I can't see anything!
Sabine: Turn left, turn left, there is a side street.
Cristian: Where? I can't see it!
Sabine: Now, now turn!!!
We had finally found a side street to turn into to try to get those wipers working again. But as soon as we were off the busy streets, the wipers started wiping again. Cristian and I were completely wet because we had to hang our heads and shoulders outside of the window to see something. Once we were safe, we had to laugh our heads off. Although the situation had been incredibly dangerous, at the end it was so hillarious how wet we were and how we even made it into that street.
Well, wipers were working again and made our way through lots of side streets with huge holes in the street (which are normal here in Costa Rica). Unfortunately, when it rains a lot you can't see the holes anymore. But even then the wipers would stop working once in a while and then start again (like they had a mind of their own).
Then we turned onto a bigger street and suddenly the whole street became into a big lake and you couldn't see how deep the water was. There was a truck in front of us. It suddenly stopped; probably because he was afraid that the lake was too deep to go through. But he didn't only stop, he went backwards. Cristian tried to hunk the horn, but it didn't work, we yelled and screamed, but the truck driver didn't hear anything and hit our car! Cristian was very angry, opened the dorr, jumped out of the car and stopped: He was shocked how deep the water was! It turned out to be knee-high. Well, the truck driver was pretty nice and told us that he would pay for any damage. But there wasn't much damage; just a bit of paint gone. The real problem came now: Our car was completely dead! We couldn't start it; there seemed to be no electricity at all. At least the truck driver and Cristian managed to push the car out of the lake into dry territory. However, after a while, the electricity seemed to come back: The light inside the car was working again, the radio come on and off and the little lights behind the wheel turned on again. But it was not enough to turn on the car. We tried to start it by rolling down the street and start it in second (with the help of somebody we met on the street), but that didn't work either. At the end, they pushed the car onto the side of the street under the lights because it really is not so safe to be standing around in a dead car at night in San José. During all that time, my monster puppy would bark and growl at everybody who tried to help push or move the car. Well, she is a guard dog and the car officially belongs to her territory. So, I'm sorry, but she is just doing her job!
Ater an hour and a half of trying ourselves, we called the boyfriend of Cristian's mom and he came right away. Luckily, he knows a lot about cars and got our battery working again. (Suddenly we realized why our wipers went crazy and why we couldn't start the engine anymore. We were in that traffic jam for nearly an hour and weren't going anywhere, but we had all those things running that need electricity. It's an old car: OF COURSE, it will have an empty battery later on. Well, lesson learned...we won't do that again.)
We made it home, at something and went to bed right away.
As if that Monday wasn't bad enough, on Tuesday morning I woke up, looked at my dog and nearly got a heart attack: Nala's face was completely swollen, one eye nearly closed, and she had bumps all over her body. I was pretty sure it was just an allergy, but didn't know against what. At first I didn't want to go to the vet right away because usually things like that go away by itself. But a few hours later, Nala looked even worse and both eyes were nearly closed because they were so swollen. Plus she was scratching herself so furiously that I was afraid that she would destroy all her beautiful fur. So, I took a shower, grabed Nala and went to the vet.
The vet wasn't surprised at all and told me that this happens all the time. However, when he told me what it was, I had to ask twice. Not because I couldn't understand his Spanish, but because it seemed so unbelievable: Nala must have encountered a spider in the woods and it felt threatened. To protect itself, it peed in Nala's eyes and that urine triggered an allergic reaction. The vet gave her two shots, Nala tried to eat the vet (but only after the second shot) and then we went home. Once home, Nala slept all day, but at least the swelling went down and she didn't scratch herself anymore.
On Wednesday I always teach a German course a language institute called Universal de Idiomas. Well, because of Goethe I had to resign there. (Goethe is afraid that I use their wonderful material for the competition.) So, on Sunday I had send them an e-mail telling them that this is my two-weeks notice and that I have two more lessons planned and after that I will have to give that course to another teacher.
Well, when I arrived to Universal de Idiomas on Wednesday evening, the new teacher was already there to teach the course. I was totally confused! They had obviously not understand the idea of a two-weeks notice, meaning that I will work two more weeks although I resigned. I was angry because I went to downtown San José for nothing, but also glad that I could leave early!
It's Thursday now and nearly evening. So far, nothing had happened! Let's leep the fingers crossed!

Miracles do Happen!

2010-07-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Right now Nala and I live in the house of Cristian's mom. Most people now probably think that it must be horrible to live with the future mother-in-law, but it is not so. Marta is a friendly woman and since I have to rooms here, it nearly feels like having my own apartment. Her house is in a good location and with the small rent we are paying, she will build us a real apartment for the furture. So, all in all, everything is cool! But of course, we will not live in her house forever. The reason why we are not living together at the moment is that we are saving money to buy our own house. Cristian is having a well-paying job in a restaurant called Tres Hermanas in Guanacaste and San José is the only place where I can find work. So, for the sake of our future, we decided to wait until the new Tres Hermanas is finished in San José and then Cristian will work there. However, it will take a few more months until the restaurant is build! :-/
However, there was one problem before Nala and I could move into Marta's house. She is of the opinion that dogs have to live outside because they are dirty and she is scared to death of big dogs like Nala! (And when Nala feels that somebody is scared, she gets crazy and growls and barks at that person.)
We had taken Nala to San José once before and for three nights she had to sleep outside in a little hut. But since Nala is used to sleeping inside (in our bed), she was crying and howling all night long and ate badly. (The howling was quite impressive though. I didn't even know that she can howl like a wolf!) So, there was only one way that Nala could come to San José with me and that was living inside the house. It took a long time to convince Marta that Nala is not a dirty dog, that she will not pee and shit inside the house and she will also not destroy her furniture. (Yes, Nala likes to chew on absolutely everything, but thank God she does not chew on furniture!)
The first few days I was very careful: I was always with Nala when she was outside in the yard or running around in the house. I didn't let her go to close to Marta because she was still afraid of her. But after a week, Marta finally got used to having Nala around and she even attempted to touch her. A week after that, she didn't even mind when Nala jumped up to her. (Nala likes being really close to somebody's head. So, she jumps up to people all the time and it looks like she wants to dance with them or hug them.) And yesterday the absolutely impossible thing happened: Usually I put Nala into a little garage when I go to work (which was also the agreement between Marta and me because she does not like it when Nala is alone in my room). And although Nala doesn't like it, I don't see a problem with it because it's just for 4 hours and not even every day. However, yesterday Nala had cut her paw (probably by stepping on glass) and I didn't want her to be running around all evening (because that is what she is doing in the garage: running back and worth and barking at people), so I wanted to put her into my room. But Marta suggested that I could let Nala run around outside in the yard since she was there anyway. I nearly had an heartattack because I couldn't believe that Marta felt comfortable enough to be alone with Nala. I assumed that after a while Marta would just close the door to the yard and leave Nala there alone, but that would have been fine. However, when I came home that night, I didn't find Nala in the yard, she was in my room, sleeping on the armchair. When Marta heard that I came home, she opened the door of her bedroom and said: "Nala went inside your room at around 6 o'clock and I even let the door open, so that she could run around in the house, but she didn't want to." Then I nearly had my second heart attack. She left the door open, so that Nala can round around alone in her precious living room??? I couldn't believe it!
As a conclusion: It was a miracle that Marta allowed us to have Nala inside the house, but an even bigger miracle that she agreed to take care of her! I am sure that Marta will miss Nala by the time we move out of her house! :-P

And since we are already talking about Nala anyway: One day when I went walking with her in the neighborhood, I passed a house where two dirty mutts were barking at Nala. After that a woman came out of the house, saw Nala and said: "Look at that girl, she is walking her Pitbull on a public street!" I just turned around, shook my head and tried to find out what her problem was. Because: First of all, Nala is not a Pitbull; she is an American Stafford! She might look like a Pitbull, but a Pitbull would already be much bigger than she is. Secondly, in contrast to other countries, Costa Rica does not have any laws against dogs (attack/fighting dogs) like Nala. In Costa Rica I could have her run around in the city without a leash. Of course, I don't do that. (In Germany, the case would be very different: I would have to pay higher taxes for Nala, make her wear a muzzle, get a special training for her and so on and so on.) Well, ever since that woman complained, I now pass by her house every single day and there is nothing she can do. And if she called the police, they would probably die laughing; they have better things to do in San José than to go after a non-Pitbull who is being taking for a walk on a public street which is not even against the law!

PS. Nala is in heat right now and since lots of little drops of blood make you have to clean a lot, she has to wear underwear now. However, she does not think it's very cool to wear my panties! :-P

Old jobs, new jobs, more jobs...

2010-06-06T17:52:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know, I haven't written anything in ages. Quitting jobs, getting new jobs and still running to interviews kinda makes you tired.
Well, let's start with the old jobs. I quit my job at that supposedly so prestigious school. Well, it may look fancy from the outside, but it defenitely was not fancy in the inside. Classes with 30 students without respect for the teacher or their classmates, without motivation and no will to participate in anything made me wonder why this school has such a great reputation. I also was tired of fighting about their grades: They expected an average of 95 for not doing anything! I am sorry, but in a conversation class you actually have to say something to get a good grade! And in the 8th grade I was teaching I felt like a lion tamer! Oh yeah, and then there was this English festival. Well, in Germany we also have project weeks where the actual classes do not take place, but the teachers make you work on some kind of other academic projects. New Hope had a whole project months and it was mostly not academic because all my classes decided to do a dance for the talent show of the English festival. So, instead of having classes they were dancing all day (for a whole month). One might think that I must have been very happy because I had nothing to do and got paid for watching them dance. Well, not quiet so. Yes, I was getting paid for not doing much, but I was also always in trouble: the director was complaining that the 11th grade had the music too loud while they were practicing, the English coordinator was complaining that I wasn't far enough in the book .... Furthermore, I have never felt so uncomfortable with collegues at other working places. I don't know why, but I simply couldn't build any friendship or even comradeship with them. I totally felt out of place! So, one day I went to school (was being late) and I was pretty sure they would fire me anytime soon anyway because also the school knew that I was out of place there and I went to the accountant and told her that I know that I cannot continue working there. She agreed and told me that the English coordinator was going to fire me on that day anyway! That's what I call perfect timing! :-P Why did they fire me? Well, I was late very often because the school was very far away and oftentimes the San José traffic was not on my side: busses were late or full and wouldn't stop at my bus stop or there were accidents and the bus took forever to get into the city and so on. Plus they saw that I am not somebody who gets all excited because I was able to watch the kids dancing for a whole month!
But don't worry: I was not out of a job! I had already taken over quite a few courses at a language institute teaching German. The German teacher had to go to Germany because of a sick grandfather and decided to stay for a long time. However, the courses at those institutes are very unstable because they are very small and the whole institute lacks organization. So, one month you might have 8 courses and the next only 4.
But don't worry: I am still not out of a job! In June I started working for Centro Goethe: the most amazing work place ever with a very good salary and super nice collegues and managers! I love love love that job!!! Right now I only have 2 courses. I might get one more in July and for September I already gave my availibility for many more courses.
However, although I have two jobs, I still have lots of free time. So, right now I am looking for an English teaching job that can give me 10-12 hours working in the mornings. I have already been to quite a few interviews and guess what? All of those institutes want to give me courses, BUT not like I want them. Some only have one or two courses for me, others only want me to work in the evenings where I already teach Germans, others don't want to pay enough, others want me full-time for which I do not have enough time.... So yes, I am being picky. I would like to work for 2, maximum 3 companies, and get a decent salary from that. If I work for 5 or 6 different institutes and only have 2 or 3 courses each, I will lose the overview where my money is coming from and the locations where I have to go to to teach.
On Tuesday I have an interview with an institute that offers English courses for companies. And although I do not have a TESL certificate or am a native speaker (two of the requirements for that institute) they called me after I sent my resumé and seemed to be very interested. Let's see how it goes! It would be too nice to be true if I get that job!

Nicaragua, Part 2

2010-05-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

And I'm beginning to hate it.
90 days were over again and I had to go abroad once more. Well, Nicaragua is still the closest country to go to and still the one of the cheapest. But this time Cristian came with me, thank God!
Our plan was to go to San Juan del Sur (a town on the Pacific side) to go surfing. But after we had brought Nala to a friend, parked the car somewhere close to the bus station, we realized that Cristian had forgotten his body board. So, we got back into the car, went back home, took the board and returned to the bus station. Fortunately, we still caught the bus in time.
At the border it was the usual: Waiting in confusing lines in a dusty and hot place. And again: If you want to get into Nicaragua, you have to pay! (Getting into Costa Rica is for free: I love this country!)

After paying, we went straight to one of the old chicken busses and Cristian wondered if this was a regular bus. Bus yes, it was. Nearly all the busses in Nicaragua are old, dirty, uncomfortable and noisy school busses from the US. The bus brought us to the crossroad which leads to San Juan del Sur. There we were sitting in the sun and waiting for the bus. However, after half an hour it still wasn't there, but a taxi stopped and offered us a very good price. So, with more comfort and just a little more expense we went to San Juan del Sur. There we quickly found a hostel which had private rooms. Per night we paid $20 for the both of us.
The receptionist said that at the beach in San Juan del Sur are just little waves and to go surfing we would have to go to another beach. Cristian was very disappointed. But when we took a walk to the beach, he regreted that he hadn't taken his board with him because the waves were not so small and would have been perfect for body surfing.
Although the waves in San Juan del Sur weren't so bad, we decided to see another beach. So, on the second day we went to the beach of Maderas. The waves were quite big and fast. Too much for me. I decided to stay in the shade and have a few beers. At the end of the day, Cristian and I were completely fried by the sun. Cristian hadn't even put sunscreen although he was in the sun all day. So yes, Latinos can also get sunburned!

On the next day we stayed in San Juan del Sur and I also did some surfing.

San Juan del Sur doesn't really offer anything else except the beach, a big statue of a nun on top of a mountain and little stalls that sell expensive jewellery.

So, and why do I hate it? Well, let's say it like this: Costa Rica wants tourism and therefore tourists are treated like kings. Nicaragua accepts tourism and treats their tourists like crap. Especially when you are travelling with a Costa Rican. Nicaraguans hate Costa Ricans because Costa Rica is much richer. There are thousands of Nicaraguans trying to get a work permit for Costa Rica and there are thousands of Nicaraguans who are illegally working in Costa Rica. Whenever I have to run an errand to get my residencia/work permit, I am always the only non-Nicaraguan person there. So, most Nicaraguans we met were unfriendly and unwilling to provide a good service.
On the way back to the Costa Rican border, we took two taxis. One from San Juan del Sur to the crossroad again and the other one from the crossroad to the border. Usually the taxis charge up to $25 from the border to San Juan del Sur, but if you take two taxis and the taxi already has one or two people in it, then they go down with the prices a lot. And we ended up paying $5 for getting to the border and only paid about $1 more than we would have in a bus.
To get out of Nicaragua you have to pay again. And then I finally was in Costa Rica again. I have never been that happy to be back home!
I might have to go abroad one more time before I have my residencia. And I'm thinking about going to Panama then!

Nearly Nalaless!

2010-04-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, the 11th of April Nala was hit by a car. We were taking our walk in the late afternoon and I saw that her collar was becoming undone. I wanted to adjust it and the moment it was a bit loose, Nala saw a dog on the other side of the street and escaped. However, she did not run over the street right away. She ran to the side of the street, sniffed the grass and then decided to cross the street slowly. However, the driver of the police car was either blind or didn't like dogs because he accelarated even more and hit her on her left side at about 60 km/h. (I'm pretty sure it was on purpose because the police car was just on its way back to the base, so there was no reason to go that fast on a street full of dogs and kids. Plus he must have seen her on the side of the street because although Nala is only 5 months old, she is really not small. And when I see a dog on the side of the street, I slow down instead of speeding up. Last but not least, if you happen to hit a dog accidently because you didn't see it, then you stop and see if you can help the owner to bring it to the vet. But of course, the police car did not stop.)
The moment she was hit, I was sure she would die. Although she came running back to me, she immediately lay down and didn't move at all. Blood was running out of her mouth and left eye, she was breathing heavely and very loudly, she had little wounds everywhere and when I wanted to take her into my arms to carry her home, she cried like crazy. Fortunately, Cristian came as fast as he could home from work and we drove Nala to the town of Las Juntas to bring her to a vet.
But of course, both vets were out of town because it was Sunday evening. We had to wait two hours until one of them arrived. She had already been in the bus when we called her, but far away. Since Nala was breathing with such difficulty, I was afraid that her rips were broken and piercing into her lungs.
When the vet finally came, she gave Nala something against the pain and some liquid. She assured us that nothing was broken which seems like a wonder. But her breathing was still very heavy and she had had internal bleedings. But since no vet in Las Juntas had x-rays or an ultrasound, we couldn't find out where she was bleeding internally or why she couldn't breath well.
At 10 pm we took her home and spend the whole night beside her on the floor. In total I probably slept like 2,5 hours that night.
The next morning we brought her to the vet again and although she said that her belly wasn't as hard or swollen anymore, she was worried about Nala's breathing. She expected water or blood in her lungs. Plus she could barely walk because everything hurt her so much.
So, we decided to bring Nala to San José to a vet with x-ray and ultrasound. (Of course, I should have been working on Monday, but I told them the truth that I can't come to work because my dog had an accident.)
Close to San José, in Heredia, we found an animal hospital where they took great care of her. They made an x-ray and saw that really nothing was broken, but that one of her lungs had collapsed. And the ultrasound showed that the internal bleedings had already stopped. But because of her breathing difficulties, they wanted to keep her at the hospital.
So, we went back to San José without our beloved baby. On the way, Cristian hit a motorcycle and it wasn't even his fault because the motorcycle was on our side of the road. However, it was a big problem because although Cristian drives fairly well, he only has a licence for motorcycles, but not for cars. So, he gave the driver some money, so that he wouldn't call the police.
On Tuesday I still couldn't go to work because I felt like crying all day. And the hospital called us for the permission to make a little surgery. I'm not sure what it is called in medical terms. But it is done to get the air surrounded the collapsed lungs out of the body and then the lung can inflate again. However, shortly before the surgery, Nala was breathing much better and they didn't have to do the surgery at all. That day at night we visited her and we could already see a little improvement because she could get up and stand and was really happy to see us. And they told us that her lung is now slowly inflating itself again.
Since Cristian had to go back to Las Juntas and I had to work on Wednesday and Thursday and didn't have a safe place for her to stay in San Josè, we decided to leave her in the hospital until Thursday. I didn't have time to visit her on Wednesday, so on Thursday I expected to still having to carry her around all the time. One of the doctors carried Nala into the waiting room and when she saw me, she went crazy. She wanted to be put down, came running to me, jumped and was the happiest girl alive. She didn't look sick at all! I couldn't believe it because I had been so worried that she would never be able to walk normally again.
On the way to San José, she showed her very worst behaviour though: She growled and barked at Cristian's mom and she peed and shit in the car. (Just about a week before she had already thrown up in it. Poor car, it really doesn't deserve it.)
Well, although she seems to be doing so much better now, we still have to give her antibiotics and she has to rest for the next 15 days. I built her a little prison with our furniture and she hates not being able to run around. Although her breathing is much better, her lung is still not fully recovered. I guess, at the moment, she is breathing with 1 1/4 lungs. She still has an ugly-looking wound on her left elbow and her left ear looks pretty ripped up. There is also a big scar on her right hipbone and I think she lost two or three teeth, but those might have been baby teeth. We will see in a few weeks. And due to the antibiotics she is not eating too well because they make stomach aches. However, as soon as you give her something really delicious, like cooked liver or chicken hearts, she forgets the stomach aches and eats everything. I try to trick her into also eating her actual dog food in mixing it with the pieces of liver.
The vetarany bills in total are about $260 and in a country where the average wage per country is around $500 per month, that bill is huge. Cristian and I both earn a little more, but it's still a lot of money for us. However, we think it was worth every cent of it!!!

Prison Girl:

The happiest dog alive...

2010-03-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

...is Nala. Well, she is at least the happiest and most spoiled dog in Costa Rica.
The longer I have her, the more sorry I feel for all the other dogs in Costa Rica. Most dogs here only get table scraps and have never seen dog food. Nala gets special chewing bones and toys (which I hold for her so that they won't slip away when she chews them), little treats for dogs, cookies that are good for her breath and teeth.... I sometimes even brush her teeth.
I am the only one in Las Juntas that regularly takes her dog for walks. All the other dogs are either only in their backyard or have to go for walks alone. Lately lots of people asked me if Nala bites. And I now found out why. The only reason why you would have a dog on a leage in Costa Rica is if the dog bites. However, I have Nala on the leage when I walk close to a street because I am afraid she could run onto the street and be hit by a car. And I see enough dead smashed dogs along the big street just outside of Las Juntas.
Of course, there is no other dog in Costa Rica that is allowed to sleep in the owner's bed or sit on the sofa. Nearly all the dogs are not even allowed to go inside the house. Here in Costa Rica dogs sleep outside.
What I have also realized is that Nala is the cleanest dog in Costa Rica. Since she is mostly inside and sleeps in our bed, I try to keep her really clean. When she is dusty from outside, then I brush her fur and when she is very stinky than I give her a bath. Our neighbor's dog looks grey because he is so dirty. But his original color is black. Furthermore, compared to other dogs, Nala's fur looks unnaturally shiny. But that shinyness is a sign of a healthy and happy dog.
I hope Nala knows how lucky she was that we bought her. I bet all her brothers and sisters have a much simpler life than she does. I now feel obliged to get many more dogs to save them from their terrible fate in Costa Rican families and I might also start feeding our neighbor's dog; he's so skinny!

PS. My favorite nickname for Nala is "Püppi" which is German and means "doll".

Always the first in bed...and the last!

Looking cute.

Being lazy. (It looks like she is wearing lipstick!)

Püppi is giving Cristian a hug.

Playing ball at the beach.

Her hunting position.

Running like a crazy girl.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...

2010-03-30T16:43:00.000-07:00

Well, at New Hope I was promised that the discipline is really good in the classes. Right now I am wondering what they meant with that: In the 11th grade the students leave the class room without asking to talk to friends from other classes during my class, the continously talk although I ask them every 2 minutes to be quiet, they don't take the exercises seriously.... In my 8th grade I even get resistance when I ask them to open the book to page 10, they absolutely NEVER pay attention, they also talk continously, yell at each other, run around in class.... However, I only do very little teaching of classes because most of my schedule has reserved spots for private tutoring for students who need extra help. But so far I haven't done any of that.
Since I had so much success finding several teaching jobs, I continued applying for my adult teaching positions. And within a week I had two more jobs. After Easter I will start teaching German (and later on English) at a private language institut in San José City and in June I will start teaching German at the Goethe Centro. Goethe exists worldwide and is one of the best institutions for teaching German. And they pay so well that I immediately agreed to also work Saturdays.
I think at the end of this school year (which is in Decemmber in Costa Rica) I will look into working more hours at Goethe and other private institutes for adult education and will completely stop teaching kids. Teaching adults is so much more relaxing and I won't lose my voice due to yelling at those students.

Wanted!

2010-03-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I already told you that I had pretty much given up finding a job without my residencia. But I had found a niche in the job market where I canwork without it: private schools and private organisations for teaching adults. And that's why last week I could have had 3 full-time jobs.
So, here the full story. But pay attention; it will get confusing!
I figured that the Christian Liberty Academy (I will call it LCA for short.) will not be my favorite place to work at. First of all, I was not able to teach all the courses I was supposed to because at the interview the director had not told me about the two advanced math courses. Secondly, the director only wanted to pay me a part-time salary, but gave me a schedule where I had to be in school 4 days a week. Thirdly, religion and its projects seemed to be more important for that school than the actual teaching. Teachers have to come to school 45 minutes before classes start to discuss chapters of the bible and pray. (I'm sorry, but my sleep is more important than reading the Bible at 7.15 am. That's why I was always late. I always came in at exactly at 8 am when classes started.) And last, but not least, that school had big problems with discipline. Well, at a public school I wouldn't be surprised about it, but at a private school I expect better teaching conditions. However, that school was so small and doing pretty badly with its student numbers that they took absolutely every student without considering the behaviour problems. Because of all those reasons, I continued applying for other schools.
On the internet there is a nice wepbage with nearly all of the private schools in Costa Rica and even when they were not looking for any new teachers, I would send them an e-mail. And one of those schools called me the next day. It's called New Hope and it's one of the best and most prestigious schools in Costa Rica. (However, when I applied for it I didn't know about that.) It's located in Heredia, a neighboring city of San José. By bus it took me 2 hours to get to the school, but by car (which I have) it will only take my 30 minutes. Already at the interview the director told me that I would be her first choice, but that she will go on interviewing other people to give them a chance. I think that I am so wanted here because of my Master degree. Lots of people here in Costa Rica go to university, but they only get a Bachelor degree. Having a Mater degree here really helps.
So, the interview for New Hope was on Wednesday. On Tuesday I had already been to a failry challenging English exam to apply for a job at Berlitz. (Berlitz is an institute that exists worldwide and offers very expensive language courses in lots of different languages, including English and Spanish.) Berlitz did call me on Wednesdayto set up an interview because I had passed the exam. So, on Thursday I dressed all pretty and met the director of Berlitz, the type of women I absolutely hate. Everything on her was perfect; there was no space for creativity or relaxedness. She asked me a bunch of prepared questions and told me how much I would be earning. That was the most disappointing thing: Berlitz pays less for a full-time job than LCA would have. But if you have a full-time job at Berlitz you have to be available all day during the week and Saturday Meaning, you might have a course at 7 am till 9 am in the morning, then another one at about noon and the last course at around 7 pm. That does not leave you any time for yourself because you spend all the rest of the time travelling back and worth or waiting for the next course to start. Plus Berlitz is so posh that you have to come to work in business attire, you are constantly observed and I think I simply can't work like that. However, since I had not had an answer from New Hope at that time, I agreed to come to the training course which you have to take to be able to teach at Berlitz.
And now it gets confusing: When I came to LCA on Thursday, a teacher there told me that they probably now need a English and World History teacher and I got all excited because that is something I would prefer a thousand times to teaching maths. What happened was: The English teacher had said a few not-so-nice things to that undisciplined 7th grade and when they parents of that grade had a meeting with him, he got very frustrated and threatened to quit. And then, on Thursday he simply didn't show up without calling in or sending an e-mail. So, on Thursday and Friday the director had me substitute for all the English and World History classes. However, although the director didn't want this old English teacher back and although he hadn't showed up for two days in a row without giving any notice, she could not fire him because in Costa Rica you have to abondan work for 3 days to be fired. And the third day would have been Monday. Now I was really in trouble. LCA is much closer than New Hope to Cristian's parents' house and would therefore save me money and time on travelling. However, New Hope had promised me a schedule of only 4 days a week from 9.20 am to 2.20 pm with a full-time salary (in LCA I would have to work 5 days from 7.15 am to 3 pm for the same money). Plus, I was told (and I also believe that) that at New Hope the discipline is much better. Furthermore, it's such a well-known school that in the future I could apply at any other school and would have very high chances that they take me. So, when at 11 am New Hope called me and offered me the job, I immediately said yes. I sent Berlitz an e-mail that I won't come to their training and told LCA that although the English position might be available, that I will not come back to teach for them.
So, now it's Sunday and since on Friday I did not have the time to go to New Hope to talk to them, I have absolutely no idea what I will be teaching tomorrow. Their actual English teacher is very sick and can't be contacted. So, tomorrow I will have a bunch of improvising to do. If I at least knew which grades I will be teaching....

Sometimes I really think San José doesn't like me...

2010-03-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

...but I really like San Josè, except for its streets.
So, since the teaching job at that small Christian school is only part-time, I am still job-hunting. But whenever I step into a bus, the nightmare begins.
First of all, ALL the streets in San José look exactly alike and I am not the only one that says that. Second, there is no main bus station for the local busses or the over-land busses. So, if you want to go south to the Caribbeans, you have to go to another bus station then when you want to go to north to the beaches at the Pacific. For Germans that is very hard to understand because we have one huge central train station in the big cities and that is where all the trains are leaving from and will arrive. That makes changing trains so much easier! But the worst thing is that different local busses stop at different streets although the bus stop has the same name. Today I spent nearly an hour in a bus riding around San José (not knowing where I was) because the bus did not stop at the bus stop of Teatro Nacional that I already knew. But it stopped somewhere on a really busy street a bit away of Teatro Nacional. That is soooooo confusing for foreigners!!! I know, I'm spoiled. In Germany, the local buses, trams, and underground trains have nice little maps inside them and at every stop a speaker calls out the name of the stop and it is written in bright red letters on a display. I don't necessarily like Germany, but sometimes I have to admit that its infrastructure is simply amazing!
There is another point one can mention: San José's bus drivers are always in a bad mood and I know why. I can't imagine that anybody would like to be a bus driver there. The streets are always packed with cars and 50% of the drivers don't know that a red light means stop. (Of course, the streets of Berlin or Munich are also busy, but somehow it seems to be so much more organized.) I mostly feel pity for the bus driver. And soon I will feel sorry for me because my car is in San José right now and I have to drive it out of it...somehow...preferably alive...and the car being in one piece. Well, wish me luck!
Cristian said I complain too much about Costa Rica. Hmm...maybe that is right, but it doesn't mean that I don't like it. It's just that things are soooooo different here and it's easier to see the bad things than the good things. But I can point out some good things, e.g. getting a new passport here only takes 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks in Germany. It's easier to find a job than in Germany right now (if you have a working permit). And of course, it has all the incredible nature, empty white beaches and views you would never be able to find in Germany. Everytime I come to San José at night and you can see all those lights in the valley, it almost makes me cry; that's how pretty it is. (By the way, by daylight San Josè is, unfortunately, not so pretty anymore. I think I am having a dejavu...or have I written that exact same sentence before?)
Although I complain so much, I do want to stay in Costa Rica and I definitely want to move to San José or ... well, maybe the mountains of Heredia (more peace, more nature, lower temperatures)!

PS. Do you think I should send the Ministry of Transportation a little letter and suggest building an underground system for San José? Because that's the thing hat is missing!

Maths!?

2010-03-12T14:47:00.001-08:00

Although I had pretty much given up hope to ever finding a job without having my residencia (which is a little card that permits you to live and work in Costa Rica), I continued applying for jobs.
I had applied for a job as a bilingual secretary at a small private Christian school. But when the director called me to come for an interview, she had asked me if I also would be willing to teach Maths and Science. I was totally surprised because I don't have a teaching degree. But I had already been looking into the possibility of teaching and was therefore very happy about this possibility.
So, I went to the interview. But I didn't really think that I would get the job because I don't only not have a teaching degree, but I also never studied maths. Yes, I did study Business Studies which includes maths, but that is definitely not the same.
However, during the interview the director seemed to really like me and offered me the job as a part-time Maths teacher although I have never been baptised and I am not regularly attending a church here. (Those two factors are usually very important for Christian schools.)
Now one week of observing is over and I got to know all my students and the books. The 7th grade consists of 8 hyperactive students who also have learning abilities. That is going to be the toughest class to teach. But they are not mean or anything like that; just loud! The 8th grade consists of 2 nice and friendly students. The 9th grade only has one girl who mostly works on her own. The 10th grade consists of 2 nice girls who are not great at maths, but have very cute personalities. And the 11th grade consists of one boy. However, he is the hardest to teach because I cannot understand the Bachillerato book he is using. (The Bachillerato is taken at the end of high school.) Although the maths in it is not that complicated, I find it very hard to figure out what the book is trying to tell me. Plus it is in Spanish. Although I can usually understand conversations and newspaper articles in Spanish, it's much more difficult to understand a maths book.
However, all the other courses I will be teaching in English which makes it so much easier for me. From now on I will have to spend lots of time preparing my classes every week. And since the school is in San Josè and Cristian lives in Guanacaste, I will also have to travel back and worth every 3-4 days. During my days in San José I'll be living with Cristian's family. I am not so happy about the fact that I will now be without Cristian and Nala for 3 or 4 days a week, but I hope that the experience that I will gain there, will help me to find a full-time teaching job in the future.
There is just one probleme left: I had talked to the director about my problem of having to travel back and forth and although she said that she understands and that she will only have me at the school for 3 days, the schedule is still not in the way I would want it. And since she is only paying me half a salary, I expect her to make a schedule for me that allows me to spend 4 days with Cristian and Nala. But the last schedule she had for me would require me to stay in San José for 4 days. Some of you now might think that there is no way to do it differently because other courses might be involved. BUT that is not true because I myself worked out a version of a schedule where I would only be working three days. But she wasn't really interested in looking at it. Let's see what she can figure out during the next few days.

Cheap land, but nothing to do!

2010-02-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

Cristian, Nala and I jumped on the scooter and made a little trip down to a village called Colorado. It was supposed to have something like a beach.
On our way we found out that you can buy extremely cheap land there and later on we also found out why: Colorado doesn’t have anything! Not even the beach that we were looking for. Colorado is dusty, ugly and boring. So, if you buy land there, then only to build a big farm with lots of animals to keep you somehow busy.
The “beach” turned out to be a stony pathway leading into very dirty water. However, the view was nice!
After seeing that we asked around if there was a pool close by. And people gave us directions to something like a ranch with a restaurant, cabins, and a very dirty pool. So, we decided to not swim there and go back to Las Juntas to some thermal springs. But they turned out to be closed. That’s why we decided to go to a little pool in Las Juntas where Nala had a blast playing with the sprinkler.
It had been cloudy all day, but that doesn’t mean much in Guanacaste because it nearly never rains and it’s still hot. But yesterday it suddenly started raining and a lot. Nala was kind of scared because since she is with us, it has never rained here. So, we went back home and ended our day with a nice bbq!

PS. The first collar we bought for Nala is one made for puppies or small breeds, meaning it’s fairly wide, but not indestructible. I knew that one day it would not last anymore for her because she is so strong. However, I did not expect it to break when she is 3,5 months old. The metall ring which you use to attach the leash, simply snapped apart due to the force of her pulling! Well, there will be many more collars to come!

Who would want an ever-lasting summer?

2010-02-23T13:49:00.000-08:00

Some people (esp. Germans) are jealous when I tell them that I live in a place where it's always warm and sunny.
Well, I have always been a fan of seasons. Because after a long winter, you are incredibly looking forward to the spring and summer. And as soon as you can see five rays of sun, you are sitting outside and really enjoying life!
But now I am in the hottest and driest part of Costa Rica: Guanacaste. When I moved here, I was really glad that I escaped the heavy rains and humidity of the Caribbeans. And during the first few days in Guanacaste, I would sit outside in the burning midday sun and read a book. I enjoyed that for the first 2 weeks and then it started getting boring. Now every morning, I take a peek out of the window and pray that I can see at least a few tiny clouds and unless I absolutely have to, I will not leave my place in front of the fan. (Imagine: During the first 2 weeks I didn’t even want to buy one; now I can’t live without it.)
Lately I have been feeling very uncomfortable with this heat. Baking a few pancakes makes me sweat so much that I look like I have just taken a shower and forgotten to dry myself off. I sometimes also get kind of frustrated because we don’t have air-condition (which would not be normal for Costa Rican houses anyway) and there is simply no way to get away from the heat. (The fan doesn’t really produce anything else than a breeze of warm air.) I am sure that Cristian can’t really understand that being sweaty and hot all the time sometimes makes me be in a bad mood. But I feel like my German blood is boiling.
Here I wear my clothes for 5 hours and then I have to have a shower and change my clothes again. I don't even bother to put on any make-up; it would only run down my face in big rivers after 30 minutes. (And I loooooove make-up!)
In Germany, when we have a few hot days like this, they tell you on the radio and on TV that you should not go outside during the day unless you absolutely have to because the heat can be deadly. How true!
So, after this seemingly never-ending heat I am now looking forward to a long, very cold winter (which doesn’t even exist in Guanacaste). Would anybody like to buy me a plane ticket to the North Pole???

You might wonder...

2010-02-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

...where I live. My mom has asked me where this small village I live in is located. I always just tell everybody that I live in the north of Costa Rica. But now I stole a map from Googlemaps and marked a few places.
Puerto Viejo was the place where I worked at that ill-managed luxury hotel.
San José is the capital of Costa Rica and the place where Cristian's family lives.
Las Juntas is the little village where we are renting a house and living right now.
The neighboring countries of Costa Rica are Nicaragua in the north and Panama in the south. (I didn't even know that Nicaragua was a neighboring country when I moved to Costa Rica. *lol*)

Costa Rica = Pura Vida

2010-02-20T11:49:00.002-08:00

Since I just created this blog which is only going to be about Costa Rica, but don't really have anything exciting to say at the moment, I thought I just post pictures of the views out of my living room and kitchen window.

Not too bad for a third world country, is it? Or maybe I have something to say:
Not all third world countries are the same. Yes, Costa Rica is still considered third world, BUT it is one of the richest countries in Latin America and therefore not as under-developed as lots of people (esp. in Europe) think. Most of the towns could also be located in Spain or Italy considering their looks or infrastructure. The difference is: In Spain or Italy you won't find any slums surrounding big cities or indgenous people living in little huts without water and/or electricity. It makes me sad to know and see that in such a beautiful country. I also don't like the fact that Costa Rica still has monopolies (electricity, phone services, insurances...), but it doesn't really make my life MUCH harder here. (Apart from the fact that I had to wait for my phone number for 3 weeks. But I have heard of other foreigners in Costa Rica who have been waiting for a year and still don't have one.) But although the phone services are provided by a monopoly, it is not very expensive.
As a conclusion: You really can't put Costa Rica on the same level as other third world countries like Somalia, Nicaragua or Vietnam.

And he thought we were getting a dog...

2010-02-20T11:49:00.001-08:00

Before we got our puppy Nala, Cristian and I were already talking about how we would raise her.
Well, Cristian has the Costa Rican type of mind when it comes to dogs: They sleep and live outside on a chain, they will forever pee and destroy the house, they only get dog food.... In short, Costa Ricans treat their dogs like animals. And I have the German type of mind when it comes to dogs: They sleep inside, preferably in the bed, they will learn not to pee inside the house, even if it takes a long time, lots of patience and lots of cleaning up, a dog gets whatever food is good for it (including fresh meat, broccoli, carrots...). In short, we treat our dogs like we would treat our children. Do you see a problem here?
During the first few days, Cristian was always complaining that I would treat Nala like a baby. And yes, I was because she is one. I don’t want her to jump from high stones because the bones of puppies are not full developed yet and especially American Staffords tend to have hip problems later in life. So, I do carry her over high stones when we are hiking or I help her up and down the sofa.
The sofa: Cristian and I had both agreed that we don’t want Nala to be on the sofa and the first few days it worked fine because she hadn’t been able to jump very high. But now she is. Plus she loves to cuddle and likes to sleep on me and I do want to have a very strong bond to her. But I don’t always want to sit on the floor when I cuddle with her, so we started to allow her to be on the sofa with us.
The bed: We had both agreed that we don’t want her in the bed. And during the night, she does sleep on her blanket in front of our bedroom. BUT every morning, after she has peed, she is allowed to jump into bed with us and cuddle with us for as long as we continue to stay in bed. Mostly she licks our faces for a few seconds and falls asleep again. She is very smart and understands that at night she cannot come to bed with us. However, sometimes she still has to go pee at night and after we come back, she thinks it’s morning and jumps into our bed. But we are trying to teach her to only do that when we invite her.
Destroying the house: Although Nala chews A LOT, she, fortunately, does not chew the furniture (only occasionally the blanket on our sofa or bed). The only think she really loves to chew is toilet paper. So, whenever she gets hold of a role, the house looks like a snow-covered paradise.
Housebroken: I consider her housebroken now. Of course, I have to go out with her every two hours because a puppy bladder can’t hold on for a long time. But since I have returned to Nicaragua, she has not once peed into the house...yay!
Food: Well, she mostly gets dog food. But every week when we do our grocery shopping, we also buy a piece of fresh meat for her. Most modern dog books will tell you that it is the best if you cook yourself for your dog. They also tell you that dogs should not drink tap water and that they should only get bio products. SERIOUSLY, if I drink tap water and don’t buy bio products for myself, why should I do it for my dog??? There has to be a limit somewhere. And apart from the occasional rice, meat, egg or broccoli, I also don’t cook for her. I think she will be just fine with the dog food.
Conclusion: Who lost in the cultural fight about raising a dog? Of course, Cristian! Nala sleeps inside, sometimes in our bed, is allowed on the sofa to sleep on me like a baby, does not make lots of damage to the house, and has certain specialities on her menu! But I think by now Cristian has accepted the German way of treating a dog because he spoils her as well (especially when he feeds her).

Nicaragua: Where the old and ugly is just beside the new and shiny!

2010-02-20T11:48:00.003-08:00

I had to go to Nicaragua. You might wonder why I "had" to go. Well, I only have a tourist visa for Costa Rica and every 90 days it expires. Luckily, you can renew it by going abroad for 3 days. And since I live in the north of Costa Rica, Nicaragua was the closest country to go to.
Costa Rica actually has quite a good overland bus system. Which means that there are nice airconditioned buses going to all the neighboring countries and even further. However, those luxury buses are not super cheap and they don't have a bus stop where I needed it. So, I decided to take the cheaper, but more adventurous way. I caught a bus on the Panamerican Highway, went up to the border, walked over to Nicaragua, caught a bus going north, changed buses in Rivas (first bigger town in Nicaragua after the border) and then went up to Granada. Nicaragua has exactly two interesting touristic places close to the Costa Rican border. One is San Juan del Sur which is a beach town on the Pacific side and the other one is Granada, a colonial city at a huge lake. I chose Granada because I read that Lake Nicaragua is the only lake in the world that has sharks in it. Not that I like sharks, but it makes the whole trip a bit more exciting.
Getting to Granada wasn't a problem at all. Although the border was very busy, I didn't have to wait too long and I had perfect connections with all my busses. I lost a few minutes at the border when I lost my way and couldn't find the immigration office for Nicaragua. But I met a couple on my way which had the same problem. That's why I don't feel too stupid and blame Nicaragua for it.
In the chicken busses in Nicaragua, I was the only white person. However, by now I have gotten used to that. By the way, they are called chicken busses because everything is transported in them, including chicken. And really, in the second bus which brought me to Granada, I saw a guy who was holding a living chicken in his arm. And the chicken was completely calm, as if it would travel in busses every day. Furthermore, those chicken busses are not real overland busses with comfortable seats or aircondition. No, those are old American or Canadian school busses. When they are deemed too old to be used in North America, Central America buys them and uses them for long-distance busses. Most of them are so old that they can't go faster than 40 km per hour and of course, they are extremely loud. And after 3 hours in them, you can be sure that every bone in your body hurts because the seats are too close together, the bus is crowded with an extra 40 persons standing in it although it doesn't have any handholds, and you always have an imense wind blowing into your face from all the open windows.
I arrived in Granada at the central marked: mega culture shock! It was dirty, loud, full of people and stinky. However, all the people were very heplful and could give me directions to my hostel. I had a bed in a dorm room for super cheap $5 per night. The first night there was only one more person in that room although it had 7 beds. But even without all the extra people, it was boiling in there because it didn't have a window and the two fans didn't produce anything except a hot wind.
My first full day in Granada I spent on my own. I walked around the city and took a few pictures. Some parts (the touristy parts) of Granada are very well taken care of. It looked like in a Spanish town. However, as soon as you leave the main roads where the sights are, you get to see the real Nicaragua: people live in little sheds, steal food from guests sitting in the outside-area of restaurants, starving dogs are looking for little crumbs to eat.... In Costa Rica, I often don't realize that it is considered a third-world country (probably because it is one of the richest countries in Latin America), but in Nicaragua you were reminded quite frequently that it is poor and far away from developed.
At night my dorm room filled up with 4 Chilenians and one American guy. They had met in the bus and decided to spend some more time together. So, on my second full day I decided to also join them. However, the Chilenians tried to get a ticket to Honduras which took forever and that's why O.R. (the American) and I decided to walk the town alone. We covered all the sights I hadn't seen yet. The lake, the main reason I went there, turned out to be a big disappointment. The beach was the dirtiest beach I have ever seen in my life! I can't understand how people can be so careless with their trash!
In the evening we rejoined with the Chileneans and had a mojito that cost $0,75! Unfortunately, it also didn't taste like much. And there it happened: We had odered nachos and they came with a small bowl of cheese, of mashed beans and of a hot sauce. While we were sitting and talking, a very skinny looking guy came along, grabed the cheese and ate it. At first I wanted to pull the bowl out of his hand, but he was so dirty that I was afraid to touch him. I was shocked. The cheese didn't cost much and we were finished with our nachos anyway, but how can somebody be so impudent and just steal food on an open street in a bar??? Plus I read that there is like a community centres that gives food for free to everybody who needs it. So, why didn't he go there if he was hungry? Other than that, the streets looked fairly safe at night because they were so full of tourists.
The next day was February 14, Valentine's Day, and the day of my return to Costa Rica. I was really looking forward to it! This time I saw what Rivas really is like. There were huge piles of trash in the middle of the city and kids were looking around in it to see if there was anything they could sell and/or eat. I guess, it is not the safest place for an European looking girl because they surely must think that I have lots of money. However, I again managed to be able to change busses immediately and did not have to wait at the bus station. Although this time I didn't have problems finding the immigration offices, it took forever! To get out of Nicaragua only took me 5 minutes, but to get back into Costa Rica 2 hours. Lots of Nicaraguans are working in Costa Rica, legally and illegally, and that's why this border is so busy and the Costa Rican officials really check their passports. However, when they saw my European passport, they barely looked at it and gave me the stamp. That was probably the easiest I have ever gotten into a Central American country! Normally they at least ask you where you are going, when you are leaving the country and if they are in a bad mood they want to see a flight ticket that shows that you will be leaving.
Interstingly, it cost me money to get into and out of Nicaragua ($11...and no, they would not take their own national currency, only American Dollars), but getting into and out of Costa Rica was free. In general, everything to do with tourism in Nicaragua is most of the time more expensive than in Costa Rica.
I stopped by at Tres Hermanas, the restaurant where Cristian works. But he was so busy that we barely had time to exchange two sentences. And when I arrived home by taxi, I was being awaited by a huge mess. Nala, our 3-months old puppy, was home alone for 10 hours the last 3 days. And although Cristian came by the house in his break after about 6 hours, she cannot hold on for so long. She usually has to go out to pee every 2 minutes. Plus Nala had managed to get out of her little prison we had built for her. That's why she had peed in our bed, on our sofa and pretty much all over the house. And since she was bored, she had chewed everything in her way, but mostly the toilet paper which was now laying in little pieces all over the house. Although Cristian had tried to tidy and clean up the biggest mess in that little time he had when he wasn't working, I still had to spend the rest of Valentine's Day cleaning the house. But since Cristian was working all day anyway, it didn't really matter. But now the house is clean, tidy and all april-fresh again and Nala is the happiest dog alive because I am back!

And here a few pictures of Granada. They are just supposed to give you a bit of an impression. I won't say anything else because most of the sights are churches (as in nearly every city) anyway. Sounds like I'm getting tired of travelling, doesn't it? Maybe I am...maybe I am happy that I finally have a nice little home with boyfriend and dog to settle down! :-)

Quite a long trip for such a ugly, smelly thing!

2010-02-20T11:48:00.001-08:00

Cristian, Nala and I went to a river about 7 km away from our house. Since we don’t have a car yet, Nala rides on the scooter with us. We always put her in a backpack, I wear it in front of me and off we go. Although she doesn’t really like motorcycles when she sees them on the street, she doesn’t seem to mind riding on one when I have my arms around her. (In contrast to her scared look where you puts her ears back and makes big eyes, on the scooter she puts her ears up and has those little wrinkles in her face which means she finds something interesting.) And yes, I know that it is not very safe! But we are planning on getting a car soon anyway.
Well, Nala has one best friend: a bone made out of ox skin. Dogs chew and bit on them until they get soft and then they can eat it. However, Nala’s teeth are not very strong yet and that’s why the bone will last for a few more months. But she has already managed to chew it up quite a bit. This bone is the only thing to get her quiet when she has too much energy. Without the bone she would be jumping up my legs 10 hours a day. So, thanks to whoever invented it!
Since she likes the bone so much, I try to take it everywhere we go just in case she gets bored. So, I also took it to the river. But she didn’t get bored: She had a blast barking at people who were splashing with water and we also made her swim a bit (which she didn’t really enjoy). She is not a great fan of water!
However, she likes to climb things and explore which sometimes is quite a problem. She sometimes jumps of falls down things that are far too high for her not completely developed bones. And that’s what also happened at the river: She climbed up a high stone, looked down and didn’t realize where the edge was. She fell, but luckily partly into the water. She looked a bit scared at first and was limping a tiny bit. But after three minutes in my arms, she was the most energetic girl again. It is said that American Stafford are quite tough, have a high tolerance for pain and strong bones. I think that is definitely true for Nala: Sometimes she hits her head quite hard on my knee when she comes running towards me or on the wall when she is clumsy, but she never cries.
When we decided to go back home, we packed all of our stuff into a bag and left. But we forgot her bone: it looked like one of the stones at the shore. I realized it that we didn’t have the bone when we were at home. Cristian found it very funny that I was such a drama queen about it. But he can’t understand how important it is!!! So, I made him drive us into town to check if we can buy a new one at the pet store because the old one looked kinda ugly and all chewed up anyway. But the tiny and badly equipped pet store didn’t have any. How can they call it a pet store when they can’t even supply me with my baby’s favorite toy? So, we had to drive back to the river, walk 15 minutes and jump over several stones to get to our swimming spot. But we couldn’t find the bone. We looked quite a while until I decided to pick up Cristian’s helmet because it was laying in the way and there it was: the BONE! Until much later in the day (when Cristian saw how much she loves her bone), he still couldn’t understand why we had to go back all the way for such an ugly, smelly thing!
By the way, another thing is very true about Nala which is said about American Staffords: They have a ton of energy. My only problems is: I can’t provide her with enough exercise. You might wonder why since right now I can’t work. Well, I wouldn’t mind at all going for walks with her 3 or 4 times a day. But here in Guanacaste it is so hot that Nala doesn’t go out throughout the day. It’s always a fight to get her outside just for peeing. She has black fur and even when she is very eager to play with me, she never stays outside for more than 10 minutes. I said that American Staffords are fairly robust, but that doesn’t seem to apply for the heat, at least not for Nala. She nearly had a heatstroke already when Cristian tied her into our yard for half an hour. He didn’t know (and me neither) that she would be that sensitive. But that half an hour in the sun was already too much. She had a fever all day, was really weak, and just felt terrible. But now she is back to normal and full of energy. So, I have to wait until the sun goes down and it gets a bit cooler, to go for a walk with her. But I can’t wait too long because in Costa Rica, women (especially European women) should not go outside alone in the dark. Other than that I try to play with her inside as much as possible. But it excludes throwing sticks or running because we have a tile floor (which is good when she pees onto the floor once in a while) and very few carpets, but bad for her because it’s very slippery and I’m always afraid that she slides into a wall or that she sprains her leg because she is slipping away all the time. Poor thing: It’s just too hot for a black dog here! But by the way, she doesn’t like the cold either! *lol* She is such a princess!

PS. I had forgotten to take my camera to the river for me. But we went again and I decided to post those pictures here. By the way, the day we went the second time was the first day where it was cloudy after 2 months of cloud-less blue sky and heat. You can’t believe how good it feels when it’s only 25 degrees Celsius and you have a very slight drizzle of rain!

My little Monster

2010-02-20T11:47:00.001-08:00

Or you can also call her Nala. She is my (or our :-P) 2,5-months old American Stafford puppy.
Cristian and I are both dog-people and don’t really have big feelings for cats. So, since we have a medium-sized house with a backyard here, we both thought that a dog would be a good idea. However, we couldn’t decide on the breed. I wanted something cute and not to big, e.g. a Beagle or Cocker Spaniel. But Cristian wanted something dangerous and strong to guard the house, e.g. a Rottweiler, Pit Bull or American Stafford (this breed was his first choice). At first I was totally against an American Stafford because in Germany they belong to the group of attack dogs/fighting dogs and are regarded as dangerous, aggressive and mean. However, after somebody stole my backpack from the backyard (see post “Welcome to the Reality”) and after I did some reading on those dogs, I was convinced that an American Stafford is a good choice. By nature they are friendly dogs, they are not provoked easily, and they are even good with kids. Of course, it all has to do with how you treat and raise the dog. And I just want Nala to bark when somebody is around the house, but not to bite. (Plus since in Costa Rica, in contrast to Germany, you don’t have to pay extra high taxes or have to get a certain licence for owning that kind of dog, I had no further arguments against this breed. Actually, I think you don’t pay any taxes for any kind of dog here in Costa Rica. The only downside of having an American Stafford for us is: We can never take her to Germany. By law it is forbidden to import those dogs.)
By the way, she already is a pro in barking and growling when people are close to our house or when other dogs are defending their territory. However, in other situations she is a real coward, e.g. walking along the street when the loud trailers and buses are passing.
I once had a dog before. But when we (my family) got her, I was too young to really remember how exhausting puppies can be. Nala follows me absolutely everywhere: she sits on my feet when I wash the dishes, she sleeps beside the sofa when I watch a movie, she follows me into the bathroom when I have to pee, she comes outside when I take the laundry off the line… And she prefers falling asleep in my arms and likes to be carried around: she is a real baby. However, the following me around has one good point: At least I know when she is chewing up the furniture, shoes, clothing, books….
Other than that she is a very smart dog (I think): She already knows how to bring back her toy bone when I through it away, she is one the way to be completely housebroken, and she knows basic commands like “No” and “Stop” (with a little treat in front of her nose she also knows “Sit”).
And…does anybody recognize her name? Yep, it’s the name of Simba’s girlfriend from The Lion’s King. I had asked for help from my friends on Facebook; I wanted them to give me suggestions for cute names from Disney movies. And Sara came up with Nala and since The Lion’s King is my favorite Disney movie, it’s the perfect name for my little monster. Thanks Sara!
So, and now you can see a few pictures of her. By the way, she is already bigger than a Jack Russel and I think in one month she will have the size of a Cocker Spaniel. If she will become anything like her parents, she is going to be one strong and pretty American Stafford!

Cristian and Nala on the da we picked her up:

Her favorite toy:

I guess that counts as not being on the bed:

After digging up the whole yard, one needs to take a break:

Exploring:

Her favorite place: ON me!

Her favorite sleeping position:

Welcome to the Reality

2010-02-20T11:46:00.000-08:00

Cristian had always warned me that I should be careful with leaving stuff outside when I leave the house. I should have listened!
In Germany it is quite normal to leave your laundry out in your backyard to dry when you leave the house for a few hours to do some errands. And I also thought that Las Juntas would be safe enough to do that. But I guess, I’m wrong!
After our last trip to San José, my backpack was quite dirty. So, I washed it and hung it outside to dry. Then I went inside, closed the door and took a little nap. After my nap I hung a few more clothes and suddenly realized that my backpack was gone. I was really upset. It was fairly old, had a faulty zipper, hadn’t been really expensive or of a certain kind of brand, but I had really liked it. And I was more upset by the fact that somebody came into my backyard and took something away from me than by the actual loss of the backpack. That means that from now on I can only hang clothes outside when I can watch them all day. Because since they have stolen once, they will probably come back and look if they can find something else. And although I don’t usually buy clothes of expensive brands, I do own some stuff that was far more expensive than that backpack.
However, one thing is certain: If Cristian ever sees somebody with my backpack (which is pretty unique), he will kill that person. And Las Juntas is fairly small, so the chances for a murder in the next few weeks are quite high.
So, let’s have a minute of silence for my stolen backpack which has served me well for such a long time and through so many travels. Or should we have a minute of silence for the person that is going to be killed?….

There is a scooter in our living room...

2010-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

No, this is not just a catchy title for my new blog entry, it’s the truth.
Although I think it is fairly safe here and that nobody would come into our backyard to steal the scooter, Cristian is a bit more worried and that’s why from now on his baby is allowed to sleep in our living room.

Let's not go there again, please!

2010-02-20T11:42:00.001-08:00

Cristian had another day off and we went somewhere. (In Costa Rica you usually work 6 days a week and have one day off. Working only 5 days (like in Germany and most other western countries) seems like luxury now.)
However, but lately I figured out that Cristian never had normal days off. They are seldomly relaxing. It either involves being super late(coming back from the beach during Christmas), super tired (both trips to San José) or super dangerous (as in this case).
At first we were planning on going to the beach. But the good beaches are about 2,5 hours away and that would mean getting up fairly early and being tired all day again. So, since we hadn’t slept much all week, we decided to sleep long and go to some thermal springs about 60 km away from Las Juntas.
However, it has been really windy all week and most of the time we have been without water and/or electricity. Right this second, we are having both (although the water doesn’t have any pressure); so I feel lucky! After having been sitting at home alone in the dark for 4 hours without any electricity or candles (because I had forgotten to buy them) last week, I really appreciate I it when those modern cons like electricity and running water are actually working.
But let’s go back to Cristian’s day off. He had warned me that the road to Cañas (which is on the way to the springs) is very windy and that it would not be very comfortable on the scooter. But neither of us could imagine how windy it really was; or rather how stormy. On the road the scooter was pushed to the side all the time and when I trailer would pass, the wind was so strong that it would jerk back our heads. At some pint we had to stop because we were afraid that the wind would carry us away. (We’ve also met some friends of Cristian who told him that the car was slightly picked up by the wind and nearly turned over.) Furthermore, the Panamerican Highway, where we were driving on, is not really a highway. It consists of one narrow lane in each direction. So, when the big trailers would overtake us and something was coming on the other lane, it was getting uncomfortably tight. In one case, Cristian had to drive into the ditch of the road to not be hit by a trailer that wanted to overtake.
So, by the time we arrived in Cañas (35 km away from Las Juntas), we decided that we do not want to go any further. We asked around if there is a pool somewhere close by and only 3 km outside of Cañas, there was a hotel which had a pool. It wasn’t very big, but we were the only customers that day, so we had it all to ourselves. The water was quite cool, but it served for swimming and some relaxing. When we took a walk into the forest behind the hotel, we saw one of the biggest iguanas that exist. Including it’s tail it was as big as I am. And although they are usually scared of people and run away, this one wouldn’t run very far, but would sit on a stone and warn us by head-movements not to come any closer. This iguana really looks like a dinosaur.

For the way back, Cristian wanted me to take the bus back because he thought it would be safer. But I am as stubborn as I am pretty, so I decided to ride with him. During the afternoon the winds were even stronger and by 5 pm, we were home and mighty happy to still be alive.

Well, let’s see what the next day off is gonna bring; I’m kinda anxious!

Too long!

2010-02-20T11:41:00.002-08:00

What hurts more: three hours on a horse or 3 hours on a scoter? I think I will have to say the scooter.
Cristian and I went to freezing San Josè again to get his scooter which was still waiting to get his check-up and road permission for 2010.
After a 2,5 hour bus ride during which Cristian was sleeping in my arms most of the time, we arrived there at 11.30 pm. Although Cristian’s father wanted us to respect the house, we slept in the same room and bed again. We are sorry! But seriously, we already live together in Guanacaste and his father also knows that it’s way too late to prevent anything.
Cristian thought that I would take the bus to Guanacaste and that he would have to drive the scooter alone. But I wanted to go with him although I knew it would be uncomfortable. But during the trip I also realized that a 3-hour scooter ride is like a 3-hour rollercoaster ride, especially with the traffic in San José and later with the strong winds in Guanacaste. Don’t get me wrong: I like rollercoaster rides and I really enjoyed the short motorcycle ride I was taken on in Finland. But three hours of that? Furthermore, we were both tired because we had gotten up at 5 am and after 1,5 hours on the back of the scooter there wasn’t a bone in my body that didn’t hurt.
However, I think that whenever I ride with Cristian, he drives much more careful than when he would drive alone. Plus he always crosses himself before we start. (It’s a bit funny: Cristian, the guy who is known as a party boy in every hotel/restaurant he has worked at and had his share of problems during teenager hood, believes in God and his protection. I am not religious at all, but I accept it if other people are. Just don’t try to change my opinion; I tend to be too stubborn to change my views. And yes, I also believe in evolution because I don’t think that anybody would be that powerful to create the world in 7 days. Furthermore, sometimes I think that the world is too cruel to have a God. I am doing just fine here; I don’t have any huge problems. But what about the starving children in Africa? The poor families in the slums of the big cities of Latin America? Shouldn’t God something about that? And weirdly enough those are usually the most religious people! However, this is not going to become an essay about religion and God, so I better stop here.)

But maybe we should get back to Cristian as a party boy: That is definitely something of the past. What happened? Well, he met me! *lol* Already in Puerto Viejo we would rather stay at home and cook dinner for ourselves than partying with the other colleagues. And we sometimes have fairly fancy dinners: shrimp soup, pasta with self-made tomato sauce (with only fresh ingredients) and tuna, risotto with octopus, marinated steak, fish with self-made dip…. It’s not just pasta with ketchup! I found myself a men who can cook. And I admit: he does most of the cooking. Sometimes I help him a bit. But other times I just sit on the kitchen counter and make funny comments and drink my pre-dinner beer!
And what happened to Sabine, the party girl? I can remember times when I was the last and/or the drunkest to leave a party. Or my life in Ireland: pubs and clubs 5 days a week. Well, I guess I’m getting old! *lol* I’m like Cristian now: I prefer spending time with him, cuddling on the sofa, and talking. Oh shit, I’m boring now!

Party Boy + Party Girl = No More Parties

Typical Costa Rican: Chaotic!

2010-02-20T11:41:00.001-08:00

That’s what my New Year’s Eve was like.
Most Costa Ricans go to the beach for New Year’s to watch the fireworks. But Cristian and I decided to go to his hometown: the capital of Costa Rica, San José.
We had to take the 6.30 am bus after only 4,5 hours of sleep and arrived in San José early enough to do some shopping. Cristian couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t buy everything in the first store we went to. But women look around, compare prices, quality, and then decide what to take.
When we were finally on our way to Cristian’s home, he realized that he had forgotten the keys in Guanacaste and that we can’t get inside because his family members were either working or at the beach. So, we went to visit his friend: the boys smoked some pot and I tried to ignore that Cristian’s best friend couldn’t stop staring at my butt. (By now I’m actually used to guys staring and flirting at me whenever they can. It became normal and it doesn’t ever annoy me anymore.)
By 3.30 pm I was so tired, I was ready to sleep on the street in front of the house. However, luckily Cristian’s brother came home. But instead of having some sleep, we took a ride with Cristian’s scooter to check if everything was working right, so that we can take it with us to Guanacaste. On an empty street outside of San José, Cristian made me drive the scooter. And although I had told him that I have never driven any kind of motorcycle before, he made me drive it alone without much explanation. Of course, a few meters down the road I crashed it into a little hill: I simply wasn’t prepared that it was that heavy while steering. Fortunately, the scooter didn’t even get scratched and I only ended up having a lot of bruises on both of my legs. That was it with my scooter-driving career! Well, I’m not allowed to drive them anyway; with my licence I can only drive cars.
By the way, Cristian lives in Moravia, a part of San José which is located in the north. Moravia is not very poor or very rich. But if you come from Germany, it makes you feel like in a Hollywood movie about street gangs and violence. Of course, we didn’t actually see any fights, but it simply does not make a very safe impression.
When we were finally ready to sleep by 5 pm, it turned out that neither Cristian nor I could fall asleep. So, by 8 pm we were even more tired while we were searching the house for things to steal (or borrow?) to take to our house in Guanacaste.
By 10 pm we realized that we should get ready to go to his mother’s house. So, we had a hot shower (my first one after 1,5 months: neither in Puerto Viejo we had nor in Guanacaste we have hot water). By 11.30 pm we were finally on the scooter to go to his mother’s place. BUT Cristian still wanted to get some Tequila to bring to the party. However, OF COURSE, all the stores were already closed and we ended up going back to his house after 20 minutes on the scooter to steal the Tequila from his sister. We made it to his mother’s place exactly 2 minutes before 12 pm. After setting off my fireworks in the narrow streets with over-head cables of San José (It’s unbelievable that they don’t prohibit it there it would be so easy to burn down a whole street.), we had some food and two drinks. By that time, we weren’t drunk at all, but so tired that my brain seemed to be in clouds and I couldn’t get together one proper Spanish sentence.
We went home and while Cristian and his brother had their first joint for the new year I decided to scare them a bit. Their father wasn’t home yet and of course, he doesn’t allow the boys to smoke pot. So, I silently went to the door that leads to the backyard and suddenly opened. Both nearly died of a heart attack because they thought I was their father! :-P
Since Cristian had to work at 9 pm on 1 January, we had to get up at 4.45 am after only 2 hours of sleep to let us drive to Guanacaste by Cristian’s father. (It’s an 3 hour ride.) After having had to work for 12 hours that day, Cristian was sick because of lack of sleep when he came home. Poor guy! Which cruel boss makes people come to work at 9 am in the morning after New Year’s Eve?

Cristian: my little San Josè street gangster

You can see how cold it gets in San José by the way he is dressed. It is surrounded by mountains and whereas it seems to be a thousand degrees in Guanacaste, in San José it’s windy, mostly cloudy and fairly cold. While setting up the fireworks, my fingers got cold and I hadn’t had any cold fingers since I came to Central America. And especially the houses in San José get quite cool. During the night, we had 3 blankets, I wore Cristian’s sweater and still felt the need to be cuddling with him all night.

Christmas?

2010-02-20T11:40:00.001-08:00

When I think about Christmas I imagine a colourful Christmas tree and snow. Well, not even in my hometown in Germany it’s always cold enough to have white Christmas, but at least I’m hoping for it every year.
However, in Guanacaste it was simply to hot for Christmas! It’s like it never happened. I did get a present and Cristian cooked something nice for me, but it could have also been my birthday.
On the 25th of December we went to the beach of Tamarindo (at the Pacific side of Costa Rica). We went body boarding (And I’m actually pretty good at it! :-P), had ice cream, and got sunburned although we had used sunscreen. However, on our way back I realized that I still have to work on my patience a lot if I want to survive in Costa Rica. We went with a bunch of Cristian’s co-workers in a privately rented bus. After the beach some of them wanted to stop in Liberia (a town on our way back) and watch a movie. But part of the group (including Cristian and me) were against it because we were pretty tired and all sandy. So, when we stopped at a mall in Liberia, we were told that we only have half an hour and could do some shopping. Well, Cristian and I did our shopping and wanted to go back to the bus. But on our way we met two girls who told us that now some of them went to see a movie which would take nearly 3 hours to finish. I was tired, cranky, and ready to kill all the Costa Ricans for their slowness! I was suggesting to go to the centre of Liberia and maybe do some window-shopping or have a beer, but Cristian thought it was just as dangerous going out at night in Liberia as it would be in San José. Well, after waiting for 2,5 hours, we made the movie-goers come out before the movie was over and by midnight we were finally home!

However, it was still a nice trip! And since I can’t change the Costa Ricans, I will have to change and get much more relaxed and patient.

PS. Here a picture of the front of Cristian: Don’t you also think that he has a bit of a bad boy in him?

Realizing the Differences

2010-02-20T11:39:00.002-08:00

I actually wrote that article for the student paper at my former university. But since the topic and those thoughts fit my blog very well, I’ll publish it here as well:

If you are German and living in Germany, then this is for you: Have you ever asked yourself how spoiled you are? Or do you at least appreciate all the luxury you are having?
Well, I have now travelled in Central America for 3,5 months. My first destination was Boquete in Panama, a scenic town in the mountains. It was small, partly Europeanised, full of tourists and therefore fairly safe. My second destination was Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica, a Caribbean town in the south of Costa Rica. It again was very touristy, small, and safer than most other places. But now I’m in a small town in the north of Costa Rica and it made me realize some things. Las Juntas, where I live with my boyfriend, is not touristy and apart from a few Gringos (a not nice word for describing US-Americans)who live up in the mountains and come down to do some shopping once a week, I’m the only non-Costa Rican here.
Before I came here to move in with my Costa Rican boyfriend, he assured me that he has found a safe house to live in. Safe here means that all the windows and doors have extra steal bars in front of them: Welcome to feeling like living in a prison! Plus we have bought three extra locks, so that we can lock all the doors from the inside which couldn’t be opened from the outside without a key anyway. In Germany, I grew up in a small town as well and there a safe house meant that you could lock your door and had a cellar where you could lock your bike in. Nobody there would barricade him- or herself behind steal bars and extra locks. Furthermore, all our windows of that brightly lit house are hidden under dark curtains, so that nobody from the outside can see that I own a laptop or that a blonde girl is living here. I also don’t go into the back yard when the farmer behind our yard are out; I don’t want them to get any ideas when they see an exotic girl like me. However, safety has also been an issue in Boquete and Puerto Viejo: When my colleague and I went out for partying at night, we were not allowed to cross the bridge and walk home alone although it would have only taken 10 minutes. We always had to go home together or get an expensive taxi. Puerto Viejo was a bit worse because there I lived in an apartment block that was off the main street in the middle of the jungle. The road did not have any lights and walking alone for 15 minutes on a completely empty jungle path after your late shift is not a pleasant experience, not even with a flashlight. But the worst of all is San Josè (the capital of Costa Rica): After it gets dark (which is at 5.45 pm already) you do not go out alone, not even as a guy. When I was living in my university town Kassel I never considered not going home alone at night after a party. It seemed perfectly safe. Do you now see how spoiled Germans are in terms of safety?
But of course, safety is not the only issue: the social system is much more important! Or would you want to pay $3500 for a caesarean section although you are insured? So many people in Germany complain about the bad health care and that you have to pay extra for everything. But now imagine you only earn about $500 per month (a normal salary for a person without a university degree here) and you have to pay for everything as well? And what if you are unemployed? Well, the German state pays everything for its people: the apartment, water and heating bills and puts a bit of money on top of it for food and clothing. What do you get in Costa Rica? Absolutely nothing! You better have a friend or family who will let you live with them for a while. So, are we spoiled by our social system or what?
So, and let’s now talk about education: Yes, I know, PISA said that Germany has one of the worst education systems in Europe or the western world. But compared to the one in Costa Rica, ours is great! When people here finish high school, they barely speak English, their writing and spelling is mostly miserable, and the only thing they really learned is how to take drugs. The good private schools, of course, cost lots of money and are only affordable for very few. And studying at university is fairly expensive. Compared to what people earn here, our tuition fees (in the states where they exist) are a joke. (And yes, I was one of the people demonstrating against them when they were introduced at Kassel and I’m still against tuition fees. But travelling in third world countries does make you see things a bit differently.) Ah, and in Germany you have BaFög if your family can’t afford to send you to university. And what do you get in Costa Rica? Well, of course, nothing! You can take up a loan and hope that in the future you’ll be able to pay it back. Don’t you also think we are spoiled by our educational system?
Of course, there are other European countries where the social system, educational system and the safety is even better than in Germany. It makes me remember how shocked I was that a 7-year old was allowed to ride his bike to school which was about 4 km away by himself in Finland. That’s how safe it was!
Do all those things make me hate Costa Rica? No, not at all! It has its good sides as well: the beaches, the 35 degrees in the shade during winter, the friendly and happy people, very low water and electricity bills, the easy-going way of everything, and my boyfriend. But it did make me realize one thing: I would definitely not want to raise my kids here! Would I go back to Germany? No, I don’t think so. I don’t really fit in there, but there are other nice industrial countries where you can find a good and safe environment for your family where I don’t have scorpions in my bathroom or poisonous snakes and spiders in my backyard. However, will I ever get my Costa Rican boyfriend out of Costa Rica? He loves it so. But he has never travelled to other countries and does not know that there are advantages of living somewhere else.
And now I can only say: Pura Vida! (translates into: “Pure Life”, the always used greeting in Costa Rica which perfectly describes the lifestyle of its people.)

Too hot to work...I rather work on my tan!

2010-02-20T11:39:00.001-08:00

Well, I now live in Guanacaste, the probably hottest part of Costa Rica.
I’m glad that I finally left Puerto Viejo. Due to the warm-humid climate I was sick most of the time. And all the mould in the apartments for the employees probably wasn’t healthy either. Plus I was getting tired of fighting for my payment and my rights! However, you can always learn something: At Le Caméléon I learned how a hotel can be managed to death (or rather not managed because most of the time I didn’t know who my manager or my boss was). At Isla Verde in Boquete I learned how to say “Yes.” without meaning it.
My boyfriend is renting a house for us which for Costa Rican standards is just fine. Unfortunately, we are still lacking a few pieces of furniture (like a sofa), but that will change soon. I get to spend lots of time in the sun because it seems a bit harder to find a job here because I don’t have a work visa. But honestly: it’s way too hot here to work! During the day it’s about 35 degrees Celsius in the shade and reading a book in the sun for 5 minutes will make you sweat so much that you look like you just came out of the shower. Thank God there is at least a cool breeze at night.
Other than that I spend my days with trying our recipes. Yes, I cook now although I hate it! Well, one day I’ll have to learn, so I better start now. And I can’t believe it: But I am ironing the shirts which Cristian has to wear for work. I had told him that I would never do that for him because I despise ironing, but seeing him do it in the slowest way ever nearly tortured me to death! Another popular pastime of mine is killing ants, spiders or other kinds of insects which are everywhere. I have also already killed my first scorpion which somehow had found its way into the bathroom. Ever since I always take a good look into my shoes before I put them on. And while we are talking about animals: My backyard regularly gets visits from a 1,5 m long iguana! But anyway: I think we should stick with the idea of getting a puppy as our pet. I prefer furry animals after all.

The Silence of Sabine

2010-02-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, I haven’t posted anything in ages. And that has a reason: a guy named Cristian. He worked in the same hotel (Hotel Le Caméléon) as a waiter. Pretty soon after I arrived we started dating and the cool thing was that he lived in the apartment next to mine. So, right from the beginning he pretty much moved in with me. And that was great because he can cook and he cleaned my apartment when I had the early shift and he the late shift: great guy!

However, now he moved to Guanacaste (in the north of Costa Rica) because he has a much better job there. And that’s why in ten days I’ll pack my suitcase again and will make my way up north. I was planning on staying in Puerto Viejo for 2 more months, but I just don’t like it as much as I had hoped. The hotel lacks management and working there is totally chaotic; working in 90% humidity, 30 degrees Clesius and the sun shining into the reception makes you feel like in a sauna; going out in Puerto Viejo is not so much fun if you (like me) don’t like reggae music or being felt up by guys when you go towards the bar; and I miss Cristian. But at least, I’ll be with him for Christmas. I think, right now neither he nor I know what the future is going to bring, but who cares!?
However, I also have some pictures to show because Cristian showed me Manzanillo (a little village with less hotels than Puerto Viejo) and Cahuita (a village with a nice natioanal park). Unfortunately, the day in Cahuita was quite rainy. Here in the Caribbean it’s rainy season although it’s dry season in the rest of Costa Rica.
The drive to Manzanillo was quite interesting. After we had missed the bus because Cristian was being slow taking a shower and getting ready, we met the manager of the hotel bar, Alex, who had his day off. Since he was bored anyway and was just cruising around in his car, we asked him to take us there and he agreed. After a few minutes, we stopped at a gas station where they filled the tank by hand (with a canister and trichter). There Alex bought a beer and opened it right away to drink while driving. (Here I don’t want to forget to mention that he had had enough rest alcohol in his blood from the night before.) Then we stopped at Punta Uva which is supposed to be one of the prettiest beaches in the world. It was pretty, but I couldn’t quite figure out what puts it under the tops 5 beaches of the world.

Then we continued to Manzanillo. Now Cristian took out his joint and shared it with Alex while he was driving, of course. (At this point I want to add a little story about drugs: In Puerto Viejo it is absolutely normal to smoke a couple or more joints a day and you are also allowed to come to work high if you are still able to work well. Everybody in town know where to buy the stuff, including the police, but nobody does anything. And the most interesting thing for me: The joints we smoke in Europe contain mostly tobacco and only a small amount of marihuana. But here it’s pure marihuana; after three puffs of a joint here I’m totally high!) However, Manazanillo is really cute and pretty and Cristian and I went for a little walk.

On our way to Cahuita we did not miss our bus and first went to Puerto Viejo because I wanted to talk a look at this town which so far I had only seen through the windows of cars or buses or at night. (I don’t live and work in the centre of Puerto Viejo. It’s about 4 km away, so I don’t get to go there every day, especially because taxis are expensive and the bus only goes 4 times a day.)

We did a little window shopping and then went to the bus station to get the tickets for Cahuita. While waiting for the bus, we saw a sloth and then Cristian got a phone call from my manager and she wanted to talk to me. And here is what she said: “You have to change your day off because you have tow work today at 2 pm.” Well, since I had already bought my bus ticket and I would like some friendliness if somebody wants me to work extra hours on my day off, I simply replied with: “No, it’s not possible. I already have tickets to go to Cahuita.” And she said: “I’m gonna talk to Don Ben (who is the owner of the hotel)!” and hung up. I was totally sure I was fired and was actually happy about it because that way I could have gone with Cristian to Guanacaste right away. Well, it turns out that I was not fired and that would actually like me to stay.
In Cahuita we saw some monkeys who tried to throw things at us. Other than that the national park was pretty animal-free. I guess, they didn’t like the rain!