Costa Rica Classroom - Travel ESL Blog

Artfully clueless

2008-08-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

During my stay at the primary school in Norway I was offered an extension of my contract. It was a fantastic offer - a solid job, and they would pay for my Montessori education to boot. After many long, long discussions, however, it became clear that my girlfriend couldn't come to Norway to stay. The personal price she had had to pay for it was too extensive. I stood between two highly desirable choices and was forced to choose - stay in Norway, or go to Costa Rica. If I stayed, it would put a great relationship in dire straits. It would not automatically be over, but I have a close friend who tried to pull something like that off and it was... ugly. On the other hand, I would have a fantastic job for as long as I wanted it, a free education and the opportunity to pay down my student loan. If I went to Costa Rica, I would give the relationship a much better chance. And I would have the opportunity to really learn Spanish. On the other hand, I would have to pull some pretty intense stunts to keep my student loan payments on track with a Costa Rican salary. Some might even call it impossible, and not without reason. Either choice involved some pretty hefty sacrifices from one or both of us. Agonizingly, I made my choice.

May came around, and two weeks into it my girlfriend returned to Norway. We had run a webcam/chat/phone relationship for many months and I was not apprehensionless as I stood waiting in what passes as the arrival hall in Tromso airport. Neither of us knew what to expect - would we feel the same as we had? Or would there be something different? As the sliding doors opened and she stepped through, I knew I had chosen correctly.

About a month later, there we were again as we had been in January - waiting for her plane to Oslo in the departure hall in Tromso. It was a bittersweet scene. We knew we would see each other again, but under vastly changed circumstances. What I had chosen - what we had chosen - would either make or break our relationship. If it was up for the strain it would be put under only the heavens knew. We kissed each other good-bye and I waved to her as she walked down the glass corridor to the plane. She waved back and stepped into the plane.

Five days later, London, UK

I left Stansted Airport by train, headed towards London proper. A good friend of mine, who we will call Marion, was waiting for me there. That is to say, she would have been waiting for me, but I cleverly selected an obscure side exit from the underground. Fifteen minutes later, she finally found me. I gave her a sheepish grin and a hug, and we went to get a drink and something to eat. It was my first time in London. Marion took me to a pub (hey, it's England), where we had a couple of drinks and I ate sticky toffee pudding (yay!). Our reunion, however, was short - my plane had been delayed from Tromso, and I had a plane to catch from Heathrow. We went back to the underground, where we parted with a hug. En route to the airport, I called to check which terminal I Was supposed to check in at. I arrived with perfect timing at the terminal, spent thirty fruitless minutes looking for my check-in-point, talking to several just as confused staff, before it was finally made clear that I Was in the wrong terminal. There was no way I would be able to switch terminals and do what I needed to do in time. Fortunately, the Continental people were very nice and helpful (I am an expert at the slightly dense, clumsy country boy act - it seems to come to me very naturally), and arranged for me to leave early next morning. Armed with the same sheepish grin as I had worn earlier, I dialled up Marion from a payphone.

An hour later I met Marion and her boyfriend, who were waiting for me at their local underground station. They took me to her apartment, treated me to pizza, gin and vodka, quickly making an annoyance into a very pleasant evening. They even went to the trouble of retiring to his apartment so I could have the place to myself. Wow. Just... wow. Some people. Thanks a lot, Marion and mr. Jordan!

The following day, Newark, US

"Calling mr. Larssen. Mr. Larssen, please come to the check-in at gate 22." These words, which would normally be rather omnious, didn't disturb me particularly. I assumed they wanted to talk to me about my offer to stay behind in case the plane was overbooked, which it turned out to be. I was offered a $400 gift card plus an all-expenses paid overnight stay in Newark. Problem was my onward flight to San Jose, Costa Rica, would be split in two with a stop in Houston. However, when the woman told me I would be flying first class from Houston to San Jose, I couldn't resist. Sure, I said, and got a hug from the girl I had given my seat to. A little while later I unlocked the door to my room in Holiday Inn, Newark. I've travelled as a backpacker for years, so this was the equivalent of a luxury suite as far as I was concerned. I ordered food to my room but botched the math, and overshot my food budget (cupons) by a dollar - and the ATM was out of order. The lady I spoke with interrogated me sternly, apparently found my character worthy, and put in a dollar of her own money. I doubt you will ever read this, kind woman at Holiday Inn, but if you somehow do, know that I haven't forgotten the promise I made in return.

June, San Jose - Costa Rica

My triumphant return to Ticolandia was less than spectacular. Continental had been considerate enough to leave my luggage in Newark, and my girlfriend was at work. No reception commitee, no fireworks. My backpack and I got on a bus downtown and then to the barrio where my girlfriend lives. I walked to her house, rang the bell and was welcomed warmly by my girlfriend's mother. That was my return to Costa Rica.

Job hunt, June/August

The Tico family I lived with offered me a place to stay until I got a job - incredibly generous. This journey has been quite a reminder how kind people can be. I took the offer, and thank God for that - my girlfriend, her brother and mother (the sum total of the family) have treated me with impressive warmth and respect. Especially impressive considering how alien I must appear to them from time to time (well, not to my girlfriend, I hope), with my outlandish (pun intended) ways. It didn't take long before it dawned on me that the job culture on the American continent is something quite different from marginal northern Norway. With a lot of help from a friend in Vancouver, I studied up and produced some semi-decent cover letters and a working resume. I bought a ton of newspapers. I sent a lot of applications. I watched a lot of TV.

One day I found a somewhat odd ad on ticotimes.net where a Scandinavian call center was looking for Scandinavians. I mailed an application and forty minutes later I was called in for an interview. I had my doubts. What the hell was a Scandinavian call center doing in Costa Rica? The business idea sounded strange, albeit with some logic to it. The job interview went down in a pub the following day. The two Swedes interviewing me impressed me - there was something about them. The salary was excellent, and what I needed to stay afloat. In addition, it appeared I would be given a lot of freedom and responsiblity. I was offered a job. A week later, I had decided - I accepted the offer.

It's now nearly September and I have finished my first week in the new job. It looks very good so far, and I am happy I was offered a job there. In a couple of days I will move to Rohrmoser in my own apartment, and on Monday I am going to the Little Theatre Group get-together and check it out. Hopefully I will get involved with them. Everything has worked out well, a lot thanks to the kindness of my girlfriend and their family hosting me and helping me with whatever I needed, especially Spanish phone calls. I'm very happy with my choice - it's been challenging, and it's not going to be easy getting things to roll properly economically. But hell - it's another chapter in the life of one who lives by the creed of the artfully clueless. I wouldn't want it any other way.

The End of the Storm

2008-05-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This blog entry was pieced together from three seperate half-finished entries from the last six months or so. It was commenced in early February and finished today, in mid-May. It's confusing. The tenses switch randomly. Lots of people do strange things and lots of things happen simultaneously. In short, this isn't the best piece I ever wrote. But hey... as I adviced a friend of mine a while ago: Publish anyway.

Northern Norway, early February:

I’m sitting staring, stunned, at the date of the last blog entry. The 31st of October? That can’t be! It’s just a few days away, it seems. Good Lord, but my life’s been a circus these past months.

The most obvious thing is to backtrack to the beginning of November where I stopped last time. But so many of the things that happened in these months are either very hard to explain or of a highly personal nature (or both). Well, I was never a fan of things being easy, I guess, so let’s give it a try and see if it the end result is even slightly readable.

Bread to the People

November passed in a pain of little work and, hence, very little money. I paid my landlady a sum of money in the beginning of November and told her I’d stay until mid-December. My flatmate had moved out by then, because he wanted to live somewhere closer to work. He found a place in Sabana Sur and is living happily there as far as I know. The third week of November I got a little more work, enough that I could stop starving, and enough to shave off at least the sharpest edges of the disaster(s) that followed.

All along this period I was plodding happily along in my relationship, trying hard to be a good boyfriend. We finalized our plans for her to go to Norway with me in mid-December and everything was set to happen.

The Arrival of Mr. Tall

Excerpts from my mail:

Tue, 27 Nov 2007
[Mr Tall] wrote:
> > Hey Ole hows things? I´m contemplating a journey
> to
> C.R with [Mr. Leadership], are you going to be there and if > so
> whats the situation with your apartment? Is it big
> enough to accomodate Mr tall?
> I hope to be travelling with [Mr. Leadership] on Thursday but
> Tica bus have´nt confirmed my ticket yet, we shall
> see....

Wed, 28 Nov 2007
> Ole wrote:

> There's plenty of room and you're more than welcome.

/excerpts

Note that in his first mail he referred to himself as Mr. Tall. And that he’s British, and that his written English is atrocious – worse than mine, even. In his defence, he’s been using Spanish a lot more than English for a while. But even so... tsk!

As you will no doubt remember, my flatmate had moved out and as such, there was tons of room in my apartment. Little did I know about the background of his arrival to Costa Rica...

One week earlier, on the border between Mexico and Guatemala – Mr. Tall. Everything is freely translated from Spanish to English. Note that the woman referred to here is not really Mrs. Tall, but his girlfriend:

“No, I’m sorry, he’s not here,” said the border guard, looking bored.
“Damnit,” said Mrs. Tall. “When will he be here?”
“Don’t know. Couple of days maybe.”
“Couple of days?!”, she screamed.
Mr Tall, after his standard five seconds of lag time between speech and comprehension, sighed.

A few hours later they had returned to the nearby little border town. It had all the charm of a decomposed hyena carcass. The little hotel-ish building they stayed at had far more fleas than guests at the best of days, and the mattress creaked alarmingly if someone even dared approach it closer than a few feet. Here they stayed through the hot, sweltering days waiting for Mrs. Tall’s relative to return to his job, so he could let them through the border without checking their nonexistent visa stamps. He had let them in a few weeks earlier without any visa, so they could stay as long as they pleased, then when they were on their way back to Guatemala he had vanished.

It was a damp, unpleasant evening when Mr. Tall ran into the people who would set the course of everything that happened in his life during the next two months. He never saw them. He never knew they were there – or had been, rather, before he returned to his hotel and found his pockets empty. He had chosen to carry with him everything except his passport and a few pesos, since the hotel was hardly safer than his pockets. His cash and, most devestatingly, his bank cards.

The details of what followed are unclear to me, as they are no doubt to him. He returned, by and by, to where he lived at the time, Xela in Guatemala, with the help of Mrs. Tall. She was on her way home to Honduras, however, and had very limited funds with which to help him. Mr. Leadership, his closest friend in Xela and the only one with the means to help him, was about to go to Costa Rica to see his girlfriend. Decisions were made. Within a few days, Mr. Tall closed up as much as he could of his life in Xela and went to Guatemala City with Mr. Leadership, who funded him all the way to San Josè, Costa Rica, with his limited supply of cash.

Early December, San Josè

He came, all right, broke as a gypsy and carrying everything he owned with him. Piece by piece I got the story from him. He settled into the room where the crazy Canadian had lived until the end of October, and we took stock of what funds we had between us. It wasn’t much. We went to Paseo Colon to look at options for getting him a bank card sent to Costa Rica (normal mail was pretty much out of the question, since it wouldn’t be very safe or reliable). A slick guy at the TNT office – Johnny Ace, we dubbed him, a slight adaptation of his real name, gave us a great deal and said the card would be in his hands in a few days. Mr. Tall and I walked away from the office, congratulating ourselves and making jokes about how Johnny Ace would hop on his personal jet and go to Northern England to get it.

I needed to go to Quepos to give a Christmas present to my host family there, and Mr. Tall wanted to go as well. At that point, I had enough money to float it, so I said yes. He went a day before me and managed to get mugged again, losing everything I had given him (basically our budget for the stay in Quepos). Needless to say, he was pretty upset by the time I got there.

And from here on out things get very fuzzy in my memory. My landlady showed up and told me that there had been no deal made, and she wanted more money. Maybe I would have given it to her if I had it. I didn’t, so I hegded and stalled, and eventually staged a (if I must say it myself) quite devious get-away. I was broke as a rat, and during December (while dodging my landlady), mr. Tall and I lived on creativity and a few colones a day. Things were relatively under control until my girlfriend went to the American embassy and had her visa application flatly refused (apparently they have a lot of Ticas coming around wanting to supposedly visit their Norwegian boyfriends, because they didn’t believe she wouldn’t stay in the US even after she showed them the return ticket to Oslo). Things got hairy. I begged a bunch of money from friends and relatives and we got the ticket changed to passing through Cuba instead of the US. Somewhere around there I taught my last class in my school. And finally...

Northern Norway, December 23rd

We arrived at my parents’ house after much debacle. I had waited for a few days in Oslo for my girlfriend to complete her round-the-world circuit to get to Norway (Cuba-Amsterdam-Hamburg-Oslo). She had had plenty of issues and, having never travelled before, crossing the Atlantic had been very scary. But at long last, we had arrived in Tromsø and gotten in a car with my two brothers to drive the three hours to my parents’ home.

My girlfriend’s itenary:

San Jose-Cuba (24 hours wait in Havana) – Amsterdam (five hours wait in Amsterdam) – Hamburg – Oslo (36 hours wait) – Tromsø then finally to my home town.

This was her first time travelling! And all this because she was denied her US visa to visit her boyfriend in Norway.

Her first week and a half in Norway was rather hectic, since all my family and friends had gathered (as is usual around Christmas in this country), and she had to meet all of them. Right away. Now, all my friends and most my family are above average or fluent in English so communication was no problem. My parents stepped up and polished their rusty skills. Hell, even my rather shy uncles threw all they had at her! She had, all in all, quite a hectic first period here, but as warm a welcome to this incredibly remote part of the world as could possibly be wished for.

We celebrated Christmas in my home town with my entire family (i.e. my parents and my two brothers, plus one uncle). From later talks with her, I understand she was switching between horrified and enthralled in intense waves. Norway is, after all, quite a capitalistic country, and the level of consumerism we have in the country is far cry from most of Costa Rica. A far cry indeed. Because of the nature of the beast during Christmas time, she met my friends in batches of ten (at least). Lots and lots and lots of impressions over a short period of time. We went to Tromsø and celebrated New Year’s there (fireworks! Woo!), and finally, when we returned to my parents’ house (me being broke and all, we needed somewhere we could stay for free), it was 2008 and we could at long last relax somewhat.

I needed a job, but I was already called in for an interview with a small private school in the area. I went there the second day of January and talked to my current boss. She was cool, the job paid well and had a very high challenge rating. How could I refuse?

My girlfriend and I spent three more weeks together, but without any great adventures. We had a lot of fun, though. She left during the third week of January, when I had been two weeks in my teaching job.

And here we are. It’s the fifth of February, and I’m looking back over the past two or three months of my life thinking “Geez”. However I survived (literally) those last weeks in San Josè is anybody’s guess. I distinctly remember sitting on an internet cafe with my girlfriend, planning and getting the tickets she needed in half an hour or so. I guess that my back was against the wall, so I let the bullets fly.

[Long, long interlude]

15th of May, Northern Norway

Well, this only took me a million months to get back to. Not much has happened since last, though. My girlfriend is coming back to Norway in a month, and in mid-July we’re both going to Costa Rica. I’ve worked as a primary school teacher since mid-January, and it’s been a fucking fantastic experience. I’ve learned so much it’s not even funny. Living with my parents have gone suprisingly well – we’re all adults, and that, I guess. I even got a part-time gig as a lifeguard in the local pool, which was nice to complement my very demanding day job. One of my closest friends died tragically in January – you are deeply missed, my friend. I’ve started going to the gym. My brother and I drove to Trondheim to visit our third brother in Easter. We forgot to bring a map to bring us through Sweden, so we found ourselves asking Swedes for directions at 1.30 in the morning. I love travelling like that.

And now it’s May, two days before the Norwegian independence day. I’ve roughly a month left before the school closes. I was offered to continue working there, but it wasn’t possible to get my girlfriend here, so I chose Costa Rica instead.

That should cover it. God damn long overdue update, I’d say.

Guatemala and other things

2007-10-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well, then. I guess it's time to get back on track.

In the days when July turned to August, I went out on a number of dates with a girl. Later, in the second week of August, we stepped it up and I found myself in a relationship. This effectively ended all my plans - of which there were many and more - to leave Costa Rica. Not that I've any regrets, mind.

It's now closing in on November, incredibly enough. My second birthday outside my native country has passed. The relationship between me and my girlfriend has grown into something very good. The world in general has been relatively quiet. And my teaching schedule changed.

High school

In Spanish, high school would be colegio, in Norwegian it's ungdomsskole, and in English it'd be equivalent to, more or less, secondary school. I can't tell you the exact circumstances that led me to (and out of) teaching there, due to contractual issues, but I'll gladly tell you some of the things I did there. Before I start, though, the basic concept was this: my private English school had a contract with a normal, semi-private colegio. My school would send teachers to the colegio to teach English.
- in the first ten minutes of one particular class, I evicted 16 of the 18 students.
- I regularly evicted between 3 and 10 students in every single class I taught.
- communications from the high school such as "Don't make the students cry" were routed to my private school. If my boss there didn't tell me not to make my students cry, it didn't count.
- I denied dozens of student requests to go the bathroom.
- I made the other (Tica) English teacher on the premises hate my guts, because all the students I evicted came to her to ask her to plea their cases to me (I hardly uttered a word in Spanish in the high school even though I could).
- roared three resisting Ticos into scrambling for their backpacks and nearly running out of the classroom

The two and a half weeks I taught there were quite interesting in their own, obscure way. Thank God I don't have to do that anymore, though - now I'm (hopefully) back to teaching in the private school.

Girlfriend

The things I wish to say about her are all captured in the following monologue, delivered by her:
"I liked the shotgun in Doom [the computer game]. I would walk up to the monsters, stick it in their mouths and fire it, and watch as they flew backwards. I liked the 'chi-chic' sound it made when it was being reloaded."

Guatemala

Pictures!

So here we’ve come to the main part of this entry - my recent visa run to Guatemala. I went to the airport with my girlfriend and kissed her goodbye before I entered the departure terminal. I was armed with two telephone numbers and a return ticket to Guatemala City. After an interminable wait (some kind of organizational breakdown in the Taca administration), I got on the plane and landed in Guatemala about one and a half hours later. Entrance into the country was painless, and after some fumbling, I located the taxi stand (such as it was) and got a taxi into the center of Guatemala City:
Taxi driver(s): "¿Taxi, señor?"
Ole: "Um, si."
T: "¿Para donde?"
O: "El centro..."
T: "¿Donde en el centro?"
O: "No se. No importa. Necesito solo un lugar con internet."

I paid the fare and got out of the taxi next to 'Palaco' something, downtown. I found an ATM, got some local currency and went in search of an internet cafe to find the name of the city I was going to, which I had forgotten to write down. I found a cafe and the name, and by that time it was getting late - late enough for me to start thinking about hustling to get the bus to Quetzaltenango. I presumed that Guatemala was like Nicaragua and Costa Rica in that buses would generally not leave after late in the afternoon till next morning. Asking around, I was told that the terminal was a ways off and that I should take a taxi. The taxi driver had no idea where the terminal was, but asking around got us there eventually, just in time for me to jump on a bus to the impossible-to-pronounce-place.

I don't have a watch, so I can only guess that it was about five hours later that the bus arrived, after lots of obstacle-hurdling, including, but not limited to, a herd of cows (or goats?), lots of roadworks (Fim! Fim!) and a pretty radical mud-pit. I got off the bus at a randomly selected spot in Quetzaltenango, slung my sole piece of luggage (a small backpack) over my shoulder and went in search of a taxi. About half an hour later I got a big welcoming hug from my very tall British friend whom I hadn't seen since many a month, on a dark and quiet little town square in the middle of what I later learned was ‘Zona Uno’ in Xela (which is the more common name for Quetzaltenango). He took me to his apartment and introduced a woman there as his girlfriend. We had dinner together and caught up on each others’ lives.

Later that same evening, as I entered the hostel I were to stay at during my three nights in Xela (Shey-la), I was met by a person some of you might remember - mr. Leadership himself, the ultra-charismatic British bloke I first encountered in Quepos. My sparse luggage was stowed in my room and the three of us - me, mr. Leadership and mr. Tall (the one who met me first in Xela) - went out for drinks. At that time, I had been more or less sober for four months due to the fact that my girlfriend doesn’t drink, so getting drunk was easy enough.

Next morning I woke up and realized something: it was cold. Xela is way up in the mountains (2000+ feet) and the temperature difference between there and San Jose was pretty radical. I hadn’t brought a jacket (I don’t even have a jacket to bring), and I was wearing sandals, so I spent the days in Guatemala gracefully wearing socks and sandals, true gringo style. I showered (the hostel was really quite excellent, its name is Don Diego (I think) and is warmly recommended) and hit the streets of Xela, armed with the name and general direction of the local market (La Democracia) plus a camera. I ate breakfast in a dark, smoky room, a version of what we here in Costa Rica would call a soda, located on the outskirts of the market. The room had about five stalls where women (and often their daughters) were selling local food cooked on the spot. I had torta de carne, directly translated cake of meat. In Norway, we call it kjøttkake. And, miracle of miracles, in Guatemala it’s apparently quite normal to have hot chocolate with their breakfasts. Naturally, I asked for a cup, stared at the change the woman gave me to find out what it looked like and what it was worth (much to the amusement of the locals), then went to the market and spent the most of the day there.

The hostel has quite a few people living there semi-long-term (meaning, for a month or more), so the residents arrange dinner daily on a rotational basis. I ate dinner there, and spent the evening over at mr. Tall’s apartment, chilling.

Xela is a nice city. Guatemala is generally not known for its tranquila cities, that is to say, there’s generally a lot of crime about. Not so with Xela, where you can go pretty much anywhere, anytime, unmolested. Zona Uno, where I stayed, has narrow, cobbled streets which make up fairly square blocks of mixed residential/commercial buildings. Vehicles (especially the local buses, eerily similar to the ‘taxis’ in Cape Town) navigate the streets at high speeds, and pedestrians are well advised to stick to the narrow sidewalks. It’s a city of about 200 000 people, and it’s obvious that it’s not alien to the concept of tourism; a fact easily discerned from counting the number of Spanish schools about. Men and women in strange outfits abound: traditional dresses, hats and whatnot - children are often kept in a shawl slung over the shoulders of the women and tied in front. Their features are dissimilar from the average Tico, whose blood and genes are quite thoroughly different from native Central Americans. In Guatemala, native blood is abundant. The staple food, here as elsewhere in this part of the world, has a lot to do with beans and rice, though with some original touches, such as the aforementioned hot chocolate. Their torte de carne is different in texture and appearance from the Norwegian version, but it tastes similar. Groceries and most everyday goods are vended in the markets around the city, and the quality of foodstuffs is very high. I liked Xela a lot - it’s a place I would not hesitate to stay in for a while.

My third and final day in Quetzaltenango (I think it’s something like... kets-alten-ango) was passed in a huge market in a nearby town. I went there with mr. Tall and his girlfriend. Now, I’ve seen a couple of pretty wild markets before, but this was easily up there with the best of them. It was packed, in the sense that you couldn’t walk a single step without either bumping into someone or narrowly avoid bumping into someone. It stretched out over a total of, I think, ten blocks or so (about a square kilometre, though it was located in the streets and there were buildings interspersed between the rows of stalls). All sorts of clothes were for sale - hell, anything related to textiles in one way or another could be gotten there. I spent a delightful day picking through the stalls with mr. Tall’s girlfriend (he went off on his own, for some reason), lamenting the fact that the town didn’t have an ATM so I could buy Christmas presents for everyone and their mothers. There was a guy there who sold what appeared to be crushed Coyote intestines, which, according to him, has enormous healing powers in relation to pretty much any ailment. By the time I came back to his general area, though (I look first, and buy later), he had packed up and left. I would have loved to buy some of that stuff. I can only imagine the joy of convincing the customs officers in Guatemala and Costa Rica to let me keep it. We had dinner in a Guatemalan version of a soda, which I can’t remember their name for. Family-run cafe-ish kind of affair, anyway. Mr. Tall and his girlfriend had to leave to go to their respective jobs in Xela, but I stayed for a little while longer before I returned.

There was some kind of birthday party going on in the hostel and the poor, beleaguered Belgium girl who was stuck on dinner duty seemed to need whatever help she could get, so I gave it. She served a terrific chicken-and-rice-Thai-ish dish, and we spent most of the evening in the hostel eating and drinking - 16 people or so, including me and my British friends. We went out for drinks later and thus passed a fairly uneventful, though extremely pleasant, night.

My fourth and final day in Guatemala was mostly spent travelling. I got on the bus towards Guatemala City and boy was it slow. It broke down about half an hour outside the city and an hour and a half passed before another came to bring us along. I’m a patient man (wasn’t, before, but learned patience after lots of travelling and, lately, teaching English) and don’t get worked up much, especially when travelling in relatively third-world countries, but the row of roadwork queues and general lack of progress that plagued us started getting on my nerves after a while, especially considering I had a plane to catch. When we finally arrived in Guatemala City, the friendly co-bus-driver arranged a taxi to take me to the airport, but I think the taxi driver felt kind of slighted as I stormed past him muttering something about ‘bathroom emergency’ and disappeared into the toilet. I stood peeing for a good five minutes. He was faithful, though - the taxi driver, that is - and waited patiently until I was done. There were two other people in the car (which didn’t look like much of a taxi), but all my instincts told me that this was completely trustworthy, so I got in and remained utterly calm and relaxed as the driver navigated into a part of the city distinct from the airport, let the two passengers off somewhere in there, then took me to the airport. There I was harassed to a totally undeserved degree by a customs officer who seemed to believe I was up to some shady business - a notion that, oddly enough, seemed reinforced when he found one of my presents to my girlfriend, a nice teddy bear holding a heart with ‘I love you’ written on it, which he held up to the light while muttering darkly in Spanish. His attention was diverted by some other pressing business before too long, though, whereupon I was let off the hook and hit the surprisingly well-stocked tax-free stores.

Four days without my girlfriend! It was good to see her again - she met me in the airport holding a sign written in dubious Norwegian, conjured up from the Spanish-Norwegian dictionary I gave her as a present. She told me that work had called (I don’t have a cell phone and the relationship between me and my girlfriend is, for various reasons, one of the most well-known facts in my workplace, so they call her when there’s something I need to know urgently) and that I wasn’t teaching high school anymore. Hooray!

And that’s about it. The longest blog entry I’ve written in a long time. To be honest, not much has happened here - I spend time with my girlfriend and teach, and that’s pretty much it. I did an aborted attempt at joining the Little Theatre Group at some point, a plan I haven’t quite given up yet. I started eating salads at least once a week and I’m trying hard to vary my meals every day. My first private class is starting next week, if everything works out. Looks like I have to go for a couple of weeks with no work because of, well, issues that I can’t really talk about (though it has nothing to do with me personally, just coincidences and contractual stuff, things outside my control). I had a great time in Guatemala, and I’d love to go back there at one point or another. Life is good in San Jose too, what with my relationship soon entering its third month and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere but onward any time soon. I’ve started preparations for my mid-December return to ze Vaterland, to where I won’t be going alone, it seems...

Finding Shelter

2007-10-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I awoke this morning to a complete absence of water and electricity. Earlier this year, around March and April, such outages were common in parts of the Central Valley due to water shortages. But now, in the thick of the rainy season, I assumed that it was because of construction in the neighborhoods. My roommate, however, informed me of the truth: our landlord forgot to pay the utility bills. We've endured other discomforts here as well. We've been waken by early morning, unannounced intrusions by our landlord for various reasons. Recently, he decided the apartment absolutely had to be repainted, despite the fact that it meant weeks of drywall dust and paint fumes for us. He spontaneously replaced a sink one morning, turning off the water, and leaving us unexpectedly without water for morning showers. And let's not forget that he wasn't paying the community security guard, who consequently turned a blind eye to our robbers. The list goes on and on. Why do we remain here? Well, this highlights a problem for expat ESL teachers. Furnished housing is difficult to find and relatively expensive in Costa Rica. It's even more difficult to find in desirable locations. So, because we don't want to buy furniture for our temporary stay here, and because we need a place with a phone line (difficult for non-residents to get), and because we want to be close to our school, we are stuck. Luckily, the water and electricity came back on in the afternoon.

The silence is broken!

2007-09-24T16:39:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's been a long time, for sure. I guess it's possible to say that I've been consumed by a life of teaching, but that would be a lie. The problem is rather a Tica that has entered my life and made all my plans come to a screeching halt. Only this remains: The opening of a window and the defenestration of all hope. Oh well.

Since last I wrote a lot has changed. Let's start with the ESL related stuff. My schedule has been turned around and I'm now teaching a regular class every morning Monday through Thursday, which I enjoy. It's a lot easier to deal one class than three. I was recognized as "that guy from Dave's forum" by a girl who started working in my school (second time, woo). I even met a guy from the selfsame forum in San Jose and was mercilessly pumped for information. Last but not least, I had my ass kicked by one of the moderators there who didn't like my coming down on gringos. My trembling still hasn't subsided.

So it's six on a Monday afternoon and I came to the internet cafe to do some prepwork for one of my classes. As you can see, it didn't work. I dropped by CCC and saw the last entry was in ... July? Something like that. Tony and Joanne (I think her name is) simply stopped posting here, it appears. So now I'm doing something about it. It's true that I have nothing to tell you about except that (and you can be sure I'll repeat this about 30 times) I have a girlfriend. I could tell you that it's raining a bit here. Quite a bit. And that I'm getting more and more to like living in this country - the more I see of Ticos the more I like it.

One thing I will tell you is that I'm realizing more and more that surviving in this country on 400-450 bucks a month is a tall order. I've declared in the past that it's possible, and it still is - but I ran a little check on my savings account and guess what, I've been using a lot more money than I thought I had. Meaning, even though I'm trying hard to be careful, running a monthly budget of about 400 dollars minus 200 for basic living expenses is pretty damn difficult. And I'm not particularly high maintenance. My girlfriend, on the other hand...

Once upon the time I had illusions of going to the States before I went home for Christmas, but all that are now shadows and dust, memories of memories et cetera. I'll be going home for Christmas but other than that, looks like I'm stuck in Costa Rica for a while. A terrible fate, indeed, to be stuck in a wonderful country with a wonderful girlfriend. Oh, oops, did I drop the girlfriend card again?

So this is the end of a disgustingly random blog entry from the in-house Norwegian. I'm still generally clueless, but happier than before.

Yes, it's because of my girlfriend.

Teaching your second language

2007-07-31T15:18:00.003-07:00

What follows is something of a defensive speech. I admit it freely. The subject is something I'm thinking about almost daily. It's an issue that will be relevant to every single non-native speaker with a noticeable accent, which is why I'm making my thoughts about it public. To be more precise, while this blog does discuss accent, other issues related to second language teaching (by non-native speakers) are made relevant. It will also, hopefully, open up avenues for native speakers to reflect on their presence in the classroom and their impact on their students. Or something to that effect.

Accent. This is an issue that has been raised many, many times in my relatively short ESL career. On a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is unnoticeable and 10 is hindering listener comprehension, I'm around 4. I've a very noticeable accent but decent enough English otherwise. And while it sometimes takes a little time to tune in on my "accent frequency", I've never met anyone who didn't understand anything I was saying except people who don't speak any English, Norwegian, German or Spanish.

Why is the question of accent so relevant in the case of English teacher Ole? Well, it ties in with several things. First, and probably most relevant, there's the issue of comprehension. If you can't speak clear enough English that native speakers and, preferably, non-native speakers, can understand you, well, it's obvious that you shouldn't be teaching English. Second, and almost equally important, there's the fact that a language is fundamentally about pronunciation. In English, properly executed verb endings, especially in past tense, are vital for precise communication. While we're not talking about Mandarin here, where, as far as I understand, pronunciation is the end-all, do-or-die of communication, it's still very important that a teacher is able to teach students well enough to improve on their accents. And, finally, there's a much more understated, difficult to point out issue at stake here: alibi and authority in the classroom. I believe, as I think I've written before, that I can "get away" with both the clearness of my language and the pronunciation. Even if barely. To put it in a different way, except for one class (which also complained about their next teacher, a true-bred gringo), I've never had my students make an issue about the way I speak English. Maybe they're scared of me. It would make sense, since I've a forty-pound umbrella that I have repeatedly threatened to employ in the service of second language acquisition (corporeal punishment is so underrated). Further, I'm a fair chunk of Norwegian meat and I look like a biker. Regardless, the point remains that of the fifty-sixty different students I've had (minus the 10 bitches in the class that refused to have me as their teacher), and of the vast amount of people I've met in my travels and spoken English with, nobody has ever had any trouble understanding me after, at most, a minute or two.

And here we come to the point of this blog entry: of authority and alibi. What do these things have to do with ESL teaching?

First off, it must be said that this is a line of thought under construction. I know there's an issue here, but it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly. Authority is easy enough, in a sense - it has to do with how much the students respect you and therefore are willing to learn from you. Authority is also something wielded through force of personality and experience with leadership. In the classroom, as the teacher, you are automatically vested with a certain amount of authority. Knowledge about the subject you are teaching and ability to communicate it well are also ways to draw and work upon the respect of your students. All native speakers carry with them an air of authority about their language. It's only natural, since they are, theoretically, the final arbiters of correctness (at least in terms of communicating meaning, if not grammatical expertise). A non-native speaker, on the other hand, is a different story. But let's talk about alibi first.

The question of alibi is a deceptively simple one: Why are you teaching English? In terms that are easily understood for anyone familiar with Janteloven, why do you think you have what it takes? If you're a native speaker of the language you're teaching, the answer is relatively easy: because I am the language. Native speakers might not be experts on grammar, but they sure know how to speak the language in question.

When it comes to my personal alibi, I'm going to be honest. It was, and still remains, more about my own pursuit of happiness than anything else. I recognize that learning English for Ticos is something that is potentially worthwhile in many different ways, though.

How does the question of authority and alibi connect to teacherhood? Let's have a look at native speakers first. They are naturally gifted with authority, and with it, their alibi: I am English, therefore I can and will teach it. This is of course a sweeping generalization, but I'm not talking about personal beliefs here, but rather how students respond to their teacher.

For someone teaching their second language to second, third or whatever language learners, it's a different story. Authority and alibi becomes something much more relevant, because they will be axiomatic to your ability to teach effectively. You need to convince your students, consciously or not, about your authority more thoroughly than any native speaker would have to. And to do that, you need to believe in the righteousness of yourself. You need to have an alibi and believe in it, and/or, like me, cling blindly to the belief that you are so far removed from the skill of your students that the actual difference between you and a native, in the classroom, is negligible except for the case of the accent. Either way, it's a way of convincing yourself that you are, in fact, worth your students' time and attention (and through that, theoretically, convincing your students). And all this, ladies and gentlemen, is very, very difficult.

I'm standing in the classroom and a student is asking me a question I don't know the answer to. Is this because my understanding of English is fundamentally flawed compared to that of a native speaker? Could the student pose the same question to a native speaker and expect a decent answer? These questions may seem very silly to some, but this is a good example of a typical doubt that will plague me inside and outside the classroom. While I can and do float a lot on my personal charisma in the classroom, self-doubt is disaster for me because it doesn't just potentially flaw the student's understanding, but it's also possible that it undermines the faith of the whole class in my authority to teach them. This will not, I believe, be as much an issue with native speakers who can get away with a lot more because, well, they are native speakers. It's their language.

And that’s about it – about as far as my line of thought has progressed. I'm looking forward to read any feedback on this!

On an unrelated note, here are pics from my stay in Costa Rica.

Signing out,
Ole

Splitting Up

2007-07-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

By Tony O.

Most ESL teachers in Costa Rica will, at some point, work a split shift. Students tend to have time for English classes either during the morning or in the evening. Thus, teachers who need money will work during the morning and in the evening.

What does it mean to work a split shift?

It means...

Your free time is in the afternoon, when the rain comes.
Your first class isn't awake yet.
Your last class wants to go to bed.
If you have coffee during your last class, you can't sleep.
If you have drinks after your last class, you can't teach your first class.
You get the joy of leaving work twice a day.
You get the pain of going to work twice a day.
You have twice as many chances to be late for class.

...and much, much more. I'd write about it, but my 5 hour lunch break is almost up.

Random post

2007-07-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

By Dr. O.L.E.

It's Friday, eleven in the morning, and here I am hanging out at Mall San Pedro. What brought me here can ultimately be traced back to incompetence. I'm teaching a class in a nearby business and I failed utterly in calculating exam dates and stuff so now, barely two weeks before course's end, we've still two exams and a novel to go. This has to be the area of teaching I'm having the most trouble with: the long-term planning. I can do the week-to-week stuff with at least a minimum of competence. The long-term stuff, on the other hand ... anyway, I'm here in San Pedro to give my students their novels and some idea of what they will be examined about.

I'm teaching 24 hours a week currently and I'm at a loss to figure out how people do 30+ hours. I'm reeling from the impact the huge amount of work brought on by even the relatively limited hours I'm doing. I enjoy the teaching, but I'm realizing more and more as time goes by that I'm no natural at this, nor am I a particularly good teacher. I can do it, as mentioned, with some level of competence, but it's a far cry from my own desire for excellence in the things I do. Thank God I'm not teaching in public schools, at least. I could handle that for, oh, an hour or two. Maybe.

I mentioned earlier that today is Friday, but today is not just any old Friday, no siree. It's TRANSFORMERS FRIDAY!!!!, and now that I'm already at Mall San Pedro I intend to catch the first show. I grew up in the 80s and, as such, I have no choice in this matter. It is simply something I must do in the same sense of "I must breathe". I can't imagine the movie to be anything else than a popcorn movie, but I'm hoping for entertainment on the same level as, say, the Transporter movies, which are hands down two of the coolest action movies released over the past years. He dodges bullets! Can Optimus Prime dodge bullets? Maybe not, but he can probably take a clip in the chest and keep on dancing.

I spent the staggering amount of 10 000 colones on an umbrella the other day. It's a lot of money, but anyone in Costa Rica these days know the value of an umbrella. My umbrella weighs more than I do, and is more a portable 60-person party tent than an umbrella, to be honest. But it rocks, and was well worth the money. And, of course, if you translate 10k colones to dollars or kroner it's a pitiful amount, but that's what I get paid for, oh, two full days of teaching or something.

A major snag I've recently encountered in my little Costa Rica enterprise is this: I can't go to Spanish lessons without my English breaking down! It never occured to me that it might be a problem but now, when I think about it, it's rather obvious that learning a fourth language while teaching my second language (I can repeat that thirty times and still smile) might not work out so well. In short, learning Spanish looks like it can be a mite more difficult than I had imagined coming here. I'll try a couple of other things, because learning Spanish is one of my most important goals for staying here, so we'll see how it works out.

Two things I've learned while travelling: Skype rocks. And online banking rocks. Skype allows me to contact anyone, anywhere. Online banking allows me to fill my Skype account anywhere, and it gives me full control of my money. Also important is the fact that I can seperate the bulk of my money from the account that is connected to my Visa card, which will be very helpful in case I get mugged. It's just a matter of time, I guess. I've travelled quite a bit the past three years and gone mostly unscathed, so my number should be coming up one of these days.

Next week I'm going on vacation, and thank the good spirits for that. I seriously need a break. Looks like I'm going to Panama (to put another country on my list, not for any serious desire to see the country ;). Gonna be sooooooo good getting out of San Jose for a while. While I do enjoy living in this city (and there is a lot of good stuff here) and mostly enjoy my job, teaching ESL is rather stressful for me. And San Jose isn't exactly the most tranquil spot on the planet, if you catch my drift.

Anyway, I've killed an hour writing now so I'm gonna go do some other stuff before I hit the movies. A truly random entry from the Arfully Clueless Norwegian.

Perhaps my most important advice: Sodas, Casados, and Batidos

2007-06-28T10:55:00.001-07:00

By Bruce

Yup, that's right, regardless of all the information that I and the other contributors have posted on this site, there's really one piece of advice that I'm about to share with you that will, more than any other, alter your experience in Costa Rica. Now regardless of what you're making per month, you'll likely need to conserve cash when possible (especially if you're going to be traveling often), and the best way to do so is by frequenting Sodas. "Soda" is really just another name for extremely inexpensive (yet ofter quite good) typical Costa Rican food. Now some are sub-standard, but others are very very good, you can get very large portions, and you can very easily stuff your face for less than $5 (2,500 colones).

Now once you're in the soda (or really most other restaurants), the best way to eat well and eat a lot without spending too much plata, is to order a "casado". Directly translated this means "marriage" and I guess in some ways it represents a "marriage" of a few basic foods. Basically the casado consists of a meat of your choice (chicken, pork chop, fish, or steak) with sides of salad (a couple pieces of lettuce and a tomato slice), white rice, black beans, fried plantains, and usually one or two other sides such as pasta salad or something similar. (see picture, that's a pork chop with grilled onions, plantain, mixed beans and rice, and cabage salad with a blackberry Batido to drink) Now this is a lot of food, and it's generally all very tasty, and really the most you should ever pay for a casado is $5 (but normally you will find them between 1,500 colones ($3) and 2,000 colones ($4)). Oh, and often a sweet fresh fruit drink is included.

Finally, I present you with the "batido." Or just a frozen or cold blended fresh fruit drink (as mentioned above). These generally come blended with water or milk. Milk often costs more, and in my opinion, is far inferior to the water batidos. If I'm going to get a cold fruit drink, I'm looking for something refreshing, and there's just something less than refreshing about a milk based drink on a hot day. But I'll let you make that decision for yourself.

Basically, I survived on all of this while traveling. Because you are forced to eat out when you travel, this is the best way to eat well and conserve cash for things that matter. Like beer.

Beneath the Veneer

2007-06-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

By Tony O.

As an ESL teacher abroad, I have a unique opportunity to truly get to know Costa Rica. It's one of the most appealing aspects of the job. I've met numerous wonderful locals. I've seen amazing sights. I've experienced the culture in a way that would be impossible as a tourist visiting here for only a week or two. I've had the opportunity to dig deeper. Instead of just observing, I'm participating.

That means I see more than what the tourism council wants me to see. I see beyond the fancy hotels and beautiful beaches. I see the reality of daily life. I see the blemishes that are so easy to overlook during a whirlwind tour.

Friday night, my roommate and I came home to a shocking scene. Our apartment was broken into. The thieves made it past two locked gates. They simply removed the locks entirely. They stole TVs and laptops. We're lucky, I suppose, that they didn't take other valuables. Our neighbors helped us by calling the police, providing us with a chain and lock for our gate, and even driving us downtown to file a report.

This is the reality of life in Costa Rica. There are bad people that do terrible things. And there are good people that show incredible kindness and generosity.

It's been a few days since the robbery, but I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts. I feel violated and frustrated. I'm angry and homesick. I've been slapped in the face with a reminder that I'm not here on vacation. This isn't all fun and games. There's no tour guide looking out for me to make sure I stay safe.

I don't say this to discourage people from visiting or teaching in Costa Rica. There's crime everywhere, and this could've happened just as easily in the US or any other country. I would still recommend this experience to everyone. But it's important to know what you're getting into.

Another Bocas Border Run

2007-06-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

By Tony O.

Like Bruce, I chose the indirect route to get to Bocas del Toro. I started with a bus ride from San Jose to Cahuita, which was an easy 4-hour trip in a big comfortable bus, with a short stop in Limon. The next morning, I started my journey to the border.

The bus to Sixaola (the border town on Costa Rica's side) was one of the smaller, less comfortable buses. It was hot. And it made many, many stops to pick up passengers. So it was hot and crowded. Since I was traveling alone, I kept an eye out for other gringos, trying to find a border buddy. There were a few. When we got off at Sixaola, we were greeted by a "guide" that claimed us as "his group." We were all skeptical and tried to avoid him, but he followed us to the Costa Rican migration office... which had a huge line. So much for a quick crossing. Apparently there were two tour-buses full of people ahead of us, plus many Ticos coming back into the country, which tied up the small two-person office. Luckily, I have learned patience during my time here. No worries. I chatted with some other folks going to Bocas del Toro. The "group" consisted of two guys from Florida, a kid from Israel, and an older man from Germany. We inched our way forward.

And about two and a half hours later, it was my turn. I handed over my passport. The clerk started to stamp it, then hesitated. He double-checked the date. I began to worry: had I miscounted the days? Had I already overstayed my visa? No, he stamped it and handed it back. Shew. Then I had to make it to the other side, which required walking on a rickety old bridge over the Rio Sixaola into Guabito, the border town on Panama's side. As I stood in line for Panama migration, our "guide" reappeared, urging us to go to the tourist office first, to purchase a tourist card. The others hesitated, but this was mentioned in several things I read about entering Panama, so I went with it. He was right, I had to buy a tourist card for 5 bucks from the Panama Tourist Office, which is inconveniently placed after the migration office, rather than before. When I went back to migration, there was a huge line again. My "guide" assured me I wouldn't have to wait, and led me and the others to the front of the line, gave our passports to the clerks, and had them stamped. Our guide earned his tip with this move, since this meant I didn't have to present proof of onward voyage, which is normally required to enter the country. Afterwards, he took us down to a taxi (minivan) that would take us to Changuinola, where we could take a water taxi to Bocas del Toro.

Here we encountered a minor snag. The dock attendant at Changuinola told us the boat wasn't coming. So we had to take a taxi to Almirante, the next closest dock. Our taxi this time was a truck, making things a little more cramped for the 5 of us on this 45 minute trip. But we made it to the dock in time for the water taxi.

In Bocas, we were again greeted by another "guide" who offered to help us find accomidations. I didn't have a clue about finding a hotel in this town, and apparently neither did the others, so we all followed along. He showed us a hostel that was cheap and nice enough. The others went for it, but I wasn't up for sharing a dorm with several people. I wanted a little more comfort and security for the time I was forced to spend out of Costa Rica. He took me to a few other places, and I finally settled on Casa Amarillo, owned by his "American friend." It was $25/night for a big, super-clean room with air conditioning, a fridge, TV with HBO, and an in-room safe. The owner was a nice guy, too. He lived on the second floor of the house with his wife. This was his retirement project.

Bocas seemed like a cool town, but it was dead because of the low season. The constant rain put a damper on my sense of adventure, too, so I didn't explore the other islands. However, the beer was cheap and plentiful. There was a good selection of bars and restaurants. And the people seemed nice.

Returning to Costa Rica was fairly simple. There were no lines when I got to the border, so I passed through Panama's office with a quick stamp of my passport. The Costa Rican side asked for proof of onward voyage. Luckily, they accepted an itinerary I'd printed out from Delta, showing my flight scheduled to leave December 15th. Other than that, it was hassle-free.

This was my first border crossing, so I don't have a point of comparison. But I'd recommend this trip for others who need to take a little visa vacation. Even with the complications of going from bus to taxi to boat (and so on), I didn't have too many difficulties - and I speak very little Spanish.

Teaching English in Costa Rica

2007-06-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

This entry is two-fold, and the two pieces have little to do with each other. I wrote one, didn't publish it before I wrote another, so here comes both in one. It's like a Kinder surprise, only better.

By Ole Larssen.

Teaching English

I've had quite a number of people asking me - what exactly do you do, teaching English to people you don't share a language with? I realize I might sound somewhat arrogant saying so, but it's not so hard as one might think. Important to note is that Ticos are subjected to English in school and on TV, just like Norwegians and, well, most Westerners. Their English education from the public school system isn't all that and a nice silver spoon, but it does ensure that 99% of my students have at least some grasp of English, which makes things a whole lot easier. When enrolled into the school I teach at, they go through some tests to decide what level of English they're at. Currently, I'm teaching two Level One classes - meaning beginners. What, exactly, do I do?

Well, there's Side by Side, a language teaching tool (meaning, a textbook), its picture cards, a whole lot of patience and the whiteboard. These are my primary tools. Instead of picture cards, I try to use classroom realia (desks, pencils, clothing, the physical build of my students etc) as much as humanly possible. Vocabulary that are objects are easy enough, and so are most basic description words (describing height, weight, general appearance), since between myself and my students, we have a lot of stuff lying around in our backpacks. When possible, I attempt to involve my class in defining words, since they will always know (in Spanish) what they are, and it's good for them trying to explain in English what it is.

Today, for example, I was teaching prepositions (behind, in front of, next to, between etc) and family. The class I was teaching is small, five students, and all female. First I told them to open their books to whatever page the vocabulary (different buildings and shops) was on, then covered up the words. I then elicited what they were from the students. For example, one says "It's a hotel," then I say yes, and continue to ask "What do you do in a hotel?" In this way, they get to speak English (explaining things they know perfectly well what are ... in Spanish) and learn the vocabulary simultaneously. To explain prepositions, I pulled up one of the girls to the middle of the classroom, then indicated that she stand still while I moved around her, saying the prepositions out loud as I acted them out. "In front of", "next to", "behind", "I'm standing between the wall and her." Then I drew a small town on the whiteboard, put a bus station on it, then gave the marker to one of the students. "The library is across from," I signalled what that meant with my hands since I hadn't covered it, "the bus station." As the students got the idea what I wanted from them, they started making up things to go into the town themselves, and described to each other where it was, passing the marker around. I was standing on the sideline, correcting if there were any really big mistakes in their English, but otherwise doing very little. Then we practiced the prepositions with some of the exercises in the Side by Side book. We had covered family vocabulary previously, so they had an idea already when I asked them first to draw up a family tree of their own. Then, I instructed them to draw a map of their neighbourhoods - not in any great detail, mind, but just get some kind of map. When they had finished those two tasks, the more challenging part came (both for me and them). I explained to them that I wanted them to ask each other about their families and their neighbourhoods, and wrote some sample questions on the whiteboard. Then they, predictably, objected that their family generally didn't work or study in their neighbourhood (obviously they didn't put it like that, but with some broken English and waving of maps the point was made), so I told them that what their families actually do, in this case, was irrelevant. I wrote reality on the whiteboard (knowing the same word in Spanish is very similar) and crossed it out. Then they started talking to each other about their families and their neighbourhoods, and spent about twenty minutes on it. I then sat down as part of the class and asked each one to talk about their families, which they did, and finished by talking about mine (in retrospect, I should have started doing that).

That was the main part of the lesson, and a pretty good example of what I do in the classroom. Realize that while they are able to construct simple sentences in English, their vocabulary is severely limited, so explaining very often needs to be done both verbally (me saying it) and visually, me drawing or referring to something in the classroom. And I need to speak sloooowly, something which everyone who knows me will understand the level of challenge in for me. And repeat myself. This specific class is very energetic and has a habit of talking in Spanish, which is fine for some things (when I need to explain a particularly difficult set of game rules, it often is just as well to have somebody who gets it tell it to the rest of the class so I won't have to waste everyone's time explaining thirty times), but not so good for other things. I want them to get what I'm saying without any connection to Spanish. This class, however, has a slightly irritating habit of immediately repeating what I say in Spanish, and they often get in arguments over what I actually said - in Spanish and without asking me, which would be the easiest option, since I'm standing right there. This is definitively something I need to work on, but for now I leave it be.

The more I think of it, the more I realize that the teaching of English to beginners can be reduced to two things: visual aids and patience. A whole lot of both. Most of my students aren't children, so they know what things are, but not in English. My task is not only showing them what things are in English, but helping them put that knowledge into the actual talking of the language. Difficult, yes, but I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much if it was easy. The main role I have, as I see it, is to enable them to take the things they learn from the book, and through listening to me (and TV, radio etc), and put it to independent use. Like I told my students today - language isn't about correctness of grammar, it's about getting your point across. Native speakers, whose grammar is generally abhorrent, are the best example of this. When teaching English to beginners, that is mostly what I, and I imagine most teachers, do - helping them learning how to get their point across, even when stumbling over unfamiliar sentence structures and weird-sounding words (health club), using phonetics they don't even have in their native language (like the O in Ole, when you say it in Norwegian, which is a way of saying O non-existent in Spanish or English). Patience and visual aids. Yes, that sounds about right.

/////

Ticos and Gringos

Being a non-native speaker of English teaching English in Costa Rica has its share of challenges. These challenges often seem to have root in the rather odd relationship most Ticos seem to have with gringos (North Americans). In this relationship, we're looking at a love/hate affair of ridiculous dimensions. The dislike is intense in some ways. One example of this is how certain Ticos react to me speaking broken Spanish to them - they react as if I'm doing some sort of capital crime and should be eradicated from the face of the planet as soon as possible. The way I see it, they should be thrilled someone is going to the bother of learning their language and has guts and politeness enough to attempt speaking it even when he or she obviously has no clue. But no, time and time again I run into Ticos giving me that stare when I mangle sentence after sentence, but with heavy use of body language and other visual aids push my point through. They answer reluctantly, and only in the shortest terms possible. Like I'm scum. This irritates me, and I can only imagine it has to do with the hate-part of the deep-seated love/hate affair they have with gringos in general. The same short-temperedness (very unlike Ticos usually) surfaces from time to time when I'm struggling through a pound (in weight) of change trying to sort out which is which. In Costa Rica, land of Many Strange Coins, this is something of a challenge. This is not to say, it must be underlined, that all Ticos are like this. Far, far from it. Most of them are as patient as the day is long with my blundering. My point is that there is something there, some kind of itch that they want to scratch. But they can't.

Because they work for them, right? There are many and more gringos in this country, and they often come with money. Money they invest in various things in the country, and they often employ Ticos. And whatever some Ticos might feel about American culture, young Ticos listen to American hip-hop and immerse themselves in that culture. Burger King is not a burger joint here, it's a fucking institution. Families save for weeks to afford BK or Pizza Hut. American culture, in some way or another, is visible in so many spaces of Tico life. Thusly, they learn to admire it - in some way or another. And all the American jobs spawn a need for Tico English speakers. That's where yer nose-picking Norwegian comes in.

Gringo

I am not a gringo, and there is no disguising that fact even for beginners in the strange ways of English. I have an accent, and it's quite noticeable. You would, in fact, need to be deaf not to pick up on it immediately. I'm no native speaker of the language, though I've used it on a daily basis for ten years. For most purposes, I do not believe my fluency differs from a native speaker. This (blind) faith is what allows me to do this kind of job in the first place. Yet, this argument is to no avail for most Ticos. They want gringos. And so runs the requirements for most English teacher jobs in the country: Native speaker only or preferred. The advertisements for the school I work at, ironically, announces that they have (implied) only native speaking teachers, even though currently we're two non-native speakers and four natives. The question of whether a native speaker is or isn't a better teacher than a non-native is complicated and I won't get into that. I don't believe in any such easy distinction, at any rate. The point is that in Costa Rica, it does make a big difference whether you are a gringo or not, regardless, I would say, of other factors. I've found myself several times in situations where the employer was choosing between me and a native speaker with the same qualifications as I, and I ended up with the short straw. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reason - I realize, of course, that having native speakers is good for business. What annoys me is that most employers do this because their clients demand it of them - the Ticos want gringos. This is the same kind of idiocy that makes Ticos frown at me when I speak Spanish. Do they want gringos because they are better teachers? Fuck no, they want gringos because they are gringos. And the very people in a position to work against the kind of blind prejudice don't, because they would lose business doing so. This is nothing new, but it seems to me to be a microcosm of the world - specifically, what is wrong with the world in general.

So this is Ticos and gringos. Gringos come here for the weather and whatever obscure reasons people have for travelling (cough). Ticos get jobs and constant exposure to a culture that in some ways must appear superior to theirs - certainly richer in monetary value (and yes, I know that there is a Tico culture disconnected from gringos, but that is irrelevant in this case). But oh, do they hate it, somewhere inside their heart of hearts. And from time to time, and God forbid! there are some people, (maybe even a teacher!) and they don't speak English with an American accent, or even British. What to do, what to do?! Let's throw stones at him and hit him with a big stick and see if he goes away. If not, well. Pura vida?

But I'm not resentful. Cross my heart.

The Lesson

2007-05-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've been in Costa Rica, living near San Jose, for the past 3 months (I just returned from my first border run). I've taught English for about 2 of those months. But during that time, and even before, the country itself has been teaching me. I've found its most important lesson to be this: "Go with it."

The lesson began a few months before my scheduled arrival. I had researched and brainstormed about the trip for over half a year. Finally I'd come up with a solid plan. Everything was going fine. And then the plan blew up in my face. I was left with a choice: fall back to regroup or trudge forward. I didn't want to delay the start of my life in Costa Rica, so I chose to forget the plan and just wing it. So far it's worked out.

In fact I've had plans fall apart, crumble to dust in my hands, on several occasions here. Part of that is the dynamic (or chaotic) life of teaching ESL. Students don't always show up. Teachers don't always show up. Classes are cancelled, moved, rescheduled, expanded, delayed, or altered in any number of ways, often minutes before they are supposed to start. A school's curriculum may change, mid-course. A time-tested lesson plan may suddenly fizzle, leaving you to confront a dozen blank, unresponsive faces. Don't panic. Expect the unexpected. A good attitude goes much further than a good plan. Go with it.

The other part of the challenge is simply Costa Rica itself. This is a country that has changed drastically in the past 20 years. Its economic base has shifted from agriculture to tourism and technology. The infrastructure wasn't ready for this growth; the roads are falling apart and there are power and water outages weekly, if not daily. It faces all of the problems that come with modern society: crime, drug abuse, pollution, corruption, etc. At a deeper level, the country is still struggling to find its identity, to balance what it was with what it hopes to be.

But if you're willing to accept that, if you can come here and adapt to the culture, rather than expect it to change for you, then you'll reap great rewards. If you can be flexible, patient, and understanding, then you'll enjoy a country filled with friendly people, stunning natural beauty, charming quirks, and... of course... the best coffee you'll ever taste in your life. It's not for everyone, of course. But to those who are even remotely considering the possibility of living in Costa Rica, I say this: Go with it.

I think you'll be glad you did. I certainly am.

Border Run Option: Bocas Del Toro

2007-05-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

Back in November I wrote about Lisa and my first border run to San Juan del Sur. That destination has become increasingly popular for tourist from Costa Rica, with good reason. If you want to read about that trip and crossing the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, click Here, Here, and Here.

Now, however, I'd like to write a little bit about what is probably the most popular "Border Run Destination": Bocas del Toro, Panama. Lisa and I just returned from a three night trip to this archipelago just over the Caribbean border between Costa Rica and Panama, and it is absolutely a trip worth taking, border run or just for fun.

So lets start with getting there. There are two options: 1. Take the San Jose -> Sixaola bus from the Caribbean Bus Station in San Jose, get off the bus at the border, walk across the bridge into Panama, take a land taxi to Changuinola (or Almirante if you prefer a longer land taxi and shorter boat taxi), then finally, take a water taxi from Changuinola to Bocas. Or, 2. there exist buses that will take you directly from San Jose to Changuinola (where you take the water taxi) and the bus company is called Buses Bocatorenos. Lisa and I took option number one, and while the trip is broken up into 3 or 4 parts, it really wasn't very difficult, the border is SO much easier to get through than the CR/Nicaragua border, and the boat ride to the islands was quite nice. As for option 2, it's really no easier or harder, more or less expensive than the first option, and I don't have any info on where the buses leave from in San Jose or when they leave.

Once you're on the main island (Isla Colon), you'll probably start looking for places to say. One really nice thing about bocas is that there is a very wide range of lodging options, from budget hostels to remote luxury eco-resorts. Lisa and I opted for Hotel Olas in the main town (but somewhat removed from the nightlife) and were EXTREMELY happy with it. For $42 dollars per night we got a nice, private, clean double with hot water, air conditioner, cable tv, internet, and free breakfast (a very good breakfast too - I recommend the french toast or the pancakes). From what I could tell, this was the best value we found. There are certainly more expensive options, but for example one place, Bocas del Toro hotel, was $110 per night and DIDN'T include breakfast (which isn't cheap). Again though, if you're looking for more budget options, there are a few decent looking hostels in the $10-12 per night range. One complaint about Hotel Olas: despite being a full service, mid-range hotel, they don't except credit card, so bring cash. Oh, and NOONE will exchange colones to dollars, so bring dollars or look forward to paying ATM fees.

And that's right, Panama's official currency is the U.S. dollar, which is nice.

Now, what to do? Unfortunately there really isn't a beach that can be walked to, but as I mentioned earlier, you get to just about everywhere by boat. Our first full day, Lisa and I did an all day SCUBA/Snorkel trip through the outfit Bocas Water Sports. For divers, there are pretty much 2 options, Bocas Water Sports and Starfleet Scuba. I was very happy with Bocas Water Sports, but from what I could tell, there's little difference between the two companies (similar prices, tours, boats, equipment, etc.). The tour itself was really nice, especially the 1 and a half hours that we spent on Red Frog Beach. This beach is gorgeous. One of the most picturesque beaches I've ever seen in my life (see picture). The sand is white and incredibly soft, and the water is a crystal clear green and great for swimming. As for the diving, what you'll be seeing above all is extensive colorful coral. Unlike diving in the Pacific, you won't see many large schools of fish or other large marine life, but the coral and the small tropical fish are wonderful to see. Oh and you don't have to scuba dive to see it all, the snorkeling can be great as well. Overall, the tour was well worth the money ($60 to scuba dive and $17 to snorkel), but BEWARE, the lunch is not included and the remote island restaurant they take you to is VERY expensive (cheapest meal other than the $3 vegetarian option - which wasn't all that great - is $9, and most options are $11-13). Bring your lunch, or wait until Red Frog Beach where you can get chicken meals for $7.50 - still expensive, but better.

Our second, and last, full day we decided to spend the morning walking around town, and in the afternoon we took a boat taxi to Wizard beach (about $8 dollars per person round trip) which was another nice beach, but not as stunning as Red Frog Beach.

Anyway, that's about what we did, please look at my pictures from the trip (Click Here), and of course, if you have specific questions, please feel free to email me.

Finally, here is some advice (and if you've taken this trip and have your own advice, please leave some comments):
1. Bring cash (in dollars) and don't expect to exchange colones to dollars
2. Bring bugspray
3. Make sure to bring proof that you are leaving Costa Rica sometime in the future (like a copy of your flight itinerary) otherwise in order to get back into Costa Rica you have to go to the nearby pharmacy and buy a $6 bus ticket back to Panama (and just never use it).
4. If you take a tour that stops for lunch, bring your own lunch or be prepared to pay way more than you should to eat.

FOR SALE: 1985 Suzuki Samurai 4x4 - $2900

2007-05-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time for Lisa and Me to move back to the states, so I'm selling our 1985 Suzuki Samurai. This thing is perfect for Costa Rica - it has gotten me where I wanted to go, regardless of how far off the beaten track. The great thing about these cars is that they are sturdy, rugged, 4x4, but still economical at 23-26 miles/gallon. Some details are below:

1985 Suzuki Samurai SJ10 1000c.c.
4x4
Green
New fog lights, multi-loc (for security), new radio/cassette and speakers, spare tire, new battery (w/ 2 year warranty), new engine parts, fully registered (Marchamo and RTV), etc.

At this price, there really isn’t a better car for exploring what Costa Rica has to offer.

See pics below, and for more information or if you have questions, please email me. I’ll be traveling until Friday, May 25th but I’ll be checking my email and we can arrange a time to see the car. After the 25th, email me or call me.

Cell: 341-0813
Home: 238-1479
Email: Thomson.bruce@gmail.com

Cerro de MUERTE! (and beyond)

2007-05-07T17:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so for those that may not know, Lisa and I have officially retired. That´s right, we have stopped working down here and have plans (currently in them) to travel and pack up throughout May before heading back to the states on June 1.

So, after spending last weekend in Nosara, a few days in Heredia (tending to a dying car), and renting a car, we have embarked on southern Costa Rica. Our first stop was to visit a couple friends who live in Dominical. In order to get there, though, you must first drive through the Cerro de Muerte (roughly translated, the Pass of Death) which is basically a climb up and through some mountains between Cartago and San Isidro. Now, while it´s not the most fun drive, let me tell you, don´t be scared. This drive really isn´t any worse than the drive back into the central valley from guanacaste or even taking on the streets of San Jose.

Anyway, we got through that, spent the last couple nights in Dominical (on the central Pacific) and we are currently in Puerto Jiminez on the northern end of the Osa Penensula. I´ll check back in later.

In the meantime, I´ve posted pictures from our trips to Montezuma, Nosara, and Samara. Check them out here: http://picasaweb.google.com/thomson.bruce?pli=1

Getting settled (sort of) in Costa Rica

2007-05-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Since I've been here for a month now, I thought I'd better let people know a little bit of how things are going. Since I got here during Semana Santa, I couldn't really do anything about getting a job until the following week, except I did call Bruce at Butler Academy to set up a time to come in on Monday. So Monday I took the bus to Heredia, a slightly nerve-wracking experience since I had never been to Heredia or taken a bus in Costa Rica by myself. My host family told me where to catch the bus, and I asked a couple people at the bus stop just to make sure. I also asked someone on the bus when I thought we were getting close. I didn't have any trouble finding the school once I got to Heredia. I talked with Bruce about my experience and about what the school is like, and worked it out to come observe some classes over the next couple of days. Then I followed Bruce's directions and found the bus stop to catch the bus back to Alajuela. The next few days were easier as far as taking the bus, and I got to see a few different teachers teaching, and even participate a little in the discussions. On Friday I was supposed to come to the school and do some listening to student recordings in the lab and present 3 discussion questions to the co-director of the school, Christian. However, with one thing and another, that didn't work out--I came and did the listening, but Christian wasn't able to meet with me to do the discussion questions. So on Monday I came in and did them, me teaching and Christian pretending to be a Costa Rican with English problems. I was a little nervous before I started, but once I got in the classroom, I switched into "teacher mode" and wasn't really nervous at all. Christian gave me a few suggestions, and said I could start coming to team-teach his two classes with him, from 3 to 6 and from 6 to 9. I started that on Tuesday of that week, and continued for the rest of that week and the next week. Christian led some of the discussions/activities, and I did some (I sort of ended up doing more than half a lot of the time). Then this week, on Tuesday (since we had Monday off for Labor Day), I started out with my own class. So, job taken care of. The apartment thing is still a work in progress. I'm currently staying with a host family in Alajuela, the family I stayed with when I studied here four years ago. This is a very nice situation in many ways, since they are wonderful cooks and take care of all the housework. On the downside, though, it's tiring having to take the bus from Alajuela to Heredia and back every day, about a 35 minute bus ride. Also, I don't really have any place to go to be by myself in the house where I am now. So I'm looking on craigslist, TicoTimes.net, economicos.com, and a few other classifieds pages for Costa Rica. I also walked around the university campus one day looking for flyers. It's tough to find an apartment or house that's close to where I work, is fully furnished, and has a phone line, while still being affordable. I've looked at a few houses and apartments, a couple of which didn't have phone lines (that was before I knew I needed to ask), and I've started looking along with Tony, one of the other teachers here, who has an even longer bus ride than I do. We visited one on Tuesday that was really nice, furnished, phone line, even cable TV, and within the price range. The only problem is that it's not available until the end of the month. So we've got that one at least, and we're still keeping our eyes open for anything that might be available.

Photos from recent trip to Granada, Nicaragua

2007-04-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to my recent photo album from Lisa and my trip to Granada, Nicaragua:

Granada, Nicaragua for Semana Santa

Joanne has made it to Costa Rica! (an introduction)

2007-04-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

by Joanne Appleby

Well, I've made it! I arrived yesterday around noon, and it's like I never left. I just wanted to introduce myself to all of you. I've got a Bachelors in Spanish and just finished getting my Masters in Education to teach Spanish. For awhile I've had the idea of staying in a Spanish-speaking country to improve my Spanish and get experience, and I decided I should do that before I start teaching in the U.S. And what better country that Costa Rica? I studied abroad here for nine weeks in summer of 2003, and I've been wanting to come back ever since. I'm lucky, since right now I'm staying with my host family from that trip until I find a job and an apartment. Since this week is Semana Santa, I'll be getting started on that next week. For now, I'm just catching up and taking it all in. I'd love to get together with the others who are in Costa Rica teaching!

Caving to the Convecience of a Car

2007-03-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

So, with all this recent talk about transportation via bus, I feel obligated to inform everyone that toward the end of January, Lisa and I actually bought a car. That's right, a car. More specifically, a 1985 Suzuki Samurai. Basically, we wanted something inexpensive, efficient, that we could beat up without too much worry, and that could get us pretty much anywhere in the country we wanted to go, and this car fit the bill. Really what got us thinking about a car is when my parents came down and rented a car, which I drove for a week and started to enjoy the freedom a car provides. What clinched it was when I rented a car to drive Lisa up to Rio Celeste (in Tenorio Nat'l Park) - a location you can't reach on a bus - for her birthday. Buses are cheap, cars (and gas) are not - especially in Costa Rica where you can expect car prices to be 30-50% higher than in the states - but not having to conform to bus schedules (and being able to travel where and when we want) among other things makes up for it. Wow, I feel like I just wrote a Master Card Commercial:

Suzuki Samurai - $3000
Gas - $4 per gallon
Repairs and Upkeep - $400
Having the freedom to travel when and where we want in Costa Rica - Priceless

Anyway, if you think you'd also like to buy a car in Costa Rica and have some questions, let me know and I'll try to help you out, but I'd say the best resource to find used cars for sale is this website: www.crautos.com. Oh and Lisa and I will be selling our car towards the end of May, so if you're interested, let me know.
And here's our Suzy (or Sammy - depending on its gender) at Playa Carrillo:

Getting Around Part 2: Costa Rica Bus System for Long-Distance Travel

2007-03-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

Presumably, if you are coming to Costa Rica (and living in the San Jose area - which is almost inevitable), you are going to want to take as many opportunities as possible to travel extensively around both Costa Rica and its neighboring countries (remember, every three months you'll have to leave the country for 72 hours - see Border Run post Here). If you're on any kind of a budget, you'll be using Costa Rica's long-distance bus system to get to the beach, the mountains, or anywhere else you'd like to go. Lets start with the good news: 1) transportation is extremely inexpensive (you can get just about anywhere in the country for less than $10), 2) You don't have to deal with the heartache of driving in Costa Rica - trust me it's not always fun to be behind the wheel here, and 3) you can get just about anywhere you'd like to go by bus. And the bad news: 1) Your travel schedule is dictated by the bus schedule (which explains why Lisa and I have on at least 3 or 4 occasions left our house at around 4:30am to catch the early bus from San Jose to our travel destination), 2) The trips can be much longer than if you were in a car, and 3) The buses, although much nicer than the city buses (which are like 25 year old school buses, see THIS POST for more information), are not always very comfortable (some have air conditioning, many others do not).

The two most important resources that I can provide to help you understand the bus system are 1) the Bus Schedule (which contains destinations, travel times, departure times, etc) and 2) the Bus Station Map (which is a map of San Jose that has labeled most bus stations according to where the buses from any given station will take you).

Download those documents by clicking below (links are also available under "resources"):
Costa Rica Bus Schedule (.pdf)
Costa Rica Bus Station Map

Finally, Lisa and I went to Montezuma, which is a small surf town on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, this past weekend and pretty soon I'll write an entry talking about that trip, and for those of you interested on getting around Costa Rica, I'll take that opportunity to explain how to take a bus to Montezuma (it's perhaps one of the most complicated trips you'll take via bus because you have to take BUS->Ferry->BUS->Small Bus->Montezuma). Pictures will be added as well.

Hope this all helps, leave comments if you have any further questions/comments about the Costa Rican transportation systems.

Random notes on living in San Jose

2007-03-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

By Ole

I'm bored and I've nothing better to do. I should go swimming or something constructive like that, but I'd rather write. So, since I don't really have anything specific to write about, I'll just conjure up a hodgepodge of information. This is mostly relevant to people who don’t speak Spanish. Note: For some reason most of the apostrophes are tilted, often the wrong way. No idea why.

Taxi

There seem to be several different types of taxies in this city. Some charge you for distance, and some apparently charge you for something else that I’ve not quite been able to figure out. There are expensive and cheap taxis and I don’t know how to tell the difference between them, but it generally appears that the red, relatively new taxis with yellow signs charge you more than most. I’ve crossed San Jose in taxi and paid both 2000 and 5000 colones.

Explaining directions can be somewhat tricky if you’re used to relating to maps and street names. That’s not gonna work here. The local geography is based on landmarks. For instance, to explain how to get to my hostel from downtown, I tell the driver to go to KFC on Paseo Colon, then two blocks north and one block east. That’s also how addresses are typed out here. Again, example: “JC and Friends. De KFC en Paseo Colon, 200 Norte y 100 Oeaste.” That’s the address. Generally, most people will give you directions based on landmarks. Regardless how obvious it seems to us how to find the corner of 10 and 4 without referring to landmarks, especially since the city is built in a grid, well, I tried that a couple of times and in both cases the taxi driver ended up calling our destination point to get directions he understood. Just a matter of having learned two totally different systems of reference, I guess.

Getting a taxi is effortless downtown but in the smaller suburbs may require a phone call. Shops and pubs will usually help you out with this, and if you need a bus....

Buses

Both Bruce and I have talked a bit about buses and here’s more.
Finding your bus stop is futile without help from people in the know. Don’t even try because you will almost surely fail. On the stretch of Paseo Colon I live nearby, there’s eight bus stops and none of them are marked. Some have sheds. A couple are just a specific place to stay on the sidewalk to indicate to the bus that you’re waiting for it. Two or three of them go in generally the same direction, but the rest go all over the place. To get the correct bus, you need primarily to know the name of the area you’re going to. That will help you to the bus that at least is more or less correct. You also need to know the name of a landmark or two nearby your destination, to get the correct bus stop. Everyone around you will help you out, especially if you make an effort, however atrocious, of speaking Spanish. Bus in Spanish is ‘autobus’ with an accent over the u (which I can’t find on this keyboard), and is often referred to as simply ‘bus’, pronounced like, well, like bus is said in Norwegian. I bet that helps you out. I’ve no idea if this is correct, it most likely isn’t, but what I do is go ‘Disculpe. Por favor, autobus de [destination]?’ and indicate the bus or the bus stop. That gets me to the bus. If I’m unsure of the exact stop, I will usually ask someone in the bus (middle-aged ladies are a sure bet). What precisely I ask depends on how certain I feel of my Spanish skills on any given day, ranging from simply saying the name of the landmark I’m aiming for as a question, or ‘Disculpe, parada de [name]?’ (again, I’ve no idea if this is correct Spanish but it works for me). It’s a good idea asking this as the bus is entering the area in question, since any reply that involves something that sounds like a number and ‘mas’ is good. The natives will usually answer in full sentences, but mostly I can glean the piece of information I need and repeat it back to them: ‘Dos mas?’ Two more?

Asking for directions

There’s no way around knowing what 1-10 is in Spanish to get by in San Jose. Any number of directions, both on a bus and on the street, will involve numbers, just like in English and Norwegian. In other parts of Costa Rica, namely the heavily touristed ones, you can usually find someone who speaks English. That’s not the case in San Jose, which is not very touristy. While you can find people who speak English (try kids and teenagers if you can get them to talk to you), you’ll have to get by on Spanish whether you like it or not. Key phrases are ‘disculpe’ (excuse me), ‘habla despacio’ (talk slower), por favor (please), ’mi no habla Espanol’ (I don’t talk Spanish) and gracias (thank you). Using these, and armed with the knowledge of some major landmarks (to know where north is, primarily) and numbers 1-10, you will be able to find your way. It’s a grid system, as mentioned, so distances are usually measured in number of blocks. I’ve no idea what left and right is in Spanish so I use a lot of sign language to support my questions and answers. There are two things you should do to make sure you get to the right place. 1) When you ask a question how to get somewhere and they reply, repeat their answer to them in your own words using gestures as needed. This is a simple correction mechanism for errors in understanding. 2) Ask more than one person. This is very important in San Jose because Ticos will give you wrong directions for a variety of reasons (they dislike not being able to help). The longer the distance involved, the more people you should ask on your way for both direction correction and making sure that you are actually headed to the right place.

You may have heard a lot about how dangerous the city is. But in full daylight and in crowded streets you shouldn’t worry about betraying the fact that you have no idea where you are or what’s going on. Use your discretion, and if you get into a seedy area (which can be detected by a number of different ways), either keep on walking and act as if you know, or simply go around the block to get back to the more crowded areas (which is what I do in the rare case I get into an area I really feel uncomfortable about walking in).

Well, that's it for now.

Oh, my ego!

2007-03-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

Got recognized as 'the Norwegian guy on CCC' for the first time today. I'm a star!

-Ole

Buses - additional info

2007-03-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

By Ole Larssen

I just read through Bruce's post about buses and felt that I wanted to add some more info. What he fails to mention (since he's not actually living in the city but has crawled off to a comfortable suburb, the wimp) is the overall geography of the area. That is, you have San Jose, which is a sprawling city housing around 350 000 people over an area which size is totally out of relation to the number of people living here. There's numerous suburbs within the city area itself, but there's a ton of suburbs outside the actual city area which all fall under a general definition of "San Jose" but are really vastly different places and not accessible by foot unless you have a day to spend. Heredia, where Bruce and his better half lives, is an example of that. My point is that there's actually three different bus systems within San Jose - the intra-city, the Greater San Jose (serving all the outlying suburbs) and the inter-city. The intra-city bus system is somewhat chaotic (especially when you start using it), but is frequent and reliable in the sense that if you have a slight idea of what's going on, you will usually end up where you're headed (and there will always be 30 buses around to take you away if you missed). The Greater San Jose bus system, on the other hand, is less frequent (meaning between 1-6 buses an hour) and, because of the extremely complex road system making up Greater San Jose, much easier to mess up on - simply because of the distance and the complexity of even the simplest bus route. You really need spot-on directions to get where you are going, much more so than the intra-bus system, in my experience, because the city San Jose is built up with a grid system and usually has a rather obvious landmark system to help you orient yourself. This is not always the case with the outlying suburbs.

All that being said, I've had very little problems navigating the city using the buses. What Bruce also neglected to mention (for some obscure reason only known to people living in the suburbs, I bet) is that the easiest way to ensure you get to where you are going is not asking the bus driver, but the people waiting at the bus stop. My Spanish ought to be punishable by death, but using "Por favor, autobus de (insert area name)?" gets me everywhere. What you do is simply ask the people hanging around waiting for buses and they will, in my experience, be glad to help you out, especially if you make an effort of speaking Spanish (however horrendous it might be). Most people direct you elsewhere if you're in the wrong place, and on the bus itself they will usually do follow-ups on you, making sure you get to where you are going. For instance, a lady who helped me get to San Joaqin (Greater San Jose) told me/indicated to me when she was getting of that while this was her stop, I was going off three stops further ahead (which in my Spanish = "dres mas"). I really like the people living in this city partly because of that.

So that's my two cents. I'm really starting to like this city - I've been here for about three weeks now, and been sick for two of them. But now that I'm kind of putting my head outside my hostel, and the work situation slowly is coming to a correct course, I really like what I'm seeing. I currently reside in the western part of San Jose, which is, much like the rest of the city, rather random, noisy and grungy, but (again, like the rest of the city) has a million redeeming characteristics to it. Except the Coca-Cola area, which really has no redeeming qualities except the amount of buses there.

Getting Around: The Costa Rican Bus System Part 1

2007-03-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

By Bruce

Prior to coming to Costa Rica you hear a lot about transportation - almost always in a negative sense. "Pothole Paradise" is one nickname that aptly describes road conditions throughout much of the country (although I will say it's hard to have pot holes on unpaved roads, which are also quite common). But really, to most of us planning to move down to Costa Rica (or already here), driving around really isn't much of an issue because we won't (or don't) have a car. So that brings me to the question at hand: How DO you get around here? And what is that system like?

In short: "Public buses" and "well, it's really inexpensive..." Me explico. I would say that there are two "classes" of buses in Costa Rica: 1. City buses and 2. Longer distance travel buses. You will use both. Extensively. City buses are often of the big yellow Blue Bird denomination (although repainted by the bus companies) and allow you to relive that exciting time in your childhood in which much of your social life revolved around the hour or so spent going to and returning from school. You know what I'm talking about, that time when your social status was defined by your seat's proximity to the back of the bus. I guess what I'm saying is that you'll be riding old, often cramped and uncomfortable school buses to get from one part of the San Jose area to the other. It's not necessarily fun, nor efficient, but you can get just about anywhere in the area and you can get there without spending more than a buck.

So how do these city buses work? Basically, you walk to your nearest bus stop (sometimes they are formal - having a bench and perhaps a sign denoting which buses will stop there - and often times they are common street corners where the only indication that it is a bus stop is the presence of other people standing there waiting. So you walk to the bus stop and wait for a bus that is going your direction to approach, and with about 25-50 meters between you and the oncoming bus, you raise your arm and shake your hand (much like haling a NY taxi with a spasming wrist). Really, everyone has their own bus-haling style, just as Major League pitchers have their own unique windup, and you'll just have to develop your own style once you're here.

At that point, you climb onto the bus, hand the bus driver your fare (usually denoted by a sign on the window, although it never hurts to ask), and proceed to an empty seat. If there isn't one available, you enjoy your ride standing in the isle. Personally, I would recommend, at least at the beginning, asking your bus driver as you pay him to make sure the bus is passing by wherever you're going ("Senor, este bus pasa por INSERT DESTINATION?" usually gets the job done).

Finally, keep in mind that it will take time to get this process down, and no matter how hard you try, you will inevitably get on a bus that will take you in a direction other than the one you hope to go. This has happened to me numerous times, and really, the best thing to do is just ask the bus driver to confirm you're going the wrong way, and get off at the next stop and try again. That's good for now, in Part 2 I'll discuss bus travel to other parts of the country (beaches, mountains, borders, etc.).

New Pictures from Arenal, Tabacon Hot Springs, & Islita/Samara Beach

2007-02-25T13:56:00.000-08:00

New web album with some of my pictures from my trip last week with Lisa's parents. We did the standard Arenal/Monteverde/beach trip and it went really really well (except that Lisa and I both got sick the day we were in Monteverde). Beware the Tabacon seafood! (Click on the image below to view the album)

Bruce

Katermans Visit - Arenal (Tabacon Hot Springs) and Punta Islita

The Power of Language

2007-02-22T09:03:00.000-08:00

By Ole Larsen

I woke up Wednesday morning and fired up my laptop to check my mail. My friend in Vancouver was online and I was chatting to him for a bit, and he pointed out and rightly so that I should perhaps make some effort of learning Spanish outside "hello". So I got up and took a bus into town, grabbed a burger for brunch and hit a bookstore. I found a couple of decent-seeming children's books (which I was going to translate with my dictionary) and browsed the shelves for some English books. When I found them and bent to pick one up, my back decided to go on a vacation and quit working in a blaze of pain. My knees give out and I fall to the floor.

I'm lying half-prone in a very awkward position, trying to find a way to position myself so it wouldn't hurt so much. One of the staff approached clearly aware that something was wrong, but I waved him off so that I could assess the damage in peace. I knew that since it was a back injury of some sort, I would know immediately if it was very serious. Since I was conscious (even if barely), and I could definitively feel the pain and all parts of my body (which, I reasoned, was a good thing) it was probably nothing deadly. I struggle myself to an upright position, pouring sweat and cursing under my breath. The staff member returns and I make the decision. "I need an ambulance," I tell him, in both English and my own Spanglish. He disappears and apparently asks the manager for help, since he (the manager) came and told me he had called for help. I was near fainting at this time, so he helped me sit down. That's actually a beautification of what happened - he took me to a bench and I more or less fell on it.

The ambulance crew shows up - no lights or anything, thank God. The manager had apparently told them that while it was an emergency, it wasn't an Emergency. They help me up and into the ambulance (I went through the side door, which was excruciatingly painful) and ask me for some biographical info, and where I want to go. The man in the back with me didn't speak much English, so again with my English/Spanish I tell him that I don't care about the cost (since my insurance would cover it), just take me to some private hospital where they have English-speaking doctors.

I was taken to a second-rate hospital where hardly anyone spoke English, and those who did only knew a few words. One of the nice things about being a gringo is that everyone assumes you have money (for good or ill), so I was quickly ushered in to a doctor. He hammered my knees and poked a bit at me. Then he said it was probably a contraction. I didn't know that word in English - that is, I understood the word but not in that context. After I ask him a few different questions and glean that it's something muscular and, as I had already concluded, not really dangerous. That was all I was told before they took me to intensive care. Here I launched my campaign for calling my insurance agency. They wanted me to pay a deposit. That was fine, but I told them repeatedly I needed to call this number, indicating my insurance card. They got a phone and put me in touch with an operator who spoke English but didn't understand what I wanted from her until I had explained with more and more strained patience that I needed to call a number to Denmark (which took a goodly ten-fifteen minutes to get across). Then she announced she couldn't help me with that, for unclear reasons, then started speaking in Spanish. I tell her, like I've told her five times already, that "mi no habla Espanol", but to no avail. I wave a nurse over and give the phone to her, hoping/assuming the operator would explain what was up and the nurse would help me. Futile hope. The nurse disappeared, the phone disappeared, and despite several requests, they didn't produce it again. They wave the deposit slip in my face and I've little choice but to give them my Visa, which I had by pure happenstance brought with me (I don't usually carry it on my person), and told them I didn't know if there was money on it. Turns out there was just enough money to cover the deposit. So I get taken to x-ray, then back to the intensive ward where I'm fed more drugs and ... nothing happens.

I wait around for some forty-five minutes, asking four or five times for a phone with no luck. A new doctor shows up and asks me some questions but gives me no answers. He disappears and I finally manage to convince a nurse to help me at least call my hostel. I talk to the owner there, who speaks both English and Spanish, if he could please tell the staff that it's important I call my insurance company. I give the phone back to the nurse, who talks to the guy for a few minutes, then hangs up and disappears. I never saw her again. My bed is pushed behind some curtains and I remain there for a couple of hours, eventually falling asleep. Another nurse wakes me up and tells me it's time to go home. At this point, I could stand and (after some deliberation) walk, and I kind of wanted myself out of there anyway, so I make little objection and walk to the reception. Apparently the deposit wasn't enough and I had to pay some more money, but my Visa was rejected. I give the guy what cash I have, and am left with enough for a taxi and some food. Fortunately, because of time differences, I could write a mail to my parents which they would read and act on while I was sleeping, so I sent a request for money when I got back to my hostel . I had also been given some medication I didn't know what was, and nobody had actually told me what the problem was/had been. I talk to the owner of the hostel who was wondering why I didn't call him first. I replied that I realized at a later point that that would indeed have been the wisest course, but I was in pain and kind of concentrating on handling the situation and not in a very reasonable corner. Then I ask him if he could call the hospital and ask what the problem had been, he does that and helps me decode what the medication is (basically, two different kinds of painkillers). I go to bed, fall asleep and woke up an hour ago, feeling much better. In case you're wondering, it was a second degree contraction, which is as far as I understand it, basically an extreme case of straining a muscle. Not a very heroic injury, perhaps, but it did hurt like hell.

Lessons learned: Always bring ID and your insurance card with you. Do some research and find a decent hospital and write the name down and keep it with the insurance card. Learn Spanish. Don't panic.

Email Q&A: TEFL International in Manuel Antonio

2007-02-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

I Got your email from Lisa...she said you went to the International TEFL school in MA...I am looking at the program also, and I understand there are two programs in MA..the WORLD TEFL and the INTERNATIONAL TEFL in MA....exactly which are you in..and would you rec. it?

What are your personal thoughts on this school??? I have a good Spanish background.actually fluent..and if I am spending this much money, want to make sure it is a quality run program with experienced and qualified teachers.... Please share your personal thoughts on the program, private, of course...is this a professional, qualified program with qualified teachers that will give me enough of the teaching experience I need... ?

Response:
I'm taking the TEFL International course. It's decent enough - the actual classroom part of it (two weeks) in which we are trained in the basics of teacher theory aren't too good, but the teaching practice I'm involved in currently is excellent so far. Solid feedback from both teachers and peers, and it's well organized.

I would advise you, though, to inquire about the number of students in the period you may apply for. The facilities aren't very roomy and we're 35 currently, which is a number that is proving hard for them to handle efficiently. Especially peer teaching - where we the students teach each other - can be quite taxing when there's 15 of them in a row. :)

I've no personal knowledge of the other school, though I'm aware of its existence. From what I understand from people I've spoken to who goes there (a couple), it's good, but I don't know how it compares to this school.

In a TEFL/TESOL qualification what your main concern should probably be is the teaching practice. If you can't get into an actual classroom for more than a couple of times, you might want to reconsider. Here, we have six or seven teaching practices between forty-five and sixty minutes of length, teaching ages between 2 and 70 and across all skill levels. It's quite the handful but very rewarding. Hope this answered your questions.

Regards,
Ole Larssen

Email Q&A: Banking/Money Issues in Costa Rica

2007-02-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Bruce,
You might have already answered these questions in a previous blog, but I don't remember reading about it. I just had some questions in regard to money, as far as what you're doing. How did you go about changing U.S. dollars to colones--traveler's checks, ATMs, other? Is it hard to set up a bank account down there, for the checks you get down there? I was just wondering about that. Thanks again for the blog!

Response:
Thanks for the email, and to be honest I'm not sure if we've talked specifically about money/banking in the blog yet (although I had meant to on a number of occasions).

To address your questions:
How did you go about changing U.S. dollars to colones--traveler's checks, ATMs, other?

Lisa and I both opted at the beginning to use ATMs down here to withdraw money from out US bank accounts. Obvious drawback being ATM fees (Bank of America charged me upwards of $6 to withdraw), so the "solution" there is to withdraw a decent amount at a time and only carry a fraction with you at a time. I'm not sure how well the traveler's checks would work, but that's only because I never tried.

Is it hard to set up a bank account down there, for the checks you get down there?

Thankfully for both Lisa and me, the company that we are currently working for pays us through direct deposit, and in order to do so, the company sponsored us so that we could open bank accounts with Banco Nacional (a big Costa Rican bank). This has been great as there are a lot of ATMs around and no service charge, but the problem is that I still pay my US credit card online and it subtracts from my Bank of America account (you do the math: I'm depositing salary into a Banco Nacional account, yet subtracting each month from the BoA...)

As for setting up an account yourself, I would presume that it IS possible. I just needed my passport (but I also had a letter from my company endorsing an account), so I'm not entirely sure how possible it would be.

Hope this helps,
Bruce

The silence is broken

2007-01-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

At long list I find the time, the energy and the wish to write something here. For those who don't know or can't remember, I'm a Norwegian doing the TEFL course in Quepos/Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (I will use Quepos since that's where I actually live, though the course is technically in M.A.).

So, where do I start. I arrived in Costa Rica a few weeks back and spent a few uneventful days in San Jose (a city which is eerily remniscent of Cape Town in many ways). From there, I went to Quepos where I am currently staying (till approx the 10th of Feb). I started the course three days after my arrival in Costa Rica and so far it's been a good experience. The course itself isn't too challenging, really, but gives a lot of good ideas and build confidence for the actual step into real classrooms. Thursday - yesterday - was the end of classes and we're starting teaching practice next week, which will occupy us until its conclusion on Thursday the 8th of Feb.

The crowd here is mainly American, a large British minority and two foreigners, yours truly and an Austrian chick. In total we're around 35 people and the school is too small to efficiently handle the number, to be honest, but they have done their best and a good job nonetheless.

But as I already told you, the course isn't too challenging if you have an inch of backbone and some activity in your top floor. Which means ... spare time. Which means ... social activity. And boy there's been a lot of that. I'm a rather solitary creature so to handle a mass of strangers in the daytime and usually a bunch of strangers in the nighttime has been quite the challenge, but one that I've mastered. Even if barely. I've spent more time at the beach these days than I ever have before (that is, several hours), and there's lots and lots and lots of alchohol involved (and other substances) in the extracurricular activities. The TEFL class is very diverse and quite pleasant to spend time with, so I don't really mind much. I spent my first week in a backpackers here in Quepos, then moved into a homestay which is very, very good - cheap and excellent service. And Spanish "classes". So if you're going to Quepos to stay for a while, doing whatever, mail me and convince me that you're a nice guy or guyette and I might help you out.

Teaching practice next week, as said, and I gotta start looking for a job. A Norwegian teaching English in Costa Rica. Hopefully, over the next years, I hope to go to even more obscure locations. But for now, it looks like I'm staying in CR for the next half-year or so.

So that's pretty much it from me. If you have any questions regarding Costa Rica, in particular Manuel Antonio/Quepos, the TEFL course etc etc feel free to mail me, though I'm not the encyclopedia-ish fount of information Bruce & better half is.

Email Q&A: Certified Teacher Pay Rates at Private Elementary Schools

2007-01-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Bruce,
I am currently in the US and am going to start in a middle school teacher certification program. It seems like I've seen ads from schools that seek Americans and require certification, and that kind of school might work out for me.

The thing is my adventuring days are behind me, and I'm pretty sure the salary would be a few hundred dollars a month. I get this from the Country Day School website, "Country Day School salaries are low compared to the U.S. and the cost of most imported items is high due to taxes." The thing I want to know is: How low is low? Are we talking $28,000 a year low, or $800 / month low?

I realize you may not know the answer to this question, but am hoping that you may know somebody who does. I guess when the time comes I can ask the schools point blank or post the question to blogs or posting forums, but right now I"m just trying to get the lay of the land.

Thanks for your interesting blog. I'm not an ESL person but I do enjoy your CR teaching life vicariously.

Asi que, adelante...

My Response:
Thanks a lot for the email - it's nice to hear that what I've been writing/doing is at least in some way helping others either make the transition or make the decision to do so. As for the salary question, in my experience, working for private language schools (such as the one I, and most people who are down here to work temporarily work for) will generally allow you to bring in 450-600/mo working a relatively full schedule (maybe 25 hours/wk). This kind of thing is fine for me, and others like me, because we are here on a temporary basis, and not having to worry about saving for retirement (yet), and having a bit of savings, makes living, and enjoying myself (travelling a good bit, going out, etc.) possible. That said, if you want to move to CR and live like an American and try to save money, it would be difficult on a teacher's salary. Again though, these are the private language institutes - I really cannot speak for other types of schools, but keep in mind that $5-600 per month is very good for tico standards (it just requires that you live more like a tico, and it's not easy to change one's lifestyle - it's been difficult for me). All that said, I don't want to dissuade you based just on my anecdotal information. If you are willing to devote multiple years to this, it may be possible to find work with larger more established schools that perhaps pay better. My advice is to keep doing what you're doing - research. Ask around, get various ideas as to what to expect, and base your decision on that in relation to your personal situation.

Hope this helps,
Bruce

Finally, the reader asked the following:
Thanks for your reply. Please do post my question. Maybe someone who knows about the salaries offered at the Marian Baker School, Country Day School, International Christian School, or one of the other high end private schools will give us a reply.

Obviously, if anyone has any information regarding salaries and such at different schools, it would be helpful, if you choose, to post it on the blog as a comment. This is, after all, a collaborative effort.

Photos: Caribbean Trip - Puerto Viejo & Cahuita

2007-01-22T08:19:00.000-08:00

Just added photos from Lisa and my trip to the Costa Rican caribe - 2 nights in Puerto Viejo and one night in Cahuita.

Caribbean Trip - Puerto Viejo & Cahuita

Additions to the List

2007-01-21T21:13:00.000-08:00

John Hall emailed me last week making a pretty good point: although the list of schools appears exhaustive, the school he works at isn't on the list. Then I realized, neither is mine. So, to amend the list of schools, I'd like to add relevant information about the school John works at, ULACIT, as well as my school, Butler Academy.

As quoted from John's email to me, here is information on ULACIT:

ULACIT is usually considered to be the second best private university in Costa Rica. New positions open at the beginning of semesters, in January, May, and September. Only serious teachers need apply. I have never heard of this university hiring anybody illegally. Many of the teachers in the English Department are good teachers from Costa Rica; however, they have added a few teachers from foreign countries recently (like me!) and will probably add more in the future.

The current Director of the English Department is Mr. Jimmy Hernandez (jhernandez@ulacit.ac.cr). Due to their incredible workload, most Directors don't last that long; there may be a different one by the time you try to contact the present one.

Other nice things about ULACIT are: small but very attractive campus near El Caribe bus stop in Barrio Tournon, San Jose; benefits include the "thirteenth-month salary" paid out before Christmas, and social security; and finally, the fact that this is a university that really strives for excellence in teaching English. Some of the detractions are: the salary is just okay, not the best; intensive English courses can be pretty intense for teachers; expect up to twenty-five students in a class; and this is not a job which will allow you much time to see the sights around Costa Rica.

Okay, and now the school that Lisa and I work at:

Butler Academy, a relatively new school, has worked hard to find it's niche. It is not like most schools in the area in that we do not teach beginner courses. More specifically, Butler Academy trains/prepares Costa Ricans for the highly lucrative bilingual jobs at Call Centers (including Sykes, IBM, HP, etc.). What makes Butler unique is that it combines intensive English training with job preparation. All of the classes are conversationally based, and the more advanced classes concentrate on highly advanced topics such as accent reduction. Also, we do job interview activities as well as role playing activities that help give the students practice in "Call Center situations."

What I like about the school, besides that it pays comparably very well, is that 1) teachers aren't asked to travel around to business sites (all classes are taught at the Heredia location), 2) because of the advanced level of students, teachers can do more fun conversational activities rather than textbook teaching, 3) the students are, for the most part, highly motivated (they all have hopes of emerging from the programs with well paying jobs), and 4) teachers are encouraged to bring a good deal of creativity to the classroom.

Again, as far as I know, Butler Academy is unique in its focus, but it creates a fun, interesting environment. The school is always looking for new teachers as it is not on the semester program, but rather opens new classes as they are filled by students.

Webpage: www.butleracad.com
Contact: to apply, send resume and cover letter to Bruce Thomson - ESL@butleracad.com

Language Schools in Costa Rica

2007-01-15T21:12:00.000-08:00

Below is an email written and a list compiled by a new contributor to the blog who has spent a number of years in Costa Rica teaching. This list has not been updated in a little while, but remains a fantastic resource for anyone moving here to look for a job. As you may have already read, it is very difficult to secure a job here without actually being in Costa Rica, so really the best you can do is research as much as possible. This list should give you a great jumping off point - places to email/contact, places to drop off your resume, etc. Keep in mind though, that while this list is long, it is by no means complete, so keep your eyes open for schools all over the San Jose area, look in the Tico Times for classifieds, check out Craig's List Costa Rica, and so on.
Also, I will be putting this list in a Word doc and place it as a link under "resources" so that it is easily accessed or you can download it by clicking HERE.

Finally, if you know of a school that you would like to add to this list, please just email me with as much info about the school as possible.

"Hi,

Over the last few years, I have received an enormous quantity of enquiries by email about teaching English in Costa Rica. It is now time for me to pass the torch on to others, to an extent. I just don't have quite so much free time any more to answer all of these emails personally.

I will still be maintaining my list though, and I have included the most recent version of it below. I am sure that some of the people who reply to you will be able to answer your more specific questions about teaching English in Costa Rica. Please mention my name as your source of contact information, if you decide to contact any of these companies. Also, please let me know if you find that any of this info has changed.

Don't be surprised if you do not get a lot of responses to your inquiries. Many schools are well aware of the fact that you may be considering jobs in Mexico, the Czech Republic, Korea, etc., as well. Generally speaking, you will be taken much more seriously once you are actually in Costa Rica.

Please note that there is only one telephone area code for all of Costa Rica, and it is 506.

Pura Vida,
John Hall"

Academia de Idiomas Escazu Escazu, a high-class suburb of San Jose -seems to focus mostly on Spanish classes(?) Tel.: 228-7736 spanish@crspanish.com www.crspanish.com

Academia Europea Paseo Colon, San Jose -have branches in other Central American countries too. They teach English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German. They have quite a bit in common with Berlitz, their main rival, including low pay for their teachers. May be a good option for travellers without teaching experience, or those who want to teach and travel through Central America. Tels.: 248-2360, 248-2221, 248-1214.

Academia New Learning Guadelupe, a suburb of San Jose -Business & conversational English. They are a fairly new private language institute. Tel.: 283-385 newlearningcr@racsa.co.cr www.newlearningcr.com

Colegio Internacional SOS Santa Ana (east of Escazu) -teach special needs children. Sorry that I don't have any more info on them, but I have heard that they don't hire many foreigners.

Camlex Barrio Dent (between San Jose and San Pedro) -private language institute. Have hired some foreigners in the past. Pay is very low, but they have an interesting program for their students that involves classes as well as various social activities in English. Sorry, I don't have contact info on them at this moment.

Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano Barrio Dent & La Sabana (eastern and western sides of San Jose) -reputable language institute that is part of a long-established and respected culture & art center. Kids & adults. Holds a national conference of English teachers once a year. Has good academic standards, but low salary. Provides work visa. Requires all teachers to go through its own training program first, which the teacher has to pay for. Tel.: 207-7500 Fax: 224-1480 mercadeo@cccncr.com www.cccncr.com

Centro Linguistica Conversa Paseo Colon, on the western side of San Jose -language institute. Intensive and semi-intensive courses. Apparently good academic standards. Low pay. Tel.: 221-7649 Fax: 233-2418 info@conversa.net www.conversa.net/ingles

English Academy of Costa Rica Paseo Colon, on the western side of San Jose -company classes. Competitive salary, but has low academic standards, and is poorly administered. Tel.: 256-7556

ESP, English for Special Purposes Rohrmoser (western San Jose) -Business English. For 18 years now, Heidi Smith and Bonnie Brown have been teaching English to professionals here in San Jose. Undoubtedly, they have the highest standards of professionalism of anybody in town. You usually need to have a Master's degree to work for them, and you must be legally eligible to work in Costa Rica. Sometimes hire teachers for special projects funded by the American Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Embassy, etc. Contact Heidi Smith heidiesp@racsa.co.cr

English Learning Centers, Universidad Interamericana Carretera a Heredia -mostly university classes, but also kids and company classes. Average 12 students per class. Full-time and part-time available. Only hire North Americans. Prefer experienced/qualified teachers. ELCs (there's one in Panama City as well) are private language institutes attached to this private university. Probably a good option for those wanting to live and work away from downtown San Jose. In 2003, the starting salary was 2555 colones per hour. I taught a few classes there in 2002 (before getting seriously ill and not being able to continue). The negative thing about working there was that management did not always have a teacher-friendly attitude. Good teachers and Academic Directors there in the past were fired for spurious reasons. In 2004, Sylvan Learning Systems took over the ELCs and it may be a very different situation there now. Tel.: 261-4242, ext. 261 (to speak to the present Academic Director) Fax: 261-3212 elccr@uinteramericana.edu http://www.uinteramericana.edu/lev2_page.php?p_menu=4_3

Escuela de Idiomas Berlitz San Pedro & Santa Ana (suburbs of San Jose) -local franchises of the international Berlitz chain. Adults, kids and company classes too. Low pay. You don't need training to work there, just good presentation. Tel.: San Pedro: 253-9191, Santa Ana: 204-7555 Fax: San Pedro: 253-1115, Santa Ana: 204-7444 www.berlitz.com

Fundatech San Jose -very low pay, very large classes. Do you really want to know any more?

Idioma Internacional Now located near Hospital Mexico in La Uruca, San Jose. -company classes. Idioma Internacional is run by an energetic American, Brian Logan. To work for him, you must be qualified, experienced, pretty serious about teaching English, and willing to commit for a year. Training sessions twice a month. Starting salary was US$7.50 per hour (more than 2500 colones/hr.) in 2003, and was paid in U.S. dollars. I worked for Brian once and it was a good experience. He has sometimes had a short-term position available for a female teacher in a five-star Guanacaste beach hotel (room and board free, US$500 stipend per month)! Tel.: 290-1229, 290-1227 Fax: 290-1229 To find out if they have work available, contact Academic Coordinator Joy Blake at jobsidioma@amnet.co.cr. And check out their website www.idiomacr.com

Ingles Empresarial Lomas de Ayarco, an eastern suburb of San Jose -company classes. Frequently looking for teachers. Often recruits through Dave's ESL Cafe. Staff do quite a bit to help you get settled in Costa Rica. Training provided. Has some classes outside of the Central Valley sometimes (e.g., Guapiles). Tel.: 283-0175, 272-2000 Fax: 272-4676 recruiting@ingles-empresarial.com www.ingles-empresarial.com

Ingles Individual Rohrmoser, a wealthy western suburb of San Jose -small language institute with classes of <6 students. Also does kids and Business English. Irregular hours for teachers. Easy teaching. US$4 - 4.50 per hour. Tel.: 231-7294 www.ingles-individual.com

Ingles Sin Fronteras, S.A. San Pedro (eastern suburb of San Jose), Heredia -company classes. Damn difficult to get info on this low profile company! They used to go by the name "The New International Language Institute". Run by women only, they have classes in San Jose, Heredia, Alajuela, etc., and even some outside of the Central Valley at times. Salary is lower than at their major competitors. Tel.: 265-8084, 389-9157, 283-6137.

InLingua de Costa Rica San Pedro, eastern suburb of San Jose -language institute with <12 students per class, company classes. Tel.: 225-8758

Instituto Americano de Ingles and Spanish San Jose, San Carlos, & Siquirres -conversational English. Kids & adults. Company classes. For those of you looking for work outside of the Central Valley, you might want to phone their offices in San Carlos and Siquirres. Tel.: San Jose: 258-1482. San Carlos, C.Q.: 460-7570. Siquirres: 768-8284.

Instituto Britanico Los Yoses (eastern San Jose) -long-established language institute with good academic reputation. Does some company classes as well. Full & part-time available. Full-time is a one year contract with four weeks holiday. Split shifts. Semester system. Provides work visa. Pay is not that great, & if you work for them you cannot work for others. For those of you looking to get qualified, they do the CELTA (Certificate of English Language Training to Adults) course every January and July. Tel.: 225-0256 Fax: 253-1894 Send your CV ("resume", as we North Americans call it!) to the Recruitment Officer at info@institutobritanico.co.cr www.institutobritanico.co.cr

Instituto Cepia San Jose, near Plaza de la Cultura -same management as Instituto Shakespeare, so see that entry further down.

Instituto de Cultura y Lengua Costarricense Carrillos de Poas, Alajuela Tel.: 458-3157 Fax: 458-3214 info@institutodecultura.com www.institutodecultura.com

Instituto de Idiomas GEOS Escazu -"flexible schedules, nice work environment, attractive compensation", they advertise. Escazu is a wealthy suburb of San Jose. Apparently they were set up by GEOS Canada, not GEOS Japan. geoscr@racsa.co.cr

Instituto Shakespeare Central San Jose -teaches computers and English. Pay and academic standards are rock bottom. Tel.: 257-1415

Intensa, Instituto de Idiomas Barrio Escalante (suburb of San Jose) & Alajuela -this language institute is well-known for its 3-hour intensive English conversation evening classes. Good academic standards, but very low pay. Tel.: Escalante: 281-1818, Alajuela: 442-3842

InterCultura Heredia -private language institute. Good academic standards and resources. There are free dancing, cooking, and Spanish lessons. It has a "good atmosphere", one teacher told me. Pay, though, was lower (in 2002) than in San Jose: 1570 colones per hour for weekday classes, 1700 colones per hour for weekend classes. Must have degree and/or TEFL/CELTA. In U.S. and Canada, phone toll free for info: 1-800-205-0642 In Costa Rica, phone 260-8480 Fax: 260-9243 http://www.interculturacostarica.com/esl.html To find out about working there, contact barbara@interculturacostarica.com

Natural Learning Corporation NLC Sabana Sur -the new age approach to learning English! Sleep learning, superlearning, etc. Teaches students, professionals, civil servants... well, anybody willing to buy into their unorthodox methodology! Tel.: 291-1123. idiomas@racsa.co.cr www.nlccorp.com

ProLanguage, Executive Language Training Zapote (eastern suburb of San Jose) -company classes. They hire almost all year round. Competitive salary. I have been working for ProLanguage (which is also known as Pro-English) for more than four years now, and have at times been regularly scheduled for over 30 hours per week. Phone or email Academic Director Damian Phillippe to arrange an interview or get further info. Tel./fax: 280-6053, ext. 11 dp@prolanguage.org www.prolanguage.org (In Feb. 2005, this was still under construction.)

Sarapiqui Conservation Learning Center -volunteer position. Teach in the jungle! This one you do just for the experience of it. Sarapiqui is located in a heavily-forested area of northeastern Costa Rica. You will be teaching local kids in this remote small town. Lots of frog sounds at night! Regularly advertise on Dave's ESL Caf�. lrngcntr@racsa.co.cr www.sarapiquirainforest.com/learning_center

Soluciones Idiomaticas Pavas, a western suburb of San Jose. -mostly company classes. Wilford Augustus hails from Belize and used to be a teacher himself. In 2004, he had about five teachers and was still expanding. Pay was good at 3000 colones per hour for company classes, 2500 colones per hour for classes in the office. I have worked for Wilford a few times and can say that he is a good person to work for. Tel.: 232-9710 waug@solidiomatica.com www.solidiomatica.com This website has a job application form on it.

The English Institute Hatillo 6 (southern suburb of San Jose) -conversational English for individuals and companies. Tel.: 296-2613

Universal de Idiomas Avenida Segunda, San Jose -language institute. Does company classes too. Low pay & low academic standards. Tel.: 223-9662

Universidad de Costa Rica San Pedro I'm afraid that I don't have much info on UCR, but seeing as they are the best university in Costa Rica, they probably have the best English program of any university in the country. They may occasionally hire foreign professors of considerable merit. They also offer a Master's degree in Teaching English, which foreigners sometimes take.

Universidad Fidelitas Lourdes (near ULatina) A large private university. The only thing that I know is that they have an English program. They might be worth checking out. And if you find anything out about them, please let me know!

Universidad Latina San Pedro, Montes de Oca This is a well-known high-tuition private university located east of San Jose and not too far from UCR. Foreigners are more likely to be hired in the English Speaking Center than in the English Dept. The pay at this "private-language-institute-at-the-university" is very good for Costa Rica at 4000 colones per hour (in 2004). Inexperienced, unqualified teachers need not apply. Be forewarned though that students at ULatina get exactly what they want, and when I worked there, my students demanded my head and got it, apparently because I made them work too hard! However, the majority of teachers who have worked there have not had such a disastrous experience as mine. Most of them speak quite well of the program and its director, Cheryl House. Phone Academic Director Cheryl House at 207-6036, 207-6130, or 207-6037; contact her by email at ecenter@ns.ulatina.ac.cr http://fragola.ulatina.ac.cr/

Universidad Libre de Costa Rica Barrio California (between San Jose and San Pedro) -small private university that started an English language program in 2002. At that time, they were doing some company classes as well. They were looking for native English speaking teachers, preferably experienced. Classes in San Jose and in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste! The latter is the cultural and transportation hub of Guanacaste, and is where many buses can be picked up to go to those beautiful Guanacaste beaches. The university was developing courses for the staff of the big hotels in Guanacaste. Most classes in San Jose, I imagine. Pay in 2002: 2500 colones per hour in San Jose, but classes in Guanacaste had transportation (and accomodations, if necessary) paid for as well. Speak to University President Carlos Paniagua Vargas, or Indra Calderon. Tel.: 233-8196 alevargas27@hotmail.com

Ole Larsen - Introductory Entry

2007-01-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

Below is the first post from Ole Larsen, our newest contributor. As you will learn in his post, he is just about to start his TEFL training in Manuel Antonio:

It's nearly three thirty in the morning on the date of departure and I can't sleep. Not because I've the nerves, but because I've been going to bed at around four-five AM the last week or so. My flatmate just finished taking sexual advantage of her ex in the other room (they were less noisy than usual, thank God for small mercies). It's now approximately eight hours till I yet again leave Norway for a strange, far-away place.

I'm staring morosely at my latest enemy over the screen of my battered laptop. My suitcase. I'm almost there - 49 pounds when it needs to be 45-46ish. I don't know what more to leave behind, though. My giant teddy clown is going with me, come hell or high water. Even if I have to carry him. He was with me to South Africa, and just contemplating leaving him behind hurts a place deep in my soul. When all else fails, he is there, staring at me with those (literally) starry eyes and an eternal smile. As he sat smiling on the top of my book shelf in Cape Town, so will he sit somewhere in whatever lodging I end up with in Quepos. Or Manuel Antonio. I'm actually not sure where I'll be, because the TEFL information I have says Manuel Antonio, but the map they gave me shows Quepos and the building seemingly a short walk away from the village. Ah well, I'll find out soon enough, I guess.

There is little doubt that it takes a certain kind of courage for a young Norwegian fellow to start a career as an English teacher. The same kind of courage displayed by lemmings at the top of a long drop. To be honest, excepting the research I did on TEFL in general and TEFL International (the theoretical hosts of the Quepos/MA course), I did very little in the way of preparation. I chose a TEFL course provider and went to their web page. I saw Costa Rica and decided on it without further ado. I sent the application form and ordered the tickets soon after - three weeks before the start of the course. My clown sat smiling down at me as my fingers raced across the keyboard and the lemmings queued to be first off the cliff.

/Ole

Brief Reflection

2006-12-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

So I'm currently sitting, waiting for my flight to board here in the San Jose Airport. That's right, I'm heading home to the states for the first time since I arrived in August, and I definitely feel like I'm taking a break from my life to visit family and friends for a short time rather than "going home" in the middle of my year long "vacation" here in Costa Rica. Basically what I'm saying is that in my 4 or so months here, I've begun to consider Costa Rica my home - not just some exotic location where I've decided to travel, study or work abroad. I'm settled in my home, I'm comfortable with my job, and I will be looking forward to returning after 3 weeks of Christmas vacations in the US. I think these feelings are not only comforting for me, but necessary. And not just for me, I believe that just about anyone who decides to uproot (although having just graduated college in May, I suppose I didn't have an extensive root system in place) and move abroad for anytime that could be considered longer than a vacation needs to feel like they belong where they've transplanted themselves - so that they are comfortable, so that they feel stable. To feel like you're caught in some sort of perpetual transitory state would disallow, in my opinion, the ability to fully take advantage of the country, city, and/or culture that you are trying to enjoy. Either way, I think what I'm trying to say is that here as I'm on the cusp of returning, if only for a small period of time, to the life that I voluntarily left, not out of discontent for the past and present, but rather for the anticipation and excitement of experiencing the future, I find it opportunistic to reflect on my last 4 months and, more than anything, thank the people I've known and loved and also those I've just met, who have made me feel comfortable and confident leaving and welcome in a new country, in a new home, in a new life. So i suppose that's it. Thank you, and I look forward to returning, to continuing this experience, and to figuring out who and what will direct me to where I'm going next.

That being said, to all the readers out there, both new and returning, you can anticipate perhaps one or two entries over the next few weeks, but mostly expect this blog to pick back up in January. You should all know, however, that we are far more effective of a resource when you, our readers, write us, comment, and ask questions. Tell us what your concerns are, ask us your questions (as complicated, personal, or perhaps basic and general as you would like). It's readership and interaction on your part that keeps us motivated and the blog relevant.

Looking for English Professors!

2006-12-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Are you currently living in Costa Rica and looking for a job as an ESL teacher? The school that I'm currently working for, Butler Academy, is interviewing and hiring teachers who are already in Costa Rica and would like to teach starting January 8th. The school offers a highly competitive hourly pay-rate with the added bonus of not having to travel off-site to teach lessons (all classes are taught at the school in Heredia). All of the students here are highly motivated, have a high-intermediate or advanced level of English, and are studying the language to find work doing customer service and in Call Centers.

If you would like to apply, please send your resume and a brief introduction to ESL@butleracad.com .

Also, if you are planning to come down to Costa Rica in early January and are hoping to find a job teaching, it wouldn't hurt to send your resume to the same email address. Please make sure to write in the email when you are planning to arrive.

Shopping Q & A

2006-12-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

Questions and Answers on Shopping: "Can you find what you need, or are some things tough to locate?" For the most part, if you are looking for general items you can find what you need. If you shop at grocery stores like Auto Mercado and superstores like Hiper-Mas, then you won't have any problems finding most grocery items from the states. There are some things that are difficult to locate, especially if you are picky about hygiene items, such as certain brands of body wash, shampoo, feminine products, etc. For example, I've made a list of things to buy in the states over Christmas, including contact solution (very expensive here), Febreeze, 'Shout' pre-treater, binder clips, and a refill for my Sonicare toothbrush. Everything else, I've been able to find and it has been decently priced. If you have questions about specific items, I can try to help you out with that, too.

"Anything you wish you'd brought with you, rather than try to buy in CR?" If you have a good umbrella, bring it. Rainy season is the worst without a solid umbrella, and they go for quite a pretty penny down here. Also, like noted above, bring extra contact solution. Besides that, the only things I can think of are electronics. Bring any televisions, small appliances, computers, cameras, printers, etc. that you'll want. They are MUCH more expensive down here. If you don't want to lug some of those bigger pieces down, then I would keep an eye on Craig's List CR and classifieds in the newspapers that might list some used items that are up for sale.

"Difficulties due to language differences? " No problem there as long as you have a bit of Spanish to work with. And I would suggest brushing up on learning numbers before coming down, because that makes shopping at the Saturday fresh food market much easier. For the other stores, as long as you enter the store and say 'Buenas,' (casual greeting) and say gracias when you're checking out, you're good to go. We've also found that in Costa Rica the store-workers like to follow you around the store while you're browsing, but they're just trying to help, so if you're patient and polite they will eventually leave you to your shopping.

"Do you tend to patronize small shops and street markets, or stick to the bigger, Wal-Mart-ish stores? " A little bit of both. We do our big grocery shopping trips usually at Hiper-Mas (CR's Wal-Mart), due to the convenience and price, but we do our weekly shopping for fruits and vegetables every Saturday morning at Heredia's fresh food market. Almost every town has one at least once a week, and the produce is so fresh at about a third of the price you'd pay in any store. Besides that, we haven't done much shopping at all, except for buying some office supplies at a local office shop. The small shops are great and they have a lot to offer, but if you're going for one big trip per week, I would recommend going to Hiper-Mas.

Lisa's 'day in the life'

2006-11-27T07:35:00.000-08:00

Since my past days have been spent at the beach with Bruce's family, I'm going back a couple of weeks to when I was teaching 2 classes per day at a school in Heredia, one from 9am-11am and one from 7pm-9pm. These are both advanced English classes for Call Centers that meet 4 times per week (Monday-Thursday) for two hours each day. It's 6am on a Monday (-Thursday) morning. My alarm goes off. I think it's an alien intrusion ringing the doorbell, over and over. At 6:02 I discover the aliens have gone and noise they rudely left behind is my alarm. Damn. I stumble sleepily to the bathroom to a shower and get dressed for the day. At 6:40 I'm sitting at the dining room table/office desk preparing my 9am lesson. I type up a sales activity, review/prepare a grammar lesson, and decide on an in class role-play to do if we have extra time. I make some breakfast and coffee, leave enough for sleeping Bruce, of course, and I'm out the door by 8:20. After a 3 minute walk to the bus stop, a 5 minute wait for any bus going into Heredia, a 10 minute bus ride, and a 5 minute walk, I'm at the school. I make my copies, organize handouts for students who missed last class, chat with coworkers about their weekends and whether or not they are going to use the computer lab for their class that morning, staple, hole-punch, and class time. We begin class at 9 (with stragglers showing up until 9:30). We have class until 11am with no breaks. At 11, one or two students ask me questions on words they heard in a rap song (tricky) or read in a book (better). We chat until 11:15, and after we're all satisfied, we say our goodbyes. From 11:15-1 I organize my class binders with the materials I used for that class and that I will use for next day's class, and I prepare for my evening class. I plan the evening class (same level as my morning class, but started 3 weeks later) using a combination of the school's curriculum and my previous lessons. When I'm happy and organized (the two usually go hand in hand), I either head home or out to a restaurant with my coworkers for lunch. This particular day, Bruce came up to meet me at the school and we walked with a few of our coworkers to the 'Artisan's Fair' in Heredia's Las Angeles park for lunch and to search for Secret Santa gifts. After a lunch of fajitas, empanadas and a fried plantain, we went our separate ways. Bruce and I returned our rented movie "Lucky Number Slevin," hopped on a bus, made a quick stop at Hiper Mas (poor man's Wal-Mart) for pancake mix, apples, spinach, and hand soap, and I was back home by 3pm. At this point I think about going for a run, it starts pouring, I rethink the run and decide against it. I catch up on emails, check on the blog, and relax. At 6pm, I'm out the door and on my way to my evening class. Same routine as the morning. At 6:55 my coworkers decide that we're all going to 'Fiesta' (the local chain casino) after work that evening at 9pm, so I call Bruce, make the plans, and it's time for class. Class goes well, and we finish promptly at 9. Bruce meets me at school at 9pm, we put our bags in our friend's car, and make our way to Fiesta. We do a bit of gambling, chatting, and free drinking until 11:30, at which point we call it a night. We catch a $2.00 taxi home, have a late late dinner (rotisserie chicken Bruce had picked up at the store), and proceed to fall asleep on our bed, mid-crossword puzzle due to exhaustion. The alarm is set, and we rest up for the next day of teaching in Costa Rica.

A day in the life:

2006-11-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

So here’s my situation. I live in Heredia at my friend’s grandfather’s house and I teach at a University across town. I have 4 classes spread throughout the week. Right now, I teach night classes Monday – Thursday and a Saturday class as well. My school is on “bimesters” so every 7 weeks the schedules and classes change. Classes meet for 3 hours, twice a week or a nice 6 hour hunk on Saturdays. We basically have to cover an 8-page unit every week. My students range from your classic university students to middle-aged people with fulltime jobs and families to the thirteen-year-old prodigy’s who are already at the highest level of university English. This is what I did last Thursday.

I woke up at 6am and staggered for a cup of coffee at my friend’s house next door. By this time in the morning the whole house is up, with one brother already at work, another on his way and my friend at the gym. I ate a piece of bread and had coffee before I went back to my house using three keys to get through two locked front doors and two locked gates. Here I showered and dressed and was out the door by 6:50. I walked 10 minutes to the bus stop in front of the massive grocery store and waited with a growing crowd to take the red bus across town. By 7:05 I was speeding through Heredia in a packed bus. I arrived at my school by 7:20 and went to get keys to open up my classroom.

My 7:30am class is a midlevel group and mostly all university students who look like they will be there taking other classes after mine. The class has about 12 students and is about half men and half women. That day we covered tag questions and discussed food and cooking. Class starts at 7:30, but we never have quorum until 7:40. Also I give them a 25 minute break around 9am, but without fail some people straggle in 45 minutes later. We do discussions, cover some grammar, do some listening, I cover the homework and answer questions. I am a new teacher so I basically just follow the book exercise by exercise. It may be boring, but it is easier on me. I usually let them out by 10:20 and head back to the street to wait for the red bus.

At about 10:40 I hopped off the bus near the football stadium and went to the gym. I pay 10.000 colones a month ($20) for the gym and it has pretty good facilities, all the weights, a lot of machines and some cardio bikes and treadmills. I am no gym rat, so it serves my purposes. After an hour I left the gym and walked the rest of the way back to my house. Once home, I showered again and went next door to my friend’s house to eat lunch and use the internet. His mom, a retired biology teacher, makes all our food and even does our laundry. I think I had rice and beans, oh wait, I definitely had rice and beans and probably some kind of meat or picadillo. I watched some TV and played with the dogs in the back yard. Then I went upstairs to use the internet and check on the Bruce’s fabulous blog (heh heh) and read the NYTimes and my emails. By around 2pm I went back next door to my house to practice my guitar and do some reading.

At 5pm I got ready to work again. I gathered my stuff into a backpack, turned on my CD player and headed back to the bus stop. Recently it has rained without fail at this time of the day, so I brought my umbrella. My 6pm class is the highest level and has more of a mix of students. Almost all work, many at call-centers or places like Intel or Wallmart. We covered some idiomatic expressions and the construction of the passive. With this group I do less teaching and just try to provide opportunities to practice talking. With this class we had agreed to skip the break and just leave early, so by 8:30 I was back outside. By then, the rain had stopped and it was essentially my Friday night. I returned home to change out of my work clothes and see if anyone was going out. Most of the people I know have to work on Fridays, but my friend’s brother was free, so we went out to the Boulevar, and drank Imperiales until 1am. I came home, ate some soda crackers and called it a day.

Technicalities

2006-11-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

While Bruce and Lisa are out enjoying the sun and surf I would like to take a moment to address some technical issues. Fun, fun.

Power of Attorney
If you are planning to be in Costa Rica for at least a year, you may want to look into giving someone power of attorney. This basically means that you authorize someone to act on your behalf legally in the United States (I have no idea how this works in other countries…). Of course, this person should be someone near and dear to you, because they will have real power and can do things in your name. Personally, I am using my dad. Having a person with power of attorney in the States can be useful for signing any documents, like your tax returns, leases etc., or for obtaining birth certificates and police records (both of which you need to apply for a work visa).
I did not designate a power of attorney before I came to Costa Rica, so I was forced to take a trip to the US Embassy in San José. I had the power of attorney form all filled out and needed to have it officially notarized, and the embassy is the only place to do that down here. After checking all my electronics at security and waiting for the cashier to open at 8am, I spent another hour and $30 to sign the document in the presence of a notary. Needless to say, this was way more complicated and expensive than in the US. So if for any reason you think you may need someone to act on your behalf in the US, designate that person before you leave. The embassy is not fun.

Healthcare
Since routine healthcare in Costa Rica is cheap by US standards, it is not really necessary for healthy, relatively young individuals to have full coverage healthcare. Going to the dentist can cost about $100 and medicines are cheap. Of course you should always carry accident insurance, especially with the way people drive here. I looked into some private US carriers and tried to decipher what all their cryptic plans meant, but I did understand the prices and I decided against it. Instead, I am using the local, semi-private system here in Costa Rica, INS (http://portal.ins-cr.com/). They offer insurance to foreigners, both tourists and visa holders, so if you’re making border runs it should be no problem. Thankfully, I have not had to test out my policy, but I am glad to say it cost only $175 for a year of accident coverage up to $17,000 (that’s a huge amount here).

Skype
Staying in touch with loved ones back home can get expensive if you prefer talking to email, but I’d like to plug a great free service (no they’re not paying me, but they should…). With a microphone and speakers, or if you like, a headset, you can get free international calling service. If you go to www.skype.com you can download a program that acts much like any messenger program (IM, AIM etc), except it’s VioP (that’s voice over IP). The quality is OK, sometimes the calls drop, sometimes repeatedly, but the price is right, FREE. This is really great if you have the luxury of home internet access, but it can also work at internet cafes. I have found it’s not much trouble to install programs at many cafes; they may not be there when you get back, but security can be very lax. Also if you have a preferred place, you can build a relationship with the people that work there, they will be glad to sell you internet time while you chat with people back home.

OK, that about does it for me. One day I swear I’ll write something pertaining to teaching English. I swear.

Keeping ya posted

2006-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

I wanted to quickly let everyone know that my parents and little brother are arriving in Costa Rica this weekend, and Lisa and I will be traveling with them all of next week, so there may not be a post in that interval. Perhaps DJLera has some info he'd like to share, or maybe Lisa and/or I will use an internet Cafe at some point between scuba diving and lounging on the beach in Manuel Antonio.

In the meantime, I encourage you to check out my pictures from Costa Rica by clicking below, and let me know what you think, I always like to hear/read criticism of my photography.

Bruce and Lisa's Costa Rica Photo Album

Scuba Diving Certification

2006-11-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

In breaking from the recent trend of talking about our first border run, I'd like to talk about what has kept me so busy the last week or so. I understand that this isn't directly relevant to teaching in Costa Rica, and it may only interest a few readers, but it's a part of living here in CR. So my parents and little brother are coming to visit Lisa and me at the end of November and we have plans to stay most of the time in the Parador Hotel in Manuel Antonio (they've already seen Monteverde, Arenal, Guanacaste, etc.), and my dad has decided that he wants to try his hand at Scuba diving. So at home in the states, he and my brother are currently finishing their scuba certification, and if I wanted to dive with them in MA, I would need to get certified here in Costa Rica.

There are a couple places that I found to get the certification in the San Jose area: Aquatica in San Pedro and Diving Mania in Sabana Sur. I chose Diving Mania becuase it is much closer (although still over an hour commute by bus in rush hour) and because it seemed to offer more of what I wanted at a better deal. So lets get down to prices. At Diving Mania the classroom and pool dives are all done at their dive shop in SJ. There are three 3 hour classes that include pool dives that cost $200. After that, you are required to do 4 open water dives, and Diving Mania directs at least one trip a month to Playas del Coco in Guanacaste to de these dives for only $150 extra. This completes your certification, and it is an INCREDIBLE deal. Believe me. The $150 includes 4 dives (which would otherwise be about $70 each), 2 nights in the Flor de Itabo hotel (which is decent - no more, no less), and 5 good meals at the hotel. To give you some kind of comparison number, to do the 4 open water dives to complete my certification with Manuel Antonio Divers, the company my family will be using to dive, it would cost me $250 and that DOES NOT include hotel and meals. I know I sound like I'm advertising for the company, and I guess I am, but they have not asked me to - I'm just doing it because I was very happy with the prices, facilities, and especially the people I worked with (Francesco is the owner and my instructor was Hector - both people were very nice and very good to work with).

So yeah, last weekend Lisa and I went with Diving Mania to Playas del Coco to complete my certification, and it was an absolutely fantastic weekend (two weekends at the beach in a row, hell yeah). Lisa has no interest in Scuba, so she paid $85 and that covered everything except the diving for the whole weekend (another good deal if your spouse and/or childred would like to come along). We actually dove through the Ocotal Resort which offers an array of diving excursions and is a beautiful resort with a nice pool and a private black-sand beach - that's where Lisa hung out during the day while I was diving.

I want to keep this somewhat short, so all in all the whole certification and diving experience was fantastic and I highly recommend contacting Francesco at Diving Mania if you would be interested in getting your certification. His number is 291-2963 and he can be emailed at fnistri@divingmania.net.

Also, if anyone has been diving here in Costa Rica and would like to share their experiences, I'd love to hear about them. Just leave a comment on this post.

The Border Jump, part 2

2006-11-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

"Lisa, I believe, is going to write next about the actual town of SJdelS (which was a really great place), finding a hotel, where to eat, what to do "... "hopefully Lisa can write about the remainder of our Border Run trip in the next day or so"... Thank you for the intro Bruce, I would be happy to write about the remainder of our trip! It's my pleasure.

So here's the scene- 6 20-some year olds pile out of a half-working, half-clunking Land Rover/Taxi in the beautiful and hot afternoon in San Juan del Sur. It's Friday afternoon. We have been traveling for almost 12 hours. We're tired, but thrilled to finally be on our feet for a while. 2 people from our group (friends we made on the bus) headed to a family friend's place, 2 more headed to the local hostel (Casa de Oro, quite nice for those travelers on a budget), and the last two, the lone Bruce and Lisa, wander the streets in search of a place to stay. We decided somewhere a little nicer than the hostel (at $10 per night), and a little cheaper than the gorgeous Pelican Eyes (a GORGEOUS hotel over looking the town, at a whopping $100 per night). After checking out a few hotels, there are at least 15-20 in the town, we decided on "Landmark Inn On the Playa." Yes, that is the correct name. A little Spanish, a little English, todo bien. The owner, a Virginia native, gave us a seemingly good deal at $25 per night, if we paid to stay all three nights right away. Our 'comfortable' room came with 'cable TV, a private bathroom, and an amazing breakfast.' Interestingly enough, the cable TV was literally a cable (perhaps for a TV, if you happened to bring one) sitting on a table in a corner of the room. The private bathroom, coincidentally right next to the bar (see picture), was also the private bathroom to half the hotel, nice. And the amazing breakfast consisted of 2 pieces of toast, coffee, and OJ. But the room was clean, sans bugs, and with air conditioning. Tricky thing though, the power is turned of several times a day in San Juan del Sur, and when it's at night, it's not too comfortable without AC. Also, walking to my 'private bathroom' at 4am with the light of my iPod's back light to guide me is less than desirable and quite scary. But, an adventure is an adventure. All in all, the hotel was fine. Free bike and snorkel rental, wonderful hammocks on the porch, 20 feet away from the beach (no joke, actually on the playa - the picture on the left is the view from the lobby), and tons of harmless townies and travelers to keep you entertained for hours. Bruce and I befriended a local by the name of Rafael, who I lovingly refer to as 'the pirate'. He speaks 14 languages, does magic tricks, acupuncture, and can chug a beer faster than anyone I've ever seen, at 9am, no less. So our hotel, though somewhat misleading, was a great place to meet a lot of great people with great stories. And it was clean(ish). Enough for me.

Our days were spent on the beach, drinking beers with Nicaraguan karate expert Jonathon, and fun-loving-stoned-out-of-his-mind-family man, who Jonathon said was not welcome with us. Fine by me. So we got rid of him, only to find him doing splits in our hotel's lobby several hours later (after spotting him playing in the sand with his daughter, and by playing, I mean, staring blankly at the sea while she laughs and giggle, not the happiest sight.) We also ventured down the beach a bit where the waves were bigger and the beaches were quieter. Also, there's plenty of snorkeling right around the cove, for those who are interested. We were more into the wave jumping. A word to the wise- though the beaches might be safe, we never left our stuff unattended. However, it's easy to find trustworthy gringos lining the beach who will watch your stuff, no problem, but don't leave it alone, bad idea. During the day, we also explored the town, the whole 6 blocks of it, took pictures, rode bikes around the streets, snuck up to Pelican Eyes for a drink (in the picture you see the Macuas we ordered; the Macua is the newly elected "national drink of Nicaragua"), refused to pay $5 to use their pool but drank there and enjoyed the view anyway (see picture below), and met some great people. The town has so much personality and it attracts people with personality, too, I can't wait to go back.

As for dining/going out, there are plenty of restaurants and bars. The ones off of the beach are about 40% cheaper, and just as delicious and fun. We got a great meal at Jerry's, we each had 1/4 roast chicken, curly fries, and two beers for $7 (that's combined). I hear their lasagna is to die for, but we weren't quite in the mood for lasagna in the hot hot sun. The other restaurants were good, great deal at Soda Margarita (casados for about $3), but nothing too special. Oh, do check out Gato Negro for their Banana Chocolate Pancakes. Neat little bookstore attached, too. Definitely go for some seafood from any beach front restaurant, try the dorado or wahoo, you won't be disappointed. As for places to go out at night, there's a disco at the end of the beach, plenty of bars along the beach, and a nice little gringo hangout known as 'Big Wave Daves.' 50 cent rum and cokes on Saturdays- gotta love it! Bottom line, buy a bottle of Flor de Cana from any local store, have some drinks in your room, then follow the hoards of people towards the most happening spot of the night. Quite reminiscent of freshman year, heading to the frat party. Sad but true. If that's not your scene, there are plenty of quieter bars with nice atmospheres to enjoy a drink or two with friends.

This post is long, and this is my last point. Unfortunately, Bruce and I ran into some money problems while we were in San Juan del Sur. Basically, we brought about $100 in cash between the two of us, two credit cards, and my ATM card for Banco Nacional (a CR bank). Unfortunately, between the departure taxes, cab rides, a meal or two, and some groceries, bruce and I were close to running on empty, with a full day and a half to go. Not many places took credit cards (only the expensive restaurants on the beach and hotels), and out of the two ATMs in the town, neither accepted my bank card, even with its MasterCard logo. So, I suggest two things 1) Take cash, 2) Take a US debit card. If you do get in a bind like us, try this, 3) Pay for lunch/dinner with your credit card and ask them to over charge you by however much cash you would like, and then get them to give the cash to you. Bruce and I did this our last day there, and they only charged us 4% on the extra money- most definitely less than the ATM would charge you for a foreign debit card! Needless to say, it turned out ok, but we definitely steered clear of pricey activities due to lack of cash. We had a great time, nonetheless.

Bottom line about San Juan del Sur- Lots of personality, cute town, but only stay for 4-5 days max, any more than that and you might get a little cabin fever. Next adventure to Nicaragua... Grenada! Hopefully this spring!

Check out more photos from our trip by clicking below

Border-Jumpin': San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

Border Run: Questions & Answers

2006-11-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks for all the comments on my first Border Run post. Yes, I guess in some ways Lisa and are are Pioneers of the Frontera, but really, I'm happy to be a pioneer so long as I'm going to the beach (pura vida, right?).

To answer some of the questions, Lisa and I actually went from Friday morning till Monday morning to fulfull the 3 day requirement. The exit fee from CR is (I believe) $8, but I'll double check with Lisa. Going back into CR is much the same as going out, except you probably won't have much money to exchange to Colones. The border process is long, inefficient, but necessary for many of us Ex-Pats. Also the fee to get back into CR is somewhere between $3 and $11 dollars. Lisa and I both paid $3, but then later they asked for $8 more from the non-Central Americans, but the guy didn't ask the two of us for more money... go figure, I'm blonde and pale and definitely not Central-American.

Most employers understand completely that you need to take these border runs and have very little problem with you taking off work. Lisa doesn't have class on Fridays (lucky her), and one of my employers just asked me to make up the missed class if possible.

Finally, Joanne, I wouldn't worry too much about having to do the run on your own. First of all, its not that difficult, second, you'll meet a lot of foreigners through work that will have to do the same thing, and third, there will likely be other Americans/expats on your bus to Nicaragua that are going to the same place - we definitely used them to ask questions about the money changers, where to get off, etc etc.

Alright, well, Lisa and I have been very busy lately - hence the sporatic posts - but hopefully Lisa can write about the remainder of our Border Run trip in the next day or so.

Thanks again for all the questions, and keep them coming!

Border Run: San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua - Part 1

2006-10-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

By: Bruce

Well, Lisa and I are officially back from our first border run. We went to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua - which is just north of the Costa Rican border. Anyway, I've decided to split this up into two separate posts: the first post (this post) will be more informational - talking about what the border crossing was like, recommendations, what to look out for, and also how we actually got from San Jose to the tiny surfing town of San Juan del Sur. The second post (which should be up in the next couple of days) will be all about our time in the town, where we stayed, what we liked, didn't like, where to eat, etc etc. Oh and I'll be including pics as I go.

So to begin at the beginning, Lisa and I used the company Tica Bus to take us from San Jose to Rivas, Nicaragua. Really, what you would do is buy a ticket to Managua and get off the bus in Rivas. We got tickets for the 6am bus on Friday morning (I recommend taking as early of a bus as possible) with hopes of arriving in San Juan del Sur sometime that afternoon because we hadn't reserved a hotel room or anything (and had heard that because it is the low season, we wouldn't have to worry about reservations). So yeah, aside from the bus being extremely cold that morning (which is a great trade-off considering the alternative is no A/C), the 4 hours or so that it takes to get to the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border was quite nice and comfortable, and we both slept most of the way. Tica Bus has quality busses. Unfortunately it is the time outside the bus (at the border and upon arriving in Rivas) that can be frustrating, time-consuming, and very very confusing. But hey, that's why this blog is here, and that's why you read it, right?

The Border Crossing: Just to get this out of the way, the border crossings (both into and out of Nicaragua) take time, a lot of time, like 1.5-2 hours. Expect that, and expect the process to involve far more waiting than efficiency. Just keep in mind that border jumps are part of living in Costa Rica, and remember that your destination is THE BEACH. Our friends back home may not have to endure "la frontera" but they also don't get to have weekends at the beach in November or whenever.

Unfortunately there is no "border manuel" that is passed out before you arrive, so you wind up following the herd mentality - and that's okay. Before you get off the bus, the bus driver or an employee of Tica Bus will collect everyone's passports and their customs/declaration forms and he will put them, indescriminantly, in a plain plastic bag. This is very strange to see if you are American. We all want to protect our passports at all cost. That is a ticket home (or out) if necessary, and it is very strange to just hand it over to someone who sticks it in a plastic bag and takes it off the bus. My first thought after handing it over was "gee, I wonder how much he's gonna get off the street for my passport." Either way, its okay, its just how the expedite (and I use that term very loosely) the border crossing process.

So you've given up your passport, and now you're told get off the bus. Why are you getting off? What do you do after you get off? We didn't know, and I doubt more than 10% of the passengers knew - but you do it because everyone else is. Find comfort in the herd. Once we got off the bus, we were disoriented and unsure of where to go or what to do, but we saw a line that had formed from the bus' passengers entering a building, so we decided to join. It's not that easy though, because it's not just you, the passengers, and the border. There's also a mob of men and women all carrying MASSIVE wads of money (see picture) screaming and yelling at you, trying to bargain with you, and take note of this, TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOU.

Exchanging Money: Again, like the passport thing, this is going to feel very strange, but you need to do it. The best place/way to exchange your money (I recommend taking dollars becuase you'll get a better rate) is to do so with these renegade money changers while you wait in line. Now you're probably saying, "now Bruce, didn't you just say they are trying to take advantage of you?" Yes I did, but this is where a little bit of pre-trip prep is MANDATORY. Before you leave for Nicaragua, research the Dollar(or Colon) to Cordoba (Nicaragua's currency) exchange rate, and have bench marks for about what you should get for like $20, $50, or whatever amount. This way, when you decide to pay attention to one of the many money changers (all look about as un-official as the other) you will know if they are trying to cheat you and you can move on to someone more honest.

Story: So Lisa and I did NOT do our research, we only vaguely remembered a friend saying that it was like 19 Cordobas to the dollar. When we stepped off the bus we were unexpectedly bombarded with these screeming money changers. We decided to talk to one once we were in the line and we told him that we wanted to exchange $50 (just to see how this process worked). Then the man whips out his little 30cent calculator and "shows us how he's converting" - I guess to "prove" that the math is right. So he put in 50 and proceeded to divide by 19 while pressing a few buttons very fast, and he came up with 2.61. At that point he says, "okay, I'll give you 261 Cordobas for your 50 dollars." Anyway, long story shorter, I said "let me get this straight, its about 19 Cords to the dollar, we have 50 dollars and you're telling me that that is 261 Cords." He says yes, shows me the calculation again (which, again, involved dividing 50 by 19) and finally I said, sir, that makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. I took the calculator and multiplied 50 by 19 (as it should be done) and before I could press enter, he took the calculator back and said "no, no that's not how it's done - I am an official money changer (and he had a makeshift badge to prove it) and that's not how you calculate." At this point, maybe 5 minutes after the convo began, I told him, you know what, I don't think so, no thanks.

Ultimately, Lisa went up and asked an american that we had met who had lived in Nicaragua and he told us we could reasonably expect to get about 350 Cords for $20. So basically that first guy was trying to give us about $18-19 worth of Cords for $50. Thanks but no thanks. We ended up exchanging our money with other people for a rate close to 350cords/$20. Moral of the story? Do your research so that you aren't that ignorant tourist that gets taken advantage of.

Crossing the Border (continued): So with the money changing out of the way, we finished waiting in line, get our passports back, stamped, etc and got back on the bus about 45min-1hr after we got off. Well gee, I was thinking, that wasn't so bad, now we're on our way. Not so fast. After you get back on the bus, you drive about 5 min through the border to the Nicaragua side, stop, and get off the bus again - only this time everyone needs to get ALL their luggage out from under the bus. My recommendation - pack light, it will make life a lot easier, and everyone wheres shorts and t-shirts anyway. After you get your bags, you stand in yet another line (see picture), this time to pass through customs. There are "random" bag checks at the end of the line, but I put that in quotes because I didn't see a single American/non-central american get searched. They pretty much just wave you through (apparently it's mostly a formality). After that you get back on the bus and about 1.5-2 hours from the time you reached the border, you are finally continuing to Rivas.

From Rivas to San Juan del Sur: Like I said earlier, you get a ticket to Managua, but stay alert because you need to get off at the town of Rivas which is only 30-40 min after the border crossing. When you get off the bus, go straight to the Tica Bus office and schedule your return bus (which you've already paid for if you bought round trip tickets - and you SHOULD buy roundtrip if you're planning on coming right back to CR). But stop in the Tica Bus office to make sure you RESERVE SEATS for the ride back. After that, the only thing separating you from both San Juan del Sur and the beach is a taxi ride on quite possibly the most poorly maintained "paved" road I've ever seen (and that's coming from someone living in Costa Rica - the pot-hole paradise).

Lisa and I had met some fellow gringos on the bus who were also going to SJdelS so we decided to try and split a cab 6 ways. One driver claimed to have a Land Cruiser that would fit all 6 of us and he would charge only $3 per person. You can expect to pay a total of about $15 to get a taxi to SJdelS, so if you split that between a few people it's pretty cheap. Anyway, this experience got sketchy when the driver asked me (the spanish speaker) to go with him to get the Land Cruiser. I gave Lisa my backpack, passport, and anything worth any money, said a prayer, and went with the driver to the mechanic. Yes, the cab that was to take us to San Juan was at the mechanic. The driver told me it was only getting paint touch ups, but when we arrived the mechanic was underneath the SUV WELDING IT. Hardly a touch up... but anyway, que sera sera I suppose. I got in the SUV, met up with the rest of the group and we were on our way.... sort of. About 10 min into the drive we heard a some-what alarming noise and the driver calmly turned to us and said "oh shoot, I forget to put water in the engine" (in other words, it was severly overheated). So he got out, put up the hood (see picture), disappeared, and reemerged with two 2-liters of water that he poured in the engine. After that, all was good (except for the back door bouncing open occasionally - luckily there was no lost luggage) and we arrive in San Juan del Sur with enough time to find a hotel, get some sun-time on the beach, and see a gorgeous sunset (see picture at the end of the post).

Okay, WHEW that was a lot. Lisa, I beleive, is going to write next about the actual town of SJdelS (which was a really great place), finding a hotel, where to eat, what to do, etc etc. So look out for that early next week (this weekend we're going to the beach again - Playa de Coco - so I can get my scuba certification). Thanks for putting up with my writing, and as bad as it may sound, the trip up there (and back) really wasn't bad at all, and the more prepared you are for what to expect, the better it will be.

Dispatches from Nicaragua

2006-10-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

So I don´t have a whole lot of time to write, because I´m sitting in an overheated internet cafe in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, but I wanted to say that despite the week or so without an entry, Lisa and I are still going strong down here, and we are currently in the middle (or near the end I suppose) of our border-jump. Briefly, if you didn´t already know, in order to renew your tourist visa, you need to leave CR every three months for 72hrs and then reenter. Lisa and I are doing that now in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. We´ll be back tomorrow night, so expect a more detailed (complete with pictures) entry tomorrow or tuesday. Just checking in. Pura Vida.

Football in Costa Rica: Heredia vs. La Liga de Alajuela

2006-10-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

By: DJLera

In every corner of America except the United States, football is life. Brazil, Mexico and Argentina have produced some of the best players and teams in the world and tiny Costa Rica is on the rise. In the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, this country of 4 million fielded a team that made it to the final 32. On that day I’m told the entire country was wearing red. For anyone living here for an extended period of time, I highly recommend attending some matches or partidos. The excitement and atmosphere are unlike anything I have experienced in the United States. Plus you will learn some very interesting and colorful words. Costa Rica has twelve football clubs that are divided into two groups. Matches are generally played on Sundays, but weeknight games are not uncommon. Without doubt the two best teams are Saprissa (San José) in purple and La Liga (Alajuela) in red and black. These teams have the most money, the most fans and the biggest stadiums. On Sunday I went to see La Liga play Heredia in Heredia. Tickets can be bought at the gates up to one day before. You have options, usually including, sun or shade and numbered or unnumbered seats. I was in the sunny numbered seats which cost about 4.000 colones, a price my Tico friends found quite stiff. Like any sporting event you can buy food and drinks from wandering vendors. They even sell ponchos should you be caught in a downpour. Football is not a sport that stops for weather, as demonstrated on Sunday. After 15 minutes of heavy rain the field looked more like a lake, but the fans were not phased. All in all it was a great experience even though Heredia lost 2-1. For more info you can check out the Costa Rican Football Federation’s website http://www.fedefutbol.com/ or read the back pages of any local newspaper.

Click to view Lisa and Bruce's entire photo album from the football game:

Heredia vs Liga Futbol Match

Video Entry: Introduction & Teatro Nacional

2006-10-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

We are about to try something brand new for this blog, and something that I hope will work well and receive a good response. Lisa and I have recently recorded a short video introducing ourselves and would like to make these "video entries" a part of Costa Rica Classroom. Please view the video, read about our night at the Teatro Nacional, and leave comments telling us whether or not you'd like us to continue posting video entries.

So as we explained on the video, Lisa and I decided to treat ourselves to a night on the town last night. We got dressed up and went to downtown San Jose to the Teatro Nacional to see a flamenco ballet titled "Tiempos Flamencos". I had seen a flamenco show when I was abroad in Spain, loved it, and encouraged Lisa to go with me to the show here in Costa Rica. We both wanted to see what the Teatro Nacional was all about, so this was a perfect excuse. I wish I had pictures to share of the theater, but it has been raining for about 2 days straight, and I didn't care to get my camera wet, but the theater is absolutely magnificent. It is certainly reminicent of old, elegant, ornate theaters that I have seen in movie or on TV. As for the show itself, it certainly matched the venue in terms of beauty. Again, I wish I could have taken pictures or video of the show itself, but that, as you would expect, is prohibited.

Anyway, I guess this entry serves multiple purposes: to test out the option of posting video entries, to introduce ourselves via video, and to mention the little cultural activity we afforded ourselves here in Costa Rica.

Again, I'd love to read any comments you have about the video entry, or any other part of this post.

Thanks,
Bruce

Who are the students?

2006-10-17T08:07:00.001-07:00

By: Bruce
I don't intend this to be a very long post, which is probably a relief to many of the readers, but it is a topic that confuses a lot of people. So here it is: who are you going to be teaching if you decide to teach ESL down here in Costa Rica? The answer: maybe not who you'd expect.

You will generally not be teaching highschoolers or elementary school students in a normal classroom setting. In stead, you will most likely be teaching in a private language institute where students go after/before work or school. For the most part, I'd say the students are between 20 and 35 years old and they are most likely taking the English classes in order to improve their salary at a current job or to find a new, higher paying job.

The reality down here in Costa Rica, is that because of the burgeoning tourism industry as well as the vast number of American companies (everything from Hewlitt-Packard to online gambling sportsbooks) that have decided to move some opporations to Costa Rica, there is a huge demand for English speaking Costa Ricans. This is because the workforce here is generally less expensive to employ (compared to the US) yet still quite educated. These jobs are highly covetted by Costa Ricans because they pay, on average, much much higher than other jobs. In fact, I've heard that even some call-center jobs (jobs most Americans really wouldn't want) pay better salaries than doctors receive down here (or so I've heard).

In order to get these jobs, however, the workers must speak a rather high level of English (almost perfect grammar, large vocabulary, and some accent reduction). So these are the people are most likely going to be your students - young business professionals (or aspiring business professionals) who are really going after the higher paying jobs that require a high level of English. Now keep in mind that this is a generalization. Some students are studying the language because they want to travel or just have a desire to learn. Either way, the good thing is that most of these students (regardless of why they are taking English classes) are doing it because they truly want to, and this often translates into high motivation and a lot of enthusiasm.

Why Costa Rica & why teach ESL?

2006-10-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

By: Bruce It seems to me that there are a number of people out there that definitely want to live abroad and teach English, but they aren't exactly sure where they'd like to live. Maybe they have narrowed it down to Latin America, maybe to Central America. Either way, I'm not here to persuade or dissuade you, but I would like to tell you why I have chosen to live in Costa Rica and teach English.

The easiest answer, I suppose, is, why NOT Costa Rica? It's beautiful, tropical, (relatively) safe and stable, it has beaches, and rainforests, and volcanoes, and the quality of life is very good compared to other Latin American countries, etc etc. I really could go on and on, but really, those were only a few of the MANY variables that contributed to my decision to make the move to Costa Rica. So, let me start by giving you my background. I first came to Costa Rica just like the millions of others who have come - as a tourist. I came 2 and a half years ago with my family, and we did the basic tourist trip: fly into Liberia, drive to Arenal Volcano (go to Tabicon Hot Springs), drive to Monteverde (do a canopy tour, hike around with a guide, see wildlife, etc), then head to the beach to round out the trip. This vacation, needless to say, was absolutely amazing; so much so that it truly piqued my interest in the country of Costa Rica.

Feeding off the interest that my vacation generated, I began to study and write about Costa Rica in school. My major at Wake Forest was Political Science and I minored in Spanish and Latin American Studies. Clearly the region, and specifically Costa Rica interested me. Within those concentrations, I focused on the development of Latin America. Specifically, I wrote my senior honors thesis on Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America, and Costa Rica is perhaps one of the most dynamic countries in Latin America in that respect. I wrote about Costa Rica many times, and the more I researched, read, and wrote about Costa Rica, the more I thought I would (or HAD) to spend a real amount of time here - not as a tourist, but as a tenant. Only then, I figured, would I really be able to understand the culture around all the things that I had read and written about.

So that's my background - how and why I became interested in Costa Rica, and where that interest took me. Now I'd like to talk a little bit about where I hope this experience will take me. Like I mentioned before, I was a Poly Sci major in college with a specific concentration on Latin America. Furthermore, as my thesis paper would suggest, I am very much interested in development, and more specifically, how private foreign direct investment can aid (if not fuel) such development. That said, I would very much like to eventually enter the private sector working for a multinational corporation or consulting firm that deals with or in Latin America. Perhaps I'll wind up in sales, maybe business development, or possibly developmental consulting. At this point I don't really know for sure, but what I do know is that I cherish this opportunity that I have given myself to truly experience the region that I want to eventually do business with.

So essentially, by coming to Costa Rica to teach English, I have afforded myself the opportunity to immerse myself in a culture that I would very much like to know inside and out for the future. Do I plan to teach (English or any other subject) as my long term career? No. I am loving it, and depending on how I like the work a number of months from now, perhaps I'll use teaching ESL as way to take me to other countries inside Latin America and around the world. But really what I want everyone to understand is that teaching ESL is a ticket to living in and experiencing just about any culture in any country throughout the world.

Hopefully now you understand not only why I'm teaching ESL, but also why I have chosen Costa Rica. I don't know, perhaps the short answer to why I have decided to move to CR to teach English is "because I can - because I'm young, I have few responsibilities, and I want to see the world" but the reality is that there are so many variables that contribute to why one makes a decision like this. So, to anyone reading this blog and perhaps toying with the idea of moving to Costa Rica or anywhere else in the world, consider the value of the EXPERIENCE. I know that personally, for better or for worse, this experience is something that I will be able to use and talk about the rest of my life.

Oh, and I apologize for this long, perhaps non-cohesive post. I think I may have done it more for me than anything.

Some more email Q & A: TEFL certification

2006-10-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

Is the entire [TEFL] course done via internet? How did you pay them? How long did it take you to do? Do you get a certificate in the mail? Who are these people? Are they recognized widely? Like in other Latino countries?

--Yes, the entire course is done over the internet.You are given 6 months to complete the course, and I did it in about 2 1/2. You can do as many as 2 units (out of 20) per day. The units are supposed to be about 5 hours of work each, but I found that most were shorter than that. I took the course over the summer, when I did a lot of traveling, so I would work hard on the course for a few weeks, than take a few off. You can completely work at your own pace. I think the average rate to finish the course is about 3 months, which is not difficult, at all, even for a very busy person. Also, I paid by credit card over the internet, but it was a safe transaction, and I felt very good about the company.

You do get a certificate in the mail, though no one has ever asked to see it. Regarding their recognition, I can only relay what I read on their website, but again, no one has ever asked where I got my training. To them, TEFL is TEFL. The website is http://www.teflcorp.com/ol-home.htm

Hopefully this clears up some more questions about the ever elusive TEFL topic. If you'd like to know more, please feel free to ask!

If you have questions that you would like to email to me or any of the other contributors, please feel free. Post a comment, or click on our names in the top right to send us an email. Also, if you wouldn't mind having your email and answers included on this Blog, please give us permission to post it anonymously.

This is a random photo from our trip to Manuel Antonio (I figured random photos might spice up the blog). Anyway, as you can see, you can make bus stops out of just about anything - including a boogie board, house paint, and a little barbed-wire.

E-Mail Q&A: Budgeting, Visas, San Jose, Travel

2006-10-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I found your post on Dave's and checked out your blog. It looks like a good start, great idea! I completed a celta course not long ago and now I'm on the job hunt. Costa Rica is one of the countries that I'm looking at. Could you help answer a few questions about working in Costa Rica?

My biggest concern is budget. From what I've read, teachers generally make about $700 per month. Is that enough to live comfortably and leave room for a little saving? I'm planning on going to grad school next fall, so it'd be nice to come back not entirely broke!

Also, do you know if jobs can be arranged before arriving, or is it best to arrive and start knocking on doors? I read something about visas taking a long time and being quite expensive. Do most teachers work illegally? How have you found San Jose? It looks like you were able to enjoy traveling around right away.

Thanks and good luck with the blog.
T.M.

Hello T.M.,

First of all, thank you so much for checking out our blog, and I hope it remains a useful resource for you. I'm going to tackle your questions below:

1. Budget - Regarding the $700, that seems like it would be at the high end of what teachers would make. Some schools pay asmuch as $6-7/hr and if you can build up a full working schedule (maybe 30 hrs/week) then you'd be making more than $700/month. Unfortunately its not really easy (at least right away), to build up a full schedule. You'll probably start by teaching 1 or 2 classes (at maybe 4-8 hrs per class per week) and then build up your hours as more classes open. That being said, you can actually very easily live off of $700/month. A reasonable rent for a small furnished apartment is about $250-350/month, food is relatively inexpensive, and you can travel the country on the cheap as well (as long as you don't have extremely high standards). But again, it will take a little while to build up hours, so you'll want to bring some start up cash to keep you going for the first few weeks.

2. Finding Jobs - From my experience and from the research I did before arriving, it is very very difficult to secure a job before coming down to CR (unless you want to pay a company to find a job for you, which is NOT worth it). It's best to have about 10-20 resumes printed off before you come, and once you get settled in, check online to see where schools are, and go knocking on doors. Some schools will be anxious to hire, others have a short "training" programs, and others are just going to take a week or so to get back to you. But rest assured, there is a huge demand down here for English teachers, and with the CELTA training, you will have very very little difficulty finding a job.

3. Visas - I wouldn't expect to get a work visa here. They are very strict about it, and like DJlera said in his post, you need to get sponsered by a company and even then it's expensive. That's okay though. Just about every gringo I know down here is illegal and we all make (or plan to make) border runs to renue our visas every 3 months. It's just a part of life I suppose, but it allows you to see Panama, or Nicaragua, or some other nearby country.

4. San Jose - Before actually coming down here, Lisa and I fully expected to live in some neighborhood of San Jose (maybe San Pedro near the University), but we wound up lucking out and getting a condo in Heredia (a nice suburb of SJ) through a contact in the states, and we've loved living a little bit outside the city. Plus, Heredia actually has a decent number of language schools, so we don't have to travel into San Jose everyday. I'd say that SJ is neither a nice city nor a really bad one. There are areas that are quite nice - Sabana Park is a great place to go Saturday and Sunday mornings, but there are other areas you'll want to avoid (especially at night). This is why we like living a little outside of the city; we can choose when to actually go down there (actually we will probably be going to the Teatro Nacional next week to see a Flamenco performance - which we're excited about).

5. Traveling - From our experience, traveling can be quite easy and quite cheep. We took a bus from SJ to Manuel Antonio for a weekend and paid about $5 each way for the tickets. Now, we haven't been here too long, so don't have a lot of travel experience, but our philosophy is that, yeah we're here to teach, but more than anything we're here for the experience, and traveling throughout Costa Rica is integral to that experience.

Alright, well, I hope that sufficiently answered your questions; please keep checking the blog as those same questions and more will probably be adressed in more detail in the future.

Thanks again,
Bruce

If you have questions that you would like to email to me or any of the other contributors, please feel free. Post a comment, or click on our names in the top right to send us an email. Also, if you wouldn't mind having your email and answers included on this Blog, please give us permission to post it anonymously.

Teaching, part 2

2006-10-09T14:45:00.001-07:00

By: Lisa

A note on finding schools to work at: Look everywhere and send everyone your resumes. And then call them two to three days later. Look in the classifieds of the Tico Times, AM Costa Rica, and Costa Rica Today.net. Look on Craig's List. Walk into schools that you see, resume in hand, and be ready for an on-the-spot interview. These all work, and Bruce and I can attest to them. Most of all- be persistent and patient! It's Costa Rica, and you really have to make the first couple of moves if you'd like to see a job materialize.

In the first two weeks that we were here, I went on a few job interviews, and in each one, they asked about the TEFL training they saw on my resume. Everyone knew what it was, and they even seemed semi-impressed by it. So at the very least it shows you are serious about teaching English in a foreign country. Maybe it's that little something extra that gives you a 'one-up' on others, but again, it's not a guarantee for a job.

I secured my first job at Butler Academy (in downtown Heredia) after an interview, some class observation, a mock teaching session, and some tandem teaching. That may seem like a lot to put a potential teacher through, and it may seem like a lot to go through to get a job, but it was very worth it. Their process and attention to detail when selecting a professor really reflects the quality of their school. Again, like I said, I am not a seasoned veteran in the teaching realm, far from it, but along with my resume (perhaps even the TEFL training) they saw potential in me, tested me out for a few weeks, and then began giving me classes. This school is by far the best run, most focused and organized school I have looked at, and it shows in their careful teacher selection. I am incredibly happy there, both with my colleagues, the caliber of the students, and the classes in general. I'm sure I'll write more about them in the future.

Teaching, my story Part 1

2006-10-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

By: Lisa

Hi all,

So, my introductory post is a bit overdue, especially due to the fact that you've all seen my face a number of times. Well two, to be exact...I'm that girl standing on Bruce's right at Arenal and Manuel Antonio. Both were amazing places, and Bruce and I look forward to going back to each at some point.

Anyway, even though Bruce and I have only been here for 7 weeks, we've both had very different job search experiences, so hopefully the combination of our experiences, compounded with the experiences of those of you reading (and hopefully contributing to) the blog will be relevant to a wide group of people.

Before I go on, I'd like to offer you a brief disclaimer: I'm sure that during the term of this blog, we will name schools, and other people will name schools that they have had experiences with, be them good or bad. However, we are not here to 'promote' certain schools for any personal purposes. We have noticed on other websites that many people write posts or messages promoting a certain school, and it is discovered later on that this person was earning a commission for everyone that contacted the school from the blog. However, and I hate to be all 'school-teachery,' that will not be tolerated here. The information and experiences on this blog will be kept completely objective and free of posts used for ulterior motives. So please do not use this sight for personal gain from commissions on recruiting students. Find another venue for that. Other than that, we welcome your ideas, advice, experiences and stories! Enough of that, let's talk about Costa Rica!

So, basically, my journey into the Costa Rican job market began early this past summer. I made the decision, after much deliberation, to get my TEFL certificate. After hearing conflicting reports on whether or not it is needed, I decided to bite the bullet and do it. I had little to no teaching experience, a college degree in English, and I spoke no Spanish... so I thought the TEFL would at least be one thing I had going for me. And hey, even if my interview at a school was in Spanish (unlikely at an English school, I know), but I'd at least be able to communicate the letters TEFL and hopefully get somewhere that way. Basically it was my safety net going into the unknown. I signed up with ITTT, an online affiliate of TITC. The course was $295 ( a bit pricey for a safety net, but it was the best one I came across), and it included 20 units (roughly 100 hours) of both teaching skills and language awareness. The course itself had some positives and negatives, which I'd be happy to write about if people are curious, but on the whole, I'm very glad I completed the course. Did it make me an incredible teacher? No, but it did help me to better plan and organize lessons, control my class, and review many English intricacies that I have had to teach my students. To answer the magic question about whether a certificate is needed to obtain a job in Costa Rica, no, it is not necessary; however, in my case, it was the safety net that I needed.

That is all I will write for now, but Bruce and I look forward to being in an online conversation with all of you!

Insight on Work Visas & General School Info

2006-10-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

By: DJlera

Work Visas

The majority of institutions and schools will not help you with a work visa and confusion abounds. It is impossible to get a work visa without the sponsorship of a company. If you do get sponsorship the process can take anywhere from 8 to 16 months. If for some reason your visa application is rejected you will be ¨invited¨ to leave the country within 10 days. Now like many things in Costa Rica, these laws are not carefully enforced. Many places openly encourage foreigners to make ¨visa runs¨ to the border every 90 days. Some even pay up to $50 to help out renewing your tourist visa. This basically means leaving Costa Rica for 72 hours or 3 days. Note that the border police do not stamp time. While border runs appear to be almost commonplace, do be warned that at the very worst, I mean in your nightmares, you could be subject to 30 days imprisonment awaiting deportation should something go totally wrong. I have no idea if this has actually ever happened, but it is apparently part of the immigration law here. Double standards clearly exist in Costa Rica. Because getting a work visa is a lengthy and expensive process (schools can spend up to $800 making you a legal worker) they will usually ask for at least a year commitment from their teachers.

Schools

There are hundreds of places to teach English in Costa Rica ranging from universities to cultural institutes to mom-and-pop schools. Some have excellent reputations and some have terrible reputations. This is a good resource to start with: Transitions Abroad - Teaching English In Costa Rica.

Some of the better higher education institutions are the North American Cultural Institute, the British Institute, Univerisidad Interamericana and Universidad Latina. Some other decent organizations are Intensa and Conversa. At places like these you can expect to make at least $500 per month working around 24 hours per week. (That´s 24 hours in the class). For those seeking more money, look for work at the elementary and high school level. Because there are more students at this level, pay is higher. Also for some reason it is apparently easier to obtain a work visa. Some good places to work that I´ve heard of are: Blue Valley, Lincon, Country Day, American International, European School and for those who are down with praying at work, International Christian School. These are all international schools and you should expect to earn no less than $750 per month.

Well that´s all I´ve got for now. Everything mentioned above is heresy, so any updates or corrections are greatly welcomed. Pura vida!

Please feel free to comment on or make any additions to what DJlera as just said. Simply click "comments" below and speak your mind.

Weekend Away: Manuel Antonio National Park

2006-10-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

By: Bruce

You know, one of these days I'll actually post something specifically relevant to teaching ESL in Costa Rica, but as far as I'm concerned, traveling and enjoying yourself while living here is equally as important as the teaching itself. So with that said, let me tell you about the trip to Manuel Antonio National Park that Lisa and I took this past weekend.

First of all, getting there in the first place was interesting. Lisa teaches classes at night, so we couldn't realistically leave on Friday afternoon, so we decided to get up as early as possible on Saturday morning and return Monday morning. Perhaps the most useful resources I've found thus far regarding traveling in Costa Rica are 1. A bus specific map of San Jose which shows where to catchbuses to various places in the country - because there isn't a central bus station and 2. a PDF file listing the complete bus schedule for all of Costa Rica (arrival and departure times and locations, travel duration, etc.) The Bus Map of San Jose can be found by clicking HERE and the Bus Schedule can be found HERE (Click on "Itenerario de Buses" on the left hand side). Those are both VERY helpful resources - especially if you don't plan to buy a car down here and want to do some traveling.

Anyway, based on the information we got from the Bus Schedule, we decided it would be best to catch the 6:00am Direct bus from San Jose to Manuel Antonio/Quepos. That would get us to the beach by about 11am for less than $5 each way! Granted we had to get up at 4am to get a 5am bus from Heredia to San Jose... Regardless, what's important is that we were checked in to our hotel (Hotel Karahe) in time to spend a few hours on the beach before the inevitable afternoon rain (its rainy season down here).

So Saturday was spent on the beautiful beach in front of our mostly decent hotel (we aren't staying in luxury, but it's certainly a step above most hostels - our own villa, free breakfast, etc). Unfortunately, however, because we had to get up so early and were further fatigued by swimming in some great waves and sunbathing, we decided to take a "nap" at 4pm and didn't wake up until midnight! (at which point we brushed our teeth and went back to bed). The positive thing, though, is that to truly enjoy the area, it's necessary to get up earlybecause without daylight savings time and with the afternoon storms, sunlight is a premium enjoyed in the mornings. Needless to say it wasn't too difficult to get up early Sunday morning.

So on Sunday, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed for Manuel Antonio National Park, where, as a foreigner, you can enter for $7 and hire a guide (if you choose to) for about $20 per person. If you really want to see all the wildlife that the park has to offer, I would recommend hiring a guide; however, if you prefer to be a little more independent and have good eyes, a guide really isn't necessary. Once inside the park we hiked around a little on the network of trails (specifically we hikedSendero de Punto Catedral which took us up to a cliff overlooking the ocean - it was breathtaking) and spent the restof the morning on the pristine beaches of the national park. Oh and as an added bonus, (as you can see in the picture) on the way out we saw some spider monkeys playing around in some trees near the trail.

Sunday night we thought it would be fun to go into town for a later dinner and stay out at the bars for a few hours - the town is full of young surfers so we figured the bars would behoppin'. Unfortunately, and to our surprise, there was hardly anyone out when we got to town at 9:30. In fact, we only found one place to serve us food at that hour, so we got some nachos, a couple beers, and headed back to the hotel. So here's a recommendation: eat early, and if you want to go out and party, consider either going out Friday and Saturday nights or going into nearby Quepos.

Anyway, that's about it. We got up Monday morning, took the 9:30am direct bus back to San Jose, and we were back home in Heredia by about 2pm. Overall it was a fantastic weekend away and a successful first journey away from the Central Valley.

To see the rest of my photos from Manuel Antonio click HERE to go to my web-albums.

Introduction

2006-09-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

So the first thing I'd like to do is give everyone a brief description of who I am and what this blog will cover. So first things first, my name is Bruce and I moved to Costa Rica nearly a month ago with my girlfriend, Lisa, with hopes to find work as English teachers. Aside from teaching, we are hoping to travel as much as possible through this amazing country - see volcanoes, hike rainforest, tan and surf on the beaches, etc etc. But all the while, I wanted to share that experience with you, the reader; so, I'll be discussing not only Lisa and my experiences in and around Costa Rica, but also what it is like to live and teach here. So as i said, we've been here nearly a month and we're currently living in a nice condominium in San Francisco de Heredia - which is a suburb of San Jose. It is both our understanding and experience that a large majority of jobs available to Americans (or any foreigners for that matter) are to be found in the central valley of Costa Rica in and around the capital, San Jose. In the time that we've been here, we have found jobs that occupy some of our time and we are hoping to eventually be working a full schedule before too long (need to pay the bills). Currently both Lisa and I are working at and with the Pura Vida Language Institute in San Joaquin de Flores (which is just down the street from the city of Heredia and where we live). I personally recommend checking out their webpage and considering them you if have any interest in learning Spanish and traveling in Costa Rica. They offer great immersion programs with travel and homestays, and all of that. Anyway, that's my introduction, and I hope that you will continue to frequent the blog as I hope to update it a few times a week. Perhaps it will get you interested in this magnificent country, and maybe it can give you some ideas for a future vacation, or as it is for me and Lisa, a longer chapter in your life. Pura Vida! In the image above, you see Lisa and me in front of Arenal Volcano, which is in the north western part of the country.