Lost in Translation

We safely arrived in San José on Monday evening. The Carters picked us up at the airport, and we arrived at our new home.

Addresses are very interesting here because they don´t use street addresses but instead mark meters from a landmark (note: the landmark may no longer exist). Our house is a nice two bedroom located about 10 minutes walk from the language school. The interior is very nice; picture light orange and white stucco, blue ceramic tiles on some of the counters, and brown tile floors. We have a cute little backyard, probably about 25 feet by 10 feet. The first morning I took a cold shower . . . thankfully we figured out how the shower-head heater works, so I had a moderately hot shower today.

We´ve already had a few interesting cultural experiences. You put your trash out on the sidewalk twice per week. I didn´t want wild dogs to get the trash so I put it on our enclosed entryway. That was a mistake as the big black dog next door (somehow) pushed his body in enough to grab the bag and rip its contents out. Sorry next door neighbors! Then another stray dog made our neighbor dog angry at 4 a.m. this morning, causing him to bark angrily for about 40 minutes.

Holly, Scott, his brother, and I went to a big store for major purchases last night. Things are expensive here, so the bill came to $330. I pulled out my trusty Visa, and heard an angry beep. It said something like, ¨Your card has been rejected.¨ Thankfully Scott and I had enough cash between the two of us to cover the bill! That would have been very embarrassing as Holly and Scott´s brother had already taken the carts out to a taxi.

We had our first day of orientation today. I´m really going to enjoy the year of Spanish. The people at the language school are very gracious. Lucas and Eliana had a great first day of Kinder (like a preschool).

Climate note: I hate to say it, but we left an ice storm in Iowa to come to 70 degree, sunny weather, surrounded by green mountains on every side. Oh, our backyard also has bright pink and orange flowers.

Thanks for your prayers--God has blessed in our first days here.