Awesome movie....oh wait, its in Spanish

That is how I have felt the last week as I watch TV. I will turn on the TV and see some movie that looks good on TNT or some other channel - get excited - only to be let down because there is some poor voice over a movie I like. I just need to keep telling myself that very soon those shows will be a valuable way for me to continue learning more Spanish.

Totally unrelated to TV - we found out again why all those bars are on the windows. I was talking to my 'big brother' at language school who has been helping us and he told us that last night a couple who was just about ready to graduate from the school turned on their lights in the middle of the evening - and standing in their bedroom was someone who had broken into their house. Praise the Lord that he clearly did not have anything else other than robbery on his mind because he fled in a hurry instead of standing for some sort of a confrontation. The same thing could certainly happen back in the US - I just think it is much more common here. It is a sad thing when you have to start asking yourself 'What would I do if he attacked me...' and 'What are the laws in Costa Rica if someone breaks into your house and has some sort of a fight...' We certainly live in a fallen world.

My super power

I have a super power. Much like superman is SUPER strong, Magneto can control metal, Wolverine heals himself quickly, Batman ...well, actually he does not have a super power. But you get the point - alot of people DO have super powers - and I am one of them. Did you all know that? Would you like to hear about it? I knew that you did. So, you see, I occasionally get painful bumps on my head. I know THAT isn't a super power, but rather more of a problem, issue...some might even call disease....but let me me finish. After these bumps rise and fall, usually taking several weeks - I lose my hair in that spot. Again, that is NOT a super power, that is more like anti-super-power. But...here is the super part. After three to four years...my hair grows back. Thicker and darker in that spot. There are scientists that would kill to have my genes mutant qualities that allow for this. But I'll never give it up. UNLESS - one of you wants to 50% profit share with a secret that would put rogain out of business. Just let me know.

A long awaited promise - some pictures of our new van's bling bling.

This gas cap. Don't mess with the star of power.

Wheel bling.

Break light bling.

I particularly like this one because it says AWD on our roof rack. Believe me, our van is not AWD.

Meyer Household 6, Roaches 2

It seems only fair really, to give them two points to our one. Christy opened the medicine cabinet last night to find one sitting in a cup that we had holding toothbrushes - just staring and laughing at us. Oh sure, he still died a terrible death by bleach, but his cleverness of penetrating the impenetrable steel box gains his kind valuable points in catching up to the humans.

For those of you that have not seen one before, here is what an electric shower head looks like. I've have it on good account that you can get zapped by these things (no wonder - look at the exposed wires with little more than electrical type holding them together). Lisa Befus calls them 'widow-makers'. Luckily we have been fortunate thus far. As long as you do not want anything more than a trickle from the top - the water actually gets pretty warm. As far as I am concerned, as long as I have hot water, it can be a torrent or a small trickle, I'm pretty happy either way. That being said, I have almost no hair so I'm not sure my opinion is the same as the rest of the household.

Meyer household 5, Roaches 0

We are about 100% moved into our new place and it is already starting to feel like home! Our bags are unpacked, furniture moved to where we want it and have generally bought the essentials that we need to make food, eat and sleep. It is a surprisingly quiet area which is wonderful for sleeping. We have a guard shack for our block right outside our gate and the guard, Hector, seems like a really great guy and appears to work 7 days a week for 14 or more hours a day! There are parks everywhere in our neighborhood - only 5 minutes away there is a large Japanese style park with playground equipment, a pond, ducks, and some bamboo mazes. Elizabeth and I went there today and played for a while.

There seems to be less insects on this side of town than there was up in Belen. I suppose that is because it is more urban. That being said, less insects but more roaches down here. About 5 have tried to entered our house within our line of site. We have won all five battles with shoes or chair legs.

More than I remember

In the 'old' days I used to have a fairly slim key chain. I had one key for each of the two cars I owned. A house bolt lock and a house knob lock. Maybe one key that I had for work, some 'valued' shopper cards and that was about it. If I wanted to get into my house no more than 2 keys was ever needed. Now, I KNOW I am in Costa Rica because my key chain has grown. To get from the street into our place you need 1)One key for the pad lock on the front gate 2)One key for the gate itself 3)One key for the gate on the front door and 4) One key for the door knob. Oh sure, I suppose you could scale two walls and just use one key for the lock on the back and then break down a couple doors - but that sure would be alot of work. If you wanted to get the van out you would need 1)Key for #1 padlock on the gate 2) Key for #2 padlock on the gate 3)Key for the gate 4) Key for the 'Dr Hook' club lock on the car and 5) Key for the car. My key chain has grown so much I even added a beener so that my belt loops takes the weight instead of me so I do not get a sore back :)

Christy and I are officially moved into our new place down in San Francisco de Dos Rios (San Fransico with two rivers). We unpacked our bags yesterday and then today managed to take a walk around the surrounding area. We are only 1/2 mile away from many local shops and also a pretty large grocery store. The trek to language will be a bear (20 minutes) especially in the rain, but at least we can drive if we really need to.

I feel like we have officially been assimilated into Costa Rica. We went to some street shop today and I ordered (in Spanish) 'one entire chicken meal' (only 7 bucks - it easily would feed three). They excitedly told me something in Spanish, I said No Habla Espanol. I'm so tired of saying that - but the chicken was great - minus the pickled/unripe banana/onion sauce they gave us.

Two steps forward

Thats how I feel today. I drove out with my amazing Tico friend Walter in the Befus' van in search of people to fix the damage I caused yesterday. First instruction from Walter...'Do NOT say anything, or else we will get charged twice as much.' With that in mind we were on our way. After pricing out the repairs at a couple shops it turns out we were able to buy a whole new back hatch door (1/6 of the entire van body) for about 300 dollars. To paint and install it will be another 200. I thought I would be out thousands repairing the van...but it only cost 500 and should be done in about a week! I'm liking Costa Rica better already!

Next we were able to pick up our van from the used car lot. They did all the fixes they said, and cleaned it up so nice I hardly recognized it. One of Christy's first comments about the car after she had time to look at it...'Is this our GAS CAP?' Yes, its that amazing. I'll have to be sure and take a picture of it soon and put it out here. We got insurance on the car without much hassle. Insurance was taking a little longer than we thought....Walter was late to help drive the kids home (he runs a transportation business that picks up and drops off kids from La Palabra) so we had a site seeing trip at about 120KPH back to Belen...it was exhilarating but slightly intense. I was driving my new turbo diesel van like a Porsche.

Then tonight, Lisa Befus watched Sammy and Lizzy for a bit so we could go have a date night by having dinner. It was the first time we've really talked for a bit about how we were feeling, talked about our time here, talked about language school, encouraged each other, etc. Basically, it was very nice and exactly what we needed after yesterday.

The worst day so far

Several reasons why this is the worst day yet. I'll make it a running list to the number one reason

- I saw this (see to the left) outside on the wall of the house we are staying at. I heard someone say that 'tarantula' season is coming soon - but I did not really believe that I would see one. Well...this makes one. I'm not what you would call a 'bug' person - so I took the liberty of walking about 4 feet around the wall this thing was near. Even when I took the picture, I used super zoom on the camera. And yes, I realize they are not that poisonous - I do not care - they are big and hairy.

- Sammy gave Christy a fat lip with my alarm clock in the morning

- It took us 2.7 hours to drive from our new home by language school to La Palabra over by the airport. This in 'light' traffic should take about 35. In heavy, I'm not sure, but this drive could not have been much worse.

- I had to go bathroom the whole way home on that trip

- We realized yet again that we know zero Spanish and it is frustrating to be out and about and not communicate

- Our big brother who has limited previous Spanish experience and has been in language school for a semester was clearly still having trouble communicating with folks. This is very likely how we will be after one semester and was slightly disheartening to know that we may not be further along in 3 months.

- We found out that parking a van very similar to what we just bought is VERY difficult in the gated front area of our new home. For those of you that can, think first Austin Powers movie as he tries to turn the golf cart with a 125 point turn.

- I turned Matt & Lisa's van's back window into something like you can see to the left. Actually, their back window actually exploded (safety glass continued breaking for 15 minutes - pretty cool). And I dented their back hatch/trunk so bad that it no longer opens and the lock is broken. I know that, much like I would be with my own car, they don't really care that the van got dinged. Its just a van and it will get fixed. But that does not make me feel any more silly for having done it.

- I broke the window and hatch by backing into a garbage holder out front of someone's house. I could use the 'it was too low to see in my mirror' excuse...but I simply should have been paying better attention. A garbage holder, how stupid.

- The whole van mess ruined our first impression of the house as we basically just threw our luggage in and then left. We wanted to get the van back home quick (read: 3 hours in traffic) in case it started to rain so it did not get soaked.

- The whole van and house experience left me very humiliated, frustrated, upset, annoyed so that the whole way home I was irritable. As I got cut off again...and again....and again....and again....AND each time someone drive up on the side walk, or the grass, or up a hill, AND bikers almost hit the car as they drive down the center 'lane', AND as the police on dirt bikes did the same thing AND as we saw trash every where and rats crawling through it just outside our car - for the first time I was upset at every one here and generally frustrated with Costa Rica.

But, now we are home. Matt & Lisa were understanding and kind about the whole van thing. It will be relatively quick and cheaper than I thought to fix and we've had a chance to unwind a bit. Hopefully we'll not have too many more days like this in the near future and be off and learning Spanish at the language institute soon.