Research About Costa Rica Part I

I've always had a tendency to over-prepare for trips. In the case of a three week long trip to a country I have never been to, I don't consider this as a character flaw. One of things I have been doing is trying to read anything I could get my hands on about Costa Rica. At some point, I had most of Elkhart's Public Library's books about Costa Rica. What's impressive is that I managed to get them all back without having a fine. I wish I could say the same about two videos from the university library.

Part of writing this blog is as a travel journal for this trip. I will turn that in to my professor after I return to show cultural and social observations made while in country. I've read travel guides, and books on history and customs, and anything I could find. One of the more interesting books I found was about called "Culture and Customs of Costa Rica". It is essentially an encyclopedia of customs, history and sociology.

Some things about a society cannot be learned through textbooks or guidebooks. How a group of people feels about life, love, and more eternal values can really only be found through art and literature. I found a book called "Costa Rica : A Traveler's Literary Companion" that was extremely helpful. It has stories from all regions of the country from all kinds of authors. This was the book that really helped explain feelings and beliefs in ways a guidebook cannot.

I've done some research on the web and by trying to talk to people that have lived in Costa Rica, or live there now. There are two english web newspapers in Costa Rica that have been very helpful: AM Costa Rica and the Tico Times, which is actually a print newspaper also-it is the most popular and oldest English paper in the country.

AM Costa Rica is geared more for the large group of ex-pats from the U.S. and Canada that live there. One of their columnists, Jo Stuart, was very gracious to me and answered a whole bunch of questions and even wrote a column based on our email conversations.

Here's the link to her article: "A Tico home stay can make you less tongue-tied.".

Read Part II of this post where I explain some of the things all this research taught me...

Juanito

Shopping and Packing for the Trip

I have just spent the last two days shopping for my trip. I had to dip my steaming Mastercard into ice water, before it melted from overuse. Most of the stuff I had to buy was boring: some new clothes and toiletries, some gifts for my host family, and other assorted miscellaneous items of every type.

Every time I go on a trip out of the country, I take at least two paperbacks, preferably a novel and then some kind of classic work. Traveling always involves waiting. Whether in the airport, or on a bumpy road in a bus, or in a government office, at the side of the road, changing a tire, or just waiting for something to happen, you need to have a book ready. Here's what books I am taking:
Paperbacks:
"Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling: A thick novel that is set in a modern world where all things electrical and mechanical have stopped working and the U.S. is thrown into a new Dark Age.

"The Power and the Glory" by Graham Greene. A historical novel set in Mexico when Communists are taking over the states of Chiapas and Tobasco and the Catholic Church has become illegal.

"Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken and Other Poems". I bought this great little Dover Thrift Edition of poems in order to get the "super saver shipping" from Amazon.com . I also always liked what few poems of his I had read before.

Travel Books:
The Lonely Planet Guide to Costa Rica. Very informative. I have been reading it and other books up til now to prepare.

The Lonely Planet Costa Rica Spanish Phrasebook. One of the best phrase books out there. I have the Latin American Spanish Phrasebook, but Costa Rica has a lot of unique Spanish, so this book is a god-send.

Spanish Study Books:
501 Spanish Verbs. You do not study Spanish without owning this book.
The University of Chicago Spanish to English Dictionary.
Spanish Bible
Grammar and Vocabulary "cheat-sheets"
I am also taking my Webster's electronic Spanish translator which I have depended on for years. It has paid for itself ($49.95 @ Target) many times over.

Here is list of the snacks I am taking. Whether I am stuck somewhere I can't get a meal, or just want to eat something besides Gallo Pinto,(national dish of Costa Rica-fried black beans and rice), once in a while, taking a stash of familiar food can be a great way to ward of homesickness. Here's a list:

1 bottle of Franks Red Hot Sauce(Costa Ricans do not cook with chili like Mexicans do. This sauce is my insurance against any bad food. It tastes great on everything, including eggs and spaghetti. It does not need refrigeration, and has garlic and vinegar and red chili in it. It adds flavor, not just heat.)
4 Clif Bars, cherry almond with white choclate and almond fudge (Clif bars are protein bars that are like cookies, and they actually taste pretty good. They also don't melt in hot temperatures. A Clif Bar and a handful of nuts or some jerky is not a bad meal replacement.
1 bag of Combo's Pepperoni Pizza Pretzels
1 bag of Hanover's Honey Mustard Pretzel Pieces
2 Teryiaki jerky packages
1 six-pack of Sun-Maid raisins
1 package of instant lemon iced tea powder(not sun tea-but it will do in a pinch)
2 packs of smoked almonds and cashews

One of the things I am taking to ward off homesickness is my 1 Gigabyte MP3 player. It holds over 300 songs, and I have rechargeable batteries for it. I'm still putting my play list together, but this should be really nice to have.

Here's the list of "GI Joe" survival stuff that will go with me.
Duct tape-pocket pack
Parachute cord
Ziplock Bags
Black Plastic Trash Bags
Cable Ties
Swiss-Army Knife
Maglite (2 AA Battery style)
Compass (I really have a lousy sense of direction, I forgot which side of the mall I parked in today.)
Whistle
Rain Poncho
100% Deet Bug repellent
Bull Frog 35SPF sunscreen
A full bottle of Immodium AD
A full course of Cipro Anti-Biotics

And, always remembering the sage travel advice from that great book, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", I have not forgotten my towel.

It's a Sponge Bob Squarepants beach towel, thank you very much...

-Juanito

Next Costa Rica Entry: Research About Costa Rica-Part I

Feeling Nervous About the Trip

Its a little under three weeks before I go to Costa Rica for language school and I'm getting kind of nervous. I've been to Mexico three times, during those three times I went into remote areas where there were no tourists. So, this isn't a completely foreign experience for me, but this will be very different from those times.

For one thing, I'm going by myself-not even my wife is coming,(which I'm not crazy about). No guides, or people that have been there before to watch out for me. Sure, the school will be providing me some kind of help, but not like before where somebody else told me what and when to eat, when to shop, where to sleep. There won't be that kind of guidance. I always said I wanted a trip on my own, but the reality is a lot scarier.

One of the things that I always hoped in going to other countries is that I could learn how to fit in, how to speak the language and learn to act in a way that was polite and culturally sensitive. While its certainly possible to learn language and manners, fitting in like a native anywhere but your own country is not a very realistic goal. Of course, I'm pretty sure I wont have problems like Brando did...



My accent will leave doubts that I'm a native Spanish speaker, and my physical prescence will confirm all those doubts. Besides having blonde hair, blue eyes and very fair skin, I am both tall and large,(maybe I can convince them I am a Cuban with a speech impediment and a thyroid condition). Now, Costa Rica is actually one of the countries in Latin America that has a larger percentage of lighter skinned people. Some sources about Costa Rican culture say that they are proud of their "whiteness", I don't know if that is the case or not, but I still know that I will stick out like a sore thumb.

"Oh, Yeah, Like you blend..."

The point it that there is nothing I can do to avoid being conspicous. It's inevitable that I will be pigeonholed as a gringo, and all the negative things that go with that. Learning a language is about more than just learning the words of another language, more than learning how to conjugate verbs. Learning a language is really about learning to communicate in universal terms-not local. This means there is always a conflict in any type of cross cultural communication. We always have to go beyond our own prejudices and the prejudices of the others in order to communicate. The nature of communication between cultures always starts with the shock of the strange alien, and the eventual transformation of the alien to familiar as we find what is universal between us.

Neo-sociological-gobbledy-gook aside, I'm ready to accept the fact that I will stand out. What is great about this is I that once again I get to be the minority-I get to feel the same thing that Latino immigrants feel when they come to the US, I get to be alone in a strange place where everyone knows I'm not from there and they speak a language that I can't speak as well as they do. I've felt this way before in Mexico, but what astounded me was I was welcomed warmly and treated well. I only hope I can return the favor to Spanish-speakers when I meet them here in the United States.

Juanito

Next Costa Rica Entry: "Shopping and Packing for the Trip"