Today we received our Cedulas in the mail, the ID cards that designate us as Costa Rican permanent residents. Today the Costa Rican bureaucracy, rightly earning its legendary reputation, spent an hour and a half stonewalling me over the legibility of an unnecessary stamp on a translation of my marriage certificate. Today I spent an [...]
We went to San Jose last week to finalize the paperwork for our Residency status. In 2011, we came to Costa Rica while Johanna was five months pregnant. Because we were having a baby in Costa Rica, all first-level relatives (parents and siblings) of a Costa Rican citizen are eligible to apply for Permanent Residency. [...]
My 6-year-old girl really didn't know. While discussing the differences between policemen and firefighters, I used a word Indilea had never heard before. She has acquired the excellent habit of asking for the meaning of any word she doesn't understand. "What's a gun?" she asked. "You know," I said as I mimed a gun. "Kapow." [...]
There are some things Costa Rica does really, really well. Beaches. Palm trees. Friendly strangers. Crazy animals and fruits. But the internet? That's a problem. There's a maxim here that goes, "Costa Rica is ten years behind the United States." With fashion, with technology, with any advancement that happened in the United States ten (or [...]
Its always fun to get unexpected visitors on my desk in Costa Rica.
This Friday the 13th could only be possible because of how I do what I do, and where I do it. Telecommuting in Costa Rica. My wife asks me, at the end of the day on Thursday, “Hey, our awesome friends who are visiting Costa Rica and staying on our mountain for three weeks, they [...]
Every week at the feria, we buy raw, unpasteurized goat yogurt and goat milk from Noah Ulric. He was kind enough to invite our family out to his farm this past weekend for lunch. Noah has four daughters, a young son, and a sixth baby on the way! His girls were so nice to our [...]
Zaden and I found a Water Apple tree at Awakening Soul farm and picked fresh fruit from the tree together. Another wonderful day in Costa Rica.
Don't you worry your pretty little self. This is not an exact translation, but I like to think it provides the character and inclusiveness of this phrase. See, here in Costa Rica, nobody uses the informal case. When people say "You," they say "Usted," which is like saying "The Gentleman." "Tu," the 2nd-person informal use [...]