The first full day that I was here in Costa Rica was when I met the three other girls in the API program, and our resident director, Esteban. He took us for an orientation of San Pedro, and also San Jose. We saw so many places and he told us so many things that it was so hard to keep track of everything, but it was also extremely helpful to at least have some idea of where places are here. Costa Rica doesn't have street addresses so it's difficult for someone who isn't a tico(Costa Rican) to get around here. They use landmarks as references and then say how many meters to go in which direction and the color of the house or building to identify it. For example, a common address would be "the yellow house 150 meters (aka a block and a half) west of the San Pedro church. Neighboorhoods around the city have specific names, aka, my neighborhood is called Lourdes, and different neighborhoods around the city are named after things like churches or a main road that goes through it, so the names can help a bit, but it's still very difficult to get around town when you're not familiar with it.
San Pedro is a suburb of San Jose where there are two of the most popular universities, the private one is Universidad Latina de Costa Rica (thats the one I attend!) and the public one is Universidad de Costa Rica. They are within a short walking distance of each other. San Pedro has a lot of college aged students and a variety of restaurants and shops. There are quite a few pizza places, including Pizza Hut, and other big chain fast-food places like KFC, McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, TCBY, as well as local restaurants. I've found multiple asian cuisine spots as well! There is a street by UCR that is called calle de la amarguras (Beggar's street) which during the day is swarming with people and it has tons of places to eat, copy shops, a yoga place, and some small stores. During the day time it is safe, but at night it can get a little sketchy. Esteban took us around this area and to different parks around town. Parque Nacional (National Park) was a pretty cool place to go and it got its name from the national monument located there. It is a big statue representing the struggle that the 5 republics of Central America(Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) had faced before becoming independent countries. The coolest things about the parks here is that they still have some of the native vegetation growing, and the parks were built around some of it. So it gives you a small taste of the jungle. Something that was started recently in San Jose was adding statues of doves painted by different local artists in all sorts of patterns and colors to try to help bring back the peace that this country is known for. Just like all pretty much all other countries, there has been an increasing amount of violence over the years.
He also took us to downtown San Jose to Central Avenue. This is a pedestrian street that is lined with tons of stores and people selling things as random as dry erase boards to socks to fresh flowers and also located on Central Avenue is the Central Market which is a huge area that has so many little shops and stores packed in it that you can barely move. There are stores with souvenirs, fresh meat, fresh seafood, fresh herbs and spices, flowers, ribbons, and almost anything you could ask for.
Esteban also took us to the bank to exchange american dollars for costa rican colones. $1 is the equivalent of about 500 colones. Everything here costs a lot more than in the states because most of it is imported, meaning its at least twice the cost. For example, theres a Converse store in the San Pedro Mall and it has every color/style of Converse you could ever want, but each pair is like at least $80. :( I was so sad when I found that out, but I guess it will hopefully keep me from spending too much money on imported products and more money on Costa Rican things :) Although, my host brother Harold had to take me to Plaza del Sol (a smaller mall near my house) because I did need to buy some toothpaste, sun block, advil, and some paper and it cost me almost $60. I guess I learned my lesson to go to a store that doesn't have imported products next time! Speaking of imported products I MISS MY RANCH DRESSING :( :( :(
Other than the expensive imported products, tico food and transportation are relatively cheap so thats pretty nice. Everything is going really well here so far, there is so much to learn about the city!
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