Culture Shock

I found this website months ago when we first started looking at Costa Rica and right after the move I reread this article on culture shock.  Of course my thoughts on culture shock at the time were - this won't be a problem for me!  I've got Davie and sure things will be different, but how different can it really be?  We'll have a similar routine to what we had in the US and all will be fine.  And all we really care about is being together - the country we're in won't play that big of a part in that! 

Why am I always so naïve about things?  :)

Yesterday I would say I experienced culture shock for the first time in a big way.  And it wasn't even any one specific incident.  It was more just that I got completely overwhelmed while driving.  Because, you see, while driving is driving, at the same time it is so very different here from what I know from the US.  I never know what the next turn will bring - one way streets that start and stop without warning?  Stop lights where all the lights are dark?  (I still have no idea what that one means - do I go, do I stop, do I yield?  No idea.)  A car stopped in the middle of the road randomly?  A person or persons hanging out in the middle of the road?  A roundabout?  (I hate those!)  In the US I may not have known what the next turn would bring, but I knew how to approach whatever might be there.  Here, I feel like I am still learning how to deal with each thing I may encounter on the road and it makes me very nervous at times.  Yesterday especially was bad because it was raining off and on pretty hard and there was A TON of traffic!  There were also people soliciting money everywhere we turned for a group called Techo and having people in the middle of the road (think the firemen with the boots only the number of people is multiplied by 50 and it's not limited to one intersection it's literally everywhere you go in multiple cities) with all the traffic and the rain just made it even more disconcerting.  Plus, I was tired and already had spent almost an hour on the phone with T-Mobile and the bank trying to get issues resolved so I was frustrated before we even left the house.  Needless to say, it all culminated in a big meltdown and no one was happy by the time we headed home.  

Mostly what I learned though is that we aren't going to be living in our own little bubble here and there will be things that will frustrate me and make me uncomfortable and I need to learn to deal with those in a better way BEFORE I end up completely overwhelmed and upset.  It's funny too, because in a lot of ways I really enjoy driving here.  It's like driving in Dallas - gotta be aggressive and get out there, which I enjoy.  The part that's not like Dallas is that you have lots of people on the road who drive SO SLOW and in the left lane!  Every time I pass them I tell them they obviously aren't from Texas and don't know that slow people are supposed to be in the right lane.  :) 

I also learned that I really probably need to sleep more / better.  I think going from a king sized bed that I had all to myself for quite awhile to now sharing a full sized bed with Davie has made it a little difficult for me to get good sleep.  :)  If/when I get a job, I'll definitely need to have more sleep - being tired all the time is not going to be conducive to a good work day! 

Davie spoiled me this morning, so I'm feeling much better.  :)  I slept until after 9am and then got up and he made me banana pancakes, some of my favorite things.  A much better start to the day than yesterday when I was on the phone with annoying people for an hour!  :P

In other news, we went to the lawyer Friday morning to talk about residency options.  She said our best option is to find jobs and get work permits and then to apply for residency once baby is born.  If we can't get jobs, we stay under tourist visas and have to leave the country and renew our visas when they expire.  (We can literally leave the country and return in the same day, so it's not a big deal to make a run to the border as needed, just inconvenient.)  Then once baby is born, we apply for residency and change our status then.  The part that I had misunderstood was that even if I get a job, it doesn't necessarily help Davie and Eduardo - they may still have to be under tourist visas if Davie can't find a job.  I had thought Davie could get a spouse visa if I have a work permit, but the lawyer said no.  It's possible that with the guardian papers that Eduardo's mom sent us, Eduardo can be here with me if I get a job - we scanned the paperwork to the lawyer  Friday for her to look over and let us know what our options are as far as that goes.  (Totally forgot to take them with us when we went - did not make me happy.  :P)  There is the possibility we can get our current tourist visas extended without us leaving the country for the same amount of time as we currently have - 90 days for me and 30 days for Davie and Eduardo - but the lawyer didn't seem to think that was super likely.  If Davie and Eduardo both would have to leave at the end of their current visas (only 12ish days from now), then we'll probably go ahead and try to get the extension for them as it was a lot of work to get Eduardo's visa.  If Eduardo can stay here with me on my 90 day visa, we'll just take a weekend trip up to the border and Davie can get his new visa and we'll visit Guanacaste, which we want to visit anyway.  :) 

I had hoped for some better news from the lawyer, but I'm not really surprised by most of what she said.  She did say we can do most of the paperwork for residency before baby is born and have it reviewed and everything so all we would need to turn in would be a birth certificate.  That could help save a lot of time.  She said if we don't do anything before hand, it's 3-6 months to get residency once baby is born.  But we'll see how that goes.  Things here tend to move pretty slowly.

So, that's where we are.  Hopefully I'll have a job and won't have to worry about my visa and we'll just need to work on Davie and potentially Eduardo.  Davie and I are going to look this weekend for roofing / construction companies he can call Monday to see about him getting a job as well.  It would be nice if we could both get jobs next week!! 

I have interviews with two different departments within Walmart  this week - one Tuesday here in Costa Rica and a phone interview with the compliance department at corporate in AR on Thursday.  I'm really hoping something works out with Walmart since they seem very interested.

Friday I also accepted an offer on the house and signed the contract.  We'll close June 26th.  We'll end up taking a pretty big loss, but the buyer is an investment company who is buying the house as is and I think we would need to replace the A/C unit if there was an inspection, so that alone makes up a big part of the loss we are taking.  It'll be nice to have the house gone, although sad too!  

It is possible Eduardo can start school tomorrow.  We're going to take him and hope that his teacher is there.  It would be nice if we could all get on a routine! 

Now we're off to run more errands (the errands seem never ending!) then we're going to try to catch a 2:30 showing of Maleficent.  :)  I love summer movie season!