Some clarifications

A few comments here and there have made me realize a few clarifications are in order.

What Am I Doing Here

This is not a permanent move, it cannot be. If it were, I would lose my permanent residency in the US which I don't want, and besides, I can only get 3-month tourist visas here (consecutively, by leaving the country every three months), and I've put some furniture in storage in Boston (well, in Cambridge really, but we Bostonians like to think of Cambridge as part of Boston). However, it's an indefinite move. I've left my job after six successful years to pursuit other endeavors, as they say, namely to learn Spanish and get "back" into the field of political science. Wish me luck.

Why Costa Rica

It's all thanks to Erin. Erin's a good friend and former co-worker from my previous job who works in operations and moved here back in September, aligning her own interests with the company's. Lobbying her friends to come with her, I took the bait. Thus aligning my own interests, of political science - I need field work and an additional language (and a change), both of which I should be able to get here.

What Is Here

I live in Monteverde, a mountainous region in sort-of central Costa Rica in the cloud forest, a mile or so from the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, three miles or so from Santa Elena, the main city here with 2 or so thousand people. The house is a lovely Costa Rican villa that we rent, with tile and hardwood floors, perched on a hillside with a porch overlooking the gulf of Nicoya, on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. See the map, the house is on the Camino de San Luis, the road in the bottom-right corner (where it says To San Luis and Café Monteverde), slightly outside the map.

How Do I Like It

All talk about robberies, black-outs, once-weekly entertainment, and 45-minute walks to civilization aside, these past three weeks have been true bliss. I've spent most days when I'm not hiking to Santa Elena for provisions or to pay bills on the porch. In the morning with my coffee watching the sun rise. During the day in the hammock reading a book. In the evening with a glass of wine, watching the fire flies, listening to the chirps of the birds, the croaks of the frogs, and the symphony of the crickets. This is peace and I recommend all to do the same, be it just a weekend in the Adirondacks or out in the Stockholm archipelago, anywhere your cell phone can't reach you and you're alone with your thoughts. I love it here but must admit that today starting school and Erin's and Jim's arrival (Jim is another of Erin's friends who took the bait and will be here for three months) in a few days has been much anticipated - it is nice to have people to talk with and it will be nice to have someone other than the cats in the house to hang out with.

What's Next

I'll likely be here for a while. So come visit! Or at the very least Skype me - ftufvesson. Phone calls are expensive.

James Redfield, The Tenth Insight

I read his Celestine Prophesy in 2000 and can't quite remember what I thought of it. Probably because it wasn't that memorable. The Tenth Insight, the sequel, isn't that memorable, either. While I like the themes he brings up, such as fear and awareness, and appreciate how he deals with the social problems and injustices of today, the end result is just too outlandish for me to enjoy. I seem to recall he's written even more sequels, who wouldn't when they sell in the millions, the 11th and 12th insight, but I think I'll skip those. But perhaps I've simply succumbed to the Fear (pun only funny if you've actually read the book)...

Latest reads

Plenty of time on my hands these days so plenty of time to read. But it will all change on Monday when I go back to school. Spanish school that is.

Isabel Allende, City of the Beasts

Blerk. Main characters are 12 and 15 years old and reading it it felt like the book was aimed at readers of same age as well. And I don't remember Allende writing for adolescents. And even so the plot was so bad and the characters so bad and stereotypical it made you nauseous. But I finish and at the last page I read "her first novel for young readers". Excellent waste of time in other words.

Peter Mayle, Anything Considered

Never heard of the guy before, but if you can suspend your disbelief in the turn of events for a few hours it's a delightful read with great descriptions of the French countryside, way of life and gastronomy.

Jack Kerouac, Tristessa, Lonesome Traveler, From the Journals 1949-1954

Ah, beat literature, how I love ye! Can't really say that Tristessa, or the journal entries, in themselves are much worth reading, but when you take all of Kerouac in it's just phenomenal. His mad feverish way of living his life gets to you and sucks you in. When he's hanging out in Mexico City you want to be there, when he's describing a night in NYC you smell that city, when he's dashing from one coast to another you want to be on the road (bad pun) with him. And even when he takes a time out and spends two months as a fire lookout on Mt Desolation with nothing but the sounds of nature and weather and his own thoughts disturbing the peace you feel the beauty of the tranquility. Read him. And all the other beats.

Latest reads

Is the title of the posts where I list what I've been reading lately.

Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives

Yes, another Bolano and so good, just like 2666 I read a while back, and just like Skating Rink was before I had to return it to the library because I was moving here. If you haven't read him, do so. I love how books that were released 5-10 years apart and have completely different topics still intermesh with charaters, events, and references keep popping up in different novels.

Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

This was not at all the book I thought it would be, I envisioned some kind of dreamy introvert Asian novel and it turned out to be about a family from the Dominican Republic steeped in realism. But it was awesome nonetheless. Two pieces of advice, though;

• Don't read the final segment, titled The Final Letter, it kind of spoils the mood (for me)
• Ignore the opening statement of "This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental", it only ruins the realism feel.

Bruce Chatwin, What am I Doing Here

Ah, Bruce, who I adore your travel prose. Hard to imagine I had this on my book shelf for four years before finally picking it up. Unfortunately the title is a bit of a misnomer and a lot of chapters, it's an essay collection, has nothing to do with it and are a bit boring, but there are certainly gems in there, such as when he gets imprisoned in Benin because they think he's a mercenary. His and his peers reactions to the whole farce are quite priceless.

Electricity

Is a good thing. It makes laundering easy and effortless, it enables you to play music and have light in the house even if it's dark outside, and it keeps your food cold and your shower warm (though not hot, let's not get carried away here).

So not having it for two days was a bit bum. Apparently some trees fell over the lines up by the reserve and that took a while to fix. After all, it was raining (which apparently it does a lot here, who'd thunk) so the repairmen preferred to sit in the truck and wait it out.

After it was fixed it only took me a half hour to lose it again though. And then it stayed off for two days until I finally figured out what was wrong; someone didn't pay the electricity bill even though that someone said she'd done so... That felt a little foolish. Now the bill's paid so hopefully it'll be back on once I get back from town today. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sunday is my fun day

Gone are the days when the WEEKEND is something to look forward to. What does it matter if it's Friday, Saturday, or Tuesday? And with darkness arriving at 530, it raining most of the time, me being 45 minutes away from town, and me not knowing anyone, I don't go out because I don't feel like going out. Except for Sundays! But I don't go to church, I go across the street to Bar Amigos, where, if you ask nicely, they'll put on FOX and CBS and show football galore! So Sundays 1-7 PM, they don't open until 1 so unfortunately I'll miss the first hour of the 1P games since we're an hour behind EST, and they don't show Sunday night football because they don't have ... whatever channel that's on, you know where to find me.

Ant migration

Also last week. I'd spent some time in the office reading when I decided to go into town and run some errands. (You'll know that happens a lot, to go into town running some errands. That, along with reading and running, is so far pretty much all I do here!) I was jumping in the shower when I noticed a loong trail of ants crossing the anteroom, one of the bedrooms and the bathroom. All of them carrying eggs. I realize I'm witnessing an ant migration. something I haven't experienced before but only read about, mostly from Africa. From the reading I remember the advice to leave them be, if you try and interrupt the trail with anti-ant spray or the sole of your shoe or whatever you're just going to confuse them and end up with ants all over the place. So after confirming their final destination wasn't inside the house, and their path wasn't passing the pantry, but they safely entered the house in the south and exited in the north, I preceded with the shower and went into town. When I got back a few hours later (it's a 45 min walk so it's always a few hours later), the trail was mostly gone, only a few confused stragglers left on random walls in the house. Apparently they flunked migration class.

Robbery

Let's get the boring part over with. On my third day in this lovely country I left the house for two hours to go into town and run some errands. When I come home the cats are gone and a window inexplicably open. Once I've rallied the cats I noticed other things amiss, lights being on that I left off, doors being open that I keep closed etc and it doesn't take long to realize I've been robbed. They didn't take much, though, just my computer, my cell phone, and my digipass to my Swedish bank FSB.

"They" turned out to be Antonio "Tony" Dolinas, a well-known no-gooder around here. His family lives here but refuses to deal with him, simply a black sheep. The robbery appeared around 10-12 in the morning and at 1215 he was spotted in San Luis a couple of miles down the road asking for a plastic bag since he had some things he didn't want to get wet in case of rain. He even suggested purchasing one. He didn't have any stuff to put in it though but disappeared into the bush with it. At around 2 I go to the police, or the OIJ which is the investigative arm of the police here, and report the robbery, at this point unaware of Tony. At 330 the OIJ come to my place to "investigate", all they did was look around and check for fingerprints at point of entry. At 4 Dulce, a neighbor, calls me telling me about Tony, and then lets me know she'll call the OIJ with this information right away. They know where he hangs out.

Two days later I speak to Dulce who informs she did what she promised, when OIJ says they'll look into it the day after. No she says, you have to go now, he'll be long gone with the loot tomorrow.

And that's that. So now a week after nothing's happened and the trail's gone cold. Thank you OIJ, thank you so much. Your diligence in the matter warms my heart.

Rebirth

Because of the move from USA to Costa Rica this blog will take a little turn. Gone will be the posts about all the shows I've been going to, art exhibits and fun parties, and instead you'll be reading about ant migrations, robberies, tropical rains and everything else Costa Rican (no offense Ticos!). I'll also mostly keep this in English now as there might be an American friend or two interested in what's going on down here.

I'll keep the blog name though, seems this can be a strange land as well...