Iguana!

When I first got to La Fortuna, I noticed a store called the Iguana. I asked some of the officers if there were indeed Iguanas in the area. They said no. But I can tell you that they were indeed wrong. While running this morning, I was frightened to death when a large at least one-foot long iguana got spooked when I ran next to it on the road and proceeded to climb up a large tree nearby. It was crazy cool. Guess I need to start running with my camera so next time I can snap a photo. The last two days have been pretty relaxed for me and include a long run and trip to the gym to get on the mechanical bike for a bit. Followed by a lazy afternoon of reading and chatting with some friends here and back home. Sometimes I think I push myself a bit hard in this heat and am exhausted the rest of the day after my exercise. I decided to help clean up our apartment a bit. When taking the trash out of our bathroom I found an unexpected roommate- a HUGE COCKROACH! Like the big 2-inch cockroaches that I saw when I was a little girl and visited the St. Louis Zoo. I’m not scared of most insects, but cockroaches, are definitely my least favorite. I also watched some of one of my all-time favorite Moulin Rouge. It was entertaining to me because being a musical film, they had Spanish voice-overs, but the songs we still the original version of Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. I embarrassed myself at one point while singing along and the front door was open and our neighbor walked by.

Another difference about Costa Rica I have realized and have been meaning to write about is the lack of street addresses here. I first realized when I asked my host parents what the address of our apartment so that my grandma could send me something. Evi had no idea. In fact, none of the houses or offices or buildings have addresses. Streets really don’t have names. They have a postal system but it is not anything like that in the U.S. When someone gets some mail, they have to know who the person is to get it to them. It’s pretty interesting to me when I’m used to the U.S. where you get tons of mail from people you have no idea who they are.

I also found out that there will be another volunteer joining me here in Fortuna and will be working with the tourist police starting at the first of March. I’m excited to begin working with him, as it will be easier to split up the officers at different English levels and work with the groups separately. My parents and brother get here in exactly a month which I am super excited for their arrival and get to go out and see a bit more with them! Overall, Costa Rica is still treating me well (besides my cockroach roommate)!