Addresses in Costa Rica

Being an foreigner in a country, one of the main phenomenon one experiences is cultural shock. In Spanish it is called "choques culturales"...now the internationals here have slowly re-invented the concept to something that is defined as: an experience that you would feel surprised, or literally shocked, mostly with the behaviours or the way things function. We simply refer them to "choques".

Now, overtime, I have encountered quite a bit of choques. My last post on the Saprissa game was definately one. One of the classic examples of another choque when I arrived here was the address system in Costa Rica.

There are no road names, no numbers. Even if there are road names, nobody uses them. Everything is referred to "landmarks". A bank and a church are the most common landmarks in towns. So for example, the address of the AIESEC office is: 600 meters south, 100 meters east of National Bank in San Pedro. Every block is 100 meters. If you write a letter to someone, this would exactly how addresses are put on the envelops.

Last weekend, I was at an activity that took place at a house. And by far, it deserves "The most tico address award"...

De la UNA 500m al norte hasta topar con cerca, luego a mano izquierda 700m oeste, luego a mano derecha 1.5 Km al norte (pasa el Automercado y llega hasta Musmmani, de ahí 100 este y 75 norte. Casa beige a mano izquierda con portones blancos!!!

in English:
From the National University, 500 metres north till you hit the fence, then on your left hand 700 metres west, then on your right hand 1.5 km north, passing the Automercado supermarket, and reach till Musmanni bakery shop, from there, 100 meters east, and 75 meters north. Beige house on the left hand side with white gates!!!

And guess what happenned when we were trying to reach there? We got lost.

El Clasico

A bit on football culture here. It is the national sport and people eat, drink, sleep football. And well, before coming here, I wasn't that big of a football fan. And well, after realizing there is no chance I will catch up with any hockey here (with no live hockey games ever played in this country on TV), I realized it's time to pick up on a new sport. Well, it wasn't that hard as I was quickly thrown into the fold, especially with the World Cup fever when I first arrived, with the Ticos (Costa Ricans) playing against the German host in the first match of the tournament.

Locally, there are basically two teams that make up the 95% of its supporters. And when I say supporters, I mean the whole country, from little kids, to babies, to seniors, to almost all of the female population (something that is not common in Canada). One of the team is called Saprissa (my team!), and the other main team is called La Liga. Together between the two teams, they have basicaly won 10 or so championships in the past 12 years nationally.

After attending some matches last year, including a classic final between the two teams, I have gotten myself quite a hardcore fan, especially when we were the national champions this past season that ended in May, 2006. Now, that certain beats being a Leafs fan just waiting and waiting for 39 years without any championships! =) Well, nothing will ever beat hockey, but football will do for now, as long as it's winning.

The year is divided into two seasons, and the end of the year, the champions from the two seasons play against each other to have a final winner. Saprissa and Liga basically plays twice against each other during an entire year, one at home, and one away. And so this past Wednesday was a classic between these two teams, and it was played at the Liga stadium. And of course, I went! Eventhough I just arrived from our conference in Panama at 4am in the morning.

Juanca (the LCP of one of the LCs here) and I were at the stadium, and it felt good to be back in the stadium again this season after a few months not going. He is a Liga fan, and it's been always quite fun to have the rivalry between our teams. The result of the game was 1-0, for Saprissa, and it was extra nice cos my favourite player scored! And it was a beauty!

Now, the most memorable part of that game was actually following the game. These two teams have hardcore hooligans, and they are really "demasiado" (too much) sometimes. Here is what happened...

I was taking the bus back to the capital, so I can head back home. And so I got on the bus, and had the first seat. It was one of those greyhound-style coaches. It was around 11pm at night. As soon as the bus started going, the people in the back kept on yelling to the driver to switch of the lights of the back. The driver didn't react and was counting the change from the bus fares. But those guys in the back kept on yelling and yelling. I was like ok... those guys must be drunk or just want to fool around so much and bother the driver. And so we were driving along the highway, and after 5 mins on the local highway, suddenly a loud sound from the back came! One of the windows has been broken, and the passenger by the window seat was hurt! Apparently, something was thrown in the bus from the side of the highway! People beside me then told me to take off my Saprissa jersey, and hide it because some of those guys in the back was part of the holigans from La Liga. The passengers then told me to be careful, and explained what was happening: The holigans from the two teams were hiding in the dark along side the highway, and with the lights in the bus, they could see the jersey colours, and they were launching things at the bus to break the windows! I was a bit "choquado" (shocked) by all that!!! The rest of the way, we had to close all the windows, close the blinds, and some passengers even laid down low for the 30 min ride to San José. The bus driver eventually decided to leave the highway and took some smaller streets, especially when we were approaching town, so we could avoid any hooligans. I felt like I was in a video game in a warzone, being thrown at... I really felt I was in danger by those hooligans in the back. As soon as the bus arrived in San José, I got off the bus, and hopped on the first cab to go home...all with my jersey tucked under my shirt in my belly. Phew!

Finally...after 9 months...

Ok, FINALLY!!! I'm starting my blog!!! As I promised and promised all of my friends here, and myself that I would start a blog when I arrive in Costa Rica. Just only 9 months later. My only concern is to not being able to keep up with the blog, so we will see how this goes!!!

A bit about myself, I'm born in Hong Kong, a proud Canadian who has yodelled in Switzerland for a couple of years, and now calling Costa Rica home! That's a succinct intro to myself.

I am a proud AIESECer, orginally from LC Queen's in Canada, where I was VP Spirit! (The bigger the better! QUEEN SIZE matters!!!), and a proud founder of LC QUORK (Queen's + York!). Below are some pioneering Quorkers!



I have come down to Costa Rica for an internship for half a year, and now I'm continuing my AIESEC career joining the MC team here in CAS (Central America South : Costa Rica & Panama) for the year 06-07!



The team from left to right: Magaly: MCP -Costa Rican, Franklin: MCVPER- Panamanian, Tatiana: Projects Coordinator - Costa Rican, me: MCVPPD , Nikki: Branding and Communications Coordinator - Panamanian, Juraj: MCVPX - Slovakian (we are also missing Viviana, who is the Finance Coordinator

So here it goes with my adventures...right in the middle of the action!