My last few weeks in Korea were extremely difficult. Not because it was sad to leave Korea but it was difficult to leave the people I met in Korea. I definitely made Korean friends along the way but I wasn´t extremely attached to any of them. It was leaving my South African friends and other English teachers that decided to stay another year that made the goodbye difficult. After many farewell dinners at school and with friends Matt, Kevin and I were on our way.
Matt and I flew separately from Kevin and we had two layovers, one in LA and one in Houston. Both places were a huge culture shock. First in LA it was wierd to feel so invisible. We had not seen so many white people in two years (other than my short visit to SD a year ago). Also, everything was HUGE. The people were fat, the cars were fat and the food was fat. Our perception of how people should look has significantly changed and though we made fun of Koreans for being judgemental we ourselves had adapted to having some of the same beliefs. The other thing we noticed was how dirty everything was in the airport. Incheon was awarded for being the best international airport in 2009 and for good reason. The streets in Korea may not be as clean as streets in the US but once you enter a building they know how to give a good scrub.
Finally after a long overnight in Houston we arrived in San Jose in the afternoon on Saturday, Feb 26. We immediately left the city to Manuel Antonio. I had already been there before and I knew it was a bit touristy but I thought it would be the easiest place for us to decompress. I was wrong. EVERYTHING has changed in Costa Rica in the past five years. We have talked to many expats who have been living here for years and they all say the same thing. Prices have doubled, people have gotten fatter, every city is a tourist city and they have tried to Americanize everything. Even the coffee is crap unless you pay $4 a cup. Either way, we have been keeping it fairy cheap by eating at ¨sodas´´ which are local restaurants and staying in cheap hostels.
We haven´t done a lot since we are still getting used to the food and a new time zone. The three of us have each had stomach problems and every morning we wake up with the roosters at 5:30am and try to last until 9pm when we pretty much collapse on the bed unable to move.
It might seem like we are struggling by everything I wrote but that is not true by any means. We are hiking all the time, swimming as much as possible, in love with all the wildlife and nature and always wearing a smile. Today we will go surfing at Santa Theresa and tomorrow we will be going to Monteverde.
I feel like this was a more informational post so tomorrow I will try to write more about the interesting characters we´ve met and funny occurances we´ve had. Definitely stay tuned.
take note- keyboards are different here and I´m not going to edit
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