Whew, what a week (part 2)

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So, the next installment of our busy week…

As I mentioned in a caption of a picture of the last blog, we did have an impromptu Super Bowl Party - complete with nachos, pizza and beer - and we were lucky to have beer. This is something I should have included in our Election Day Episode: For 3 days leading up to and including Election Day, alcohol sales are not permitted anywhere in the country. That’s right - from Friday morning (well, really from midnight Thursday night) to midnight Sunday night, no alcohol sales. At the supermarkets the liquor shelves are covered with sheets of plastic and refrigerated case doors are closed with government seals. Most bars just stay closed. Of course Costa Ricans know all about this and stock up ahead of time. We didn’t find out until it was too late, but luckily we had a liter of Imperial (the local brew - and pretty good, about $.60 per bottle or $1.60 per liter) in the fridge. Ok, so it wasn’t a wild and crazy party. It wasn’t a wild and crazy game, either.

On Monday I went out car shopping. We could definitely get by without a car. Buses are cheap and go just about everywhere. But they take a long time. If we can get a car for not too much money and sell it to get most of our money back when we leave, why not check it out, right? So I’d looked at some classifieds and thought I had a pretty good idea of price ranges. We mentioned that we were thinking about buying a car to our neighbor, Miguel, and what do you think he said? “Oh I know some guys who sell cars and I have a friend who knows some other guys. I’ll take you over to see them.” Of course he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so off we went to meet some used car salesmen. I was looking forward to it as much as getting a root canal (I’ve never had a root canal, knock on wood, but it seems like the clichéd experience to avoid, so I’ll stick with it).

Well, it seems that used car salesmen in Costa Rica do not use the same playbook as their American counterparts. Librarians are pushier about getting you to take a book than these guys were with pushing their cars. Most of the cars I showed interest in, they didn’t even open the door - I just had to press my nose against the window. The car I was most interested in the salesman didn’t even have the key to - one of the other people there had walked off with it. Not once did I hear, “If you’ll take it today, I can give you a special deal!” It is funny to say, but the guys that sell sneakers in downtown Heredia are much more used-car-salesman-ish than the used car salesmen. Actually, the sneaker guys are the only ones we’ve come across that are motivated sellers at all - the only ones who stand by the doors of their shops and say “Hey we’ve got some good stuff inside” or “We’ve got what you need” or anything at all to you as you walk by. Everyone else just sits back in the corner and waits for you to come in. Once you do go in and ask them for something specific, they do aim to please. On more than one occasion, I’ve gone into a shop to ask them for something, the salesman asks me to wait a minute, runs out to another store, gets what I asked for (or what he thought I asked for) and offers it to me.

Anyway, I saw a car I liked (the one without a key), salesman gave me a decent price and most importantly, offered to buy the car back from me when we leave for 10% less than what we buy it for. Sounds like the deal for me. Not surprisingly, when I called a couple days later, he quoted me a higher price (significantly higher) and had no recall about the lower price he had given me (Miguel definitely remembers the lower price). But at least he has the key now so I can go back, check it out and negotiate. I’m just worried that if he is going to play a game like this now, what kind of game is he going to play when I go to sell the car back to him. We’ll see.

Also on Monday, we had a meeting with Ari’s teacher. During his first week of school, it was clear that Ari was enjoying it, but it wasn’t clear to us exactly what he was doing in school and it didn’t seem that he was being to challenged - he did learn cursive during the week, but homework was virtually non-existent and math class consisted of him making up his own problems. Well, our meeting with Miss Norma put our minds to rest. She reviewed with us the week’s schedule - it seems the first week was just easing back into the school routine. There are spelling and vocabulary words (dictated to them - along with sentences that have to have the parts of speech underlined with the correct colored pencils), reading group, creative writing and everything else you’d expect. As we said in the last entry, they are very particular about neatness and organization so if an underline isn’t quite right he knows about it from her comments. She did admit to the math being a little too easy because they were a bit behind from the last semester but she promised to pick it up. This past week proved that she meant business. Ari had a good amount of homework and seems to be doing very well. We have a video of him proudly reciting his poem and explaining his prop (at home on Thursday evening) so if you’d like to see, let us know and we can e-mail it to you.

Also on Monday, Ari and Ellie started their second week of Ju-jitsu classes at a nearby gym. (If you want to see the definition of cute, it is Ellie doing Ju-jitsu - we also have a video of that.) Ari had been taking karate in Yardley and he wanted to continue. So we checked out a couple places nearby that teach various martial arts and we liked the Ju-jitsu teacher the best. Now we’ll have to see if Dara and I are going to join the adult classes.

Finally, at long last, we move on to Tuesday. Tuesday and Thursday morning were “getting acquainted” classes at Ellie’s school. These days were with parents, to help the kids adapt to the school and hopefully make next week easier. We met a bunch of the other kids from her class and their parents and the woman who is going to be Ellie’s teacher. Everything seems pretty good. We’ll see how things go on the first day. And, unlike in the pictures, once her school starts, the kids will be wearing uniforms. Then they will really look cute.

Ay!! - now I’ve run out of time -- today was Ellie’s first day of school! I’ll see if I can get that written up soon. It was also Dara's first day of school -- she is going to be teaching English. There was a lady handing out flyers in the park trying to recruit students so Dara asked her if they needed any teachers. Friday morning Dara went in and met with the director of the school. After just a few minutes of talking he said, "Well, I have a class starting Monday night and I don't have a teacher for it yet. Do you want to do it?" Bing, bang, boom.

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