Hectic week

---

The week of August 20th - Kilon and I spent most of the week running around while Grayson was in school. We met with ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) in San Jose. This company basically walks you through the proper procedures for obtaining residency. They gave the OK on our paperwork. They told us we needed passport photos and we needed to be fingerprinted. To facilitate this process a gentleman walked us down the road to a small hole in the wall below grade level. I have to admit I was a little concerned. The room was probably 8’x16’ and there was one man sitting in this room with pictures hanging all over the walls. The room consisted of a camera and a wooden block on the floor (to be used as a seat). We each took a turn sitting on the wooden block and smiled for a photo. We were escorted back to ARCR and then shuttled to the police station to be fingerprinted for INTERPOL. The gentleman that drove us to the police station spoke zero English so the conversation was minimal. We used the few Spanish words we have learned thus far. During the drive we noticed a lot of car alarms sounding. After a few blocks we concluded that it was the "racing" muffler that our driver had installed on his 1996 Nissan four door with a 1.8L engine. I snickered in the back seat. We arrived at the police station safely. They used a handheld metal detector to check us before entering. We approached a line that was formed outside and it appeared we were fourth. We were mistaken…we were fourth before the line inside. Inside the building a line was formed on benches. When one person went in, the bench waiters rotated clockwise. The bench waiters were very adamant about sitting in your position on the bench. When it was my turn to be fingerprinted a gentleman asks “habla espanol”? I replied “no, habla espanol”. He then smiles real big, pats me on the back and says “Relaxxxxxx”. I guess he could sense the tension! Total Time: 4-1/2 hours

We setup a checking account which took about 5 hours and 2 days. They took so darn long the first day that we had to leave mid-way through the process to go pickup Grayson. After everything was completed we went to another branch (one closer to where we live) to pickup our debit cards. This process was relatively easy and convenient. We got our debit cards and pin number right there on the spot. Unfortunately we assumed that we would get checks with our "checking account" but apparently this is a special request and will have to wait for another day.

We met with a real estate agent almost daily to look at rental homes. Maricella was definitely a go getter and was very reliable and dependable. She went above and beyond to make sure we found a house. She succeeded. After looking at 30+ houses we found the one for us. The house is very cute with some nice details but our decision was based on the outdoor living space and views. We move into our long term rental at the end of September.

---

Photos

Front Terrace
Our landlord - Enrique is on the right.