A Day at the Mercado

Every day that I’m here I’m getting more confident and at home. Life abroad is not that different from the US, people do the same things; they just do them in different ways. For example, me neighborhood could look scary to someone used to US suburbs, but when you look closely at what the people are doing it’s the same. On any given day there are people walking their dogs, working in the small garden in front of their house, and children in playing. From the outside the houses are intimidating and to us look like they are on the wrong side of town; however these are nice homes that the people maintain and express themselves with by painting them different colors. The only thing that differs is the style and that a good gate is considered part of a good house. The people here are generally friendly although they are living their everyday lives and know that you are only passing through. However, just as with any city you should be aware of your surroundings, know where you’re going and what things will cost.

Spanish class went well today, the conversation half was really interesting because we all actually had a non-staged Spanish conversation about art and music. Also one of the guys in my class said that he liked to sing and Profesora asked him to sing for us, and he was really good!           We went to the Central Market today to go shopping after class. Our plan was to go to the market and possibly hit up the mini-Paris for lunch. The bus costs about 200 clones or .50 cents and it comes by about a block from the university. We had to wait for the bus for a little bit, but not too long. It was full today when we got on because of the rain (yes it did come back!), but here, like Boone, the rain doesn’t stop people from going about their business. They just pop up their umbrella and keep on going! We stood for the short ride (about 10 min), during which time I was scouting all the landmarks I could remember from the last time I had gone into town. I actually remembered most of them and I saw our stop coming before we got there, but we didn’t need to push the button to tell the driver because it’s the mandatory stop on the line.

 The bus dropped us off right next to the national theater (which is directly in the middle of a line with the National Cathedral and National Museum. There are about 4-5 blocks in between each land mark so we were actually pretty close.  I pointed out where we were going (the national museum is yellow and right next to the market) and headed in that direction. Here’s the thing, if you walk with a purpose and act like you know where you’re going you will be fine in almost any country, two of the girls were dawdling and looking around (especially conspicuous because it was raining and everyone was on a mission to get to a dry place). Still we made it to the market easily and began shopping. One of the first things I saw was a green and white embroidered handbag. I loved it but decided to hold off since it was $18 and I hadn’t looked around much. I walked around without planning to buy much (I’m not so big on kitchy souvenirs) I wanted to get something that I would use in the US as well. I found and amazing beaded hair clip that was $8. The girl who owned the store was really nice and I got to practice my Spanish with her a lot. I decided to get the green beaded clip as my first real Costa Rican purchase. I walked around and looked at the other stalls before going back to see what the other girls were up too.

One girl had been bargaining for a purse for about 20 min and didn’t seem able to decide. I talked to the shop owner for her and he had already come down half price on a leather purse.  I explained it to here and it still took her another 10 min to commit because she wanted him to come down another $5. At this point I thought she was being a little greedy. This was also the same stall that had the purse that I had wanted I talked to the man and he said he would sell it to me for 15 (originally 18) and I got it down to 12. I decided to get it since it was so beautiful and I could see myself wearing it in the US. At this point we had been at the market for about 1hour and I was starting to get really hungry.  I checked with Julie (who hadn’t actually brought anything yet since her strategy was look at everything act like you want to buy it to find out the lowest price and then tell them that you’ll come back later.  I found this very frustrating and ineffective since it took so long and she wasn’t even looking for any specific item to compare prices. I mentioned going to lunch and she said that she just needed to go back to buy things (and she had forgotten where the stuff she liked was). It was kind of annoying since she didn’t seem able to commit to anything and was spending so much time bargaining only to walk away empty-handed.

After about 30 more min we left the market, by which point it was 2:30 and I was really hungry. We walked back up toward the main plaza to get something quick and cheap to eat (or so we thought).  San Jose is very exposed to the forces of globalization and most of the restaurants in the center are American chains (Taco Bell (ironic..), Burger King, Quiznos, Wendy’s) we decided on Wendy’s thing since it’s a chain it should be about the same price as in the US. Wrong. It was actually really expensive, about double the price as in the US. While we were waiting one of the girls had problems converting the amount and she ordered without checking the price. She was also didn’t have here money out to pay and was trying to use a mix of dollars and colones without knowing what they were worth. She was a bit short and I loaned her the money to make up the difference. I only got one wrap and small fries (no drink) and it was 4.00. Some of the things that happened today I don’t think the girls would have done in the US, it reaffirmed my belief that most of the problems people have while abroad they create for themselves. And needless to say we will not be eating at the American chain restaurants anymore.

Afterward we walked back to the bus stop to head back to campus (some of the girls had class at four).  We made plans to go into the city again next Monday to go to eat at the national theater and the Muso del Oro. I was hoping to go back again this week, but we all have presentations and tests on Thursday and Friday that we have to study for, and an excursion this weekend! We decided to go into town twice next week. After my class I decided to go to the tropical dance class. It was so much fun! We learned the merengue and salsa. The teacher was great, she even showed me how to do some new turns and we demonstrated for the class. Of course since study abroad is 75% girls we had to share all the guy partners, but the girl pairs were really fun too! I’m totally going back next week!

My new purse and hair pin! I'm planning on adding a cross-body strap to the purse when I get back!