Anyway, we spent a day walking around the city. They were troopers, walking endlessly through the dirty city, hanging out while I asked directions to places I supposedly know, eating salads with no lettuce and more rice and beans that can fit on one plate. That night in San Jose I got in an argument with a taxi driver who ripped us off. Mom and Jen sat un the back while I quietly accused this man of racism and robbery. When we got to the hotel, the adrenaline kept me awake. It was a cultural first.
Friday was a lazy day. We walked around to a couple of shops and then went over to Krysta's to prepare thanksgiving dinner. A short term missions team came down and brought 2 huge turkeys. There were about 35 people at the dinner, and before eating, we decorated our placemats with drawings of all the things we are thankful for. I ate until it hurt. It was beautiful.
Late late late that night, as Krysta drove us home we had a little scare. At a police checkpoint we were all asked to hand over our IDs. Mom and I had our passports, but Jen and Krysta didn't. We all considered the possibility of jailtime, for some reason, (there are probably no postcards there either.) and we were all baffled at the police inexpertise. The highlight was when the officer showed me my moms passport and said, this stamp is from 2006. How long have you been in the country? I had to point out that 1. This was my mom's passport, and 2. This stamp was from England. I quickly found the Costa Rican stamp from two days earlier. I think this is what you were looking for, sir. Kind of thrown off and embarrassed, they told us we should be carrying our passports at all times (which I consider terrible advice) and let us continue. Bizarre.
Saturday mom and Jen came to Qtown to see my house and meet my host family. They exchanged gifts and I wore myself out translating but everyone got along super well, and although they were upset that the visit was so short, we were all happy they met each other. Didier said that my mom was much thinner and younger looking than he expected, and they agreed that Jen is beautiful and is doing fascinating work. One guy even asked me, after meeting Jen, if he could be my brother in law. Jen and mom agreed that Vanessa is super cute because she's overly animated, and that Didier is like the wise old Indian who lives on top of the mountain. Jen's favorite quote from him was "a prepared man is worth three." later he told me that the saying goes "a prepared man is with two," but since there were three of us he thought he would ad lib. To keep with tradition, even as he hosted my family Didier did not wear a shirt. Thats commitment.
We are constantly remodeling our kitchen, so there was all kinds of noise and disorder in the house during the visit. It was fine though. Mom and Jen took a ton of photos as we walked through the community. They were astonished by the plant diversity and opportunities for improvement in engineering. Mom said, this is like Hawaii. Which has become a theme.
We got to stay in a beautiful Hotel in downtown San Jose while they were here. It overlooks the national theater and the plaza de cultura. It is the hotel JFK stayed in during his visit to Costa Rica during his presidency. Anyway, the greatest part of the hotel was definitely the amazing breakfast. The breakfast is usually my favorite part of a hotel experience, but this was remarkable.
On Sunday mom and Jen left. The trip was so quick that we almost forgot to be sad as we said goodbye. It passed like an strange dream where people you know are in places where you dont normally see them. It was great to be able to show them where I live and hopefully they enjoyed seeing how different life is down here.
I can't wait to see them again.
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