A Post from the Road

Well, it has been an eventful week – not much related to our move, though. But I will try and find a connection. I am writing this from California, where we are visiting my son Michael, who is a student there. We flew out and we will be driving his car back to Missouri to get it inspected and licensed, he is flying in next week and driving it back. When he comes home, it will be his last chance to go through the house and rescue what he wants before we sell it all. And that is the segue, I guess – we ARE selling pretty much everything.

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The Countdown Begins…Day 80

Hola! My name is Nora Schild. My husband, Dan and our two dogs – Hannah Banana the Satanic Basset and Toby, the kinder, gentler three-legged Basset are about 80 days away from making our move to Costa Rica.

We are both in our 40’s and visited Costa Rica for the first time a scant 3 1/2 years ago. It was a fluke that we wound up there, it was winter and we wanted a beach vacation. It was the first out of the US vacation we had ever taken, and we wanted a country that was interesting and not necessarily “touristy”. We did not want an all-inclusive resort, but something we could explore without feeling like we were taking advantage of a poverty stricken populace – we wanted to relax, not get bummed out and not feel guilty.

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Fresh Blood!

As you can probably imagine, I get a ton of email from people who are thinking about making the BIG MOVE. Some are just sticking a toe in the international waters while others are in various stages of living the rest of their lives as expatriates.

Of course I made the move here some years ago and I remember I experienced the excitement, fear, doubts and panic that attend such a decision. I said my goodbyes to friends and family (my daughter did not believe I was really leaving until about ten days before I actually left). It was/is a scary thing experience for just about everyone I know who has done this.

So when I received an email from someone who was in the process of packing HER family and actually experiencing the emotions above… and when she further told me she wanted to BLOG her experiences, I jumped on it immediately! Welcome to Nora Schild who will be chronicling her family’s move to Costa Rica.

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Mother’s Day – for babies

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Costa Ricans take this holiday seriously! And somewhere, tomorrow, 12 year old Carolina will be celebrating her third Mother’s Day having given birth at age 9.

A couple of months ago, I was chatting with one of my employees, a 20 something young lady who was working for me as an intern. The subject got around to young girls getting pregnant in high school (colegio). She told me that before she graduated eight girls had become pregnant. Her class size was twenty-nine.

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Earning Interest in Costa Rica

This is another reply to a comment or email that I thought would be of interest to my readers. It concerns money and that should get everybody’s attention. I also get asked this same question though in different forms from a lot of people.

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SALA IV Rules for accessible buses

Ley (law) 7600 ((Igualdad de Oportunidades a las Personas con Discapacidad)) was approved ten years ago and required that all buses be equipped to transport handicapped individuals.

Not too surprisingly, the bus operators decided to wait ten years to see what was going to happen. What happened, of course, was that the law is now being (sort of) enforced and bus drivers are being ticketed whose vehicles are not to the new level. To date, only 12% of all buses have handicap ramps installed.
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