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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OK… It’s Sort of IE Ready

After a LOT of screwing around, this blog now displays (almost) perfectly in IE.

Those of you who have had the “pleasure” of designing for the IE browser know how much fun this was. IE does not use the “normal” HTML set of commands, so stuff like this happens a lot. As more and more people use Firefox and other more compliant, secure and state-of-the-art browsers, making web sites work in ALL browsers become really important. But there are always the holdouts!

So IE users rejoice! And when you finish rejoicing, by all means go here and download a good browser! It will make you happy!

Not IE Ready!

GRRRRRR!

The longer I live, the more I HATE Internet Explorer!

So I get this beautiful new theme working just the way I want it, test it in Opera and Firefox, the two browsers I prefer, and make the BIG SWITCH! It looks great (IMHO).

NOW, I get an email telling me that my Blog “looks funny” in IE. So I test it (yeah, I know, I shudda tested it first) and lo and behold, the center column where there SHOULD be posts is empty… until about halfway down the page.

So here is your fair warning… For now, use Firefox or Opera to properly see the new theme or be content with scrolling down the page! I am working on the problem, but the solution so far escapes me. I also asked the designer for a bit of help. so be patient. Besides, Firefox or Opera are BOTH better that IE so use the links above to download ’em.

New Design for this Blog

I have received a fairly large number of emails from people who told me they had some difficulty reading this Blog because the colors I used apparently did not permit them to read the words and differentiate headlines from text. That disturbed me as the whole purpose of a Blog is so people can enjoy (or not) my ramblings. With that in mind, I decided to switch to a color scheme with better contrast that visitors will find easier to read.

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Advice on Moving to Costa Rica

Sometimes I am not the brightest bulb in the pack.

It just occured to be that very often I answer emails from readers of The REAL Costa Rica who ask questions that might be of interest to readers of this BLOG. Many are on topics NOT covered in that web site, so starting right now I am starting a new Category “Questions” where you Blog readers can see my replies to these emails. Let me know in Comments if you like this idea! Continue reading »

Like Costa Rican Food?

A LOT of folks do… including me. OKOKOK, I like foods from many places which is perhaps why I have to lean forward a bit to see my toes… but I digress.

A recent post to Costa Rica Eateries from Paul Mitchell povides a nice list of Costa Rica cookbooks for those who need their daily dose of something Costa Rican.

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How Many US Citizen Expats are Living in Costa Rica?

I must have been asked this question about 4,000 times since I moved here. Odd as it may be, nobody seemed to know… until now. Finally, immigration has announced the figure. Of the 289,237 legal residents (foreigners) living in Costa Rica, only 8,400 are US Citizens. Continue reading »