kasiarostrowski

My sixth week in San José is coming to an end, meaning that my time here is halfway up. It’s bittersweet to grapple with my simultaneous homesickness and the sense of comfortable normalcy my life here now holds.

“Ay, el tiempo pasa muy rápido,” my host mom says nearly every week as she realizes how long we’ve already been staying with her. I feel the urge to tick as many things as possible off an unwritten bucket list but I try to remind myself that every moment here is valuable, whether I’m on the beach in one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful spots or simply sitting with my friends at school, drinking coffee and studying, as I’m doing right now.

As I reflect on the last six weeks, here is what I’ve learned so far:

Look up. When I go to Thursday night dance classes on campus, I’m always reminded to take my eyes off my own feet and look at my partner’s face. Dancing salsa comes a little easier when you’re focused more on moving together with the music rather than not tripping. This is a good tip for hiking, too. Costa Rica is famous for its dense rainforests – meaning that animal species here are usually high above your head in the canopy. Ironically, its hard not to trip over your own feet or a tree root when you’re walking through the jungle trying to spy a sloth, but it’s well worth it if you do see one.

Sloth we spotted at Cahuita National Park.

Let go of some of the things you usually rely on as part of your routine. I love a scalding hot shower at home, but that’s rarely an option here. I’ve learned to accept tepid but not freezing. Costa Ricans are also not fond of iced coffee – it’s not Europe, so it can be found in some more Westernized restaurants, but seven times out of ten you’re going to have to settle for a steaming hot mug. Ticos don’t throw ice into everything like we do in the States.

Don’t be hard on yourself when learning a language. This one is much easier said than done, but as a perfectionist I truly had to learn this the hard way. I’ve gone many times with my mouth shut rather than attempt to say something I fear will be conjugated incorrectly, or that I lack the vocabulary for. Not anymore – I try to start speaking first and figure out the rest later. It helps that here I often don’t have the option to speak English or to not speak at all, especially when trying to order food or get around the city.

Learn to be okay spending some time alone. This one is from my friend Krissy, who doesn’t have a housemate at her homestay, but I think it’s applicable more generally. Living in another country requires a certain level of independence and resourcefulness that can be uncomfortable at times. Everything is unfamiliar here at first – even just figuring out where to buy soap can be a thousand times more complicated than it is at home. You need to navigate language barriers and differences in cultural norms, and oftentimes you learn by trial and error, and often you navigate those learning experiences by yourself. However, I will say that I love my community of friends here and I’m never truly alone.

I’m not trying to impart any life-changing realizations here, but I do feel like I could tell my pre-study-abroad self some things I didn’t know before I got on the plane. Everything feels a little higgledy-piggledy here at times and it feels good to remind myself that every day I’m doing hard things, and succeeding.

As someone who actively looks forward to each meal of the day, obviously I was excited to try all the food I could while in Costa Rica. The first day I arrived, my host mom was delighted that I had no dietary restrictions and was eager to taste anything. Later she would learn about my aversion to regular milk as I went on a hunt for oat milk instead, but besides that I genuinely do like everything.

The Costa Rican diet revolves around rice and beans. “Casado” is the traditional plate of food served for lunch or dinner, and consists of rice, black beans, fried plantains, a meat of choice, and often some lettuce and tomato as a small salad. Pretty much every restaurant here serves casado in some form or another, though there is a lot of variation from place to place which is what makes it so good every time – you’re never really eating the same exact thing. For example, last night our host mom made us casado with steak, potatoes, rice, beans, and plantains. The meat is always seasoned and cooked perfectly, and the fried plantains are the best part. Cecelia, our host mom, makes them in a little mini deep fryer. Last night she brought out a giant plate piled high with plantains. “I made extra because you girls like them so much!” she told us. You’d think something sweet and almost dessert-y wouldn’t go well with a bite of potato and steak, but it really does.

Last night’s dinner – steak, potatoes, rice, plantains.

Casado lunch from a restaurant in Cartago this past weekend.

Another component of lunches and dinners is a cold drink. It’s normal to be offered an agua fresca made from some type of fruit. Most restaurants have several flavors available every day – strawberry, passionfruit, pineapple, or a sour-sweet fruit called cas. From my understanding it’s really just fruit and water blended together – but how could you go wrong with that? Our host mom usually serves agua de cas or agua de piña. We also often drink this iced tea that is popular everywhere here – basically just sweet tea.

In the mornings, for breakfast, the rice and beans from last night’s casado are fried together with sliced yellow onion to make gallo pinto, probably Costa Rica’s most well-known and recognizable dish. It just looks like beans and rice stirred together, so when I first got here I was a little unimpressed. However, it’s so freaking good. The onions give the rice a ton of flavor and everything’s a little crispier than it was the night before. Usually my host mom serves it straight up, but I’ve had it at a few restaurants with toppings like fried eggs, pico de gallo, avocado, and bacon. If take any dish back to the States when I return to make for myself, it’ll be gallo pinto.

896a799c-3ba4-46f4-804e-439565b65bf4 — Gallo pinto (bottom right) along with fruit, pancakes, and coffee at a hotel breakfast.

If we don’t have gallo pinto in the morning, it’s likely we’ll have cubes of fruit and perhaps a sandwich or a couple pancakes. Today, Cecelia make sandwiches with toasted bread, ham, tomato, and refried beans.

My only complaint about the Costa Rican diet is that costarricenses don’t seem to tolerate spicy food. I practically dump Valentina or Tabasco on everything at home, but I’ve only encountered hot sauce as an option at a few restaurants, and we ended up buying our own. Even the hot sauce they do have is not quite spicy enough for me – but the flavor is delicious.

I could go on and on about food here. I haven’t even mentioned the alcoholic beverages. (Let’s just say the margaritas are hit or miss but I’ve learned to love a spicy shot of chiliguaro.) That’ll be for another post.

Author: kasiarostrowski

Halfway

Arroz y Frijoles: Daily Eats in San José