In Miramar

Hello! We are here in (mostly) sunny Costa Rica. We spent our first week in language school in a town called Orosi, in the central valley. It was beautiful. The days were warm, but not too warm, and the afternoons were rainy. One day it rained all day.
After a week we came to Miramar and here we are now. It is hot and humid here!!! So far we have only had little smatterings of rain. But it must rain more at some point, because it is very green. We’ve been here four days and we have a house, beds, a dining table with chairs, refrigerator, washing machine (sort of), gas stove, shelves for our clothes, cheapo free-standing closets to hang things(two have already broken), plastic chairs (until we find a sofa and chairs for cheap) and, most importantly, three oscillating fans. The first couple of days I thought, “I am not made for this kind of humidity”. I had a headache each day and was nauseous one of the days. But then I discovered the healing powers of gatorade (or powerade, whichever you can get your hands on). Now I feel like I am on the road to getting used to it.
Apart from the heat, Miramar is a great place. The people are so nice! Karoy is the husband of a good friend of our friend Ricardo Alonso (who used to teach with Gary and Madison). Karoy took us all over the place looking for appliances and furnishings for our house. His wife, Isue found the house for us and put a deposit down so that we could arrive in Miramar with a place to live. Our landlord’s daughter, Linette, and her family live around the corner from us and they have also been very nice. Ronald, Linette’s husband, gave Jana and I a tour of Miramar and have offered to help us with anything we need. Everyone tells us that Miramar is “muy tranquillo”. We also heard this about Orosi. Apparently tranquillo (tranquil, calm) is the thing to be if you are a town in Costa Rica.
Gary went with Karoy and worked it out so the kids could go to school. The school year ends in December here, so Sidne with finish off 4th grade and Leif 1st grade, even though they completed this grades in Portland. I think this will be good because they wont have to worry as much about content and can concentrate more on learning Spanish. We have met some kids who go to the school. Isue and Karoy have three children who go there. Amazingly enough between their three and our two, none of them will be in the same grade! Oh well. We met some boys in our neighborhood who also go to the school. One is in fourth grade, but Sidne is a bit stand-off-ish so far.
Sidne has been altogether pretty shy so far and prefers to hang out with us, Grandma and/or Nana. Leif, on the other hand, found the joy of a new toy, a top that is thrown with a string. It is called a Trompo and it is all the rage with the kids here. So Leif goes out into the street and plays Trompo with whoever is out there. He doesn’t seem to be using much Spanish yet. He is mostly using gestures, strange noises (he got that from Gary)and English.
Anyway, so far so good. We are meeting people and practicing Spanish. Everyone is very patient and helpful. We are looking forward to visits from anyone who wants to come down.