Mi oficina en Costa Rica

Every day, I walk up a very steep hill from the hotel to our office. By the time I arrive, I'm usually out of breath and sweating. It's quite the workout! I'm sure that my appearance, combined with my daily attempts at Spanish, makes for quite a laughable sight. But everyone at the office has been nothing but wonderful and incredibly patient with me! 


While I haven't *yet* taken a picture of me, sweating and tired, at the beginning of the work day, I thought you might like to see where I'll be working this year.

Here is our office; we share the space with several other organizations.

My mini office (I share it with a colleague).

The funny thing about our office - and most of the homes, businesses, shops, etc. - is that addresses are virtually non-existent here in Costa Rica.  In fact, here's a funny excerpt from the book, Living Abroad in Costa Rica, where the author explains how crazy some of these "addresses" can be: 

"...If you think it's confusing, consider that many "addresses" aren't even that specific.  Some use landmarks that you probably won't know; some of the landmarks used to be there but aren't any more.  Addresses and directions in Costa Rica are definitely geared toward long-term locals -- who would know that "Coca Cola" means where the Coca Cola bottling plant used to be 20 years ago.  Some addresses take as their reference point a tree (god help you if it's been cut down) or the big house where the doctor killed himself. I'm not kidding..."

In fact, the office address for my organization basically translates to "the office in front of the commercial center called 'the Village' in the office with the towers."  The address should include mention of the very steep hill that it sits on too!