lucybelle

The nicer area of Pavas is Rohrmoser, if you go too far down the hill towards Lomas or Villa taxis won't want to drive there (when there over xmas we went to a friend's house and our uber refused to drop us off at the house, we walked from a few blocks away! Haha!)

I think Santa Ana would be great for you. Can live "in town" with lots of cafes and restaurants, and plenty of places to run. It is quite a bit warmer in Santa Ana than San Jose.

Don't live on paseo colon. You can get to la sabana from lots of other nearby places. This is coming from someone who lived in San Jose, and LIKED living in San Jose. Also, I wouldn't run la sabana after dark, likely to get robbed unfortunately. I lived in Pavas and ran around my neighborhood often and loved it. There's plenty of places to run that's not La sabana as well. Just FYI.

My esposo has a plane ticket to CR to spend NYE with the family. My Christmas surprise was a ticket for me too! He bought it with his miles (he travels internationally about 50% for his job) I'm so happy to go (to 2nd) home!!! Only a few days but it'll be great to see family, friends, and SUN.

Yup, I stand by those words.

My residency has been pending since 2012. Has been "esperando firmas" for most of those years. Submitted and "followed through" with a lawyer. I think I have reason to be disgruntled.

I know this is an old thread, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a lawyer in CR that doesn't lie or make up information. Maybe I've had bad experiences? My mom & stepfather now live in Ecuador and they got a lawyer to help with residency. My mom would call and say "the lawyer says residency will be done in a month!" I said "he's lying to you!" And sure enough, I was right. She's still waiting, and she keeps getting the "in one month" speech. They can lie because there's nothing you can do about it. They basically hold your life in their hands and in the end you WILL pay them.

I just bought round trip tickets from USA to Madrid for $400!!! I'm PSYCHED! We're going for spring break/Semana Santa.

Well. It's done. I've gotten no sleep and I'm sad, scared and ashamed. Esposo and started talk a little while back about trying to move back to CR in two years. Now trying to make it happen in one.

I absolutely adore the idea of USA citizens attempting to "flee" to Canada. I wish them well with obtaining residency (which none of them have thought about), finding jobs (which they are not more qualified for because they're from the USA), and adjusting to life in a completely different country. Idiots...

I am not able to visit CR this Christmas because tickets are so expensive! I'm talking over $1200!! Since my esposo can take vacation days we managed to finagle the dates a little and find a ticket for him for the low cost (sarcasm) of $700. Since I'm a teacher I can only go during our break (we are not allowed to take off days before/after a break) and so I won't be able to go this year.

My esposo calls home frequently to cell phones and landlines using Skype mostly, which charges per minute. He also uses Whatsapp to make free phone calls to his sister and others who can figure out the app! Haha

Just a thought to jump back to the ultrasound tech- while I'm sure your skills are very professional, I would never want someone who speaks "a little" of my language to have anything to do with my medical procedures. I don't mind accents, but I need to be able to clearly communicate with my healthcare provider. Perhaps there is s need for English speaking, but I highly doubt it as most doctors in private clinics and hospitals already speak English.

I'm sorry some people are having a tough time. I feel like some of the comments are fairly non important, like the "it's cold" one and "it's hard to find work". It's hard to find work everywhere, and as a recent refugee immigrant it's going to be even more difficult. I'm a well educated teacher with plenty of resources and a support system in CR and it still took me six months to find a job. I was honestly happy I found one in under a year! I know we always seem to squabble over things like this, but I love my country. It's not perfect, but I love living here and realize how lucky I am to have been born in this country with such a powerful passport. The organizations running out of money is really unfortunate. But no one should expect to show up in a new country and have a road of gold paved in front of them. It takes hard work and determination to make a life in a new country. We all know that! (I'm not saying that the people you are in contact with aren't trying, just that it takes a lot of work, it's not easy.) Also, about everyone wanting to leave- that sort of stuff really irritates me. Mostly because people in the USA, for the most part, are ignorant as to what it takes to move abroad. We think we can take our powerful US passport, show up in a new country and just start working and living like we were born there. This is evident by all the posts we get here, all the messages I get on facebook about wanting to move to CR "to live the simple life", and all the ridiculous "I'm moving to Canada" statements. Yeah? Under what visa? It's all arbitrary. Especially for the amount of waiting time and lack of support you get during the process. Applying for my husband's 10 year greencard right now and that set us back a fun $590. Applying for it the first time around was around $903 total (excluding the $80/package for DHL-ing stuff up, like 6 times). And to apply for citizenship (one more year!) it'll be $680. But I'm more than willing to part with that money to be done with the obtuse people at USCIS once and for all!

Estoy usando Duolingo ahorita para aprender potuguese. Me esta gustando bestante. Pero no es suficiente. Yo ocupo leer en el idioma para aprender mas rapido. Eso es lo que hice con espanol. Es que me da demasiado pereza leer en otro idioma!!