Before We Grow Up

So I know it’s been a while since we’ve written here, but it’s just because not much happens day to day when teaching English in Costa Rica. To sum up, here’s a list of things that have happened since the last time we posted:

1. We bought an Xbox 360.
2. I got my hair cut and highlighted.
3. Rob cut all his hair off.
4. Pat turned 28.
5. I dyed my hair Kool-Aid red. (Yikes.)

Aside from these exciting things, not much else has happened. That’s because the reality of teaching English in Costa Rica isn’t as exciting as it sounds. Don’t get me wrong - Costa Rica itself is a great country. But here’s a little advice for people interested in teaching English in Costa Rica: basically, go somewhere else. CR is a great place for vacation or long-term travel because you get to see some really beautiful places - I love what I’ve seen of the rest of the country - but for living and teaching it’s not ideal. Let me give you some examples…

Finding a job in Costa Rica is easy, but you have to live in San Jose, and San Jose sucks.

It’s literally the least charming city I’ve ever visited (and that includes places like Oklahoma City, Los Angeles, and Corbin, KY - pretty charmless cities, all). There is no real city center here because it’s not the original capital of the country, so there’s really no place to hang out and enjoy the city. It’s full of winding one-way streets that are too narrow for the volume of traffic, so there is a lot of air and noise pollution. But I think I wouldn’t mind that so much if there was a defined cultural space. There are some lovely, charming spots in San Jose, such as our favorite pizza place, Parque del Este, and the National Theater to name a few, but they’re so far apart you have to purposefully travel to each one. There’s no one place where people can go hang out at a cafe, take in a movie or play, eat at a lovely restaurant, and see some green space all at the same time.

The next thing we discovered about San Jose is that inflation is out of control and cost of living is way high. I make less than 1/4 of what I made in the States - which, to put in perspective, is still about twice that of a Costa Rican policeman’s salary - but food and accommodation costs are about the same as prices back home. Most teachers here spend their money on food, board, and getting the hell out of the city whenever possible. On average, Rob and I spend about 20,000 colones (around $35 USD) every trip to the grocery. We go to the grocery 2-3 times per week, so in an average month, we’re spending roughly $400/month on groceries and household goods - exactly the same amount we were spending in the States. (That’s our estimate for us as a couple. I assume you could halve that number for a single person…)

These figures wouldn’t be so bad if we had time off to spend the rest of our money outside the city, but working in San Jose means working around the schedules of the people we’re trying to teach. Which means our only guaranteed day off is Sunday. Now, please don’t think that I’m complaining about my 22 hour work week - it definitely beats the hell out of 40+ hours! I’m just letting you know that the reason we teachers don’t travel much around Costa Rica is because most of us don’t have 2 consecutive days off. If we had cars or if Costa Rican buses weren’t required by law to pick up every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the sides of the roads, travel would be much faster. As it is, buses are our only means of transport, and they are slow as molasses. The nearest beach - Jaco - is about 2 hours by bus, but it’s a Gringo tourist trap, so we’ve never been. Around 4 hours by hot, sweaty, overcrowded bus gets you to some of CR’s coolest places, such as Manuel Antonio, Arenal Volcano, or Puerto Viejo. But we don’t have the time off to go very often, and that’s why the 22 hour work week sounds much nicer than it actually is.

So basically, the reason nothing ever happens around here (and the reason we rarely update our blog) is becuase we don’t have a nice city to explore, very much money, or time to explore the rest of the country. And though our advice to anyone thinking about teaching English in CR remains the same - don’t! - we highly recommend this as a profession. We are still so very happy we moved down here. Moving out of the U.S. to explore the world has truly been the best and most rewarding decision either of us has ever made.

- Meg

October 28th, 2009 | Tags: cost of living, Costa Rica, teaching English, TEFL | Category: Live From Costa Rica | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL