More Stuff and Nonsense

Welcome to Central America!

Okay, so I'm experiencing true tropical weather for the first time. I flew to San Jose, Costa Rica, today. No, not for vacation. APL, the company I work for, has a customer service center in Costa Rica. I'm here for 2 weeks to help train a new batch of CSRs. I know we're at the beginning of the rainy season down here. I'd been warned to bring rain gear. We landed, in what looked to me to be a pretty good downpour. You know, water standing on the runway, all the airport workers in heavy yellow rainsuits. The flight attendant advised it was "light rain". Felt a little better when we talked to the manager who met us at the airport, as he advised they were actually getting more rain than they usually do at this time of year.

Anyway, it's really, really green here! Lots of trees I'm not used to. Traffic, what I've seen so far, hasn't been too bad, but I still don't want to try driving here. Roads cant off at weird angles, there really isn't a "right of way" more of an "I got here first" or "I'm bigger, and I'll run you over if you don't move".

The flora here is fabulous. Everywhere you look, there are brilliant flowers, in all kinds of gorgeous colors. Here at the hotel, they have enormous hibicus flowers. Huge! Each trumpet is probably about the diameter of my hand, if I spread all the fingers as wide as I can. And in such colors; an amazing fuschia, a wonderful orange. Just wonderful!

After we got dropped off, and before we went to dinner, we had some extra time. So, we explored the complex, and found the heated pool and the hot tub! Also as the work-out room. Having heard from my manager that there was a very reasonably-priced salon across the street, we headed off. Crossing the street greatly resembled the video game Frogger. You wait for what looks like a break in traffic, and make a run for it! Michelle and I got manicures, which was really relaxing after a very long day.

Victor, the manager who picked Michelle (the co-worker I'm here with) and I up at the airport, also came by to take us to dinner. There's also someone from one of our offices in Chicago here; his name is William, and he's with the Logistics side of our company. We went to a traditional Costa Rican restaurant. The food was so good! We had a mouth-watering fresh guacamole, a terrific black bean dip, and smashed, fried plantains, which were good too. And those were just the appetizers! For dinner, we had a sampler platter; beef, pork, peppers and onions, pico de gallo, more of the black bean dip, with some corn tortillas. Also some fried casava and some fried (?) plantain. Everything was wonderful, and we all ate too much. For dessert, I had flan. Mmmmmm! We also had a dessert that I'll have to ask Victor the name of again; it was almost a cross between ice cream and gelato, and it tasted like eggnog! Very good.

The room is great. We thought we were sharing an apartment; we went to check in, and discovered we each had our own apartment! I have a little sitting area, a dining room area with table and chairs, a little kitchen; down the hall is my shower/sink room, and across the hall from that is the toilet room. Yes, it's a separate room. Then on to my room. Very nice!

I'll try to write more tomorrow, as it'll be my first day in the office. Not quite sure what to expect, as we weren't given anything more than, "We'd like you to help train some new CSRs" before we came down. So we'll see what tomorrow brings!

I'll post pictures if I can get the computer to recognize the camera. If not, they'll have to wait 'til I get home. :)

posted by Serena @ 8:27 PM