Finding Our Way Around

Had a very interesting day today. Woke up and went to Plaza Mayor to open a bank account at the branch in the mall. It takes so long to do any banking here. I thought it was just a fluke that it took us so long to exchange money in San Jose at the bank but apparently it really does take a while to do any banking.

You go into the bank, after the guard has run a wand over you, and take a number... then wait. There are several different things you can do at the bank and you get a number based on what you want to do. What you have to do determines which window you end up at. So we took our number and waited. We finally had our chance to open a bank account but found out we didn't have all of the correct papers. Luckily, Allan told us to go get the last paper and he would take us as soon as we got back so we didn't have to wait in the line again. That was so nice of them. We still managed to spend a couple hours over all trying to open two accounts.

We intended to open two accounts but somehow or the other ended up opening three. Apparently you can open an account in either dollars or colones. Our first account was opened in dollars. Now even if you open it up in dollars you can still get colones. Keeping up with this so far? So when we go to open the second account....for Jacob.....he said it could be in both dollars and colones. We said that sounded great. What he meant to say,which we found out after he opened the accounts, yes that is plural, is that he could have an account in dollars and an account in colones....so now Jacob has two accounts that do the same thing except one is in dollars and one is in colones. I was too tired at this point to try to get it back to one account so we just left it the way it was.

Then we went home and tried to call the movie theater....Bob had gone to the pulperia to get a paper so we could see when and where Eclipse was playing....but once I finally got through it was all in Spanish. We gave up and just went ahead and caught a taxi to the Cinemark in Escazu. It turned out that the cinema is actually in a HUGE mall. When we got there, we had to wait in a really long line, but fortunately, the line moved quickly. Once we got to the purchasing register I was pleasantly surprised to see that it is 5.00 for an adult ticket and $3.50for a student ticket. Not only that but you actually pick your seats so once you get inside....your seat is empty and waiting for you. That was soooooo cool!

Eclipse was....of course....fantastic! I feel much better now that I have seen it and I'm sure all of my friends are happy too now that I will quit saying, "I haven't seen it....no spoiler alerts!"

Each day brings a new adventure and makes it that much easier for us to get around. Can't wait to show off Costa Rica to my friends once they start to visit. Talk to all of you soon!