So I wake up this morning to no water and Bob pulling on my toe! (The toe pulling was to wake me up and ask me if I had really paid the $8.00 water bill....which I had.)I rolled back over and went to sleep because honestly....how much can we really figure out at 6:30 in the morning about the no water situation?
Finally when 8:30 am rolls around, I crawl out of bed to tackle the no water problem. Of course it hasn't sunk in yet exactly what this means....having no water....because I am stumbling around trying to figure out what I need to do first to make myself presentable (so I can go ask the landlord what is going on). I throw on my clothes and head into the bathroom to brush my hair and my teeth.....oh yeah....no water. I don't know about you but I am not very friendly in the morning until I get my teeth brushed!
Luckly we have a big jug of bottled water....I'm talking a 2 or 3 gallon size jug.....in the kitchen so the brushing the teeth situation is now solved. Bob and I then head downstairs and out the gate to talk to the landlord. As we turn to go to his house....which is to our left....we see three men kneeling in the middle of the road, working on a water line....problem solved! (See...I did pay the bill, which I actually had a copy of in my hand.) To tell you the truth, I had been concerned that he had accidentally given me someone elses bill which I had then payed, leaving me at the mercy of the paying habits of my neighbor, but that wasn't the case.
So the water dilema is solved...at least knowing the cause of it is no longer a mystery,...of course we still don't have water....but we go ahead over to the landlords because I need his phone number to prevent me from walking over there in the future....calling is so much easier.....and Bob wants a white page phone book. (Apparently there is a Dinsmore already living in Costa Rica, Bob saw the name in the phone book at the hotel we stayed at when we first moved here.)
So I get the landlord's phone number...but not a white page phone book, we apparently have to go to the phone company to get that....and that is when he tells us that there won't be a lot going on today with it being such a big holiday and all. Of course, I have to ask what holiday it is because I can't think of anything big happening on August 2nd in the States, and he informs us that it is a huge Catholic holiday. He tells a little bit about the holiday so of course we go right back to our apartment and look it up in our book about Costa Rica.
Today is the Virgin of Los Angeles Day (the patron saint of Costa Rica).
Now I know you are all getting ready to rush right over to Google and check out what that is so I will save you the trouble! :-)
Apparently, that is the countries biggest celebration. It starts a couple of days before the 2nd of August, when thousands of people walk along the highways, from all over the country, in a pilgrimage to Cartago, just outside of San Jose....to the Southeast.... to honor the national saint, the Virgin of Los Angeles. (Drive Carefully!)Apparently people walk for days to make this pilgrimage to Cartago!! It culminates in everyone arriving in Cartago, on August 2nd, to celebrate that saint. In case you are wondering....we will be staying away from San Jose and Cartego today...you know how my son and husband are about crowds! Maybe next year!! ;-)
On a side note....I am very happy to see that on August 15th I get to celebrate Mothers Day...again... when they celebrate it here. Of course Bob has already informed me that I have to choose a date to celebrate because we are not flying back and forth between the US and here so I can have 2 Mother's Days....what a party pooper! Of course I don't think he has realized that there is no Father's Day here....shhhhh....don't tell.....we'll keep celebrating the one in the US for him....cause we love him!
So, today is a HUGE holiday, which got us thinking.....we are supposed to take Jake to his highschool to register and get his uniforms, but if this is the biggest holiday of the year, surely they aren't open (even though they told us to come today). I decide to call the school to make sure they are open before we go all the way into San Jose, catch a cab to the school, and then arrive there to only find out they are closed. Once I find a phone that works...darn that portable phone...I call and am immediately connected with someone who speaks NO English....Clue #1....and when I ask her if they are open, she rattles on in Spanish....Clue #2.....and when I ask again in English if they are open and she rattles of in Spanish and then hangs up on me.....Clue #3.....we figure they are not open. But to make sure I find two business cards I have, one for the guidance counselor and one for the admissions lady, and call both of their lines directly....neither of which is answered by a person. That is good enough for us, so Jake heads back into his room to steal cars and fight people with swords, Bob heads over to the TV to find a soccer game or maybe some X Game coverage, and I head over to the computer to email two people about translating our documents into Spanish for our residency, before settling down to do some blogging.
Guess we will just spend the day hanging around the house...since it is already raining...reading, watching tv, playing video games, and waiting for the water to come back on!
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