I never cared much about where and how I fit into Costa Rican society. It was quite clear that we didn’t, even though we seemingly were an integral part of what makes up Costa Rica in this day and age: foreigners looking for a slice of paradise.
Costa Rica is teaming with gold diggers (it’s main gold is real estate), tax and winter refugees, hippies and wannabes, small-time crooks, and a lot of other colorful characters.
We weren’t colorful - not in that way - and we weren’t Costa Rican, although by the time we left, we had a pretty good idea about what that was. We simply were enjoying a time out, a moment in our lives to figure out what exactly it was that we wanted. A little breathing space. Every one should get one.
Raising a family, it is easy to get stuck with mortgages, credit cards, suburban life and bad coffee. And we knew, we didn’t want that.
But we also didn’t want country clubs, Latin American sprawl and one hundred percent hinterland, which altogether to us were ten times worse than all the bugs fluttering and scampering about combined.
Now, however, that we have found what we want, we are faced with a new challenge:
How to fit in.
When faced with seed catalogues, chutney jars and garden shows, I am quite perplexed. I love the beauty of the English landscape, I absolutely adore the seemingly effortless charm of an English garden and nothing is quite as exquisite as a visit to a manor house, be it in Chelsey or Cheshire, where the good life seems to be enshrined forever.
BUT how is one ever going to be all that, unless you are born that way?
2 comments:
My sister-in-law told me years ago that when she moved to another country she suddenly did not belong anywhere. I never thought I would feel the same way, but I do. Maybe we should just stay put, but think of all the fun we would miss.
No, not stay put, but marvel at where your story takes you.
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