There’s a type of question we frequently get asked, regarding this Costa Rican Adventure, that begins like this: “Don’t you miss____?” Fill that blank in with whatever you’d like. Air conditioning, craft beer, Tex-Mex, bookstores, Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Today, I will answer all those questions as well as share the things we thought we’d miss, but don’t, as well as the things we don’t at all miss, from life before Costa Rica (BCR).

Let’s kick this off with the list that bookstores show up on:

What We Miss

It’s funny that two things making the list are things we didn’t regularly take advantage of BCR.  A few years back, Dave and I had a weekly Sunday date of Target shopping, followed by lunch, and ending at Barnes and Noble for a little browsing, book-buying and coffee-indulging (super romantic, I know!). Then along came Kindle and ruined everything! OK, not really ruined – but significantly impacted the frequency of our bookstore visits. Upon our move to Austin, Book People came into our life, and though not weekly, we were there a few times a month for sure. {The fact that they sell scones from Quack’s Bakery may or may not have had something to do with that.}

Here in CR…THANK GOD for the Kindle! And thank you library lending program, for savings us oodles of dinero on our chronic book habits. Clearly, our reading has not suffered, but I do long for a quiet afternoon at the bookstore with a pile of new books to look through in front of me, next to a piping hot cup of coffee and a plate of scone crumbs. Ahh…love the bookstore!

The other oddball thing we miss is going to the movies. In the last two years, I’d say we’ve seen seven movies in the theater. We’re obviously not major movie-goers, generally opting for a good Netflix binge from the comfort of our own couch. But here, I miss going to the movies. People post on Facebook, “Husband is taking me to Gone Girl!” and I wanna go! I read the incredible story of the making of “Boyhood” and wanted to see this kid grow up. “Chef” comes out, and not only do I want to see it, I suddenly crave food truck food like never before.

This movie talk leads into the next thing we miss, and that’s reliable internet. Dave and I are actually a little at odds on this one. It makes Dave’s “Miss” list, without question. For me, it’s situational. I’d really love to be able to watch a movie on Netflix without spending 50% of the movie waiting for the little circle to stop spinning. When I was wrapping up a couple of real estate deals, the sketchy internet was frustrating. But on a whole, I’m over it. In fact, even with the issues, I’d say “wasting less time on the internet” is still on my self-improvement list. For Dave, it’s a bond that cannot be broken. He loves him some internet, and I pity the fool that tries to get between him and his connection.

What else? We miss Jason’s Deli (or any really good salad bar, or produce department for that matter). We miss having an indoor living room and a couch to relax on. We miss good, paved roads and we miss chocolate chips. I wanted to make some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies when I first got here and I swear, every time I visited a new grocery store, I looked for those little buggers. Nope! I’ve heard legend of chocolate chips available in San Jose, but have yet to find them. It’s strange, but I decided it’s related to heat and the fact that the stores aren’t air conditioned – which would turn a bag of chips into a brick of chocolate before too long. So I get it. And I’m buying a bag as soon as I land in Austin.

What we miss most, even more than chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and chips and salsa (Costa Ricans don’t do salsa), are our family, our friends, and our dogs!  In fact, we miss them all so much that I can’t even bring myself to write anything more on the subject, as it leads to tears just thinking about it. Funny how once the journey home is in sight, the emotions come flooding in. I realized how much I’d been holding back in an effort to embrace this experience and now that it’s slowly wrapping up, I can admit how much I miss all you people! Seriously, be ready for a big old hug and some sloppy tears on your shoulder next time I see you.

What We Thought We’d Miss – But Don’t

Here’s the list where air conditioning belongs. Along with craft beer, Tex-Mex (actually, restaurants in general) and the gym. We thought we’d really miss all of that. Getting over air conditioning is all about, well, conditioning. Days 1-5 are brutal, and you sweat like you’re wearing a bear suit in a sauna. Day six or so rolls around and you stop thinking about it, until one day you see someone with sweat rolling down their face, and like someone who’s lived here forever, you offer up “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

For beer, in Costa Rica you really have just two or three options – Imperial, Pilsen and Bavaria (maybe). Occasionally you’ll find the Nicaraguan beer, Toña. So we just drink what they serve, and it’s all good. If you showed up here with a six pack of a fine IPA – or heck, even Shiner Bock – it would be gone in a flash and you’d be a hero, for sure. But do we miss it or spend any time thinking about it? Nah.

We’ve eaten a few meals in restaurants during our time here, but I’ve embraced cooking and now we actually prefer eating in. Tex-Mex, BBQ, food truck fare – we’ve certainly enjoyed our share of it through the years, so it’s surprising that we don’t miss it.

From the day I met my first Texas-sized cockroach (and learned those hideous monsters had wings and flew!) we’ve had an extermination service wherever we’ve lived. So you can imagine why I thought I’d miss a bug-free life. Shockingly, I’m not even phased anymore. *Kristen – skip to the next paragraph! I have a friend who is deathly afraid of spiders. I very recently learned just how intense her fear is when she wrote a great blog post about it. But reading it made me realize how ridiculously buggy my life is here. Spiders are everywhere. Little scrawny ones, big hairy guys, and all sizes in between. Some will kill you, most are harmless. I’d say a conservative guess at how many spiders I see in a day is 25. In fact, there is one on my coffee cup right now! That’s not a joke.

Geckos and ants crawl the walls, fist-sized moths are commonplace, lizards scamper around constantly. This is just life in the jungle and I guess we’ve adapted. Now you probably noticed the cockroach didn’t show up on that list. That’s still where I draw the line. Nasty!

Most of what we thought we’d miss, but don’t, are things we’ve adapted to. We miss our gym, but our five mile daily walk fills the void. We miss Tide detergent, but the local brand gets the job done. It’s nice to be able to pop out to a store, any old time, and buy stuff – bread, plumbing supplies, a hot glue gun. When you don’t have the option, you get creative and a little MacGyver-ey. You make better use of what you have, you are smarter about planning your grocery store trips, and you learn that a twist tie will get your toilet functioning again when the flapper chain corrodes. We miss the beautiful produce department at any US grocery store, but have embraced sitting at the end of the driveway waiting for Marvin, the vegetable man, to come by. When he finally shows up, we hop on the truck and whatever he’s got that day will be good enough. You learn to roll with it here, and that’s not a bad skill to have no matter where you live.

What We Don’t Miss

Traffic. Really, driving in general is something I don’t miss. Noise is another thing we can live without – specifically, city noise. The soundtrack here consists of sounds you’d find on relaxation CDs. Birds, babbling brooks, the ocean waves, rain on a tin roof. There are no car horns, people hollering or neighbors playing music you don’t like.

The “news blues’ is something else I don’t miss. Sure, we get a little news. Well, Mr. Internet gets the news and then shares it with me, carefully filtering out things that will make me say, “Now why did you tell me that? I could have gone my whole life without knowing that!” Turning on the news is an instant recipe for sadness and I don’t miss it.

I like to think I am immune to consumerism. I am not. A fact that was highlighted a few months back when we were visiting friends in Tamarindo and I started flipping through a magazine on their coffee table. I began to feel funny. My pulse quickened, and I felt warm and a little anxious. What was wrong with me? I wanted stuff! Ooh, look at that purse..I want one! Ah, cute jeans, I need a pair. Yum, that restaurant looks good – we should go! When we were in Atenas and got to watch the first football games of the season, the same thing happened. I hadn’t thought of Papa John’s pizza in months. Five minutes into the game the commercial came on and immediately, I had to have some! {The fact that I couldn’t have it made it even worse!}

When you remove the buying triggers and advertising, it’s amazing how little time you spend thinking of food or shopping. Pretty much none. And though I wish I could say it’s a habit and we’ve kicked it, I realize that avoidance is the key, and that’s much easier when you’re tucked away in the jungle.

I’d say the thing that we both miss the least is the frenzied pace of life in the United States. It’s hard to explain, but there is this busyness that is part of the fabric of life back home that wasn’t apparent until I’d left. It always just felt normal, so I never even considered it. It took me a few months to figure out what it was. I knew something was different here – I felt more calm and at peace, but I didn’t know why. Then one day, after Dave and I had been to the farmer’s market, I stood in the kitchen for two solid hours, cleaning and chopping vegetables, making beans and rice, homemade soup and other vegetable dishes. When I finally finished up and sat down on the couch, Dave thanked me for all the hard work in the kitchen and remarked how he knew it wasn’t fun for me.

Actually, it was fun. I turned on some music and chopped, chopped and chopped some more. It was soothing and rewarding. But I realized it was something I wouldn’t have enjoyed in my life BCR. Why? Because there was always something more important to be doing. Something bigger to work on; a to-do list that needed tick marks, a goal sheet that needed gold stars. I had made my life all about “accomplishing more, in less time, better than ever, with grace and poise” and in that world, there was no time for thinly slicing cabbage. We do not miss the frenzy. And we realize it’s a choice and are committed to finding ways of bringing our Costa Rica zen back home with us.

There it is. Plenty of things we’ve learned we can live without, and plenty of items on our “miss list”. As we get ready to pack up our four suitcases of belongings, the thing I most hope to carry home with us is the realization that what matters more than the journey itself are the people who are by your side. We appreciate each other far more than when we first arrived, and we appreciate the other people in our lives more as well. Each and every one of you! We look forward to dog kisses from Leo and Ladybug. We look forward to catching up with you over craft beers or Pumpkin Spice Lattes. But give us a few days. If you need us our first week back, I’d suggest you check Book People or Alamo Draft House. We’ve got a lot of books to flip though, scones to nibble on and at least five movies we can’t wait to see on the big screen.

———-xo