It seemed that every person that i had asked, "what time does the bank open?"...the common response was, "is it urgent? can it wait until later? do you have to do it right now??"
Today I learned about Ticus time. Ticus is a term to describe a Costa Rican. Ticus time is very much like filipino time, brown time, etc. Things in Costa Rica start at a later time. One banco didn't open until 11am...the other not until 1pm.
Even though i had gotten up early, i was stuck. After strolling around the neighborhood, i just went back to the hostel for a nap to wait for the 1st bank to open.
That first bank didn't accept CAD so i was out of luck...and i didn't want to wait until 1pm for the next bank. So off i went back to the hostel. I was told that the Banco Negro downtown would accept my CAD so that was my plan B.
After half-giving up on those errands, I ended up meeting a girl here at the hostel who is from Queens, NY. She was supposed to have gone on to the next city today but got shitfaced last night. This action of hers left her to-do list for the day untouched. She stays at the hostel for yet another day.
She introduced me to another american who is also staying at the hostel. He's from DC. Not knowing what to do, we all decided to head downtown on th
e bus to grab some lunch. What did i eat??...I went all the way to Costa Rica and had...wait for it...fried rice. ahahaha. lame.I managed to get into a Scotiabank downtown to handle my money errands. check!
I'll be safe for the next couple of days. I'll probably go back downtown again tomorrow to wander, people watch, and do more banking before heading to the next hotel.
After our little trip, we took the bus back to the hostel. They wanted to pick up some weed and asked me if i would do some with them. The weed here is not as good as vanco
uver, but i decided to try it anyhow (mom and dad...the secret is out. I dabble with pot.)My mom was the first person to have ever told me that weed isn't a drug. It's a plant she said, therefore it's not a drug.
We walked over to the nearby mall to see if we could get some. On the way there, we saw 2 kids (no older than 12) skipping for joy because they just managed to score some green. We knew this because they had the baggy in the air waving it around. Queens asked
them how much they got it for. There was some exchange, and the next thing i knew...she had bought it off them for the equivelence of 6USD. We walked further towards the mall. DC guy decides to stop and talks to a couple of rastaas (yes they're here too) who were selling handicrafts if they knew where to get some weed. Again, after some exchange, he scored even more than what Queens had gotten.Off to the hostel we went. I went to the room to put my things away and met a Japanese girl. We chatted for a bit. Queens came in the room and told me where they would be. After talking to the Jap girl, i went to the front of the hostel where there were two happy americans. I only took 2 hoots. The three of us went back inside to watch a movie. The hostel has a couple of dvds...we popped in, "the ugly truth".
Things here in Costa Rica are very relaxed. The people are chilled and appears to not be in any hurry for anything. Hence, Ticus time.
Having met Queens, she is very much like a Ticus. She had just woken up from a nap now...hasn't showered...unplanned for tomorrow...laundry still not done (and she has no clean undies left)...yet she sits beside me reading a book waiting for her friend to pick her up for a night out. I applaud her.
Right now, i sit here after attempting to learn some basic spanish from a lonely planet book, listening to the riddim/reggae music the hostel worker is blasting with a couple of other foreigners reading and planning.
Tomorrow, Japanese girl and I plan on visitng the ruins of a church in Cartago which is a 45 min bus ride away. Hopefully, the bus doesn't run on Ticus time.
No comments:
Post a Comment