One Thing

We are often asked what is different about living in Costa Rica or what has been difficult to adjust to. We are learning to adjust our expectations of what we will be able to accomplish in a given day. Life and life's tasks simply take longer. So instead of having a lengthy list of things to do in a day I am thinking, "What one thing do I need to get done today?" Beyond that, what things do I hope to get to today? For example blog and respond to emails have been on my "hope to" list for the last several days and now when I am done blogging I hope to answer and send email.

A good example of things taking longer is paying bills. When we lived in California I would pour myself a cup of coffee, walk to the computer and pay our bills on-line. All in all it would take 10 - 15 minutes (including making the coffee!). Now here is my current bill paying process:

1. Go to the ATM machine to get cash.
2. Wait at least a day and then go and get cash again at the ATM machine (Do to daily withdrawal limits I need to go twice).
3. Go into the bank to pay rent (we deposit it into our landlord's account). However, first the teller needs to change the Colones I withdrew from the ATM into Dollars. I could withdraw Dollars from the ATM, but due to our residency requirements we need to show we are changing a certain amount of money from Dollars to Colones each month. If we were to draw the money out in Dollars it wouldn't count and we wouldn't meet our required amount. So in a matter of minutes I change Dollars to Colones at the ATM machine and then from Colones to Dollars at the bank window.
4. While at the bank pay water and electricity.
5. Go to the grocery store where there is a bill pay center to pay cable, internet, and phone.

Total time 1 - 4 hours depending on the length of lines at the bank and bill pay center (not counting the two trips to the ATM machine).