I landed in San Jose, Costa Rica not long after lunchtime on Sunday, and according to my host uncle Tony, I couldn´t have picked a better day. The national championship game for soccer was held between Saprissa and Alajuela, with Saprissa winning 3-2. Both teams had 24 national championships each, so now Saprissa has their 25th and reigns supreme...until next year at least. Soon after the game ended we could hear the first fireworks from inside the house, and later we rode around Coronado (the town of my host family, about 40 minutes from San Jose) to see young, shirtless men dangling from cars, waving purple flags (the color of Saprissa) and calling out the team members by name and number. The guys in this photo were in a bar tio Tony and I went to called Villa San Isidro, and they were performing some Saprissa fighting chant.

This is also the week of the town´s saint, Isidor (Isidro), so there were games and celebrations downtown for that as well. A parade of the town´s finest horses, which they called topé, came by the house, and there were maybe a hundred or more of them, all with different colors and shining coats, prancing for the crowd and their proud owners.

So let me tell you about the family (or what I´ve learned so far). I live in the house of Margarita Facio, one of the country´s most renowned artists. Her works are highly valued, and the king of Spain even has one of her works. Despite all her success and reverence, she is very humble and easy to speak with (though this trip is already revealing that my conversational skills need more work). Tony works in real estate development mostly, and has had a hand in developing some of the country´s newest and biggest hotels. He´s a real card, very nice and very informative, also speaks English, and I´ve spent most of my time with him so far. In two days he has already fascinated me with stories about his good friend who was abducted by aliens and was told about the fate of the world on their mothership (he wrote a book about it that Tony showed me) and Tony told me earlier tonight about how he was been present for three exorcisms. He said when the demon took control of one woman, her eyes turned white, she could make her whole body swivel like a snake, and could wrap her tongue around her own head. Now, I don´t believe in aliens, and I don´t believe in exorcism, but for uncle Tony, I´ll believe anything.

Aunts Iris and Toti live here as well, in other houses on the property. Iris is also an artist and has two daughters who live here, and Toti...I´m not sure, but she is also very nice. Everyone I´ve met has made me feel comfortable here, so getting settled in hasn´t been as awkward as it´s been for me with host families in the past. This morning Tony drove me to my first day of work at the Tico Times today, which is another story, of course.

The office is in an old, two-story white house with a blue trim. A white sign in front reads in faded blue letters ¨THE TICO TIMES¨. I arrived before my editor so another co-worker, Sonia, took me upstairs and showed me to my computer, which was the standard black Dell computer you´d find in any college dormitory. The office setup is very much like The Crimson White, editorial is upstairs and advertising works downstairs. Upstairs they keep back issues on one shelf and other newspapers on a shelf across from that one. The photographers are kind of cut off from the rest of the editorial staff in an office on the opposite side of the second floor, and the room I work in is very small and shared by three other reporters. There are no doors between the rooms, so right across the hall from me is the editor-in-chief of the Tico Times. It´s kind of awkward for me because I prefer to do my work with as few people around as possible, and when I´m not interviewing in my own native tongue it makes that even more tough. And of course I just assume people are listening and waiting and deciding what to think of me; it´s just natural human behavior I believe.

I write for the Weekends section and Meg Yamamoto is my editor. Today I was handed two (maybe three) stories that I have to finish by TUESDAY. It´s for an advertising supplement they do, and my stories are all about how to ship things to and from Costa Rica (from letters to sofas). Since these stories are basically free publicity for businesses that offer international shipping in Costa Rica, for the purpose of fairness I have to call every business on this list of contacts given to me by advertising...so tomorrow will be, mas o menos, a sweet little headache.
But that is of course how journalism is supposed to work.

My friends, I hope all of you are well, no matter where you are.