Caerle bien a alguien

This Spanish phrase means "to fall well to someone." This literal translation fits me fine, I suppose, considering my propensity for klutziness. But it is the idiomatic meaning, to "seem pleasant," that I thought would best introduce the explanation of this blog's title.

In Spanish, simpático, con acento, is an adjective used to describe a person as pleasant, nice, kind, likeable, etc. Clearly, this word does not describe me, so I capitalized the T in order to emphasize "Tico," the slang word a Costa Rican uses to describe his or her nationality. In other words, I am trying to practice good karma by complimenting my new neighbors before I even meet them. But in case this paronomastic plot doesn't work, I also wanted to reference the word sans accent, in terms of its English connotation of "having a like mind or temperament." It is my hope that, unlike the clear outcast I was as non-religious, lower-class German progeny at an upper-class school in the "Jewish state" of Israel, I will find a more comfortable place in this new country and school.

I did hope to establish some syntactical synchronicity with my previous blog, but "Gringa in the Mayanland" (thanks Evan) and "Girl in the Gringolandia" (thanks Tim) just didn't sound as good, despite the parallel alliteration of the latter. Plus, I love puns. At first, I tried to combine my temporary home abroad with a play on the Costa Rican catchphrase for "this is the life," until I realized that "TemPura Vida" sounded more like "this is the lightly-breaded and deep-fried life." So in the end, even if the title is not original (at least a dozen albums, one play, one movie, and even another blog share the same name), I hope these posts eventually seem pleasant to you.

Como el burro que tocó la flauta

The above post title, literally translated from Spanish, means "like the burro that played the flute," which is equivalent to saying "by a stroke of good luck." The story goes that when the burro found the flute, he accidentally brayed, managing to play the instrument successfully; when the burro thought he had played with skill, a wise bird told him it was just luck. And so, in the case of my new job in Costa Rica, I am a lucky ass.

But my story didn't start with much good fortune. Tim and I went to an international-teaching job fair in Boston with high hopes, which were quickly dashed when we saw how the laid-off crowd had infiltrated the job market. Not only had the number of attendees risen, but the number of open positions had dropped. My school, for example, initially posted three positions that they ended up deciding not to fill to save funds. At the fair two years ago, my mailbox was full of inquiries and my dance card eventually was full of interviews. This year, we had only one inquiry, and we had to beg for interviews, even from schools that previously said they want to meet us at the fair. We were outright denied for me not being Christian or Tim not being certified. We only had four interviews over two days. Two, from the inquiry school in Germany and another in Ecuador, went well, but resulted in "not the right fit." Another, with a school in Egypt, went a little too well, as they offered us the jobs five minutes into the interview; however, my spidey sense told me to deny the offer (as it turns out, it looks like we dodged a bullet, according to online reviews of the school).

We left town with only one lead, with another suspect college (read: diploma mill) in Turkey. But with no other options we continued the application process, first having to analyze and write essays then having to do Skype interviews. During this process is when I found the flute: A school in Costa Rica contacted me about an English teacher position. Even though there was no position for Tim, I agreed to do an interview with this school because Tim thought he could find private ESL positions in the country.

I was offered the job, but I was wary of Tim having to play the visa game again; once bitten by Israeli bureaucracy, twice shy, you could say. So despite my unemployment worries, I decided to turn down the job to wait for potential positions in the States. So far, no bird was chirping to me; I thought I could still find a job through my skills. But in response to my "regret to inform you" e-mail to the Costa Rican school, I heard a little birdie start to sing: An ESL teacher at the school was about to go on maternity leave and another wanted to go part-time before eventually retiring. These occurrences have nothing to do with my skill, just luck, and yet they are the reasons that Tim interviewed for a job at the same school and that we eventually accepted positions in Costa Rica. I basically will be the high school English department, teaching all levels both reading and writing. Tim will be a middle school ESL teacher, supplementing in-class instruction. And the moral of my story is, An accidental ass is better than an unemployed one any day.