In Sweden, there is a time honored tradition of taking a nice coffee break with a treat in the mid afternoon, to chat with colleagues and friends. It has a special name: fika. Of course many cultures have a similar tradition – there’s British tea time, and if things aren’t too busy, this happens in a lot of places. But what makes it notable is the degree of adherence to the norm.
Well, it turns out Costa Rica has a similar tradition! We aren’t going to an office or construction site here, so we wouldn’t otherwise know, but we’ve been fortunate to be invited to some afternoon Sunday fikas, and our friends let us know the daily fika is pretty ubiquitous. We are big supporters, except we can’t handle our caffeine past about 1pm..
Another fun thing that seems to be common here is backyard hangouts in a “terraza,” a covered, nice hosting area behind a house.
Our time lately has been made busier with a decision to move closer to town (we will move Dec. 1). We have two more weeks in our current house — in the small gated community next to coffee farms and cow fields. The views and pool have been wonderful, and we’ll soak them in our last few weeks here.
Our new house will have more space and be a 10 minute walk from the kids’ school instead of a 20 minute drive. Devin especially won’t miss the windy dark road late at night (sometimes sports practices get out fairly late, but even 6pm can feel late when it’s dark out)! The new house also should be a wee bit cooler as it’s about 500 ft higher in elevation, though it doesn’t have air conditioning. It’s also next to Costa Rican multigenerational neighbors, which we look forward to. (We will be renting from a Costa Rican family who moved to Panama for work, and their parents and grandparents live on the larger property, and they keep their cows right behind the house we are renting). We are looking forward to the move closer to town, but will also miss our current neighbors too, especially Sophia, a Costa Rican girl Cora’s age who has become a friend.
Sports for the kids is a pretty big part of our daily life here. Cora is doing a great job on the school volleyball team. They’ve had a couple tournaments and they play a cool modified version of the game that helps develop their skills. Our town of Atenas has a great volleyball tradition with some hometown heros 🙂
Ethan got to play his first soccer game in a cool stadium and the coach has been really encouraging of his talent.
In addition to these things, we continue to keep busy and develop more relationships and rhythms in our daily routines, including church activities and connections (Ethan is especially active with the “jovenes” group….our church’s youth group), never ending school activities (including an entrepreneurship fair and a school-wide robotics competition), twice-a-week Spanish classes….. and keeping up with seemingly endless WhatsApp messages coordinating it all!
Bruckner Year in Costa Rica 