A trip to San Jose

When I left the US last year, I had not idea that being a permanent resident of the country meant I really had to be a permanent resident.., who would have thought? Ok, so there are no backward concepts in the US. They didn’t tell us that in the English classes while growing up. I should be excuse from the rules. I am from a latin country where “No” means “Yes” and “Do not park here” means “Perfect place to park” and permanent residency would mean “permanent, if you want?” or “we can work it out” So, that is one of the reasons we are in San Jose; to go to the US embassy, besides having to get a few parts for the boat, but most importantly, we are here to go to the MOVIEEE!!

Our first stop was the Embassy. US embassies are such an intimidating place, I often feel that if I step the wrong way into the building, the alarms will sound, gates will drop around me and I will be marked as “suspicious animal”. However, in Costa Rica, they were much more informal, relax and nicer than in Chile. Besides the wait and the lack of straight answer to my question, the attention was cordial and the fact that nothing went wrong made me feel accomplished. Who cares if I got no answers?!... aaaahh!!! Ok, here is the deal:

A permanent resident can NOT be out of the country for more than a year without a Re-Entry permit.

A Re-entry permit must be obtained while in the US, before departure

If a permanent resident is out of the country for over 6 mos. He (she… I) looses the eligibility to become a citizen.

The best place for answers regarding this and any, ANY issues are in Yahoo Answers!!!

After the embassy we decided that our kids deserved a cultural re-encounter… we took them to the jungle gym of Mc Donalds. They were so happy! We bought them ice cream sundaes, bought ourselves some coffee, by the way, fancy coffee shops they have these days!, and used their Wi-Fi to make some phone calls. When the smiles started to vanish, we drove to the cinema in the Mall… wow! I loved the smell in the malls, new clothing, candles, creams, chocolate, perfumes… aaah!! I wished I was loaded with money and make over myself!! A new me, a younger me, the one people would look twice or at least once. The only time I get look at more than once is when going by a mirror and I look at myself…haha. Oh! Yeah! I was talking about the movie… How fun! We watch Shreck 3 in 3D! We laughed hard the whole movie, it was a funny movie, but my laugh was more of a product of the girls’ laugh.

When the movie was over, we drove through the infamous, poorly rated for safety and dirty downtown until we found our place to sleep. We stayed at a nice, clean, cool place by the National Park, called Pension La Cuesta. Recommended by the Lonely Planet and for only $28, we got room, internet, hot water and breakfast. It is a good place for adventure (cheap) travelers to stay.