Getting Lost as a Way of Llife

I think that part of living in a new country is getting lost.... a lot!  One wouldn´t imagine how odd it is to get on a bus and not know exactly where you are supposed to get off. Mostly, I can rely on the people around me to answer my questions... but other times that doesn´t work out so well.

Tonight I went to visit my friend outside of Barva and she told me to ask the bus driver to let me off at "la urbanizacion Doña Elena"  I asked a lady at the bus stop what urbanizacion meant and she laughed like... isn`t that such an easy word!?  Then she explained in Spanish that it is a housing development.  Good thing I`m good at getting definitions of words I don´t understand in Spanish using other Spanish words! Thanks, Key!

Anyways, so I made it there ok because I had noticed when we rode the bus together that the stop was after a blue gate - always make sure to look for landmarks.  It was super fun spending time with her and her mom.   We ate and laughed and practiced my "todo bien, pura vida mae" so that I would sound more tica.

We walked back to the bus stop together and she assured me that all buses went through Barva.  I expected, however, that I would see the park that is my landmark.  This is where I got on the bus.  The park never came, however, and there I was already out of town!!!! Luckilly, I had gotten lost in this part of  "out of town" a few days ago... so I knew about where I was (practicing getting lost for later is very important).  I quickly got off the bus and started trecking back in the direction I knew to be town.  It was already 9pm and there started to be nobody around.  I trodded forward, hoping my sense of direction was good.  Finally I ran into two guys who pointed me in the direction of the park.  When I saw it and turned to my house, they were even nice enough to yell - "muchacha!  a la izquierda!" I told them that I lived the other direction and went home.  Ending up in my room felt like such a victory.