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San Ramon is too far away from San Jose for that school to work for you. It’s about an hour+ from San Jose. Now that I think about it, my friend’s son is only 7 or 8, so I’m not sure to what grade level that school goes. But surely there are other schools that are around the same price, they just won’t be those fancy schmancy diplomats’ kids school.
I have a friend who has his son in a bi-lingual school in San Ramon and I think he pays about $60 a month. It will all depend on where you decide to live.
You are probably entertaining the container idea. Without a complete inventory of your household goods, we could only gestimate what you might pay in taxes — but expect to pay about $1500 mas o menos. That brings your total up to $6500 or maybe more. You can furnish a whole house in Costa Rica for a lot less. With each trip I make I bring with me 100 pounds of “stuff” — in 8 trips that’s nearly a half a ton of personal items, mostly clothes, bedding, towels, etc. So far I’ve had to purchase a stove, fridge, and washer, plus some kitchen items such as dishes, glasses, utensils, 4 beds (queen, double, and two twins) and had my bed frames custom made and I haven’t spent even spent $2500. When we get our major furniture pieces made we expect to pay about $2000 for everything. We had a budget of $5000 to buy everything new or have it made for the house. Unless you have priceless antiques or things that cannot be replaced, I suggest buying the big things in Costa Rica. When I looked at the things I had here in the States, I decided I’d only take my art, baskets and pottery, and good linens, and everything else I can get in Costa Rica.
As I keep telling my contractor (now that my house is done) “estoy pobra y loca”! So I won’t be coming down with large wads of cash anytime soon!
TSA deserves a good laugh by seeing me naked or in my undies and being able to read the tags! They might think twice about doing it a second time!
If dual citizenship were reason to lose your US citizenship, they wouldn’t allow it. However, back in the 80’s I was told by the State department that if I wanted a British passport, to which I was entitled, I would have to renounce my US citizenship because I could not hold two passports. Somewhere along the line that has all changed. My husband is going to apply for US citizenship, but he does NOT have to surrender his EU passport to do it. (I don’t recall have to swear allegiance to another country to get my second passport.)
It’s ridiculous to be sure. Pure Kafka. I guess you probably hope they start using those full-body xray machines so they could see the hardware in your knees. I have a steel pin in my back but it never sets off the metal detectors. You would’ve thought that they’d use some kind of material that would NOT set things off for knees and hips.
Dual citizenship is NOT illegal in the United States. I have it and my step-daughter has it. There was a time when you could only have one passport, but they did away with all that nonsense and I know dozens of people with dual citizenship.
Solitude? HA! I’m up here in the mountains, plotting my escape back to CR in January, and trying to get my fireplace mural done so we can install it when we’re there. When are you going back down?
When I got my cell phone last month there were NO GSM lines, only TDMA. Don’t know if that’s changed in three weeks or not, but that was the status when I got my phone, and anyone who came in with a GSM had to get a TDMA phone to get a number.
This morning I called US Customs about the regs for bringing my pet back into the US after two months in Costa Rica. The only thing they are concerned about is the current rabies vaccination, and nothing else (unless the pet is obviously very ill). When I think about how much time I’ve spent trying to debunk this process, I can only conclude that a very simple procedure is shrouded in secrecy for the express purpose of having to pay someone to help you do this. Thanks to David and MediaTica for sharing their experiences, and saving me more than a few colones.
That’s all very interesting, and you are absolutely right — being polite and smiling will go a long way in any situation, but trust me, some of the goons I had to deal with wouldn’t have responded to a smile or politesse no matter WHAT! In the last 18 months, I’ve been on a plane 32 times. Never once did I have an incident, felt harassed or terrorized, until this last time when the whole ordeal of going through Dallas was a colossal pain in the butt! They were unnecessarily heavy handed with me, and rude to boot!
Thanks MT! That is the information I was looking for. It will be pretty easy to get the rabies booster, and get the appropriate paperwork signed off in Denver by the USDA. I also just read the Minterior de Salud website about the importation of perros and it only mentioned rabies there, too. If Dr. Molina said you didn’t need an import certificate from HIM, I guess I don’t need to pay the ARCR $80 to get one from them either! Sheesh.
Oh, I’m sure it was anything but cheap, but we already crossed the big hurdle by having our dog declared a companion dog thereby eliminating the need for the dog to travel in cargo. As a service dog, he does not even have to be in a carrier. He can just sit in our laps or at our feet, or with any luck at all, he gets the middle seat in bulkhead. It was either that or put hubby in cargo WITH the dog! It’s jumping through all the other hoops that is getting exhausting, but at least I eliminated the $40+ charge to the CR consulate, now I just have to figure out the role a vet plays in all this customs stuff and who has the best deal on those services.
