I’ve always wondered that myself. Well, here is a post from a perceptive unschooled teen named Kevin that will give you an answer. He tries out public school for a year, for the 9th grade, and gives us his feedback. I particularly like this quote:

Would I recommend sending a kid to school? Absolutely not. It’s much too easy to lose your way. One thing I would advise though is to find unschooling friends. Would I recommend any other unschoolers go to school? If it’s going to do them good like me, sure. If they want to see what it’s like, sure. Otherwise, it’s going to be a shit hole. Plain and simple.

Even this canned syrup would be better than corn syrup-laden crap

• Maple syrup.  Real, from a tree maple syrup.
• Garage sales.  Finding used furniture, appliances, etc is a pain here.  Anytime someone has a moving sale, expats descend upon it like vultures.  You gotta be quick or the pickings are slim.
• Dishwashers.  I would rather waste time scratching bug bites than spending 1 hour a day washing dishes.
• Cheap cars.  A $500 car in the US costs $3000 in Costa Rica.
• Museums.  I’m *really* looking forward to a trip to the Georgia Aquarium.  And a trip back to NYC for the American Museum of Natural History.  And a trip to DC/Chicago/Monterrey – this list is a long one!
• Cheaper & readily available electronic goods.  A fridge that costs $300-350 in the US costs $700-800 here.  And if I need a new hard drive – well, there aren’t many to be found and they all cost and arm and a leg.  I’m not even bothering looking for a USB mic (for my venture into voiceovers )
• Still wearing flip-flops all the time.  More, maybe – I don’t think I’ll need Keens for pavement.
• Spending time with family again.
• Libraries.  I can’t believe that came to mind so late.  We. miss. libraries.  (otoh, maple syrup has been the first thing on my mind ever since we came here)
• Blueberries.  J can eat a pint at a time, I miss them in pancakes.  Or muffins.
• Cheese – as in a variety.  Here we get a decent cheddar, a so-so mozzarella, a made-in-Costa-Rica gouda that can’t be worth $10 and Manchego goat cheese.  I do like regular farmer cheese quite a bit, but having a selection of feta, various cheddars, brie, etc will be most welcome.
• Being able to run more than 1-2 errands a day.

Even with the cat, this would save us an hour a day

Pics by jakescreations & Dan4th.

• I don’t think I’ll ever feel the need to own a dryer again. In fact, using a dryer would make me feel guilty.
• I’ve learned to cook dried beans really well here. I don’t think I can go back to canned. I used to use canned beans all the time in the U.S., but now I even cook chick peas from dried beans.
• I wash my dishes with cold water. Although I admit I hope to get a dishwasher in the U.S., if I ever have to hand-wash dishes, using cold water no longer seems weird to me. Of course, they have great deterents, like Axion, here that clean really well with cold water. Hopefully I can find that stuff back in the US.

• I wash my tile floors the Tico way: I take a dishtowel and cut a small hole right in the center. I wet the towel with water and some of my favorite floor cleaner, “Terror“. No joke. I slide the towel down over a broom handle until it covers the broom at the botton. Swish Swish Swish. Floor is clean. I rinse out the towel and save for next time. Seriously, this way rules, and it cuts down on disposable crap, like little plastic-lined absorbent pads. I’ll never go back.

• I’m a lot more cautious about dogs now. Back in the US, most dogs I’ve met were just plain friendly. Here, not so much so. I was bit badly on the face a few months into our stay in Costa Rica. I don’t think I’ll ever be so relaxed around dogs again. Not that I don’t love dogs still. After all, we have a new one that we absolutely love. But I’m different now.

I bet I’ll have more examples to add when I think some more! Stay tuned…

Yes, he's wearing Elvis shades and trying to stick as much stuff in them as possible.

I was chatting with a friend and mentioned moving back to the US and his response was ‘I’m so sorry man – too bad it didn’t work out for you.’ I was a bit surprised because I hadn’t thought about it in terms of regret at all – because we have no regrets about our experience.  Another couple of friends, one of whom I’ve known since high school, got it right – 1) we spent a year in paradise and 2) having made it here, we know we can do anything now.

Those two sentiments are right on the money.  Would I trade this past year for another year of the same old, same old in NY, with a boring-ass job, a commute and cold weather?  Hell no.  And the feeling I got after spending 4 years realizing this dream is that we really can do anything.

Plus we never imagined this as being forever.  I don’t know if I can live anywhere for a long time, without getting the itch for something else.  We’re thinking Florida now, but we will maintain our permanent residency here.  That means coming back for 4 months a year.  Having an excuse to come back to paradise is a good thing

Here are some of the positives I got out of the past year:

The lineated woodpecker - now I know where Woody got his hair.

This little guy/gal is looking for cookies to steal.

• Great weather.  We even lucked out with the rainy season not being so rainy.
• Realizing that our preference for warm weather was right on target – we’re really happy with the heat and still want to live in a hot climate.  It’s ok to admit that We Don’t Like Cold Weather and do something about it.
• Language – I’m happy with what Spanish I’ve learned and want to continue learning.
• We had an amazing birth and an utterly beautiful baby, two things we will always associate with Costa Rica.
• M & J had to be with each other a lot by necessity and their relationship has really blossomed.  Could be just them growing older, but I see a closeness that is more palpable than before.
• Nature up the wazoo – all the neat birds, lizards & creepy crawlies.  Toucans, lineated woodpeckers, pelicans, herons, tanagers of various colors, parrots and other colorful tropical birds vs cardinals, robins & sparrows?  That’s is pretty one-sided
• Monkeys.  If there’s one animal that we truly loved, it was the monkey.  They’re adorable yet give a glimpse into ourselves.  I definitely need to see more monkeys before we leave.
• Amazing plants & witnessing the constant growth.  Fragrant breezes smelling of citrus, flowers or the sea air.
• The Caribbean beaches.  Usually so sparsely populated that we felt like they were just ours.  The water was a bit warm, but always easy to get into.  And you could always count on seeing some sort of wildlife.
• A monkey stole my cookies.  Yes, he was a little fucker but it was fun to watch him scurry away.
• Witnessing the rhythms of different seasons & weather patterns.  Seeing microclimates in action.
• Fresh, locally grown organic coffee.
• Weekly trips to the feria (farmer’s market), where we met our local coffee grower, some of our farmers and Tom & Jan, a wonderful couple from Pennsylvania who made scrumptious baked goods.
• Realizing how important having like-minded parents around us is.
• Realizing – again – that I’m married to my best friend and there’s no one else I would rather be with through thick & thin.

It’s been an amazing experience that we will return to in 2011.  It’s also been something that we’ve learned from and that has changed us.  I don’t feel anything negative about it at all, and in some ways will be very sad to leave.  Knowing that we’ll be back makes things easier.