Sounds of Costa Rica

From the porch just outside my studio apartment door, I can see the back side of the university's auditorium building, which also contains a gallery and some classrooms. We are extremely close. Last month it probably took me a minute to walk from my door to my classroom. This month, I'm in a room further away so perhaps it's more like three minutes, tops. Crazy!

Anyway, our proximity to the school allows me to hear a lot of the things that go on there. They have a welding lab that I think is used by their architecture students. I can hear saws and welder-y tools up until 10:30 at night. Since we're so close to the school, we're more or less surrounded by parking lots for the school. This means I hear a car alarm go of at least--at least--twice a day. Usually they don't last very long.

The road that goes by the house and the university is fairly busy. It's not uncommon to hear regular road noise, a truck rumbling by, or a motorcyclist zipping by so fast he must have a death wish. Of course, the cars passing by honk at the cars who are blocking the road while they wait to enter the university's parking lots. All of the lots are fenced and gated so the drivers must wait for an operator to open the gate for them.

Twice this month the university has had some kind of live music playing in the courtyard at night. Once it was a party with live bands with American alternative rock playing the entire afternoon before (I liked that), and the other was a dance party with latin music. I don't mind any of the noises coming from the university as long as they stop before I go to sleep. And they always have.

Before it rains, it can be quite windy. My host mom has hung a variety of wind chimes along the alley that serves as a four car garage. It kind of nice hearing them jingle. Except for the Wind Chime from Hell. It is hung right outside my door. It has a heavy glass ball hung in the middle on the longest chain. This ball would continually smack against the glass window in my door. I was very fed up with the sound and worried that it might eventually break the door, so I took that damn glass ball and wrapped the chain around the wind chime to make it shorter. It still occasionally smack the door but not nearly as often.

Probably my favorite sound is the chirp of the geckos. I've never seen one in my room but I hear them frequently at night. They are so cute!