Where's Waldo: Costa Rica Edition

Just yesterday I received an email giving me information on my host family and where I would be staying. Elated at the news I quickly found my family on Facebook and sent an email to my mama tica (tica is a costa rican specific word for woman). After connecting with my family, I took a closer look at the address I'd be living at, the email listed the neighborhood, the distance of the house from the "special pharmacy," and that it is yellow. No postal code, no town name just some "random" information that does me no good in a Map Quest search. After further investigation I found a similar mailing address listed for the University I'll be attending. With some more digging I've discovered that there is no postal organization system in Costa Rica, there never has been. For years postmen/women in Costa Rica have been playing "Where's Waldo" while trying to deliver mail. 1 in 5 pieces of mail are undeliverable in Costa Rica! The formula for an address is to find a local landmark (often a church or municipal building) and write the direction and length your home is from that landmark (some people use blocks, meters, kilometers or old Spanish measurement systems). It is also nice to put the color of your house and hope that your neighbors know who you are so they can direct the postman. Thankfully, Costa Rica is trying to create an organized system (though slowly) and has recently cut the delivery time nationwide down to 2 days from 9 days. So here is the lesson, PLEASE don't send me anything! I don't want to add to a Costa Rican postal worker's hard job and if it gets sent to the P.O. at the University I have to pay a fee for each letter/package received. I hope people will use Facebook and email as main forms of communication while I'm abroad. 9 days until I leave...very exciting and somewhat frightening but I'm ready for the adventure!