Lightning! ¡Ay Díos mio!

Last night I was working on some homework/studying for today's exam/facebooking late into the evening at the University. We were without internet at the house. It was raining. At maybe 9 pm, after hearing some thunder, I heard the absolutely loudest thunder I have ever heard in my whole entire life. I jumped out of my chair a little bit. It was quite startling. My ears hurt. I figured if it had been that loud, it must have been pretty close.

I didn't think about it again until this morning when I had no water to take a shower. I was pissed because I thought it was a glitch from the power going off for about half an hour last night. I contemplated taking my towel into the main house to see if I could use one of the other showers, but decided it would be more convenient to take a baby wipe bath. I was really unhappy about not being clean because today was the last day of class and I knew we were going to take pictures. Plus, we're leaving for Panama today. But whatever. I survived the photos and I'll survive the epically long van ride.

At breakfast I found out that no one at the house had water because the thunder I heard last night was caused by a huge lightning bolt which hit in the middle of the street that runs kitty-corner to the university. Here is a link to the photo on my web album. You can see on the little map on the right side where the photo was taken. You can also see how close to the university it is.

When I got to school, most of my classmates hadn't had water either. Only the few who lived super far from the school still had water. The lightning had burst the pipe running under the street. I hope that there's water when I get back from this weekend!

UPDATE:

There was indeed water when I returned. They closed the street and started making repairs. It took them less than two weeks, which I think is pretty good considering I heard they had to replace the whole length of pipe under the street and then repave the entire thing.

"Potable water is health and development"

How I almost spent $320

This weekend I’m going to Panama. Last weekend I met a girl who had a waterproof camera. It was super handy when we went parasailing. So today I went to the mall with a girl I met on the trip to Puerto Viejo to look for a water proof camera. I wanted to buy one—if it was affordable—because part of this weekend’s itinerary is snorkeling and swimming with dolphins. Now that is an awesome experience I would love to document forever!

We took a taxi to the mall. In the whole 3 story expansive mall (it reminds me of Lloyd Center in Portland minus the department stores... and the ice skating rink), there was only one store that sold cameras. And you could hardly call it a store because it was more like the cell phone kiosks we have in US malls, but for Olympus cameras. They only had two waterproof models, one for c160.000 and the other for c228.000. I saw the prices and was a bit in shock so I told the clerk I didn’t have enough money. That wasn’t true, but I really doubted that I wanted to spend $320 on a digital camera. My friend and I continued walking around the mall. We got ice cream but before we left I wanted to go back to the store and contemplate spending a very significant chunk of money. Because part of me feels like documenting my amazing experiences doesn’t really have a price. However, the logical side of me balked at spending that much money on one item—especially when my friend from last weekend spent about $50 at Walmart. I refuse to shop there but I figured that I could find something similar for a lot cheaper that what that store was asking. In the end, I did not buy the camera. I’m hoping I wont regret it—but my logical side just wouldn’t budge. There were more cons than pros:

• A lot of money
• Takes greatly away from my ability to buy other things or go on other trips
• Really would only use it for one occasion, and although I could use it for future vacations, I already have a camera that I would use in everyday situations. I would only use a waterproof camera while in or near water.
• Maybe I won’t be able to take photos worth $320

I’m hoping that I’ll have a really great time and I’ll just have to rely on my memory and perhaps a new friend’s waterproof camera. But I think I want to add a waterproof camera to my wishlist for the next time I have some extra cash.

Want some sugar with that?

A few weeks ago, during a trip to the nearest supermarket, I picked up some crackers that looked like Ritz crackers. I like to eat Ritz crackers with peanut butter. But the Costa Rican versions of these items I can hardly stand. The local "Ritz" tasted more like graham crackers. And the peanut butter had both sugar and honey in it (or the actual insect itself, if I was to read the English label literally, which read "honey bee"). My favorite pb in the states has only peanuts and salt in it. I miss it. They have Jiffy and Skippy and nasty American products like that here, but I have always tried to buy the local versions of things when possible. Although during my last trip to the grocery store I caved and bought real Ritz. Even though they were made in Nicaragua, they tasted much more like the American version.

I've long ago stopped trying the ketchup. Way too sweet for me, and sometimes too watery. French fries enter my mouth un-sauced. In the savory---sweet continuum, I prefer a lot of items more on the savory (or salty) side.

Here they also drink a lot of fresh, home made juice. Most of the time it's absolutely delicious. My favorite is mora (blackberry). But depending on the concoction, sometimes it's waaaay to sweet for me.

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!

¡Voy a Panamá!

I paid for Panama! $160 for three nights, transportation, hotel, breakfasts, snorkeling and swimming with dolphins. I don't even have to take my Friday final on Thursday because the bus doesn't leave til 10:30! Usually class is 8-12 with a break from 10-10:30. As long as we begin the test at 8, I should be just fine. Last time it took me an hour and a half.

I know I owe you an update from last weekend but that will have to wait since last night I could not get the internet to work for more than a minute in every 10. Today it seems as though I'm having better luck. So I really need to do some research for my final oral presentation. However, I will make time to upload my pictures so you can check those out later tonight.

Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio

This weekend I went to Manuel Antonio National Park. It’s known as a good place to see animals. I went on this trip instead of my photography class’s trip. It was a little awkward because both trips left Saturday at 8am. I had to remind a few people in my photography class that I wasn’t going with them.

The drive was one of the shortest if not the shortest since I’ve been here. Manuel is on the South Pacific side of Costa Rica. On the drive there, we stopped where a bridge crossed a river that was home to some crocodiles. There were several groups of tourists and families all leaning over the railing to take pictures of the huge beasts. The two lane bridge had a “sidewalk” for pedestrians that was about two feet wide. There wasn’t enough room for people to watch the crocodiles and for others to walk by, so those walking by had to walk in the road. The bridge appeared sturdy but when a few particularly large trucks drove by, the whole bridge shook up and down.

One person tied a chunk of meat and lowered it close to the river. We watched as 4 crocs swam closer and closer to the meat. One jumped for it and missed, and another jumped and got it. He bit off the string with it, too. A few minutes later, a large black bird landed near the shore and picked and the grassy sand near the water’s edge. Within a minute the crocs had crept very close to the edge of the water and intently watched the bird. Soon after the bird caught on to their scheming and flew out of their range. I was a bit disappointed because I kind of wanted to see the bird made into lunch. We piled back in the van and drove away from the crocs.

When we arrived we checked into the hotel. I roomed with two girls named Leandra and Armel. We put our bathing suits on and went to the beach. The beach area in Manuel Antonio (but not in the park itself) had super cool waves. We went out almost to our shoulders and would ride the waves before they crested closer to shore. After 3 hours (with sunscreen of course) I was a bit burnt and everyone was hungry. We returned to the hotel and washed off the sticky saltwater by jumping in the pool. Then we went into town to eat a late lunch at about 3 pm. By the time we had eaten and paid it was after 5 and the sun was setting so we went down to the beach and took pictures of the sunset. After the sun was gone we returned to the hotel and chilled for the rest of the night. Some other girls went out looking for a place to dance but my room mates and I were already in our pajamas and tired.

The next day, Sunday, was our trip to the National Park itself. I thought we were all going to hop in the van and drive but we walked because it wasn’t that far. We walked almost to the other side of town, turned left down an alley populated on one side by vendors. Almost all the vendors sold the same types of items although there were some things they sold that I hadn’t seen in other tourist towns. They had all kinds of jewelry and dresses/beach cover-ups, as well as an assortment of knickknacks I’ve seen elsewhere. However, Manuel Antonio was the first place I saw heavily embroidered backpacks and lengths of fabric that can really only be described as table runners.. I’m fairly certain that the artisans’ market in San Jose has all these things for cheaper, but I still haven’t had the chance to go. I’ve been here almost a month—sheesh! At least I’ll have 3 whole weeks without an afternoon elective and if my host family tells me it’s okay, I’ll probably go out by myself some afternoon.

Anyway, on our way to the park we walked past all the vendors but we didn’t stop to browse. It was so hot and humid! Everyone was dripping sweat. Even my legs were sweating. I was wearing a light grey t-shirt and by the time we got to the park’s beach my shirt was almost all dark grey. Gross, dude!

The route to the beach was a wide gravel path. It followed the contour of the land—which meant that in addition to sweating because of the 100% humidity (or at least it felt like that) there was a bit of walking up hills and down hills and navigating larger stones. On the way there we saw a couple of black-and-white monkeys and a sloth. The beach was alright, not breathlessly spectacular or anything, but it had a nice curved shaped even though it wasn’t very long. There were quite a few people there because it was the holiday weekend. I didn’t bring my suit but after the walk I wished I had just so I could have cooled off in the water. I even briefly considered going in fully clothed but I didn’t want to be wet all day—not an ideal situation. I hung out on the beach for an hour or so. The sand part of the beach was only about 30 feet wide from the water’s edge to where the sand met the jungle.

We heard that there was a waterfall nearby so we looked at the park map, chose a trail that looked promising, and started walking. What a mistake! Hiking through the jungle with extremely high humidity and never reaching our desired destination made me remember why I don’t really like hiking. It was all uphill. There was a semi paved path that was flat and had slippery areas broken up by stilted stairs in the steeper parts. At the top of the path was a platform that overlooked a little bit of forest and some ocean. It wasn’t a particularly amazing view because the trees were too tall and obscured part of the ocean. The coolest part was another monkey in the trees high above the platform.

The way down was not much better than the way up. It was still hot and slippery. (that’s what she said!!) When we got back to the trail we briefly walked back down to the beach. During our whole monstrous hike we had carried the bags of two girls in the group who asked us to watch their stuff. They weren’t on the beach so we walked back to the hotel. After showering and changing clothes, we went out to eat lunch and look at the souvenir shops. I ate two delicious, filing burritos. They came in a set and they weren’t huge. Then we went out to the shops. I was able to look closely at the souvenirs. However, I didn’t buy anything. I was considering buying a fan to circulate the air near my face but they were $8. No grahseeus.

Later on, the bus took us into the main area of town which was about 3 miles away. We stopped at an ATM and I got cash to pay for parasailing. All 18 or so of us went to a restaurant nearby. The service was incredibly slow. I wasn’t very hungry and things were kinda pricey so I just had a soda and french fries. (Real healthy, huh?) It took over an hour to get our food after ordering and probably close to 45 minutes just to get glasses of water. There was only one server but he wasn’t that busy—there were only two groups of two people each besides us. After dinner we returned to the hotel and relaxed the rest of the evening.

The next morning, Monday, was the national holiday. We ate an early breakfast and were at the parasailing place at 9am. We had to walk across most of the beach to get to the launch point. We watched as a man and a woman were launched. They had to try twice because the first time something went wrong and the fell into the water about 15 feet from shore. They came back about 20 minutes later swimming from the boat to the shore. Lisa, a woman from my Spanish class, went first with another girl named Emily. Their launch had no problems. They also returned in about 20 minutes. Then it was finally my turn to go up with Leandra. Our launch was also without hitches.

Parasailing was amazing! We went high into the air very quickly. While the other groups had mostly flown parallel to the shore, during our turn the boat driver (captain??) took us more or less straight out. There were a series of small islands tha we went past. I estimate that we ended up a mile from shore because we were far away from the islands and they were far away from the shore.

When the ride in the air was over, the captain slowed the boat down and we drifted closer and closer to the water. While our landing wasn’t gentle, the anticipation was probably more painful than the actual landing. Watching the water come up to meet my feet and not having any control over it was a little bit terrifying. We did go down a few feet from the surface of the water which wasn’t too bad. What made it worse was unhooking our clips and kicking free of all the cables and trying not to get kicked by Leandra. We swam to the boat and clambered in. The boat driver collected the parachute into a large bag. He began to steer the boat towards shore when he pointed far away and told us that there were turtles there. It just looked like a tiny speck to me but when he motored closer I saw that there were two turtles very intently working on making some turtle babies. It was SO AWESOME! They were pretty big, too, maybe 30 inches across their shells. They have flippers and were greenish and yellowish. Unfortunately we couldn’t get any pictures because Leandra’s waterproof camera ran out of juice. We watched them for a few minutes and then started back to shore. THEN we saw a few dolphins swimming together. At first we could see three, then four, then five. They swam together, and even swam around and under the boat. They were also an amazing surprise. Dolphins are really beautiful creatures. We ran to either side of the small boat to watch them as they swam around. When they swam father away from the boat, we followed them slowly. We spent so long watching them that on the way back, the guys on shore radioed the boat to make sure things were okay.

When the boat was about 30 feet from shore we jumped out and swam until we could stand up. We removed the gear and life vests and met up with our other friends to get out money together to pay. We had negotiated a very low price of $45 (originally $90) because a girl in my Spanish class went the weekend previously and haggled to that price, so when I told them about my friend they gave us the same deal.

It was almost time to leave to return to San Jose so we quickly stopped at the market in town to buy ice cream, water, and snacks. We returned to the hotel, showered, packed, loaded up the van, and then returned to town for lunch. After lunch we loaded up the van and drove back to San Jose. I had a lot of fun seeing the wildlife and playing in the waves and going parasailing. I am so lucky!

Quick update!

I've already spent an hour trying to get the internet to work so this will have to be quick. I need to move on to homework, but then again, if the internet isn't working, there isn't much point.

I spent the weekend in Manuel Antonio and the adjoining national park. Very pretty! The highlight was parasailing out and then on the boat ride in, seeing 5 jumping dolphins and two very busy turtles. According to the boat driver, it's not very common to see turtles.

I'm going to try and finagle going to Panama this weekend. It's a bit complicated because the trip is Friday morning to Monday night so I'd miss the last day of my Spanish language class and the last Monday of my photography class. The sticking point is that I have my final on Friday so I'll have to see if I can take it on Thursday, the same day I have my second and last oral presentation.

Whew! More details later when I have time... and fully functioning internet. Hasta luego.

Internet issues

ARRGH! Nothing is more frustrating than trying to do homework, write a blog post, or talk on Skype with a fickle internet connection. I’ve come to the point where it’s easier to write my posts in Word first and then, when the internet works for 30 seconds, quickly copy and paste and publish. When I first arrived the internet was just fine and it always worked. But in the past week or so it’s been so frustrating. I usually use a network owned by my host family but since we are literally next to the university I can sometimes connect into their wireless network as well. When neither works, my last option is to go into their house and use their network that works only in their house and doesn’t reach my room. Remember I’m in a studio apartment setting separated from the main house. One night, at 11:30 or 12, I was desperate for internet. Neither of the two usual networks were functioning. So I packed up my laptop to move into the house only to find the front door locked. Luckily they had a little table and chair right outside the door so I sat there for the quickest internet visit ever to do only what I absolutely had to do. It was dark and awkward and I didn’t want to get eaten by mosquitoes.

Harry Potter!

I went to see Harry Potter last night with two girls from my Spanish class and others from their group. They’re all from Rockhurst University in Missouri. We walked to the movie theater as a group from the school. It wasn’t incredibly far but the way we went was a bit confusing so I don’t think I would be able to do it again on my own. But it saved us a $2 cab ride!

The movie was awesome. I HAD to see it because I grew up with Harry Potter. I read all the books and watched all the movies. When I figured out what the dates of my trip would be, and then learned the release date of the movie, I figured I wouldn’t be able to see it until I got back to the states. Luckily for me they have international distribution!

What made the movie more awesome was the price – only $2! Granted, it wasn’t in 3D and it wasn’t the best quality of projection, but what a deal. Also a great deal was the snacks. I got a small popcorn and drink for $4. I think the popcorn was about the same size as a small US popcorn but it was shorter and squarer.

It was interesting to watch the movie with Spanish subtitles. I don’t know about you, but I am always compelled to read them. I have to try very hard to not read subtitles. Even if the movie is in English and I can hear it perfectly fine, I still read them. I had an interesting struggle with the Spanish subtitles. The movie wasn’t dubbed, so I could hear the English and read the Spanish. Interestingly, the parts of the movie spoken in Parseltongue (the snake language that sounds like hissing) were only in Spanish subtitles. For those parts the only way to know what was being said was to read the subtitles. It wasn’t anything too complicated and I understood it perfectly.

Another interesting experience was hearing catcalls directed at me and other members of the group. I was told multiple times from various sources to expect and ignore any attention like that. But until yesterday, I had yet to hear anything. It made me laugh because a few men made hissing sounds (not like Parseltongue) and I heard “l love you!” but with a heavy accent, so it sounded more like “I laaah you.”

I’m so glad I went to see the movie! I think that, for $2, I’d like to see it again sometime. I’m not ready for the saga of my childhood to be over.

"¡Que torta!" La cultura de los Ticos

In my Spanish class we’ve devoted a lot of time to idiomatic phrases of Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear the phrases “Gracias a Díos”, “¡Que torta!” and “Santo Díos” from my Spanish professor. Gracias a Díos of course means “Thanks to God”. Santo Díos is more equivalent to “oh my god” or “holy crap” (at least in my vernacular). Que torta is a phrase that means “how awful” or “how horrible” and is usually accompanied by a hand movement kind of like when you shake your hands to get the excess water off after washing them, but the Ticos have it down to such an art that their fingers hit together and make a snapping sound. I can’t make my fingers move like that at all!

The nickname “Tico” for the Costa Rican people comes from their penchant to add the diminutive suffix “-ito” or “-ita” on the end of all kinds of words. It can imply a tiny amount, like using pequeñito instead of pequeño. Sometimes when explaining an activity we’re about to do in class, our professor will say, “Momentito, momentito” which in English would translate as “hold on, wait a minute” or something along those lines. Alternatively, it also implies a caring attitude or something of a nickname. Hijito roughly means “dear little son” or “little son”. My professor has used the diminutive endings on our names as well. She has called me Reesita and I remember hearing her call another of my classmates Adamito.

While caring, Costa Ricans are also very polite. Anyone who has studied Spanish knows that there are five main ways to conjugate verbs (I, you informal, he/she/you formal, we, you all/them) except in Spain, where they also use vos and vosotros. Vos is a more formal version of tú (you informal) and is an intermediary step between tú and Usted (you formal). At first I was very worried that perhaps I had heard wrong all these years and that vosotros was in fact used outside of Spain. But I was just confusing myself. Ticos don’t conjugate verbs using vosotros, but they do use vos in place of tú in certain situations. For example, my host mom has used vos when speaking to me. I’ve also heard vos used by this older gentleman who has this nifty independent food cart right on the school grounds. He asks his customers what they want with “¿Y vos?”. (And you?) I think it’s cool.

Report card

Last week was light on blog posts because I had a quiz on Tuesday, an oral presentation on Thursday, and an exam on Friday. On Monday I got all my grades back. It was kind of a frustrating day of “class” because she gave us a list of pages to read or fill out and then she took students out one by one to discuss with them their oral presentation grade and their mid term grade. I do appreciate that she did that but I didn’t really like doing busy work worksheets for 3 and a half hours.

On my oral presentation I received 8,3/10. Which means 83%. (In Latin America, with numbers and figures, they use commas where we use periods and vice versa. So for them, a million dollars and no change is written 1.000.000,00.) I did pretty well on most sections, receiving a 4 or 4.5 out of 5 on each, except for the grammar section. My professor said my main downfall was that because I talked twice as long as I should have, I gave myself much more room to make mistakes. Usually it was stupid stuff like agreement (“los mujeres” instead of the proper “las mujeres” for example – though “mujeres” was not actually a word I messed up on). Her suggestion for improvement was to record myself practicing my presentation. I’ve done that before for some of my vocal theatre classes at Central, but it never even crossed my mind to record myself speaking my Spanish presentation.

On my exam I received 18,3/20 or 91%. I’m very happy with that grade. I seem to be a pretty reliable A- student in a lot of my studies. I’m okay with that because I’m human and definitely not perfect. Plus I need time to hang out, relax, watch TV, and not spend every waking moment that I’m not in class with my nose in a book.

But compared to some of the students here, I am exemplary. Perhaps it’s the excitement of being in a foreign country, but so many people that I have met go out to the bars every other night or perhaps Thursday through Sunday. It seems a bit ridiculous to me. Maybe it’s because the drinking age in Costa Rica is 18. Maybe it’s because things are a little bit cheaper here. People that I’ve met that are already 21 are a bit shocked when I tell them on average, for a semi-fancy drink at a Washington bar, you have to pay $8. I suppose because of Washington’s liquor laws, alcohol is more expensive. (Side soap-box tangent: I’d prefer that the liquor laws in WA stay tight and keep alcohol expensive. It’s not something that people need, like fruit, and I’m fairly certain that liquor profits go towards good stuff like roads and education. And even if they don’t support those things, I’d prefer the state make a profit over private companies like Costco.) No matter where you live in the US, alcohol’s probably cheaper here. I honestly don’t care that much. I’d rather buy souvenirs. And besides, I'm hoping to transfer my classes to Central. I certainly wouldn't want to transfer a bad grade. I suppose it's possible that people are here more for the learning experience than for a grade and credit. But I want a nice balance of both.

Puerto Viejo: animals and mud and weed, oh my!

This weekend I visited the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo. It was about 4 hours away by bus. There were less people on this trip so we had a slightly smaller bus. I paid another $110 and I definitely got more bang for my buck this time. I think there are a variety of factors, but probably the most significant is that the Caribbean side of Costa Rica isn't nearly as touristy and is much more underdeveloped. It has a somewhat shady reputation but according to a guidebook I have, it's no more dangerous than the rest of Costa Rica. There were definitely more visible locals in Puerto Viejo ("Old Port"), and a more colorful mix of the typical tan Latin look, a smattering of American expats, and a dash of Afrocaribbean people with heritage in places like Jamaica.

Speaking of Jamaica... In Puerto Viejo I felt like I was on an island in the Caribbean. While I've never been to a Caribbean island, at least Hollywood has shown me what it should be. The buildings were colorfully painted, with red, green, and yellow of the Rastafarian rainbow prevalent. The streets weren't paved and so there were many potholes, and since this is the rainy season, they were full of water and squishy around the edges. I would have taken more pictures of the town itself but I did feel a teeny bit uncomfortable waving my camera around so I just looked with my eyes. You will have to use your imagination. The central area of town was kind of square-shaped with the beach gently curving around two sides. There was a road that went through town that followed the beach on its way in and out and we drove in both directions for different mini excursions. There were shops and restaurants on most of the square. For dinner Friday I went with some girls to a Jamaican jerk-style restaurant. I had two soft-shelled tacos with chicken, lettuce, beans, cheese, tomatoes and avocado. It was good but paying for it was a bit of a fiasco. They wouldn't take cards, so right off the bat three girls left because they didn't have any cash. When it came time to pay, they wouldn't separate the check for us and refused to exchange larger bills for smaller ones. I got kind of lucky as my tacos were c3800 (less than $8) and my share of the water pitcher (yep, they charged us for water) was c200 (less than 50 cents). [Colones > Dollars review: c500=$1, c1000=$2, c4000=$8] So I just paid with two c2000 bills.

Later on in the evening I went for a walk with one of the other girls. Her name is Kendra and when I first met her I thought she was 25 and she's actually 35. We walked around the square looking at the shops and what they were selling. We stopped when we heard some neat live music coming from a bar/restaurant on the second floor above one of the shops we were browsing in. Kendra saw people from our trip that she knew so we went upstairs. There I met Nancy and Charles, who are old enough to be my parents. They even have a son my age. The four of us sat at the bar for two hours. I had one beer, Imperial, which is the national beer of Costa Rica. While there, some other patrons lit up some joints. Don't worry dad, nobody was being creepy or crazy, and I didn't feel super uncomfortable because it was a small bar with a very low-key vibe and only a few people were smoking. But I definitely don't like the smell of weed and I don't really feel like I'm missing anything because I don't smoke it. I got home about 11:15 and went to bed. It was a little difficult to sleep because a bar around the corner was blasting music sooooo loud!

Saturday we woke up early and had pre-paid breakfast at a cafe down the street. I had scrambled eggs, gallo pinto (rice and black beans) and bread with juice called guanábana. We all piled in the bus and drove north a few minutes for snorkeling. We were a kind of large group, so we split up and I went in the boat with the first group to a nearby beach. This beach was small and at the end of a peninsula. The sand was the most interesting sand I have ever seen in my life--it was mostly tiny pieces of shells and coral. We stayed there for about two hours, just hanging out, swimming, and some people sunbathed (not me of course!). Then it was our turn to go out and snorkel.

Snorkeling has been the single most amazing experience of my life. Even though the water wasn’t crystalline clear, or that the coral wasn’t super vibrantly colored, or that I didn’t see a bajillion types of sea life, I still was entranced the whole time. It was an amazing experience and when I can afford a vacation, maybe sometime after I graduate, I want to go somewhere that has snorkeling. Getting into the water I had a few trepidations because we were going to swim for about an hour and we wouldn’t be able to rest other than to float on our backs. But I didn’t have to worry about that. They gave us flippers which made swimming so much easier. The water was also incredibly salty and I think I read somewhere that a higher saline content in water gives you more buoyancy. Anyway, I had nothing to worry about. I had a mini, tiny freak out when I was first in the water because we started where it was deep enough that we couldn’t see anything below us. That kinda scared me. But I made myself take a chill pill and spit out the water I had almost swallowed and tread water and adjust my mask. It took me a while to feel comfortable. We started swimming and I experimented with my mask to see how far down I could look without getting my air tube into the water. It was surprising. I kept waiting for water to get in my nose like when swimming in the pool with goggles. But since the mask covered my nose completely and had a super strong bond to my face that didn’t really happen.

So we started in deeper water and began swimming. While looking down at the ocean floor through my goggles, I began to see the floor come closer to the surface of the ocean. I could make out the shapes of the coral. As we continued on, the coral was about 10 feet below us. In some places, it was only 3 feet below and I worried about accidentally kicking it. The shapes of the coral were really interesting. One kind looked like giant red potatoes, uneven and reddish with spots that looked like potato eyes. Others looked like a tiny British garden with those uber-manicured bush mazes. I saw lots of dark brown sea urchins. Sometimes I would catch them moving a bit and they looked like they were undulating or vibrating. I also saw a few different types of fish. The prettiest were striped up-and-down with electric blue, yellow, and white. Later on in the expedition I found myself floating above a school of maybe 50 fish, sleeker than the others, and mostly greyish with a bit of yellow. they were fascinating to watch. I found myself continually amazed and interested in what I saw below me. With the snorkeling goggles, I didn't have any peripheral vision. A few times when I looked up I couldn't see the rest of my group and worried that they were far away and I had gotten myself lost, but it always turned out that to see them, I needed to turn my head and change the direction I was swimming.

Eventually, after probably an hour or an hour and a half, we found ourselves swimming near the boat. Our trip was done but I could have easily stayed out there for another two hours. I wasn't tired at all. The boat took us to a different beach (with more regular sand) and dropped us off. The pathway go back into town was a little walk away. Some people stuck to the beach but there was also a that ran parallel through the "jungle". I went on this path with my new parent-like friends Nancy and Charles. We saw a huge grasshopper and some monkeys. The grasshopper was literally 5 or 6 inches long. The monkeys were fascinating. I didn't get very many good pictures of them because I didn't realize what my camera settings were. But here's my favorite:

It was also hard to get pictures of them because they were hanging out a ways away from the path so there were always lots of branches in the way. And since I don't have a super-cool zoom lens it was impossible to get a close-up photo. And here's the grasshopper:

After snorkeling, I walked around the little town with my friend Liz. There were a bunch of little stores selling jewelry, clothing, hats, bongs, postcards, indigenous art, and whatnot. It was kind of like an open-air farmers market minus the fresh fruits. And only along both sides of one road. The vendors had their wares laid out on tables with some kind of tent to protect them from the rain. A few of them were situated in actual buildings. I didn't buy anything til we got to one of the very last shops that we stopped in. I bought these gorgeous grey, red, and yellow feather earrings for c4000 ($8). The feathers come from a bird (I can't remember the name) that lives in the national forest preserve. Certain people are allowed to go in and collect the feathers that these birds shed naturally. Then they sell them to artisans who turn them into awesome things like earrings. I am really pleased with my purchase and am determined to buy and outfit that matches them that looks good with my red hair and pink-toned skin. I don't really have anything to wear the earrings with because yellow and red aren't really my best colors so I don't have many clothes in those shades. I suppose if I need to I can give them away as a gift but I would really hate to part with them!

Later I had dinner with some other people at a restaurant called Flip Flop. I had a yummy burrito (though it had way too much lettuce in my opinion). A few hours after that, I went out to a bar called Mango's with a few other girls. They had free daiquiris for women from 9-9:30 so we took advantage of that. They were super weak though. No surprise there. We hung out at that bar for a while, then just wandered around, then visited another bar called Johnny's, which was hoppin' big time, then back to Mango's and back to Johnny's. I tried a c500 ($1) shot of guaro, which is kind of like tequila but smoother and easier to handle. It started to rain and at about 12:30 or so I went back to the hotel with my friend Liz and another guy Mike who had a key to the gate of the hotel. It was fun to bar hop but I didn't want to stay out any later in an unfamiliar town. Plus I'm of the opinion that buying alcohol is a waste of money (especially at bars) AND I'm pretty stingy so I only spent a few bucks the whole night, including a $2 stick of grilled chicken that I bought from a street vendor. (yuuumm! And it didn't upset my tummy!)

The next day I woke up, took a quick shower and dressed. I grabbed my breakfast to go and hopped on the bus that was taking us to another beach a little bit further south. I didn't bring my bathing suit but I did take my camera. I was totally fine with that plan because we were only at this other beach, called Punta Uva (Grape Point), for an hour and a half. When we reached the beach I realized that my sandal was ripping. The part between my toes became completely detached from the part that went across my foot before I even got back on the bus 90 minutes later. The sandals are kind of classy flip flops from Land's End. I'm a bit peeved that they only lasted four months.

Anyway, I spent almost all of the hour and a half talking a walk down the beach with Charles, Nancy and Kendra. I got a few cool pictures. When it was time to go, we drove back into town, had a few minutes to grab our bags and some lunch, and then we were on our way back to San Jose.

Academics

Today was the day for oral presentations in my Spanish class. I haven't posted a blog very recently because I spent most of my last few evenings working on it. I feel like it went okay, not awesome, but not terrible either. I accidentally went waaaay over on time--I took 20 minutes when the presentation was supposed to be 10-15. I think maybe my topic was a little too broad, so in order to cover everything on my outline, I just talked too long. I can't remember if I said "um" a lot but I know I wasn't as bad as one girl who--and I'm not exaggerating--said "um" between almost every word: "Creo que, um, mis fotos son, um, muy importante para, um, expresar, um, mi corazón." (I believe that my photos are important to express my heart (or creativity)). She didn't actually say that sentence but she said something like it and couldn't not say "um". There was another girl who was so nervous, just barely into her presentation she teared up from stress. She had to go outside to collect herself before beginning again.

My topic (that I chose) was the development and implementation of a season of plays and how one play is chosen, designed, and rehearsed Part of the reason why my presentation required so many hours of work from me was because it contained many technical theatre terms that were difficult to translate. I made a funny oops during my presentation that made the whole class laugh. Make up, in Spanish, is maquillaje. During my presentation I said mantquillaje by accident. I smooshed together the words for make up and butter (mantiqulla). OOPS! But it was funny and I think the professor was entertained greatly by my slip up, so I'm not worried about losing points for it.

What I am a bit stressed about still is that this week I earned/am earning 35% of my class grade. I earned an easy 5% with a reading quiz on Tuesday, my presentation today is worth 10%, and tomorrow I have a mid-term (midterm already? sheesh!) worth 20%. It's a bit stressful.

This weekend I'm going to the beach again, but this time to the Caribbean side. Next weekend I may or may not be going on a field trip with my photography class. It sounds like it could be really cool--some island somewhere off the Caribbean coast with lots of animals. Or something. My professor said he'd try to work out details with the school's travel agency but I haven't heard anything since Monday when he first mentioned it.

Mail

Out of curiosity, I inquired at the student office how to receive a package sent from the states. Families send packages to the university and when they arrive, the University emails the student. Here's the kicker: from the US, packages usually take a month to arrive. Yes, a month.

The other odd thing here in San José, and maybe all of Costa Rica, is that there aren't any addresses. Everything is xx (kilo)meters from something else. The address for the school is:

Universidad Veritas

Center for International Programs

1 km Oeste de Casa Presidencial

Carretera a Zapote

San José, Costa Rica

My Tica family's address is 100 meters de Parque de los Mangos, or something like that. On top of it all, here I have no sense of direction so it's basically impossible for me to remember where anything is. Good thing I'm here for two months! Hopefully I will be able to get my bearings after a few weeks. All my housemates will be gone in a month and then I'll be on my own at this house and I won't have anyone to get lost with. So I think it's important for me to figure things out before then.

Playa Tamarindo

I returned from a weekend at Playa Tamarindo a few hours ago. It was a very pretty beach. It's apparently very touristy for a beach in Costa Rica, with lots of little souvenir shops that seem reasonably priced for beachy tourist shops. The prices in most of the stores were in American dollars, and the restaurants were mostly in colones.

The ride there was extremely long--we left San Jose at 1:30 and arrived at about 7. It's quite a ways to go anyway, but we also had an almost hour-long hold up at a bridge construction site (very scary! A bridge with holes in it, without sides, with workers walking all over the place and people honking. And we were riding in a huge 50 person motorcoach). San Jose is about in the middle of Costa Rica and Tamarindo is in the northwest corner. Here's a map I found to show the relationship between the two. (I'm also planning on visiting Tortugero, Arenal/Monteverde, and Puerto Limon eventually, and whatever else might come my way.)

Luckily, even though our hotel was a tiny bit ghetto they still had air conditioning in each of the rooms. Thank goodness for that. But unfortunately our toilet didn't work very well and would run for hours without filling up. My roommate invariably had to take a crap at six in the morning, waking me up with the sound and smell, and then the water would continue to run and run and run. This morning I had to use the lobby bathroom because she had used the toilet and couldn't flush a second time. Ugh!

Friday we arrived late enough that there wasn't really anything to do. I went out with some people to Subway but I wasn't hungry. On Saturday, I, my roommate and two other friends woke up fairly early and were at the beach by 9 am. A surfing competition was already in full swing. (Tamarindo is an international surfing hot spot.) Me and Liz, one of the other girls, rented a surf board for a few hours. Sheesh! Surfing is soooooo hard! Also I learned why a lot of surfers prefer wetsuits. The waves can't really pull a wet suit off your body, but if they're strong they can almost rip off your swim suit. I had a few close calls. The water was super salty, enough that when I got it in my mouth I immediately spat it out and felt that gross overly-salty taste in my mouth.

And even though I reapplied sunscreen at least twice, and even though we left at about 11:30, I still got a pretty bad sunburn. At first I thought I had escaped the wrath of the sun because all I could see was a bunch of new freckles. But later on in the afternoon, I saw my reflection and realized that under my new freckles was a lovely shade of lobster red. Luckily my face didn't get burnt at all, but my collarbone area, upper back, and legs are pretty red right about now. I was wearing my bathing suit without shorts and the skin of my upper legs basically never sees sun... that was a recipe for disaster. I think I need to make a trip to the store to buy some more lotion. I hope I can find something meant for sunburns specifically. I almost bought a set from Clinique (lotion and post-sun help) before I left but it's pretty pricey so I figured $9 Neutrogena sublock would be okay.

After the beach, but before I realized how sunburned I was, the four of us walked around and visited some of the shops. I bought a few souvenirs but wanted to go back to my room that had lotion and air conditioning as soon as I realized my burn level. I slathered my skin with lotion, took an aspirin, and took a nap. The other three went back out and did stuff. I was kind of grumpy so it was better that I was by myself. I joined them back at the beach as the sun was setting and got some cool pictures. The good ones are in the pictures slideshow but I'll post a couple of my favorites on this page for easy viewing.

Saturday night three of us went out to one of the local discotheques. There were more Americans there than locals and I think a lot of them were students on the same trip as me. In total, I think 4 50-ish person motorcoaches went to Tamarindo, although the people in the other 3 were with ISA and stayed in a different, more expensive hotel. Some of the locals tried to dance with us, but even beyond cultural differences, they were a teeny bit creepy. Latin Americans, in general, have a much smaller personal bubble that people in the United States. But these guys worked in teams and egged each other on and watched each other as one of them danced with someone and that was something I did not want to be part of. Besides I already have an awesome boyfriend so I'm not interested in dance-floor pseudo-sex. Needless to say, we told them "no gracias".

Today, Sunday, I slept in. I packed my stuff and walked around town a little more with my roommate. Then we loaded on the bus at 1 and I was back at 7:30. Overall it was pretty fun but I do regret getting so sunburned. On me, sunburns can take weeks to go away. I also have a bunch of new bug bites that are driving me crazy. Another reason I want to go to the store is to buy wart medicine. It's my secret weapon against itchy bug bites. You're really only supposed to use it on warts, but on regular skin the formula is strong enough to eat away the upper layer of skin that itches. It doesn't really hurt and it doesn't leave scars, unlike untreated bug bites that itch for weeks and develop scabs that turn into scars. Usually one tiny coat is all that's needed to stop a bug bite from itching. Then the skin can start to heal.

Here are my favorite photos from this weekend:

First days of school

Monday was supposedly the first day of school. But all we did was get our photos taken for our identification cards, have an oral interview, and attend a somewhat unnecessary assembly. I was done by about 1. I tried to figure out how to buy an excursion package from the school's mini travel agency but all they could tell me about was the trip happening this weekend. They didn't have a list of options, or where I could go in the future. I was frustrated by the disorganization and that seems to be a common thread here.

Yesterday was the first real day of classes. The online test placed me in Avanzado 2 and after the oral interview, my interviewer placed me in Avanzado 1. After two days in the first level, I'm really glad that I didn't insist on trying to be a smarty pants. Already I know I'm going to have to work several hours each night just to understand all the material. This is way different than Spanish at Central. This is real. It requires a lot of brain power and concentration (at least for me since languages don't necessarily come easily for me).

Why is my class so difficult? Our homework for today was to describe certain prepositions. How do you define por, hasta, or con without translating? It's hard! So el Diccionario Real Academico Española is my new best friend. It had most of the answers I needed. I had more homework for tonight that is mostly done; I just have some more reading to do, maybe check some of my answers, and perhaps read ahead if I get bored. I don't have a lot to entertain myself with other than the internet, and things that are fun time sucks, like watching movies or tv shows, aren't available to me unless I go to the hacker websites... which I have absolutely no talent at navigating. Going outside after dark is not really an option. Walking around by myself is not really an option. So that leaves me the dregs of the internet, fuzzy tv, homework, and socializing with the other people in my house.... when they're home.

Three of the other girls in the house, Stephanie, Kristi and Roscio, are all nursing majors from Wisconsin. I'm out of school by 3 and them at 6. Without boring you with further details, suffice to say our schedules only overlap during the lunch hour and after dinner.

Yesterday I was supposed to have my first day of photography class. All of us in it showed up, sat down, and waited 20 minutes for the professor who never showed. One of the kids caught a school employee and she told us that he wouldn't be coming. We learned today that he was in a car crash. I guess everything is okay. He honestly looks like he belongs at Evergreen. He's very artsy looking, with a semi-maintained beard, hair to his chin, a lot of woven bracelets, and jeans that were somehow skinny but baggy at the same time. He's also young, only 24, and I know at least two of the students are older than him. It appears as though the class is aimed at beginners, which might be a little boring at first but I can keep myself occupied by composing an eloquent "shut the hell up" speech to an extremely annoying girl who insisted on sitting in the front and talking to the professor in Spanish. He was replying in English and after a few exchanges he asked her to only speak in English because it wasn't fair to the beginner-level Spanish students and later on in the course it would be harder to translate the photographic vocabulary. (The class is being taught in English.) This didn't stop her from interrupting him to ask questions that were only relevant to her, or to add a personal aside, or to try and clarify something he said that was completely obvious to everyone else. This happened throughout the class. Me and those near me exchanged incredulous looks each time she was rude enough to add something irrelevant or completely personal. When he spoke about overexposure and underexposure, she took out her camera to show him one of her photos and ask him what she could do to make it better. I was blown away by her audacity to think that she was in a private tutoring session rather than a class of 20. What an imbecile. Anyway, it will be good to review the basics of photography before I find time to go out and explore the city with my camera.

A schedule of excursions wasn't available to me in advance but almost everyone I know/have met here is going to Tamarindo Beach this weekend. The trip is being offered through the school's travel agency, Tico Viajero, and so since I have no plans and should only have a tiny bit of homework, I decided to go. It cost $110. At first it seemed really steep, but I took two days to think about it and there's no way you could go to Ocean Shores or Seaside for three days for $110. When Rey and I went to Seaside, we spent $500 on gas, lodging, food, and thought that was a pretty good deal for a long weekend. So today I paid for the trip. It includes transportation (about 4 or 5 hours), a few meals, and a place to stay. I get the feeling that we're staying in some kind of little bungalows. We leave Friday at 1 and return sometime on Sunday. I doubt I'll be able to blog from there (and I'm definitely not taking my computer) so it might be Monday or Tuesday before I can post about it here.

Also, today is Rey's 23rd birthday. Happy Birthday from Costa Rica!

My first oops

After breakfast today, the other girls went to an orientation put on by their program. I had a brief conversation with my host parents about the differences between coming here independently vs. through a third party program. We agreed that it was cheaper and more streamlined. Probably the most significant difference is that the other companies provide a lot of comfort to worried parents and their main purpose is to hold the students' hands and tell them where to go. I don't really need that and I don't want it either. I'm glad my parents are of the cool kind and let me figure everything out on my own.

Leti agreed to take me to the grocery store. It was especially important that I go today because last night I dropped my toothbrush in the toilet. We took several detours first: We drove by a farmer's market-type open air market that had many vendors selling mostly fruit and vegetables. It's only open on weekends and is in one place on Saturdays and another on Sundays. Then we drove around town looking for a pharmacy that was open, because Leti needed to buy cough drops for her 31-year-old son. We went to the market. I was surprised at the number of American grocery products. They had all kinds of American candies, crackers, cereals, sodas, cookies, even string cheese! So I sort of blindly bought some Costa Rican crackers, two individual boxes of juice, some type of fruit snack bars, and I couldn't resist the string cheese. I didn't buy very much because I don't yet know the value of the dollar here. Later this afternoon I will do some research on what a good exchange rate is. After that we dropped off the meds at her son's work and returned home.

But for my "oops". I didn't say anything offensive. And I really hope I never do, but I'm sure my host family would understand. They've been hosting foreign students for 16 years, so I'm sure they've heard everything before. My oops was that I was at the mercado, buying food, and I didn't buy anything substantial enough to make a good lunch. My program fees only cover breakfast and dinner, so I'm completely on my own for each lunch. I don't think it'll be a very big deal during the week when I'm in class because there are restaurants nearby and I think they have some kind of food court at the school. But today... it's noon and I'm snacking on crackers and cheese but they certainly won't fill me up. I think I'll just have to eat a lot at dinner.

AND another thing I just remembered that I forgot is that I need some sort of alarm clock. I have no way of waking myself up in the morning, although with all the new sounds here I was up at 6:30 and had to roll over and close my eyes for another hour. But once I get used to them I will definitely need something to jar me out of my sleep.

Estoy aquí finalmente & getting settled

No hubo problemas y todo de mi viaje fue normal. It's hard to believe I am finally in a place I have wanted to visit for such a long time. My room is SUH-WEET! I have it all to myself. It's on the second story of this cool house that is kind of built around a driveway, more or less. I have a kitchenette with a sink, a microwave, a coffee pot (that will never get used) and a grill. There's also a mini fridge. As soon as I walked in I was thinking about how much more I could have brought. Right off the entrance door is a mini alcove with a table and chairs and a window. I'm also lucky enough to have my own bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower (and it even has hot water!) The house is so close to the university you can literally see it from the sidewalk outside. I'm all unpacked and it looks like someone's in the process of moving out.

My Tica family is amazing. I can already tell. The mom, Leti, talks a lot, but she doesn't talk too fast. That's awesome because I've been able to understand 95% of what she's saying. The dad, Juan, is kind of gruff-on-the-outside-but-marshmallow-inside kind of guy. He's got a really low voice that is nice to listen to. He works as a landscaper for many gardens around the San Jose are. Leti is a part-time children's dentist who has been taking more time off recently because she's about to have knee replacement surgery. Their house has a part of it that's like any other house, with living, dining, and kitchen, as well as, from what I can tell, 4 bedrooms in the house and 4 mini suites like mine that all have their separate entrances. One is home to Leti's mother, who is just under me (I think). Her daughter and son-in-law live across from me. There's a student from Venezeula who's studying design at the university and she lives in another separate unit.

I was the first of the American students to arrive and I didn't see the other rooms until after two of the other three girls showed up. Two of them who arrived together have fairly small bedrooms at the back of the house. They share a hall bathroom. The last one to arrive, just before dinner, got a room at the front of the house that is a smaller version of mine without the kitchenette. I was trying to figure out how I got so lucky with the nice second floor suite and then I found out that the other three girls all attend the same school in Wisconsin (wiss-caahn-sin, they say, so cute!) and went through the same program. So it makes sense for them to stick together in the house with more or less equal rooms and I get the big one. I'm certainly not complaining!

Leti took us girls on a mini tour of the attractions that are within walking distance. Today we drove because it was raining pretty hard. There are so many things so close by! There are two malls, at least one of which has a movie theater, the National Theatre, the National Museum, a downtown area that's pedestrians only, many restaurants, bars, and clubs, an artisans marketplace, a bunch of government offices, a beautiful park and two cathedrals, among other things. I definitely have a lot of exploring to do.

I think once I get use to the road noise--cars make different sounds here, and the house is on a somewhat busy street--I'll be perfect. The rain is very lulling. It was very humid when I got off the airplane but right now it feels exactly like Washington on a spring night. The rains starts and stops just as suddenly as in Washington. I'm getting tired and it's barely 9 pm local time. I'm a little confused about the time difference between here and home because all the time zone maps I find say that Costa Rica is two hours ahead but my internet-connected computer reads only and hour ahead of PST. Also, when I landed in Houston I set my watch to local time. However, when we landed in Costa Rica my watch was an hour ahead. Strange. I'll get it figured out here soon.

And just a few minutes ago I found out the hard way that Hulu and Pandora don't have the rights to publish content outside of the United States. I'll probably be too busy to veg anyway.

Houston, we have lift off.

I'm in Houston. I have 45 minutes of free internet. Cheap bastards. What crap. At SeaTac it's free and unlimited.

Sooooo. Last night was a mess. My mom took the night off work to take me to the airport. Parking at Rey's house is limited, so I decided to leave my car at my parents' house. I drove down in the afternoon and Dad took me out for pizza. Then there was an assortment of last minute things to do, like printing out all my flight information and contact information for when I'm down there. And taking a shower.

I knew my suitcase was heavy, but I was just crossing my fingers that it was less than 50 lbs. My parents, being the experienced world travelers that they are, told me that my suitcase was too heavy and I needed to check a second one. I was trying to save money, but a look at Continental's baggage policies scared me out of taking a risk. It's $30 to check a second bag but $200 if you go over the 50 lb weight limit. Sheesh! Funny thing is, once I got to SeaTac, my big suitcase and my small one together were exactly 50 lbs. So I would have been okay with just the one, though it would have been extremely unwieldy. Now I have more room to buy more stuff once I'm there. (Too bad I don't have the money to buy lots of stuff!)

Have Skype? Add me! reesa.nelson. Real simple.

OMG my hands are so dry, I'm parched, and my hair is all static-y. While I'm not a fan of 93% humidity (yesterday, in San Jose), I need some moisture in the air to be comfortable. I'm about to rub chapstick on my hands. Enough with the complaining, I'm going over to the Jamba Juice to see if they will give me water for my water bottle.

Hasta luego!