What I am grateful for at home

My parents
My friends
The kids and staff at Hermosa
The cold
The beauty of the desert
Not having to think so hard to talk
Stores, food, Starbucks
Driving
Couches
Bed
Feeling taken care of
Pandora
Internet on my phone wherever I want
The absence of rice and beans
Wearing more clothes and not sweating all day and night

Things that are Weird about the US - Reverse Culture Shock

Toilet Paper - Every time, I hesitate and look around for a trash can to throw the toilet paper in... instead of in the toilet.  

Crossing Guards - Here I am, driving for the first time in six months, and I stop at a light where crossing guards are helping school children cross the street.  I don't know why, but this really strikes me as something special and organized... something I never really saw before. 

Shopping - Why are there so many choices? 

I am happy that when I go to the mall, literally everyone there is speaking Spanish :]  There is so much Spanish that the woman opening the dressing rooms even addresses me in Spanish. 

"Your English is Really Good."

Standing in the Quepos bus station, waiting for the bus to San Jose. 

"Excuse me, do you know which bus goes to San Jose?"
"Yes, it will arrive in fifteen minutes," I reply to the girl wearing a large backpack.
 "Oh, thanks," she smiles back at me.  "You're English is really good."
"Thanks," I say... taken by surprise.
"Where did you learn English?" she asks.

This was the point where the theatrical part of me decided it would be more fun to play along than to explain myself.  I mean, I never lied... just gave vague enough answers that the girl was able to construct her own story...

"I lived in the US for a really long time," I explain.
"Oh, cool!  But you live here, now?"
"Yes."
"And you're going to San Jose for the holidays?"
"Actually, I'm visiting my family in the US.  They live there."

The conversation continued like this until we got on the bus.  There, she told her friends she was traveling with that I was from Costa Rica, but lived in the US and now I was teaching here. 

Amused at the situation I had gotten into, I wondered if any Ticos around me knew enough English to hear them and wonder why my Spanish didn't sound local. 

When we arrived at the bus stop half way, the girl's friend asked me if I could help her buy ice cream.  She couldn't tell which flavor was which, so I helped her. 

We parted ways in San Jose, the odd little play closing.  A little surprised at that adventure and thoroughly amused, I walked into the city thinking about how far I had come in the last five and a half months. 

And I just have to add: does my English really sound that weird that someone's first guess is that I must not be a native English speaker?  Was it using words like "it will arrive" instead of "it will get here" that caused her to believe I must be an ELL?  Is it speaking slowly and clearly that made me sound a little weird?

I guess that is what happens when you really start learning a second language; your first language becomes a little less normal and you become part of a new culture. A culture of the in-between. 

Soy Tica :] jaja

Weirdness of the Week - I'm going home :]

1. Amanda - meeting my future student at the beach or Quepos is tan pequenito:

I went to the beach on Friday to enjoy my last day with one of my friends who is moving to Brasil and this really sweet girl came up to where we were sitting; she said, "puedo sentarme con ustedes para que no estoy sola?"  (Can I sit with you guys so that I am not alone).  We were a little surprised, but replied - sure, of course!  She offered us cookies and I offered her grapes.  I asked her how old she was and she told me that she was in High School.  Guess what... yep, she goes to the high school I will probably work at and she will even be in the level I plan to teach.  So, Quepos is a super small town and I already know 3 students.  She introduced me to her friends of course :] 

2.  Happy New Year!

You may remember how Christmas seemed to happen early here.  Well, guess what... so does New Years.  I'm not even joking.  My friends and I went to the disco on Friday night to despidirme and not at midnight, but at 1:20 in the morning.... the DJ randomly started a countdown for new years.  December 14th at 1:20am is new years here - or maybe it just happens all the time; I don't know.  Sometimes I wonder if I just attract these weird events because I find them so amusing.  Anyway, after the countdown, he started to play (what my friends told me) are traditional new years songs and started pouring shots of guaro into people's mouths; all you had to do was walk up to him and there he was, pouring right from the bottle.  I guess I didn't miss new years here, after all :]  haha. 

3.  The House that Has All of Its Things Outside:

If you remember, there is this one house in particular that always has its things outside.  One day the family was playing video games on the sidewalk, cables strung from the upstairs window.  Well, they are moving more and more of their things across the street.  Now, on the river bank there is what looks like a fridge, a 4 wheeler, and at least four chairs that they are often sitting in when I walk by.  Is their living room slowly migrating across the street?  Also, when I walked by on Saturday, I realized that their Christmas Tree is also outside of their house.  Of course it is. 

4.  Stolen Tenies:

On Friday night my tennis shoes were on the barred porch where they always are and on Saturday morning they were not.  Yep, someone needed my shoes more than I did and must have pulled them out through the bars with a long stick.  Luckily it was the day I was leaving so I could get new ones.  Today, when I went to see the volcano in Alajuela with my friends they told me it would be super cold.  It was, but my friend gave me old tennis shoes that fit perfectly.  Success!

Jose Alvarado Cortez - the Angel on the Tracopa Bus

Traveling is always an adventure - especially in Latin America - which is one reason why I love it.  One never knows what situations may be encountered or what problem solving skills may be utilized... who may appear to help. 

Here I am, sitting on the bus to San Jose from Quepos, when I decide to text my friend to see if she made it to the airport to pick up her dad.  Right away, she calls me to tell me that her taxi driver says there are no buses leaving for Heredia.  It is absolute insanity in San Jose because tonight is the "Festival of Lights" and the whole town is shut down for the parades and whatever else there is. 

Ok, this is going to be interesting - I think to myself.  Then, I begin to do what I have found works best in Latin America... start talking to people.  I ask the driver if he knows where I might get off to get a taxi to Heredia.  He doesn't know, but says he'll see as we get closer.  Then, a really nice man sitting across the aisle (who had already helped the driver rearrange passengers earlier when there weren't enough seats) chimes in.  He says that he'll call the bus company in Heredia and ask them.  He finds out where the new stops are and decides that he is going to walk through downtown San Jose with me to the new stop. 

I know you can't just trust anyone, but I felt really safe with him.  We walked and talked for about forty minutes through downtown San Jose as it became dusk.  He pointed out landmarks and the red light district, making sure I knew it was dangerous there.  There were people everywhere, roads were all blocked off, it was total insanity.  Without him, I could have done it but I would have been very lost and had to have worked pretty hard to get anywhere.  He even asked the bus driver if the bus was going to Heredia centro;  I had told him I knew that bus, but I guess it made him happy to finish his work in helping me. I felt so happy when that bus left for Heredia, a place I knew well... signifying I was almost "home." 

He told me his name, but all I could remember was some combination of Jose Alvarado Cortez... or it may have been Jose anything.  So, I'll just remember him as the angel on the Tracopa bus who was there to guide me through a potentially challenging situation.  Thank you, Jose. 

Plot Twist

Someone recently told me that when things suddenly change in your life, it is just a plot twist.  Won't be rehired at your current job?.... PLOT TWIST!

My job teaching at the elementary school ended as abruptly and randomly as it began.  One day I got an email that they needed a sub, a few weeks later I was permanent.  Last Friday, the last day of school, they told me that they will not have a position for me next year.  Surprised and sad, I realized that I had in fact become attached to the kids and staff there. I had grown to love the community of supportive parents and "disfruted" (an invented word from the Spanish verb disfrutar) all of the fun events we had - including the crazy end of year bingo that I still need to write about. 

Every ending, however, makes space for something new to take its place.

Whether that something new is teaching more private classes, starting an improv group for local adolescents, or teaching at a different school... I am trusting that it will be reasonably perfect - as in the experience I need to be having right now. 

This morning I had an interview at a high school in town; the interview was totally in Spanish and the director said that she was pleased that I spoke the language.  I was proud of that, too.  Definitely the first time I conducted an hour long interview in Spanish, getting all the information I needed and asking intelligent questions.  Last time I was interviewed in Spanish was before I left Heredia 4 months ago.  That was a big deal at the time, but I remember feeling like I missed important information and could not say much more about myself than who I was and that I wanted to teach English with that company.  Now, here I am asking about the school's mission and their discipline policy.  While still making mistakes, the fact that I was communicating in Spanish did not hinder what I could or wanted to communicate. 

There are times where I feel like my Spanish is not improving, and then I have a marker like this to show me how far I really have come. 

Also, I think I'm finally going to get to teach high school, something I have wanted since I started at the university!!!!

Here's to this plot twist leading to new challenges, new adventures, and new growth. 

End of the Year

Christmas Caroling with Disco Lights.... but wait till you hear that the play was about Super Heroes meeting Baby Jesus.

Riding in the Car to Teacher's Breakfast - Karina in the Car-Seat and Maria in the Trunk

What a Lovely Team of Teachers :]

Disfruting the Waterfall at the Beach with Some of the Sweetest Students

Passenger on a Bicycle

There are some things in life that you didn't really know were goals until you are doing them.  There are some goals that you have thought about once in a hypothetical situation and laughed about, but never thought you would do. 

Being a passenger on a bike is one of those small goals.  I watch bikes go by everyday with two, three, even four people on them.  I am always amused, but never have seen myself being one of those people.  I mean, who was going to add me as a passenger to their bike, right?

Well, tonight I was walking home when my host brother rode up next to me.  Do you want a ride, he asked? I hopped on, a little scared, and we rode home - me perched on the center bar. 

I am pleased to add this to the ever growing list of new experiences I have had in Costa Rica. 

Tico Bingo

Apparently Bingo is a big way to fundraise in this country.  Schools do it, churches do it, even the Red Cross does it.

I was fortunate to attend my first Costa Rican bingo event this past weekend and it was soooo much fun!!! It was four hours long and included "arroz con pollo" aka "arroz con siempre" as it is served at any event/party, a school supply garage sale, disco lights from the graduation the night before, and of course - latin dance music :]

I think my favorite part was listening to everyone yell out things as the mom who was announcing the numbers turned the bingo ball.  "Muevelo!!! Vientecinco!!! Eso!!! Diay!!!"

Hearing a little three year old say "muevelo" in his tiny high pitched voice may have been my favorite part.

Weirdness of the Week - Christmas Edition

1.  Kolbi - the phone company - sends a text message that says you have 50 messages to gift someone as a Christmas present.  That was fun.

2.  There are scary toys at the "copy place."  Just read what its features are... also, I think they needed an editor that spoke English. You touch it's butt and it says "no,no" ?!  Who thought that was a good feature?! Even the toy cat looks like he didn't think this was a good idea. 

2.  These firecrackers I mentioned earlier are following me around town.  I was at my friend's house last Thursday and while she was in the bathroom, "bam bam bam" right outside the window. She laughed so hard I could hear her all the way through the walls to her bedroom. We had just talked about how they were outside my room every night and how they had never been outside her house.  I guess they knew I was there.  Op, there they go outside my room again.... It is 10:21 pm.

3.  Now that school is out, there are little children in the streets until after 11pm.  They are riding their bikes around and around the Banco Popular parking lot, playing soccer in the street, and throwing palm leaves at each other as if it were 5 in the afternoon.  Then, I see them out early in the morning anyways.  I guess they just don't sleep much.

4.  The fact that it is Christmas right now is just weird in itself as it only gets hotter and hotter instead of colder and colder.  I feel as if I am living in an eternal summer.  For kids here, graduation and summer break are synonymous with Christmas.  You can now better understand their excitement, hence the fireworks. 

5.  It is even exciting for adults, as it is a law here that employers give their employees an extra month's salary during the month of December.   I even got that from the elementary school; I was not expecting this at all :]  Maybe I should go buy some firecrackers to celebrate. 

Also, we have this cute little tree in the house.... :]  Isn't it cute?

Prettiest Yoga Class Ever

December 1st... Is it Christmas, yet?

December 1: Why are fireworks going off at 10pm outside my window? -
I was just informed it was for Christmas..... This could be a very long month.

December 2:  Sounds as though lighting fireworks on my street is going to be a nightly event... is it Christmas, yet? The only thing is, they're not fireworks... but explosives.  They sound like gunshots.  

Running the Soda - El Teatro de Quepos

A few weeks ago, I found the local theatre of Quepos.  I didn't even know there was a theatre here.  It is all the way out in the middle of nowhere by the marina.  It is really nice for a small town theatre.  It has smart lights and a lot of space!

Anyways, I ended up at some sort of a board meeting there and immediately worked there.  The meeting was on Wednesday and Friday I was running the snack-bar - aka "soda" ... selling ceviche and taking orders for grilled meat sticks.  It was so crazy to me that I was selling food and taking money and giving change, all in Spanish.  I was super proud and kind of surprised that they put me in charge of this. 

Then, Saturday, I went to "usher" for the play.  I didn't really do anything except move a few chairs around and try to look non-awkward.  Only like 20 people came to the free play and I'm pretty sure they were all related to the actors.  It was fun, though.  I had a hard time understanding the play because it was fast and a lot of it was slang that I didn't get.  It was funny, though... I noticed that the acting was really over the top and there were a lot of gags like cross-dressing and body humor.  I don't know if that was just this play or if it is a common style of theatre here.  Ticos seem to like that kind of comedy, I've noticed, from the movies that are popular here. 

Tonight, I went to see a contemporary dance show at the theatre.  It was put on by the local dance group that practices in the Gym near my house.  I often walk by at night, watching them practice through the open window.  They are a group of adolescents taught by a famous contemporary dance choreographer from San Jose.  They were sooooo good!  :]  It made me happy that they had that opportunity here in such a small town.  They performed an original work called "El Cuarto Oscuro" - "The Dark Room" that they had taken to the National Theatre in San Jose.  It had poetic narration interspersed throughout it and from what I understood it was about the dark room that is your mind.  I think the dancers were each struggling with different inner issues and the way that was depicted through the movement and the ensemble was really cool.

I'm very glad to have found the theatre; I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.  If there is a theatre within 5 miles, I'm bound to become a part of it, right?!  It's in my core being.

I'm hoping to teach an improv class there starting in January - In Spanish!.... dun dun dun. 

Semi Trucks and Salsa Music

These are the sounds I wake up to on my day off. 

Weirdness of the Week - Episode 5.379

 

Curing “Hipo” – Hiccups in Spanish:  

I didn’t really think about how we have weird solutions for things like drinking water backwards or holding your breath to cure hiccups, but we do.  Ticos have other weird ways to cure things.  Last night, I was helping my friend decorate for her Godson’s birthday party.  The little baby girl had hiccups.  I look up from painting glitter on soccer ball cutouts, and the baby has a little piece of paper stuck to her forehead.  My friend simply tells me that that’s how they get rid of the hiccups.  Huh.  Also, I don’t know if this is specific to the friends I have… but it seems that Ticos are extra creative when it comes to making decorations.  Where people in the US would go out and buy party supplies, people here hand make everything!  They even make the piñatas out of old cardboard boxes, paper, and glitter.  I am so impressed. 

Chairs:

There are these very specific chairs that I have only seen in Costa Rica and everyone seems to have them except for my family.  They are these rocking chairs that are made out of metal and chords.  They are really comfortable.  I want one, but it seems the only way to buy one is from a guy who walks around town selling them.  I wonder when I will encounter this guy. 

Convenient Stores Everywhere (even if they are just the extensions of someone’s living room): 

As I was walking to one of my student’s houses yesterday, I started thinking about how easy it is to buy a snack here.  Walking through a neighborhood back home, you can’t just buy a bag of chips or a banana.  I can literally walk from one part of a neighborhood to the other a few blocks away and buy a snack in the middle.  I will miss this when I go home.  At home, you have to drive somewhere if you want to buy anything. 

“Punto de Reunion”:

 

When I lived in Heredia about four months ago, I went to the University.  I saw all these signs that said “punto de reunion” with pictures of people meeting on them.  I thought, “how weird that they need to be told where to hang out together.”  This week, I noticed a sign like that in Quepos and it suddenly made sense!  They weren’t signs telling students were to hang out.  They were signs signifying where it was safe to stand during an earthquake!  Like I said before, even when I understand the words… it doesn’t mean I understand the concept.  Just now, for example, I ordered coffee in Spanish and the waitress asked “Claro o Oscuro?”  I understood the words but had no idea what that referred to!  It turns out it mean “Light or Dark Roast.”  Again, there is a lot more to understanding than knowing the words.  That is something I had learned in my ESL class in college; just because students understand the words in the literature does not mean they get the meaning. 

Working an Hour for Ten Tampons… and announcing to the whole store what you want as you explain it to the guy behind the counter:

 Tampons are so expensive here!  A box of ten is six dollars.  That is over one hour of work for me.  Also, everything in the pharmacy is behind the counter.  I remember when I was an adolescent and was embarrassed to check out of the grocery store with tampons.  Good thing I grew out of that phase!  Yesterday, I had the joy of asking the young man behind the counter for exactly which box I wanted.  “No, not that one… the other one.  No, the pink one.  ‘Regulares.’ ‘Oh, ok… no hay algo se llama regular…. Medianos?...’ Haha.  That was fun.  Just another experience to add to the list of everyday life adventures here. 

Gringo quote of the day:

 

I’m sitting at one of the nicest cafes in town.  It is full of gringos.  The woman at the table next to me just got up to go to the bathroom and immediately returned to the table.  Her husband asked if someone was in the bathroom and she explained, “I didn’t need to go that bad.”  Her subtext was clearly, that bathroom was gross… there was no way I was using it.  My standards are way higher than that.  It is a perfectly nice bathroom.  Oh, Americans…

Thanksgiving in Costa Rica

I tried to wish the Americans sitting in front of me on the bus “Happy Thanksgiving,” but they were Jehovah’s Witnesses and did not celebrate Thanksgiving.  Haha.  It took me a while to decide to talk to them (I usually don’t like talking to tourists on the bus) and when I did – to share a common holiday – to grasp for that connection that we share in our common culture… DENIED.  Haha.  I laughed to myself when I was reflecting on it after they got off. 

Yesterday, at the elementary school, we had a Thanksgiving “Acto Civio.”  This was also super funny because Ticos have acto civicos for every national holiday.  We didn’t want it to be called an “acto civico” as to not push our culture on theirs, but the Tica teachers wrote “Thanksgiving Acto Civico” on the program.  I guess they didn’t have a problem with it :]  The students decorated, performed a bilingual play of the meaning of the holiday, and sang songs.  They even handed out papers for the parents to draw on and write what they were thankful for.  It was cool because the parents were able to learn about a different culture and see how good their students’ English was getting. 

 I learned, yesterday, that some Ticos thought that Thanksgiving was another name for Christmas and that the US just celebrated Christmas early…..  hahaha!!! Maybe it does seem that way with the shopping for Christmas starting so early. 

Side note – I don’t understand why they have Black Friday here tomorrow if there is no Thanksgiving.  That scares me.  But, there was also Black Friday like two Saturdays ago, so I guess it’s all arbitrary anyway. 

Ok, back to the story from our Acto Civico…. The parents all brought a different simple dish like mashed potatoes, corn, bread… and we had chicken instead of turkey.  Some of the teachers worked together to make pies, stuffing, and green bean casserole.  Even though some of the parents were wary of the food selection and had said at the meeting, “maybe some of us should bring arroz con pollo (the dish they eat at every party)” they seemed to really like the feast.  The one thing they didn’t like was the gravy, which I don’t like either – so I totally understood. 

I am sitting at Café Milagro right now, taking this day off to catch up on my list of stories I want to tell.  I am thankful for so many things; I am thankful for my supportive and loving parents who always talk to me no matter how I am feeling, my really good solid friends that are spread out all over the world, having a healthy body and mind that takes me on amazing adventures, and the opportunities that I have had and continue to have that connect me with others in the most interesting ways. 

The World is Your Living Room....

No, Really - it's not a metaphor.

If you look closely, you can see the green Christmas lights strewn out on the floor between the fan and the television.   It's hard to say, but I think that is the part that amuses me most. 

Weirdness of the Week (the second episode in one week!)

1.  Tonight on my way home, I saw 9 young boys (around 6-10 years old) pushing a car up the hill.  I assume an adult was driving, but one really can't be sure.  They were all shrieking and laughing.  It was quite a sight. 

2.  Remember how I said that there is a dentist in every neighborhood and compared it to how there's a Starbucks on every corner in the US?  Well, I noticed - today- that it was even crazier than I thought.  The dentist's office 50 meters from my house, literally... I'm not even joking... has another dentist's office across the street from it.  I once heard a comedy routine joking about there being a "Starbucks across from a Starbucks" and how only people with amnesia could make that work.  "You walk out of the Starbucks, see the other Starbucks, and think... gosh, I really need a cup of coffee."  I'm just kidding about that being the case with dentist's offices.... but it is kind of a funny correlation.

3.  My face is broken out with pimples right now.  Usually, I think everyone is judging it but not saying anything.... here, one doesn't have to worry.  Everyone who is judging it says so.  "You really should take care of that stuff on your face" or the best one (one of my 8 year old students) "What are those white things on your face?"  At least this takes the "imaginary audience" complex out of it.  Here, I know what people are thinking and I'm ok with that - there's a sort of peace in knowing.... most of the time.  It's like the time the girl at the ice cream shop told me I was getting fat and that she wasn't going to sell me more ice cream :[  haha.  She was incorrect, by the way - but I didn't go to her shop for a while.  That's an interesting way to up-sell customers. 

4.  I realized that I actually choose my route through town based on which sidewalks I like best.  Some are very treacherous and their every meter needs to be committed to memory.   One has to look down as he or she walks.  One distraction... looking up.... could lead to falling off a 3 foot sidewalk cliff into the precipice that is a  gutter.  Or, even more probable.... falling into the random canal that cuts straight across the sidewalk (I speak from experience on this one - luckily I stepped straight into it and was fine).  The topography of the sidewalks include canals, random gaping holes, uneven layers, moss covered slip and slides, and a multitude of different types of dog poop.  Navigating these is an art form.  I don't know how Ticas do it.... and in heels!

Manikin

This is one of the manikins I was talking about with the spray painted on facial hair. 

Doesn't it make it look more Latino? 

Tica Baby Shower - November 1st

Ok, so this one is a bit out of order... but I've been keeping a list of things I wanted to write about and it is now time to tell this story.

One of the awesome Tica teachers at school created a baby shower for the director.  It was so elaborate and it had games and a baby piñata and everything!

Is that normal for a baby shower to include a piñata or is that another unique thing about living here?  I'm starting not to be able to tell, anymore, what is normal or not.

The games made me feel like I was in a Spanish class.  One was a word find with baby words and another was a matching - match the baby animal name to the adult animal name.  Let's just say I was not very successful.  It was so sweet, though.  The moms really wanted to help me so they just told me all the answers.

I ended up being volunteered to feed baby food to one of the moms while we were both blindfolded.  We won.  I'm glad I wasn't the one eating the baby food.  

Weirdness of the Week (Episode 4.2 aka... I don't know - pura vida)

1.  You know how US cities now have a Starbucks on every corner.... well, here that role is taken by dentist's offices.  There is literally a dentist office in every neighborhood.  There is one less than 50 meters from my house.  The weird part is... you will be walking and it will be like - (quiet neighborhood) house, house, house, dentist office, house, house, house.  The only thing I can think of to justify this is that they do brush their teeth a lot here.

2.  The power can go out and nobody even flinches.  We just continue doing yoga without comment and enjoy the flashes of lightning that illuminate the teacher's silhouette as we do tree pose. 

3. A new fruit and vegetable "tienda" opened near my house.  Each time I go there and talk with Antony, the owner, he "gifts me" a new vegetable.  It's always, "here.. take this cucumber, too.  Make a nice salad."  "Take these bananas... they'll be good for breakfast."  I like him. 

4.  Today, I was riding the bus home and at the second to last stop - the bus driver just got out and left all the people on the bus.  I had gotten off, already, and asked him what he was doing.  He replied, "tengo ganas de comer piña (I have desire to eat pineapple)."  He quickly bought a slice of pineapple from the stand and hopped back on the bus.  That was really funny to me, especially thinking about using the phrase "I have desire to eat pineapple" in English.  Just another example of how some things don't translate. 

5.  Black Friday has already happened.... and it was on SATURDAY.  They called it "Black Friday," anyway.  I don't think they really thought much about the significance of those words.  Apparently the gossip of the town is that Maxi Pali (the Walmart of Quepos) was so full that you couldn't even enter the parking lot.  All to buy a TV that was marked down $10.  I told you that Christmas was earlier here... Decorations on Halloween and Black Friday on Saturday the 16th of November.  I bet this is what would happen to the US if we didn't have Halloween and Thanksgiving to hold us back.  What's next.... New Years anyone?

A Small Universe

I have been attending a contemporary dance class, here in Quepos.  It has only been the teacher and I for the past two weeks.  It is new, so maybe more people will catch on and start coming. 

The first class made me really happy :]  It felt so good to be dancing again and to hear the teacher sounding the rhythms with her voice.  In fact, it made me so happy because it felt like home.  It felt like my favorite dance teacher, Rosangela - from Brasil, was right here teaching me.  The sounds and the movements transported me to home. 

About half way through the class, I told the teacher that I was really enjoying it and that her style reminded me of my favorite dance teacher.  She asked who, and I told her it was someone from Brasil.  She then said, "I studied dance in Brasil."  It was crazy!!!! She studied dance with Rosangela!

In this small rural town in Costa Rica, I ended up in a contemporary dance class with a teacher that studied with my favorite teacher from Brazil. 

Now that is a small universe.

Fork de Doña Flor

When I lived in my old host family's house in Heredia, my host mom told me that if I ever lost one of her forks - it was worth $100.  I think it was one of her odd jokes, like the time she told my Tica friend that if I came home drunk she wouldn't let me in.... (she didn't laugh or anything to show it was a joke, but apparently that one was). 

Well, Saturday when I was cleaning up my room and my backpack and everything... guess what I found. 

Yep, one of her forks. 

I'm rich!

Whole Town Looking for Student

This Saturday night, a new student came to live at my house.  He was supposed to arrive around 5:30.  Here it was, 6:00 and he wasn't at the house.

I hear yelling at the front gate, which is not anywhere near abnormal.  It was the neighbor, dramatically informing my host mom that her student was wondering around town.... lost.  I guess someone had spotted him near the bus station and then told someone who told her.... Haha.  I just had this image of a whole chain reaction of gossip drama reaching our house. 

Anyways, it turns out the student wasn't really lost - he was just walking to our house.  The crisis and the neighborhood alert chain of communication was pretty amusing, though.  What I wondered was, instead of telling everyone.... why didn't one of those people just lead him to the house? 

I finished my first book in Spanish!

I was really excited because last week I finished my first book in Spanish.  It was El Alquimista - The Alchemist.  That book was a huge influence in me coming here in the first place, so it was fitting that it was the first one I finished in Spanish.  I think the fact that I had read it so many times already really helped my comprehension. 

Now I have started reading Jonathon Livingston Seagull in Spanish and it feels a lot harder.  Maybe I just need to get into it. 

Weirdness of the Week (Episode....? - Back to Life After Being REALLY Sick)

1.  Christmas decorations, here, go up before Halloween is over!  I guess when you don't have any holidays to stall the Christmas season... October is as good a time to start as any.  Also, Halloween is not celebrated here - they think it is evil.  Maybe decorating for Christmas on Halloween wards of any evil spirits that are angry that they are not being celebrated.

2.  If you send mail to Costa Rica, it might end up in Brazil.  Don't ask me how.

3.  The manikins here have spray painted on facial hair - to look more Latino, I guess.

4.  I like when people call me "reina" like when I'm shopping.  It makes me feel like a queen :]

5.  Today, I saw an iguana crossing the road.  It was huge, and right in front of me on the sidewalk.  The other people walking by looked at it like it was as normal as a pigeon in New York.

6.  If you have the flu, you can just say you have dengue.  It is the default disease here.  I still insist that I had it... even though it turns out what I really had was dysentery... which by the way, nobody here that I tell has ever herd of.

The Bat That Did Yoga

Once upon a time, there was a little bat that lived in the jungle of Manuel Antonio.
His name was Murci.

Every night he flew around the jungle skies searching out delicious insects for dinner.
Each night he flew past a room where people were making funny positions with their bodies.
Murci was intrigued by what these humans were doing and always wanted to try.
He was shy, though, and so he never would enter the room.
Until one night, Murci got up the courage.  He thought to himself, "what do I have to loose?"

So he flew right into the room.
Around and around he went.
Swooping between people as to get the best views of the poses.

One or two humans seemed a little surprised and nervous, but the teacher stayed calm
and that made Murci happy.
When the teacher stated very calmly and simply, "there's a bat," and continued on...
Murci felt welcome.  

Murci observed the class and saw that what the humans were doing was learning how to fly.
Learning how to stretch their wings like he did.

He liked this very much and flew out into the night, content to have learned something about these humans.


*Note- "murciélago" means "bat" in Spanish :]  I love that word.

October - the month of bus rides and the flu

I want my half of the armrest... please stop jabbing your elbow into my side while you sleep.... rain.... mist.... green... rest stops ... bus robberies.... broken windshield wipers....

To Panama... to Guacimo... to San Jose....

I think I spent around 30 hours in the bus this month.  While I really love traveling - the movement and the views from the windows make me feel safe... like things are taken care of and all I have to do is sit there - I think I am done with the bus for a little while. 

The most recent week of October was spent surviving some sort of intestinal flu, which is why I haven't written in so long.  Being sick so far away from home is really really hard.  Especially when you spend almost an entire week feeling very alone, no local support network coming to visit or even calling to say hi.  

I feel more alone now than I have maybe the whole time I've been here.  Right now, I'm at the phase where I could go home in December and not come back.  I don't think that is really what I want, though, and hope the feeling will pass as I get healthy again. 

Musica de Mi Pueblo

Ahora, estoy escuchando musica de mi pueblo en Tucson.  He estado un poco triste recientemente y esta noche, podria ver la luna.  Por mucho tiempo no la he visto. 

La luna me hace un poco mas feliz porque yo siempre pienso que mis papás y mis amigos pueden ver la misma luna que yo.  Es como un punto en comun.  Como yo no estoy tan lejos.

Cuando yo regresé a mi casa, yo estaba pensando de una canción que yo escribió cuando mi amiga estaba en Perú.  En la canción hay un parte que dice "I know if I look up to the moon, it's the same one you're seeing too."  Escuché a la canción y inmediatamente me sentía mejor. 

¡Yo, tambien, encontré mas musica que mis amigas y yo grabamos un dia hace como 6 años!  Que divertido escucharla. 

Ahora estoy escuchando la musica de mi amiga Beth, y me siento mas tranquila :]  Gracias amigas y gracias por la musica :] 

__________________________________________
For those of you that would rather read in English:

Right now, I'm listening to music from back home in Tucson. I've been a little sad recently and tonight, I could see the moon. For a long time I have not seen it.

The moon makes me a little happier because I always think that my parents and my friends can see the same moon as me. It is like a point in common.. like I'm not that far.

When I returned home, I was thinking of a song that I wrote when my friend was in Peru. In the song there is a part that says "I know if I look up to the moon, it's the same one you're seeing too." I heard the song and immediately felt better.
 
Also, I found more music on my computer that my friends and I recorded one day six years ago! What fun to hear.

Now I'm listening to the music by my friend Beth, and I feel more relaxed:] Thank you friends and thank you for the music:]

Eh.

This is my face when I've walked almost all of the way to a student's house, it is five minutes before class starts, and she calls to cancel. 

This might be surprising, but I do not aparate to your house. 

This is one of the downfalls to being an entrepreneur. 

Corriendo en La Ducha

Hoy yo anduve corriendo - en la ducha.  Afuera, estaba lloviendo demasiado pero todavia, yo fui.  Queria estar en la lluvia y bañarme en su agua dulce.  Yo estaba completamente mojada, pero completamente feliz.

Llegué en el parque Nahomi a los acantilados y me senté en las rocas.  Mirando el mar, me sentí infinita.  Estaba juntas con la lluvia, las rocas, y las olas. 

Español

Pienso que tengo que escribir mas en español porque durante el dia, yo hablo mucho ingles.... Mi meta aqui es aprender español mejor, y aveces estoy frustrada por eso.  No se si es en mi mente o no, pero unos dias siento que mi español esta peorando.  Por eso, voy a escribir algunas veces aqui en español. Si quire leerlo y no habla español, puede usar translate.google.com. 

Yo se que tengo que tener paciencia.... es un proceso.  Hoy..... no tengo mucha paciencia. Es como estoy olvidando las cosas mas simple de español cuando estoy hablando mas.  Es como mi cabeza es una sopa de informacion y nada es claro.  Es raro. 

Bueno.... sea amable a si mismo :]

The Adventures in Panama

9/27/13

From the Tracopa Bus Station in San Jose:

The day started off foreshadowing the journey ahead.  I took a collectivo home from work because I still hadn’t packed and I had an hour and a half until my bus left.  The collectivo I got in kept breaking down and rolling backwards down the hills.  I kept almost getting out but the driver would reassure me that we would make it.  Luckily, we were almost to the downhill part and we rolled the rest of the way home.  I wished him luck with his car and rushed home.  When I got home, I realized I needed to print a bank statement because Panama is crazy and won’t let you in if you don’t have $500.  Isn’t that crazy?  Anyway, a quick trip to the copy place, packing, and I was on my way.  But just wait until you hear about the bus ride….

After the bathroom stop, halfway to San Jose, a lady got on the wrong bus.  Luckily, they were a little ahead of us and flagged us down on the highway.  The lady got on and told everyone about how she didn’t recognize the other people and everything.  She made such a big presentation of it; she must have been super embarrassed.  I was glad we could get her.

Then, the lady behind me randomly started making monkey noises as we got close to San José.  It was like she had turrets or something.  Then, the bus fell off of a curb and she didn’t stop laughing for 10 minutes!  After that, I have no idea what she was doing. 

We finally arrived in San Jose after going 1 mile per hour through traffic.  Now, there is this super loud dog that is chasing each bus out of the terminal while loudly barking.  Nobody seems to mind or have any desire to do anything about it.  Pura Vida. 

So, yeah…. What an exciting trip, already.  Right? It’s weird how going on a trip within a trip feels.  It’s like I’m just as wound up as if I was going to another country from the US – but I’ve already been on a 3 month trip… so you’d think it would be no different.  It’s almost like Inception… a trip within a trip within a trip. 

Bus Ride to Panama

I am now writing to you from the bus to Panama.  I am watching the jungle pass by while the bus blasts salsa and cumbia for all to enjoy.  I love it.  What better way to travel through the selva than with cumbia, verdad?! Even though I have been here for 3 months, I still can’t believe how green it is… Everything I see that bright, bright green that shines in the sunlight, it takes my breath away.  There are so many different colors of green… I wonder if all the shades have different names like how the Eskimos have so many words for snow. 

I need to tell you about all the weird things I have seen in San Jose in the past 12 hours. 

1. The McDonalds in San Jose is the fanciest thing I have ever seen.  It is nicer than Starbucks in the US.  I was waiting for my friend there and ordered a tea from their “café.”  It was in a glass cup!  There were couches there was an entire upstairs section.  People were on dates there!  You needed a ticket to go to the bathroom because there was a bathroom guard.  The tea was so good!  It was like tea you would get a an organic farmers market.  ¡Que raro! I want to go back there. 
2. My friend was telling be about her students and she said that a student wanted to say something that directly translated to “grandmother pimp.”  I could not stop laughing.  My friend is unsure of what she really wanted to say, but reassured her that “grandmother pimp” was not it.  This reminded me of how my student the other day just could not pronounce “thought.”  The “th” sound is very difficult, but I have no idea how she made “thought” into something that sounded exactly like “f***.”  I didn’t react, but kept correcting her and having her repeat.  I just couldn’t let her go into the English speaking world saying that.  She never really got it…. Maybe next time.  Oh, the responsibility of being an English teacher. 
3. This morning, when we were walking through downtown San Jose to find our bus, which by the way…. Is a bus that leaves from the side of the road at 9am every day.  How one would know this, I have no idea. Sometimes it seems like everything just works through word of mouth.  It’s like… if someone doesn’t tell you something, it just doesn’t happen.  Anyway, back to my point:  When we were walking through San Jose, there was this random guy dressed in Peruvian clothing with a Native American headdress on… playing the pan flute.  I have no idea why – he was also selling Peruvian CDs. Haha.   Remember how a few pages ago, I told you about the monkey-noise-lady on the bus last night?  Well, now there is a woman barking a few seats behind me.  What is with these people?  Ok, it’s getting bumpy so I’ll write more later.  Oh, wait… I have one more thing to add that I forgot.  When we were waiting for the bust to leave San Jose, I saw a lady washing the walls of her storefront with a sponge.  Now, out the window, I see someone sweeping her wall with a push broom.  Interesting cleaning methods.  Intermission for pictures of beautiful Bocas...

The only way to get to the island is by boat...

The view from our hostel... you could jump right off the back deck into the water

Playa Estrella :]  So beautiful!!!

Bus Ride Home to San Jose

 This trip was definitely not lacking in adventure. When we got all the way to Bocas Del Toro, Panama – which you take a bus, then walk across the border, then take a collective, then a boat… to get to – we saw a sign that said that the bank (for the entire country of Panama) was out of order until Tuesday!  We needed to go back to Costa Rica on Monday, so just like any other situation while living abroad, we began to utilize our creative problem solving skills.  I had $40, my friend Erin had $160, and our friend Sacha had $60.  We new we had to set aside $28 each for the journey back to Costa Rica.  We had two more nights to pay for at the hostel at $15 each.  This left us with a total of $86 for 3 days, split 3 ways. That’s less than $10/day per person.  We knew we could do it.  We were trying to think of a ny random way we could earn money or stay until Tuesday when the banks began running again.  Because the bank was closed, places wouldn’t run credit cards either. 

We found one grocery store that was, for some reason, accepting credit cards and I asked them if they could over charge us and give cash back.  They wouldn’t but told me maybe the pharmacy would. I told them our story, making it a little more dramatic of course; I told them we couldn’t get back to CR and needed to be at work… etc.  They gave me $60, which made a world of difference.  We just crossed the border with $9 extra – which is a whole other story, I will explain later on. 

Saturday night, we went to this crazy bar that you needed to take a boat to.  Everywhere you go, pretty much, you take a boat.  It only costs $1.  So, us and everyone else in Bocas was there.  It was real “Ladies Night” which was very lucky for our financial situation.  They gave ladies whatever they wanted for free.  

The bar had swings where you could jump off into the ocean.  You could also just jump off the deck of the bar into the ocean.  There were cut away holes in the middle of the deck as if the ocean was one big swimming pool.  As you can imagine Latin dancing, swings, and an ocean used as a swimming pool made for a pretty fun night. 

I convinced a guy who I was dancing with that I was a Tica and that I had a boyfriend back home in Costa Rica.  He kept calling me “Mae,” the slang for dude in CR and insisting that what happened in Bocas stayed in Bocas.  Luckily, my escape route from him was launching off the swing, into the ocean and swimming under the dock.  Hahaha!  Don’t you wish you could do that in every bar?! I do.

Another story: one day, we rode a tiny boat to another island.  We were on the boat, when suddenly it starts pouring and we can’t see anything.  We’re soaked.  We stop moving, altogether, and I think, “great, it’s like Sam’s Amazon story,” when I realize why we have stopped. There is another little boat in the distance and it is sinking!  It was packed full of people an d it was too heavy.  Why they didn’t know that would happen, I’ll never understand.  So, we of course, transferred half of the people to our boat and continued – wet, but safe – to the island. 

One more story: the way back to Costa Rica… We took a collectivo and the driver was singing Latino opera or something like that.  He would sing the words right before they came up.  He was driving like crazy.  We passed about 20 people in el campo and they were all waiting at the bus stop.  The bus driver stopped, suddenly, and backed up down the curvy freeway.  We stopped next to the bust stop and I saw that the people had a medic hammock.  The Peace Corps Volunteers we met at the hostel had talked about this, so I knew something was wrong.  He asked if they had an ambulance coming or if they needed help.  An ambulance was on its way, but we added one woman to our car to bring her to wait at the hospital for la señora.  They said they thought that she had Dengue.  She looked bad - I hope she was ok.

When we got to the border, we had to walk across a rickety bridge with slots you really could fall through.  That is what connects Costa Rica to Panama.  You actually have to walk out of your way to show your passport and pay the exit taxes… so much so, that we missed paying it on our way out of Panama, which explains how we returned home with 9 extra dollars.  Whoops.