As I sit here eating one of the many manzanas de agua that I bought at the farmers market, with sunshine flowing into my room from the backyard and the sound of birds tweeting accompanying some soft tunes, I feel extremely fortunate. It is crazy to think that this whole experience could have very easily not happened. But it has, and I am here, and I am loving every second of it.
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| My Backyard view from my bed. |
Febrero 14 (continued)...
Everyone always compares how to pronounce my name to llena (meaning "full"), which is very fitting because I eat A LOT folks. I was especially feeling it on this day, my host mom made some sort of chicken enchilada casserole out of the leftovers from the night before, PLUS a (large) bowl of french onion soup and salad.
Had a very lazy V-day, watched "On the Road" and relaxed.
Febrero 15
Woke up around 9:00am. Ate a quick breakfast, worked on some Spanish, and took a shower. My mama told me they were going to go to her sisters' house to have a little birthday celebration for Cali, so I told her I would like to join. Around 12:45pm, she let me know that her and my papa were heading down but that Nati and I were going to run to the store first and then meet them there. This was my first outing with Natalia alone! Went well, chatted about her job and I asked her about places I should visit while I am here. I also learned that she was not a fan of slow drivers!
I was a bit confused on why we were going so far to get to the supermarket, but then I realized she had to go especially to Walmart to pick up concert tickets she had reserved via telephone or online (not sure which). An added perk, she took a sort of back way so I was able to see more of the part of town I had yet to see or explore. Anyways, I was interested in going to the Walmart here just to see how it compared to Walmart back home > basically same look, just in spanish, jaja. Picked up some charcoal (which is "carbon"), she kept trying to explain to me, "bolas negras" - my mind was thinking she was looking for some sort of food, not a means to cooking the food - so, I was no help in locating it until I saw the big bags of charcoal labelled "CARBON" right in front of me. We got some sponges and beers as well then we were out.
Dropped the car back off at home then shimmied down the hill to I guess would be la casa de mis tias. Walked in to a kitchen full of older folks sitting in a circle, carrying on, and BBQ smoke rollin' in from the backyard. Immediately I was introduced, sat down, and fed! Hilda started to brag to everyone that I am not picky and I eat everything - no lie, I am a fatty (llena Jenna). Had some yummy onion dip, cucumber sandwiches, refried black bean dip, things that looked like meatballs but I was told made out of some sort of banana? (not sure if I heard that right). Then the meat came, sausage, chicken and pork slices.
After the main course, I took a bathroom break (the aunties live with their 85 year old uncle, who I accidentally walked in on in the bathroom, 'twas an awkward first meeting) and then it was time for some music. One of the relatives, an older guy named Alofon (sp?) had a bag full of various percussion instruments, so each family member chose an instrument and we started jamming. Maracas, castanets, tambourine, guitaras, claves, guiro, and one of those party horns that make a really annoying sound were all going crazy. At first I was assigned maracas, but about five minutes in Sofia handed off her guitar to me. She thought since I had a ukulele I would be fine, but I was feeling a bit self-conscious. Luckily, my host papa had his guitar so I decided I would just see which note he played the most and try to copy it whenever he played it.
Once the jam sesh was over, it was time for some dessert. They were making spears with 3 marshmallows on them to roast over the grill for everyone - I of course wanted in on that. So, I put in my order with Sofia and soon after had three crispy, droopy marshmallows handed to me, hehe. And to take a step further, these weren't just regular white marshmallows, they were flavored ones - so obviously one skewer wasn't enough. Round two happened. And then, there was an extra skewer made that no one was claiming, so I volunteered as tribute. Sofia offered it to me at first, and everyone was looking at me like "damnnn, girl already had two" so I said "I could, but I am not going to!"...Sofia sat next to me holding the skewer out until I gave in, which took a whopping 5 seconds. My host mama looked at me and said "nada dulce para usted manana! (nothing sweet for you tomorrow), I guess 9 marshmallows was quite a lot - oops. On top of the fluffy balls of deliciousness, one of the auntie's had made an upside down pineapple cake, yumm! Sang Feliz Cumpleanos to my papa and then stuffed our faces some more.
Something interesting I noticed, I do not think a man went up to the table to get his own food once. It is weird how the women wait on the men, it is the same at meals at home as well. If Cali ever wants more to drink or eat, he asks Hilda to go get it for him. Just something I observed.
Bellies full to the brim, the aunts showed me some of their embroidery and knitting projects, then I said goodbyes and went back home with Nati. Along the way we passed some Angel's Trumpets and she told me they smell good but are used as a hallucinogenic.
No formal dinner cause we ate so much at the party, so I just skimmed over the reading for my Community Engagement class and called it a night!
Febrero 16
Following a pop quiz in Community Engagement (so happy I got the jist of the reading) and an excruciatingly "bleh" Spanish class (nothing personal to my teacher, it was just bleh cause we reviewed homework the whole time. Which was important, but took forever since it was like 8 pages of preterite vs. imperfect verb conjugation and lots of corrections), the 16th was exciting because Mama Ora and Michael arrived (Ilana's mom and brother).
ICDS had a meeting introducing us to Nicaragua for our upcoming service trip in two weeks and also as a sort of session to air comments about our service projects in San Jose. Afterwards, Ilana and her family, Kip and I went up to the field to play a bit of soccer - joined by two ticos. Super fun (as per usual)!
Febrero 17
Another quiz day (luckily not pop though) in Rural and Urban Sustainable Development with Helen. Everything was straight forward and taken from the guide she gave us, except for the last question which threw everyone off. So aside from that, I think I did quite well (hopefully we talked her into counting the last one as extra credit if anyone got it right- which I am pretty sure was only Maylin because it was from the portion of the seminar that she taught, jaja). Break, then Environmental Issues. We shared the news - my article was about the air pollution crisis in Dehli, India (basically I would not go there if I were you). We were also supposed to watch Food Inc., but due to technical difficulties were let out early and just assigned to watch it outside of class (which worked out for me since I have already seen it twice). Entonces, a group of us from that class went to get some chai tea and work on some tarea at a local vegetarian cafe - Neshuma.
Natalia found her latin lover, we skyped with Katie's boyfriend, and ran into two friends of Ellie's that moved here to have their baby.
The sun began to set, and we ventured back home for the night.
Febrero 18
Spanish Oral Presentation Day. Oy vey. Had some breakfast with my papa - he made it since my mama was sick, asked him to look over the write up I did of what I was going to say. Two nights before I asked if I could practice with them the night before, but I didn't quite get that far in time. So, after he made a few corrections (luckily not too many), I went to the ICDS office to organize it on some notecards. Lost track of time and was almost late for my Community Engagement class.
We talked about cultural differences in the work place (group therapy session), and supposedly there was an earthquake in the middle of class that I somehow did not notice (don't know where my head was at...probably frantically going over my spanish presentation). Many thoughts were thrown around in relation to our personal experiences at our different sites, and basically the consensus was do the best with what you have and you have the power to make the best of your experience, which are very wise words.
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| Photo from our first day at Full Tierra. |
Class ended, and the panic set in about Spanish. Jean and I got some smoothies and chicken empanadas, then went back to the classroom instead of the ICDS office to practice our speeches. A quick hour later, and it was actually happening. I feel like at some points, when I was stumbling over some conjugations, I just made something up that sounded right, and I definitely was sweating up a storm, but our professor said that everyone did really well. We will find out what "well" means tomorrow (yikes! fingers crossed). Following the test, our class soon realized we were the only ones who were still in class doing things after the presentations were over, and all became a bit hostile about that (jaja).
But afterwards, everyone went up to the soccer field to let off some steam. My brain was feeling a bit mushy and I was exhausted, so I joined the group on the sidelines to enjoy the sunshine and lay down in the grass. The game was the largest yet, a bunch of people from ICDS, some German students that Terina befriended, Esteban (a local who is in some of the ICDS classes), and some other ticos all played while all the other ICDS peeps cheered and laughed on the sidelines.
Once the final goal was scored, everyone went back to their homestays for dinner and some of us made plans to meet back up later at the Beer Factory.
Esteban joined us, and we definitely freaked him out with some of our conversation topics (paranormal activities, religion, the vastness of the universe, sexuality, queefing, etc.), but it was a good time had by all - will most definitely be returning there to hang out. Had a Costa Rican "bitch beer" as Ellie would call it (jaja), Rock Limon, and then for my second got a Blue Moon (mhmm).
Febrero 19
Thursday was nice, had class with Helen, then went home for a nice break with the breeze rollin' through my room from the backyard.
Environmental Issues we discussed the news and Agriculture - one interesting article that Tommy presented on was preventative measures being taken to stop poaching of Rhinoceros horns. People are injecting a poison in the the horn so that poachers will not want to take it for consumption...interesting way of combatting the issue, let's just hope it doesn't have negative effects for the rhinos.
Ilana and her family had returned from their trips to Jaco and Tortuguero, so we ordered dinner to go from Aroma & Sabor (pizza & burrito for me), and went back to their hotel to eat. It was so nice to see them and catch up :) Ilana braided my hair super awesomely and then her and Misha walked me home.
Febrero 20
Group community service activity!
Started the day quite early, plan to meet at the ICDS office at 7:00am. Since I forgot to tell my host parents that I had to leave so early (usually I leave at 8:30am on Fridays), I wrote a note quick and went out to grab some breakfast - none other than the chicken empanada from Aroma y Sabor. I was the first to arrive at the office, enjoyed the brisk morning. Soon Luis arrived and one by one everyone else did too. Made a PB&J sandwich for lunch, then we were off to Escuela República de Argentina.
The day was filled with painting, happy children, futbol, and sunshine. Ellie designed the re-vamp of the pre-existing mural, and it turned out gorgeous!
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| Before |
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| Ellie's Design |
During their recesses, the kids were so eager to help painting the gold figurines Ellie outlined on the bottom of the mural. Those moments were definitely my favorite part of the day. This one little boy named Marco would come find me each break. He was so helpful, went to wash brushes so that more kids could paint. At first, I was strung out about them painting, wanting to keep the mural "pristine", but then I soon realized that the kids is what the mural is all about and I just let them go at it, adding as much swirls, and hearts, and dots, and splatters as they wanted. It was great to see them so excited.
Around lunch time, the bottom part of the mural was pretty much complete, so those not helping with the higher up portions went to watch an assembly.
The Argentinian Ambassador was there. The assembly was kicked off by this beyond adorable dance number to "Happy". Four little girls and three boys in red shuffled onto the stage and danced their little booties off - Sam and I were dying, "que lindooo".
After, there was supposed to be a futbol match with ICDS and the students, but it turned out their were two children's teams so we sat it out. The mural was completed, cleaned up, admired, then we said farewell to the school!
Waited for bus for about 20 minutes until we realized it was right there all along. Exhausted and smelly, I showered. Ate some yummy dinner with the familia, then planned to go to the movies with some folks. Maylin, Hannah and I shared a cab, got our tickets, and with some time to spare walked around the mall a bit. They introduced me to churros, I can't believe I haven't tried them until now!! What delicious little fried sticks of dough, especially with some vanilla ice cream, que rico.. We joined Chloe, Katie, Jean, Danielle, Kip, and Stecy to watch Mortdecai - not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I went in with pretty low expectations (but hey, movie tickets on a Friday night are only $4 here, so I'm not complaining).
We had also planned to go to bar afterwards but everyone was so sleepy - as Danielle put it when she texted Ellie who wanted to meet up with us at the bar, "we r all dead". Lol, not good as a stand alone text when people are out and about in a foreign country. When I got back home, I was sleepy but not ready for bed, so I was just sitting listening to some spotify. Turns out my body was ready for sleep, woke up at 4:35am very disoriented, turned off my light and brushed my teeth.
Febrero 21
Quick breakfast, then went to meet everyone at bus stop outside ULatina to head over to La Feria Verde. I was running low on the cash monay, so I popped in the ATM quick for the first time - so far no crazy international withdrawal charges have shown up on my bank account, so I am hoping it will stay that way!
The market was super awesome, I ate and bought so many different fruits that I had never tried before.
My spiffy pocket knife that my Aunt Carly got me came in handy when we were given sample fruits to try for free, cut it up amongst the nine of us. Some more wandering and we found ourselves getting some grub - tortilla con queso, two pupusas y cafe to split, yum.
On our way there and back, we encountered lots of puppies, two of my favorites being a super chubby chihuahua stumbling around at the market and a glorious chow running in the park nearby.
The group split after the market, and inevitably, Hannah, Maylin and I had some difficulty getting home again. We realized we probably should have just walked the entire way with the rest of the group but found ourselves walking in circles, bus stop hopping until we found one that was going to UCR. From UCR, it was still quite an adventure, came to a dead end and finally made our way back to the portion of the campus that we are familiar with. Luckily, the campus is very pretty, so aside from the enormous amounts of sweating, it was enjoyable!
Finally made it home, greeted by my host mama and I showed her all the stuff I got - manzanas de agua, pineapple tomatillos, what I thought was passion fruit (granadilla), caimitos, what I thought was guava (turns out it was chayote - squash), and some homeade pina-jengibre (pineapple-ginger) jam.
Since I didn't know the "correct" name of half of the items, she thought I was just buying whatever looked interesting, but I assured her I had tried everything I bought and that I liked them (aside from the chayote, that was an accident).
Because I forgot to ask about that market, I asked my host family if they wanted anything from market tomorrow and from there we had a bonding session over fruit and pupusas. Nati requested mangas - which is different from a mango - and a pupusa. What is thought of as mangos back home is what mangas are here. However, the mangos here are small and green. And the my mama requested some more caimitos to make fresca.
Rested a bit, then went back out to explore San Pedro a bit with Hannah and Maylin. We began walking with the intention of going to Mall San Pedro, but made many pit stops along the way, meanwhile enjoying the constant mountain views.
Little boutiques, Office Depot, and my favorite, TeaLand. I had been eyeing up this teashop ever since we got here because the bus we take often passes by there, so I finally got the chance to go check it out.
Ordered some Green Passion, enjoyed the breeze, had a cup there and then saw that they were ready to close so I got the other half of my pot in a to go cup. When I went to leave, I forgot that I hadn't paid yet, so it was a bit embarrassing when the waitress came running after me..jaja.
Paid the bill, then meandered over to Mall San Pedro to get Maylin's watch battery switched, look at some bathing suits, and get more churros. One thing I was not a fan of, went into a store and was followed around by a sales attendent holding up pieces of clothing every fives seconds trying to get me to buy it, I just wanted to shop in peace! But tis okay, churros heal all.
Later I went roller skating at a local skate rink with Danielle, Stecy, and Jean. Since we arrived a bit late, they gave us a discount (whoop whoop). SO much fun, managed to only fall twice.
All the locals were freaking amazing though - at one point they had everyone who was not that good get off the rink, and the locals were all doing dance moves and routines - pretty impressive.
At 10:00pm, they were closing so we decided to walk up to Mundoloco for some music and drinks. When we got there, tenia mucho sed, and so I got really irritated when the waiter did not bring us our waters, nor come back to check on us the entire time we were there. Finally Stecy and Danielle just went up to get them, but the service put a little damper on the night for me. Aside from that, a really interesting jazz band was playing so that kept me distracted a bit.
Not sure what their name was, but definitely enjoyed the show! Some water and a margarita later, then we headed home to get some sleep for today's adventures!
Confirmed - we are booked for our adventure next weekend - MONTEVERDE! woo. Staying at Cabinas Vista Al Golfo, can't wait.
Febrero 22
Today we wanted to explore another market in Zapote.
Since this weekend was a no travel weekend, we decided it was best to do everything we wanted to do that was offered on the weekends in San Pedro that we normally are gone for. Hannah had gone to the Zapote market before with her host family, so she led the way with Chloe, Maylin and me. The walk was a bit on the further side, but well worth it once we reached the market.
Up and down the endless rows, bought a lot of green things, got some coconuts and then went to get some brunch - pupusas of course.
Except this time, not to split, jaja! Brought mangas, caimitos, and pupusas back for my host family - they were thrilllled :) Then showed them the other things I bought, mint, green beans, spinach, a sweet lemon and sugar snap peas. My mama couldn't believe I ate green beans and sugar snap peas raw, but when I went to bite into a sugar snap peas, I realized why, the pod is a bit tougher here, but I think it is still edible!
Relaxed, had some lunch with the familia, watched Your Sister's Sister (which had a terrible ending), and now I am avoiding studying for some midterms this week by writing about this past week! Shucks, I guess that means it is time to start homework...dinner and a shower first though!
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