Okay. SO, it's been a while! Going to attempt to cover this entire week that I haven't posted about!
Enero 26-29 (clases)
Since I waited so long to do this post, I do not recall many details about the weekdays (whoops).
On Monday, I had class at 8:00am, instead of 10:00am like usual, because Professor Temple wanted to take her class that is scheduled before my Community Engagement class on a tour of San Jose Wednesday. So, Joaquin agreed to have a four hour session on Monday from 8-12 and then no class on Wednesday so that she could do her tour. Entonces, I was not looking forward to a 4 hour session (I have enough trouble with 2 hour sessions at 8:00am). However, it turned out to be a great class! It was more of group therapy session were we all sat in a circle and talked about the differences in cultures we are experiencing here.
Things such as our tica mamas cleaning our rooms and tweaking little things when we are out for the day. Por ejemplo, if I leave any shoes out, I will come home to them in my closest. Another girl said her mom will remake her bed everyday. And another extreme case was that Ilana came back from class and found her mom had moved her bookmark in the opposite direction (so strange, jaja). We also discussed family structure here, how children live with their parents much longer and that the families are very large/close (it's like Thanksgiving every weekend for family get togethers). Ellie made an interesting connection between the need for independence in US culture and consumerism. Why move out of your parents house if they have the space? Moreover, time blocks in Costa Rica are more like 20 minutes, whereas in the US they are 5 minutes. If someone is one time block late, it is okay. If someone is two time blocks late, requires an apology. If someone is three time blocks late, an apology plus justification.
In my Rural and Urban Sustainable Development class I learned that scientists are creating artificial leaves, which I had no knowledge of. Also, Kip told a story about his friend who's dad owned a farm and a company bought all the land around the property and cut off their access to water in order to make them sell the land to the company (insanity).
In Environmental Issues, we start of each class sharing a current news story, and I love this because it is interesting to see what everyone chooses to share. Tommy shared an article about the toucan who had his beak ripped off by someone and how there is lack of legal protection. Ellie shared about four indigenous activists/protestors who were killed in Peru, which is ironically where the U.N. Summit took place. I shared about a plan to build an underwater city called Ocean Spiral. On Thursday, we watched Fern Gully, which was one of my favorite childhood movies.
Also, on Wednesday we had an ICDS meeting to talk more about our homestays and the cultural differences with Luis. On the way there, Sam and I decided to get some brownies, because, well, we wanted 'em. So, we arrived a bit late. I walked into the room, everyone yelled "Surprise! Feliz Cumpleanos" and began to sing to me. I was so confused and didn't think they were being serious, until Luis pulls out a huge rainbow cake and starts to light some candles, telling me to "make three wishes and keep them a secret"! It was amazing, I was caught so off guard (again) by how kind everyone is here and how much they celebrated my birthday when they just met me (p.s. that makes at least five birthday celebrations since I have been here, love it).
Thursday night I spent some one on one time with Lanz, we made some macaroni and cheese, it was beyond splendid.
Enero 30
Friday was my group's first visit to our community service site! We (Danielle, Meira, Hannah, Kip, Maylin and me) are all working for Molinas Verdes de Molinga, but in pairs at three different sites. However, on Friday we all started out by going to the main site, Full Tierra, to get the basic introduction to the organization.
It took a bit of meandering to get there. We met with Ani, one of the ICDS admins, to walk there. Had to ask for directions a few times but no problema! We were greeted by Eric, one of the founders of the project and soon after Santiago, our supervisor, arrived. He gave us the low down on Full Tierra. Told us some key vocabulary we may need to know and put us to work weeding and working on the compost piles.
I did not think of bringing my garden gloves (and neither did another else), so we were weeding with bare hands. I usually prefer to weed without gloves because I feel I can get a better grip to pull the roots out, but I soon changed my mind once I stuck my hand into a few ants nests and they bit me all over (grrr - the bites are starting to itch today). Let's just say I won't be making that mistake again!
After some more weeding, and admiring all the smelly-goody plants (basil in particular), Hannah, Kip, Maylin and I were dismissed while Santiago took Danielle and Meira to the site they would be working at (Maylin and I do not go to ours until this upcoming Friday - can't wait!). We backtracked the best we could and decided to all go get some eats. Kip was talking up this taco place a few people had gone to earlier in the week, so we were convinced to go there. All excited, we turned the corner and found that it was closed. A group "noooooo" was let out and we turned around to go to our back up (and always reliable), Aroma y Sabor. Maylin and I split a chicken empanada and burrito, and also splurged for a mango, peach, pineapple smoothie. Safe to say I will be getting about 5o more of those before I leave Costa Rica.
Went our separate ways for about an hour to get cleaned up before meeting back up at ULatina to go to Museo Nacional in downtown San Jose. We met up with Meira, Danielle, and Ani, and just our luck, it was free admission that day! When you enter the museum, the first thing you come into is a huge butterfly garden.
Spent some time in here admiring all the colorfully patterned butterflies, we even saw one crawling out of his cocoon. The path then led us up to a lovely rooftop garden that branched off to different buildings where the exhibits were shown.
There was a large group of people waiting in line for what looked like free coffee and pound cake, so obviously we joined in the line even though we weren't quite sure if we were allowed to. Got some agua dulce y cake, so good (but I really was excited for some coffee cause I was cansada).
Walked around the various exhibits (historical with dioramas, architecture, photography documenting major world events, the history of the museum, etc.). For some reason I thought it was a good idea to do the limbo at one point..
Pretty neat, but again I found myself admiring the views more than anything else. The sun was peaking through the clouds over the mountains, producing rays that lit up little sections.
After we made our rounds at the museum, we thought it'd be a good idea to scope out where we had to catch the bus for the adventure to Volcan Irazu, so we walked a few blocks to the Teatro Nacional, which was across the street from the bus stop. From there we ventured over to POPS to get some ice cream, and spent some time listening to some awesome musicians playing the sax and a gigantic didgeridoo.
After a satisfying double scoop of brownie explosion and cookies & cream, it was getting late so we headed in the direction of the bus back to San Pedro. On our way there, we were stopped by a guy, claiming to be from LA, asking for money to buy a meal. He said he got "rolled" by the cops for marijuana and gave us a whole speel. No one seemed inclined to tell him no nor give him some money, so I gave him a dollar, said "have a good day", and continued onto the bus stop. A hop, skip, and a jump and I was back home.
I noticed some glasses on the main dining table, so figured they were expecting some guests. Had a quick Skype session with the Eagle clan :)
After which, my host papa came into my room to ask how my day went, and ended up serenading me, too cute. After my host mama served me dinner on my own, I realized they were having a few family members over to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary (actually on February 3rd - manana!). It is crazy to think they have been married longer than two of my lifetimes. So, Nando, the youngest of my host dad's brothers was the first to arrive. They commenced drinking some Costa Rican liquor and I had some wine (I don't think they want to serve me hard liquor, which is fine, my mama didn't seem quite comfortable with me having wine, but my host papa insisted). A little while later, Jessica, who I think is my mama's niece, arrived with bunches of food. But not five minutes later, she began to cry. Apparently she was having some marital troubles of her own, ironically enough. On the one hand it was a celebration of 44 years between mis padres, and on the other, Jessica was telling me never to get married and that marriage was very difficult.
I was trying to catch snippets of the conversation to figure out what the problems were, but all I caught was something about zumba classes, violence, and trying to stay calm. Didn't sound too good. At one point everyone was in the kitchen and Jessica and I were at the table alone, I felt so bad that I didn't know what to say to help or console her, instead I sat awkwardly for a while and let out a little "lo siento". Although I had already been served dinner, I joined them for some fish soup (really yummy - they all added ketchup, mayo, and tabasco to theirs, but I thought it was good as is).
Around 8:45pm, I said "chao" and left for the movies with the ICDS crew. Maylin, Hannah and I planned to take a taxi together, but I left kind of early so no one else was out yet. As I was waiting, a group of guys were walking in the direction of my house, so even thought I was right outside my house, I snuck back inside the gate until they passed and Maylin arrived (better safe than sorry). Less than a 2 mil cab ride later, we were at San Pedro Mall trying to navigate our way to the movie theater.
Finally found our way to the ticket booth where Sam and Jean were already buying their tickets. The majority of us decided to see The Theory of Everything, while another little group saw Ouija. The Theory of Everything was pretty good, but heavily focused on romance rather than the work of Stephen Hawking, which was a bit disappointing. Funny enough, after the movie ended we realized the Fall group of ICDS students were sitting right across from us in the theater. They invited us to Chicago to get some drinks, but we were all so tired out from the day that we took a rain check. Trying to get out of the mall was a task in itself. Everything was dark and closed down (very creepy), so we were wandering around for a while before a security guard came and showed us the way out.
Planned the meeting time for Volcan Irazu, hailed three taxis, and got home safe and sound. Surprisingly the party was still going at my house when I got back around 11:30pm. My other host sister was there eating dinner with her husband, Sebastian (who I hadn't met yet), and they were chatting with mama Hilda. I had a quick introduction then went to my room for some zZzZz's.
Enero 31
I forgot to tell my host mama the night before that I was going with a group of ICDS folks to visit Volcan Irazu, and we were meeting at 7:20am at ULatina to catch the bus into town. In my defense, when I got home the night before I didn't think I would be going because I was so tired, but I should have told her just in case. Woke up at 7:00am, made a snap decision to join the group on the excursion, packed some sunscreen and my windbreaker, wrote a little note to my mama and ran to meet them at our usual spot at ULatina. Ironically, the three of us who were not planning on going ended up being the first ones there (Ilana, Jean and me). After everyone arrived, we took the bus into San Jose and rushed over to the line for the bus to the volcano across from the Teatro Nacional.
Should have known we were on tico time and in no need to rush, but instead we got there at 8:00am, expecting to just catch the bus, when it didn't come until 8:20am. Mingled a bit with another student group who was on a program with Sol Education (meaning > other people mingled while I tried to stay awake and wished I would have stopped somewhere quick to get some food).
The yellow bus with "Volcan Irazu" splashed across the top finally arrived and we claimed our seats in the back. Luckily, Wendy gave me some of her granola bar and Ilana was willing to share some of her gallo pinto, so that tided me over until we got to Irazu.
The drive there, mostly everyone tried to sleep/slept...but I was in too much awe of the views.
I swear, everywhere you look in Costa Rica it is incredibly beautiful. Going up and up and up the mountain, the bus would weave in and out of bright blue skies and dense grey fog. The landscape was covered with bright shades of green - the bus ride in itself was worth the trip.
Around 10:30am we arrived at the entrance to the park. Everyone shuffled off the bus to stretch, buy some snacks, and get their tickets. I was one of the first of our group to buy a ticket, and it was more than I anticipated ($15), but luckily some of the other girls figured out that we could get in for $2 (1 mil colones) with our student IDs, so Maylin and I quickly ran back over to see if we could get our money back (we did!).
The partial granola bar and few spoonfuls of gallo pinto didn't quite do the trick, so I bought a tortilla con queso for 1 mil colones and was a happy camper. Sam and Terina were also kind enough to share their package of berries with everyone so I snatched up a few a those.
Back on the bus for about a one mile drive to the crater sites. At first, everyone seemed a bit unimpressed (including myself). Maybe not unimpressed, just not necessarily what we expected. We walked along the fence path that allowed everyone to view the craters, snap some photos.
May and I overheard the other student group talking about a trail on the ridge, so we decided to jump on the bandwagon. Hannah and Jean joined us as we tried to catch up with the Sol group. They were so fast, we lost track of them and went down the wrong path, realized we had to backtrack down (up) the road a bit to get to the higher trail.
So. Happy. we did this! The views were unreal. Clouds in every direction for as far as one could see. As we went higher and higher, I could feel my heart pounding (I am seriously out of shape, people). Altitude (and exercise in general) was getting the best of me, but it was welllll worth it.
We made many little pitstops along the way to the top to take pictures, then had a major photo session once we reached the top. Like I wrote in Spanish class today, "en ese momento, quise vivir en la montana y no salir nunca".
However, this wasn't the case. I couldn't live on the mountain because the bus was leaving at 12:30pm, whether I was on it or not. After rotations taking photos, and soaking up as much of the view as possible, we hurried back down the trail to join everyone for the bus ride back to San Jose. A quick trip to the bathroom and a run around the souvenir shop,
then the bus was leaving (no tico time for the departure). I snagged a window seat to better enjoy the views on the way back, and took wayy too many pictures.
Once we were down from the mountain, my body decided it wanted to sleep. The sun was glaring, so I put up the hood on my windbreaker and tried to sleep the rest of the way. Made it to San Jose, everyone was feeling a bit "bleh", so we sought out some food. Ilana, Jean and I went to the central market to get some spices, but ended up just grabbing some lunch there (casados con papas fritas, yum). Couldn't pass by POPS without getting some ice cream as well, so another brownie explosion and cookies & cream it was (no self-control).
Caught the bus back to San Pedro and opted to stay in for the night while some people went to Mundoloco for some Salsa music. Neglected to take a much needed shower, ate dinner with my familia, and watched waaaay too much Netflix (Grey's of course), I was a happy, lazy camper.
Febrero 1 (Cannot believe it is already February)
Superbowl Sunday!
My mama asked me the night before when I was waking up, I told her between 9:00am and 10:00am. She said she and Cali would be at church, so my breakfast would be ready in the microwave whenever I decided to wake up. Well, I didn't wake up until 11:00am (whoops). Thinking that is considered late here (since my host parents get up at like 5:30am every morning), and that they may already be back from church, I jumped up and took a shower. I figured that if I was at least ready for the day when I came out of my room that it wouldn't look as bad as if I came out in my pajamas. Luckily, they hadn't returned yet. I snatched my breakfast out of the microwave - there was arroz con pollo and refried black beans (yassss, love them). As soon as I began to wash my dishes, the door opened and my parents were home.
I asked how it went, my mama smiled big and told me today it was very beautiful (whereas other days she said she gets bored or does not really like what the priest? says). It was nice to see her so happy. Afterwards I told her I woke up mas tarde, she said Natalia likes to sleep in, too and sometimes she even sleeps until 11:00am (accompanied by a shocked facial expression - confirmed I should not sleep til then or at least not admit that I did, jaja). Kept my mouth shut that I woke up at 11:00am, and soon after left to help cook lunch for Ilana's familia. Stopped by the supermarket to get some baguettes for garlic bread, then joined Natalia and Ilana in the kitchen to make some spinach fettuccine alfredo. Considering I have only had pasta twice since I have been here (three times if you count the macaroni and cheese from the other night), it was a much needed meal. Natalia and Ilana had their hands full with pots full of noodles and sauce, so I was assigned the garlic bread. Sliced the baguette in half and crumbs went everywhere, felt so bad (I hope her host mama did notice). When it was ready to serve, the family started piling in. Us three, her host mom, her host mom's daughter, two granddaughters, two sisters, and one nephew all joined for a pasta feast. Everyone added some queso (not sure what kind) to their pasta and it hit the spot. Some "muy rico"s later, and all the plates were spotless (except for the granddaughter's, Sarita, who was not a fan). However, Sarita did enjoy showing us all of her Frozen themed possessions, which made me miss my Pey Bey. Sarita had this one Elsa doll, but it sang "I'm a Barbie Girl" by AQUA...not sure if anyone else remembers this song, but it surely was stuck in my head the rest of the day.
The pasta put us all in a food coma. Natalia, Ilana and I sat around the living room (I was horizontal), talking intermittently while trying to get some energy to do anything else with our day. Some soothing latina music was playing in the background which made it difficult to stay awake. Orange ice cream was eaten (I had two cones - what food coma?) and Sarita brought me one of the family dogs to snuggle with, Golby I believe is his name. I think I am making more canine friends than human ones, but it's all good in the hood, jaja.
Hours passed quickly and soon it was time to meet up with a few people to watch the Superbowl at a local bar, Mundoloco. Around 5:10pm, Sam met up with Natalia and I at Ilana's. Left around 5:30pm to meet Wendy at ULatina and swing by the bank so Natalia could get some more colones. While waiting for Wendy, we decided to go to the beloved Santa Clara bakery right across from ULatina...loaf of raisin bread, a donut, and a cinnamon bun later and we were on our way to Mundoloco to eat some more.
We joined Maylin and Hannah, arriving a bit late to the party (middle of the second quarter - but the second half of the game is always the most exciting anyways). Got some sad news though, no Superbowl commercials in Costa Rica (3/4 of the fun was sucked out of it all - but don't get me wrong, we still had a great time). Got some nachos and Imperials, and went crazy like a bunch of gringas when Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliot appeared during the Halftime show. I was rooting for the Seahawks, so like everyone else was astonished when they screwed themselves. But May and a few others were super excited that the Patriots won, so esta bien. Paid the bill and went out to hail some cabs. On the way out, I yelled to Natalia, "they lostttt" in disbelief, and Wendy said "Really? Those damn Seagulls." Quote of the night (love her). Error of the night - this guy came up to us, asked if we were trying to get cabs. We said yes, not thinking ahead that he would try to help get us cabs and expect some tips in exchange. So, he hailed one for the first group before we could tell him, "thank you, but we got this" (I felt bad, but it wasn't like he was helping us with directions or something that we couldn't do ourselves - our arms work)! Anyways, a short cab ride later and I was in for the night. Locked up the house, drank some agua, and passed out.
Febrero 2
**So this is where the caca portion of my post title comes in. Warning everyone reading now - if you don't like discussing poop, you may want to avoid the beginning and end of today's recap (LOL). It's about to get personal up in here.**
The mornings after I drink, I usually wake up super early, and today was no different (might have been because I forgot to close my window the last night and the train was extra loud this morning). I woke up an hour before my alarm (naturally I decided to stay in bed instead of being productive). On point with my routine after nights spent with alcohol, I take a nice morning poop. Well - today's was a monster. I knew this day would come, but it sort of caught me off guard this morning. Usually I can tell when there is going to a problem mid-process, but when I finished up and went to flush, I looked at it and literally said "Oh shit". Even though I knew it was hopeless, I tried to flush it once. Panicking, trying to figure out how to explain this in Spanish to my host mom (thinking back to the ICDS handbook that had that handy phrase in the survival spanish section), I decided to just let it sit and soften up while I was at school (I have a private bathroom after all). So I just closed the lid, washed my hands, and went on about my daily morning routine (which ironically we had to write about for our spanish homework today, I left this portion of my routine out).
Anyways, threw on a sweater and went out to eat breakfast with mis padres. My mama scrambled me an egg and I had some bread and fruit with it. Afterwards I worked a finishing up some reading for Community Engagement, then went to said class. Today we had a guest professor, the director of ICDS, Don Jorge. We discussed the Human Development Index and pondered how we can measure well-being, basic needs, or quality of life when it is all relative. Then, it was time lunch. The group that had gone to the grocery store earlier in the week were running low on food supplie for lunch, so we visited Mas o Menos to replenish our goodies (I got some more hummus with pita pieces, some refried black bean dip, apples, and yogurt). Proceeded to speed-walk back to the ICDS office to eat all our newly bought goodies. Lucky for me, Ilana wasn't hungry, so she gave me her packed lunch from home and I could save my goodies for a later date (aka later that afternoon). I had a yummy potato/cheese/egg concoction with rice and broccoli.
Soon it was time for Espanol. We reviewed the preterite, did some exercises, and played a little game to see which team could conjugate the most verbs in the present and past tense yo form. Jean and I would have won, except we neglected to add accents on many of the verbs, therefore causing us to lose by 5 points (gotta remember those accents on my test on Wednesday, yikes!).
At 3:30pm we had a meeting with Luis at the ICDS office to discuss our upcoming trip to Tortuguero (aka not tortuguero, but a town on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica). He told us we would be doing some service work to help improve the infrastructure of a local school that has less than 20 students, all different ages/grades, and only one teacher for them all. Some past projects ICDS has done are finishing the bathrooms that they had started to build and building a walkway from the river to the schoolhouse (because before the children basically had to walk in a swamp when it rained). Obviously, I am very excited to help in any way I can!
Following the information session, a few of the other students had planned a soccer game with some local kids and an older man at the field near Iglesia de Lourdes, so they went to play and I joined the group that went to watch.
Such a great time (but then again, it always is with these people). We were seeing how many pushups we could do (Sam showed us all up by doing 30), talking and laughing about random things, then decided to make shapes out of the clouds. Meira made a comment, something concerning poop, and my mind shot back to this morning. Before I knew it, I was telling everyone about it and they were all dying of laughter. It spurred a whole caca themed conversation that I was very appreciative of. However, I was starting to panic, thinking that when I got home it would no longer be there and that meaning my host mother actively lifted up the lid, found it, and dealt with it. Oy vey. The soccer game ended, and Danielle started teaching us all gymnastics (to my surprise, I am still able to do a split on demand, woohoo!). On my walk home, this couple was carrying groceries and ran across the train tracks seconds before it came wooshing by, I shot a terrified look in their direction and the girl just laughed - crazy people!
When I got home from the soccer game/laughing party/gymnastics extravaganza, I noticed my host parents were not home. I went straight to my bathroom to see if the caca was indeed still in the bowl. Well guys, it was gone. I immediately went to my desk, frantically consulting google translate and my spanish dictionary to write a note to my host mama (because frankly I do not think I would have been able to say it out loud). I included things like I am SO sorry, thanks SO much for cleaning my bathroom, I didn't mean for you to have to do it, I was waiting til I got home from school to let it soften up, blah blah blah. About fifteen minutes later, I heard the door open and knew it was time to confront her. She came into my room all smiley, asking how my day was (I must have looked like a sad little dog with its tail between its legs). I didn't let her finish saying, "hola, como estas?" before I was blurting out, "Lo siento por mi bano"!
I handed her my note, and she looked at me very confused. She read it, looked up and asked if I simply (olvido) forgot to flush or if it just wouldn't go down. I confirmed the latter, and she shuffled me into the bathroom to show me how to make the flush more powerful. A conversation I was terrified to have turned out to be, "no problema, esta bien!" jaja. Anyways, at least the seal has been broken, she's seen it all, and I can come to her about my poop problems next time it happens (cause it inevitably will, folks). No shame.
Dinner wasn't awkward, thank goodness. Had some hamburguesas, rice, and mashed sweet potatoes (which are not orange here, rather a greenish color). Super yummy though. Now it is time to work on my Rural and Urban Sustainable Development homework (no Environmental Issues tomorrow, mi profesora tiene the flu - good for me, bad for her).
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