Friday, March 4, 2011
This week has been absolutely wonderful! My Spanish 302 and 419 classes ended a week earlier than the Spanish 102 and 202 classes did because 302 and 419 were only 3 credits, while 102 and 202 were 4 credits. Confused? My only day of class was on Wednesday for Core 350, so I had Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to do whatever I wanted.
I was in my house alone one night and turned on a light switch, which turned on some green lights in the garden. It looks so cool!
Sunday morning Bree and I met early in the central park of San Rafael and walked around the Sunday market. There are hundreds of vendors lining the streets, each selling something different. Most of the vendors sell fruit of some kind.
The San Rafa Market
Bree bought a huge bag of ripe strawberries, and we ate a good chunk of them while we continued to walk around the market. One man was selling coconuts. At his booth he had a machete and was cutting off the top of the coconuts so people could drink the milk out of them. Of course I had to try one. I paid him the 200 Colones (which is less than 50 cents!) and was on my way. I was actually really disappointed.. the milk was kind of bitter, but really sweet at the same time. I don’t know how else to describe it.
Bree with her strawberries and me with the coconut
After a few sips, I ended up giving the rest to Danica and Britta when Bree and I ran into them at the park a few minutes later. Amy met us in the park shortly after, and she, Bree and I walked to church together. Church was wonderful, as usual. After the sermon, I walked over to the piano and started playing “Mighty to Save” and began to sing the song in Spanish. Ariel, who is the worship leader at the church and a senior in high school, came over with his guitar and started to play and sing along with me. It was so cool to worship with someone in another language! He and I are going to play that song together at church in a few weeks for the congregation, and I’m really excited!
I was home alone for a little while that night, and as it got dark I turned on some light switches. One switch lit up the indoor garden with a few green lights, and it looked really cool!
Lights on the garden
On Monday Isaiah and I went to San Jose as usual for our internships at Habitat for Humanity. Today was my first “real” day because the lady I’m taking over for left, so I was on my own. The only bad part about that was that my user name and password for my computer and all of the programs that I need for the computer wasn’t ready yet, so I was without a computer for the entire day. That made my job a little tricky, since I mostly respond to emails and send information to people over the internet. Basically I spent the entire day writing letters to friends and getting caught up on my field journal. In the journal I write about things I observe in the culture, such as “machismo” (which is a word that describes male behavior towards women in Latin American culture). Then I write questions about what I have observed, and make conclusions based on what I know about the culture since being here in Costa Rica. It’s really interesting, actually. After our internship, Isaiah and I took the bus into Heredia and walked around for a little bit. Surprisingly, Costa Rica is extremely lacking in the chocolate department, so when we walked by a candy shop, we went in and bought a few fistfuls of chocolate. It was SO cheap, and so delicious. I bought a few candy bars and some individual chocolates for a little over a dollar. Don’t ask me how long they lasted after we left the candy store..
On Tuesday Bree and I took a trip to Heredia. We sat right behind the driver on the bus. While we were at a bus stop letting some passengers off, an older man walked passed us to get off the bus. Out of nowhere he stopped in the middle of the aisle, turned around, and just stared at Bree and I for a good 10 seconds. He then turned around, walked down a few steps on the bus, stopped, turned around again, and stared for another 5 seconds or so. It was SO weird. I’ve never been so blatantly stared at in my entire life. While in Heredia, we went to the mall. It’s called Paseo de las Flores, which roughly translates to “walk of the flowers” in English. That place was incredible. By far, it was the nicest mall I’ve ever been in. The ceiling had vents in it, so there was always a nice breeze blowing throughout the mall, and there were fountains everywhere. I was a little surprised at how Americanized the mall was though. All of the food court places were American restaurants, such a Burger King McDonalds, Subway, and Quiznos.
The food court at the mall
The entry to Paseo de las Flores
Bree and I decided to eat lunch at Subway. Sounds easy enough, right? Yeah, we thought so too, until it came time to tell the lady working there what vegetables we wanted on our sandwich. We didn’t know all of the names of the veggies, so we ended up trying to point through the glass window and tell her to go to la derecha (the right) or la izquierda (the left). It was really funny actually, and I learned some new words. After the mall we went into Heredia and walked around outside for awhile. I bought a smoothie called paraíso de guabanana (guava paradise).
New favorite drink
I attempted to straighten my hair for the first time on Tuesday, but the humidity caused it to curl quite a bit.
When I left the house that morning, my hair was straight. When I got back, it looked like this. Gotta love the Costa Rican humidity.
Wednesday I went to the campus for lunch and Core 350. I was standing in line for food with Jenni Holsinger, one of the professors, and was talking with her. Jenni is there with her entire family, and while we were talking her 7 year old son Ravi came up to me and said, “Heeeeey, I like the design on your pocket!” and began tracing the design with his finger. Yes. By pocket he meant my back pocket on my jeans. I looked over and Jenni and she and I started cracking up, it was SO hilarious. Ravi is a really sweet kid, and obviously didn’t realize what he was doing, so I said to him, “Thanks Ravi! Do you have a cool design on your pocket, too?” It’s so great having Jenni’s kids there with us, they help lighten the mood and keep us all on our toes. After lunch Britta and Danica and I sat outside and read out loud to one another for our Core class. It was such a beautiful day outside! We’re reading One World by Peter Singer, and it’s actually really interesting, I recommend it to anyone who is passionate about the environment.
Thursday I slept in and didn’t do much in the morning. It felt wonderful to not have any obligations for the day. Orella made me a wonderful plate of sliced fresh fruit for breakfast. It was SO good. Later in the afternoon Bree and I went to the park in San Rafael and sat at a bench and read books for about an hour. It was another beautiful day in San Rafa, and it felt fantastic to be outside in the sunshine with shorts and a tank top on. I could really get used to this nice weather. When we were done reading, we took a walk around San Rafa. There’s a store about 10 minutes away from the church that’s nicknamed “The China” because all of the things in the store were originally made in the US, sent to China, and then whatever China didn’t want they sent to this store in Costa Rica. Everything is super cheap; it’s kind of like Ross in the US. One side is clothing and toys, in the middle there are pet fish for sale, and on the other side there are things like tools, hardware, and toilets. Random, right? We didn’t buy anything, but it was fun to look around.
Today I woke up a little earlier than Thursday, and went to campus to turn in my field journals to my professor Lindy, eat lunch with everyone and print out my return ticket information. We’re going to Nicaragua tomorrow for a week, and in order to get back into Costa Rica, I need proof that I will actually be leaving the country at some point. Our campus has a pet dog named Larry, who is a stray who adopted us as his owners. I went outside and gave Larry some attention this morning before lunch. He is such a sweet dog!
Pals
Larry!
He's such a good dog, he knows he's not supposed to come inside, so he just stands at the open door and waits for someone to come give him attention.
Lunch was not nearly as eventful as Wednesday. I guess my pockets weren’t very interesting today. Juan made an awesome Costa Rican version of German Chocolate cake for our postre though, it was amazing.
So. Good.
I was on campus for a few hours, and then came back to San Rafa to finish packing for Nicaragua.
Whitworth is now official to all drivers on the road!
It was such a nice day!
Later in the evening, I decided to take a walk around San Rafa to see the sun set. San Rafa is a fairly flat city, and there are houses and little shops everywhere, so it’s hard to see a clear view of the sunsets. There are always a few clouds in the sky, and from my house I can see the sky turn into shades of pink and orange as the sun goes down, so tonight I was determined to find a clear view of the sunset. I walked around San Rafa for about 15 minutes before I found a semi clear spot. Here are some pictures I took from where I was.
Well, tomorrow I leave for Nicaragua at 4:15. No. Not 4:15 in the afternoon, 4:15AM. So I should get to bed so I can wake up bright and early. Stay tuned for next week’s blog about my adventures in Nicaragua!
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