Semana Libre (Free Week)

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!

Finals Week

Saturday, February 26, 2011

                It has been yet another busy week here in Costa Rica.  It was the last week of our first session of classes, so I had a lot of prep work and studying to do for my final exams.  I went to a soda called Asucar y Sal (sugar and salt) with Amy, and we sat and studied for our Spanish 419 class together.  We had been there for about an hour when a Costa Rican man came and sat at the table right next to ours.  After a few minutes he asked us if we spoke Spanish, and he told us that he was studying English here in Costa Rica, and he has a wife who lives in Pennsylvania.  He asked Amy and me what our names are.  We were advised to not give out personal information to anyone we didn’t know, so Amy said, “My name is Chris,” and I told him my name was Sarah.  He was a really nice guy, but you can never be too careful. 

                Part of our Spanish 419 class is studying the different cultures in Latin America, so Amy asked the man what is thoughts were about all of the different cultures here in Costa Rica.  His response kind of surprised me.  He was pretty negative about certain groups of people, and very stereotypical of what they were like.  It was very interesting to hear what he had to say though, and I learned a lot about his Costa Rican perspective of immigrants into the country.  He told us never to walk around alone at night, and to always have our belongings secure, things we had heard before.  Here’s the kicker.  When the soda closed, he asked us if we wanted a ride home.  Really?  You just warned us about talking to strangers and keeping our belongings secure.. do you really think we’re going to get into a car with you?  Some people.. geez.  So Amy and I each took taxis home. 

Here are some photos from the week: 

Isaiah and I found this little friend while walking outside in San Jose during our lunch break

 The new soccer, or fútbol stadium in San Jose that was a gift from China.  It's shaped like a coffee bean because it's one of the main exports here in Costa Rica.

Walking to the bus right after a rain storm

                I met with Lara, one of the TA’s at the campus, this week for a one on one so she could check in with how things were going with my host family and classes and everything.  It was really great to talk with her about classes and to get to know her better.  We met at a local restaurant called Bossa Nova, a Portuguese restaurant about a 5 minute walk from my house.  We ordered these hot chocolate drinks that have chunks of chocolate resting at the bottom, but since the drink it hot all of the chocolate is melted.  It was glorious, I could drink those all day every day for the rest of my life.

                On Thursday night nearly everyone in our class met at a Bossa Nova after class to study for the 419 test again.  Nearly everyone meaning 7 out of the 8 students in the class.  I love having such small classes here!  It was a really productive meeting, and a lot of fun to study with everyone. 

                Friday was D day, meaning 3 tests and a paper due in one day.  My Spanish 302 tests went really well, I love that class.  Dinorah, my professor, is so wonderful.  The 419 test was very daunting.  We had to write about the themes and cultural meaning of two of the four movies we watched during the class, write a paragraph about 10 key people, events and ideas, and write a 5 page paper about major events, movements and ideas from Latin American culture and history.  It took me the entire 3 hours to complete it, and my hand is still a little sore today from so much writing.  But it’s OVER!!  Thank goodness.  From here on out I will only have one class at a time instead of two like I had this session.     

My finished Spanish 419 exam: 5 1/2 pages hand written front and back.

           

                After the test a group of us went to a bakery in Heredia called Trigo y Miel, which means Wheat and Honey in Spanish, to meet with Angels Aller, one of the Spanish professors from Whitworth North.  She came to visit the Costa Rica campus last week to see how things are going and to check in with the students.  Hollie and I split a Tres Leches, which is a really moist cake kind of dessert.  The talk with Angeles was really good, we gave her some suggestions about how the program could be improved, and what we really like about it so far.

Tres Leches

                That night a group of us went out on the town in Heredia to a restaurant to hang out and experience some Costa Rica night life.  We could hear people singing karaoke in every restaurant we walked by.  One thing you should know about Costa Rica: they take karaoke VERY seriously.  It’s kind of funny actually, because people here get so into it.  We ordered platacones at the restaurant, which are an appetizer of smashed baked plantains.  If you ever go to Costa Rica I highly recommend ordering platacones somewhere, they are fantastic.

                Today I sat outside at the park for a little over an hour and enjoyed the sunshine and wrote in my journal.  I sat right in front of the church, and watched a bride and groom take pictures outside of the church after their wedding.  The weather here has been fabulous, but later on this week we’re supposed to get some pretty intense thunder storms.  I’m excited, I love thunder and lightning!  This next week I don’t have any classes except for Core 350 on Wednesday, so I’m hoping to take some day trips to San Jose and maybe to the beach before we head to Nicaragua on March 5^th for a week.  

 Sitting in the sun at the park in front of the church

               

Week of Insanity

Sunday, February 20, 2011

                It’s been awhile since I have updated everyone on what I’ve been up to!  This week has been very overwhelming to say the least.  But Juan made bolas de coco (coconut balls), my favorite, on Friday for our postre (dessert) so that definitely made my week a little better!  

 Bolas de coco.  One of the best things I've ever eaten.

I had a midterm exam in my Spanish 419 class, so I was up late studying material for the exam every night.  This is partially my fault for deciding to go to the beach last weekend instead of spending the day studying.  But you know what?  I’m in Costa Rica, and the beach just sounded too good to pass up. :) My 419 class is a Latin American culture and civilization course, and the course is taught in Spanish.  It’s definitely a difficult class, but I’m really enjoying what I’ve learned so far.  I just wish that I didn’t have two classes, and on Wednesdays three, every day.  It’s exhausting to take two classes in 3 weeks that usually take a semester to complete!  Needless to say, I love my professors and am learning very quickly.  

        Here are some random pictures from my week:

I saw these ants while I was walking to my internship in San Jose.  Look closely at the top left ant. I definitely do NOT want to get bitten by one of these guys!

 Anne and I were fascinated by this Siamese banana

 A sunset on my walk home after school.

                On Friday night I worked on some homework and went to bed early after an exhausting week.  Saturday was a lot of fun!  After being shut in a classroom all week in the windy, misty mountains I was ready to go outside and enjoy some Costa Rican sun!  Whitworth South is up on Monde de la Cruz, and is situated right in the middle of a rainforest, so it’s always about 20 degrees cooler up there than it is in town.  It rains, or mists, every day.  I learned today that the mist on the mountains is called pelo del gato, literally translated to “cat hair” in Spanish.  It’s a Costa Rican phrase.. There are a lot of slang phrases here that the Ticos and Ticas use that I need to learn. 

                Anyways, my friend Bree and I walked around San Rafa for awhile.  We could not have picked a more perfect day to be outside.  The sun was shining, and there was a slight breeze to cool us off.  The farthest I’ve walked in San Rafa is from my house to the bus stop, so we adventured to the OTHER side of the bus stop and walked around that part of town for awhile.  We found a smoothie shop on one street called Cosechas, which means “things” in Spanish.  We bought a huge orange, pineapple and mango smoothie for $2, and it was fabulous.  

 Bree and me in San Rafa with our smoothie

So. Good. 

 The park in front of the church in San Rafael

Closer picture of the church.  I could stare at this building all day, it's so beautiful!

                Bree had to go back to her house after awhile, so I met up with my friend Amy, and she and I took the bus to Heredia to go exploring.  The bus is always an adventure, let me tell you.  There are two sensor bars when you first walk on the bus, and they “count” how many people get on and off the bus.  At the end of the day, if the bus driver does not have enough money for the number of people the bars sensed got on the bus, he has to pay the difference out of his own pocket.  And yes, all of the bus drivers are men.  When we all first arrived in Costa Rica and took the bus the first few times, we didn’t know about the sensor bars on the bus, and definitely got some dirty glares (and some incorrect change) from the bus driver for standing in between the bars while waiting to pay to get on the bus.  Oops.  Did I mention that all of the buses here are stick shift?  Who in their right mind ever thought that it would be a good idea to make a stick shift bus?!  I mean really, common sense here people.  Let me tell you, going up the mountain to school Tuesday-Friday on a stick shift bus is quite the experience.  The driver starts to gain some momentum, and then the bus lurches forward as he shifts gears, and then he gains a little bit more speed and then BAM, shifts gears again.  By the time he gets up to a decent speed, we have reached another stop, and the process of gear shifting starts all over again.  Balancing on a bus while standing up is hard enough, standing up in a moving bus that is constantly shifting gears is nearly impossible.  I’m just waiting for the day that I go flying down the aisle and start knocking down people like bowling pins.  Trust me, I’ll blog about it when it happens.

 Amy and me in the park at Parque Central in Heredia

                Where was I?  Oh right, Amy and I got on the bus without standing in between the sensor bars and held on for dear life as the gears grinded on our way to Heredia.  We met up with our friend Callie from Whitworth who is studying at the National University in Heredia.  She lives in Heredia, which is a much larger city than San Rafael, so she showed us around the city and her school.  It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to go to a local café to get some cool drinks.  Callie and I got a mint latte sort of drink, and Amy got a frozen blended brownie drink.  The waiter brought out our drinks and I was sooo excited to drink mine, until I realized that it was a hot coffee drink, not a cold one.  Oops.  It pays to read the fine (or really big) print that says “Café Caliente” (hot coffee).  

What I thought was going to be a cool, refreshing coffee drink

Super excited.. and then I realized it was hot. 

                After that the three of us caught a bus back to San Rafael.  My host mom Orella and I went to our pastor’s house for a Día de las Mujeres (women’s day) with the pastor’s wife and other ladies from the church.  It was a lot of fun!  The pastor at my church is from Michigan.  He and his wife are missionaries and started the church several years ago.  Since then, other American families have moved to San Rafael to be missionaries through the church there.  It’s really neat to have the mix of Costa Rican families and American families in the same church.  There were about 12 women at the house, and we played games and sang songs and ate dinner.  It was great to get to know some of the women better, and to practice my Spanish.  One of the women from the church gave a talk about how it’s important to take in God’s word as if we were thirsty in a desert and His word was a glass of cool water.  “Tu eres el agua viva,” means “You are the living water.”  We then talked about how we can use our gifts to serve in the church.  After talking for awhile, the women asked me if I would be willing to help lead worship and teach Sunday School once or twice a month.  Of course I said yes, and I’m really excited!  It’s been awhile since I’ve lead worship at church, and leading in Spanish will be something totally new for me.  After the women’s night, I came back home while Orella drove her sister and niece to their house.   I walked into the house and heard a beeping noise.  The alarm.  Awesome.  I punched in a few numbers into the key pad and hoped they were the right ones.  Of course they weren’t.  So the alarm started screaming, and then suddenly stopped.  The phone rang a few moments later, and the guy from the security company on the other end of the line asked if everything was okay.  The thing is, there’s a certain way you’re supposed to answer that question.  Certain phrasing of the words, “yes, everything is okay,” can either mean that yes, things are fine, or it is code to the security company that no, things are not okay and I need the police to come immediately.  Orella explained it to me on the first day that I moved into the house, and that the purpose of the different phrasing was so that if there really was a burglar in the house, he or she would think that by saying, “yes everything is okay” that the police weren’t coming, when really they were on their way.  In my moment of panic I couldn’t remember which phrase was which, but I miraculously remembered the second code word to tell the security guy.  I was obviously flustered, and apparently over the phone it was obvious that Spanish was not my first language, so the security guy asked me in very broken English, “Are.. you.. okay..?”  To which I said yes, I just forgot the code to the house.  For some reason he believed me, the code word must have worked, and the police didn’t show up to arrest me.  All of those code words are so confusing!  After my mini heart attack, I went to my room, finished my RA application (cross your fingers for me!) and went to bed. 

                This morning I went to church with Orella and Yara.  The pastor has been speaking about Love for the last few weeks since it is February.  I was actually surprised that Valentine’s Day in Costa Rica isn’t a big deal.  I would have completely forgotten it was Valentine’s Day last week had I not seen people on the side of the road selling flowers.  After church we went out to lunch at a small fast foodish restaurant in a neighboring town.  Orella asked me if I liked ravioli, and I said I did, so she ordered it for me.  I was expecting a little dish filled with stuffed pasta.  That was not what the waiter placed in front of me.  Apparently Costa Rica puts its own spin on ravioli.  In the basket in front of me was a cole slaw type of salad covered in a mustard and mayo sauce, and under that was a deep fried.. something, sitting on a small tortilla.  Really?  Ravioli?  Honestly I was less than thrilled.  I’m not a huge fan of mustard and mayo covered fried grease, but I didn’t want to be rude so I ate it.    

                After lunch we came back to the house, and Orella drove to her brother’s house to drop her niece off.  I decided to go to the park and do homework with my friend Rachel, so I lathered on some sunscreen and walked to the park, just in time for the clouds to roll in and wind to pick up.  Perfect.  Rachel and I ended up going into a little restaurant thing by the church where we bought coffee and worked on Spanish homework for a few hours.   

My Spanish 419 text book.  Doesn't it look like a fun read??

 Rachel told me to take a picture of the people sitting outside of the bread store (panaderia), so I did.  The bread there is SO good!

When I got back to the house, everyone was still out and about, so I sat down at the keyboard and practiced singing and playing some Spanish worship songs.  It’s a lot easier said than done!  But after a few times through the songs I started to get the hang of it.  Orella brought some calzone-like food home for dinner, so we ate those and then I asked if I could practice singing and playing for her and Yara.  It’s been such a long time since I’ve sang in front of people, I was really nervous, but they were very encouraging.  While I was sitting at the keyboard, I felt a weird shaking in the floor.  I thought Yara was kicking the keyboard bench, but it was actually a small earthquake!  It was a super weird feeling; I’ve never felt an earthquake before. 

                For the rest of the night I have homework and sleep to catch up on.  I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!