Sunday, May 26, 2013

Feliz Cumpleanos y mi tico familia







It’s the end of day number three in Costa Rica! So much has happened the past two days that it almost feels like a week’s worth of time. Yesterday was mi cumpleanos! We went to La Paz Water Gardens and saw so many beautiful animals and waterfalls. It was a wonderful and memorable way to celebrate my 21st birthday. While at La Paz, Javier shared so much of his knowledge with us – muy impresivo! He seemed to know everything about every plant, every animal, and everything to do with Costa Rica. While hiking up to one of the waterfalls, he stopped us and asked for us to be quiet in order to listen to the birds. We listened for a minute and then he told us to close our eyes. With our eyes closed, we could hear everything so much better as we were more reliant on that one sense. He explained to us that sometimes, we just need to close our eyes and listen. I thought this was so beautiful and such a great lesson. Today in class we reflected on this a little bit and discussed how good of a lesson this would be to do with some of our future students! Today we had to get up very early and leave the beautiful hotel La Condesa to head for the Poaz volcano. On the way there, we stopped at a coffee plantation. Once again, Javier shared his knowledge with us about these coffee fields and the ticos who work on them. We arrived at the beautiful Poaz and saw the top of a volcano as well as a lagoon. Afterwards we had lunch at what is so far my favorite place (I say that every time we eat somewhere). The afternoon consisted of our Spanish testing, orientation, and classes with Dr. Powell and Dr. Aram at CPI, followed by a walk around Heredia. In our class with Dr. Powell and Dr. Aram, we got to do a lot of reflecting. It was nice because our schedule has been so jam packed that I don’t think I’ve gotten a chance to process anything we’ve done or seen. One thing I reflected on most was the overall patience and kindness of the people here in Costa Rica. In America it seems as though many people get annoyed with foreignors and deem them as less intelligent or less superior than us. Whereas here in Costa Rica, almost every person I have come in contact with has smiled, said “hola”, and seemed to really appreciate my efforts to immerse in their culture. Some will even take the time to help you by correcting your Spanish when you attempt to say something but say it the wrong way. After that very long day of events, it was finally time to meet our host families! I have been so nervous about this since the moment I found out I was coming on this trip, but for some reason I was not nervous at all when the time came to meet them (the pura vida, laid back lifestyle here must be having an effect on me). My mama tica came to greet me and her, my papa tica, and their neighbors’ daughter, Samantha took me home. I know a little bit of Spanish but I am not good at understanding it. I can speak it, read, and write well but for some reason it is very hard for me to understand it when others speak it. When I arrived a la casa, the family (my mama and papa tica, their two kids Josue and Maria and Maria’s two children) were there as well as the neighbors. My mama tica showed me around, asked me questions that I did my best to answer, and even let me help her cook! She made the typical tico meal, casado, with chicken, rice, beans, and pico de gallo. I spent some time with the family, we walked to the church that I have to meet at in la manana, and then went to her Uncle’s house where another student in my group is staying. It was very interesting and very fun. Just in one night I realized how family oriented they were. I met her mother, her sister, and her uncle who all live right down the street. One of my most memorable moments of the night was when I was sitting in the living room with the family. The little girl, Samantha, was trying to talk to me but I couldn’t understand what she was trying to say. She kept saying, “pato, pato, gazado” and I had no idea what that meant! Then she went around the room, touched each persons’ head and said “pato” and then when she got to me she yelled “gazado”. I quickly caught on that it was duck, duck, goose. I thought this was so awesome because even with the language barrier and living in two very different cultures, at 4 years old she did her best to connect with me and play a game – and it was one that I knew! I would love to bring ideas like this into my future classroom. I think it would be so cool to teach games that everyone knows, but play them in variations of other cultures. I have been in Costa Rica for just three days and it already seems that I have learned so much. But, it has been a very very long day and tengo mucho mucho sueno ( I am very very tired).  Bueno noches y pura vida!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Dia Numero Uno!



Today was not only my first day in Costa Rica but also my first day outside of the United States. Needless to say, it was very exciting! With that being said, it has also been very exhausting. I did not sleep much last night because I had to leave by 4AM in order to arrive at the airport on time. I am also a very nervous flier so I did not sleep on either of the flights. After our flights and the long lines at customs in the chaotic San Jose airport, I think we were all extremely exhausted but we all perked up because we had finally arrived in the beautiful country of Costa Rica. We were greeted by Justin and Christina who work for CPI. They’re energy and cheerfulness also helped pull us out of our exhausted state. The first thing we did was go get lunch – we were all starving! Seeing the town of Heredia as we drove to the restaurant was my first glimpse of Costa Rica. I have seen some pictures of Costa Rica and have heard lots of stories about how friendly the people are here but I still did not really know what to expect. The town is extremely populated and there were tons of little stores along with some American ones – Denny’s, Wal-Mart, Pizza Hut, etc. But at the same time, it seemed like they still had a very distinct culture of their own. The restaurant we went to for lunch had some tico dishes as well as some American ones. I order the quesadilla and it was muy delicioso! Our waitress was so very kind and patient. I work as a server myself and I imagined how frustrated and difficult it would be for me to wait on a table that only spoke Spanish. I really appreciated her patience. After we ate lunch, we went to the bank which is an extremely different experience than going to the American Bank. First of all, you have to walk through a detector on your way in and on your way out. There were guards and it was extremely quiet. Our next trip was to the market – this was my favorite part of the day. Under a large covered area there were dozens of individual vendors selling their fruits and vegetables that they grew themselves. There were so many tropical fruits that I had never even heard of and many of the fruits that are expensive in America (mangos, pineapple, bananas, melons) were sold for a very cheap price at this market. We all walked around and many of the people gave us samples of their fruits and vegetables. I tried so many new delicious fruits! Justin talked to us about how important a market like this is for Costa Rican culture. While there are American stores here like Walmart, where people can go buy any of the same goods, most ticos choose to buy it here. It preserves their culture and helps to keep the selling of locally grown produce prosperous. We finished the night off with a nice dinner and now I can barely keep my eyes open. In just one day here I have tried so many new delicious foods and gotten a glimpse at this beautiful city. I am truly excited to experience all the great things the rest of this trip has to offer. Buenos noches y Pura Vida!