Thursday, January 27, 2011

accidente!

Today was an eventful day in the household (although not for me, thankfully!).  My two tico brothers went to a big pool today which was kind of like the equivalent of an American water park, I think.  Families here check in a lot with each other, so our mama tica had called them a couple times during the morning/early afternoon to make sure they had gotten there ok, were doing ok, etc.  Around 2, mama tica received a call from one of the brothers that said "We're at the hospital. But don't worry, Luis is fine" and poor mama tica was so worried all day! She couldn't go get them because the hospital is too far away so her daughter did, and she was so worried because she couldn't go and kept imagining the worst. They came back a couple hours ago and one of the boys had to get a couple stitches, but luckily he's completely fine.

To add to our poor mama tica's day, both Julian and my roomate are a little, little bit sick, but enough to worry mama. And, when she had finished making dinner, she looked in the pot of arroz con pollo and amidst the white rice and chicken saw a little bitty black speck...a fly. So she had to throw the whole thing out and make it again (I can imagine that stuff like this happens occasionally..I have had to fish a couple ants out of my lemonade on a couple occasions...haha, I do miss some things about America). I didn't have the heart to tell her that the mouse was back in my room. Poor mama! Anyways, it was an eventful day in San Jose.

Oh, and another funny (sort of) animal story: one of my friends came home to her room yesterday and there were feathers all over her floor and bird poop on one of her books.  She found out later that somehow a bird had gotten into her room and the maid had killed it there...and I guess it just never got cleaned up? haha. I thought it was funny..but then again it wasn't my room lol. Interesting happenings these days...

finals week..

This week is finals week! Our Spanish classes are Intensive courses so they fit 80 hours of class time into one month.  Today I had a 15 minute presentation and tomorrow I have the final exam. Because it's a new class session, we get Monday off.  This also means that I have been here a month! Wow, it does not feel like that long. Time here has definitely gone by fast. This weekend, we are heading to Monteverde, where I will get to zipline through the jungle :) Can't wait.

P.s. My mouse 'friend' came back to visit today. I saw him in my room...except the door was shut so I don't know where he came from and couldn't find him afterwards. And, my mama tica said she had already caught a mouse..so that means it has friends. yuck.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

white water rafting

Sunday, we got the chance to go WHITE WATER RAFTING!!  It was awesome. I loved it.  It was gorgeous-there were lots of waterfalls on the cliffs next to the river and we were basically in the midst of a jungle.  There were six people to a raft with one instructor. Our tour guide was named "Ricky" and he was really funny.  At the beginning I was paddling the wrong way and he asked me if I was trying to swat mosquitos, haha..eventually got the hang of it :) They said it has "class 4" rapids which, according to wikipedia, are "very difficult," but it really wasn't that bad, hardly any of us had ever been white water rafting before and we all made it out okay :)  Rivers here tend to be more shallow and have more rocks than ones in the United States, according to people who had been before (aka not me lol).  About 25 of us went from my school and we all had a blast...and only two people fell out the whole day (also not me haha). We did get to swim alongside the raft in some of the calm parts though.  It was so fun. If you've never been rafting, it's something you should put on your bucket list :)










our raft with Ricky, our guide

Monday, January 24, 2011

mama tica and the fam

My host family here is WONDERFUL. I absolutely love them.  We call our host moms here "mama ticas" because the Costa Rican people are called "ticos" (boys) and "ticas" (girls).  People from the United States are called "gringos" (boys) and "gringas" (girls).  I learned that it is improper to say I am "americana" here because technically, Costa Ricans are part of America too.  But my family is great! My mama tica is so, so sweet. Most of the host moms here have maids cook and clean for their host kids, but not ours! She works so hard doing all these things, plus she watches her grandson from 7am-6pm everyday...she's like wonderwoman! She always serves our food, literally putting it onto our plates for us and arranging pretty plates of food sometimes...she says when she cooks, she always cooks with love :) She enjoys taking care of her house and cooking.  Mama Tica always gives motherly love and advice, she is great.  Our host dad is great too, he is a funny guy, always making jokes.  Yesterday, he told me that in his opinion, extra-terrestrials built the pyramids (this wasn't a joke lol).  There are also two host brothers, Alejandro and Luis, who are 16 and 18.  They are on winter vacation but start school again in a couple weeks.  Also, Mama tica has a daughter, Laura, who is married who is over occasionally; she is the mom of Julian, the grandson that is over all the time.  He is 3, adorable, and loves the movie "Cars." That's the fam! There is also another girl staying here for study abroad from the states.  Her name is Kalifa and she is from Washington.  We get along great, so that has worked out really well.  I'm so happy with my family :)


Julian

Julian and his mom, Laura

Luis, one of my host brothers
Alejandro, my other host brother

mama tica!

mama tica, "juli" as we call him for short, and i


he's normally not this calm...random fact of the day, they give kids coffee here! Julian has coffee...and he's three.  It was explained to me this way though: that it is essentially like giving kids pop like we do in the states. makes sense, i guess. 




Mi casa! There is a security company next door that parks their bikes in front of our house.

home sweet home :)

dining/main room...and juli. he likes to be in the pictures. 

living room

my room! the desk is a bit messy, but you'll be proud to know that the desk is only the ever messy part of my room. OP this summer has changed me forever, haha. 
roomies :)

simple but sweet. there is also a large closet...great!



Sunday, January 23, 2011

Volcan Poas

Saturday, we loaded up the bus and headed to Volcan Poas!  The volcano is still a little bit active and has a diameter which is a mile wide.  We got to hike to the volcano and a dormant crater with a lake nearby.  I didn't realize this before Saturday, but the white cloud that comes out of the volcano is sulfur, which tickles your throat a bit at first.  At first the volcano was cloudy but it cleared up about halfway through just so we could see it :) We got lucky, the weather was perfect.

We didn't get to just go to the volcano though...it was a busy day.  We headed to a coffee plantation, where I got a caramel coffee and a pineapple empanada :)  Later, we headed to a place which had an aviary (I got to hold a toucan!), a butterfly house, jungle cats, hummingbirds, some other animals, and some gorgeous waterfalls! It was beautiful.  It was just a day trip which was about the perfect amount of time.

a little cloudy at first...


then clear! Volcan Poas!

lagoon

the trails on the way there were so pretty! like a scene from a movie. i got to do a little tree climbing :)

behind me is the coffee plantation




sloth...he was cute!

all the things we got to see!













parque de paz

Friday, some friends and I went to a park called "Parque de Paz" or "Park of Peace." It was fun. We hung out, walked around, did some kite flying.  A lot of kids at the park were sledding (yes, sledding) down the hill. Some were using cardboard and some had little rubber sled-things.  I got to try it and it was actually really fun~sledding with no snow! After that we rode a sketchy ride (like something you'd see at a county fair) that made very loud screeching noises, those were really comforting.  Also comforting was the fact that the ride operator used a wrench to slow the ride down.  But we survived the squeaker (as we named it).  Later on, after some of Mama Tica's amazing dinner, we went to see a new movie, which was only 1800 colones or just over 3 dollars!  We picked out one in English with Spanish subtitles.  The movie theater is attached to the mall, and afterward we had to walk through a closed, dark mall with no people.  Kind of creepy haha. It was a fun day :)

view from the park

some cute kids sledding...they were pros


as you can see, i was not at quite the pro level of the kids yet :)

wipeout!
playing at the park :)



the "squeaker"


this is the sound it made...hmm...

group :)