Costa T+6 Friday-Summary
Ok, so my first week in Costa Rica is almost over. In this week, I’ve:
- Been sunburn
- Hiked at least 4 miles a day, over 12 last Sunday
- Learned a full semester of college Spanish
- Been propositioned
- Met a wonderful family
- Learned about middle class Tico lifestyles
- Ate Tico food
- Didn’t lose any weight
- Saw Heredia – a nearby city
- traveled on a bus-quite an experience
- learned about slow internet connections – sorry about the lack of photos in my gallery. My upload connections keep getting reset.
- Met some really nice people from CR and around the world.
- Was heckled by elementary students on a bus – heard this is very common.
- I’ll miss the CPI family in Heredia. They were very kind and helped me to learn faster than I could have imagined. Thanks to Karla, my teacher, for putting up with my garbage, but there is a difference between ol and d <rbg>.
- Was taken on a quick ride to church that turned into an E-ticket ride through neighborhoods, down dirt roads, picking up family members, stopping at a mom-pop quick-e-mart, driving on the wrong side of the road (on multiple occasions), being passed by cars and motorcycles, stopping to let a 2 yr old pee, and finally dropping off the daughter at church for an overnight retreat. To be fair, it was a 20 yr old Costa Rican driving. He was much safer than I would have been on the same roads/conditions. It didn’t seem to me like he broke any Costa Rican traffic laws based on what I’ve seen here already, but that didn’t take away from the thrill experienced.
Dinner was rice, black beans, a cabbage and tomato salad with a fried chicken cutlet. I washed it all down with fresh squeezed cass juice. YUMMY. Either white or Spanish rice has been provided with almost every meal at home. This is not the way to lose weight for me since I love rice.
If I mixed any Spanish in, I’m sorry. Also, if my sentences sound simplistic, I blame it on the simple Spanish that I know for this week. Coming up with sentences when you only know a few hundred words isn’t easy. I only know present tense verbs, so complex sentences aren’t conducive. Next week in Monteverde, they will cover past tense, I hear.
Tomorrow (Saturday), we’re going to Volcano Irazu for a day trip. The trip starts at 6am and goes into the evening. I think I’ll be spending 4+ hours on buses. There are hiking trails so I hope to get a few hours in after I get the major site – the volcano. I’ve been warned that clouds often block all views at volcanoes, so this trip could be just to look where the volcano is covered in clouds.
On Sunday I’m traveling by bus to Monteverde in the mountains to study there for a week. I’ll be living with a country family of Costa Ricans. The family information that I have now is the couple are both about my age with 2 girls – 12 and 7 yrs old. A taxi driver and an artist. Their address is relative to Johnny’s Pizzeria, so that’s a good sign.
