I don´t remember where I left off last time, but today was the second day of classes. I was placecd in the advanced level with two other people, and all we do is talk and talk and talk and review some grammar and practice it by talking. It´s actually turning out better, even though at first it was really dull. 4 hours is a long time, but there is a 20 min. break at the 2 hour mark, which is refreshing, but then it´s back to class. Thankfully, we are right on the beach and so as soon as class lets out we get to go right to the water.
Yesterday, I had to wake up at 6:30 am to get to the school and do some logistical things, which was fine. But what I am learning more and more is just how the bugs and insects seem to multiply every day. If you think you have an idea, well guess again. Here´s a few examples to illustrate just how many mosquitos, bees, wasps, you name it, live here. My room has two windows, with curtains. Both windows were shut and my door was locked. I woke up with 3 flies-mosquitos on my bed sheet. In class, I opened my dictionary, and found a squished insect in it. What the hell kind of place is this??? The new game a few people I met and I play is where we´ll find a mosquito bite next on our body, since every day we all end up with new itches everywhere. I´m getting used to it. Also, my host family has an insane amount of random animals living around the house. I saw tons of frogs hopping around last night, and while watching a Yankees-White Sox game with David (my 10 year old host brother), I heard what sounded like a parrott squawk. It turned out to be an iguana crawling on the wall right above the small tv. Today, I was walking to school with a buddy and saw a squirrel-looking animal on a fence post, except it was shaded maroon on its underbelly, had a white strip above it, then darker on the top. Very weird. The guy I was with speaks little English and is from Switzerland, and when he saw the animal he said, "So it´s a male." I looked again to see what exactly he was looking at, and sure enough, he had noticed before I did the squirrel´s large "teste-satchel" (in the words of Borat). Every day I find new animals, pretty cool.
I´ve also met some really interesting people here. After my little oral evaluation which placed me in the advanced level, I took an hour long walk on the beach and met a guy named Matt from Hawaii, here with his girlfriend named Roxy who is also in the language program I´m in. They are big surfers and so this afternoon we are planning on getting our boards and testing the waves, even if they are a bit small. Matt took me to lunch with him and some other people, where I met up again with Elizabeth (the Canadian on the bus I met earlier), another guy from Swizterland named Jonas, and a girl from Wisconsin who goes to the University of Minnesota named Chelsea, who is here for 9 weeks. Most of them speak very to little Spanish, so I resort to English or even French (all but Chelsea speak French), so it´s actually not that bad.
I´m planning my weekend right now. I think I´m going to hit up Montezuma and Mal País if there´s time. Right now I´m heading off to lunch, then it´s the beach. It´s gorgeous right now, but it always is in the morning. In the afternoon, clouds storm over everything, and in comes the rain. But no matter what, even if it is pouring, I´m determined to get a surfboard and get out on the ocean. Unfortunately, high tide is synonymous with rain time this time of year. And it´s pretty much a guarantee, as I´ve experienced the past couple days, that it rains. But right now it´s sunny and the beach is so clear, with little islands off the coast. I´ll try to post pictures.
Tonight I´m going to try to get people organized to go out to bars, because using phones is not really an option. But I´m interested to see what the night life is like in Sámara. This place only has one computer that is on dial up internet at 36 mbps, so it´s very very very very slow. I´ll try and post updates as often as I can though. ¡Hasta luego!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Arrival to Sámara
Right now, I am looking out at the beach in Sámara. The school is literally ON the beach. It´s a bit overcast and foggy, but still pretty incredible that I´m actually here.
Waking up at Tranquilo Backpackers in San José, I cleaned up and roamed the streets one last time before it was time to get on my bus. Walking down the avenidas of San José is quite interesting, with every department store salesperson standing at the door trying to entice you to come into their store and buy something. At one point a couple guys with a basketball passed the ball to me trying to get me into their store, but I didn´t feel like it. I then returned to that chicken place, buying two pieces for 500 colónes, and then made my way back to the hostel. I picked up my two bags and hurried to the bus station, as I only had 20 minutes until departure time. I made it to the station, put my big pack under the bus, and got on, only to find an old woman in my seat. After haggling with her that I wanted the aisle seat, which was mine, she finally gave up and relinquished it to me. I dozed off for the long trip, and woke up with another woman next to me. She and I began talking about where we were both heading. Once she got off, another traveler who was going to Sámara sat down next to me. She was a Bostonian named Allison who had quit her job to come to Costa Rica and spend some relaxing time here. Allison then introduced me to a girl she met at her hostel her first night who is in the same program as me, a Canadian named Elizabeth. I told her I spoke French and she got so excited, that she started speaking in rapid French with that weird Canadian accent telling me how glad she was to find someone who spoke her native language.
We arrived in Sámara in less than 5 hours (I left at noon), and walked to the school. They called my host family, and soon after the father came to pick me up. I didn´t catch his name in our introduction, but he still drove the quarter mile to his house, where his wife and child were waiting. My host mom is Maria, a short stout woman who showed me around her one-story two-bedroom house. It is well-tiled, with a cozy kitchen and dining area and hammocks surround the outside where the garden and bugs roam. They have a 10 year old son named David who is really fun to hang around, always playing with me. When I saw my room, I realized how it was David´s room, as little Disney and other cartoon toys were mounted and lying all over the place. But there is a fan, which I am grateful for. Maria then made dinner, which consisted of a huge portion of rice, beans, potatoes, and a few pieces of chicken legs. I have a feeling this is pretty customary and will be eating a lot of this. For desert, fresh mango. Man that was good!! I stayed up watching the Red Sox-Yankees ball game in Spanish with David who happens to really like baseball and is fascinated with how fast the pitchers can throw the ball. The slow pace of the ball game made me sleepy, and so I just went to bed.
Waking up at 6:15, I had breakfast (lots of rice, an egg, and a block of cheese), showered, which felt amazing, and got my school stuff together. I was amazed at how shortly after I got out of the shower, I was nearly dry. That is how hot and humid it is. I walked to school, took about 10 minutes, went through an oral evaluation, and they told me that I will probably take afternoon classes. I have a little under 4 hours until I need to get back to the school, so I´m thinking of just hanging around, walking around Sámara, and if the weather and beach look good enough, to take a swim. I am meeting several people who are also in the program, and can´t wait for the trip to really get started. More to come later.
Waking up at Tranquilo Backpackers in San José, I cleaned up and roamed the streets one last time before it was time to get on my bus. Walking down the avenidas of San José is quite interesting, with every department store salesperson standing at the door trying to entice you to come into their store and buy something. At one point a couple guys with a basketball passed the ball to me trying to get me into their store, but I didn´t feel like it. I then returned to that chicken place, buying two pieces for 500 colónes, and then made my way back to the hostel. I picked up my two bags and hurried to the bus station, as I only had 20 minutes until departure time. I made it to the station, put my big pack under the bus, and got on, only to find an old woman in my seat. After haggling with her that I wanted the aisle seat, which was mine, she finally gave up and relinquished it to me. I dozed off for the long trip, and woke up with another woman next to me. She and I began talking about where we were both heading. Once she got off, another traveler who was going to Sámara sat down next to me. She was a Bostonian named Allison who had quit her job to come to Costa Rica and spend some relaxing time here. Allison then introduced me to a girl she met at her hostel her first night who is in the same program as me, a Canadian named Elizabeth. I told her I spoke French and she got so excited, that she started speaking in rapid French with that weird Canadian accent telling me how glad she was to find someone who spoke her native language.
We arrived in Sámara in less than 5 hours (I left at noon), and walked to the school. They called my host family, and soon after the father came to pick me up. I didn´t catch his name in our introduction, but he still drove the quarter mile to his house, where his wife and child were waiting. My host mom is Maria, a short stout woman who showed me around her one-story two-bedroom house. It is well-tiled, with a cozy kitchen and dining area and hammocks surround the outside where the garden and bugs roam. They have a 10 year old son named David who is really fun to hang around, always playing with me. When I saw my room, I realized how it was David´s room, as little Disney and other cartoon toys were mounted and lying all over the place. But there is a fan, which I am grateful for. Maria then made dinner, which consisted of a huge portion of rice, beans, potatoes, and a few pieces of chicken legs. I have a feeling this is pretty customary and will be eating a lot of this. For desert, fresh mango. Man that was good!! I stayed up watching the Red Sox-Yankees ball game in Spanish with David who happens to really like baseball and is fascinated with how fast the pitchers can throw the ball. The slow pace of the ball game made me sleepy, and so I just went to bed.
Waking up at 6:15, I had breakfast (lots of rice, an egg, and a block of cheese), showered, which felt amazing, and got my school stuff together. I was amazed at how shortly after I got out of the shower, I was nearly dry. That is how hot and humid it is. I walked to school, took about 10 minutes, went through an oral evaluation, and they told me that I will probably take afternoon classes. I have a little under 4 hours until I need to get back to the school, so I´m thinking of just hanging around, walking around Sámara, and if the weather and beach look good enough, to take a swim. I am meeting several people who are also in the program, and can´t wait for the trip to really get started. More to come later.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Here at last - San Jose
After not going to bed at all in order to finish packing and get to my 6 am flight on time, I am in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Once I went through immigration (which wasn't so bad, considering I was one of the first people off the plane), it was just my luck that my bag was one of the last ones off. My heart skipped a beat when it saw that pack, as I grabbed it off the conveyer belt and ran to exchange some money and get a taxi. The currency here in Costa Rica is colon (colones is plural) and it's around 470 colones to the dollar. Wow! So I got about 65,000 colones just to have on me, and went to get a cab to a part of town called Barrio Amon. Luckily, I was able to find someone going to that part of town also so I didn't have to pay full price. She said she was here volunteering and I told her my plans. Though she spoke no Spanish whatsoever, saying that she would be taking classes while here. I wished her luck as she got out at her hotel, thinking just how much deep shit she was getting herself into. I spoke with the cab driver about what hostels were good to stay at. One I had read about that sounded really cool was called Tranquilo Backpackers, which he was adamantly against taking me to because he said it was dangerous because a lot of people stayed there so lots of things got stolen. Instead he offered to take me to this other hostel which was near the bus station I need to go to tomorrow to get to the coast. I told him I'd take a look, walked in, saw a room, heard the price, and ran straight out. Even if it was a bit nicer and close to the bus station, it was not worth that price for one night's stay. So I told him to just take me to Tranquilo Backpackers. I walked up, keeping in mind how he said it wasn't safe, and saw how the whole hostel was surrounded by a high barbed fence. You have to ring a bell and the people at the desk have to buzz you in to get into the actual building, so I figured it couldn't be that dangerous. After getting a cheap room, I realized that one reason the cab driver may not have wanted me to come here was because he got a commission from other hotels if he got people to stay there. Whatever, this place is sweet. Hammocks and guitars lay around everywhere, free internet, free breakfast, free cable tv. And they said they'd hold your bags if you promise to come back and stay with them. Sounds awesome!
After putting my stuff down, I picked up a map and found out where the bus station was. Walking around Barrio Amon is interesting: dirt and trash everywhere, driving like there's no tomorrow, and vendors on the streets selling everything you can imagine. And since the streets are not well-marked, finding the actual bus station took even longer. Eventually I got there, got my ticket (I leave tomorrow at noon for Samara, the beach town on the Pacific coast), and started to walk back to the hostel. I was looking around at food places, and found a small restaurant type place that sold two pieces of fried chicken for 500 colones. Two HUGE pieces of chicken for a little over a dollar. How could I not take up that offer? Gobbeling down the chicken felt so good after the gross airplane food, and I realized just how easy, not to mention cheap, this whole trip is going to be in terms of food and beverage. I'm not sure if I'll go out and check out the night life tonight. I'm a bit tired, but if I meet the right people, who knows. Already the Spanish is getting better, and so far nothing has gotten stolen. More to come from Costa Rica. Ciao!
After putting my stuff down, I picked up a map and found out where the bus station was. Walking around Barrio Amon is interesting: dirt and trash everywhere, driving like there's no tomorrow, and vendors on the streets selling everything you can imagine. And since the streets are not well-marked, finding the actual bus station took even longer. Eventually I got there, got my ticket (I leave tomorrow at noon for Samara, the beach town on the Pacific coast), and started to walk back to the hostel. I was looking around at food places, and found a small restaurant type place that sold two pieces of fried chicken for 500 colones. Two HUGE pieces of chicken for a little over a dollar. How could I not take up that offer? Gobbeling down the chicken felt so good after the gross airplane food, and I realized just how easy, not to mention cheap, this whole trip is going to be in terms of food and beverage. I'm not sure if I'll go out and check out the night life tonight. I'm a bit tired, but if I meet the right people, who knows. Already the Spanish is getting better, and so far nothing has gotten stolen. More to come from Costa Rica. Ciao!
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