¡Hola todos! Ok, so this week was filled with homework (as usual), but at the same time it’s almost nice to be kept busy. We still have time to hang out together and see some cool things, but I feel like we don’t really get to hang out with Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves). And isn’t that really why we’re here? To meet and get to know people from a different culture? I mean, I’m sure we’re expected to make friends within the program, too, but there’s just not enough free time to really connect with people here. And of course it requires more time in the first place because you have to connect in a foreign language.
We did make one acquaintance (I wouldn’t call him a friend yet seeing as how we’ve only met up twice) at a bus stop. Ruth, Anna, and I (the three girls that live in a community together) always stand at the same bus stop after classes at ILE every afternoon. One day, there was a twenty-something year old guy hanging out at our bus stop and we talked to him a little. Then, a few days ago, he was there again and I got really excited because, well, let’s face it, what are the chances of us actually running into the same person twice in a city this big. And the chances are even smaller of that person being someone that will actually talk to a Gringo! (That’s what they call people from the U.S. mostly, sometimes just obvious white foreigners, but they consider themselves white, too, so it’s a hard term to explain.) Anyway, so we (just Ruth and I since Anna wasn’t there that day) talked to him, found out he was born in California, but is Costa Rican and lived there his whole life practically and basically just had a fun convo before the bus came. Then we all got on and rode the bus to our stop where we discovered he also gets off there! Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about a potential friendship with a Tico we just met at the bus stop because, come on, that’s so random and such a good story to tell later.
Other than him (I really need to find out his name…), I’m also making friends with my host family sisters (which makes sense and is perfect because they’re 17, 18, and 23, so pretty much the perfect ages). And some of their friends have also hung out with us a few times. But I really need to make more of an effort to reach out to Ticos more, because I feel like my Spanish isn’t really getting any better chilling with the Gringos in my program with me.
Enough of that boring info of my life, on to what I’ve been up this last week! I went to a movie with Adam, Liliana, Melissa (the people in my ILE classes) and another girl, Hannah, on Wednesday night. It was so much fun because we all got food first and sat around in the mall food court laughing the entire time. Maggie was there too for that part and she is so much fun! I love my ILE class. I know I was just complaining about not being able to practice my Spanish with my fellow Gringos, but actually when my class hangs out together we only speak Spanish the whole time. Adam is from Venezuela and they speak pretty much a whole different language so he keeps trying to teach me his words for everything, but I'm having enough trouble with normal Spanish. I have picked up a few really cool phrases thanks to him.
Tonight, after ILE, everyone's going to the LASP offices for a Spiritual Journey activity. We're not totally sure what that entails but we do know that we're getting pizza for dinner so everyone's pretty pumped.
Then, Saturday afternoon, I'm heading to Scott's house for dinner and a movie night. Sunday, a bunch of us are going to the soccer game of the two main teams of San Jose. It's going to be so intense! It's so crazy that the police come in their battle gear ready for all the fights that will, for sure, break out throughout the game. Then, I might go to a march against TLC. TLC, for those of you lucky people who haven't had to study it constantly for the last month, is the Spanish term for CAFTA which is a free trade agreement between Central America and the U.S. They're having a vote for it on October 7th and it's a huge deal.
Then, we have one more week of ILE and LASP classes and then we all head to Nicaragua for two weeks! I have no idea what we'll be doing there (that's pretty much the story of our lives here, they never tell us anything in advance). But I probably won't have any internet access, so this might be one of my last blogs for a while. I might post something next week before we leave, but if I don't get a chance: I love you all! Have a great couple of weeks and I'll get back on this in three weeks! :)
Friday, September 28, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Next....
So I realize it's been a while and I'm very sorry, but it's hard to get an internet connection here. Anyway...here goes update #3.
Right now I'm at a restaurant called Bagelmen's that offers free wireless internet. That's pretty much the story of our lives right now: where can we get free internet? :)
Last weekend, we all went to a city on the east coast of Costa Rica called Limon. It's a very Carribean city, way different than San Jose where we are usually. We stayed in a hotel literally three blocks from the ocean for two nights (Friday and Saturday) and walked the streets both nights to see the street vendors and the waves crash against...not a beach because it was more of a very short cliff with big rocks, but still very cool. We went to an indigenous tribe that is trying to preserve their land and culture and talked to a woman from there. It was really cool. And, it was Costa Rica's independence weekend so all the kids make lanterns with candles and have a parade at night down the main street, then at 6, everyone in Costa Rica stops what they're doing and sings the national anthem. It was really cool. We also heard a woman speak that was a teacher and then got involved in politics and became the ambassador to Jamaica. And one night (these are so not in order, I'm just telling things as I remember them, but it was only three days so you get the basic idea) we had a dinner in the upstairs of this pretty cool restaurant with a live band and everything and after we ate, we all started dancing up in the front of the room. Everyone was salsa-ing and merengue-ing and Adam (one of the guys in my smaller class from Venezuela) started singing with the band. Basically, it was a really cool weekend.
Since then, I've been mostly doing homework and hanging out with friends and my host family. My host mom has been gone all week on a mission trip, but she gets back tonight. The dad was really cute, he was getting all sad missing her.
My host sisters and I are talking about having a dance night next weekend (well this Friday) because a bunch of students have been taking dance lessons (myself included, yes) and they said we should practice with them since they all learn from birth pretty much. :) I'm only slightly jealous. Every monday, a few of us go to Adam's host family's house to have dance lessons from some guy he knows somehow. They're two hours long and we don't stop moving the whole time. It's so much fun!
Hm...I think that's all the update I have for now. Mostly this week will be filled with homework, but I'm hoping to get the dance party going for Friday and maybe a movie night with LASP students on Saturday so at least the weekend will be fun.
That's it for now I guess, but thanks for keeping up with me! And definitely keep praying that I can take advantage of the fact that I'm here and not just focus on getting homework done or counting down the days till I get to see you all again. :) Also, I got an email from my friend Emily who's studying in Uganda this semester and she's loving it as far as I can tell from her email. However, she was feeling a little ill and life's pretty tough as is, so if you could also pray that she's fine and doesn't get full-out sick, that'd be awesome. Anyway, I love you all and am praying for you guys, too! Thanks for reading so much! :) I love you!
~Rachel
Right now I'm at a restaurant called Bagelmen's that offers free wireless internet. That's pretty much the story of our lives right now: where can we get free internet? :)
Last weekend, we all went to a city on the east coast of Costa Rica called Limon. It's a very Carribean city, way different than San Jose where we are usually. We stayed in a hotel literally three blocks from the ocean for two nights (Friday and Saturday) and walked the streets both nights to see the street vendors and the waves crash against...not a beach because it was more of a very short cliff with big rocks, but still very cool. We went to an indigenous tribe that is trying to preserve their land and culture and talked to a woman from there. It was really cool. And, it was Costa Rica's independence weekend so all the kids make lanterns with candles and have a parade at night down the main street, then at 6, everyone in Costa Rica stops what they're doing and sings the national anthem. It was really cool. We also heard a woman speak that was a teacher and then got involved in politics and became the ambassador to Jamaica. And one night (these are so not in order, I'm just telling things as I remember them, but it was only three days so you get the basic idea) we had a dinner in the upstairs of this pretty cool restaurant with a live band and everything and after we ate, we all started dancing up in the front of the room. Everyone was salsa-ing and merengue-ing and Adam (one of the guys in my smaller class from Venezuela) started singing with the band. Basically, it was a really cool weekend.
Since then, I've been mostly doing homework and hanging out with friends and my host family. My host mom has been gone all week on a mission trip, but she gets back tonight. The dad was really cute, he was getting all sad missing her.
My host sisters and I are talking about having a dance night next weekend (well this Friday) because a bunch of students have been taking dance lessons (myself included, yes) and they said we should practice with them since they all learn from birth pretty much. :) I'm only slightly jealous. Every monday, a few of us go to Adam's host family's house to have dance lessons from some guy he knows somehow. They're two hours long and we don't stop moving the whole time. It's so much fun!
Hm...I think that's all the update I have for now. Mostly this week will be filled with homework, but I'm hoping to get the dance party going for Friday and maybe a movie night with LASP students on Saturday so at least the weekend will be fun.
That's it for now I guess, but thanks for keeping up with me! And definitely keep praying that I can take advantage of the fact that I'm here and not just focus on getting homework done or counting down the days till I get to see you all again. :) Also, I got an email from my friend Emily who's studying in Uganda this semester and she's loving it as far as I can tell from her email. However, she was feeling a little ill and life's pretty tough as is, so if you could also pray that she's fine and doesn't get full-out sick, that'd be awesome. Anyway, I love you all and am praying for you guys, too! Thanks for reading so much! :) I love you!
~Rachel
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Edition 2
Ok, so I´ve told you all about my classes and family. Hm...what else... I live in a small gated community where two other students have their host families, too. So that´s really nice because we can go everywhere together. Also, although we have very few free weekends, we can all go do something pretty easily this way, too.
There are 51 of us students in all, and at this point it´s really nice because everyone is still socializing with everyone. I´m sure at some point we´ll all start to break off into our own little groups of who gets along better together and all that, but for now, it´s cool to just be with everyone.
The first week of classes is over and already the homework is pretty overwhelming. But we don´t have much else to do during the weeks, so it´s not a big deal yet. Next weekend, the whole group is going to Limon. It´s a part of Costa Rica on the coast where there´s more Caribbean influences. Then, of course, we have to write a paper about it. :)
So, now on to stories...well, the first Friday night, my host-sister/roommate invited me to go with her to a Retro which is like a dance club/bar. So, having nothing better to do and trying to have the mentality that I need to try immerse myself while I´m here, I agree. Soooo awkward. First of all, I´m the only non-latin american in the entire place. Secondly, my sister is the social butterfly and I hardly saw her all night, so I was pretty much left on my own. Luckily, there was this really friend of hers that took pity on me and kept me company all night. He and his mom used to host American soldiers in their house, so he spoke great English. So he spoke English to me and I spoke Spanish to him so we both got to practice. It turned out to be really fun, but the drinking age here is 18 and they had all just turned 18 recently, so they couldn´t figure out why I wouldn´t drink with them! They were really cool about it and none of them got drunk, so it was fine.
Then Saturday, I went with my host-mom to their community meeting which is like a big Bible study over certain topics each week. Last Saturday was sexual purity and I was split into this smaller group of older, married women and one of the other students who live in the community. It was really cool to hear their stories and views. Today, I was doing homework all morning so I didn´t go. But then after that meeting, I went with that same sister and the younger one to a sleep-over at their friend´s house. It was a little awkward because I felt like I was intruding on their girl-talks but it was still really fun. And we watched a Grey´s Anatomy Marathon all night!!! (1st South Fern girls will appreciate that!)
The only other story of note that I can remember right now is about Thursday. Ok. Here we go. So, everyday when we don´t have the classes at LASP, we still have to two languages classes at a building called ILE. From my house I have to take 2 buses to get there, but the first time I had to do it alone. Yeah. Anyone who knows my directional sense should know where this is going. Anyway, to make a very very very long story short, I left on the first bus from my house at 11 and didn´t make it home until 3 and that was after giving up on getting to class altogether. But, in my defense, most of the problem was realy horrible luck when I got directions from people. I was supposed to go to one stop and then ask someone where the next stop for the second bus was and they gave me the wrong place. Then, I had several occassions of people not really knowing where the bus went exactly or what the place was I was trying to find. And all of this sounds like, well, Rachel you should have known where you were going, but no! That´s how they tell us to get places is to ask people and figure it out.
Anyway, that´s all for now. Today, (I´m finishing this post on Sunday now) Ruth (one of the girls who lives near me) and I are going to go shopping for my host parents´anniversary gift and then waste the rest of our day somehow. Have a great day all!
I love you!
There are 51 of us students in all, and at this point it´s really nice because everyone is still socializing with everyone. I´m sure at some point we´ll all start to break off into our own little groups of who gets along better together and all that, but for now, it´s cool to just be with everyone.
The first week of classes is over and already the homework is pretty overwhelming. But we don´t have much else to do during the weeks, so it´s not a big deal yet. Next weekend, the whole group is going to Limon. It´s a part of Costa Rica on the coast where there´s more Caribbean influences. Then, of course, we have to write a paper about it. :)
So, now on to stories...well, the first Friday night, my host-sister/roommate invited me to go with her to a Retro which is like a dance club/bar. So, having nothing better to do and trying to have the mentality that I need to try immerse myself while I´m here, I agree. Soooo awkward. First of all, I´m the only non-latin american in the entire place. Secondly, my sister is the social butterfly and I hardly saw her all night, so I was pretty much left on my own. Luckily, there was this really friend of hers that took pity on me and kept me company all night. He and his mom used to host American soldiers in their house, so he spoke great English. So he spoke English to me and I spoke Spanish to him so we both got to practice. It turned out to be really fun, but the drinking age here is 18 and they had all just turned 18 recently, so they couldn´t figure out why I wouldn´t drink with them! They were really cool about it and none of them got drunk, so it was fine.
Then Saturday, I went with my host-mom to their community meeting which is like a big Bible study over certain topics each week. Last Saturday was sexual purity and I was split into this smaller group of older, married women and one of the other students who live in the community. It was really cool to hear their stories and views. Today, I was doing homework all morning so I didn´t go. But then after that meeting, I went with that same sister and the younger one to a sleep-over at their friend´s house. It was a little awkward because I felt like I was intruding on their girl-talks but it was still really fun. And we watched a Grey´s Anatomy Marathon all night!!! (1st South Fern girls will appreciate that!)
The only other story of note that I can remember right now is about Thursday. Ok. Here we go. So, everyday when we don´t have the classes at LASP, we still have to two languages classes at a building called ILE. From my house I have to take 2 buses to get there, but the first time I had to do it alone. Yeah. Anyone who knows my directional sense should know where this is going. Anyway, to make a very very very long story short, I left on the first bus from my house at 11 and didn´t make it home until 3 and that was after giving up on getting to class altogether. But, in my defense, most of the problem was realy horrible luck when I got directions from people. I was supposed to go to one stop and then ask someone where the next stop for the second bus was and they gave me the wrong place. Then, I had several occassions of people not really knowing where the bus went exactly or what the place was I was trying to find. And all of this sounds like, well, Rachel you should have known where you were going, but no! That´s how they tell us to get places is to ask people and figure it out.
Anyway, that´s all for now. Today, (I´m finishing this post on Sunday now) Ruth (one of the girls who lives near me) and I are going to go shopping for my host parents´anniversary gift and then waste the rest of our day somehow. Have a great day all!
I love you!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Hola!
Hey, everyone! Sorry it took me so long to get this going, but internet access is iffy at best, so I´ll post as much as I can. I met up with the group of students going with me in Miami and we waited for three hours until the program rep met us. Then we waited for three more hours until the plane left. Well...was supposed to leave. The plane was having problems, so we had to switch flights and waited three more hours until we actually left. Then, we had a three hour flight to Costa Rica. (Are you seeing a pattern, too?) We stayed the first night in dorm-like building in a seminary and had a few orientation meetings before meeting our host families the next afternoon.
Which brings me to my familia tica! (Costa Rican family) They are great! The mom is Lilliana and she´s so helpful and packs my lunch and leaves me food all the time. It´s cute. The dad is Lucas and he´s a pastor. We haven´t gotten to talk as much because we´re both so busy, but he´s really fun. They have four daughters (craziness, I´m sure). The oldest, Roxana, is thirty-something and married, so she doesn´t live here, but the other 3 do. Carolina is 23 and engaged, Ana Laura is 18, and Maricela is 17. I share a room with Ana, but she´s the social butterfly and hardly ever here. Although I´m hardly here either because they keep us so busy.
I have three classes right now. Two are a ways away in a building called the Spanish Language Institute. There we have our grammar and conversations classes. I´m in the highest level with a boy from Venezuela, a girl from Mexico, and a missionary kid who grew up in Bolivia. Needless to say, in the conversations class I feel a little in over my head. But I´m actually not doing too bad, so it´s fun. And I learn all kinds of slang this way! :) The other class is only twice a week in the LASP (that´s what the program I´m in is called) building. This class is 3 hours-ish long. Usually closer to 4. There´s usually a guest speaker for most of it and then we do biblical reflections or process groups where we just talk about our readings or the speaker or whatever. It´s a half hour walk (ten minutes of which is an insanely tiring hill) or you can take the bus for ten minutes, but still have to walk up The Hill.
There´s a lot more to tell, but for now I have homework and I´m exhausted, so I´ll update later! Chau!
Which brings me to my familia tica! (Costa Rican family) They are great! The mom is Lilliana and she´s so helpful and packs my lunch and leaves me food all the time. It´s cute. The dad is Lucas and he´s a pastor. We haven´t gotten to talk as much because we´re both so busy, but he´s really fun. They have four daughters (craziness, I´m sure). The oldest, Roxana, is thirty-something and married, so she doesn´t live here, but the other 3 do. Carolina is 23 and engaged, Ana Laura is 18, and Maricela is 17. I share a room with Ana, but she´s the social butterfly and hardly ever here. Although I´m hardly here either because they keep us so busy.
I have three classes right now. Two are a ways away in a building called the Spanish Language Institute. There we have our grammar and conversations classes. I´m in the highest level with a boy from Venezuela, a girl from Mexico, and a missionary kid who grew up in Bolivia. Needless to say, in the conversations class I feel a little in over my head. But I´m actually not doing too bad, so it´s fun. And I learn all kinds of slang this way! :) The other class is only twice a week in the LASP (that´s what the program I´m in is called) building. This class is 3 hours-ish long. Usually closer to 4. There´s usually a guest speaker for most of it and then we do biblical reflections or process groups where we just talk about our readings or the speaker or whatever. It´s a half hour walk (ten minutes of which is an insanely tiring hill) or you can take the bus for ten minutes, but still have to walk up The Hill.
There´s a lot more to tell, but for now I have homework and I´m exhausted, so I´ll update later! Chau!
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