Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Picture Links

Costa Rica 11: Santa Teresa

Costa Rica 10: Province Presentations and Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa


This weekend I went on my most beautiful trip yet: Santa Teresa. It’s on the Pacific side on the Nicoya Peninsula, near Mal País and Montezuma. We arrived Friday night and were having trouble finding a hostel with rooms, and then stumbled into a slightly nicer hotel just as a torrential downpour commenced. Luckily, Alejandro and Katherine were able to talk the owner down to $12/person/night with their superior Spanish skills. 12 of us fit into 2 rooms, tripling up in beds where necessary, and we had a great time. We put on bathing suits and found a pizza place for dinner, and then hung out in the larger of the rooms for the evening.Saturday morning we got up at 6:00 to head down to the beach. The sun was just starting to come up (over the trees... oops) and I went for a pre-breakfast dip. As soon as the sun crept up at about 6:30 it warmed up the beach and the air, and we all relaxed (some of the boys went surfing) and I went for a little walk collecting shells. It must be sand-dollar season because there were millions! About the size of a quarter, you could see them flipping around in the wash and feel them hit your feet in the ankle-deep water. I picked a few up to look at the little tentacle-things moving on the bottoms. Chelsi and I wandered to find breakfast later in the morning (banana pancakes, my favorite) and then explored some surf shops in an attempt to avoid the sun in the hottest part of the day on the beach. We had a lot of fun in one particular store; making friends with the girl at the counter and returning multiple times (first we had to go get money, then we ran into the other girls and they wanted to go...) Pastries were lunch (one with cheese and one with dulce de leche), and then we headed back to the beach. I’ve been trying to read El Principito (The Little Prince), which I like a lot but it’s slow going because I have to look up lots of words. I also did some journaling and more swimming. The ocean reminded me of Nag’s Head, with sets of waves coming in to duck under. Amanda and I had a great time playing in the surf. I love the weekends when we don’t have a big plan – it’s so nice to relax and wander, I’ve stopped wearing a watch. We quasi-planned to have a bonfire Saturday night so we collected wood but weren’t positive about the dry factor after the inundation Friday night. I hit up the grocery store with Greg and Austin to get dinner (yogurt with granola for me, Doritos for Austin) and beverages, and then everyone reconvened in the bigger of the hotel rooms to hang out. Everyone had so much fun on the porch at the hotel that bonfire ideas were forgotten. Eventually we decided to venture out to check out the local bar that was hosting a salsa night, but upon hearing about the dos mil cover charge we went to the beach instead. Turns out the wood was too wet to start the bonfire anyway – we tried. Oh well. The beach in Santa Teresa is very flat and the tide was out so there was a huge stretch barely covered with water that looked like a giant mirror of the starry sky.Sunday morning I got up at 5:30 to go down to the beach with Brian, Greg, Amanda, Mo, and Katherine. I went for a swim. The sky, water, and sand were all the same color grey-blue and the moon was still up. As the sun came up I headed back to shower and pack up, and then Amanda, Andy, Alejandro, and I caught a bus to town where we had breakfast at a little soda and then got on the bus to go home. The ferry to and from the Nicoya Peninsula is one of my favorite parts of the trip – it’s about an hour long and a nice little change of scene from the bus. Fresh air, sun (or stars, at night), and the rocking motion I’m missing here in Costa Rica. It’s a car ferry like the one to Nantucket and our bus drives right on, recollecting its passengers on the far side. Sunday afternoon I got home in the afternoon and Kniccoa and I made our second trip to Bagelmen’s – it was just a delicious as the first time. Yum. Sunday night there was a special on the Discovery Channel on a family that sails around retracing the voyage of Magellan – it was interesting to watch and made me want to go to all of the same places. I’m not sure if this will air in English at home but it’s worth looking into, the name has something to do with “in two voyages” or something. Try www.tudiscovery.com?
It was something of a reality check coming home from Paradise – San José has been cloudy and cool for about a week and a half now. Time to plan my next beach weekend trip – perhaps Playa del Coco? Only one more week of 8-12 Spanish classes, then I will be reveling in 3-day weekends every weekend!

¡Pura Vida!

Eleanora

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Un Día Tipícal / Mi Vida Real

School days my alarm goes off at 6:00 am, I can hear Kniccoa getting in the shower. I roll over until 6:15 or so, then drag myself out of bed and do push ups and crunches in an effort to counteract the amount that I eat here in Costa Rica. I turn the shower on as low as possible while still having enough pressure to power the water heater in the shower head – this is a delicate balance because too low and the heater doesn’t turn on, but any more than necessary will just dilute the hot water with more cold. Such is Costa Rica. I get dressed, often in a skirt with leggings, some sort of tee shirt or tank top, and put a sweatshirt, sweater, or fleece in my bag, I will need it for class. Ticas don’t wear flip flops so I try to mix it up with flats and some sandals I got here in el Mercado Central but they’re still my go-to. I also wear scarves in my hair most days, and/or some sort of jewelry but no big dangly earrings because ladrones might rip them out of your ears. When you’re a gringo, they assume everything you’re wearing is valuable because gringos have more money than Ticos. My host mom told me on the first day in Costa Rica that every day I should wear a strapless top, a sweater, and bring an umbrella because here you never know what the weather will do. It has proven to be true. Almost every morning is sunny, which is misconceiving because it still might cloud up and even rain that afternoon, or in half an hour. I’ve had days when I brought my raincoat to school in the morning but then took it out of my bag after lunch because it had cleared up, only to have to walk home in the rain. When Catalina (our mamá tica) calls up the stairs, “Chiquitas!” it is time to go down for breakfast, usually about 7:20. Heidi (pronounced like the country Haiti) brings out a big bowl of gallo pinto, the typical Tico breakfast of rice and beans (there is also a little olive oil and onion in there, among other things), and a piece of toast on a separate plate for each of us. There is butter on the table and a white cheese for the gallo pinto which is very mild in taste. Sometimes we have eggs, sometimes not. I get a banana; Kniccoa doesn’t like them. To drink we have what is essentially a smoothie of orange, pineapple, and papaya. The ratio of these varies, if there is more piña there is lots of pulp on the top, more orange hace más liquido, papaya is more viscous. This morning was piña heavy; I had to chew my beverage. Every once in a while (twice ever) we’ve gotten pancakes which are delicioso, and if the electricity is out or things are rushed we get Cheerio’s with UHT milk (in a box, like Parmalat... it’s how all the milk here comes). This hasn’t happened lately, which is nice – I really love Gallo Pinto, especially cuando tenemos huevos. When finished we say “Con permiso” if Catalina is eating with us, and go upstairs to brush our teeth, make our beds, and grab our stuff. Last week Catalina installed new doorknobs on our bedroom doors with locks, so now we lock the door except on Thursday, laundry day. I trust Heidi but Catalina says some little things have gone missing from the house so it is better to be safe and not have to worry about it. We were given little lock boxes upon arrival in Costa Rica, so my iPod, digital camera, cell phone, passport, and money all stays in there.

At 7:50 Kniccoa and I walk to school. If we’re lucky, the front door is open so we only have to open 3 more locks to get out to the street (two on the middle gate and one on the outer). I have developed a system to remember which color key goes to which lock – it was very confusing the first week. We get to school with about 3 minutes to spare so everyone mills around and chats in the hallway until we see our teachers arrive for class. Spanish class goes from 8:00 to 12:00, with a break from 10:00 to 10:30. I don’t know what I would do without the break. When we walk in class my teacher, Tatiana, writes the plan for the day on the board and gives us an overview. Everyone pulls the desks into a semi-circle: April, Reese, Anne, Kirk, Zoe, Melissa. We go over homework, learn a new grammar point (these last two weeks every day has one or two new uses of the Subjuctive), and then break into small groups to make
up examples using the new grammar. Reese and April lie on the floor outside the classroom door, the rest of us sit at the stone tables downstairs in a little courtyard area and goof around coming up with the most amusing examples we can think of. Luckily most of the exercises are fairly well suited for this: describe your “principe azul” (dream guy) or make conjectures about the world’s smallest man, He Pingping (Kirk doubts that Pingping plays ping pong, Anne doesn’t think he can ride roller coasters). I’m always hungry at the break, sometimes I remember to ask for an apple before leaving home, sometimes I get a vanilla latte out of the Nescafé machine for 350 colones – when it’s less than a dollar, it’s so hard to resist! I’m slightly addicted to these machines. Also Snickers. I check email quickly and/or hang out in the Plazoleta trying to warm up in the sun. The second half of class goes by faster, especially because 10:30 usually turns into 10:40 by the time everyone motivates.

At noon I walk home for lunch. If it’s Monday, I go alone because Kniccoa has class and eats at school. If I’m lucky, the Catalina’s aren’t home and I get to chat with Heidi, who it turns out is 19, sings and plays the drums at her church, and has 2 sisters and 2 brothers. I would love to go to her church to see but it’s an hour away and I’m not sure how I’m going to make that work. It’s nice to talk to her because it’s good Spanish practice and she’s eager to learn English. If Catalina comes home she shoos me out of the kitchen to get back to work. Lunch is rice, beans, some sort of meat and some sort of vegetable. Often the meat is a stir-fried beef with onions. My favorite days we have platanos maduros, sweet ripe plantains that are stir-fried in butter. ¡Que rico! There is always fresh juice to drink – melon, pineapple, orange, or lemonade. “Double-starching” is not uncommon, for example we might have pasta with mashed potatos or rice and beans, or maybe all three. I always find this amusing. There is also this really good thing which is green beans wrapped with eggs, like a tiny omlette. If my host sister Catalina is home we watch Friends during lunch, which is funny but less social. If Catalina my mother is eating with us we chat with her in Spanish. It
’s my favorite time. On Wednesdays we have a meeting at the ISA office, where we hear about our upcoming weekend excursion, cultural events, or optional weekend trips. If it’s someone’s birthday, they bring out a cake, and if you have mail this is where you pick it up. (Hint, please send me some mail!) After the meeting everyone goes out to lunch at one of the sodas (little restaurants) near school. Choices are: the Chinese place which is more expensive, Las Lenitas for Mexican, Soda Montague which is similar, or Soda D’Mary, where you get a Casado: a plate full of meat, rice, beans, some veggies, perhaps some platanos. Lunch runs about $2-$4, $6 at the most if you got a Fanta.

After lunch are the elective classes, all of which are in English for me. Monday and Wednesday I have my independent study in Tropical Design and Architecture from 1:00 to 3:00. My professor Max is this brilliant socialite who schmoozes with everyone in the Plazoleta (courtyard) for the first 15 minutes and then we find a room to work. My first project was a casa de las montañas, my second es una casa de la playa. The mountain house
was a lot of fun, it includes a master bedroom, 2 kids rooms, a kitchen, living area, huge porches, guest room, bathrooms with outdoor showers, a studio for the artist mother, an office for the father, and a butterfly garden. ¿Por qué no? The beach house is a vacation home for a couple who likes sailing, surfing, and yoga, and is based on nautical design. A central mast holds the house up over the water like a dock, you enter from the beach at the point of the triangle floor-plan. The first floor is an open kitchen/living space with hammocks on the porch and an enclosed bathroom. The mezzanine is the bedroom, reached by a spiral staircase. The roof looks like sails. I’ve been working on putting the design onto the computer, and today started a little model out of balsa wood.

Last Monday Kniccoa and I ventured over to Bagelmen’s after class got out at 3:00 and this might turn into a tradition.. it’s amazing what a bagel with cream cheese can do to lift your day! Wednesday is Skype day, so I bring my laptop to school (terrifying, because theft is so prevalent here in Costa Rica) and call home and upload weekend pictures. That’s also when I usually try to update my blog. I have to leave before it gets dark because that’s the most dangerous time.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days. I have Intro Drawing from 2:00-4:00, History and Theory of Tropical Latin American Dance 5:00-7:00, and then we have free dance classes from 7:00-8:30. My drawing professor Jim is from New York but has been living in Costa Rica for the past 30 years. He has all sorts of interesting tidbits and stories that pass the time, and we also do a fair amount of gossiping because the class is all girls. He brings in music and we have worked on two-point perspective, the shading of bottles, faces (really hard!), baskets, flowers, and birds. Drawing is a very therapeutic class. Rosi teaches both the dance classes and she is CRAZY funny. The history one is for credit; we have to do 20-minute presentations (often boring), but sometimes we watch dancing movies and occasionally dance. The times we actually dance are far superior to the other classes, but I always learn something as Rosi is full of information about dance, which she weaves in with notes on the culture and history of Costa Rica. The night dance classes are a total blast. We work mostly on Merengue and Salsa, and have done a little Cha Cha (which here they call Bolero Son) and Suin Creollo, which is tied to Lindy Hop swing way back but now looks mostly like jumping and kicking. The Creole Swing is only danced in Costa Rica. These classes draw a smaller crowd than they did the first few times, but it’s good because the 15 or so regulars are getting really good so we get to learn more and more new moves. I just hope I can remember them when I get home! Since the class gets out after dark, there is a shuttle that takes everyone home after class.

Catalina serves us dinner but does not eat with us, as she only eats breakfast and lunch. Most nights it is rice, beans, some sort of meat (the ham thing is gross, the rest is usually good), some sort of veggie (broccoli, corn, peas, or chick peas), and either Tang or iced tea from a mix. Dinner is the meal most likely to contain variety. Often Catalina will include a new Costa Rican food for us to try, such as Yucca or a vegetable. She will tell us what the new item is, and I’ll try about 4 bites and Kniccoa will try one. I usually like the new items enough to eat, Kniccoa less so but she always tries. One night Catalina taught me how to make Tortillas Españas which are a much more labor-intensive version of an omlette with potato (papas). I don’t think I could reproduce the egg-whipping method if my life depended on it. We discussed them over dinner and Kniccoa commented that they would be good with cheese, and now we have Tortillas Kniccoas – with cheese. It’s a very good improvement, they were a little bland before. A veces tenemos quesedillas de pollo completa con sopa de Taco Bell, y otros veces tacos. I always find it amusing when we have these home-made quesedillas and then Catalina breaks out the little packets of sauce – I wonder if you can buy those or if you just go to Taco Bell and steal handfuls out of the bin. Every once in a while we get cheeseburgers and fries. The katsup here comes in a bag, it’s a little sweeter than at home. Twice we have gotten Mac and Cheese, AMAZING. Pretty much everything Catalina cooks is delicious, which might explain why I eat so much here.

¡Yo tengo una amigermana nueva!


That’s “frister” in Spanish, btw. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but all of a sudden we’re friends with our host sister, Catalina (21). She had been fairly stand-off-ish in the beginning, never really talking to us or giving us the time of day. A little over a week ago Catalina finally had some friends over to the house and she invited us to come hang out, which Kniccoa and I did, but we sat silently the whole time not understanding a word being said (too fast with too much slang – ah!). Luckily one of the guys was a little tipsy and told the same story about buying his girlfriend a teddy bear at Mas X Menos for Valentine’s day about four times, so by the fourth time I finally got all the details of the story. Even then, Kniccoa and I felt very awkward all night and Catalina didn’t talk to us much then or afterwards. Then, last Tuesday Catalina came home while I was eating dinner (Kniccoa had gone out for pizza) and plopped down at the table and just started talking. We talked about friends and boys and parties and freshman sluts on halloween. We hung out and chatted and I showed her pictures on my computer, and all of a sudden it was 1:00 am. Then the next afternoon she pulled up pictures on her computer and showed them to us. Among other things, Catalina loves movies. She rents them five at a time, and is always going to the movies with her brother or friends. Last week, she saw Sweeny Todd (the Tim Burton version of the musical) three times. Wednesday night, we had our first family event: The Catalinas brought Kniccoa and me to the mall where we ate at the food court (Pizza Hut, yum), and then we met Luis Carlos (our 30-something brother) to see Sweeny Todd. It was good... very bloody, and Kniccoa and I had to cover our eyes for a lot, but the costumes were great and the scenery very artsy. I can see why Catalina likes it; she’s a design student. Then on Thursday night I was going out to Castro’s Bar with my dance class and she helped me pick out what to wear (I have a hard time not living in a dorm with lots of girls to run to for advice!). Maybe Catalina is just shy and takes a while to open up to people. I might do the same if I always had strangers living in my house. Either way I’m glad we talk now, it’s nice to feel more like a family member and less like a guest in the house.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Province Presentations en la Plazoleta

Todos los clases de español tuvieron presentaciónes acabo de los lugares de Costa Rica.
Muy divertido, y muy comico.

Kniccoa and Jocelyn
Mark


Café
Intermedio 2 presents medicinal herbs (Aquí yo tengo Menta)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Costa Rica 8: Chirripó

Costa Rica 9: Chirripó

Costa Rica 10: Province presentations in la Plazoleta

(Chirripó pictures begin in Costa Rica 7)

Chirripó

This weekend I went with a small group to hike around Chirripó, the tallest mountain in Costa Rica. To hike to the top takes 10 to 13 hours, is very steep, and requires a reservation 2 months in advance (there is a hostel at the top). Luckily, there are a lot of trails around the base, also in the Chirripó National Park. I went with my friend Mark (who I sat next to on the airplane to Costa Rica) and a new friend, Sara. We took the bus ride to San Isidro and then a 4WD taxi the rest of the way up very steep, very dusty dirt roads. I can confidently say that my car would not have made the trip successfully. When we got into the town of San Gerardo de Rivas, at the base of the mountain, we found a few other Veritas students. It was great for me because I didn’t know anyone in the group very well (none are in the ISA program), so I had the opportunity to make new friends. Upon arrival we found out that it was the weekend of the annual race up and down the mountain and all the hotels and hostels were full with the 195 runners + organizers, helpers, families, and friends. A very nice group of Ticos let us stay with them in a room full of bunk beds as they were short a few people. They really saved the day, as it was now 8:30 at night and our taxi had just driven away. Un poco de queso (cheese), pan (bread), y uvas (grapes) was the perfect dinner spread.

Saturday morning we got up early, had some gallo pinto at a local restaurant (where our waitress was distractingly bodacious) and hit the trail by 7:30. The beauty of Costa Rica still amazes me. We hiked up and down and around hillsides reminiscent of Nepal (how do those horizontal lines get there?). We saw 2 different waterfalls and a bunch of little streams that weave through the forest. I am in love with the shapes and the smells and the sounds here. Everywhere we went we could hear the water. Pounding at las cateratas, churning around rocas or just trickling en los rios pequños. En el bosque todo es verde. And not just one color of green, every shade you can imagine. And it all smells fresh – like dirt, like fruit, like flowers. Ben has been collecting leaves to press, and it’s not a bad idea. They’re all so unique and beautiful. Some grow with little holes in them, or look like someone has taken a pair of scissors to the edges, while others have a purple fuzz around the center. There are small trees with little tufts of spiky fronds and tall ones with what look like pinwheels of leaves. There are also trees with brilliant orange flowers instead of green leaves at the top everywhere in San Gerardo, parts of the hillsides are completely orange. (I realized when I got home there is one of these outside my window, I just hadn’t noticed it before). There was this little “Jardín de Meditacion” off one of the trails in the Cloudbridge area, with circles of rocks... we keep finding these little surprises. We regrouped around 3:00 (there was a downpour for about an hour), and then followed signs to aguas terminales, hot springs. This turned out to be a steeper and longer hike than expected but totally worth it. The ground was steaming after the rain; it felt like summer. Got a little silly with the underwater function of my camera, it turned into something of a photo shoot.

Sunday we got on a brightly painted school bus for the ride to San Isidro. I’ve been told that when school busses in the States no longer pass emissions tests, they get sent down to Central and South America. It was funny seeing Scott try to fit in a tiny kid-sized seat with his long legs. I was glued to the window the whole way.

Chirripó

Gallo Pinto and eggs (and Scott)


Meditation Garden
I think these hills are amazing. How are these lines formed?
Todo del grupo: 
Mark, Meredith, Scott, El, Erin, Ben, Sara, Keegan, Pricilla
Underwater fun: Mark's dreads

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Puerto Viejo

¡Feliz Dia de los Enamorados! I'm wearing pink today and thinking of all of you at home. Today in drawing class we drew flowers and leaves, and last night I went to see Veintisiete bodas, or 27 Dresses, with Kniccoa which was super cute and really got me in the Valentine's Day mood.

This past weekend I hadn't really made a plan by Thursday afternoon so Chelsi, Mike, and I decided to go to Puerto Viejo, a beach town on the southern Caribbean coast. We went to the bus station Friday after Spanish only to find the next bus was not for another 2 and a half hours. Whipped out the trusty map and dang if the children's museum wasn't RIGHT around the corner! Entonces we played around en el Museo de los Ninos por dos horas y era muy divertido. We especially had fun finding these little apron-things which we tried on to look like people from the different stages of Costa Rica's history. We got a little silly with the picture taking. The 'parts of the body' exhibit was also quite exciting, with a giant mouth we could walk through! Back at the bus station we found out the bus would be about an hour late... tico time. Finally we made it to Puerto Viejo and checked into Rockin' J's, the funkiest hostel I've seen yet. We rented tents for the night, which came complete with mattress, pillows, and sheets. The entire hostel is covered in mosaics and paintings - it really is amazing. Our other choices for sleeping were to rent hammocks or get a private room. For our second night the tents and hammocks were all full so the 3 of us snuggled up in a room for 2 which ended up being totally fine. Saturday we went to a cool little breakfast joint and I had essentially a giant crepe with bananas and chocolate sauce on top, and Mike had 2 plates of Gallo Pinto. Que rico. We rented some old falling-apart bikes and explored town a little in the morning and then biked to Punta Uva, a nearby beach, for the afternoon. Puerto Viejo is such a laid back place, and beautiful. The bike ride was bumpy but fantastic. We went to the grocery store to find dinner and brought back cereal, milk, bread, granola, yogurt, fruit, and juice to the hostel to eat, where we had a great time making friends with some Canadian girls and an American couple. The Caribbean side is known for its hippies, and because of the island influence most of the people speak both Spanish and English. We chatted with a very strange hippie family living at Rockin J's in tents - the parents were in their mid 20's and sell jewelry and hair wraps for a living, while their 5 year old Sam runs around with matching dreads and swears at the newborn Sid because he's crying. I can't imagine raising a family in this sort of environment. Too many tourists coming through looking for a party, it's no place for children. Nice to visit, but not to stay.

Sunday morning it was drizzling when we took the bus home after eating our delicious dinner leftovers (more cereal etc). Overall a very nice, relaxing weekend.

Pura vida,
Eleanora

Puerto Viejo

Rockin' J's, Puerto Viejo
Mosaic everywhere
Punta Uva

Breakfast at the bus stop

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Pictures

Costa Rica 6: The Zoo and Children's Museum in San José, Puerto Viejo
Costa Rica 7: Puerto Viejo and Mercado Central en San José

Also, Costa Rica 5 has been updated.

San José Weekend

Plaza de Independencia
Zoo
ocelot

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Fin de Semana en San José

Esté fin de semana estaba in San José. ¿Porque no? Friday night I went on a field trip with my dance class to (a? the?) Tobogan - a Salon de Baile. We met at school at 8:30 and with Tico time my teacher Rosi showed up around 9 and piled into her car and a school van and off we went into the night. The Tobogan was a big place with a giant (very slippery) dance floor in the middle surrounded by tables and chairs with a stage at one end for the 11-piece band. The dancers were incredible. What I would do to dance like that. And in heels, for most of the girls. Some of our classmates ducked out about an hour in to go to a "real bar" but about 5 of us stayed and that's when the dancing really picked up. As our class is overwhelmingly girl-heavy, Rosi had invited some of her friends from her other job (at a collection agency.. who knew), and they were very forgiving dancing with us beginners. I also danced with this really nice roundish old man in a fedora who taught me a little Bolero. Saturday I slept in... 'till 7:00. Bummer. Gallo pinto for breakfast with Catalina and we had a nice chat about my search for a summer job. It's nice when I have some spare time to talk more with Catalina - it's great Spanish practice and she's really sweet. I asked her if she knew any of our neighbors and she said no, she's very introverted, but a new girl is going to be moving in to the apartment attached to the house and hopefully we can make friends with her. I met up with Katherine and Meghan to explore the Artisan's Market in San José where we found all sorts of beautiful things. Luckily I didn't buy all of them. Afterwards I got to meet their host family which was really fun because they're loud and funny and outgoing. I had not yet explored Barrio Cordoba, the area to the south of Veritas, so they showed me around their neighborhood and we had a fun time in the bigger Pequeño Mundo, a Wal-mart-esque store that has all sorts of finds if you look hard enough - I found a box of $4 J. Crew tee shirts. Also you can find tents for 6000 Colones: $12.
I think this will be a good way to save money on hotels in el futuro. Saturday night we went into San José to el Teatro Nacional to see A Midsummer Night's Dream - in English, to our surprise. Very fun, funny, and the National Theater is gorgeous. How can you pass up a Shakespeare play for 5,000 Colones? Sunday my body clock let me actually sleep in until 11:00, at which point Catalina made me panqueques - hooray! Around 1:00 I met up with the Barrio Cordoba crowd - Trevor, Andrea, Katherine, and Meghan - to go to the zoo. We saw snakes, huge lions, scarlet macaws, a taper, ocelots, jaguars, squirrels, owls, monkeys, and a whole lot more. I really enjoyed the zoo, even though I wish the lion cage was bigger. Sunday night we had Macaroni y queso por cena, con plantanos maduros - mi comida favorita en Costa Rica. I think they're basically over-ripe plantains fried in butter. FANTASTICO. Catalina knows they're my favorite, so she makes a big deal when we have them. Then I hopped in a cab and met a bunch of ISA kids at Mac's American Bar to watch the superbowl. It was really fun to be in a sports bar with so many other Americans... too bad the Patriots couldn't hang on in the end. Monday was changeover day for Spanish classes so I got the morning off - much needed to work on my architecture project. I'm just about to finish my first project - tropical house in the rain forest for a family of 4, he is a business man and she teaches and likes art. It's so cool learning from Max about the considerations for architecture in Costa Rica. Remember, he told me, the kids need to be learning the importance of nature from a young age so make sure their rooms have a good view. My house includes outdoor showers, lots of porch space, and a butterfly garden. Me encanta Costa Rica. Last night we had a sort of breakthrough with our Tica sister, Catalina. She had finally come back from the beach (somewhere on the Pacific side near Nicaragua) and was getting dressed to go out to a bar for a friend's birthday. We chatted about her vacation and she asked us advice on shoes, shirt, earrings, bag. Normal social interaction! And it's only taken 4 weeks! This week I start my Intermediate 2 Spanish class - I'm a little nervous but excited, I got out of the last one alive.
¡Pura Vida!
Eleanora

Friday, February 1, 2008

Más Fotos

While I wait for a time I can upload more pictures directly to the blog, here are my facebook albums, which you can view without logging in. I try to pick the 'best of' for the blog.

Costa Rica 1: my house and Monteverde
Costa Rica 2: Monteverde and Crash Party
Costa Rica 3: La Fortuna and Baldi Hot Springs
Costa Rica 4: Arenal Volcano and Montezuma
Costa Rica 5: Montezuma

¡Pura Vida!
eleanora