New Schedule + Saprissa

So. I’m finished with my formal Spanish classes. For the first 4 weeks I took Intermediate 1 and then for the next 4 I took Intermediate 2 and now for my last 4 weeks of ISA I am free! Well, sort of. I made the mistake of telling my architecture professor about my new schedule and now I will have architecture from 9-12 on Mondays and Wednesdays instead of 1-3 in the afternoons. Oh well. The funny thing is that he basically added me to his class of ticas. Now I just have to get up the guts to talk to them because they certainly aren’t going to make any effort in my direction. I have a new project: a condo for a family of four at the top of a 28 story building in San José. The really cool thing is I’m working with lots of green: check out www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com to get the idea.
With my new-found time, I have joined the gym. It was a little pricy (probably not for US standards but compared to everything else in Costa Rica it is), so I plan to go every day if possible. I’m a little embarrassed because my ratio of sore : how much I’ve worked out is not really even, but I guess that’s what happens when you first start up after not running for 3 months. They have some cool looking classes (belly dancing, pilates), but unfortunately most of them are at times when I have class. I’ll have to find a time to check at least one of them out.
Unrelated, last night I went with ISA to a Saprissa soccer (“fútbol”) game. It was really fun. Everybody got out their purple and orange and we had a great time cheering them on – even though they’re pretty terrible. We still won, 3-1 against the Brujas (witches). The funniest part of the game was the amazing amount of times players either headed the ball (often in no particular direction), fell dramatically on the ground, or both. They even brought one guy off the field on a stretcher, after which he stood up and walked away like he was fine. Go figure. Maybe that’s part of the fun of Costa Rican soccer games – the show. There were also an absurd number of food and drink vendors yelling the whole time. “¡Té frío! ¡Té frío! ¡Qué rico! ¡Té frío!” and “¡Pizza!” which sounds very much like “¡Saprissa!”. Calvin and his little brother (visiting on spring break) got some of the pizza (2 mil) and in the box were two smooshed, old-looking slices of pizza, one on top of the other, and someone’s old chewing gum stuck in the corner. Um, what?

Pura Vida.

Eleonora