Ahhhh, I'm lounging on my bed, sipping some ice cold té frío de melocotón (cold melon tea) whilst I drip sweat from my walk home. It's about 4-5 kilometros from the Mesoamerica langauge school- the school I am studying at- to my host family's house, which is a mildly lengthy walk when it is 86 degrees Fahrenheit outside with lots of humidity. Coming from a place where weather is a main staple of conversation (Sioux Center), it is odd that it never is talked about much here, except when there is a tropical storm or something. The weather here is very constant- its always in the 80's, always humid, and always raining. So, I have the fan in my room on the highest it will go, trying to dry my misty brow.
On my way home, I made a stop at Mas X Menos (More for Less), a popular supermarket here. I nabbed a cream filled pastry, a bunch of bananas, and 1.75 liter of Cristal for lunch. I also fell victim to the ingenious Tican marketing, buying a magazine preview for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in Spanish. Things are about to get downright (Lionel) Messi before my napcito ;)
Today was my first day of class, and despite being 20 minutes late because my ticamadre and I thought it started at 9 (8, actually), it was a very informative first day. To no discredit of my Spanish classes at Dordt, I feel like I've learned more from 4 hours in a classroom here than I did in 2 weeks at Dordt. My instructor, Wilmar Ovares, a Tican man from the Northern San José area of Alajuela, is a very intelligent dude who can tell you pretty much anything about Costa Rica. During our break, he spent about 25 minutes telling me all about coffee production in Costa Rica, and I think either this weekend or next, we are gonna go on a day excursion to the coffee plantations near his hometown. He explained that at the plantations, people taste-test coffee (una catación) like they do wine in other places- swishing it around in the mouth to get the rich taste and then spit it out. I laughed, because most of the time at home I guzzle down the potty-water coffee in hopes that I get a mild caffeine buzz, not because it tastes good! But here, the coffee is "muy rico" (very rich), and its actually enjoyable to drink? No, that's not a question, it is delicious. My only classmate right now is an older-looking woman named Maruel (sp?), who apparently is a professor at a university in Salt Lake City. She is from Switzerland, but I couldn't figure that out until she started speaking English to me during our break, which is when I first heard her accent interfere. Although I am more fluent than she is in Spanish, I humbly admit that she wins because she is fluent in German and French also (4 languages > 2)...
I am starting to plan my weekend excursions and looking forward to exploring the city more. Right now, this is my "to do" list:
-see the Orquesta Nacional de CR perform (CR's biggest band)
-go hiking in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve to see the famous quetzal
-tour an operating coffee plantation (and trying some too, por supuesto...)
-Parque Nacional Tortuguero, where the endangered green sea turtle lays eggs
-visit the active volcano Arenal
-Parque Nacional Corcovado, described by National Geographic as the most biologically intense place on earth (shibby?)
-hit up Playa Tamarindo
-kayak through Sarapiquí
-drink a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise over the Caribbean in Limón, then drink a cup and watch the sunset over the Pacific in Puntarenas
-play fútbol with the locals (if they'll accept me)...there's a pitch 150m from my house
pues, time for some homework. and maybe a siesta.
buenas tardes mis hijos
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