San Jose

Hola hola hola. Tengo internet in my house, so I don’t think there’ll be anymore mega updates—that was just for when I didn’t have a power chord or internet in Monteverde. Today, we went to San Jose. At 9 am, we met in the central park of Heredia to meet up with the group. My host mom and pop dropped me off at the park, because all the parents are helping the students out the first week so that we’re not totally lost. We all exchanged stories about how our first day with our families went and then were split up into 4 groups to go with 4 student guides.

My guide was named something I don’t know how to spell, pronounced, Ilionai, but we just called him Ilio. He’s a grad student married to a gringa from Washington, who was formerly an exchange student. Anyways, we left the central park to find the bus stop and took the bus to San Jose (for about 60 cents.) The bus ride was between 20 and 30 minutes. When we arrived in San Jose, we followed Ilio around like little lost ducks, clutching our purses. The directors of the program had told us not to bring backpacks, lots of money, wear jewelry or bring a camera. (I halfway wanted someone to steal mine just so that they would find about a dollar and some chapstick. Smile! You’re on candid-you-just-stole-my-purse-for-nothing-HA) Anywho, enough tangent-iality.

We walked through the streets, mostly getting a feel for the attitude toward pedestrians here. The attitude is basically this: Get out of my way or I run you over. In the city, we saw the bus station where buses leave for Jaco, other beaches and other provinces around the country. I think the fares are pretty cheap. Walking through the city, we saw what you may see in any city: homelessness, and dirty-ness. We stopped in the national assembly which is very plain. It’s actually sort of refreshing that the government doesn’t have a grandiose, luxurious space for the legislative, but a pretty standard building.

The guy who did the tour looked like Dwight from the office. He explained that the only country with a higher percentage of women in the General Assembly is Switzerland. All over the wall around the governmental buildings, people spray painted their sentiments toward the government. (A little picture of the president taking a dump on the country, a picture of Bush with Mickey Mouse ears that said Disney War, phrases against the trade agreement TLC or CAFTA, and my personal favorite: Carapicha gobierno, or penis face government.)

After walking through a few parks, we went to el Teatro Nacional, or the national theater. We had lunch in the café (salad, cheesy cheesy chicken lasagna and tres leches with tea for dessert. Tres leches is like white cake soaked in three kinds of milk w/ whipped cream on top, really yummy.) After lunch, we went through a tour of the theater, which was really beautiful. It was constructed in the 1800s and made with Italian marble, French marble, a bunch of different kinds of wood, and there were really cool marble statues everywhere. The ceilings of the theater were adorned with murals and grandiose lights. I think that was my favorite part of the day—seeing the theater. We took the bus back and returned to the University. My host mom met me there and taught me the walk home, which was only about 10 minutes long. I think this weekend, some people want to go to the beach. I think I’ll stick around because apparently, Daddy Yankee is doing a free show in Heredia.

My host mom is really cute. She keeps talking about how she likes to cook healthily. She really could open a drink shop in any college town in the US. She makes drinks that are sort of like smoothies, except with just fruit: papaya, banana, guava, watermelon, pineapple. She says the fibers are very important to staying healthy. I think pretending like I am a picky eater on my placement form worked b/c so far I like everything she makes. (When in reality, I really am not a picky eater at all. When she asked me what food I didn’t like, I honestly couldn’t think of anything.) Anyway, going to pick out some classes. Pre-registration is tomorrow. I have about 13 classes pre-approved but apparently pre-registration day is crazy b/c the list of classes available always changes. Buenas noches, amigos.

Abrazos,
Erin