Blog Buffet

Yo people! Here is a mega giganto update from the past few days.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

And this is the time where I write about things that really aren’t that interesting because I have nothing better to do in the Atlanta airport until 6:45. This morning started off at about 4 am. By 4:45 we were out the door headed for the airport and upon arrival, came across the not so pleasant surprise that my flight had been delayed to the point where the plane would be touching down on the runway at the exact minute of my next flight’s departure. Instead of taking the early flight and waiting in Atlanta for 9 hours, I went home for a few hours, slept some more, ate a delicious breakfast Kobayashi-style before my mom reminded me we still had twenty minutes until we had to go back to the airport. Either because Delta was making up for the delayed flight or because there were simply no other seats, I was bumped up to first class (for the first time, woo). The crew played a mix of Rufus Wainwright, Jack Johnson and Billie Holiday (huh?) I sat next to a white-haired business man-ish type with giganto Tom Clancy novel and who, I noticed, had an affinity for lots of orange juice and Sun Chips. I spent a few minutes wondering where the hell the tray table was, or if it was hidden, or if it was just the little divider between seats, read a bit, and dropped in and out of sleep. I’d say the highlight of the flight was getting my ginger ale in a glass glass.

Monday, January 21

I arrived in San Jose at about 10 pm and spotted some equally confused looking college age girls, all of whom happened to be in my program. A few girls’ luggage didn’t make it and we spent a while waiting for them and introducing ourselves. After waiting in the line for luggage that took forever, going through “aduanas” or customs and getting in two mega-van taxis, we finally arrived at Hotel Bougainvillea a las 12 de la noche. I stumbled into my room, and only after I had turned on the lights and the door had slammed against the closet did I realize that two girls were already sleeping in the room. I repacked my bags for orientation, which began today in Monteverde. I’m not all that sure what I packed, because 1. I packed in the dark, with the closet light on and 2. I was so tired I just wanted to sleep. This morning we woke up at 6:45 and I saw for the first time the beautiful gardens of the hotel from our room’s balcony. This morning from 8 to 11 we had group orientation which was mostly Teresita, Xiomara y Yanori (program boss women) telling us about registration and other academic stuff that we’ll have to deal with soon. We all introduced ourselves (there are 21 students), got some sweet tote bags and lots of informational packet thingers, and then took a placement exam. Xiomara said, "Este hotel es bonito, pero no es la Costa Rica del mundo real. Vamos a salir muy pronto y no van a ser turistas, van a ser estudiantes.” (This hotel is beautiful, but it is not the real Costa Rica. We are leaving soon and you're not going to be tourists, but students.) After lunch at the hotel (corn chowder, sea bass with fried yucca and vegetables, dulce de leche ice cream and apple pie), we departed for Monteverde, a 4-5 hour drive. The parts of the drive that I did see were beautiful and in a strange way, the scenery reminded me of northern California, if northern California had palm trees. For most of the drive, I tried to sleep to avoid getting car sick. After about 3 hours, the roads turned from paved to gravel, at which point my stomach did somersaults. The most fitting example of how a big bus bounces on unpaved road, I think, is this: imagine yourself on the shoulders of either the Big friendly giant (Roahld Dahl in da house) or Grawp (from Harry Potter—for the new schoolers). Then imagine that said giant is running in zig zags. Then imagine that the BFG/Grawp is a cross-dressing giant and is running in zig zags while wearing high heels—this is how the bus ride felt. When I woke up, the bus had climbed high in altitude and the view was gorgeous. On one side, we saw the pacific coast in the distance and a mountainous landscape covered in green and on the other, the rising hills and occasional cow or horse. After passing through Santa Elena, Cerro Plano we arrived in Monteverde. The landscape went from pristine and sparse, to houses to hotels/restaurants to the institute of Monteverde. We met three employees, Melqui, Seidi y Evelyn. Explicaron the mission of the institute (create a sustainable future) and told us about the host families we would be living with and how to be considerate. (Rule #7: Take a shower every day). Apparently, some students had previously opted out of showering for 8 days to avoid the cold water. The students were assigned from the community of Monteverde (the closest to the institute), to Cerro Plano (where the hotels and restaurants are) to Santa Elena (seems to be mostly residential).

I was assigned to Santa Elena which is about an hour walk from the institute, but there are also buses. I arrived to meet my family. La madre se llama Jessenia y she’s very sweet and welcoming. The two children are named Yanitza and Joan. Janitza is 12, very smart and in love with Zac Efron of high school musical. Joan is a five year old, chubby cheeked, hyperactive boy simultaneously the biggest fan of Spiderman and Winnie the Pooh. The father, Gustavo, works at a hotel in Cerro Plano and was at work when I arrived. They were very welcoming. Joan showed me his toys, Yaniza showed me photo albums, Joan had a fit that there weren’t more photos of him, we watched a bad Disney show from Argentina, called Patito Feo, or the ugly duckling and I went to bed very early. It was so windy, I thought the roof would fly off and I with it—sort of sounded like it sounds at the beach.

This morning, I woke up at 6:45 to shower and have breakfast. The night before, Jessenia showed me how to work the shower so that it wouldn’t be cold. Apparently, I didn’t pay enough attention and had a cold shower, but the silver lining to a cold shower is that it wakes you up. My host mother cooked salchichas y huevos, or sausage and eggs for breakfast. Apparently, the kids don’t like frijoles, or beans—so that cuts out half of the staple of the area, rice and beans. I think tomorrow morning, I’ll have gallo pinto for breakfast. Anyways, after breakfast, a woman who works at the instituto, named Seidy, picked up the students living with families in Santa Elena, the town that is furthest away from Monteverde. In the morning, we had Spanish classes from 8-12:15. During class we had to read articles about the golden globes and the writer’s strike and do listening comprehension about the links between the assassination of Benazhir Bhutto and Costa Rican oil prices. Lunch lasted from 12:15 until two (the lunch menu varied from student to student. I, with the mom whose kids don’t like one half of the national staple dish, had a sandwich, muffin and banana. Another girl had pure rice and beans and others had lots of vegetables with rice. Two students have host moms who work at the bakery. Each of them had giganto cookies and one had a sandwich on freshly baked bread.) After lunch, a few other students and I walked around. We went to CASEM Coop of handicrafts created by local women. Later, we went to a catarata, or waterfall. It wasn’t huge, about 50 meters, but it was a fun/steep/muddy/tire-bridged walk to the waterfall and back. I think I held up the group a bit by taking pictures of everything, but after not having a camera during the Africa trip (my own fault of course) I am enjoying every picture I take. We went back to the instituto and had a merienda. At the instituto, we have two snacks a day of papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, galletas, coffee and tea. After the snack, a few other Santa Elena kids and I started the trek. The walk took much longer than I expected, partly because we stopped to take pictures a few times. I got a little lost when I had to separate from the group, but figured out where it was and got home around 6 pm. The kids of the family are so cute. When I got back, Yanitza was making palomitas (popcorn) and Joan was going through his science books. He wants to be a doctor and whenever he points to the intestines he says, cerebro! (or brain) probably b/c they’re both wrinkly, but hey, when I was 5 I don’t think I knew the internal organs of a human body. Later, we ate dinner, and by we I mean I. I ate arroz y frijoles con pollo, rice and beans with chicken and veggies. The rest of them ate pop corn and said that they usually don’t eat dinner because they have a big lunch. After dinner, Yanitza showed me her recipes, for Chocolate “Queque” or chocolate cake, luster—icing, pancakes, orange/banana bread, tres leches, and other dishes—mostly desserts. Then we watched Material girls with Hilary and Haylie Duff in Spanish (wha?) and Jessenia showed me some more of her quilting. Jessenia is very crafty and makes quilted blankets, curtains, candles (that look like cappuccino and sorbet) and other such things. Now I’m about to go to bed. It is sooo windy here. Hasta luego.

Thursday, January 24

Yesterday was a fun day. The students living in Santa Elena, the town farthest/furthest/youknow from Monteverde have started taking the 7:20 bus in the mornings, aka I wake up at about 6 to get ready, have breakfast and walk for about 15 minutes to the bus stop. Needless to say I haven't woken up this early, really, since I had 8 am classes, but its not so bad because most people here go to sleep really early. Between 9 and 10 o clock sometimes. Anyway, after taking the bus (the public transportation bus is a big yellow school bus with a 'no bullying' sign) to the instituto, we had 'orientation' and classes, which we do every day. Orientation is some kind of lesson for us to learn from the directors of the program, Teresita and Yanori. We talk about things like culture shock, getting along with a host family etc. etc. Classes ended yesterday at 12:15, and after that we had lunch (provided by our host mamas), and then went to the sky walk, aka super awesome, very touristy bridges through the cloud forest in Monteverde. (On the way there we saw a sloth! and its baby. We walked up what must have been hundreds of spiral steps to get to the first bridge. The first bridge was probably the scariest because it was out in the open above the parking lot, and it was, like it always is here, very very windy. The bridges are made of ironish boards with diamond holes in it so you can see whats below you. Walking through the forest, we saw monkeys, some birds, and a ton of vegetation. We walked for a couple hours and talking about what we saw probably wouldn't do it justice. Neither would pictures, but I'll post some later (in pictures, most of it just looks green(. We got back to the instituto about 4:30 when some of us started to walk home. At home, I hung out with my host brother and sister, talked with Jessenia, the mom and played games on disneylatino.com with Joan, prounounced Yo'ann, the little boy. After dinner, we watched Hombres Pequenos or little men, with the Wayans brothers and then played around with my camera, phone and read some stories. I passed out at about 9:30, probably from the three hours of walking in the cloud forest and the hour walk back home. Pictures will follow soon but my picture cord is in the hotel in Heredia. We're going to be in Monteverde for the rest of the week, leave on Monday for Heredia, and then register for classes, move in with our semester families and start our classes. I hope Chapel Hill/California/los EEUU are doing well!

Abrazos,
Erin