End of the beginning

So Wednesday was registration. Talk about a head ache. At registration, I think some people were feeling like the study abroad “honey moon” was over. (Apparently, there are four stages to a study abroad experience: 1. honey moon 2. depressed/ misses home 3. adapts 4. doesn’t want to leave/has hard time re-integrating to home country). I’m not sure what stage I’m in. I’m still happy here and enjoying myself, but frustration is more of an issue than it was before. I feel myself getting frustrated by feeling so lost everywhere and not being able find the exact word for something. But after this week things are finally becoming more and more familiar. The things that I would change would be the intense heat and equatorial sun, and the cold showers. Anyway, back to registration (I saw my first big rat on the way to school!) Everyone showed up at the library at 8 in the morning, and we went through more academic orientation. We picked out classes/did academic orientation from 8 – 11:30, had lunch at a chain here called Trigo Miel (we got dessert free with the meal, but my friend Michelle and I also bought a piece of chocolate cake; sometimes registering for classes just necessitates some chocolate.)

Then, went back to talk to professors from each department and get them to tell us whether or not our Spanish was good enough to take the class, and finally, turned in our schedules, alternatives and all. If all goes well, I’ll take five classes: Health and the environment, Sustainable Development and Women, Introduction to Ethics (for my philosophy credit...boo), advanced Spanish, and Social history of Costa Rica. I think that’s a pretty good mix. That way, every class fulfills something except for Spanish.

We finally finished registering at about 5 pm. My host mom picked me up (I’ve got the route home down now.) For dinner, I had rice, beans, plantains and potatoes. Then, I went with my host bro to the mall and to see a movie. We walked around the mall for a while, and while I usually don’t like malls, it was kind of like shopping therapy but without buying anything. Since we’ve been in Heredia, I hadn’t been able to get out of the house at night. Anyway, I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed walking around a mall that much. Things here are both more and less expensive than in the US. Cell phones, for example, are crazy sky high prices. A phone that wasn’t even that nice was selling for $600. But a pair of socks that I wanted in the US was $5 there and about $1.50 here. Anyway, I checked out the bookstore (I love bookstores, especially when I can see how books are different in different countries) and window shopped for a while. (I saw the first Asian that I’ve seen in Costa Rica… in the mall… working at a little kiosk….selling Asian things….like Hello Kitty.) We played some games at the arcade (I won/pwned at air table hockey!) and saw El Orfanato, a scary movie by Guillermo del Toro that I would write about, but no one else is home right now and I don’t want to scare myself. Basically, I had my hands over my eyes for about 90% of the time and jumped in my seat a lot. After the movie, we took a taxi back home and I went to bed pretty late considering I had to wake up at 6:30.

Thursday morning, I had gallo pinto, the beloved dish of Costa Rica, for the first time. Gallo pinto is basically rice and beans cooked with spices, including cilantro (Claire hates cilantro), sour cream and a fried egg. I also had corn tortillas with it, which I absolutely love. I’ve decided that if corn tortillas and flour tortillas got into a fight, flour tortillas would probably be in the hospital for a few months. If corn tortillas and Chuck Norris got into a fight, Chuck Norris would get a roundhouse tortilla-kick in the face. Corn tortillas rock. Anyway, gallo pinto was really good, but a little strong for a morning dish.

Thursday morning, we went through different orientation type things with the three directoras of the program: religious/ethnic/sexual minorities, acquiring a student visa and all that jazz. We did little skits to represent sensitive social issues in a candid/direct way (the skits were actually really funny and some were very un-p.c., which was the point.If those skits were on tape, it would be very easy to see why I like these people so much.) After a snack of pineapple, little ham and cheese puff pastries, an unidentified juice with unidentified brown solids at the bottom, and coffee, we left for lunch in groups with our student guides. I was in the group with Ilio again. We walked to a Caribbean restaurant and it was so good. I definitely was a gold star-A+ member of the clean plate club. I had Caribbean-Limon style rice and beans, a pork chop, crispy plantains, macaroni salad and a cabbage salad. Soo good.

Ilana, Eric, Me, Bonnie, Jonet (U-N-C!) and Ilio (our cool guide who speaks English but pretended that he didn't the whole time so that we would speak Spanish)

After lunch, we started our tour around Heredia. We walked through symbolic places in the city and important places around the University for about 3 and a half hours. Everyone in my group was tired and thirsty toward the end of the tour. We went back to main campus, did a little game to test how much we had paid attention, ate some chocolate, and went on our ways. Bonnie and I saw some Tico students playing guitar in the grass and generally doing hippie things. We decided to walk over and say hi, mostly to get over the fear of talking to native speakers we don’t know and partly because they reminded us of the Weaver Street crew. They were really nice and played music that we might know (Bob Dylan) and asked us about what we were studying, etc. One of them is in my philosophy class, I think. After listening to their music and generally being awkward exchange students, we both went home. On the walk home, the sunset was gorgeous and intense. Later on Thursday night, a few friends, students from the other exchange program, our guide Ilio and his wife (from Washington state), and I went to Bulevar, a bar that is apparently very popular with gringos and other such foreigners. Bulevar is two stories basically with a lot of tables, and loud music but no dancing. We cleared a little space and danced (AAAP—As Awkwardly As Possible) anyway because they were playing techno (when can you not dance to techno?) and later reggaeton. Bonnie and I basically pulled out some classics: the running man, the sprinkler, the chicken. After that, the second floor surrounding us was dancing too and t’was a fun time.

On Friday, we went to Pueblo Antiguo to finish up our orientation. Pueblo Antiguo is half amusement park half replica of old time Costa Rica. We spent most of the morning watching orientation power points (sending/receiving mail, other stuff that I can’t remember that obviously made a big impression on me, how to not get your stuff stolen) and then an OIJ (Costa Rican FBI equivalent) came and talked to us about safety.

(Hard core OIJ dude demonstrating how yes, little Tico men can shoot large US students--and yes, he took the bullets out first.)

Then we had lunch! Lunch, lunch, how I love lunch. The place where we had our orientation stuff/ate lunch was so good. For lunch, we had plantains, tortillas, rice and beans (duh), chicken, ham, picadillo, mashed potatoes, salad and I think some other stuff too. Then we had flan for dessert.

After lunch, we had about an hour to wander around the park until our next orientation PowerPoint. We walked through the antiguo part and saw replicas of a fire station, church, and central park. There were scary people dressed up as people with gigantic heads and little bodies running around and dancing to music, but they weren’t supposed to be scary. Then we went to the actual park part—a few people went a roller coaster. ( I SO wanted to go, but it cost $3) and by then it was already time to go back for more presentations.

(Kristen and I in Pueblo Antiguo)

Scary big headed people (Have you seen Borat?)

Charlie, Nathan, Kristen and Michelle at the park part of Pueblo Antiguo.

By then, we had probably seen about twenty or more powerpoint presentations about studying abroad/ Costa Rica, etc. In other words, powerpoint had become a bad word. We sat through some more presentations about volunteering in Heredia, natural disasters, extracurricular stuff and tropical diseases. Two dance teachers came from the university and we had a mini dance lesson on the spot. We learned the basic steps of salsa, and the Costa Rican swing. It was super, super fun, and I wanted to try to get into the class (only twenty peeps are allowed in) BUT I already have class at that time... (How can I come here and not learn, right?) So where there’s a will there’s a way, eh? Anyway, back to orientation. The doctor who came to talk to us about tropical diseases was a heavier man who talked like a Latino Ben Stein. This was the only presentation that we had in English over the two weeks, and some of the phrases he said cracked me up. For instance, if you have dengue fever—otherwise known as breakbone fever, it will feel like someone “beat the hell out of you.” Imagine a doctor explaining that to you with a totally stoic face and enunciating every syllable—beat—the—hell—out—of—you. I guess it was a you-had-to-be-there moment. Anyway, we ate a merienda of fresh fruit while he continued to show us gruesome pictures of enlarged spleens and skin infections. After the presentation we had cheese deep fried in puff pastry and puff pastry with sugar cane sauce. Also known as healthy snacks.

Yanori, Xiomara, Eryn and Teresita--the amazing women of IFSA-Butler study abroad programs

After snacktime, we walked out to the park to see a presentation on Costa Rican culture. It was like a Disney show, except showcased different kinds of Costa Rican dance, and facts about Costa Rica. After coming back to Heredia on the bus, my host mom and bro picked me up and taught me the bus to take home when I have classes at night. The times when I’m most frustrated are when I’m in transit. (If a bus driver rips me off for example, and says he still needs 100 colones when I KNOW I gave him more than enough—I paid 400 colones for a 260 colones ride the other day) After I got home, I had dinner and got ready for Saturday’s excursion.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to Jacó Beach. Some students from last semester said that Jacó was dirty and built up with development, but some of us went anyway. The Daddy Yankee concert that I had heard was free and in Heredia was actually not free and at Jacó beach. ( http://www.jaco2008.com/joomla/index.php ) I didn’t end up going to the concert because it was 10 mil colones, or 20 bucks and I already spent some buckaroos on ziplining.

So: yesterday. Yesterday we met up at Parque Central at 6:30 in the morning. I walked there from my house, about a 15 minute walk and a 6 am everything was already light outside. From there, we took a bus to San Jose to the “Coca-Cola” or the bus station, bought tickets for Jacó (1,440 colones, about three dollars). After walking around a market and stopping at a soda—diner sort of place—we left on the 8:30 am for Jacó.

The buses here are nice and very punctual. I’m not exactly sure how ticketing works. We all get seat numbers but on the way there, about ten men were standing. After two hours or so, we arrived, and bought our return tickets for 6:30 pm that night. The beach was hotter than hot—how hot I would imagine the Australian Outback, an oven, or hell to be. When asked the hypothetical question of ‘would you rather be too hot or too cold,’ this kind of hot makes me really wonder which I would choose. It was around 12 pm, the worst time to be under the sun and worse still—the equatorial sun. A cheese sandwich that I brought from home seemed more like grilled cheese when I pulled it out of my backpack. I must have reapplied sunscreen about four or five times. The water was amazing—almost like tepid bathwater. Usually when I get into the ocean, there is a period where I have to acclimate to the cold water and slowly go further from the shore. No such acclimation period here.

After being in the sun for a few hours, we went in search of lunch. We stopped at a Cuban restaurant and I got tostones (fried green plantains—if you’ve had plantain chips, they’re like thicker, fresh versions) and a fruit (Papaya, pineapple, watermelon, guanabana) smoothie like the one my host mom makes. Quite a good combo. We went back to the beach for a little bit, and those of us who weren’t staying the night said goodbye to Bonnie and Lauren, who stayed in Jacó to see the concert. The bus left for San Jose at 6:30: the fare to and from the beach was only the equivalent of $6. I didn’t think Jacó was dirty and it wasn’t crowded with tourists in spite of the music festival—I think you’ve just got to see things for yourself. (I didn't bring my camera so that I wouldn't have to worry about it, so I don't got any pictures or nothin'.)We got to Alajuela (where the airport near San Jose is), took a bus to Heredia to avoid San Jose at night, and then Michelle and I shared a taxi to our houses. I felt pretty gross, so I took a quick shower, hung out a wee bit with my host sibs and fell asleep literally when my head hit the pillow. My thoughts upon going to sleep were, “I’ll just get under the covers and then turn off the lights,” but apparently I fell asleep too quickly for that, because I woke up a few hours later with the bedside lamp on.

This morning, I ate breakfast, wrote a little about what’s been going down, got ready, ate lunch and went on errands with host mom and pop. We went shopping for Humberto grande’s parents. They live in a suburb of San Jose. Grandma is 92 and Grandpa is 95. Grandma is amazingly with it. She speaks perfectly clearly and looks like she could be in her seventies. After dropping off food and chatting a little, I went with my host mom to Paseo De Las Flores, a mall to find a bank that’s open on Sundays and to change money from dollars to colones. She bought me some caramel candy thingies to keep in my room (uh oh) and then we walked back through Heredia. She showed me where some more of the bus stops are, some important offices of Universidad Nacional, and now I think I can pretty much get around wherever I need to. Today when I got back to the house, I was feeling a bit tired, and frustrated at how frustrated I am at not being familiar with the area. I went into my room, and turned on my computer when I got a knock on the door. My host mom was standing at the door with a bowl of ice cream and chocolate cookies sticking out of it. Then I talked to her for about an hour before dinner. She's very sweet, I guess she's a mom so she just knows what to do. (Today, we were talking about the differences between culture in the US and Costa Rica, like how students in the US generally leave home at 18, which isn't the case here. She's pretty protective of her kids, she called herself a self proclaimed mother hen, o gallina madre.)

Today, I talked a lot with my host parents about various things like their families, and politics. Host padre candidly asked me if I’m a democrat or republican—a little shocked by the question, I answered democrat (He said the Ticos favor the democrats.) That sprung into an hour and a half long chat about the governments in the US and Costa Rica. He said that the US is in trouble. According to him, after WWII, the US was the “savior of the world”. But now that they’re the most powerful, the US has changed. He says the US is alone in their conquests today, only after money, and that’s dangerous. He said he doesn't understand why human beings, after all that has happened, still resort to war. He knew a lot about the US political system and the past few elections. I asked him what Ticos (Costa Ricans) think about US politics. He said, generally, they don’t. But those that do think that its not fair that the popular vote doesn't necessarily win, that they generally don’t trust the method of voting (cough, hanging chad), and some lots of other stuff. My host pop talks a lot. My host mom and I talked about a lot of stuff after dinner. She mentioned her nephew in Iraq. She said that he joined to be able to go to school in the US after his service is over. She said he’s changed—that training changed him: he can’t cry anymore, he can’t express himself anymore. She knows, she says, that deep down his heart is still the same. She talked about stories her nephew had told her about training and his time in Iraq. He’s due to return in July. She told me, “This is why I don’t like President Bush. He is so willing to let the children of other people die for his war, why doesn’t he send his children?”

On a totally different note: some things that I’ve observed during my time here.

1. Waiters in the US almost incessantly refill water glasses: SO not the case here. You usually don’t get water until you ask for a refill.
2. In a grocery store that we went to today, they had a place near the front where customers could pick up bags that were used to transport the food there, or people brought their own plastic bags: good idea, right?
3. My limit is one portion of beans per day. My stomach just isn’t a champ. I guess it’ll get used to it. Suck it up, and quit whining, stomach!
4. There are CFL’s (compact fluorescent lights) EVERYWHERE here.
5. TLC/CAFTA is a trade agreement between the US and 5 countries in Central America. In Costa Rica, there was a referendum for the people to vote for or against it. Almost everywhere, there is grafitti that says VOTE NO, or Mi Corazon Dice No (My heart says no) or Mi Corazon dice Todo Lo Costariccense. Almost everyone I’ve asked is against it, including my host mom. Anyway, the president signed it. On the photo below, it says, my heart says no and yours? It's hard to see, but it says in Sharpie--No, tambien (No also).
   
6. 
7. How does everyone know who Celine Dion is?
8. I’ve been listening to Julieta Venegas. She’s good, listen to her.
9. (There are two words we have yet to successfully find Spanish equivalents for: awkward and creeper--anyone know?)

Anyways, classes for the University start tomorrow. I am anxious, but nervous and excited all at once. The little bubble that we’ve been in with students from US universities is about to burst. We’re going to be in classes with Costa Rican (Tico) students. I’m excited, hope I can make me some amigos.

Abrazos,

Erin

P.S. The thing about no more monster updates? I lied.