Today at the bus stop to go home, I saw a serious looking dude with slacks, dress shoes and a suit jacket. He looked like a man not to be messed with and was holding a scarily large book. Hm. I thought about what the book may be. A bible? Looks sort of like my Spanish-English dictionary. He turns to the side. Harry Potter. HA. HAhahahaha. Ha. Smiled to keep from laughing. All adults are just big kids in suits and leather shoes. Harry Potter loving, nose-picking, sugary cereal eating, big kids.
In other news, I LOVE dance class. Cumbia gives me a perma-grin. I wish I had it more than once a week.
(CUMBIA--- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8eOiBWbiCo&NR=1 )
Of course, I'm not anywhere near as good as these people, and we've only learned three bases of this dance, but cumbia aka bouncing around is so so so fun. It's been nice to have guys from the dance club (which is really really good) come help w/ our (beginner) class the past few weeks b/c there's a shortage of dudes. These guys can move their hips in ways that I never thought guys could. Carazaaaaaaay.
I hope there's cumbia in Chapel Hill (at least there's salsa)... and if not, I can just go contra dancing! (Only went once riiight before I had to hop a plane for Costa Rica. I guess you can't have everything, right?)
Quote of the week--"En esta casa, cuando no hay tortillas, tenemos problemas." (In this house, when there are no tortillas, we've got problems. A la host sister.
Another random thought. Last week, when Claire was here, my host sister was showing Claire pictures of her and her boyfriend. Claire, intending to say, "How cute!" which, in a lot of countries would mean "que mono," told her her bf looked like a monkey. In Spanish, mono can mean cute, or monkey. Here in Costa Rica, it normally just means monkey. So after Claire proceeded to tell Yolandita that her boyfriend looks like a monkey, I noticed Yolandita's face turn to, "Oh no that bitch didn't.../excuuuuse me??" at which point I interrupted and said, "no nononono, ella quiere decir lindo." (She meant to say .. rough translation, of cute) Todo bien. Lost in translation. Ha.
On Saturday I'm leaving at 4 am for Nicaragua for Semana Santa or Holy Week with some friends from the program. (Before I came here, I had this idea that we would all be traveling with our respective Tico friends, but Tico students don't travel too much.) Mi amigo nicaraguense, Daniel, helped me figure out where the prime spots in Nicaragua are. Sweeet.
Ever since Mom and Claire visited, I've realized that time is flying by SOOO fast. I only have three and a half months let here! So I shall make the best of it. I know that I will be super excited to see everyone at home (o course!), but every time I think about leaving, I get weirdly nostalgic (already) and sort of sad. And then promptly make myself think of other things.
I'm getting more comfortable with Spanish. Speaking in front of the class for presentations and stuff used to be way more intimidating but now I'm getting used to it and even sometimes (weird) look forward to it. The only exception is philosophy where, mostly, I feel very philosophically thinker-ly challenged, but it's one of my favorite classes (and it's no longer as terrifying as it once was).
My host mom makes whole wheat pancakes. How cool is that?
The other day when I was staying in Claire and Mom's hotel (undercover so that they wouldn't have to pay more), Mom brought me a peanut butter and guava jelly sandwich from the hotel's breakfast. OH.My.GOD. I don't know if I've ever had such a marvelous PB&J creation. That's one thing that I miss.I've realized how awesome my host family is. I'll miss them a lot.
My host mom thinks my little bro, Humbertito has a gf. One day, a while ago, he told us, I'm going to go play soccer, be back later (he plays soccer a lot). But this time, he was dressed in a polo shirt, jeans and suede shoes. My host mom goes, "Who plays soccer dressed like that? I think he has a girlfriend..." Today, when Humbertito got back from youth group, he asks his mom if anyone called for him. "Oh, just two girls..." Haha. She and I giggle immaturely while he plays it cool (and later asks lots of questions about what they said, what they asked and what she said in response and what they looked like). Oh adolescence.
I'm going to start volunteering at the health clinic here at the university. I'm going tomorrow to talk to someone about it, but if it's anything like the campus clinic at UNC, I am halfway expecting to be handing out condoms and doing bitch work, like filing papers.
Today in my social history class, a friend was asking the professor about assignments that we had due, and he goes, "No seas gringa, tranquila!" Don't be a white chick/gringa, calm down!" He closed all of the textbooks on her desk and goes, None of that during semana santa! Yaaaay. (Except I think I have a philosophy test--again--on two books I have yet to find or read the day I come back from Semana Santa.)
According to my social history professor, there were only two wars in (I can't remember, either the 19th or 20th century) in Costa Rica. One lasted a day, one lasted a week. Ha.
I've been walking in the morning with my host ma. 6 am walks. Again, we'll see how long this lasts.
Also--HOW 'BOUT THEM TAR HEELS??
Well, enough procrastination I suppose. Especially since I have a plethora of grammar exercises to do. One of these days I'll put up more pictures of Mom and Claire's trip here on the post below. Until then, PURA VIDA!
Abrazos!
Erin
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