"Gringa":White chick
I'm currently sitting in my own mini heaven. My first weekend trip in Costa Rica I have returned to the wonderful Manuel Antonio! This time I am not staying in a lovely hotel with the family or in cabinas with study abroad friends but instead to the unique abode that is hostel plinio nature park. The dorms open completely to the air allowed me to fall asleep to the sound of birds, monkeys, and insects of all sorts. This morning I got to wake up to a breakfast of fresh gallo pinto, eggs, and bread. Now I am enjoying the sound of Jack Johnson and reggaeton playing in the background while reading a book. This to me is the epitome of a start to a great day. I have included pictures of the hostel below. More stories to come soon!
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A lot has happened since the last time that i wrote. I have completed my first week of classes and I am almost halfway into my second week. A professional blogger would probably post an entry religiously once a week on the same day at the same time. I however am not a professional blogger for two reasons: 1) the Internet in Costa Rica is more tempermental than a yappy dog and 2) i am severely affected by FOMO (fear of missing out). Because i have a terrible case of FOMO, i typically will say yes to any spontaneous adventure or activity that is thrown my way. This could be anything from playing bannagrams (spanish edition) with my tica cousins, to going to Zumba with my tica mom, aunt, and sister, to casual sidewalk sittin' hanging out with the neighbors. So please accept my apology for the spontaneity of my blog posts. I hope they come as pleasant surprises rather than a boring scheduled updates. Moving on from my rant, last week began, and Spanish classes were slightly overwhelming along with the fact that most people my age had left 2 weeks prior to my arrival as the"high season" of U.S. travel was creeping to an end. I was more anxious than anything else. Luckily, Monday is Zumba day at my tica house (along with Wednesday and Friday) so I immediately had a fun activity to put my mind at ease. I knew from my previous dance experience in Costa Rica that my innate ability for latin dance, especially the salsa was somewhat lacking, but I definitely didn't know to what extent. When we walked into the gym there were over 100 women AND MEN of all shapes and sizes ready for Zumba class. Now a little shout out to BBYO dances and shaking what your Mamma gave ya, I thought I had some small instinct on how to dance. Yeah right. I had nothing on Latin dance hip shaking. Although, after 3 classes now I like to think I'm learning. The rest of the week went by without too much commotion until Saturday night when my tica cousins and I went to the club ESTEREO (guess what that means?) Here I learned what a miguelito is (an absolutely delicious shot) and how to dance to reggea music. I also learned how to fake it like you know every song that the dj is playing. Sunday came along and I went to play "bola" with the whole family. What is"bola" you may be wondering? Bola is the common man's soccer/fútbol. In my tica brother's words it is the game for people who aren't good enough to play soccer. The field and goal are a little smaller to even the playing field (literally) for average and less than average players (like myself). I did make one goal and my tica brother even told me I was a good defense player. (Probably because blocking is much easier rather than "dribbling the ball with my feet") Fast forward one day to Monday of this week. I was skeptical since only two of us stayed from last week and only 3 new people were coming into conversa. The three new ladies come from three entirely different walks of life. One is 28 from Maryland. Another is from L.A., California, and my personal favorite is the 83 year old woman from Chicago. First of all, 83 years old and still traveling on her own with nothing more than her sassy personality and a sturdy trekking pole is beyond words. "Juanita" is here for a month, and I obviously can't wait to know more about her adventurous life. I found out she was my long (very long) lost soul sister Monday at lunch. I went to go sit with her when we began talking and sharing stories. At 83 wanderlust and curiosity still captures her heart and motivates her yearly travels. She continues to learn not only through spanish classes but through living with a host family as well. In her words, "I don't follow the Spanish program here; i choose what i want to learn because i have all the degrees that I want." (Yes mam!) You would think that sometime who travels abroad annually has a very lucrative job. Not in Juanitas case! She was a middle school teacher for over thirty years and absolutely loved teaching. That was similarity number one. Similarity number two was that like myself, she is an artist as well. She prefers 3-D art and sculpting while I prefer water color. The strangest similarity was that we both despise horses, for the exact same reason that they stink, and they poop when you're riding them. From a far we agree they are pretty but that's where the admiration ends. All these similarities and more just prove that we must be sisters from another very old mister. During our conversation we talked about many different things including her annual trips throughout Europe. When I asked her where she had been, she said everywhere and meant exactly that. Juanita is a tall, confident, in your face, witty person who continues to live her life like she is in her twenties. She is a fireball for sure and would probably take a shot of fireball with you if you asked. She told me that a younger person once said to her, "I want to be just like you when I am your age. " her response was, "Well remember that, keep your eye on it, and don't get off track!" I'll do my best Juanita! Today was only my third day here but already I have met so many of my tica family and have had just as many adventures. I think it is only fair that I begin by describing my arrival. On Saturday my plane arrived in Costa Rica about an hour late so I hurried to collect my luggage and find the person who had arranged to pick me up. I found her immediately, and I thought that it would be a taxi that we would take us to my host family. I was wrong. In the U.S. we would have called what I rode in a ghetto ride. It was a large green jeep like car with the seats taken out of the back to make room for the luggage. Now to make room for me there was instead a large jumpseat that jutted out over my luggage.
The day I arrived was conveniently the birthday of Santa Ana, the town I am living in. In order to celebrate, there was a festival at night complete with Captain Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl ride, known here as la perla negra. Also at the festival we went to the concert of Los Rancheros del Oeste (The Ranchers of the West) where I learned that Latin men can move much better than any American man or woman. The following day the festival continued with a horse parade. You can assume that this is where the blog got its title. A few of you may know that horses are not my favorite animals. They are big, they stink, and I may or may not be slightly scared of them. To prepare for this parade the whole town staked out their corner and set up tents and tables full of food and beer. It was an experience comparable to a Clemson versus Carolina football game tailgate and by the end of the day just as rowdy. I have to admit that I actually enjoyed the horse show even though I did not think I would. At our tent my tica mom wanted to make sure that I got the best seat so she saved me a seat right in front. This was very nice but it is possible that I was just a little too close. Horses trotted politely by us and every now and then the horses would slip on the street speed bump directly in front of us. I cringed each time because I felt bad for the horse, but I did not think that I would be in harms way. One time in particular, the horse slipped on the speed bump and at first I thought it had recovered smoothly and was fine... until it slipped again. This time its whole leg gave out and hit my foot! not only was I then even more scared of the horses but I also had I slightly stubbed toe thanks to the horse. The festivities continued and the attention shifted from the horses to the drunk men on the horses. For the record, I think driving a horse under the influence is more dangerous than driving a vehicle under the influence. Well that is all for tonight! There are more adventures to come! Please comment on this post below if you have any questions or comments! Well I had every intention of starting out this blog with a countdown to the day that I would leave for costa rica. Sitting on the plane now I think it's safe to say that a countdown would be way past due. So for those of you who don't know, I have decided to go back to Costa Rica to study Spanish and hopefully become fluent (fingers crossed). When I start writing in spanglish by accident you'll know I'm getting closer to being fluent. So what is the exact plan you may be wondering? Well I start here in Costa Rica until the end of September. After that I will head down to chilean patagonia to work for a non profit organization there for three months. The rest is to be determined! I plan to post all of my adventures and mishaps at least once a week but if you would like to contact me directly please look under the contact me tab on the left! Pura vida! |
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