It's hard to believe that we're nearing the end of our fourth week in Costa Rica! I think we all are starting to feel like we've got the hang of this, for the most part. Interactions with my host mom aren't quite as awkward or forced as they once were, and I've finally started to settle into my daily routine:
Mondays - Grammar, Conversation, Introduction to Costa Rica, free afternoon, UCR Choir
Tuesdays - Grammar, Conversation, lunch, Biodiversity
Wednesdays - Grammar, Conversation, Introduction to Costa Rica, free afternoon
Thursdays - Grammar, Conversation, lunch, Biodiversity, UCR Choir
Fridays - still haven't figured this out yet... so far it's always been a field trip, but I think they're generally free days
Of course this is all theoretical... The national motto here is "pura vida," which literally translates to pure life. Basically it just means to go with the flow and not worry about sticking to schedules. I had to remind myself of pura vida several times this week when our schedule kept getting flipped around. On Monday our teachers cancelled academic classes to let us sleep in and recover from our trip to the Arenal Volcano. I'm not sure how much we recovered though, since we had our second dance class that morning. It was a lot of fun, and our teachers helped us dress up in traditional costumes: long, flowing skirts for the girls and hats with bandanas for the boys. We learned El Torito (where the boys are bulls and the girls are bullfighters), El Punto Guanacasteco (it might as well be the national dance), and Swing Criollo (a fun twist on American swing dancing).
After our dance class we were given our assignments for the upcoming 3-week rural stay portion of the program. I will be living in San Luis de Grecia, near the Poas Volcano, with a completely new host family (I think it's mom, dad, sister, and the sister's 3 year old daughter). I will be working with a group of women who work with medicinal plants and natural products and helping them sell their products in the market. There might also be an opportunity to teach English while I'm there, but I'm not sure yet. My family has (yet another) French Poodle in the house, a dog with puppies outside, and several chickens. I think we're all pretty nervous about starting at square one again with a new family in a new town, but I'm really excited to get started! It's funny to think that, after 3 weeks away from our families and friends in San Jose, everything here will seem so familiar and comfortable!
On Tuesday we all went to Immigration to have our fingerprints taken. Our current visas are good for 90 days, but we need to have them extended to stay until the end of the program, which means fingerprints. I think this was the first time any of us have had our fingerprints taken, so it was pretty exciting, and the fact that it all happened in Spanish made it all the more entertaining. The whole process took about 2 hours, so the rest of our day was pretty crazy.
Yesterday we only had about an hour of regular classes. Instead of our conversation class, Carly and I cooked gallo pinto (a really popular dish of rice and beans), while a few other students made fried plantains, picadillo (this can basically mean any type of warm diced combination of foods), and lime tea. It turns out that gallo pinto is extremely quick and easy to make, so we had a lot of time to goof around in the kitchen. The food was all extremely delicious. Mario cancelled our Introduction to Costa Rica because we will be doing some extra stuff for that class tomorrow. We all needed the free afternoon to crank out our first essay for Mario's class. I ended up writing mine on some of the different types of dances in Costa Rica and the importance of storytelling in the more traditional dances.
I thought today was going to be a fairly normal day, but I was wrong again! Instead of our conversation class, we had a short acting workshop. We are all preparing short skits for next week, and I guess our teachers thought we could use the extra help. We had a few spare minutes after the workshop, so our conversation class played "conversation Jenga" where each time you move a block you have to answer a question about yourself. For lunch, we ventured out to a nearby pizzeria. It ended up being a little more expensive than we anticipated, but the food was SO GOOD. I paid about $8 for a delicious pasta dish, but was able to keep some for lunch tomorrow, so it's really only $4 per lunch. I'd say that's fairly decent price considering I've been eating the same loaf of bread and cream cheese for lunch several days in a row (it's unbelievably cheap and surprisingly delicious). Hopefully by the time I get back from the rural stay I'll have a few more ideas of what I can cook at ACM between classes.
Independence Day is on Saturday, so tomorrow and Saturday will be filled with some cultural activities and plenty of food. I think I'll have a lot of time to get some work done this weekend too. I guess it couldn't hurt to start studying for our Spanish midterm next Friday!
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