Well, the masses have told me they love my blog posts, and have been begging me for more. Since I'm one to please, here it is! Honestly, you guys should know better than to encourage me. Of course, I'm always happy to write about my journey, so here's a post about my one week anniversary in Costa Rica!
Honestly this past week I've been alternating between loving my new home, feeling super homesick, and experiencing this feeling called culture shock. I'm not ashamed to say on my second day of school I skyped home to cry to my mom. That was part homesickness part culture shock. As you probably saw in my last post, school here is way different. They're a lot more laid back here, in the Pura Vida fashion, something I'm definitely not used to coming from a rigid, strict, private college prep that once launched a month long attack on anyone wearing their uniforms, even the smallest of errors, out of code. Basically I called home crying because they have no schedule, so I ended up going to only two classes in a ten hour period. One of which I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be in. It's also really easy to ditch classes, have a teacher ditch classes, or have no classroom for a class, so I just followed people around hoping we weren't ditching a class or something. Luckily, this won't last for long (at least I'm told) and we'll have our schedule at most in a week. But I've learned to just take what comes to me. On our "breaks" (sometimes lasting four hours) my new friends ask me countless questions. Most of these I don't really know how to answer. I wish I had one of those worksheets to fill out so I came prepared with answers. They ask things like what is your favorite music, food, color, what kind of boys do you like, where have you traveled, why did you come to Costa Rica, where else have you gone, where do you want to go, have you ever gotten in fights, is anyone cruel to you (???), do you think we are crazy, etc etc ect. Whew. Honestly I don't really want to tell them my favorite music is Indy Pop Rock, Electro Swing, and Classic Cello partly because I don't know how to say that in Spanish and partly because everyone here loves American Pop, which is cool but I'm not that into it. Even though the questions can be hard to answer, they really help me out with learning more Spanish and I can tell this talkitive group of girls will definitely help me out. Especially because they spent two entire breaks looking through a Spanish-English dictionary and quizzing me.
Also, this week I took a trip to Perez! Remember Perez? You know, the big intimidating place that reminds me of Tijuana. Yep, that place. I think my cousins and aunts all live there. It is super hot there, and very busy. I can definitely feel the culture shock there. There is loud music playing everywhere and even more noise coming from the tons of people. We decided to go to the Exposición de Perez which is basically a sort of carnival thing with hundreds of huge cows just standing there, people looking at them, some stands of food and tourist gifts, and a few rickity rides. It was the kind of thing I know my dad would hate--tons of people everywhere, carnies, and loud, unsafe looking rides. Honestly it was too busy for me to enjoy it. Luckily, after we left, I got some mango ice cream which was yummmmm. While we were waiting for a taxi cab and I was munching on my mango ice cream two bus loads of teens were dropped off. I guess the Exposicion de Perez is the hot spot in town! In other words meeting my extended family was super terrifying because I didn't want them to think I was some freak or something. They were all very nice and welcoming though, even if they weren't accustomed to speaking slowly for me. I mostly just sat around listening to them talk and wringing my hands.
Honestly that's all of the things I have to tell you right now. I have a lot of random thoughts about the driving, the food, the people, and more floating around my head but they wouldn't go together in a coherent blog post. For example: I really want to buy a hammock before I leave. Also, the driving is terrifying here and my primary thought while going at crazy speeds around slow biers and twisty roads is "this is how I'm going to die." Also, I am terrified of getting dengue*.
One last random thought that doesn't really fit: My family is letting me name one of the puppies! Two of them have names so far: Spot and Sissy. They can be for a boy or girl and Spanish speakers have to be able to pronounce the name. Any suggestions?
Mis Perritos
*The way the leader at our orientation described dengue was that you get a 105 degree fever, it feels like your bones are breaking, and it feels like your eyes are going to pop out of your skull. It's transmitted by mosquitoes and there's no vaccine and no cure. Also if you get it twice you'll probably die. Hahahaha no.
