En Busca de Pura Vida

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Zoo Pictures

All the branches on this small tree looked just as painful

Last Saturday in Costa Rica! It’s hard to believe. Today I got up earlier than I needed to, but I got to have breakfast with just Gabi and me. We had our almost conversation again. She asks a question, I answer sort of, she re-words what I said a bit and then I agree that that’s what I meant to say. At about 8:30 I went to go catch the bus. I had to wait about 15 minutes for it (pretty good for a weekend). But I ended up getting to the bus stop 45 minutes before I needed to be there. So I started reading.

The Polchows arrived at about 9:45, and Shannon’s parents were there as well. We waited and waited. At 10:30 Shannon asked another bus driving if the Heredia bus was running today and we told no…but when she asked before they had told her yes…anyways, we ended up taking a taxi there. It was a 10-ish minute ride and only about $7 to get there. Not bad at all. We got in line and then a leader from a gringo group came over and handed us a sticker saying that one of their people didn’t show up and that we could have that one. So, I ended up getting into the park for free! $23 saved!

We walked around the park, first spotting some white-tailed deer…look pretty much like the ones we have at home. Then we saw some snakes, then an alligator-like creature, lots of turtles, some fish, and then the butterfly garden. It was FULL of butterflies! I had quite a few land on me, and I also got some good pictures of butterflies as well. After that we went into the forest area. One of the nifty things about this zoo is that the non-dangerous animals just roam free and you walk among them. We had an iguana come down the tree next to us once. Then another time we had a sloth above us. And another time we almost got peed on by another lizard, or at least that’s what I believe happened. I walked out of the frog place and heard a splatting noise and looked up, but didn’t see anything. then the Polchow’s came out and more splatting. There was liquid on the ground and then we finally saw a big lizard, possibly an iguana way up the tree. lol We saw some fungus, plants and bugs. In one of the enclosures I looked in and continued on thinking nothing was in there, but then Shannon’s mom said something about stick bugs! lol there were about 4 of ‘em there and I completely missed them! Their camouflage worked on me! We also went to a farm type place with a petting zoo area. They had some chicks, baby turkeys, and baby goats.

For lunch we ate at one of the places in the zoo. I had a hamburger, but I’m regretting that at the moment…I’ve got a terrible case of indigestion; so not feeling so good. After lunch we went into the souvenir shop and I bought some stuff. I got 2 necklaces and a bracelet for less that $8. One necklace is a dragonfly carved out of coconut shell. The other is just a beaded necklace in earth tones. And the bracelet is green, purple, and black.

When we got out of the park I got to flag down my first taxi! lol We got back to San Jose about 2ish and I waited for my bus and went home. I downloaded my pictures and headed to the mall, but unfortunately the Internet connection was messing up a lot :-( so this blog update will have to wait until tomorrow or Monday. I guess I’ll go through my pictures here and pick out which one’s I’ll upload. Chao, I’m gonna nap now I think.

:-) Rek

More Pictures

Check out the English translation

I have been converted! They're tasty!

How they make change on the busses

Costa Rican Pepsi is very good

July 24th

Well, that presentation is now done and over with and I got a 86 on it. And I still talk REALLY fast in Spanish as well when I’m nervous. In the middle of my presentation my professor said “tranquila!” I just talk fast, even in English, not much helping it. I could hear Mr. Drake’s voice in the background (he was my public speaking professor) lol

In conversation class we were given a sheet that had pictures of different scenarios in a park. Grilling, bug bites/stings, camping, picnics, etc. We learned some new vocabulary and refreshed our memories of other words. At the end of class she gave us a list of phrases and tried to explain to us what they were. Some of them I’m not so sure what they mean or when to use ‘em. I guess I’ll have to ask my mom lol

After class I met up with Jeremy and Katia, but we parted ways because we all needed to do something different but Katia said she’d find me in the mall after she was finished with her thing. On my way to the mall I ran into those two girls I had lunch with the other day—Marissa and Jen. We had a pleasant lunch together and after those two left, Katia showed up. While she got her food I went and re-printed my paper that’s due Monday in one of the Internet Café’s in the mall. (I tweaking the intro and conclusion hopefully making it like one of the types in the textbook.)

I met up with her again and then Jeremy showed up and he brought up to a table full of MLSA students some of which I have in my classes and others which I’ve never met/seen before. Most of them left when we got there, but Katia, Jeremy, another guy, and I had a fun lunch together.

Ugh! I smell cigarette smoke again! Ashley has taken up the habit of smoking again. Apparently each time she travels to a foreign country she smokes. She started again this past weekend. Even with my windows closed and her out on the street, the smell still permeates every crack in my window. Only one more week, but yuck!

After lunch I went to the bank to get money out for my trip to the zoo tomorrow and then headed to my café. I ran into Ashley on my way there and found her begging for some cash. She had forgotten her wallet at home. She didn’t even have enough for a bus ride home. I gave her 1500 colones to cover lunch and bus ride home. (no worries, she’s paid me back already) In the café I worked on my final presentation for my conversation class, talked to Steven a bit, and studied a while for my composition exam on Monday.

At home I found Ashley and Maripaz watching Zoey 101 and spying out the window waiting for Adam to get home. After I had my shower, Ashley and I walked to Mas x Menos because she wanted to price hand-sanitizer and I wanted something chocolate—been having major chocolate cravings this week lol And I have now been converted. Chiky’s are great. I’m a fan of the chocolate chip cookie version though rather than the original. I also got one of the re-usable bags. It’s JUST like my Walmart bag at home, but in Spanish. “¿Papel o plástico? Niguno.” O and the store is owned by Walmart…it says Walmart on the worker’s name tags.

Once back at home I enjoyed 4 Chiky’s chip cookies, and now I’m just waiting on dinner…it’s 8:30 and still no sign of dinner…Tengo hambre!

So I heard a commotion in the living room/dining room area and went to investigate. The whole house was dark; all three of them were spying on Adam! (He lives in the house across the street) lol They were giggling and carrying on like little girls. After that Gabi invited Ashley and I to go to a discotec with her tonight. I thought about it, but I’m glad I didn’t go, they just left the house (It’s 10pm). I’m quite tired after waking up at 5am and I want to be rested and well for my day trip tomorrow. Dinner wasn’t served until 9pm tonight; even Ashley was a bit grumpy about that. It was pretty nasty in my opinion. It was a mixture of what we’ve eaten over the past few days. Leftover rice with some sort of flavouring in it, leftover zucchini, a few bits of chicken from the stir-fry 2 nights ago and cilantro all mixed together…not the best combination of flavours, but I was hungry enough to eat a good portion of it.

After dinner Maripaz pitched a fit and apparently started to cry when Gabit told her that she wasn’t going to take her to Mas x Menos. Gabi asked if I would take her and I said yeah. But then Ashley decided to invite Zori along to the discotec since she couldn’t get Adam to join her and that was going to take another 20 minutes so Gabi, Maripaz and I all went to Mas x Menos. Maripaz picked out a bag of popcorn, a bag of chips, and a 2 liter bottle of coke. Then on the way out it sounded like Maripaz hinted that she wanted ice cream…so we went back into the store and got two cones of ice cream. One for me and one for Maripaz.

It’s now 10:15 and I’m going to go to bed in a few, otherwise I’m going to fall asleep typing. lol Buena Noche!

:-) Rek

Friday, July 24, 2009

More Pictures

Oreos!

My composition classroom

View from where I have Internet in the mornings

Comp on the left and Convo on the right

It's a hard habit to break

How they make coffee here

They happy or sad?

Where I ate lunch for the first 2 weeks

July 22nd -23rd

Another usual day of classes pretty much. Although, in Composition we were told that our presentations (on Friday) have to be 10 minutes long not 3 minutes, so most of my afternoon was spent lengthening my presentation and trying to commit some of it to memory.

In my conversation class, my professor had us just ask any questions we have about grammar and usage of words and such. We also got a long lecture about a possible origin of "vos" We got out of class 15 minutes early which was nice.

I headed up to the mall and ended up having lunch with Katia and a guy named Jeremy. It was quite fun, we had quite a few good laughs. We all have a sense of humor, like telling stories and playing with words. lol I think I'm having lunch with them again today...actually Jeremy's here and talking to me at the moment.

My afternoon was spent in my cafe working on my presentation. I also got to talk to my parents for a bit, which was nice. Headed home about 5 o'clock and practiced my presentation a bit. Had dinner with Ashley since no one was home. Then Ashley went out to a discotec at about 7pm, so I had the house to myself for 2 whole hours! No one was home until 9pm! I really enjoyed my alone time. lol Funny story which I slept through. Ashley got home from Castro's about midnight, but she got stuck outside. She had never had to unlock the padlock before that's on the second gate. She already has issues with the other two locks. Anyways, she got the help of the girl that lives 2 houses down, but she couldn't do it and then she got Adam who lives across the street to come over as well. (those people had gone to the discotec as well) Adam finally got it unlocked. But this whole ordeal had to have been quite noisy and the window in my room was open and the second gate is pretty much right next to my window. I'm surprised I didn't wake up, but then again I did take half a benadryl...that stuff's just as good as ambien lol

This morning the cilantro returned to the gallo pinto, but we had some more amazing fresh from the bakery oven bread. We have some almost everyday. It's brilliant. I love the bread here. It was still warm when I cut myself a piece...mmm!

In my composition class my professor was flying through topics and concepts like a madwoman. Por dicha, I've already studied almost all of it before! Then she started talking about her definition of an exposition paper...well she had stuff in our book, but it was pretty much a 3rd grade level of information. You have in introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Don't forget your thesis! Then she spent time having us practice writing introductions and conclusions in a specific form. Argh, I might have to go back and re-write those parts of my paper because I don't think mine are one of the specific types of intros and conclusions that are in the book. Need less to say, most of us are not very happy with our professor right now. If she had given us some warning it would have been alright, but telling us last week that we could write whatever we wanted and then telling us the night before restrictions isn't so fair.

In my conversation class we talked about national values and the differences between Costa Ricans and Americans. It was interesting and then we listened to a song and filled in blanks...but I didn't get to fill in many blanks. The singer had a strong accent from somewhere and I already have a hard time understanding the words in most English songs.

I got out of class a bit early again today and headed up to the mall. I got handed another flyer as usual, but this time I actually went to the place on the flyer. They had a very good deal. I got 2 pieces of chicken (a breast and a leg) and a can of pepsi for 1390 colones, which is like $2.50. Perfect amount of food for me.

Katia and Jeremy joined me a bit later, and we had a good ol' time again lol Afterwards we all headed up to Cafe Kracovia, but after a milkshake we parted ways. Katia and Jeremy have a paper due tomorrow and I had a presentation to continue working on.

The plans for my weekend have more or less been finalized. I'm meeting the Polchows at 9:45 at the bus stop in front of La Casita and we're going to a butterfly garden/zoo type place somewhere outside of San Jose. If I have free time on Sunday I think I'm going to try to go to see Harry Potter, if not I'll probably watch it on Tuesday since I'll be all done with classes then. It's hard to believe I'll be home in a week, but I think I'm ready for it. It'd be fun to do some more vacationing type things around here, but I'm ready to be finished with classes! lol Well, gonna continue to practice my presentation. Hasta luego!

:-) Rek