hola mis amigos y familia,
it´s only been 2 weeks? that seems impossible to me . . . i feel like we moved here. our spanish has improved so much that we move to level 4 monday. i still don´t feel like we actually speak spanish, but i guess we do. we ran into two friends who´d met each other at the waterfalls. neither spoke the other's language. how they have become bosom buddies is beyond me. the english speaking guy asked if we´d interpret, so they could get to know each other better. an hour later they were even better friends because they´d found out how much they had in common. the kid from panama had already been shot while fighting (gorilla warfare) alongside his father. he´d been riding bulls since he was a child. the canadian was raised on a ranch, breaking wild horses. we helped them arrange a visit to the panamanian´s dad´s ranch (nearby) to go riding. i hope they had fun.
in the morning joe and i wake up to the crowing of a very obnoxious rooster. it struts through the surrounding vegetation, up the hill, takes his place outside our window, ruffles his feathers and jolts us awake . . . every morning. we then walk to a nearby hotel/restaurant and have fruit and yogurt covered in granola. we have class at 8:00 for 2 hours, then we have lab.
as you know lab can be quite the experience (trivial pursuit on the beach, scrabble at a pond, verb drills at the waterfalls). afterward we throw together lunch in the kitchen cage and head into town (10 minute walk) in our bathing suits. we decide on which beach or falls we want to go to, and settle down for several hours. 
our favorites are the falls by our house which are over a hundred feet high, the beach south of montezuma ´cause the waves are huge, and the colorado river because it´s shady and cold. in the evening we come back for a cold shower and a siesta. our hotel has about 10 hammocks on the upper patio in the shade. it has it´s own gravitational force, especially in the evening. all the students sort of coalesce here to talk about their aches and pains. our school has yoga, fire dancing, scuba, surfing, and spanish. our pain is mental:) we head back into town for the pre-dinner street stroll, settle on one of the many excellent places to eat and then we are home by 10:00.
there are very few paved roads here. they´re mostly sand, shells, and dirt. when it rains it can be pretty yucky. 80% of the people get around on motorcycles and quad runners. you´d be amazed at how many people fit on a quad runner. crabs, geckos, iguanas, and dogs share the road. crabs have no road crossing skills at all.
at any given time you can randomly see snakes, monkeys, anteaters, bats, and a kazillion birds. we were at ´puggos´ the other night for dinner when a young group of four europeans came in and sat down. one guy, three girls. they were feeling pretty elegant and cool in their clean cloths when suddenly the guy screamed like a girl and leaped up, the girls all screamed and jumped away from the boy. the boy scrambled backwards and fell on his back while flinging his arms about. suddenly it all stopped and he jumped back up. the entire restaurant had stopped to stare. the boy laughed sheepishly and said in broken english . . .¨it´s our first day here . . . they don´t have bugs where we come from¨. joe smiled and said ¨beinvenidos a costa rica!¨ (welcome to costa rica!)
time is out
it´s only been 2 weeks? that seems impossible to me . . . i feel like we moved here. our spanish has improved so much that we move to level 4 monday. i still don´t feel like we actually speak spanish, but i guess we do. we ran into two friends who´d met each other at the waterfalls. neither spoke the other's language. how they have become bosom buddies is beyond me. the english speaking guy asked if we´d interpret, so they could get to know each other better. an hour later they were even better friends because they´d found out how much they had in common. the kid from panama had already been shot while fighting (gorilla warfare) alongside his father. he´d been riding bulls since he was a child. the canadian was raised on a ranch, breaking wild horses. we helped them arrange a visit to the panamanian´s dad´s ranch (nearby) to go riding. i hope they had fun.
in the morning joe and i wake up to the crowing of a very obnoxious rooster. it struts through the surrounding vegetation, up the hill, takes his place outside our window, ruffles his feathers and jolts us awake . . . every morning. we then walk to a nearby hotel/restaurant and have fruit and yogurt covered in granola. we have class at 8:00 for 2 hours, then we have lab.
as you know lab can be quite the experience (trivial pursuit on the beach, scrabble at a pond, verb drills at the waterfalls). afterward we throw together lunch in the kitchen cage and head into town (10 minute walk) in our bathing suits. we decide on which beach or falls we want to go to, and settle down for several hours. 
our favorites are the falls by our house which are over a hundred feet high, the beach south of montezuma ´cause the waves are huge, and the colorado river because it´s shady and cold. in the evening we come back for a cold shower and a siesta. our hotel has about 10 hammocks on the upper patio in the shade. it has it´s own gravitational force, especially in the evening. all the students sort of coalesce here to talk about their aches and pains. our school has yoga, fire dancing, scuba, surfing, and spanish. our pain is mental:) we head back into town for the pre-dinner street stroll, settle on one of the many excellent places to eat and then we are home by 10:00.
there are very few paved roads here. they´re mostly sand, shells, and dirt. when it rains it can be pretty yucky. 80% of the people get around on motorcycles and quad runners. you´d be amazed at how many people fit on a quad runner. crabs, geckos, iguanas, and dogs share the road. crabs have no road crossing skills at all.
at any given time you can randomly see snakes, monkeys, anteaters, bats, and a kazillion birds. we were at ´puggos´ the other night for dinner when a young group of four europeans came in and sat down. one guy, three girls. they were feeling pretty elegant and cool in their clean cloths when suddenly the guy screamed like a girl and leaped up, the girls all screamed and jumped away from the boy. the boy scrambled backwards and fell on his back while flinging his arms about. suddenly it all stopped and he jumped back up. the entire restaurant had stopped to stare. the boy laughed sheepishly and said in broken english . . .¨it´s our first day here . . . they don´t have bugs where we come from¨. joe smiled and said ¨beinvenidos a costa rica!¨ (welcome to costa rica!)
time is out
I am having a vicarious good time...thanks, Heidi!
ReplyDeleteJust seeing these comments for the first time! Crazy huh? Luv ya!
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