Birthdays, Pérez, and other nonsense

Hola!

The 13th was Corrylee's 21st birthday! We celebrated in true Costa Rican tradition by going out to eat after Spanish class, then to Trigo Miel for birthday cake, then to Tutti Fruity for smoothies.

Then that Thursday Abby and I made a cake during our weekly baking time and brought it to Corry's house before we left for Cholo's for even more celebration. Hooray birthdays!

These pictures are of my host sister, China, and her little dog, too. (Just a side note, the dog, Gandhi, is a wiener dog, which they call in Spanish a "perro salchicha", which literally translated means sausage dog. It makes sense, but I still find it absolutely hilarious.) China is absolutely in love with her puppy, which is pretty amusing to me. I mean, the dog is cute and all, but she smells like feet on a good day, and when she barks it makes you want to tear your ears right off of your head. China's fierce love does not go one way, though. Gandhi goes crazy barking anytime she hears the front gate to the house, but always knows if it's China coming in, because instead of barking she stays quiet and stands by the door. It's pretty ridiculous how cute they are together. Just be glad these pictures aren't scratch and sniff.

Two weeks ago I had a class trip to Pérez Zeledón, which is Laura's hometown. The bus ride lasted a few hours, so we stayed overnight at a hotel next to the campus branch in Pérez. The picture below on the left has a shot of the hotel in the back. The educational part of the trip was to teach a class of your peers along with your group members (my group is in the picture to the bottom right) about various topics having to do with a culture of peace. The idea was good, but the execution was not. The professor is always very unorganized, so the trip felt a little hectic.

After all of the groups had each taught their classes, there was a talent show. Yes, a talent show. Hello, middle school. A few of the students performed dances, skits, and one kid even told a few offensive jokes. Good. Poor Corry got roped into doing something for the show, and the only thing she could thing of to do was do different accents in English. She did a Southern accent, one from Chicago, and an English accent. Pretty sure nobody understood what she was saying, but they loved it nonetheless. Then one of the professors did a sort of interview, asking her how she liked Costa Rica, where she had traveled, and what she thought of Costa Rican men. Ah, we American students are somewhat of an oddity for the Ticos.

But alas, the trip wasn't a total waste. A friend of Laura's took me and Corry out that night to a few of the bars around and we got to sleep in the next morning. Hooray!

Thanks for reading!

Coffee Gira

Oh hey.

On Saturday the 9th, my Spanish class and the other took a joint field trip to Santa María de Dota, a coffee plantation south of San José. I was a bit tired because I went out the night before with my host sister, China, but otherwise it was a fun trip. First we toured the coffee plantation and learned all about how it is grown and roasted. The pictures below are of coffee beans before they are roasted and the roasting process.

Then a few baristas made different types of drinks and let us taste them. There were hot drinks, cold drinks, drinks with different flavors, all of them. Mmm coffee. My favorite ones to look at were the ones with the designs made by the barista by pouring milk or cream in a certain way.

Then we went to an organic coffee plantation nearby. The fields covered the mountains all around and the view from the path of our tour was breathtaking.

Our tour guide was slightly crazy, but he was so passionate about the things about which he spoke, that it was hard not to be interested. He talked a bit about the treatment of indigenous peoples, and we met some of the ones working and living on his plantation.

I know this post is lacking in explanation, and I know you all must be quite sad from the lack of witty comments on my part, but I promise I will get back to it soon. First I have to deal with these finals.

Ciao.

Sissy's Visit

Hello all!

Long time. I have a lot of updating to do since the last time I posted. So, I’ll start with my sister’s visit.

On Tuesday, September 14th, my sister came to visit after a few days at home after her Peace Corps adventure in Benin was over. It was a lucky coincidence that her trip coincided with the Costa Rican Independence Day, which was the day after she arrived. After I picked her up at the airport, we went back to my host family’s house where my Mama Tica had a ridiculously delicious lunch prepared for us, then we checked into a hostel just a few bus stops away from my house. That night the Independence Day festivities started, and we walked the few blocks from our hostel to the Parque Central. There, we met up with a few of the other students from my exchange program and we sang the national anthem and watched some traditional dancing. But the real excitement started the next morning with a parade around the Parque Central which was absolutely jam-packed with people. And it was hot. I mean really hot. We met up with some other students there and we all chose a spot on the curb on one side of the road which we soon realized was in direct sunlight all morning. Awesome. But despite the heat, the parade was fun and I was glad to be able to share the holiday with my sister.

That weekend after my classes we traveled to a Manuel Antonio National Park, which is famous for its beautiful beaches and fearless monkeys.

We stayed at a cute little hostel just a short bus ride from the public beach. But the really nice beaches were inside of the park, which was about a ten minute walk from the public beach.

We also did a bit of hiking in the park, and all-in-all had a really great weekend.

Unfortunately we had to go back to Heredia for my classes on Monday morning. But, we made the best of our time and ate some good food, spent enough time together to get sick of each other, and even went to go see Sissy’s first movie in a theatre in over two years. I’d say it was a successful trip.

Paz y amor(sh)