Un fin de semana refrescante

This weekend was absolutely wonderful, and probably the best I’ve had here so far. Before I go any further, I have to be amazed by the timing of San Jose once again. Just as I was at the end of my rope and practically suffocating at a concert in the park, because everyone was smoking and I’m already getting over a cough, I walked away and watched as a single butterfly made its way through the smog of the city and fly up into the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful. Darn San Jose, torturing me and then making me love it nonetheless. I guess love is a strong word, because cities just aren’t my thing, but still.


This weekend was spent almost entirely with a new tica friend. Here, Costa Ricans are ‘ticos’ and ‘ticas’ , with one explanation being that there is a sense of brotherhood, and they all are ‘hermaniticos’ (the diminutive of brothers). I met her whole family and had, what they pointed out to me, my first experience with ‘una familia latina’. Everyone on one side of the family lives close together, so they are all very close. I met uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters…My head was spinning from all the names, not to mention trying to keep up with their conversations. It is proportionally more difficult to understand what is going on the more ticos are involved, especially when they use ‘dichas’ which are Costa Rican sayings that mean something completely different than they seem to mean. We have those, too, but I’m used to those 

Her family was so nice to me, and there was definitely no lack of food. We walked around a park that reminded me of our reservoir in Lafayette, visited the Transitarte festival (with little performances, artisans, food, concerts and loads of people), watched movies and visited the newly opened shop of her aunt. The next day, we returned to the festival with three other friends, and there was still a lot to entertain us. The activities stretched across the three main parks in downtown San Jose, and each one had something different. I tried a ‘melcocha’, and though I still don’t understand their explanation of what it is, even after trying it, I do know that it’s a super sweet and sticky candy, in the form of a wooden pencil but slightly thicker, with pieces of coconut inside the sugary goo. It’s so sticky, I was afraid to chew it because I felt like it would rip out my teeth. Yay tico candies!

Even after this fantastic weekend, I was relieved to finally get home around 6. I was more relieved to find out that there is no day-lights savings in Costa Rica, and I didn’t have to lose an hour after all. Apparently, way back in history they changed their clocks because it was really dark, but even my tica mom seemed fuzzy on that, so I most definitely didn’t understand. Maybe it was just so random that she didn’t understand, either. Now I have one hour less time difference with California, which is good because life starts early here.