Home…home is certainly different than advertised. The man with whom I was e-mailing is with his kids in the US, and his wife is here with the boarders and her mom. It’s a lot more…rough?..than was let on. For one thing, people here aren’t ‘professionals and students’, they’re mostly people who want to travel and end up getting jobs because they don’t have money anymore. (This may or may not be due to the excessive partying, I really can only guess). There are two other students, and I like them, but we’re busy actually working…
I don’t know, I was told that I would live with a communicative family, and with other people who were there to learn and work and didn’t do drugs, smoke or excessively drink. The second night I’m here, the mom is smoking in the house and one of the guys lights up a joint. Allllrighty, then, never believe what people tell you, that is the lesson. I’m also not really allowed to use the good kitchen, like I was told, and instead am confined to a tiny kitchen that five people share…plus the people from the other kitchen who randomly use our kitchen. Laundry is do-it-yourself, towels not included, and the place is downright dirty at times. I’ve made friends with all the cockroaches, at least, though the one that was walking towards the sound of my voice whenever I spoke (pointed out by my conversation partner) was pretty creepy.
I’m used to all this stuff now, and am more or less settled in, but at first I was really worried I had made a mistake. And then I thought about all the annoying tica mom micro-managing I wasn’t having to grin and bear, and figured things weren’t so bad. I’m still annoyed by the LOUD conversations people have down the hall, across the room, etc. really early in the morning (someone is always up watching TV super late, doesn’t that give you a little hint that at least one other person is trying to sleep?!). Seriously, I have to be out the door by 6:30 some days, so I know that I should take extra care not to announce to the world that I’m awake, but then the NEXT day I want a little extra sleep, and others don’t do me the same favor. Still, most things are good, and I can have friendly conversations with everyone, which is more socializing than was happening previously.
The week after the gira was my first test, and I was scared out of my mind for it. I don’t know how I did, because I couldn’t figure out how it would be graded, but I knew most of what I was being asked so hopefully that’s enough...When I went to talk to the professor about a few things I didn’t understand, he basically told me I must take the test in English. I had the option to take it in Spanish, but it wasn’t a Spanish class so I may as well take it in English (if my Spanish was a tiny bit unclear, he just wasn’t going to bother to read it). Well, that was a blow to my ego, but whatever, I took the silly thing in English.
After that, I just let myself completely crash. I hung around and did nothing besides experiment with cooking, sleep, yoga and mess around on the Internet. I figured I deserved the down time, as everything was new and stressful, and made plans for the weekend while trying to put myself back together. At the very least, I found out that I could feed myself, and that it was with healthy, creative foods.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
La mudanza y la segunda gira
The week after that had a theme: moving. I had e-mailed a place on craigslist about their living situation the Friday before the gira, and I had a promising e-mail waiting for me when I got home from the trip. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but then I went to yoga. I’m telling you, the Mayan calendar was really speaking to me those first three weeks, as the session’s theme was listening to your inner voice and following your own path. It hasn’t been 100% finding-my-innermost-struggle-for-the-week accurate since, but still, wow.
The rest of the week was visiting the house to check it out (the woman and her husband who own the house used to be vegans, and I took that as a sign I would be with good people), figuring out how to tell my tica mom (if were as though she already knew! She didn’t skip a beat in telling me that everyone must make their own decisions and completely accepting it), worrying about my upcoming test and finally getting in touch with the person in charge of the environmental education project. Oh right, and packing.
My tica mom started to ask questions about the program, and the house, and tell me about how less and less students were coming to the other program for which she houses students…Just generally continuing her theme of being personal in an uncomfortable way. I was feeling super super guilty, but then on Friday the router for the Internet vanished (it was being ‘serviced’, though I don’t know why that couldn’t wait until I was gone…one theory is so that I didn’t take it with me). There was no warning, and I had to mention it for her to tell me. I mentioned it because I couldn’t get in touch with the people at my new house by phone and had no other method of communication. It turns out later that the woman wasn’t answering her phone because the number was a private number, and some guy with a private number has been bugging her…That was certainly a no-win extremely frustrating day. Especially because my tica mom was going out and wanted to help me leave (which I wanted, since I had all my bags), and there was nothing for me to do in the house without Internet, whereas I would have been studying for my upcoming test if I had had access.
Phew, confusing and stressful, glad that’s over.
I was really excited to meet with the director of the environmental program, but he keeps having scheduling things pop up, and we have still yet to have enough time to talk about how I would help. Maybe next week…
Part of why moving was so stressful was because I had a gira the day after I moved. I didn’t even buy food, just some yogurt and granola for dinner and breakfast, because there wasn’t space for me yet in the kitchen and I wouldn’t be home to eat the food…It was just bad timing overall, but yet good timing because it was when my contract ended with my tica mom and I was at my breaking point.
We went to Cerro de la Muerte, a place in Costa Rica that is at a high enough elevation to be COLD. I was completely and entirely unprepared throughout the whole trip, and came home slightly miserable and very frustrated. At the very least, I have some nice pictures, I spoke with most of the people in my class for the first time and I made a friend. I mean, I think I did, but it’s hard to tell with shy guys.
Our first stop was a park, and after asking twice I misunderstood that we would only be there for ten minutes. Apparently, it was ten minutes to GET where we would spend…was it two hours? I really don’t know, I was trying not to melt down. So, armed with only my hiking boots, my camera and my notebook, I wandered into a swap. Okay, so it was a paramo, but I still don’t know exactly what that means and it was flooded and swamp-like enough for the sad non-biologist part of me. Everyone else had rain boots, and at first it didn’t matter I only had hiking boots, but then we got lost, and then we had to wander through extremely flooded and muddy areas, and then it started to rain… I usually don’t care about getting wet and muddy, except that I hadn’t brought a lot of clothing as the professor told me not to. I specifically asked him in class for that very reason…*sigh*.
After that hike I was feeling extremely misled and scared about that night, when I knew I’d freeze to death in wet clothing either from not changing before the next activity or by changing and then only having wet sweatshirts. I didn’t really bring cold-weather clothing to Costa Rica (seriously, who’d have guessed?!) and it was lucky I decided to buy a fleece sweatshirt after visiting Karen’s (my tica friend’s) house in the mountains. Once we started the research, however, I got the chance to feel scared AND stupid, because everyone around me was able to memorize scientific names in an instant and jumped into the projects with absolute ease.
Me: What the heck’s a panterpe?
Them: It’s a scientific name for the most common hummingbird found here, it is characterized by the red patch on their throat. They are commonly called ‘fire-throated hummingbird’.
Me: You…Ohhh, you’ve taken previous classes on them, then.
Them: What on earth are you talking about, that’s what the professor just said.
So, yes, apparently EVERY person in my class is a genius at automatically absorbing all information given to them verbally and remembering every detail. I’m the dumb gringa who is getting her clothing dried for her during the project (my professor asked one of the people at the lodge/restaurant for that favor, thank goodness) and asking too many questions. I got ‘invited’ to set up the hummingbird nets with the professor, which meant I didn’t have to do any thinking for a while, and was rewarded at the end by getting to hold a hummingbird as a pollen sample was taken. They are quite adorable little critters.
The professor’s wife and kids were there as well, and the kids were so excited to help out with the birds. Them being more experienced than I was only added on to the failure I felt (they were both around 10 years old), but I took solace in them being cut, budding biologists. We worked with four species of hummingbirds, and had half the people collecting them from the nets and taking pollen samples and the other half counting how many times they fed at the numerous hummingbird feeders hanging outside the restaurant. It was really neat to watch, as the whole wall was windows where the feeders were hanging. I eventually went to do real research, and took turns counting hummingbirds (and therefore finally learned their names by having to dictate them over and over), and then we had dinner.
The girls with whom I was sitting just…sat there. And sat there. I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t getting dinner, but they were waiting for dinner time…because it’s not right to eat more than three meals a day apart from their customary times. Once it was exactly 6:30, they finally let themselves eat. No WONDER my tica mom was so freaked out by my fluctuating eating schedule...
That night we could have done whatever we wanted, but we (the girls) ended up all getting in our PJs and reading aloud the study guide for the test. It was cute, we all slept in a cabina together, and most people were in the same room, mattresses all over the floor. I think the boys went to bed early, too, but they were staying right on top of the restaurant while we had to walk a ways to get to our cabina, so they probably stayed a little longer. Despite dry PJs and two thick blankets, I was too frozen to sleep. I’m sure the cold would have been nothing normally, but with only Costa Rica clothing it was pretty bad. The next day we continued from where we left off, and then there was the second hike of doom.
This time it wasn’t wet and miserable physically, it was just agonizing mentally. We were supposed to be doing ‘organism collections’ throughout the gira, and I was taking pictures of all sorts of species to later identify. Problem was, people already knew a bunch of the species, and were claiming them throughout the day before. I was unaware of this, and to make matters worse, I got transferred into a group (after being told I was with people I already knew) of two boys who hadn’t been claiming things. And I was the only one with a camera. So we had no species, whereas most people were already done, and the course assistant was being kind of a jerk about that while continually ignoring my questions about how to get species or if pictures I had already taken could work (like a bird I knew no one else had, as my camera had to do some major zooming to just barely see it in the trees). Sheesh, I don’t understand course work or its process here at ALL. By the end the other course assistant was helping us out (he was the nice one, although he was so quiet I figured he was a student the whole first day) as was the professor, so things weren’t the impending doom I had originally felt. Grr, that was frustrating and completely out of my control by force, which seems to be the overall theme of the trip.
Thankfully, I made friends with one of the boys in the group, and we went this past week and worked really hard on getting information for our collection, and going through the pictures to get ENOUGH species to write about. I realized he was out of the loop of the class in a sense when I found out he didn’t have the class-collaborated study guide, so when it came time to write out reports in partners, I made sure to ask him. That also took off some of the stress, because it’s old hat to write scientific reports for them whereas I was completely thrown off balance reading the directions…maybe by the end of the class I’ll know enough to have been able to semi-competently have taken the class. Heh.
Then we got to go home!
Except…then the bus pulled over to the side of the road for a mini trip, oh joy! Someone in the class said ‘nos engañaron’, they tricked us, as we trudged out of the bus into the cold and hint of rain. Partway through the professor’s lecture, it began to pour, and he let us all rush back into the bus early and head home. For me, home wasn’t home yet, but it was SO nice to get a good night’s sleep.
The rest of the week was visiting the house to check it out (the woman and her husband who own the house used to be vegans, and I took that as a sign I would be with good people), figuring out how to tell my tica mom (if were as though she already knew! She didn’t skip a beat in telling me that everyone must make their own decisions and completely accepting it), worrying about my upcoming test and finally getting in touch with the person in charge of the environmental education project. Oh right, and packing.
My tica mom started to ask questions about the program, and the house, and tell me about how less and less students were coming to the other program for which she houses students…Just generally continuing her theme of being personal in an uncomfortable way. I was feeling super super guilty, but then on Friday the router for the Internet vanished (it was being ‘serviced’, though I don’t know why that couldn’t wait until I was gone…one theory is so that I didn’t take it with me). There was no warning, and I had to mention it for her to tell me. I mentioned it because I couldn’t get in touch with the people at my new house by phone and had no other method of communication. It turns out later that the woman wasn’t answering her phone because the number was a private number, and some guy with a private number has been bugging her…That was certainly a no-win extremely frustrating day. Especially because my tica mom was going out and wanted to help me leave (which I wanted, since I had all my bags), and there was nothing for me to do in the house without Internet, whereas I would have been studying for my upcoming test if I had had access.
Phew, confusing and stressful, glad that’s over.
I was really excited to meet with the director of the environmental program, but he keeps having scheduling things pop up, and we have still yet to have enough time to talk about how I would help. Maybe next week…
Part of why moving was so stressful was because I had a gira the day after I moved. I didn’t even buy food, just some yogurt and granola for dinner and breakfast, because there wasn’t space for me yet in the kitchen and I wouldn’t be home to eat the food…It was just bad timing overall, but yet good timing because it was when my contract ended with my tica mom and I was at my breaking point.
We went to Cerro de la Muerte, a place in Costa Rica that is at a high enough elevation to be COLD. I was completely and entirely unprepared throughout the whole trip, and came home slightly miserable and very frustrated. At the very least, I have some nice pictures, I spoke with most of the people in my class for the first time and I made a friend. I mean, I think I did, but it’s hard to tell with shy guys.
Our first stop was a park, and after asking twice I misunderstood that we would only be there for ten minutes. Apparently, it was ten minutes to GET where we would spend…was it two hours? I really don’t know, I was trying not to melt down. So, armed with only my hiking boots, my camera and my notebook, I wandered into a swap. Okay, so it was a paramo, but I still don’t know exactly what that means and it was flooded and swamp-like enough for the sad non-biologist part of me. Everyone else had rain boots, and at first it didn’t matter I only had hiking boots, but then we got lost, and then we had to wander through extremely flooded and muddy areas, and then it started to rain… I usually don’t care about getting wet and muddy, except that I hadn’t brought a lot of clothing as the professor told me not to. I specifically asked him in class for that very reason…*sigh*.
After that hike I was feeling extremely misled and scared about that night, when I knew I’d freeze to death in wet clothing either from not changing before the next activity or by changing and then only having wet sweatshirts. I didn’t really bring cold-weather clothing to Costa Rica (seriously, who’d have guessed?!) and it was lucky I decided to buy a fleece sweatshirt after visiting Karen’s (my tica friend’s) house in the mountains. Once we started the research, however, I got the chance to feel scared AND stupid, because everyone around me was able to memorize scientific names in an instant and jumped into the projects with absolute ease.
Me: What the heck’s a panterpe?
Them: It’s a scientific name for the most common hummingbird found here, it is characterized by the red patch on their throat. They are commonly called ‘fire-throated hummingbird’.
Me: You…Ohhh, you’ve taken previous classes on them, then.
Them: What on earth are you talking about, that’s what the professor just said.
So, yes, apparently EVERY person in my class is a genius at automatically absorbing all information given to them verbally and remembering every detail. I’m the dumb gringa who is getting her clothing dried for her during the project (my professor asked one of the people at the lodge/restaurant for that favor, thank goodness) and asking too many questions. I got ‘invited’ to set up the hummingbird nets with the professor, which meant I didn’t have to do any thinking for a while, and was rewarded at the end by getting to hold a hummingbird as a pollen sample was taken. They are quite adorable little critters.
The professor’s wife and kids were there as well, and the kids were so excited to help out with the birds. Them being more experienced than I was only added on to the failure I felt (they were both around 10 years old), but I took solace in them being cut, budding biologists. We worked with four species of hummingbirds, and had half the people collecting them from the nets and taking pollen samples and the other half counting how many times they fed at the numerous hummingbird feeders hanging outside the restaurant. It was really neat to watch, as the whole wall was windows where the feeders were hanging. I eventually went to do real research, and took turns counting hummingbirds (and therefore finally learned their names by having to dictate them over and over), and then we had dinner.
The girls with whom I was sitting just…sat there. And sat there. I couldn’t figure out why they weren’t getting dinner, but they were waiting for dinner time…because it’s not right to eat more than three meals a day apart from their customary times. Once it was exactly 6:30, they finally let themselves eat. No WONDER my tica mom was so freaked out by my fluctuating eating schedule...
That night we could have done whatever we wanted, but we (the girls) ended up all getting in our PJs and reading aloud the study guide for the test. It was cute, we all slept in a cabina together, and most people were in the same room, mattresses all over the floor. I think the boys went to bed early, too, but they were staying right on top of the restaurant while we had to walk a ways to get to our cabina, so they probably stayed a little longer. Despite dry PJs and two thick blankets, I was too frozen to sleep. I’m sure the cold would have been nothing normally, but with only Costa Rica clothing it was pretty bad. The next day we continued from where we left off, and then there was the second hike of doom.
This time it wasn’t wet and miserable physically, it was just agonizing mentally. We were supposed to be doing ‘organism collections’ throughout the gira, and I was taking pictures of all sorts of species to later identify. Problem was, people already knew a bunch of the species, and were claiming them throughout the day before. I was unaware of this, and to make matters worse, I got transferred into a group (after being told I was with people I already knew) of two boys who hadn’t been claiming things. And I was the only one with a camera. So we had no species, whereas most people were already done, and the course assistant was being kind of a jerk about that while continually ignoring my questions about how to get species or if pictures I had already taken could work (like a bird I knew no one else had, as my camera had to do some major zooming to just barely see it in the trees). Sheesh, I don’t understand course work or its process here at ALL. By the end the other course assistant was helping us out (he was the nice one, although he was so quiet I figured he was a student the whole first day) as was the professor, so things weren’t the impending doom I had originally felt. Grr, that was frustrating and completely out of my control by force, which seems to be the overall theme of the trip.
Thankfully, I made friends with one of the boys in the group, and we went this past week and worked really hard on getting information for our collection, and going through the pictures to get ENOUGH species to write about. I realized he was out of the loop of the class in a sense when I found out he didn’t have the class-collaborated study guide, so when it came time to write out reports in partners, I made sure to ask him. That also took off some of the stress, because it’s old hat to write scientific reports for them whereas I was completely thrown off balance reading the directions…maybe by the end of the class I’ll know enough to have been able to semi-competently have taken the class. Heh.
Then we got to go home!
Except…then the bus pulled over to the side of the road for a mini trip, oh joy! Someone in the class said ‘nos engañaron’, they tricked us, as we trudged out of the bus into the cold and hint of rain. Partway through the professor’s lecture, it began to pour, and he let us all rush back into the bus early and head home. For me, home wasn’t home yet, but it was SO nice to get a good night’s sleep.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Mi gira primera!
(From Tuesday)
I can’t even wrap my head around how much has happened since I was keeping on top of my blog and now, and I still haven’t ended my ‘difficult period’, as I’m naming it. Things finally settled down maybe as of this weekend, and then my low-level stomach annoyance turned into crippling cramps that have persisted for three days straight. So it’s been a battle of trading bad for different kinds of bad, but I’m finally at a place where the end of the bad is in sight and I just hope to last until then. As always, sorry to my mom who has to listen to me hash out every little annoying thing that’s been bothering me once I hit rock bottom when we both know it’s just another bump in the road of something that is overall good.
I think I left off at my gira for my Organic Agriculture class. Bright and early I hopped on the bus (after 15 minutes of walking, since I wasn’t sure what the school bus would be doing on a Saturday (teachers give regular old tests on Saturdays here!), and not telling my tica mom that I wasn’t taking a taxi) and noticed that the fare was unusually high. Just due to dumb luck I had enough money in my pocket (I generally keep exact change in my pocket so I don’t have to hassle with my purse or counting money), and once I got on the bus I realized that the bus had a television. I’m guessing that was the cause for the high fare, but more and more lately there are televisions on the buses that I ride…
Anyways, once I got to the meeting place, I found out that I was truly the only student going. No one ever told me it was an optional fieldtrip, but apparently it was. Students were either on fieldtrips or decided not to go because students weren’t going, so it was just me and the automayores. One of the highlights of the trip happened early: Dancing Queen was playing on the radio on the bus, entirely in Spanish. Yes! How completely ridiculous!
My friend from last week, who is now referred to as ‘el abuelito suyo’ when someone is talking to me, helped me get my backpack on the bus so we could sit together. He also brought snacks for both of us. Throughout the trip I was always a little nervous in the back of my mind because I couldn’t always understand things he said (and because I’m paranoid and unused to this warmer, more openly friendly culture), but I’m guessing that he just likes children but is normally too shy to bond with them (whereas I’m shy myself, so we get each other) or I remind him of a granddaughter. It’s just hard to not fully understand a compliment, and I interpret it to the best of my ability and hope that there was nothing there that would normally tip me off to GET AWAY.
But all my weird mind issues aside, the automayores are cool people in general. They liked to talk to me about my experiences, and share whatever other gringo or exchange student experiences they’ve had, and I found out that most of them are still actively learning and taking multiple classes. That is so awesome! Some were still kinda finicky and rigid in their thinking at times, but I have fun with them and they always manage to teach me something and make me smile. Just another example of how great it is to never stop learning :)
I honestly couldn’t figure out the point to the gira, even though I asked many people and even the professor, but there were a few highlights in between being on the bus and having a two minute visit to a farm just to see one thing. I thought it would be labor-intensive, as it was a trip planned for the regular students as well, but boy was I wrong. We went to a farm where they composted ashes from burned banana plant leftovers, manure, and something I couldn’t understand in Spanish and ‘turned’ the compost to aerate it by shoveling it to one side a few feet. Everyone took turns, and after about 40 minutes the experienced workers took over and we marveled at their speed. We were close to finishing the job, but I guess we only had a certain time allotment.
Then, we got lunch! I was told the types of ‘refrescos naturales’ there were, and heard ‘linaza’ for the first time. People tried to explain it to me by telling me it was a seed that people ate to slim down, but I still couldn’t figure it out. Then I ordered it to try to make out what it was, and it was like drinking watered down yet still thick maple syrup. Yum! Later I looked up what linaza is, and discovered that it is flax seed! I NEVER would have tried the drink if I had known, having had awful experiences with flax seed oil, but I’m glad I was ignorant and could enjoy the sugary flax water without prejudice.
Later that day we visited a farm with cows, but I didn’t pick up on the details too much because I was busy being distracted by the little calf in the pasture. Someone told me he was ‘recién nacido’, recently born, and I thought, ‘awww, several-month-old cows are so cute!’ But later people went in to visit him, and he was SO recently born that there was the placenta, lying on the ground with mama cow still not having eaten it. Definitely awesome. Especially when mom cow DID try to eat it, and got the dogs interested, then had to scare them away with scary moo-ing. And now you’re all grossed out (but I still plan on posting a picture!).
After that we went to a…farming expo? People were showing their cows and talking about raising them and there were saddles and cowboy hats…And then random people selling the usual jewelry and kids toys and food. And then, a portable theme park. No one was sure why we were there, besides the talk that the professor was supposed to give, and we just wandered around and then tried to figure out how we could spend more than three hours where we were. I marveled at Volcán Arenal, which I could see just past the swirly whatnot from the theme park area, and spoke to a man who lived near the volcano with all the fun wildlife. Unfortunately, what he told me is he’d give the animals food, and as soon as he wasn’t home at night people would come kill them and eat them. This is a recurring theme in Costa Rica (people poaching and eating wild mammals), and the man was obviously saddened by it but had no way to stop it.
My abuelito insisted on getting me an ice cream, and we joined back up with some people from the group to eat and then go to the professor’s talk. I found a baked-in surprise in the cake that was with my ice cream: yummy, a bug! Everyone discussed what to do, and decided that if it wasn’t a cockroach (it probably was, but I didn’t want to throw the whole thing out) I could just eat around that area. Good times were had by all…
The professor didn’t end up giving his speech, as everything was running late (surprise??), and I nodded off listening to a lecture on sperm selection when breeding cattle. Someone eventually woke me up and told me that we were leaving, and a group of us went to wait by the bus. Juuuust as it started to pour, and we started to strategize on what to do, the bus driver came to our rescue! The rest of the people were rounded up and we got to go to the hotel early.
I was lucky to get invited to room with two women so that I didn’t have to stay by myself (and good thing, too, the gira turned out to be way more expensive than I had planned and I wouldn’t have had enough money with me). We took turns showering and getting ready for dinner, and while I was waiting with one woman she asked me to help her turn on the TV. I got it on…right to a telenovela sex scene. Too bad the remote was hard to navigate. She handed it over to me after that and I flipped around for her until a fishing show fascinated her enough for her to tell me to stop. If I had paid attention, I would now have the valuable knowledge of how to tie a fishing hook.
After taking forrreeeever to get ready, a group of us finally headed over for dinner. They were really excited about the professor going out dancing and drinking with them later, but we all ended up just going to sleep. (That was my plan all along, bwahaha!) And such nice, quiet, peaceful sleep it was without the cars keeping me awake. Apparently some people stayed awake long enough to go out, but it wasn’t anything special from what us sleepers were later told. They’re an amusing group.
At breakfast the next morning I heard crying…When it didn’t stop, I got up, ready to try my Spanish in yelling at someone for kicking dogs when I see a litter of puppies toddling around the steps of the restaurant. The story was that a dog would always hang out near the restaurant, and an American couple would come feed her while they had their breakfast. One day, obviously pregnant, she disappeared to have her puppies and hadn’t come back until that day. My GOODNESS were the puppies adorable! They just barely had their eyes open, and were wandering all over and getting stuck places and whimpering like mad. The ladies with whom I had breakfast went to buy the mommy dog milk, and the class assistant bought her food. I asked the waiter at the restaurant, who had told us the story, if I could go pet them, and he just told me that they’re dirty but I could do what I want. Oh, ticos. I went and comforted the mommy dog, and then helped her gather up her pups. One of the ladies was extremely nervous the mom dog would bite me, but after years of experience with animals I knew I’d be fine. Oh, ticas. I didn’t love all over the puppies like I wanted to (I am extremely animal-deprived here) because I knew just being near them made her nervous, but she encouraged me to bring the puppies over to the mom once I had gotten her to lie down and let them nurse. Yay happy, not-lost puppies and a quiet restaurant! I think the whole trip was worth those few minutes with the dogs ^_^
By then I was more than ready to go home, but going to the hot springs was our ‘special treat’ on our way home. Everyone went back on forth whether or not they wanted to go, and it seemed that my wish would come true and we’d head home, but the professor demanded that we at least entered the place to see if we liked it with the option of leaving if we didn’t then abandoned us there. The false hope made me bitter, but I forced myself to get over it and have a good time in the water. It turned out to be very nice, and I pushed out the feelings of impending doom for the coming week and all I had to do.
Part of why I was anxious to get home is I was considering moving. By considering, I mean I had pretty much made up my mind but was too scared to admit it to myself yet. I talked to the program director, Jeanina, about the problems I was having with my tica mom just so she’d know, and she immediately suggested I move. As if…as if it were the most common thing ever. Which it honestly has been this cycle of the program, although before they were bragging about how almost everyone stayed with their tica family because it was such a good experience. The other part was being with slightly tiring people and not ever knowing what was going on next. I like knowing if I should bring my lunch or not, or if we’re going somewhere for three hours or five minutes. The tico way of living still isn’t the most comfortable for me.
On the way home we started up a huge hill, and then, just stopped. And went back down a bit, then couldn’t go up again. I’m not sure what the bus driver was thinking, as the incline didn’t decrease anywhere and there was nowhere to turn off, but it certainly felt like we’d never get home. We went alllll the way back down, and then on a magic side route. Thank goodness, home at last.
I can’t even wrap my head around how much has happened since I was keeping on top of my blog and now, and I still haven’t ended my ‘difficult period’, as I’m naming it. Things finally settled down maybe as of this weekend, and then my low-level stomach annoyance turned into crippling cramps that have persisted for three days straight. So it’s been a battle of trading bad for different kinds of bad, but I’m finally at a place where the end of the bad is in sight and I just hope to last until then. As always, sorry to my mom who has to listen to me hash out every little annoying thing that’s been bothering me once I hit rock bottom when we both know it’s just another bump in the road of something that is overall good.
I think I left off at my gira for my Organic Agriculture class. Bright and early I hopped on the bus (after 15 minutes of walking, since I wasn’t sure what the school bus would be doing on a Saturday (teachers give regular old tests on Saturdays here!), and not telling my tica mom that I wasn’t taking a taxi) and noticed that the fare was unusually high. Just due to dumb luck I had enough money in my pocket (I generally keep exact change in my pocket so I don’t have to hassle with my purse or counting money), and once I got on the bus I realized that the bus had a television. I’m guessing that was the cause for the high fare, but more and more lately there are televisions on the buses that I ride…
Anyways, once I got to the meeting place, I found out that I was truly the only student going. No one ever told me it was an optional fieldtrip, but apparently it was. Students were either on fieldtrips or decided not to go because students weren’t going, so it was just me and the automayores. One of the highlights of the trip happened early: Dancing Queen was playing on the radio on the bus, entirely in Spanish. Yes! How completely ridiculous!
My friend from last week, who is now referred to as ‘el abuelito suyo’ when someone is talking to me, helped me get my backpack on the bus so we could sit together. He also brought snacks for both of us. Throughout the trip I was always a little nervous in the back of my mind because I couldn’t always understand things he said (and because I’m paranoid and unused to this warmer, more openly friendly culture), but I’m guessing that he just likes children but is normally too shy to bond with them (whereas I’m shy myself, so we get each other) or I remind him of a granddaughter. It’s just hard to not fully understand a compliment, and I interpret it to the best of my ability and hope that there was nothing there that would normally tip me off to GET AWAY.
But all my weird mind issues aside, the automayores are cool people in general. They liked to talk to me about my experiences, and share whatever other gringo or exchange student experiences they’ve had, and I found out that most of them are still actively learning and taking multiple classes. That is so awesome! Some were still kinda finicky and rigid in their thinking at times, but I have fun with them and they always manage to teach me something and make me smile. Just another example of how great it is to never stop learning :)
I honestly couldn’t figure out the point to the gira, even though I asked many people and even the professor, but there were a few highlights in between being on the bus and having a two minute visit to a farm just to see one thing. I thought it would be labor-intensive, as it was a trip planned for the regular students as well, but boy was I wrong. We went to a farm where they composted ashes from burned banana plant leftovers, manure, and something I couldn’t understand in Spanish and ‘turned’ the compost to aerate it by shoveling it to one side a few feet. Everyone took turns, and after about 40 minutes the experienced workers took over and we marveled at their speed. We were close to finishing the job, but I guess we only had a certain time allotment.
Then, we got lunch! I was told the types of ‘refrescos naturales’ there were, and heard ‘linaza’ for the first time. People tried to explain it to me by telling me it was a seed that people ate to slim down, but I still couldn’t figure it out. Then I ordered it to try to make out what it was, and it was like drinking watered down yet still thick maple syrup. Yum! Later I looked up what linaza is, and discovered that it is flax seed! I NEVER would have tried the drink if I had known, having had awful experiences with flax seed oil, but I’m glad I was ignorant and could enjoy the sugary flax water without prejudice.
Later that day we visited a farm with cows, but I didn’t pick up on the details too much because I was busy being distracted by the little calf in the pasture. Someone told me he was ‘recién nacido’, recently born, and I thought, ‘awww, several-month-old cows are so cute!’ But later people went in to visit him, and he was SO recently born that there was the placenta, lying on the ground with mama cow still not having eaten it. Definitely awesome. Especially when mom cow DID try to eat it, and got the dogs interested, then had to scare them away with scary moo-ing. And now you’re all grossed out (but I still plan on posting a picture!).
After that we went to a…farming expo? People were showing their cows and talking about raising them and there were saddles and cowboy hats…And then random people selling the usual jewelry and kids toys and food. And then, a portable theme park. No one was sure why we were there, besides the talk that the professor was supposed to give, and we just wandered around and then tried to figure out how we could spend more than three hours where we were. I marveled at Volcán Arenal, which I could see just past the swirly whatnot from the theme park area, and spoke to a man who lived near the volcano with all the fun wildlife. Unfortunately, what he told me is he’d give the animals food, and as soon as he wasn’t home at night people would come kill them and eat them. This is a recurring theme in Costa Rica (people poaching and eating wild mammals), and the man was obviously saddened by it but had no way to stop it.
My abuelito insisted on getting me an ice cream, and we joined back up with some people from the group to eat and then go to the professor’s talk. I found a baked-in surprise in the cake that was with my ice cream: yummy, a bug! Everyone discussed what to do, and decided that if it wasn’t a cockroach (it probably was, but I didn’t want to throw the whole thing out) I could just eat around that area. Good times were had by all…
The professor didn’t end up giving his speech, as everything was running late (surprise??), and I nodded off listening to a lecture on sperm selection when breeding cattle. Someone eventually woke me up and told me that we were leaving, and a group of us went to wait by the bus. Juuuust as it started to pour, and we started to strategize on what to do, the bus driver came to our rescue! The rest of the people were rounded up and we got to go to the hotel early.
I was lucky to get invited to room with two women so that I didn’t have to stay by myself (and good thing, too, the gira turned out to be way more expensive than I had planned and I wouldn’t have had enough money with me). We took turns showering and getting ready for dinner, and while I was waiting with one woman she asked me to help her turn on the TV. I got it on…right to a telenovela sex scene. Too bad the remote was hard to navigate. She handed it over to me after that and I flipped around for her until a fishing show fascinated her enough for her to tell me to stop. If I had paid attention, I would now have the valuable knowledge of how to tie a fishing hook.
After taking forrreeeever to get ready, a group of us finally headed over for dinner. They were really excited about the professor going out dancing and drinking with them later, but we all ended up just going to sleep. (That was my plan all along, bwahaha!) And such nice, quiet, peaceful sleep it was without the cars keeping me awake. Apparently some people stayed awake long enough to go out, but it wasn’t anything special from what us sleepers were later told. They’re an amusing group.
At breakfast the next morning I heard crying…When it didn’t stop, I got up, ready to try my Spanish in yelling at someone for kicking dogs when I see a litter of puppies toddling around the steps of the restaurant. The story was that a dog would always hang out near the restaurant, and an American couple would come feed her while they had their breakfast. One day, obviously pregnant, she disappeared to have her puppies and hadn’t come back until that day. My GOODNESS were the puppies adorable! They just barely had their eyes open, and were wandering all over and getting stuck places and whimpering like mad. The ladies with whom I had breakfast went to buy the mommy dog milk, and the class assistant bought her food. I asked the waiter at the restaurant, who had told us the story, if I could go pet them, and he just told me that they’re dirty but I could do what I want. Oh, ticos. I went and comforted the mommy dog, and then helped her gather up her pups. One of the ladies was extremely nervous the mom dog would bite me, but after years of experience with animals I knew I’d be fine. Oh, ticas. I didn’t love all over the puppies like I wanted to (I am extremely animal-deprived here) because I knew just being near them made her nervous, but she encouraged me to bring the puppies over to the mom once I had gotten her to lie down and let them nurse. Yay happy, not-lost puppies and a quiet restaurant! I think the whole trip was worth those few minutes with the dogs ^_^
By then I was more than ready to go home, but going to the hot springs was our ‘special treat’ on our way home. Everyone went back on forth whether or not they wanted to go, and it seemed that my wish would come true and we’d head home, but the professor demanded that we at least entered the place to see if we liked it with the option of leaving if we didn’t then abandoned us there. The false hope made me bitter, but I forced myself to get over it and have a good time in the water. It turned out to be very nice, and I pushed out the feelings of impending doom for the coming week and all I had to do.
Part of why I was anxious to get home is I was considering moving. By considering, I mean I had pretty much made up my mind but was too scared to admit it to myself yet. I talked to the program director, Jeanina, about the problems I was having with my tica mom just so she’d know, and she immediately suggested I move. As if…as if it were the most common thing ever. Which it honestly has been this cycle of the program, although before they were bragging about how almost everyone stayed with their tica family because it was such a good experience. The other part was being with slightly tiring people and not ever knowing what was going on next. I like knowing if I should bring my lunch or not, or if we’re going somewhere for three hours or five minutes. The tico way of living still isn’t the most comfortable for me.
On the way home we started up a huge hill, and then, just stopped. And went back down a bit, then couldn’t go up again. I’m not sure what the bus driver was thinking, as the incline didn’t decrease anywhere and there was nowhere to turn off, but it certainly felt like we’d never get home. We went alllll the way back down, and then on a magic side route. Thank goodness, home at last.
Un disastre
Odds are against me right now. I started to blog again on Tuesday, and then my Word document got messed up and I couldn't copy and paste or save anything I wrote. So much for that. I'm fairly determined to do this, though, and hopefully I'll finish re-typing my Tuesday thoughts and continue on a bit further.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
La vida loca
My apologies for the random new pictures (they're for a project) and not updating, life has been a little crazy. I switched houses (may or may not be surprising, depending on how much complaining you've had to endure) and had two weekend-long fieldtrips in a row. Yesterday was my first test, and I have since been bombarded with projects. So...until later, I'm fine, fairly homesick and just taking things one day at a time.
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