Part Deux means that if you havent read the previous blog, then go back... unless you are one of those creepy stalker types, and in that case, you are just weird, and I hope this Internet craze ends soon.
So I get to my new house in Manuel Antonio and I am excited to meet my new family and see what this leg of the adventure has brought me. I meet my new mom Denia first. She seems nice, but I barely have time to process it before I am meeting her brother and my new little sister, and eating lunch while this new little sister is basically in my face, staring at me with a huge grin. She becomes distracted only once to cut her flattened sandwich into sixteenths. She offers me one, but I politely decline. She is freakin adorable, and I am okay with her staring at me some more.
I should also mention that I meet the new, one month year old baby, Isaac.
Then Denia lets me know that they were planning on going to her mothers house to go swimming (sidenote, forgive my grammar because the kezboard Im on is hard to figure out.. oh and the z and y kezs are interchanged for some reason). Denia asks if I want to stay and unwind, but I have no problem going with them. We walk over to my new grandmothers house which is 2 minutes away (less than that if you take the secret shortcut, which Ill let you know about later). I continue to be blown away by what I see.
And this is going to have to continue again in the future... our cab is here.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Es un pajaro? Is that a bird?
So a lot of people have been asking for full updates, and since it gets kind of expensive to call, and I have to keep adding people to my email list, I started this blog. So here´s a rundown of what I´ve been doing so far.....
Tengo muchos clases de español. Tengo muchos clases de enseñar, tambien. En ingles, I have many Spanish classes. I have many teaching classes, as well. So our days are filled, filled, filled with learning. And then I go home to my host family and try to speak with them. My host sister and I play jump rope and Jenga and dominoes. My host brother is 5 and very ticklish. Sometimes we just sit on my bed, indian style, staring at each other until I jump and tickle him and he screams and almost hits his head and then I put a pillow down because I don´t know how to translate ¨I broke your son´s head¨ into Spanish (huh, that was a lie... Le rompe la cabeza de su niño).
Outside of schooling and host family living, I´ve done some pretty cool things in my valley town of Orosi. We did this pretty intense hike up a mountain that included scaling a wall to get to this waterfall...... like I said, pretty intense. The hike also took us down through huge coffee fields. I have some great pictures, but it just takes so long to upload them that I haven´t had the patience to wait for all 100. But they will come soon.
What else, what else... I rode a horse! For my first time!!! I was pretty nervous. Basically, my friend Jack´s host family owns horses, and they do touristy rides.. so 4 of us went to his house, got in his dad´s truck, and went to the stable. This guy and his family were there that could speakEnglish pretty well, so we talked to them. He started off by handing us a beer, which didn´t really calm my nerves. He also told us that Manuel Antonio (where Jack and I will be living) is like the P'town of Costa Rica, which I have no problem with. Anyway... So Jack´s host broher is the one who takes us up (Menor, he´s 18, totally adorable skinny little thing). Everyone is getting their horses.. there are pretty white ones and regular brown ones... so I get a brown one.... but he has crazy blue eyes. Like really crazy. I was watching them put the saddle on him and hoping I didn´t have to ride him. Of course they called me over to him. So in case you didn´t remember, this is my first time ever riding a horse, and I have no idea what I´m doing. There´s a large animal between my legs, and he just kinda starts going. Luckily he stops, but he keeps making wierd noises, and I´m just playing it cool. So my horse decides to be the leader with Menor´s horse, but soon enough the other horses are overtaking us. Jack comes back and rides with me for a while, but the others get a little farther ahead when I realize that my horse must be broken or something. Menor ends up coming back for me and litterally taking my reign, which I didn´t mind. So we rode together, which was sweet because I got to practice my Spanish a bit more (I´d only been in Costa Rica for a week at this point). Turns out he´s a boxer, and he´s actually fighting this week, so I´m hoping to catch a fight with Jack and his family. Anywho, the ride ends up being absolutly beautiful. Litterally breathtaking. There was one point where Orosi was all lit up by the sun, and the next small town was under a cloud... totally reminded me of the Light and Dark Worlds in A Link to the Past haha. Oh boy. So we ride and ride and Menor tells me all about a bunch of stuff that I don´t completly understand, but I smile and sit pretty. He calls my horse ¨Bago¨... which I realize is synonomous with ¨perezoso,¨ which is Spanish for lazy. He tells me that my horse doesn´t want to walk. He just wants to eat. I understand this. I feel the same, mi Bagito. So we get to almost the top of this place called Monte Sky and Menor ties up our horses. It has started to mist lightly... because we litterally rode into the clouds. We walk down this path that´s technically closed, and it leads to this awesome waterfall and bamboo bridge.... insane. Then we hike up some more to the top. It´s getting slippery as we run down the moutain in the rain. We get back on our horses and start the ride down. There are no words.
Last weekend we went to visit Manuel Antonio. We spent Friday night in San Jose at Hostel Bekuo, the same hostel we stayed in our first night in Costa Rica... oh memories. We decide we´re going to spend the night at this bar called Vyrus because we heard it was pretty fun and some people were in need of some American music (it was 60s, 70s, 80s classic rock). The food was mildly bad, but the dance party was a blast. And the sloppy drunk volunteers... oh boy. Hearing things like ¨Don´t Stop Believin´¨ made me miss some of you guys a lot. That night, while me and Jack weree waiting for one of the girls to get ready, he picked up a guitar and played a little ¨More Than Words¨ too... ha ha ha. And then we found tabs for ¨In Your Eyes.¨ Now I gotta make him learn a little Mr. Big!
The next morning we braved our way to Manuel Antonio. It´s pretty sweet to be able to get around in your second language... I mean, it wasn´t that difficult since our bosses pretty much gave us step by step directions. It´s about a 4 hour bus ride... and it there was a lot to see. When we arrived in Manuel Antonio, we accidently took the bus all the way to the beach. Whoops. This was Jack´s first time seeing the Pacific, so it made everything extra exciting. We hailed a taxi and met up with Jim, one of the volunteers from last year who is still living in Manuel Antonio. The cab driver knew the gringo who was a teacher last year and helpfully pointed him out right away. Luckily my house was right next to where we were.....
I have to stop writing now... but I´ll write about my first trip to my new home very soon!
xoxoox
Tengo muchos clases de español. Tengo muchos clases de enseñar, tambien. En ingles, I have many Spanish classes. I have many teaching classes, as well. So our days are filled, filled, filled with learning. And then I go home to my host family and try to speak with them. My host sister and I play jump rope and Jenga and dominoes. My host brother is 5 and very ticklish. Sometimes we just sit on my bed, indian style, staring at each other until I jump and tickle him and he screams and almost hits his head and then I put a pillow down because I don´t know how to translate ¨I broke your son´s head¨ into Spanish (huh, that was a lie... Le rompe la cabeza de su niño).
Outside of schooling and host family living, I´ve done some pretty cool things in my valley town of Orosi. We did this pretty intense hike up a mountain that included scaling a wall to get to this waterfall...... like I said, pretty intense. The hike also took us down through huge coffee fields. I have some great pictures, but it just takes so long to upload them that I haven´t had the patience to wait for all 100. But they will come soon.
What else, what else... I rode a horse! For my first time!!! I was pretty nervous. Basically, my friend Jack´s host family owns horses, and they do touristy rides.. so 4 of us went to his house, got in his dad´s truck, and went to the stable. This guy and his family were there that could speakEnglish pretty well, so we talked to them. He started off by handing us a beer, which didn´t really calm my nerves. He also told us that Manuel Antonio (where Jack and I will be living) is like the P'town of Costa Rica, which I have no problem with. Anyway... So Jack´s host broher is the one who takes us up (Menor, he´s 18, totally adorable skinny little thing). Everyone is getting their horses.. there are pretty white ones and regular brown ones... so I get a brown one.... but he has crazy blue eyes. Like really crazy. I was watching them put the saddle on him and hoping I didn´t have to ride him. Of course they called me over to him. So in case you didn´t remember, this is my first time ever riding a horse, and I have no idea what I´m doing. There´s a large animal between my legs, and he just kinda starts going. Luckily he stops, but he keeps making wierd noises, and I´m just playing it cool. So my horse decides to be the leader with Menor´s horse, but soon enough the other horses are overtaking us. Jack comes back and rides with me for a while, but the others get a little farther ahead when I realize that my horse must be broken or something. Menor ends up coming back for me and litterally taking my reign, which I didn´t mind. So we rode together, which was sweet because I got to practice my Spanish a bit more (I´d only been in Costa Rica for a week at this point). Turns out he´s a boxer, and he´s actually fighting this week, so I´m hoping to catch a fight with Jack and his family. Anywho, the ride ends up being absolutly beautiful. Litterally breathtaking. There was one point where Orosi was all lit up by the sun, and the next small town was under a cloud... totally reminded me of the Light and Dark Worlds in A Link to the Past haha. Oh boy. So we ride and ride and Menor tells me all about a bunch of stuff that I don´t completly understand, but I smile and sit pretty. He calls my horse ¨Bago¨... which I realize is synonomous with ¨perezoso,¨ which is Spanish for lazy. He tells me that my horse doesn´t want to walk. He just wants to eat. I understand this. I feel the same, mi Bagito. So we get to almost the top of this place called Monte Sky and Menor ties up our horses. It has started to mist lightly... because we litterally rode into the clouds. We walk down this path that´s technically closed, and it leads to this awesome waterfall and bamboo bridge.... insane. Then we hike up some more to the top. It´s getting slippery as we run down the moutain in the rain. We get back on our horses and start the ride down. There are no words.
Last weekend we went to visit Manuel Antonio. We spent Friday night in San Jose at Hostel Bekuo, the same hostel we stayed in our first night in Costa Rica... oh memories. We decide we´re going to spend the night at this bar called Vyrus because we heard it was pretty fun and some people were in need of some American music (it was 60s, 70s, 80s classic rock). The food was mildly bad, but the dance party was a blast. And the sloppy drunk volunteers... oh boy. Hearing things like ¨Don´t Stop Believin´¨ made me miss some of you guys a lot. That night, while me and Jack weree waiting for one of the girls to get ready, he picked up a guitar and played a little ¨More Than Words¨ too... ha ha ha. And then we found tabs for ¨In Your Eyes.¨ Now I gotta make him learn a little Mr. Big!
The next morning we braved our way to Manuel Antonio. It´s pretty sweet to be able to get around in your second language... I mean, it wasn´t that difficult since our bosses pretty much gave us step by step directions. It´s about a 4 hour bus ride... and it there was a lot to see. When we arrived in Manuel Antonio, we accidently took the bus all the way to the beach. Whoops. This was Jack´s first time seeing the Pacific, so it made everything extra exciting. We hailed a taxi and met up with Jim, one of the volunteers from last year who is still living in Manuel Antonio. The cab driver knew the gringo who was a teacher last year and helpfully pointed him out right away. Luckily my house was right next to where we were.....
I have to stop writing now... but I´ll write about my first trip to my new home very soon!
xoxoox
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Thank you, Patrick Swayze
¨Make sure you learn how to dance,¨ she said. It was the greatest advice she could bestow upon me in her crisp, serene Belmont apartment · · · ¨I wish I had learned how to dance.¨
Darcy had done WorldTeach ten years before I had even considered the idea of teaching abroad. So when I traveled to her apartment for my big interview with her, I was a tabula rasa. A blank slate looking to make sure I was even right for a position like this.
She offered me a drink as I sat down with her big, fluffy cat. ¨Just water.¨ Please and Thanks. She handed me an album of her WorldTeach year · · · photographs that were actually taken on film.
Soon she was back and asking me questions, and I was prepared with some of my own questions as well. When it was my turn to ask, I started with specifics · · · ¨What was difficult, how was it different, what did you eat?¨ So when I ended vaguely with ¨Any other advice you could give me while I´m here?¨ her quick response was exactly the kind of thing I needed to hear. ¨My [Spanish] boyfriend and I go out dancing a lot. I just wish I had learned in Costa Rica.¨
Learn how to dance? Yeah, sure, of course · · · do you know who I am?? Ever since I was 4 years old, watching ¨Dirty Dancing¨ for the first time, not understanding much of the plot, but feeling mesmerized and excited by the movement, and having a huge crush on Patrick Swayze. Learn how to dance. I guess if it comes up. Oh. Right. This is what I´ve gotten myself into. My WorldTeach year is going to be more than teaching English to little Spanish speakers. That is my job, and in all seriousness, that will be my life, but there´s a whole culture to be a part of as well. I am here for the students, the community, and, most importantly, myself.
So I´m going to take the time to learn how to dance and to learn other aspects of Costa Rican culture as they come at me. It may get a little dirty, but hey, thank you Patrick Swayze for mentally preparing me and my hips. Hopefully I won´t have to fill in onstage for a ¨sick¨ dance instructor. I´m not too sure I could handle the tickle'move, and I´m still too scared for lifts.
Darcy had done WorldTeach ten years before I had even considered the idea of teaching abroad. So when I traveled to her apartment for my big interview with her, I was a tabula rasa. A blank slate looking to make sure I was even right for a position like this.
She offered me a drink as I sat down with her big, fluffy cat. ¨Just water.¨ Please and Thanks. She handed me an album of her WorldTeach year · · · photographs that were actually taken on film.
Soon she was back and asking me questions, and I was prepared with some of my own questions as well. When it was my turn to ask, I started with specifics · · · ¨What was difficult, how was it different, what did you eat?¨ So when I ended vaguely with ¨Any other advice you could give me while I´m here?¨ her quick response was exactly the kind of thing I needed to hear. ¨My [Spanish] boyfriend and I go out dancing a lot. I just wish I had learned in Costa Rica.¨
Learn how to dance? Yeah, sure, of course · · · do you know who I am?? Ever since I was 4 years old, watching ¨Dirty Dancing¨ for the first time, not understanding much of the plot, but feeling mesmerized and excited by the movement, and having a huge crush on Patrick Swayze. Learn how to dance. I guess if it comes up. Oh. Right. This is what I´ve gotten myself into. My WorldTeach year is going to be more than teaching English to little Spanish speakers. That is my job, and in all seriousness, that will be my life, but there´s a whole culture to be a part of as well. I am here for the students, the community, and, most importantly, myself.
So I´m going to take the time to learn how to dance and to learn other aspects of Costa Rican culture as they come at me. It may get a little dirty, but hey, thank you Patrick Swayze for mentally preparing me and my hips. Hopefully I won´t have to fill in onstage for a ¨sick¨ dance instructor. I´m not too sure I could handle the tickle'move, and I´m still too scared for lifts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)