Another silly day in class. Then I went to visit where I'm going to be volunteering at an elementary school nearby. The kids there are CRAZY and out of control. It's not like schooling in the U.S. at all. They were just runing around screaming and roughhousing. It's like a train wreck in the middle of a war zone. It should be interesting when I do go to volunteer. We went to the National Museum, which was in a new part of town for me. It's an old fort and it was pretty cool to see what it would have been [View Full Entry]

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Day 27 - September 30, 2008 Today I realized my new teacher in Business Spanish is a little bit crazy. We'll see how this plays out. Stay tuned. The night class was tough (the business class I have with all Costa Ricans taught in Spanish) because there were lots of new words and people talked fast. At least I picked up on a good amount of it. It makes you pay attention in class when you have be attentive to merely translate what is being said. When I got home I watched the Saprissa game (the local favorite futbol team). It [View Full Entry]

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Started a new class today "Business Spanish." All we did was read from a packet for 2 hours. You know those classes where you would rather be almost anywhere else than sitting there doing whatever you are doing? I just can't seem to understand what makes professors think that we enjoy, or even learn from, just reading a packet the whole time. Now, syllabus day is different. I do enjoy when on the 1st day teachers just give you a syllabus, scan over it, and then let you leave an hour and a half early. I'm ok with that. It's like [View Full Entry]

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I woke up at 5:00 am to go see the sunrise. It's not often that I get a chance to see the sunrise over an ocean. I had to see how it compared to pacific sunsets. Answer: pretty gorgeous. Check the pictures to decide for yourself. I was spellbound. There's something about a sunrise that is just captivating, in a way that sunsets aren't. I felt it this summer when we would be in our kayaks as the sun came up illuminating Mt. Rainier. It's almost as if Earth were saying, "Today will be a good day. Enjoy it." I went [View Full Entry]

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Day 24 - September 27th, 2008 After a great day on Friday, we woke up and were served delicious breakfast by Isabel, our hostess at Casa Marbella Bed & Breakfast. Then we took the canoe that Casa Marbella owned out on the canal. We paddled along and saw majestic things. We saw big spiders, cool birds, water snakes, and a bunch of crazy monkeys jumping all over the place. Monkeys are ridiculously entertaining for some reason. We talked about our universities and how cheesy each of us is in relationships. My forearms got real sunburned. I forgot how powerful the sun [View Full Entry]

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Day 23 - September 26th, 2008 (I am writing about September 26th over a month later: its actually October 29: I got wrapped up in things and stopped writing blogs. Alas, we will catch up somehow.) Today was the last day of class (we had one class everyday for 3 weeks). However, I (and 4 others) skipped class and traveled to Tortuguero, a town on the Caribbean Coast. We got on an early bus to a town called Cariari. I started chatting with a man named Jorge. He is a rice farmer in Cañas and we talked about beaches in Guanacaste [View Full Entry]

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Day 22 - Thanx Prof Instead of having class in our classroom, our Professor, Senor Mendoza, had us meet at the market downtown. He wanted to take us around the market, which is incredibly similar to Pike Place Market with Costa Rica twists, to show us things and explain about Costa Rican culture. He also bought us all (8 of us) ice cream at a famous heladeria, or ice cream stand/store, as well as candies and sweets - really nice guy and a cool, creative alternative to regular class. Went for another run in the rain today, joined by Kaitlin. I [View Full Entry]

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Day 20 - Chocolate and Gold We watched “Like Water for Chocolate” in Spanish in class today. Really good movie. Also worth renting. After class, the ISA group went to the Museo de Oro, or Gold Museum. There was a lot of cool gold stuff. Also, I really enjoy miniature figurines / miniature models of things. Yea, I’m really nerdy. There’s even pictures of this. Another guy from ISA, Nick from Texas, switched into my class where I was the only gringo. It’s a little better now. Phew. Lastly, I think umbrellas are funny objects. Why? How? I don’t kno [View Full Entry]

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Day 19 - Dancing Without the Stars September 22, 2008 Today we had a test in Spanish class. But after that, we spent the last hour and half learning to dance with a dance teacher our professor brought in. We learned the basics to merenge, salsa, and cumbia. It got really hot in that room and I was sweating like crazy, but it was fun. I went for a run for the first time in forever today, I want to get back into the habit. I feel so much better when I run and work out. I think Ticos were taken [View Full Entry]

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Day 18 - The Swede Arrives September 21, 2008 After breakfast I went on a steep, fairly long hike with some ISA ladies. It was a nice hike along the base of the volcano, through green hills, that ended up at a pretty sweet lookout. Went back to the hotel to chill. Our hotel had a bunch of pools and waterslides all over. I love waterslides. A lot. If waterslides were a musical act, I would have booked them for Quadstock. I hung out with Kaitlin around the pool and waterslides pretty much all morning. Really chill, relaxing, unique, and fun [View Full Entry]

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