Watching a Soccer game with Costa Ricans

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August 20, 2008
Training today was good, but also hard, there is so much information, and you have to figure out how to introduce new words to the students. I really like the group that I am in training with; we all seem to help each other out. I had lunch with another one of the students, she is Costa Rican, but she just got back from spending 5 months in India, so we talked about that while we were eating. We ate at the supermarket around the corner, it has a lunch counter that I thought was really good, I ate cooked veggies, some sort of cucumber salad and rice, it all tasted good to me.
After training Priscilla helped me with the bus again, I know I could find the right one but I still needed the driver to tell me when to get off. So this time I didn’t have any problems, the bus drops me off only 4 streets from the house, easy 5 minute walk. When I got home, Roger and Sabrina invited me to go to a bar to watch the soccer game (football match is what they call it here). When we got to the bar, we met some of their other friends outside, and they said that it was too crowded so we were going to one of the friends’ house to watch it, but first we went to Quizno’s to eat. I was very proud of myself, I was mostly able to order on my own, something I hadn’t done by myself yet, Roger still helped me a little bit and the girl behind the counter was really nice about letting me practice my Spanish on her.
We drove to the house and the friend whose house it is sat in the back and talked to me. He spoke perfect English; he had lived in Washington for 7 years. He said his parents had worked at the Paraguayan Embassy there. When we got to the house, I was completely amazed! It was huge, big wide open rooms, and gorgeous décor. They obviously had money. It’s funny because all the houses I’ve been to have the latest electronics: IPods, docking stations for them, and a Wii, but all the TV’s are rather small, and this was no exception. So we watched the game on the TV, it was Costa Rica vs. El Salvador. It was interesting to watch, and be around the other people; they talked all the way through. Costa Rica won by 1-0, and it was a 2 hour game over in about 2 ½ hours.
I haven’t really done any cultural or tourist stuff yet, but I will. I’m learning the way that San Jose looks, and kind of my way around. There are a lot of cars, and traffic coming home after training yesterday was awful. Kind of like I-25 at 5 pm, but the drivers are more aggressive, and they can get away with more. San Jose is very urban, and there are a lot of people, but its okay. I guess there are some good museums over by Berlitz, so hopefully I will get to visit them soon.

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