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Published: April 20th 2012
Roomies
Emma, Poppy and Serena - ready to go out.8. OBRAS DEL ESPÍRITU SANTO
Friday, April 20
WEDNESDAY (11
th)…
Last night, Jessica and Hannah came over to have dinner together (Antijuntos!) and afterwards, we went to the bar street in San Pedro. Hannah’s forgotten to bring her ID, though, so we would only get into one bar (which wasn’t all that). We ran in to some people from COSI in front of another bar and because Jess and Hannah were pretty tired, they went home and I stuck with the others (Louise, Kevin and another dude). We went into a ‘club’ and there I spotted Emma and Serena (my roommates); Poppy wasn’t there, because she had already been too drunk and fallen asleep before they left for the club… Yeah. When Kevin, Louise and the dude left for home as well, I stuck with Emma and Serena (so I could share a taxi with them when going home), but they had two guys with them, so every now and then I just stood around awkwardly. It was quite a dull night.
So, on the day after (this Wednesday), I slept late (9am!) and just hung around the house the entire morning. When I decided that enough was
enough, I got up and out of the house and went to COSI to ask about horseback riding. Andrea told me that it was quite expensive, but that she and Alonso were going to visit his cousin (or something) this Saturday and go horseback riding there. They asked me to come along and of course I said yes – so excited! :D
In the afternoon, I dragged my ass into San José downtown (all by my pretty self) and visited Museo Nacional, had lunch at a cute (but expensive) place called Nuestra Tierra and walked through Parque Central, Parque Nacional and made my way back to the bus home.
THURSDAY (12
th)…
Today is my first day of (volunteer) work and I am late. Mauricio – the guy from COINED, who arranges my volunteer program – had told be the bus would take half an hour, so I left 15 minutes early… Turned out it took me an hour. When I got to the place, I didn’t really know what to do. I assumed there would’ve been someone to tell me what and how if I would’ve been on time, but now I just walked in
Museo Nacional
Old cells for prisoners or soldiers that needed to be disciplined. to the daycare and walked up to the first open door I saw. A woman (Marilyn) was there with a group of about seven ‘pre-kinder’ kids (around the age of 2). I told her with my fabulous Spanish that it was my first day and I didn’t know where to go, so she told me to stay with her and so I did. I left at 1:30 pm, because after 2 pm, the area is too dangerous.
When I got home, Mauricio had sent me an email asking what I thought of my first day. I told him I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but I just kind of hung out with the kids and went along with whatever Marilyn did. He told me that someone ought to have told me what my tasks were and that he’d call Ana (the woman who’d showed me around o Tuesday) so she could do something about it.
FRIDAY (13
th)…
Leaving home an hour before work, I was on time today! I expected Ana to be there this morning to tell me what was what (especially after Mauricio had called her – assuming he
did…), but it was the same as yesterday. Because I was on time, I started in the play-area. All the kids are brought here in the morning and this is also where all the employees and volunteers start their day. I chatted with a nice volunteer girl from Germany or Switzerland or something. I told her how the atmosphere felt awkward and that the people that work there aren’t nice, or social at all. She agreed and told me everyone has that problem – “It will get less in 2 weeks or so”, she said. “But I’m only here for 3,5 weeks – because I started on a Thurday”, “Oh, that sucks, then!”. One at a time, the groups started to leave the play area and went to their classrooms. I was afraid that when the last group left, I was going to be left over, because no one seems to notice your presence there! So when there was only one group left, I made the two girls acknowledge my presence and asked if they needed any help from me. The one girl that DID respond to my being-there, looked at me, looked back at the other girl and just
continued her conversation with her. “Nice”, I thought “Fuck it.” – and I got my bag and left to find the German girl. She was sitting with the ‘babies’ (0 – 16 months), where they didn’t really need any other help, but she said I could join anyway and so I did. We left at 1:30 pm again.
In the afternoon, I joined Louise to go to San Pedro mall – she needed a bikini and I had to do some grocery shopping. But halfway through our shopping in the mall, I started to feel sick, so I didn’t go to the supermarket but straight home. I got sick pretty quickly, I think one of the babies did it (always those damn babies!).
I went to bed early, because I wanted to be as healthy as possible for the horseback riding tomorrow!
SATURDAY (14
th)…
Alonso and Andrea were supposed to pick me up at 9 am, but at 8:15 the phone range… Blah blah blah, horseback riding was off.
Since I was still sick, I practically read my book and played Pokémon on the GameBoy all morning. In the afternoon, I felt a
Museo Nacional
View on San José bit better, so I did some grocery shopping and I laid in the sun with my roomies, on the parking lot.
I had dinner with Jess and Hannah again – awesome Italian, thin, fresh pizza!!!
SUNDAY (15
th)…
Me and the roomies went downtown (oh GAWD I am such a socially capable person!). We went to the zoo, which was really small and therefore had small cages for their animals. It was quite sad… Then we went to Parque Central, where we had a smoothie and watched guys breakdancing and BMXing in the gazebo. Poppy even busted a move in the middle of the breakdancing group! Haha… After Mercado Artesanal, where I bought 3 cute bracelets, we went home.
But the most exciting moment of the day was yet to come – at night, Poppy blocked the toilet.
I have no words left for this.
MONDAY (16
th)…
Leaving work last Friday, I ran into Ana. She recognized me and greeted me, then told me we’d talk on Monday. I assumed this was about my feeling uncomfortable and not knowing what to do, etc. So even though I felt reluctant to
go to work today, I went because I hoped to talk to Ana. But when I got there, Ana wasn’t there. Figures.
I worked with the pre-kinder kids again (with Marilyn) and with Marijke, the only vonlunteer left, besides me. But today was Marijke’s last day at Obras del Espíritu Santo, so as of tomorrow I’d be the only volunteer there. Left alone with the not-acknowledging-your-presence employees. Fun…
When I went home, I had lunch with Poppy and Emma (while Serena was in the gym, naturally), but it had started to RAIN and it wouldn’t stop! We got SOAKED walking home those 3 minutes – I could literally wring out every piece of clothing that was on me! It was fun though.. 😊
TUESDAY (17
th)…
I went to COSI instead of work, to talk to Andrea abut what to do about the volunteer program. She told me that if I don’t want to go, I shouldn’t – so, I didn’t. I called up Mauricio about what the possibilities are to change my volunteer program or go back to school, but he told me he hadn’t been working for COINED since over a week and
he didn’t even work for them when he showed me aroung at Obras del Espíritu Santo the first time!
For fucks sake!! Aaaargh these fucking people! – So, I asked Monteserrat and she send an email to COINED.
All morning, I was kind of depressed, so to distract myself I went on funda.nl to look for houses! Jotte didn’t really have a busy day at work either, so he joined in on me and we both fell in love with a house! Haha, silly, of course – since we don’t have any money, etc. But it was fun either way!
I really wanted to talk to my Mommy and Daddy, but my dad was in Germany and my mom doesn’t know how to use Skype, so I had to wait for my dad to come home. Eventually, I Skyped with him for a while and felt a lot better afterwards.
I hung out with the roomies, they Skyped on my laptop with their family and then I Skyped with Jotte (yay!). I didn’t do anything at night, although the girls asked me to go out. But I just don’t really feel the need to go
out here, I’m happy drinking a beer by myself – haha! Maybe if my AWESOME friends from home would’ve been here, it would’ve been a whole different story… I miss them! And I miss Haarlem! 😞
Can’t wait for the summer… 😊
WEDNESDAY (18
th)…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELATI!!!!!!!!!! xxxx I went to COSI again this morning and called COINED. Apparently I can change my project! I can ‘transfer’ my money from the volunteer program to COSI and go back to Spanish classes; I just need to pay the difference in price (because COSI is a bit more expensive than working), but that’s worth it! I’m really glad, because this is something I actually WANT to do!
I finished reading The Whispering Road and started Crime and Punishment.
Went on a free museum-tour with COSI (Rolando and 4 other students). It was a really nice night, and we walked to and from the museums, and the museums were fun too! 😊
The funniest thing of this night was even that I got a WhatsApp message from Serena, asking me which time I got home. “8 pm”, I told them, “why?”, “Well, we’ve locked
ourselves out and we’ve been here since 5 pm!”. I laughed my ass off when I got home at 8.30 pm!
THURSDAY (19
th)…
I planned to go to Cartago, but I was too lazy and unmotivated…
I tried to make COINED contact COSI and confirm the money transfer, but it might happen on Friday morning, which was also OK with COSI, so I let that be that.
I had dinner with Serena and Poppy, while Emma went on a date she didn’t want to be a date (haha) and went to the cinema with Kevin, Louise and Monia from COSI – American Pie! Quite funny… :D
FRIDAY (20
th)…
I got an email from COINED saying that I can NOT get my volunteer program-money back or transfer it to COSI! Goddamnit!!! Why don’t these people THINK of what they want before they tell me yes?! I am pissed off.
But I called around and contacted literally EVERYONE (emailed 2 people from COINED, called 2 people from COINED, went to COSI, emailed Lingua who’s now contacting COINED…) because I will NOT throw away more money! May I remind you that I’ve
been on this since Tuesday and that ever since then, everyone’s told me that I could EASILY transfer my money and change back to the school?! – The most fruitful conversation I has led to the answer that I can change my volunteer program (but cannot go back to the school, unless I want to pay that full amount on top of what I paid for the volunteering), but Montserrat has to check if these people have space for me.
Let’s see…
I am not really in the mood to go to La Virgen today. For which, by the way, I still haven’t got a confirmation of the hotel!
THESE PEOPLE!!!
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