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Published: June 12th 2007
Estoy lista
All packed up and ready to go! (I apologize in advance for the mistakes in this blog entry. I have been having trouble speaking English lately and trying to write in it, even after just one week, bare with me through the slightly unintelligible. Also, this blog was written over the course of the past week and a half that I have been in Costa Rica. I have very limited time on the computers and each day I´d try to write more. My thoughts are probably a bit jumbled, lo siento)
The reality of my arrival in Costa Rica was just as foggy as the view from my plane window. After a couple of hours flying through the rain and storm clouds, Costa Rica suddenly appeared in the window beneath the plane. All I could see was green. Light green, dark green, shades of green I have never seen before. I was beginning to get very nervous. Then the fog rolled in and I knew we were over the mountains, entering the central valley, where San José is nestled. Katrillions of thoughts were racing through my head. But there was no turning back. My flight was already hours late and I had no way
to contact ICADS to let them know. All I could do was hope Don Fernando stuck around to pick me up.
We landed and had to wait another 45 minutes or so for stairs and buses to take us into the airport. That was my first introduction to 'Costa Rican time´. After finding my luggage on different baggage claim carousels, I took a deep breath and braved the wild crowd outside the main exit. My goal was to find Don Fernando with an ICADS sign and my name. There seemed to be a sign for everyone else but me. One by one I watched other young, what seemed to be, Americans get plucked from the crowd by their various programs and groups. I was the only one traveling alone. Still no Don Fernando. I imagine I must have looked like a chicken with its head cut off, wandering around the madness, searching for my Don Fernando.
Finally, a young girl came up to me and said, in English, ''Are you Carynn (which sounded like Karen of course)?´´ I was so surprised and, to be honest, a bit disappointed that Don Fernando wasn´t there to retrieve me. But the
girl, Stefanie, explained to me that she was Don Fernando´s daughter and he left her to wait for me while he dropped off ICADS students he had picked up earlier.
He picked me up about half an hour later and drove me along the bumpy highway to my homestay casa. He doesn't speak English and is very sweet. In my anticipation of the pick up, I pictured Don Fernando as kind of tall and thin with glasses, facial hair and a hat. Don´t ask me why because I don´t know. But he turned out to be thin like I thought but not very tall and without glasses, a round face and as hairless as a baby´s bottom. He dropped me off at my house, shared a drink with Marlen and left.
...Now what?! The feelings that first night were generally extremely uncomfortable. Marlen, my Cost Rican madre, was very very comforting and sweet. However, I was shaking en mis zapatos. I put on the widest smile I could muster although I was an absolute mess in my mind. Our dinner was good, but I have to say, conversation was definitely lacking. I was trying hard to concentrate on
the mountain of spaghetti Marlen had piled on my overflowing plate. It was an awkward experience to say the least.
Then she showed me around the house, after preparing a plate of food and passing it through the kitchen window to a hungry passing cousin or some member of the family. It is a cute and small two-story home with two bedrooms and ONE bathroom for all of us. Yes, I share a tiny bathroom with my mother, and two brothers, Juan Carlos who is 23 and Fabricio who is 19. Oh, and I should also mention that you can not put any toilet paper in the toilet. After it is used, toilet paper must only be placed in the trash can. I have been told that there is usually no reason for this but it is a custom (would you call that a custom?) that still remains from the days when there wasn´t proper plumbing. It is just one of the many different customs I have encountered in my days here so far.
My room is nice. It is bigger than I expected, with a desk, an uncomfortable bed that turned out to be comfortable anyway, rack
for my clothes, night stand, bookshelf, and a big window with a view of the neighborhood and a mountain in the distance. I can´t help feeling bad though because I think Marlen and my brothers share one bedroom while I am here.
I have learned that I am one of the two ICADS students who lives in the part of San Pedro(the suburb of San Jose where ICADS is and the students live) that is off the map. Literally, if you look at the map of the ICADS student housing, I am about to fall off the page. Luckily, Lydia, the other student living near me lives RIGHT next to me. Our homes share the same concrete. She is from Texas and has become my new best friend in Costa Rica. Her host father is MamaMarlen´s brother, so Lydia and I are primas, or cousins. We are walking partners. We have about a 45 minute walk to ICADS every morning starting at 7 en punto. Most of the others live about 15-25 minutes away walking.
The location of our homes is vague to say the least. I would love to tell you where I live, but that is
impossible. But, come to think of it, I don´t even think Costa Ricans know where they live. Everytime we ask our families where our homes are located they say something to the effect of ''245 meters south west of the Christ.'' ?????!!! Confusing? Of course. That is Costa Rica. We think it is because there is a statue of Jesus not far from our houses. But there are also statues of Jesus everywhere here. (I'll go into more detail about what I Think of San Jose later) It´s something to the effect of why they don´t keep time. (no watches, co clocks in the homes) Costa Ricans never know the time like they never know where they are/live.
The food is ok. I have been spoiled by the Peruvian food of Alonso´s family, though. MamaMarlen feeds me like I am a sumo wrestler. Every morning she makes me tea. But not tea I am used to. Tea with milk. HOT milk. And for those of you who know me well, I hate milk. I scoop around the ants in the sugar bowl and I down it all anyway while holding my breath and eat the loaf of bread with garlic butter and I´m on my way.
I am becoming much more comfortable with my family and speaking more. As Mama Marlen keeps saying, this is my family here. Their house is my house. And she is very much like a mother. Protective and a little bossy sometimes ; )
I won't go into too much detail because I would go on for a while and my time on the computers is limited. My first few days at ICADs have been really good and I have some nice people in the spanish immersion group. (I think there are twelve of us in my particular program) They are all really nice and we are going to travel together. The ICADS building itself is so cool . It is like a big house that is decorated very authentically and tropically with a garden outside, classrooms in the courtyard and a cute kitchen we can use. It is very breezy and there are ICADS rescued street dogs who are very spoiled running around the building.Class has been fun. 4 1/2 hours of only Spanish 5 days a week. We only speak spanish in class and we only speak spanish in our homes. We also try to speak spanish when we can together. I'd like to write more about it but I don't have a lot of time. Many funny and interesting things happen everyday and every second is something new. I try to keep track but I am very busy. (for instance, the other night a few of us went to play pool with another students host dad and brother. THAT was a VERY interesting experience! A local Tico pool hall. If you can call it a hall, it was more like a small dilapidated building that smelled of, well I'm not sure what, but it was fun anyway and of course different.)
There is a lot to write about still but I'll update you soon hopefully about my muchas experiencias.
It is definitely an adventure and I am trying to soak it all up. Wish I could tell you at least half of it. Hope you're all well. !! See you in the next entry!
'Tica´ Carynn
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Marni
non-member comment
hi
hi from fl! sounds like all is great! thanks for thinking of us- i am going to read this to ash later she is doing GREAT at camp! we miss you Travel safe and continue sending us your blog love marni