March 9, 2007
So I’ve finally gotten busy on my project! It is quite the project though! Yesterday, I spent about 2 and a half hours on a section that I thought would be simple beca
use it was only coffee and small plants, no trees. Wrong. I spent half of my time trying to fight through coffee so dense that I couldn’t see farther than 2 meters in front of me, and all of them taller than my head. Now I’m no giant, but how are most Costa Ricans going to reach coffee that’s higher than my head? Then the section I worked in today, the coffee was only up to my shoulders and they were spread out a little more. Much better for sampling, but since there was so much space, a bunch of little weeds grew in that resemble dandelions except that the little white fluffy part is black and sticks to anything and everything it touches. My tan work pants were two toned after I left the coffee field. And I don’t know how these little spine thingys end up on top of my head, but there you go, it’s a mystery of nature.
It was a little warmer today than it has been for the past 4 days because of less wind. I’d say it got up to about 80 here, maybe 85, and I hate wearing DEET unless I can help it, so I wear long sleeves to avoid the biting bugs. Boy do I sweat when there is no wind around. There are no
mosquitoes around here thank goodness, but I have still been bitten on my forearms and hands a lot by SOMETHING pesky. The problem with the DEET is that I have to use more water to wash it off and that probably is cold water. Megan doesn’t like cold water! Hence Megan bathes in her own sweat. Today I had the company of a relative’s dog named Café, a short little brown and white dog with an exceptionally waggly tail. I don’t like to take Chispa because she doesn’t know how to socialize with other dogs, and I’d spend too much time worrying about her. But Café is super cute and he’s quite the pal now as well.
My host mother’s granddaughter Jasmin who is 11 years old, speaks English, and she has taken to asking me about anything she can think of that is from the United States. The funny part is that her constant quizzing is mostly about newer cartoon shows, and video games, and I am DEFINITELY not up to date on those. When she got to Game boy, I was like, oh yeah, Nintendo 64 – the old Mario Bros. and the duck shooting game. Jasmin looked at me sideways, and then was like yeah, my dad has one of those and it’s old. When I got her out of her 50 questions mode we got to talking about hippies for some reason, and I was trying to explain to her that I am of the new generation of hippies, and she thought that was the funniest thing ever. Yes ‘hippies’ is a word in Spanish.
Jasmin’s mother is Isabel, and they live up the hill from us. She was telling me that the student that was hosted here last liked to go up to their house to speak English because she missed it. I didn’t tell her but, I don’t miss it because I talk to myself, sometimes in English, sometimes mostly Spanish with unknown words substituted in English, and every once in a while, just for a change of pace I’ll have a conversation in pig Latin.
So I’ve finally gotten busy on my project! It is quite the project though! Yesterday, I spent about 2 and a half hours on a section that I thought would be simple beca
use it was only coffee and small plants, no trees. Wrong. I spent half of my time trying to fight through coffee so dense that I couldn’t see farther than 2 meters in front of me, and all of them taller than my head. Now I’m no giant, but how are most Costa Ricans going to reach coffee that’s higher than my head? Then the section I worked in today, the coffee was only up to my shoulders and they were spread out a little more. Much better for sampling, but since there was so much space, a bunch of little weeds grew in that resemble dandelions except that the little white fluffy part is black and sticks to anything and everything it touches. My tan work pants were two toned after I left the coffee field. And I don’t know how these little spine thingys end up on top of my head, but there you go, it’s a mystery of nature.It was a little warmer today than it has been for the past 4 days because of less wind. I’d say it got up to about 80 here, maybe 85, and I hate wearing DEET unless I can help it, so I wear long sleeves to avoid the biting bugs. Boy do I sweat when there is no wind around. There are no
mosquitoes around here thank goodness, but I have still been bitten on my forearms and hands a lot by SOMETHING pesky. The problem with the DEET is that I have to use more water to wash it off and that probably is cold water. Megan doesn’t like cold water! Hence Megan bathes in her own sweat. Today I had the company of a relative’s dog named Café, a short little brown and white dog with an exceptionally waggly tail. I don’t like to take Chispa because she doesn’t know how to socialize with other dogs, and I’d spend too much time worrying about her. But Café is super cute and he’s quite the pal now as well.My host mother’s granddaughter Jasmin who is 11 years old, speaks English, and she has taken to asking me about anything she can think of that is from the United States. The funny part is that her constant quizzing is mostly about newer cartoon shows, and video games, and I am DEFINITELY not up to date on those. When she got to Game boy, I was like, oh yeah, Nintendo 64 – the old Mario Bros. and the duck shooting game. Jasmin looked at me sideways, and then was like yeah, my dad has one of those and it’s old. When I got her out of her 50 questions mode we got to talking about hippies for some reason, and I was trying to explain to her that I am of the new generation of hippies, and she thought that was the funniest thing ever. Yes ‘hippies’ is a word in Spanish.
Jasmin’s mother is Isabel, and they live up the hill from us. She was telling me that the student that was hosted here last liked to go up to their house to speak English because she missed it. I didn’t tell her but, I don’t miss it because I talk to myself, sometimes in English, sometimes mostly Spanish with unknown words substituted in English, and every once in a while, just for a change of pace I’ll have a conversation in pig Latin.
This is Jasmin's sister Anny ---- quite the trouble maker! ------> (like Raquel!)
The other day I nipped into town for the afternoon to use the internet café and start looking at classes for next year (which are not available yet!). My host mom was telling me that I had to catch the bus a little farther down the road, so off I set down the road, and for a while it was deserted so I began singing out loud. Quietly at first and then my confidence grew and I was belting out a song by Queen when I rounded a corner and two women who HAD been talking were standing there looking at me. I kind of toned it down to a hum really quick, smirked and said ‘Buenos dias’ to them and just kept walking along giggling to myself. It was actually just one of those days when I found a lot of things unusually funny, and when I talked to Ben on the phone that night, I could hardly get a grip on myself when I was telling him about my happenings in Grecia and on the way.
I was watching the ‘noticas’ or the news yesterday with my family and noticed a few funny things. Firstly, in the background during the sports announcements are flashing horse races, gymnastics, baseball (of all things), and the only sport you actually hear announced is “futbol” or soccer. Ever. Seriously. I wouldn’t dream of asking if anyone plays basketball because that’s probably one of those silly things they played in P.E. once. The other thing I noticed was one of those scrolling messages that glides across the bottom of the screen announcing other things that they’re not really talking about. Well the one I noticed was ‘President Bush to begin tour of Latin America’ and it listed countries, like Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico, and Guatemala. The next message read ‘President Bush is met with protests on his tour to Latin America in ….. countries’. I couldn’t help but laugh, and my host family probably thought I found something particularly funny about ‘futbol’.
Several times here people ask me which Costa Rican dish is my favorite and I’m stumped every time. I always ask what things are called, but I always forget too! I end up saying something silly like ‘platanos maduros’ which are the grilled sweet plantains. The truth is that I like a lot of different foods, and I just can’t decide.
Yesterday I met Lucy, the largest spider I have yet to encounter, besides
one tarantula that I stumbled upon out in the desert in New Mexico. Lucy (may she rest in peace) was sauntering in to my room after breakfast, and I was shocked and surprised that such a creature would like to enter my room, but I didn’t want this little gal hanging out in my belongings and giving me a bigger scare later so I chased her out of my room and then my host mother came to my aid. I have yet to make these wonderfully protective host mothers understand that I don’t really want them to kill the spiders; I just don’t want them in the same room (or house for that matter) as myself. I think I would have enlisted the 10 foot pole method for removing this palm-of-your-hand-sized-spider, or at least a shovel. Okay I am a big chicken, but um, yeah end of sentence.
My favorite time to journal is on the bus, or on the airplane, so next time I go somewhere is when you’re liable to get a little snippet, a window into my little corner of Costa Rica, where the birds chirp, the coffee grows, the sun shines, the children run around with dirt on their faces, and life continues on.
The other day I nipped into town for the afternoon to use the internet café and start looking at classes for next year (which are not available yet!). My host mom was telling me that I had to catch the bus a little farther down the road, so off I set down the road, and for a while it was deserted so I began singing out loud. Quietly at first and then my confidence grew and I was belting out a song by Queen when I rounded a corner and two women who HAD been talking were standing there looking at me. I kind of toned it down to a hum really quick, smirked and said ‘Buenos dias’ to them and just kept walking along giggling to myself. It was actually just one of those days when I found a lot of things unusually funny, and when I talked to Ben on the phone that night, I could hardly get a grip on myself when I was telling him about my happenings in Grecia and on the way.
I was watching the ‘noticas’ or the news yesterday with my family and noticed a few funny things. Firstly, in the background during the sports announcements are flashing horse races, gymnastics, baseball (of all things), and the only sport you actually hear announced is “futbol” or soccer. Ever. Seriously. I wouldn’t dream of asking if anyone plays basketball because that’s probably one of those silly things they played in P.E. once. The other thing I noticed was one of those scrolling messages that glides across the bottom of the screen announcing other things that they’re not really talking about. Well the one I noticed was ‘President Bush to begin tour of Latin America’ and it listed countries, like Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Mexico, and Guatemala. The next message read ‘President Bush is met with protests on his tour to Latin America in ….. countries’. I couldn’t help but laugh, and my host family probably thought I found something particularly funny about ‘futbol’.
Several times here people ask me which Costa Rican dish is my favorite and I’m stumped every time. I always ask what things are called, but I always forget too! I end up saying something silly like ‘platanos maduros’ which are the grilled sweet plantains. The truth is that I like a lot of different foods, and I just can’t decide.
Yesterday I met Lucy, the largest spider I have yet to encounter, besides
one tarantula that I stumbled upon out in the desert in New Mexico. Lucy (may she rest in peace) was sauntering in to my room after breakfast, and I was shocked and surprised that such a creature would like to enter my room, but I didn’t want this little gal hanging out in my belongings and giving me a bigger scare later so I chased her out of my room and then my host mother came to my aid. I have yet to make these wonderfully protective host mothers understand that I don’t really want them to kill the spiders; I just don’t want them in the same room (or house for that matter) as myself. I think I would have enlisted the 10 foot pole method for removing this palm-of-your-hand-sized-spider, or at least a shovel. Okay I am a big chicken, but um, yeah end of sentence.My favorite time to journal is on the bus, or on the airplane, so next time I go somewhere is when you’re liable to get a little snippet, a window into my little corner of Costa Rica, where the birds chirp, the coffee grows, the sun shines, the children run around with dirt on their faces, and life continues on.
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