Fùtbol

I have started actually watching soccer. And calling it football. I thought this day would never come. The whole of Costa Rica is obsessed over the World Cup right now... OBSESSED! Cost rica has qualified for the first time since the nineties, for one of about four times in the history of the competition. They came into the compition projected to loose every match. The teams they were selected to play against were nicknamed something translated like the death group because they were so good. The morning of their first game Costa Rica versas Uraguay everyone was dressed to represent in the selection's jersey. It was my three year old host cousins birthday so we went to their house for a birthday lunch of rice beans meat and beans. Then we watched the game. A lot of the family was there and every time Costa Rica scored they all SCREAMED jumping up and down. It was a so intense that it scared the little kids my littlest host sister and her cousin that they started crying. To be honest it was a little scary for me too. Everyone came dressed proudly, someone had a jesters hat, and another a top hat all in Costa Rican colors. Their was even a Costa Rican flag which they used to decorate underneath the tv. I too was dressed in a Costa Rica jersey my host mom lent me. Despite everyone's expectations Costa Rica won the match. My host cousin and I took all the kids out to the streets to celebrate. All of the cars were joyful honking at each other I express their excitment. The Costa Rican games are obviously the most popular but they also watch all the other games too. In fact they even put up a huge screen in the park at the ruins in the city center to watch all the games just for the World Cup. Friday was the second game Costa Rica played in the cup it was against Italy. I was in San Pedro at an AFS orientation where we watched the game. The exchange students were pretty in to it. Some came dressed the Costa Rican red white and blue or with the short of the "sele". some were gettin pretty intense sitting at the edge of their seats and swearing at the tv in a mixture of English and Spanish. Costa Rica miraculously won. We went out to the streets to celebrate. The entire main road was blocked by an informal parade of proud ticos who excitedly tooted their noise makers and waves their Costa Rican flags. Some were yelling "oe oe oe oe ticos ticos!". A few cars driving really slowly stuffed with people drove by honking loudly and waving at everyone, there was even a car driving backwards dangerously fast amidst the crowd of walking celebrators. Even on the side roads which were still passably the cars were beeping and people were screaming out the windows to share their joy. It was pretty crazy. There would never be anything ever like this in the USA and it was really fun to see their pride and excitement. I even felt proud of my own adopted country. As well as more interested in the games that the USA played. I actually watched most of the game between the USA and Portugal today and I got kind of ino it. It's wierd how much more patriotic you get when you are living outside of your country. But Costa Rica plays again on Tuesday This time against England, I am guessing that although its at 10 our school will show the game in the gymnasium and skip some classes, and let is wearing jeans tennis and the Costa Rica jersey instead of the uniform because That's what they did on Friday when I was gone. It should be exciting to see it at school. Besides just watching almost every game my family is also working an album of all the players of every team in the World Cup. It's like a booklet where you stick playing cards of all the players and teams of he World Cup which you have to buy seperatly or trade to fill up the book. It's kind of the same basic idea as baseball cards. Anyway soccer is a way bigger deal here than in the USA that's for sure.

My time is going by so quickly. I already had my goodbye gathering with my local afs chapter. Last night they had a gathering with everyone in Cartago. We aren't that many but all the host families came as well. We were served dinner, arroz con pollo, ensalada, and cajitas (a dessert almost exclusively made of sugar and milk I believe). They also had games, and a piñata. I now only have 39 days left. That's terrifying and exciting. It has gone by so fast. It already feels very bittersweet. I haven't written for a while because it hasn't felt like there's too much to tell. To be honest the last month hasn't been among the most exciting. We haven't had school since the 5th of may. The teachers are on strike. They aparently haven't gotten paid since the beginning of the school year in February. Or they have been getting paid only about $1.5 a week which is crazy because everything in Costa Rica is fairly expensive. Costs are very comparable o the USA. There is another rumor tht some haven't been paid since 2012 but I am not sure what's true. It's very disorganized, because some have been paid while others haven't and some have gotten only the equivalent of a few dollars for 3 months of work. It's pretty ridiculous. And there is no way of knowing when it will end. We just watch the news at night to see of we have school the next day. I do still have two teachers that show up for physics and math (lucky me.. My two favorite subjects...). So we have one class a day a few times a week. But it's just a pain to have to get all ready for school to go for only 40 minutes or hour 20 min. I haven't been doing to much. Just having out with my family. Watching a lot of tv. Although I did go to the beach the weekend before last with friends. We went to Jaco beach it was a lot of fun.

Paseo

The weekend before last was probably the best of my life. AFS organized a trip for the exchange students we left on Wednesday for San Jose.  Took the day off school.  My friend from Iceland came over for lunch then we left headed for cartago met up with another friend and all took the bus together to San Jose.  There we met up with more students and headed to the mall for a few hours before going to our hostel.  At the mall I went to a resturaunt and asked for a burrito.  The gave me a wrap of mainly fried mushrooms that was over a foot long.  It cost about two dollars.  Being in Costa Rica definitely helps me appreciate Mexican food which has so much more flavor.  The next morning we had to get an early start, we heard out of San Jose around quarter to seven.  Although the people in room woke up not much after 4 so everyone could get a shower.  A long day in the bus followed.  We arrived at a traditional ceramics museum and work shop at around noon.  Stepping out of the bus was a shock we were all red faced and sweating within minutes.  A man demonstrated the pot making technic.  It was really very similar to how we made pots in my ceramics class in Wisconsin but with more natural tools.  The guy made it on a potter's wheel that was hand operated, it didn't have a motor like the ones I have used instead he just spun it.  He also used a shell to smooth and cut the edges as well as a leaf and a corn cob in place of manmade tools.  The clay he used was also different than what I have seen before, it was the color of dirt.  He also said they painted it with some mineral they find in the mountains.  We never got to make our own pots but we did sit around and make art with the clay which would never get fired.  We stopped at our hotels to drop off our bags before a very late lunch.  We were very tired and ate like zombies.  After a much needed nap we headed to an afs activity with the volunteers from nicoya.  We were awaited by a group of traditional dancers.  The men wore cowboy clothes and the women flowing vibrantly colored skirts.  They served us traditional foods they had prepared.  They ate arroz con pollo, and tortillas with some sort of potatoe meat mash on top, later on arroz con leche with chunks of cinnamon which is delicious.  I being the only vegetarian had a pile of vegetables, and once I had finished my veggies they brought me a can of unopened garbanzo beans and saying they had forgotten them and asking if I wanted them.  We got to see a lot of different traditional dancing interspersed with some wierd yelping call which is traditional in guanacaste, added to the loud music it was an ear-numbing night.  They also showed us some other traditions like the girls started chasing the guys around and hitting them with branches, then they switched and the guys started dancing with the girls.  They also showed off their lassoing skills and had a mock bull fight.  One guy put a bull mask on his head complete with real looking horns and started chasing the others.  At one point the dancers came and grabbed people from the audience to dance with and I very awkwardly danced with like 5 of the dancers.  It was a great night.  We got back to the hotel and although it was stormy and rainy we went to the pool. It was a lot of fun playing keep away.  The next morning we headed out to parque nacional barra Honda.  We hiked for over an hour up a mountain in the sweltering heat.  We were all red faced and dripping with sweat by the time the path leveled out.  The hot weather and high humidity didn't help.  We split into groups. My group fist hiked to a look out point where we had a beautiful view.  We could see to the ocean and the islands there.  Later we walked to the mouth of the caves.  As we were waiting for our turn we heard a weird noise, like an angry dying dog or something.  It was howler monkeys which we could see hanging from the branches (about 4 of them).  The were black and bigger than I had imagined.  An iguana also was trying to eat someone's bag as we waited.   Finally we were able to climb down into the cave one by one.  We had to have a safety harness and they had to let the rope down with us in case we fell.  The entrance of the cave was surprisingly small maybe 5 square feet or so.  There was a latter attached to the wall to climb down the 15 meters to the bottom.  It was pretty scary looking down climbing the ladder.  It was fairly dark and you could just  see the outlines and the white helmets of the people below you.  I looked up halfway through, and there way above me was the circle of light and green, my over large helmet slipped backwards off my head and was hanging around my neck. I had to stop and hang on the ladder with one hand to fix it. It was nice to have the rope attached to my back in case something happened, the ladder was a little muddy and up very tightly against the rock wall. At last at the bottom we were all given headlamps. My legs were wobbly from adreneline once I was finally able to take off my rappelling harness on the cave floor. The inside of the cave was very big with a high roof yet the one opening was just a small circle way above, which sunlight was pouring through. The floor was made up of varying sized rocks with were slightly damp and gave the whole place and earthy smell. We had a very late lupper and celebrated my friends birthday with cake and singing in about 7 lenguages. We got back to the hotel and had a pool party in the rain. The next day we headed to the beach, another few hours in car. We spent to day at two different areas of samara beach. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. That night we had delicious pizza, and went out for ice cream in the rain. Te next morning, we were at the beach once again this time to pick up trash, with kids in the after school program called CREAR. It was run by foriegners, the women who talked to us was from the States but had been living in Costa Rica for 7 years. It unfortunately seems that most programs like this are run by foriegners. We had a last 45 minutes of free time at the beach, spent lounging in the sun with Mango juice and ice cream. We had a long sand covered ride to San Jose and from their took our seperate buses to our towns. Coming over the mountains and seeing the lights of cartago almost felt like coming home.

So I really should be writing things down more, but I am extremely lazy.  I know a lot has been happening and I want to remember it so here is a brief over view of life lately.  When we got back from the guanacaste trip we still had the weekend of Semana Santa so I had the opportunity to see the processions in cartago.  We went to watch the processions at noon on holy Friday.  We could here the processions all the way a few blocks away at the house because they had drums.  By the time we arrived the street was already full of onlookers.  Everyone was dressed nicely in summer dresses, or shorts.  I felt very hot and out of place in my jeans.  This is like the first time that I had seen such a high percent of people wearing shorts out of the house, it's normally almost exclusively jeans despite how hot it may be in the afternoon.  There was also a vender selling crushed ice with fruit syrup, condensed milk and milk powder.  It's kind of like a Costa Rican slushy, but sickeningly sweet it almost tastes like overly sweet medicine (not my favorite).  The drumming got louder as the procession advanced.  It was lead by rows of "Jews" as the people here called them.  People dressed up in what looked like roman costumes to me.  The had drums and were marching forward with extremely serious faces.  They were organized by age with the oldest ( some white haired gentleman) towards the front and going to the youngest ( ending with some kids who probably were about 7 or so).  In between there were some guys in my high school who looked mildly embarrassed as they marched, they were less in character than some of the older men, who were marching exaggeratedly in front.  Further back in the procession you could see the imitation of Jesus bobbing up and down as they walked.  I took a video of the whole thing.  The soldiers were followed by some women and eventually Jesus. They all finally arrived at a cross parrelel to the church and reanacted the crucifixion.  Shortly after we walked to my host grandmas house where a lot of the family was gathered for lunch.  Lunch was based heavily on mariscos or seafood as they don't eat meat on holy Friday.  As a matter of fact I don't think they are actually supposed to eat meat for the entire week which is why they eat a lot of seafood then.  This however isn't very strictly adhered to, as they love meat here.  That night I went to processions again with some of my cousins.  Now they reanacted the burial of Christ.  They took the life sized Christ doll from the cross and a extremely emotional woman cried and sobbed over him.  I have a feeling she wasn't able to talk the next morning because she was practically screaming her lines.  Lets just say she got very into her role.  The soldiers then walked all the way around the block with the body and brought it to the tomb.  This entire thing lasted for like two hours.  It was very interesting to see.  My cousins told me that it is always the same every year.  Then that Sunday I went to San Jose to the children's museum with my family which was very nice.  Afterwards we went to Walmart which is pretty much the same as in the USA although I really haven't  been to Walmart enough to remember what it's like.  Monday school began again.  Friday i slept over at my exchange student friends house. We went out to eat to celebrate her moms birthday, then went back to her house and made brownies with ice cream and strawberries and watched a movie.  The next morning we had brownies and ice cream for breakfast before we left to go to the birthday party of her 1 year old host cousin.  For the occasion the family had rented a ranch, with a nice view overlooking Agua Caliente.  Everything was decorated and they even rented a bouncy house kind of thing for the kids to play on.  They had a variety of dishes brought out slowly throughout the afternoon.  They also had a piñata in the afternoon.  It was almost all adults who were there.  The party was supposed to start at 10 but we got there at 11 and hardly anyone showed up till after 12.  Then on Sunday we had a picnic with afs in cartago.  All of the exchange students had to bring a dish from their county.  I made baked Mac and cheese, with cheddar cheese which is very pricey here.  There are a lot of German students, one Swiss, Icelandic, Italian, Hungarian and me.  Tomorrow I am leaving for San Jose, and Thursday for guanacaste for a trip with afs.  Luckily since school even in Costa Rica is getting very boring.

Vacation part 2

The afternoon after we went ziplining ingas host aunt and grandma took us to a repression in the river to go swimming.  The water was very tranquil and cold which was refreshing after the heat of the day ( although monteverde where we went ziplining had been chilly).  To get there we walked through a path in the woods.  It seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere but when we got there there was already a family swimming.  They were very white and blond and were speaking English this was a little surprising giving the remoteness of where we were.  We just got in the water and started swimming as well, and I had to ask if they were from the US as well.  Funnily enough they were originally from Minnesota but had lived in Costa Rica for the past 6 years with their three small children.  The littlest looked about three and was talking a mixture of English and Spanish.  The zipline place as well had been over run by foreigners.  Largely Germans as well as a school group from the US.  Before our swim we had also helped the aunt to make empanadas filled with some syrupy sticky and very fiberous fruit, which was a dark brown, unfortunately I don't remember the name.  That night after dinner we drove 45 minutes through curvy gravel roads to pools.  They were naturally warm fed by volcanic water or something like that.  It was lovely.  We didn't get there till 8:30 or 9 and it was totally dark.  We were the only ones there plus the workers.  There were candles on the sides of the pools and a huge full moon above.  There were four different pools ranging from degrees of hotness. I think 33-45 degrees celcius.  The air was also extremely hot.  We just relaxed in the pools which were fairly small and a worker brought us drinks.  I had a fresco natural de mango, which is pretty much like blended mango and juice ( the fruit juices are heavenly here).  There was also a sauna if you cared to get any hotter, and a shower which was "cold" in comparison.  The next morning after another extremely hearty breakfast of gallo pinto and tortillas we set off for guanacaste.    There is nothing that keeps you full like gallo pinto its like a brick in your stomach especially when paired with homemade tortillas.  We drove for what seemed like forever and crossed a bridge over a muddy dries up inlet of ocean.  Guanacaste looked like death, the grass is all dry and the trees look dry too.  Some of the hills are blackened from forest fires.  We drove through Santa Cruz a small yet sprawling looking town.  Eventually we came to Potrero which doesn't look like a town just a few streets in the woods.  We dropped our stuff off at the house we stayed at there and got on our swim suits.  From there we drove to playa brasilito.  Here we ate lunch at one of the sodas clustered on the edge of the beach. The road closed by is also lined wih tents selling beach trinkets like bracelets.  The soda was full of foriegners.  The lady that served us was obviously from the states.  I have gotten very good at recognizing the thick American accent that I too have when talking in Spanish.  The lady we learned was from Chicago originally and had moved to Costa Rica to open the resturaunt with her husband and small son.  The entire family of her husband had also come along for the ride and were all living near by in Costa Rica.  She explained that they were from Indiana and there is nothing in Indiana so why not.  Apart from the resturaunt they had also opened up a fishing or boat tours.  Her Spanish was still not perfect and it was nice to hear someone make the same mistakes I do every day in Spanish.  People from the states have very obvious accents in Spanish, they just let there words flow together and we like to separate them and make everything sound more harsh, I can hear my own accent but in the time I have left I doubt I'll ever be able to get rid of it.   As we were sitting eating lunch ingas host mom spotted some of our other exchange student friends who just happened to be at the same beach going to the same soda.  We talked for them then headed to the beach brasilito which was beautiful with warm water.  The surf was perfect for body surfing gentle but potent enough to carry you a little ways.  After a while we drove to conchal beach.  Which is white and made completely out of shells.  It's gorgeous wih clear turquoise water.  Here we spent the afternoon with the other students.  The next day inga and i took a walk in the morning.  we saw a gormeous bird with a long vivid blue tail, we also heard what i think was a monkey.  it sounded like a dying dog, but it was coming from the trees, at any rate ehatever it was didnt sound too friendly.  after breakfast at the same soda as the day before we went to use the swimming pool at a hotel on flamingo beach.  A friend of the husband of ingas host mom had gotten us in for the day.  It was the most luxurious hotel I have evr been to, and was full of foriegners.  In the center was a huge pool with a bar so that you could order drinks and food and eat them on stools in the pool.  There were a also photographers that were just hanging around taking pictures of everyone to try and sell at the end of the day.  One came up to us and started a photoshoot session directing us to do all these different poses.  He was Italian and his Spanish wasn't perfect because he just had two months in Costa Rica.  Ingas host mom bought a cd of a few of the pictures.  We sun bathed slathered in sun block 50%, and got drinks in the pool.  We later went to the beach to meet another exchange student a friend of ingas who is also from Iceland.  We went back to the hotel and bought lunch the.  Returned to the beach.  I wasn't quite as enthusiastic about the ocean after it was on the news the day before that sharks were spotted on a nearby beach the day before.  The surf was also very powerful.  The waves were way bigger and the ocean a little colder.  Although we were in fairly shallow water when the waves came you were swept completely off your feet aand it suddenly got very deep.  If you ended up in the wrong spot the whole thing crashed over you shoving you down which kind of hurt.  We eventually just went I walk on the beach.  It's one of the more touristy beaches on the far side there are mansions which belong to foriegners.  As we were walking some guy came up behind me and gave me a hairtie.  I was like I didn't drop this and he was like no its a gift it was really wierd..  Then we walked
for about a mile trying to find an ice cream shop mislead by long directions and a typical guanacaste under estimation of distances.  That night our Icelandic exchange student friend also stayed the night.  They talked a lot in Icelandic, which is a very interesting language to listen to.  In the morning we went to breakfast at the house of a friend of ingas mom.  The house was lovel.  I got to listen to them talk politics and my friends talk Icelandic so all in all not the most exciting morning.  Then it was a long trip back to cartago in car.  We stopped for lunch in puntarenas at a sea food resturaunt which was practically overflowing with people.  Everyone was heading for the beach as we were coming back.  Here in puntarenas it was more ticos rather than foreign tourists as these beaches are closer to the more densely populated central regions.  I tried shrimp on my spaghetti for the first time, it was interesting.  It was a great couple of days and I feel like I know more of Costa Rica now.  School starts again tomorrow...

Vacation part one.. Monteverde

This week I have had my much anticipated vacation.   Semana Santa has finally arrived and it has been great to get a break from school and well my life in general.  My host parents went to cancun Mexico for vacation so I spent most of the week with my friend Sigurlaug from Iceland.  I left for her house on Saturday because my host parents were leaving that day.  I took with me a huge backpack stuffed with all the clothes I would need and then I took the public bus.  I have never felt more like a gringa I looked as touristy as it gets with a huge orange backpack that they lent me.  I could hardly fit through the isle and the bus was pretty full, getting off I pretty much lunged off the bus.   Later one of my school friends told me he saw me with my bag on the bus... Great just shows you I was pretty easy to spot.  I walked to her house and stayed the night there, we walked around in cartago, then went back to her house and watched American movies in English, and ate watermelon it was awesome.  The next day after another movie and a lazy morning, we left to go pick up a cake from her grandmas house and brother from San Jose before the adventure began.  Her brother is thirteen and loves videa games, he was at an anime convention in a suburb in the far side of San Jose.  It felt like it took years to get there because the traffic was so backed up.  We headed off again after getting McDonald's for lunch.  I have actually found one non disgusting thing on the menu so I always get green salad.  A long day in the car awaited us, but I enjoyed the view of endless rolling mountains, with the windows down and some melodramatic ballad in the back ground.  The main roads in Costa Rica are pretty good, although a little slow due to curves and up and down, until you get to guanacaste there is no such thing as flat.   Eventually we reached our destination a town which looked more like several houses and a pulperia peeping out if jungle.  Her it was hot and sticky.  As we were driving by we saw the family we planned to stay with were at a baby shower so we joined them.  We were offered ice cold coke which was refreshing, and were offered sea food rice, and rice pooding.  Inga and I walked around and saw a big black monkey in a tree, as well as a mango tree.  We got to the house and dropped off our stuff before heading to the river.  The aunt and grandma showed us though way across a somewhat sketchy hanging cable bridge.  The whole thing swung gentle from side to side as you walked and the wood looked questionably old I held tight to the cable.  The river wasn't too deep as we are at the peak of the dry season, although we were told it is very dangerous in the rainy season able to take down trees, and splashing the bridge which now stood a good 15ft above it.  At this time of year though it hardly hit my waste, but the cold water felt nice.  The current was still strong enough though to make walking up river a struggle paired with the slimy rocks it was a challenge.  We walked up to some rapids and slid down them letting the current carry us over the rocks.  It was a lot of fun and worth the shorts I probably ruined with green stains.  That night we went out to a resturaunt and got to experience an annoying guanacaste and puntarenas "tradition".  There were men at the resturaunt drinking and they would just do this weird scream/whoop thing ever few minutes.  It's honestly the most annoying noise I have ever heard.  What shocked me was that nobody kicked them out of the resturaunt although it was extremely rude.  Apparently it's a tradition for men here to whoop when the are happy but was very annoying for everyone else at the resturaunt.  The next day the grandma made tortillas and gallo pinto for breakfast.  The tortillas were homemade a thick mix of cornmeal and water hand patted into a circle and fried on the skillet.  We left for monteverde, along winding steep gravel roads with an incredible view.  Puntarenas was much drier than cartago, with yellow hills from dry grass.  Monte verde however was much lusher.  We went to do canopy.  Canopy was 2 hours of various ziplines including What is supposedly the "longest zipline in Latin America".   This was superman style on your stomache about 200 ft up crossing a valley.  It was about 1500 meters and very fast.  The view was gorgeous although I struggled to enjoy it.n  I could only focus on hoping I would make it to the other side.  I enjoyed the canopy style ziplines better where you could sit up and hold on the the rope and the cable behind me.  Although it was probably just as dangerous it was comforting to be able to hang on to something.  The forest there was just like it had been in the numerous nature movies of my childhood and wish I had had time to enjoy it more.  Although it was awesome being able to see it from above monte verde is defiantly somewhere I would love to go back to.

Mercado municipal..

Today I went to the main market in Costa Rica with my host dad and sister.  I love going to the market, there is such an abundance of color and smells (not all of them good).   First we went to buy fruit.  When they buy fruit here they go all out.  Two HUGE bags practically overflowing, and so heavy I could hardly lift them.  There are all these tropical fruits, some that I have never heard or seen before I will never learn all the names.  Then we went to the market indoors.  In the US this market would be illegal.  It's a health hazard.  The meat is sitting out unpackaged on ice and to give it to you the venders use their fingers without gloves.  The stands of meat smell disgusting.  It has a low ceiling and is very crowded there are people walking around selling what I think are raffle tickets.  In the meat shops the sell long strands of sausages all linked together that must be like three feet long and when someone wants sausages they chop off a piece.  The same stands sell cheese and eggs.  The eggs are just sitting out and are in flats they aren't sold in cartons, if you buy 1kl the give it to you in a little plastic bag, or if you buy more they'll give you the whole flat.  The cheese is also in huge blocks and they will take a knife cut off a hunk of the type you want stick it in a plastic bag and give it to you.  There are also little bakeries and sodas ( or little resturaunts).  We went to a soda and had delicious sanfwiches for lunch.  Cheese with egg torte and lettuce and tomato with is grilled its delicious.  Also some sort of juice which is brownish in color and tastes like some unknown fruit.  This is great for me, before coming here i was a total germaphobe and now I am learning to just eat whatever.  I also tried a spoonful of som scary looking fish soup. It was cold and they poured ketchup and mayonese on top.  I thought it would be something i woulnt like but it wasn't even that bad, it tasted more like lime than anything.