Rainy days

I got caught for the first time today in a thunderstorm. This was by no means the first thunderstorm we´ve had. It rains almost every day, usually late in the afternoon. So far, however, I´ve been lucky and it has begun raining when I´m at home or while I´ve had an umbrella with me. Not today.
I went to my Latin American dance class (which, by the way, is going to be sooo fun) and after we finished learning the basics of Meringue at about 4:00 a few of us planned to go swimming in the ocean (which is the temperature of warm bath water - amazing!) so I went home to change but when I came back to meet them they weren´t there. I rode my bike along the beach to look for them but didn´t see them. I watched some surfers, and then it started to rain. I sought shelter under a little stand with an aluminum roof where normally there would be souvenirs for sale in a little plaza near the beach. It was empty because of the weather and because not many people were out. I locked up my bike and climbed up on the empty wood "counter" of sorts and watched the storm unfold. Lightning flashed and illuminated the sky and reflected off the water. I saw one thunderbolt strike an island off shore, so amazing.

At first I expected to wait out the storm, but it soon became obvious that it was not going to clear up any time soon. The rain evolved from a pitter patter into a thunderous torrent. It was fantastic to stay dry while I watched everything around me get soaked, including many people. The locals here are pretty used to it and there were still some people walking around in the storm. Some had umbrellas, others didn´t. I just sat there and watched nature be powerful, and it was humbling. The surfers must have liked it because the waves got bigger.

As I sat there, I had time to simply sit and think. I had nowhere to be, nothing important to do. I just watched the waves crash onto the beach under a dark and temperamental sky while I let my mind wander. At that moment the power and glory of God was as obvious as the rain. I sang a couple praise songs as they came to my head and it was cool because my voice reverberated off the aluminum roof and I had surround sound with my own voice. As I sat there, I thought about my place here in Costa Rica and what I´m doing here. Of course I´m here to study Spanish, but I´m sure there´s more to it. There´s a reason behind everything. A reason I was placed with the family I live with. A reason I am here that is beyond the obvious. I want to be an encouragement to them, but I´m not sure how. As I get to know them more it will become more obvious I hope. I´ll pray for opportunities.

I sat/lay there for about an hour. I thought about taking a nap there on the thick piece of particle board in the middle of the storm and actually tried, but I couldn´t fall asleep although I got pretty close. Finally, at about 5:30 I decided to brave the rain and head home, about a 3 minute bike ride. I felt quite collected and at peace even though the world around me, engulfed in thunder, lightning and rain didn´t appear so. I was fairly wet when I got home, but not too bad. When I arrived I was greeted by the darling Anahi, my host mom´s granddaughter, who was cute for about 20 minutes, then decided to throw a tantrum for some unknown reason. She´s really good at doing that, and when she does, all I want to do is go in my room and shut the door until she stops. It´s so irritating, especially because there´s no good reason behind her crying except her tendency to be very selfish. Ah, the terrible twos.

So my peace was interrupted, but it returned later when Norma, my host mom, made hot chocolate. Such a fantastic thing to have when it´s raining. Overall, a good day. I´m slowly getting used to the rain, though I look forward to the days when I can depend on good weather.

A little country bio for ya

I was writing to a friend about Costa Rican economics and it´s level of development, and as I wrote I figured it might be good to share with all of you as well.

Costa Rica, as small as it is, is actually the most developed and advanced of the Central American countries. The roads are paved and well kept (not all, but the most heavily used ones) though not without potholes. 40 years ago it abolished its standing military and put all the funds into education and healthcare, so those systems are very good. CR is the only country in Latin America in which public education is compulsory and the literacy rate is 97%. It is also common to continue and go to college. (I know I sound like a tour book right now and its because I was just reading about this a couple days ago) The Costa Ricans are very proud of their high economic and developmental standing. As the book I read described, they prefer to describe themselves by what they are not. They are not poor, uneducated, illiterate, complicated or wasteful.

It is not without its poor areas, but on the whole it is far more developed than the other Central American countries and continues to grow and improve. I´m just happy to know that if I get sick or break something I won´t end up in a shady, rundown hospital. In contrast with the only other experience I have had in Latin American countries, the parts of Mexico I went to for mission trips (mostly in Ensenada) were extremely poor, but that was a mission trip, so of course we went where help was most needed. There are parts of Mexico that are very developed, but the big difference here in Costa Rica is the lack of militancy and political conflict. They do quite well without a military. They are called the Switzerland of Latin America. On the whole, people are very passive and non confrontational in both political action as well as everyday life. A tico (costa rican local) will go out of their way not to argue, even if it means agreeing with something when they really don´t. If you ask for directions, they may not actually know how to get there, but they will still tell you something because they would rather give an answer and try to be helpful than not give any information at all. Overall, they aim to please. It´s really nice but I am afraid that I will not know if I have offended someone because it is likely that they will not tell me so. So far I think I'm in the clear, I think. ; )

Bailar es vivir

To dance is to live. It´s not a Costa Rican saying, but I think I could live by it. My tico brother (ticos and ticas are the people of Costa Rica) José invited me out Friday night to have a few drinks and go dancing with his friends. I met Anita, Anika (José´s girlfriend), Stewart (who is half American and knows English) and another girl whose name escapes me. We had a good time sitting outside a bar on the sidewalk at a plastic table with plastic chairs talking about who knows what. More than one conversation went on at once and I missed a lot of the jokes and remarks they threw around. They get so much amusement out of teaching me slang or "la palabra del calle," more often referred to as "pachuco." Some new additions to my vocabulary:

un playo = a gay (generic term, non-derogatory)
mimando = absent-minded
borracho(a) = drunk
picado(a) = buzzed
me cago en ______ = I crap on _______ (Often used jokingly by this group)

The thing is, when they teach me something new that seems like an insult, it´s hard to figure out whether it´s a curse word or just slang. I don´t want to lose any of the few friends I´ve made, though they are very forgiving since they know I´m not fluent.

After an hour and a half and a couple drinks (more for some of them, but not for me) we walked down the street to Piel Caliente (Hot Skin) which is one of the two best dance clubs in town, right across the street from the beach. The name is quite fitting considering there is no AC, only fans and open windows. With the humidity here, the sweating is pretty instantaneous. Most of the music they play is Reggaetón, a cross between Latin American Hip Hop/Rap and Reggae. The beat is infectious. I danced the night away despite my lack of energy. The scene was very similar to American dance clubs except people were smoking right on the dance floor. Not everyone, but several. Usually they stood close to the open windows. The drinks here are incredibly inexpensive. At the club two rum and cokes (a VERY popular drink here, which is quite convenient for me considering my affinity for the mix) cost only $2, but you have to buy two at once. I´m certainly not a fan of holding on to that much alcohol at a time and trying to dance considering I drink it very slowly. The men here stare but they aren´t terribly forward on the dance floor which is comforting. I was also among a circle of friends which is much better than being alone.

By the end of the night I was completely exhausted, quite sweaty, but (don´t worry Mom) quite sober. Which is less than I can say for a few members of our group. Praise God for the wisdom to know how to have a good time in moderation.

Today was our orientation. We got a tour of the town then they talked at us for hours. Useful information, but long and somewhat boring. My rear was aching even though the seats were padded. Oh and they are making me take 12 units, which stinks because that means I can´t audit my tropical ecology class and I had to pick up a Spanish Conversation class even though I am obviously in Spanish conversation every day. I may still change things up, I have two weeks to add and drop classes. Whatever happens, I´ll still learn a ton so I´m happy with that.

Oh and today marked a few firsts for me: first Costa Rican sunburn (not too bad, but obvious) and first cat call (from a car driving by as I walked down the street). I just laughed.

Until next time,

Pura Vida!

My 42-hour day

The following are entries in my journal as I made my trip to Costa Rica

8/23 - 11:25 p.m. - Sacramento airport

I stared at the escalator, rising infinitely skyward, as if it were something out of the twilight zone, eerie and mysterious. I hardly hesitated, knowing that what lay ahead was a gateway to something I´ve desired for more than a year and a half. Still, as I gave my dad a final strong squeeze, my mind did a double-take. Was this really happening? I´m not sure what was going through my dad´s head as we both walked away, but it may have been a similar disbelief as we alternated turning our backs, then loking over our shoulders at just the right time as if we were in a predictable Hollywood movie.
Then I was gone, out of sight with the ever-so-fun security check ahead of me, which I passed through smoothly. Now I sit at the gate, quietly contemplating, feeling much less burdened after leaving my bags in the hands of the somewhat-trusted airport employees. The exchange that was preceeded by a scene that included myself and my dad zipping open my luggage to reassemble the contents until the heavier of the two bags weighed in at 50.0 pounds. I´m curious to compare myself with the rest of the students to determine if I appear overpacked. And now, with about 10 minutes to board, I wait.

8/24 - 6:37 a.m. Houston time, 4:37 my time - Houston airport

A smooth flight, although sleepless. Mostly normal except for the very untalkative woman next to me who clipped her boyfriends´hangnails in his sleep. I met a fellow USAC student at the terminal for the flight to San Jose, Costa Rica, but she´s studying in Heredia. Need to find the money exchange and get some Colones, the curency of Costa Rica.

8/24 - 7:30 a.m. Houston time, 5:30 my time - Houston airport

I just exchanged 12 U.S. bills totalling $200 and recieved 68 Costa Rican bills totaling 88,000 Colones. The stack is about a half inch thick! It barely fits in my wallet and my wallet surely will not fold in half like it should. Luckily, unfolded it fits perfectly in my money stash thing I have for traveling. The exchange rate is about 500 Colones to the dollar. This will be interesting. I met two more guys from USAC who are studying in Puntarenas, JJ and Tommy. Kinda immature, all they talk about is partying, but they seem pretty cool.

8/24 - 12:00 p.m. Costa Rican time, 11:00 my time - San Jose airport, Costa Rica

I´m now waiting on the curb with a hord of other USAC students to be picked up by the bus that will take us to Puntarenas. The flight was great. I sat next to another student studying in Puntarenas, Matt. We share a lot of the same ambitions for our time here in Costa Rica. He also worked as a river raft guide which is awesome. Hopefully we can raft some of the rivers here. We saw many of them from the plane. They looked big but the crazy part is that they are brown. I guess I could deal if the rapids were sweet and the scenery gorgeous, which I´m sure they are. The view from the plane was stunning. The tops of the forest was thick and incredibly green. The whole country appears green and the surf from the plane looks tempting. We also saw one of the volcanoes as we approached the airport, but couldn´t figure out which one it is. I was in awe.

After landing we made our way to customs. The line wasn´t too long and I met Nate, another student, while we waited. I passed through without any problem. My luggage came out of the baggage claim in great condition as well. As I made my way to the door of the airport which was crowded with taxi drivers asking if we needed a fare, I prepared myself for the wall of humidity to hit me. Then it didn´t. It´s a little humid, but actually quite nice in San Jose. I may want more T-shirts than I packed. We´ll see. I think Puntarenas is supposed to be more humid. I´ve met a whole bunch of students, and their names already escape me in part. I met Danin, who has so much curly hair that he holds it back with what looks like an oversized fabric hairband, and his friends who are strong Spanish speakers but have a very American accent when they speak it. They lived in Spain last year through USAC. They seem like really cool guys.

That´s the last entry in my journal, but my day kept going. Two full-sized, very nice American-type travel buses picked us up from the airport and we rode to Puntarenas. I was lucky to get on the bus that arrived second. The first was full but ours was less than half full and I had two seats to strech out on. The road is a very popular route of transportation. It was only two lanes but very smooth and well-kept without much traffic. The scenery was beautiful and green, intermittent with poverty-level houses. I almost dozed off a few times, but not quite. I borrowed a Costa Rican tour book from one of the students and read it for most of the trip. It was fascinating.

We arrived in San Jose 2 hours later though I was so preoccupied I didn´t look at my watch. It was probably around 3:30 or so. As I got off the bus it was a whole lot more humid than in San Jose. I can rest assured that I packed appropriately. We got off the bus and just stood around, not knowing what to do. Slowly but surely, families began to arrive and claim their students. We all had name tags and they would walk through the group of us standing on the sidewalk with our bags and stare at our names and eventually pick one of us to take home. I felt a little like a puppy at the pound, expectantly awaiting new owners. Of course we are already preassigned, so it wan´t like they were just picking us because they liked us.

"Save the best for last" comes to mind when I describe my family. Out of about 65 students, I was one of 3 remaining when my host mom, Norma, came to pick me up with her adorable 2-year old granddaughter Anahi. I haven´t taken many photos, but I will post some soon. After cramming my bags into the very small trunk of the car at about 4:30, Norma drove me to a school where her 20 year old son José works so I could meet him. We hit it off right away (not like you may be thinking, though he is pretty cute, lol. Don´t worry, he´s very taken by his girlfriend of 3 years who I met later and think I will be great friends with). He surfs and he and his friends can teach me. Score! He was very surprised by my ability to speak Spanish.

Ok well this entry is getting incredibly long, so I´ll wrap it up. We went to the house, which is quite nice. I have my own room which is spacious with a lot of storage space, quite a relief for me. They have a new computer with internet, a very nice surprise. I spent quite a bit of time playing with Anahi who I think has fallen in love with me. I didn´t get a chance for the nap I really wanted. We ate dinner when José came home (The food here isn´t usually spicy, another surprise) and I unpacked.
Later we went out for a few drinks and dancing which was an experience worthy of another blog entry later. When all was said and done, José and I came home at about 3:30 and passed out cold at about 4 a.m., 3 a.m. my time. 42 hours with very little sleep. QUÉ DÍA!

Standing on the edge

Here I am, T-minus 2 weeks and counting. All that I held as far and distant is becoming immediate and real. I've waited a year and a half to be this close to leaving, and here I am. I have one week of work remaining, and I'm trying to get as much face time with close friends as I can, but I'll be on a plane before I know it. At least that's how I feel.

People tell me all the time that I will have so much fun and my life will be so much richer for this experience, and I don't doubt them one bit, but I still feel like I'm going in blindfolded, unsure of what to expect. I'm equipped with a strong understanding of the language which is the best tool I've got going for me, so at least I'll be able to talk myself out of any awkward situations I find myself in. At least I hope so.

I do not yet know who I will be living with and I know just one other person of the 70-plus people studying in Puntarenas, Costa Rica through this program (USAC-University Studies Abroad Consortium). But hey, that's a ton of people to meet and get to know!

Am I excited? Absolutely! Nervous? A bit. The thought of leaving all that I know and hold familiar for a distant place where I stand out like a sore thumb stirs a few butterflies in my stomach. Am I scared? Not a bit. The unknown is thrilling. This will be challenging, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

All that stands in my way are a few documents to be taken care of, another week of work obligations, and the task of packing (and not over packing - that's the challenge!!) and then I'm off!

I can't wait to see what God has for me and to make new discoveries. I may undergo culture shock, but that's where you, whoever is reading this, comes in. I'd love your comments and encouragement. And I hope for this blog to be a way I can keep in touch with everyone from home who would like to hear about my experiences and what I am learning. Just click on comment below and leave me your thoughts. I'm so happy for your interest and your prayers are always encouraged.

Dios le bendiga!