A day in the life of a CISA student

Por la mañana: 

I've made it my morning routine to get up at 5:30 am (a very typical time to wake up here since the sun is SUPER bright and it really feels like 9am) Macha cooks breakfast for me and we both sit at the kitchen table and enjoy a cup of coffee.  Before my grandfather Tata died, he use to read this daily devotional booklet in spanish every day, and sometimes we would read it together.  Well I'll never forget that he and I read the devotional on the page dated "July 12''  It was the last thing he and I did together as on July 13th he passed away.  Well I brought that book with me and each morning I read a page out loud to Macha to practice my reading in Spanish.  I love to hear her say "Amen or gloria Dios" every time after I finish reading.  God has been using this time to truly speak to me.  Although I don't normally understand what the devotional says, I still read the scripture that comes with it.  I am writing the scripture in my journal in English and Spanish and trying to memorize some scripture in Spanish.  They have truly spoken to me.  On my first morning here, the scripture that I read brought me to tears...

Jeremiah 31:3-4 

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ''I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.  I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, Oh Virgin Israel.  Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.

A time of reflection and healing on the front porch

Bill followed me ALL the way to Costa Rica!

After my morning routine, I walk down the steep hill from Macha's house to the bus stop.  Today I had someone very special keep me company! . . .

The road leading up to my house/ Bus stop

The road leading to school

La vaca flaca, mi nuevo amiga!

She just kept posing for me!

What a natural! She made it easy ;)

Por la tárde...

After arriving to school, we are in class from 8-10 and then we take "un recreo" break.  Then back to class until 12pm.  My brother and I usually stay in school to do homework and study for another 3-4 hours. We have such a blast in class. We are always laughing about SOMETHING.  Especially the words we are learning that sound like bad words in English.  Today I learned  ''Esta molestandome"  which sounds like molest, but it means he/she is annoying me! lol   Then there is another word that is commonly used here that means cowardly... but in MY culture that same word in Spanish is MUY  MAL! Therefore, I refuse to type it! lol

This is our classroom.  Outside that window is an INCREDIBLE view of mountains! It can be distracting sometimes! Ps. I look cross-eyed in this picture for some reason lol

Por la noche...

So yesterday since my brother and I had to walk home in the rain, of course he decided to be extremely resourceful with "una bolsa plático''  and made a poncho out of a garbage bag LOL

Eduardo, attempting to put on his new poncho

Well, being a girl and sometimes self-conscious , I said to my brother "Eduardo, people are going to think we're crazy!"  he replied, "Noo, people wear ponchos here all the time,'' and I responded, ''yeah, but not made out of garbage bags!''  Needless to say, I was thankful for them since it was chilly out and the rain was kind of cold.  But just as I suspected as we were walking to the bus stop, these two school boys were passing us and one looked at us and then looked at his friend and said ''Que es estos?''  LOL

So today when I told Macha the story she proceeded to show me how to make a raincoat or rainhat out of a plastic bag LOL...

 

She is hilarious!

This is what I generally come home to :) Macha cooking. Here she is making "queque" cake from scratch!

 

Well Its Day 3 in Costa Rica,

 I’m now realizing I most likely wont be able to blog every day I will not have access to the internet daily.  The school’s internet has been in and out mostly and when it rains I can’t use the internet at my host home.  So I plan on writing down my experienes and thoughts in Microsoft word and just copy pasting it when I do have internet.

Anyway… ENOUGH about internet.

Yesterday I had a great day in school, although I have been experiencing a little bit of frustration because I was told I had to catch up  a week’s worth of work/ homework and workbook activities on my own (about 40 pages) so I can be on the same level as my brother. 

One HUGE lesson I’m learning here is that Costa Rica does NOT operate in the same way we are use to in the States… not only with time, but with what we might considered “organized’’  I had the opportunity to discuss this with another student who is from New Zealand and she agreed with me that she struggled with not thinking “hmm there’s definitely room for improvement here.”  We both agreed that we just need to adjust OUR way of thinking since this is THEIR country and not assume the way we think it should be done is the correct way.  This is their culture, and WE need to adjust ourselves.  Its definitely been a humbling experience for SURE.

Adjusting to a new atmosphere and climate:

School was difficult for me yesterday because I am a little OCD about things… I HATE being behind or knowing that I have work to catch up on.  As a child (ask my mom) I NEVER missed school.  I was the annoying student who got straight A’s and the award for perfect attendance.  So when I arrive and I was told I needed to catch up, of course I was frustrated because it was a last minute decision of my brother’s to come a week early and school technically was supposed to start on October 8th. But on top of that I think my body was still adjusting to the altitude here, because I was extremely dizzy all day.  (Estoy maleada)

Trip to the city:

After school I went with Josué (my host mother’s grandson who works the grounds on CISA) to Turrialba. A 40 minute bus drive through multiple towns, including a town named "Canada" :)  I would say that if I never have to go back there again, I would be okay with that! Lol  It reminded me of a run-down version of Queens, New York.  BUT again it was a very interesting experience.  My favorite part of Turrialba was buying a “Pop’’ kind of like a milkshake.  Their famous pop here is called a “Churchill” after Winston Churchhill. The story goes that a man would drink these yummy treats all the time and he looked like Winston Churchill, so they named the shake after him.  It tasted like a bubblegum milkshake. Anyway, if I were to go back on my own I would not be able to find my way around the busy city, with cars EVERYwhere driving extremely fast as I really don’t think there is much of a speed limit.  I did buy a local phone that cost me 20,000 colones, which is about $40.  That way if I get lost I at least have a way of reaching my host family or my brother ;).  On our way back from the city we missed 3 buses.  1. Because Josué tiene la culpa for making us late and he forgot to buy new guitar strings! 2. The second bus we made it too late to the stop 3.  One bus was TOO full (esta muy lleno)  So we finally took another bus to La Suiza, which is city next to La Selva and walked home about a mile or two in the rain. But I MUST say, coming home to a delicious dinner was so nice!  

My first BUG experience: 

Well, just as I was beginning to feel extremely comfortable in my room after studying for an few hours I was getting ready for bed… and then I HEARD them… two large beatles flying around my ceiling light!  I almost freaked out as I knew I would have to face this battle on my own!  No joke, this is one of my biggest fears…  vichos (bugs) So I said a prayer and after two tries I successfully killed… ONE bug.  The other one was no where to be seen, so I figured it flew out of my room… UNTIL I turned my light off and I could hear it!   I decided to turn my light BACK on and go on the hunt.  After a failure of finding this terrible creature of God, I prayed again…. “Lord, you placed these bugs in here for a reason… maybe its to get me to trust you more… that you are the God of this universe and MUCH bigger than this bug.  In fact, I AM much bigger than this bug… what harm can it do to me… besides crawl on me.” After saying that prayer I decided to cohabitate with this bug, and just go to sleep.  The end to my dramatic bug tale!

The infamous flying beetle 

SO that’s about that!  My brother and I just finished most of my catch up work AND our homework and I’m headed home in the pouring rain… annnnd I forgot to pack my raincoat AND umbrella!  (A lot of lessons learned I guess lol)  For now its farewell… pictures soon to come! 

Well Its Day 3 in Costa Rica,

 I’m now realizing I most likely wont be able to blog every day I will not have access to the internet daily.  The school’s internet has been in and out mostly and when it rains I can’t use the internet at my host home.  So I plan on writing down my experienes and thoughts in Microsoft word and just copy pasting it when I do have internet.

Anyway… ENOUGH about internet.

Yesterday I had a great day in school, although I have been experiencing a little bit of frustration because I was told I had to catch up  a week’s worth of work/ homework and workbook activities on my own (about 40 pages) so I can be on the same level as my brother. 

One HUGE lesson I’m learning here is that Costa Rica does NOT operate in the same way we are use to in the States… not only with time, but with what we might considered “organized’’  I had the opportunity to discuss this with another student who is from New Zealand and she agreed with me that she struggled with not thinking “hmm there’s definitely room for improvement here.”  We both agreed that we just need to adjust OUR way of thinking since this is THEIR country and not assume the way we think it should be done is the correct way.  This is their culture, and WE need to adjust ourselves.  Its definitely been a humbling experience for SURE.

Adjusting to a new atmosphere and climate:

School was difficult for me yesterday because I am a little OCD about things… I HATE being behind or knowing that I have work to catch up on.  As a child (ask my mom) I NEVER missed school.  I was the annoying student who got straight A’s and the award for perfect attendance.  So when I arrive and I was told I needed to catch up, of course I was frustrated because it was a last minute decision of my brother’s to come a week early and school technically was supposed to start on October 8th. But on top of that I think my body was still adjusting to the altitude here, because I was extremely dizzy all day.

Trip to the city:

After school I went with Josué (my host mother’s grandson who works the grounds on CISA) to Turrialba. A 40 minute bus drive through multiple towns, including a town named "Canada" :)  I would say that if I never have to go back there again, I would be okay with that! Lol  It reminded me of a run-down version of Queens, New York.  BUT again it was a very interesting experience.  My favorite part of Turrialba was buying a “Pop’’ kind of like a milkshake.  Their famous pop here is called a “Churchill” after Winston Churchhill. The story goes that a man would drink these yummy treats all the time and he looked like Winston Churchill, so they named the shake after him.  It tasted like a bubblegum milkshake. Anyway, if I were to go back on my own I would not be able to find my way around the busy city, with cars EVERYwhere driving extremely fast as I really don’t think there is much of a speed limit.  I did buy a local phone that cost me 20,000 colones, which is about $40.  That way if I get lost I at least have a way of reaching my host family or my brother ;).  On our way back from the city we missed 3 buses.  1. Because Josué tiene la culpa for making us late and he forgot to buy new guitar strings! 2. The second bus we made it too late to the stop 3.  One bus was TOO full (esta muy lleno)  So we finally took another bus to La Suiza, which is city next to La Selva and walked home about a mile or two in the rain. But I MUST say, coming home to a delicious dinner was so nice!  

My first BUG experience: /

Well, just as I was beginning to feel extremely comfortable in my room after studying for an few hours I was getting ready for bed… and then I HEARD them… two large beatles flying around my ceiling light!  I almost freaked out as I knew I would have to face this battle on my own!  No joke, this is one of my biggest fears…  vichos (bugs) So I said a prayer and after two tries I successfully killed… ONE bug.  The other one was no where to be seen, so I figured it flew out of my room… UNTIL I turned my light off and I could hear it!   I decided to turn my light BACK on and go on the hunt.  After a failure of finding this terrible creature of God, I prayed again…. “Lord, you placed these bugs in here for a reason… maybe its to get me to trust you more… that you are the God of this universe and MUCH bigger than this bug.  In fact, I AM much bigger than this bug… what harm can it do to me… besides crawl on me.” After saying that prayer I decided to cohabitate with this bug, and just go to sleep.  The end to my dramatic bug tale!

SO that’s about that!  My brother and I just finished most of my catch up work AND our homework and I’m headed home in the pouring rain… annnnd I forgot to pack my raincoat AND umbrella!  (A lot of lessons learned I guess lol)  For now its farewell… pictures soon to come! 

Mi secundo dia

Mi Secundo Dia

My second Day

I want to write in English for this post because I have so much to say. It has been such an amazing experience so far.  I woke up around 5am when the sun is shining brightly, but I tried to go back to sleep and ended up waking up around 7:30am.  Here we go to bed early and rise early.  It gets dark around 5pm anyway so it feels much later than it really is.  Anyway, after unpacking a bit, showing and getting situated, my host mother Macha, offered me "desayuno" (breakfast) which consisted of...  YES  you guessed it..  RICE AND BEANS! I thought they were joking when people said you eat rice and beans for breakfast lunch and dinner.  IT's TRUE!  I had rice and beans and scrambled eggs on toasted bread with un plato de piña y papaya (a plate of pineapple and sweet papaya)  I was STILL full from dinner, but I ate it anyway as it is rude to decline food... which I'm use to anyway in my own household so no culture shock here! lol  After eating breakfast I got a phone-call from my brother who suggested that I meet him in the town of Tuis, which is a short 5 minutes bus-ride away.  From what he told me the bus would arrive around my house in 7 minutes from that call... so I RUSHED to the bus stop with my 250 colones for the bus fare and hopped on. There are no street lights or street signs here, I didn't even see them in the city either!  Basically you have to push your way through traffic and at a "four way stop" where there is no stop sign... you have to try to cut across traffic, its kinda crazy.  Anyway because of the fact that there are no street signs, we go by landmarks for directions here... so my brother tried his best to describe what I will see before I should get off the bus.  SO after I cross the bridge I got off the bus into the busy little town of Tuis.  The minute I got off it hit me that I have NO way of communicating with my brother had I gotten off at the wrong stop! So needless to say I started to panic a little... then I started to panic a LOT when I looked around and only saw groups of people staring at me and NO Eduardo (my brother)  I was already SO mad at him for not being there like he said he would!  But at the same time I could have gotten off at the wrong stop... sooo i just started walking.  Some groups of men began whistling at me but I kept my head down.. and was seriously nervous! I saw a couple walking and decided to walk with them and pretend I was with them.  When I realized I didn't think I could navigate my way to my brother's house I as best as I could, asked the woman if I could use her phone in the most broken Spanish ever! After 5 minutes of trying to explain myself she finally pulled her phone out and I called my brother.... twice... no answer!  Thank the LORD when I asked her if she knew "Samia" my brother's host mother... she said "Oh Si! La casa de ella es en este calle... camine en este calle... arriba, arriba arriba, es una plena y su casa" She basically gave me directions to walk up , and up and up a hill and I should find her house!!  So I started walking... about 2 minutes into my walk I see my confused brother walking down a dirt road.  "What are you doing here?? How did you find me? I figured you would be arriving much later!"  I about kicked him and he was cracking up when I told him my story of finding him! He felt so bad, BUT it was a learning experience and I will NEVER forget how to get to my brother's house! lol

We explored the town a bit which is literally a block consisting of 2 bars, a small grocery store, a church, a school, and some homes.  My brother took me on a walk towards the school which was about a mile up some winding rocky roads.  We also went down to the river today which was beautiful.  After spending most of the day with my brother and Deanna and Jaden I came back home.  It already feels like home.  My host family and I spent a lot of time talking (with the help of my handy dandy google translate app!) 

I was showing them pictures via facebook of my family and friends, of Puerto Rico (we talked about a lot of similar things in our cultures such as music and food, but I noticed they have different names for the foods we eat that are the same)  I even showed them a picture of  ''mi novio en los Estados Unidos'' (my boyfriend in the United States)  Yo dijo, ''mi novia es un modelo y un fotógrafo!''  When I showed them a picture Mecha said "ayyy, el es MUY GUAPO!'' lol  I thought that was cute!

My FAVORITE part of the night though was when I got to show them video of my grandfather, Tata, who passed away last year.  Macha said she use to call her grandpa "Tata'' as well.  Her grandchildren call her ''ata"    I played the video of Tata playing his guitar and singing, and they sang along with the videos as they knew most of the songs he was singing!  It find it amazing that two people could live in two different countries and know the same traditional songs!  The best part was when we were all singing along with the video of Tata playing "Besa Me Mucho'' which was his favorite song. 

I finally told my host family, I really miss my grandparents who have passed, "Pero es por eso que estoy muy contento de estar aquí, porque ustedes me recuerdan a mi familia!" (but that is why I am very happy to be here, because you remind me of my family) They smiled big!   Anyway, I finished the night off with a visit from my neighbor, some time in the hammock and a bowl of freshly made "arroz con leche" (rice-pudding) :D YUM!  

Tomorrow is my first day of school!  Mecho said that I will learn quickly porque tu sabes mucho! (You know a lot) I am finding that I am understanding a LOT more Spanish than I thought I would... its speaking that I'm struggling with!  That is going to end... hopefully SOON!  Well.. its farewell for now!  I miss everyone at home! :( But I am so blessed to be here.  Buenas Noches... More pictures to come!!

Front porch to my house

A typical breakfast and my first breakfast in Costa Rica :)

A house in my favorite color (on the way to school)

That little town behind my brother... thats Tuis

This is a best as any sidewalk gets (Bridge crossing)

A sugar cane field near my brothers house

A place where I enjoy resting in my host family's patio

My first bus ride experience

Deanna, Eduardo, Jaden and I embarking on our walk to Tuis

A neighbor of my brother's cute house

This is our school AND church and youth group building

My brother on the side of the school

Happy family!

a typical house in this area.

most people ride motocycles, horses or bicycles here. A LOT of mountain bikers  (Eric you would LOVE it)

The typical rocky road that we walk on to get from A to B

 

This is my host family's kitchen

This is where we usually sit and talk (The kitchen table) That's Mecho and Mecha and Fransine (a student getting her foot bandaged from a sprain... she is from New Zealand and came here no knowing a LICK of Spanish... she has been here for 3 months and is already conversational) 

DAY 1

Mi primero día en Costa Rica

My first day in Costa Rica

  WOW! Que una experiencia!  Voy a tratar de hablar en español, con la ayuda de me diccionario y mi neuvo mamá, se llama, Mecha. :) Mi primer día fue sin duda un poco abrumador.  El entorno  y la cultura aquí is muy linda pero muy diferént tambien.  Que tomará un poco acostrumbrarse. Que tomó cerca de 10 horas en total en viaje en el tiempo para llegar aquí por mucho tráfico.  Hay muchas montañas aqui, y son MUY linda! Voy a adjuntar algunas fotos porque las imágenes hblan más que las palabras a veces! (Y mi Español no es muy bueno, and yo quiero a tratar a hablar en Español solamente.)

Wow! What an experience!  I am going to try to talk in Spanish with the help of my dictionary and my new mother, whose name is Mecha.  My first day without a doubt was a little overwhelming.  The environment and the culture here is very beautiful but also very different. I will take some getting use to! The trip here took me about 10 hours in total due to a lot of traffic.  There are many mountains here and it is SO beautiful!  I am going to attach some photos because pictures speak louder than words sometimes! (And my Spanish isn't too great yet, and I want to try to only speak in Spanish.)

On my way to Tuis, I was offered an Empanada  con jamón y queso 

These are some of the country side views I saw while driving from San Jose to Tuirrialba

We stopped at a restaurant and this was next to it

My first purchased meal in Costa Rica

My new friends in the car picked some of these berries off the side of the road. Yes i ate them :)

This is our drive the the busy city of Turrialba

This is the driveway leading up to the house where I live

::self explanatory::

This is the room where I will be living

One of the views during the drive on the way here.

Un cabello

Mi nuevo casa (My new house)

This is the sitting room, although we mainly sit at the kitchen table and talk :)