According to Kate

Last Post

2007-09-21T22:51:00.001-06:00

Well, I may as well get this over with. This is my last post. Due to personal reasons, most importantly a situation at home, I am no longer in Costa Rica. Since I have no idea who is reading this, I am not going to elaborate any further. I think it is the right decision for me though.

at my site

2007-09-17T12:43:00.000-06:00

Hey hey. So, first of all, I am an official Peace Corps volunteer. We swore in at the Ambassador's house (which, by the way, is quite impressive) on Friday. Basically, we all got fancied up, listened to a few speeches, and swore to defend the US Constitution, so help us God. We got to invite our host families, and my host parents came. Oh yeah, the weekend before we had a family party for all our host families, which turned out really well. We were responsible for planning the whole shabang, from finding a room to taking care of the food, and everything in between. It was just for the CYF families, but still, that added up to about 100 people. My job was to be in charge of the money, which by the way, was about $400. So basically, this party ran at $4 a head to cover decorations, a room, food, entertainment, and even a homemade pinata. We ordered a bunch of pizza and then made some other stuff to go with it, like salad. Wow, I never want to make a 100-person salad again—it took about 4 people to chop up all the veggies, and my hands were still sore afterward! Oh also, the day before, I helped make the cakes. We made four sheet cakes, and each one was a different shape (one being a heart). All in all, I would say it was a success.

Anyway, back to swearing in... so, after that I had to go back to the office and reconcile all our receipts from the family party, then I went to a grocery store to get the stuff I needed to make dinner that night. I wanted to say thank you to my host family, so I made them spaghetti and meatballs with homemade sauce. It turned out pretty good, I think. Mainor and Maryuri and their three kids came, along with Esterlyn and Karen. They all said they liked it, although tico spaghetti usually involves a much sweeter sauce, sometimes tuna, and always rice and beans mixed in.

So, Saturday I said goodbye to my host family and took the rest of my belongings to San Jose. The VAC dinner (basically a dinner for all the volunteers in CR) was that night, so everyone comes into the capital and stays at the same hotel, goes to the dinner, then goes back to the hotel, then goes out in SJ. It was cool to meet some of the other PCVs and to hang out with everyone from training one more time before going to our sites. I got to my site around 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday and found that my host dad had already called my boss and my training host family to find out where I was... (of course, neither party would have had the answer to that question).

Anyway, I started unpacking my stuff (fun fun), and then in the evening, I went with my host family to a birthday party up the road. Then we just hung out and watched a movie. I really don't know what I am going to do this week. Some people say that the first week in your site is the longest week of your life.

site visit

2007-09-10T15:53:00.000-06:00

I suppose I should put an update in here. I will just state the facts (not that I have been lying in the past or anything, but I just mean it will be brief).

I went to my site. I met the family. There is a mom and dad, a great-grandma, a 16 year old girl (Cherry), an 8 year old girl (Charon), and a 4 year old boy (Abraham). They also have a puppy that likes to bite, and his name is Benji. My site is in the country, up in the mountains. It is really beautiful, with lots of tropical plants and such, and it has a dirt road. About 6 km away is the bigger town which has about 10 000 people and all the basics (post office, bank, etc). I can work in my site and in the bigger town, since my site has nothing but a pulperia in terms of non-residential stuff. (A pulperia is basically a gas station minus the gas pumps).

Some of the animals I saw: a snake, a toad, roosters, cows, horses, a goat, and obviously dogs. All animals were alive except the snake, thank God.

Some of the things I did: played an entire game of Monopoly, looked at a whole box of the family's pictures, ate hot dogs for 4 meals straight (I have no intentions of eating another hot dog again...ever), watched “in Pursuit of Happyness”, walked through my entire town (the far part is know as “Infiernillo” aka “Little Hell”, due to the cholos and guaro...cholo means unintelligent country person prone to fighting, and guaro is hard alcohol). Anyhow, I also went to the PANI office and the high school in the big town, went to the church, and went to a local Tae Kwon Do class with my host sisters.

Oh, I also negotiated the “terms”, if you will, of my living arrangement. This was one of the objectives for our site visit. That was fun. And by fun, I obviously mean awkward. Let's just say my host dad called the house from the bigger city while he was running errands and asked how much I'll be paying and when. Fortunately, I had already tactfully informed my host-mom that I wanted to take care of my own food, but still. Oh yeah, I might get back on the 16th and find out that half of my room there has been turned into a bazar (basically a dollar store). They're thinking about it.

Schedule

2007-08-29T09:39:00.000-06:00

Hey hey, I don´t have much to say, but I wanted to let you all know that in a few days, I´ll be on my site visit!!! Tomorrow is ¨counterpart day¨, which is when we all go to this hotel and stay for 2 days and meet our future counterparts. It is just a bunch of get-to-know-you stuff, apparently. Then, we will go with our counterparts back to our sites and stay there till Wednesday! We´ll be bringing half our luggage with us too, so we don´t have to haul it all there at once. When we get back, we´ll only be in training for one and a half weeks and then we move for good. Crazy!

Anyway, that´s pretty much all. I am at a training session today, but we had a break, so I came to use the internet. I thought I was going to be really late this morning because I accidentally hopped on the wrong bus, but fortunately, I was able to catch a different bus later on to get back to the training building, and I ended up being early! Sorry, that is not an exciting story, but it´s all I got. And Adam, despite your previous suggestions, no I will not fabricate stories for your entertainment. ¡Chao!

Still not a fan of making titles

2007-08-27T15:41:00.001-06:00

Well, I know where my site is now!!! We had our site assignment day on Friday, which was actually a lot of fun. The Peace Corps went all out and took us to a country club outside of San Jose. We had breakfast there, and everyone was sooo excited to finally find out where we're going! I should mention that while I was waiting for the bus to SJ with Glenn (another trainee up the road from me), I was telling him how I had an Enrique Iglesias song in my head that I heard the other day, but he didn't know what song I was talking about. When we were riding the bus, it came on the radio, which I took as a good omen. Then when we got on the buses to get to the country club place, the same song was playing AGAIN! Definitely a good omen (or maybe just a popular song, but I'm going to ignore that).

Anyway, after breakfast, they put up a huge map of CR and started handing out our packets of information about our sites. For fun, they blindfolded the first few people, put a pin with their name on it on the map, and had them find the pin based on “hot/cold” from everyone else. I was not blindfolded, but I did get my folder right in the beginning. I couldn't wait to open it and read everything! There were maps inside, along with a profile of the community, its strengths and challenges, potential projects, local resources, and information on my future host family. I can't say exactly where it is, but I suppose I can say a few things: First of all, I think it is the PERFECT site for me!!!! I am so happy about it! I am about 45 minutes to an hour from San Jose, in the mountains, and apparently it is beautiful there (hello, it's Costa Rica). My town has 350 people in it! That is less than my graduating class in high school! So in other words, it is rural. However, it is a 20 minute bus ride from a larger city that has everything (post office, internet, grocery store, buses to SJ and other places, etc.). Plus, my PANI office (my counterpart agency that is like the Child Protection Agency) and the high school are in this town, as well as an albergue (orphanage), so I'll be doing a lot of work there as well as in my community. Also, my counterpart's name is.... Enrique! (Like Enrique Iglesias, so the song really was a good omen, haha).

I think there was only one other rural site assignment in my program, but I couldn't be happier. I think I have the best of both worlds (granted I haven't been there yet), and I like that I am close to SJ in case I need to go to the office to get resources or whatnot. Plus, I am glad I am close to my training community so I can come back and visit my host family. All in all, to say that I have no complaints is an understatement.

After that, I swam in the pool, as did most people, but some people also played basketball or ping pong or mini golf etc. The place was really fancy-- thank you, taxpayers :) Then we had lunch there, played some games to get to know some of the office staff we don't see as much, hung out some more, then left around 4. By the way, one of the games we played was kind of a variation of tag, and I definitely got tackled to the ground by the other program director! Don't worry, I wasn't hurt, despite it being a tile floor. Another guy was chased into a wall and smacked his nose, but again, no damage done. I guess the staff doesn't play around when it comes to recess games! Haha

So I got home and was talking about the different site assignments with my host mom, and I mixed up the name of one of the other sites and accidentally called it “Orina” which means “Urine”. Yeah, Rosa thought that was pretty hilarious. Anyway, I was really tired, so I went to bed at my usual time. Bed by 8 on a Friday night-- a day of fun really takes it out of you I guess.

So, Saturday, Jenna (another trainee) was having a talent show with a group of kids in her town as part of her NFE project (like how I work with the 5th graders). Anyway, she asked the rest of us in CYF if we could come and possibly participate, so Angela and I decided to make up a little dance. It was really fun though, even though our dance was veeerry simple, since we threw it together in the hour before the show. The kids in the show were really cute, even though ¾ of them did the exact same thing, one after another—twirling a ribbon around to music (they did have different songs though).

After the show, I went over to Kim's house (another girl in my group) with some of the other girls in CYF. We had a little time to kill before we headed back to my community for Alex's par-tay. We were ridin' in style though, since Kim's host-parents offered to drive us to Alex's in their microbus! Alex's party was awesome. Behind his house is a big barn that is kind of falling apart (or as he calls it, “a disaster waiting to happen”), and let's just say it makes the barn behind my house (in the US) look like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. Anyway, his host-sister is around our age, so she invited a bunch of Ticos, and Alex invited all of CYF and CED (the other program), and I think almost everyone from CYF was there (many with their host-brothers and sisters), and CED had a pretty good showing, which is impressive considering they live kind of far away. Anyway, they even had a disco-mobile there, so they were taking things seriously. It was so so fun, especially because everyone is so happy about getting site assignments finally, and our Spanish is getting good enough to converse with Ticos and not feel too too inept. Plus, Ticos like to dance almost as much as I do, so of course, that makes for a good time ;) There was of course the token creepy old guy that everyone was warned to avoid, but hey, what party would be complete without one?

Anyway, now I have three weeks left till I move to my site, and in less than a week, I will visit it for a few days. To quote one of my favorite movies, “It's really happening!!!” and 10 points if you can guess what movie that is ;)

Volunteer visit

2007-08-23T12:47:00.001-06:00

Hello, hello! Well, I am back from my site visit, and it was really great! It was a really urban site, but it was a holiday weekend (Mother's Day was on Monday) so there wasn't a whole lot going on. I went with another girl from my program, Christine. We were a little worried about finding the bus stop in San Jose, but we got there without a problem. The scenery during the bus ride was amazing—we went through the mountains and a lot of it was out in the country and there were tons of trees and plants. Then we got down the mountain and it was hot hot! When we got on the bus, we asked the bus driver if he stopped at the church in “San Ramon” (note: I put quotes around that since that is the made up name, since I'm not allowed to put exact locations on here...you know, just in case anyone wanted to stalk me or something). So anyhow, he said, “Sure, just pull the cord”. Aka, “I have no idea where that is”. Unfortunately, neither did we. Apparently that wasn't the only place he didn't know—after a wrong turn, followed by him backing the bus up through the intersection and going the other way, then following another bus for a while, then having passengers on the bus directing him, Christine and I were a little worried about finding our stop. Fortunately, we noticed a sign on the side of the road that said “San Ramon” (again, not really) and saw a church, so I yanked on the cord. But the bell wasn't ringing! Ahh! Then I realized I was pulling on the curtain rod rope...

The bus ride was a bit longer than expected, but we made it in one piece, and to the right place, so that is what counts. Kelly (the volunteer we visited) is really cool, and even though she was once mugged at machete-point (if that is a word, which I doubt), her neighborhood seemed pretty cool too. We ate dinner in town that night, and of course, the TVs in the restaurant were all playing “Bailando por un Sueno”. The funniest thing about that show is that people totally vote for the sueno (dream, aka charity cause) and not based on the skill of the dancers. That would never happen in the US! Their way probably makes more sense if you think about it. One of the worst couples, in terms of dancing skills, is trying to get a plastic surgery operation for a little girl who has no nose or eyes and breaths through a hole in her neck (it is really pretty sad), and I would place money on them to win the whole thing.

Anyway, the next day a bunch of other volunteers in the area and their respective trainees who were visiting them met up and we rode the ferry across the water to the peninsula and then back again. It is really cool to meet other volunteers and hear about their experiences etc. I definitely learned a lot and got a lot of advice, which I think will be really helpful.

Yesterday we had interviews with our program directors to talk more specifically about our site preferences, and on Friday we find out where we're going!!! Aaah! I am so excited! However, you all will remain in suspense, since as I already mentioned, I cannot give out exact locations. If you really want to know though, you can email me. What else was I going to say? Oh yeah, so I had a session at the school yesterday. I have one more on Monday and then I'm done, which I'm kind of sad about because I really like those kids! Afterward I ran into Angela, who was also at the school, and we were talking outside when the policeman walked by. We said hi, and he came over and was talking to us. He was talking about all kinds of stuff and then next thing I know, he's pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket and starts reading us poems he's written! It is not every day that a police officer, in uniform and everything, is out on the street reading you poetry...

What else? Well, yesterday I freaked out for a second because I thought I saw a dead horse on the side of the road. As it turned out, it was just a log and some dead palm branches. Oh, and of course, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Livviebelle! (Em, you'll have to pass that along since as far as I'm aware, Liv has yet to learn how to read). Wow, three years old! I actually remember my third birthday. I remember sneaking into the closet and finding my presents, including a Ken outfit, and I was so excited since I hardly had any clothes for him. Then the whole time I was actually opening my presents, I was wondering, “Where is that Ken outfit??”, and it was the last thing I opened, but I was worried someone had found out that I peeked and decided to not give it to me after all. Okay that was just a bit of a tangent...anyway! I guess childhood memories aren't really the purpose of a blog, hey? Whatev... Well that is pretty much all anyway. Bye! Oh! I just remembered, I saw the movie “Volunteers”, which in case you are unaware, is about the Peace Corps. It has Tom Hanks in it, and it is actually pretty funny. It's about a guy who owes a bunch of money, so he runs away to the Peace Corps to hide. The best line was when he says, “It's not that I can't help these people, it's just that I don't want to!”. Rent it, and if they don't have that, rent “School Ties” instead... (hahaha)

I really hate making up titles

2007-08-15T16:09:00.000-06:00

Okay, what´s up everyone? I thought I would put up a quick post before I head out of town this weekend (till Tuesday). I just found out today that I´ll be off to the BEACH! I am excited!!! I´ll be visiting a volunteer in her site with another girl from my program, and the volunteer, Kelly, was at our training session today, so I got to find out a little bit of what we´ll be doing. Apparantly she lives in an urban community, and it can be pretty noisy and stuff, but it is right by the beach, and apparantly it is very HOT. And buggy. But, I can´t wait! I am ready for a little change in the schedule; it´s gotten a tinch boring as of late. By the way, since Costa Rica is bicoastal, after all, I should specify that it is the Pacific Ocean I´ll be visiting.

Anyway, I really don´t have much else to report. Since I´ve been taking the medicine for my hands, they have gotten better. The Medical officer was at our training session today, and she told me she looked up the thing I´d been diagnosed with (which the name escapes me now) on the internet, and apparantly it can be triggered by stress... not too surprising I suppose. It can happen when you completely change everything about your life.

I am getting a little frustrated lately, but I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I am one month away exactly from swearing in and getting to my site, and training is bringing me doooooown!!! I love my host family, and I´ll really be sad to leave them, but at the same time, I have no control over my life whatsoever. I have a schedule that is made for me, all these little things I have to do, I don´t make my own food or even decide when I´ll eat, I don´t do my own laundry, I don´t choose anything! It gets very very frustrating at times, but once you are at your site, you are more of another family member than a guest, you negotiate what you want to do for yourself (you don´t have a choice in training), you set your own schedule, you go where you want when you want and do what you want. Aka the life of a normal adult (somewhat normal anyway). But it isn´t all bad! It´s just that sometimes these weeks of training feel soooo long, but all the volunteers say that training is the worst part, and it gets a ton better when you are at your site. Let´s hope so!

Also, I started reading a book in Spanish last night. I got through a page and a half. It is a book for 5th and 6th graders.....Ay.

Fútbol! (etc)

2007-08-13T15:09:00.000-06:00

Hey Everyone! Wow, I can't believe August is almost half-way done. Anyway, let's see, what's new? Oh, I finally got my burning hands situation looked at. I went to the PC office (which, by the way, takes 2 buses and an hour and a half) at nine in the morning on Friday. The medical officer looked at my hands for about 2 minutes and sent me on my way to see a dermatologist. FYI my index fingers and thumbs are pretty red, and although they don't burn and sting anymore, they still don't look normal. My toes are kind of red too. Okay, so anyway, the dermatologist is in a hospital way on the other side of San Jose (and about 4 blocks from where my first bus dropped me off on my way in)! Ahh, and I had to get there in about 15 minutes (not even possible). Fortunately, I got there eventually, and the doctor prescribed me some medicine which should return me to normalcy in about 10 days.

After that, I had to get back to my town to do another session at the school, which I think went well. My next session there will be observed by some of the staff (ahh!). No, I think it will be fine. Anyway, after that I had to head out again to another nearby town (about a 35 minute walk) to discuss my evaluation of training so far. We had to check off if we had learned all these things, but I had not learned a bunch of the stuff on there (i.e. the economic situation in CR), so I thought they were just throwing in trick questions to see if we were really reading. Turns out, they had given me the evaluation for the Economic Development program instead of Children Youth and Families. Oops.

Anyway, I was going to see a movie that night, but I was just leaving my evaluation when I ran into the other people who were going to see the movie also. They were leaving earlier than originally planned, but I didn't get the message since I hadn't been home. I had been running around all day though, so I decided to just head home and take it easy (I know I know, watching a movie doesn't exactly require a lot of effort, but the coming and going does, and plus it was raining a little).

On Saturday, I went to the feria with my family, which is a big farmer's market. They go every two weeks to get all their fruits and veggies, but this was the first time I went with them. There were tons of fruits/vegetables I had never seen in my life, but my host-mom told me she doesn't know what a lot of them are either. Then we just hung out at home, and in the afternoon we went over to Mainor and Maryuri's house (my host-brother and his wife). She sells bakery items out of her house, and she had just made the best bread ever (and she gave me the recipe!!). Then I had to go to meet up with Angela and her host brother and sister to go to......a soccer game! The league in CR has a bunch of teams from all over the country, and they play each other and the games are always on TV, and everyone has their favorite team, etc. The game was between Heredia and Saprissa, and Saprissa is the team for San Jose, so the stadium is not that far. We ended up having a pretty decent-sized group, since other trainees met up with us on the way. The game was at 7pm, and it was so cool! The place wasn't super-packed, but there was definitely a good showing (I guess it can be kind of dangerous at night, so not as many people go...by the way, that was foreshadowing). Plus, “Bailando por un Sueño” was on TV at the same time (that is not a joke). So anyway, Angela's host brother Juan told me the futbol games are the best place to learn all the swear words in Spanish, but we were a little off to the side, so my education is still lacking... (hmm, maybe I should have brought that up in my evaluation).

Anyhow, the game was scoreless until the final minutes when Saprissa, the home team, scored not one, but TWO goals right in a row! People went crazy, climbing onto the fences behind the goal and jumping up and down and whatnot. The buses to get back to the central part of San Jose were really packed, but we finally got on a direct one that doesn't make any stops. We were slowing down for a red light when all of a sudden, two guys jumped out the back door (right in front of an approaching car, by the way) and ran off. It was kind of odd, but I thought, “Oh, maybe they're just in a hurry to get somewhere”. When we got the bus stop, everyone got out except for two guys sitting in the last row, looking kind of in shock. We had been sitting really close to the back, and so Angela's host sister went over to them and helped them off the bus. On the sidewalk, we saw that one of the guys' arms was all bloody, and they had both been robbed. Apparently those guys that ran off earlier had robbed them and slashed one of their arms a few times, and no one else even knew it had happened. That really scared me, especially since we were just a few feet away while it happened. I will say this, I won't sit in the way back of a bus ever again—it's too easy for someone to attack and then run, since the doors are right there. Walking the rest of the way to catch the other bus would be scary enough, since SJ is not the most welcoming city at night, but after that little incident, it was that much worse. All the stores are covered with garage doors, and everything looks kind of creepy, but there were lots of police officers around. By the way, the bus driver called an ambulance for the guys. He also told us that we should avoid direct buses in the future, since they tend to be more dangerous...

So, I got home just in time to catch the end of “Bailando por un Sueno”. Yes, it was four hours long. To say that this show is sweeping the nation is a bit of an understatement. It is in the paper every day, all over the news, and the topic of a lot of conversation.

Anyway, I was pretty tired from staying up till (gasp!) 11 pm, so on Sunday morning I took a little nap. It was weird though because at the end of it, I thought I could hear my host parents' sons and grandkids outside my window. I tried to open my eyes, but I physically could not open them. Then I thought someone was squirting me with water through the window, and I thought, “Open your eyes!” but I still couldn't make them open. Then I thought I heard someone come in (which is impossible since my door has a latch that only opens from the inside) and I swear someone whispered “Kate! Kate! Kate!” and touched my shoulder, and immediately, my eyes flew open and I shot up out of bed, but no one was inside my room or outside my window. I went into the kitchen and my host-mom was making lunch, and my host-dad went to the door to see if their kids and grandkids were there yet, and then I couldn't remember if I had already known before I went to sleep that they were all coming for lunch, or if I had only dreamed they were coming. It was weird...kind of deja vu-y. But everyone did come over for lunch to celebrate my host-brother Esterlyn's birthday. It was really good, and my host-mom dug up her cookbook with all her recipes in it, so now I can copy some of them down!

Well, that is that. To everyone moving around Mad-town this week, good luck! In the next few weeks, I am going to be really busy with training, including eleven total days of traveling around, so it might take a while with email and whatnot. I'll do my best though! Okay, that's all, bye!

Not much

2007-08-09T16:42:00.000-06:00

Hey hey, I´m gonna make this snappy. I just thought I´d throw something up here really quickly since I´m using the internet anyway.

So, let´s see...I am really glad tomorrow is Friday. I am finally having my burning hand condition looked at in the morning at the PC office. It doesn´t really hurt anymore, but their still red. I think I maybe had an allergic reaction to one of our many injections, but I am not sure. Anyway, then I have another session with the fifth graders in the afternoon, and then I might see a movie at night with some other trainees. Gotta catch up on that American culture,hey?

So, the other night my host mom handed me her osteoporosis test results (she had just gotten a bone density test) and asked me to tell her what they meant, since they were in English. Don't worry, she doesn´t have osteoporosis. Anyway, she was explaining how she and her siblings all have good bones since they grew up with cows and got lots of dairy growing up. Then she said she had a calcium buildup in her gallbladder a while back and had to have it surgically removed. Suddenly she hopped up, ran into her bedroom and came back with what looked like a small round rock. As it turned out, it was the calcium deposit that had been extracted...apparantly the doctors gave it to her as a "souvenier". It was kind of funny.

Anyway, that's really all I have time for. I hope everyone has a good weekend!!!

What's new

2007-08-07T16:37:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm doing this old school, aka typing the blog while using the internet, not at home. So, since I'm doing it on the fly, please bear with me on any funky symbols or punctuation marks. I think I am getting more adept at using the Spanish keyboards though.

Anyway, disclaimer aside, what can I say? I had a pretty good weekend. Oh! I did my first Nonformal Education session. I am working with a group of 5th graders, and it went pretty well. The teacher went AWOL as soon as I got there, so I was on my own. And yes, these kids only speak Spanish. I think I was fine saying what I wanted to say, but I couldn't always understand what they were saying to me. We did an activity where they got in pairs and told the story of how they got their name and then they presented their partner's story to the class. To match them up, I handed out cards with one half of a famous couple, and they had to find the other half. I think they liked it, if I do say so myself. The activity had two goals: one, for me to learn their names (duh), and two, to roll into the self-esteem stuff with a little discussion about identity, which names are obviously a big part of. Anyway, it went well, but I think next time I will nix the big group discussion and try to do more stuff in small groups, since 30 hyper kids is kind of a challenge.

Anyway, Saturday we had a project fair at the PC office, which consisted of current volunteers talking about some of their projects. It was great to get real project ideas and advice, and lots of them gave out handouts too. After that we were free, so I had lunch nearby with some of the people in the other program (CED), and then we went downtown to use the internet. After that, I split off and just walked around by myself. It was raining, and I didn't have an umbrella or raincoat, but I didn't really care. It is nice to be by myself sometimes, and I really actually need to do that, or else I get cranky. Anyway, I came home and watched Baile por un Sueño with my host mom and Marianela (her granddaughter age 9). It is the CR equivalent of Dancing with the Stars, more or less, but the winner gets money to give to some charitable cause they are supporting. It was the premiere on Saturday, so it was a big deal.

Then Sunday, let's see. I went to church with my host parents, felt like I was going to throw up, thought about running out of church, decided I would wait till I was actually feeling vomit come up my esophogus, made it through the mass, went home and took a nap, and felt fine afterward. I later went to a party at Angela's (a fellow trainee up the road), and a lot of CYF (my program) was there, as well as a bunch of Ticos, so it was a pretty good time. The Ticos were teaching some of us some different dance moves, like merengue (sp?) and salsa, and Angela has gone dancing with some of them in San Jose, and she said the next time they go, she'll let me know, so that would be cool! By the way, it was really really great to talk to all of you that were around on Sunday night. I guess you could say I am starting to get a tinch homesick, so that really helps. I think it is just a mid-training slump, if you will. Things have settled down, we aren't quite as busy, but I am a long way from being at home here. Plus, this isn't even my real site, so I am not trying to get all integrated and whatnot. Furthermore, even though I am friends with the other trainees, they aren't like friends from back home (duh) or family, so...yeah. Training gets really busy again soon though, and before I know it, I will be off to my site and who knows what that will entail.

I just got done with a long session of training today, and I must say, they are really boring most of the time. I have another one tomorrow too...aaaahhh. Everyone says training is the worst part, and it feels like forever, and there are lots of hoops to jump through and you just gotta do it. So, I guess that is where I am with that. It isn't that bad though, and I don't always feel like this. It comes and goes, and that is normal I would say. Well, I am almost out of time, so I'll wrap this up. I am literally soaking wet right now (I really need to invest in an umbrella) and I hope it isn't still raining when I go outside. If it is though, no biggie, I am already wet. Well, I am reading the Kite Runner right now, and so far it is really good, so I will probably read more of it tonight. I finished the Alchemist which I would recommend to anyone. It is a really quick read, but it is a neat little story. Some other people told me it was good, and I liked it. One good thing about going to the project fair was that I got to visit the PC library (aka bookshelf) and grab a stack of books! I am already on my eighth book, too. I guess that is the upside to training being a little slow--more time to read! Okay, later, keep up the comments and emails! I love reading all of them! Bye!

Romería

2007-08-02T17:45:00.000-06:00

Well, this will not be too long, I just wanted to write something quickly about the Romería. I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not, but there is a big tradition in CR to celebrate August 2nd, which is the Day of Our Lady of the Angels (a religious holiday, if you couldn't tell). Anyway, people walk to the Basilica in Cartago (which incidentally, I have already visited with my host family) from all over the country. Some people walk for days, and some people walk barefoot. Today, I walked with my host parents' three sons, Mainor, Carlos, and Esterlyn, and Esterlyn's wife Karen. Mainor and Carlos' wives and kids didn't come, and neither did my host parents, since they are kind of old to be walking that far.

Anyway, we left at 5:20 this morning and walked all the way, only stopping once for about 15 minutes to use the bathroom and such. It took us just over 5 hours!!! It was really cool though! The whole way, you could see a ton of people walking down the road, and the cars could only use one lane (thankfully) to give the walkers some more room on the highway. We even had to go over a mountain. The whole way, Mainor was telling me all sorts of stuff about the things we passed, like the railroad tracks, or some of the mountains, or the gasoline refinery, etc. It was pretty cool.

When we got to the Basilica, there were even more people. There was a huge outdoor mass going on, which apparently lasts four hours. There were people walking through the basilica, either on foot but most on their knees. And then, all around the basilica for several blocks were tons and tons of stands selling everything under the sun. It's almost like a carnival. It's kind of weird to see a twenty-foot tall inflatable soda bottle while church songs play in the background.

We were in Cartago for about 45 minutes, then we hopped in a van and drove back home. After I ate lunch, I took a much-needed nap, but I am happy to report that I felt totally fine (minus my hands and arms literally feeling like they're on fire, but I think that is an allergic reaction. I am going to get that checked out. They are still burning and stinging, so I don't know what is up. Plus it is the second time it has happened since I've been here). Anyway, everyone else said their legs hurt, and Karen was literally limping when we got back, so I'm glad that my legs feel fine! (even though I want to chop off my arms). When I got home though, my host mom went in the back yard and chopped open part of an aloe plant for me, so it´s feeling better.

When I was eating lunch with my host parents today, I looked up and almost burst out laughing. My host dad had gotten up and grabbed his radio, and he was sitting in his chair, eating lunch, listening to the radio right next to his ear, and holding the remote and watching the tv in the living room, which he can see from where he sits. I guess you could say he's a multi-tasker. Another thing, they have a bird, and I definitely caught him pouring coffee into the bird's “water” dish one night... but they feed the babies coffee here, so maybe that is just the norm.

One last quick story: The other night, I was talking to my host mom, and she was telling me about how she broke her hip and tailbone a little over a year ago. She was explaining how it happened and what the doctors did and whatnot, and apparently, since you can't exactly put a cast on your tailbone, all they did was give her an inflatable pillow to sit on for three months! I knew I shouldn't laugh, but I couldn't help it. I think that was the hardest I have laughed since I got here, but fortunately, my host-mom wasn't offended, and in fact, she was laughing too. I always seem to laugh at inappropriate times...I need to work on that. Anyway, she even showed me the pillow, which she had made a special pillow case for, since she said it was ugly. Ahh, maybe you had to be there, but I am still laughing just thinking about it.

Okay, well, that's it for now. I hope you all are doing well! Oh, that just reminded me, a standard goodbye here is “Que Dios le acompaña”, which basically means, God be with you. My host mom says it a lot, but I always thought she was saying “Yo le acompaña” which would mean, I'm going with you. Anyway, I kept thinking she was meaning that she'd walk me to the door when I was leaving, so I'd always wait a minute, but she never came with me to the door, so I didn't understand until finally I asked my Spanish teacher what it meant. Okay, I'm out, chao!

Vamos a la playa!

2007-07-31T17:31:00.000-06:00

Hey hey everyone, and Happy Birthday Paul!!! The big 2-0...ahh those were the days... haha. So, I went to the beach for the first time!!! Well, the first Costa Rican beach, I guess. I have been to “the beach” once or twice in my day, to say the least. Anyhow, I keep getting this stupid song stuck in my head that we listened to in Spanish class on Friday. We learned all these different words that pertain to fairy tales like “wand”, “fairy godmother”, “troll”, “spell”, etc, and then my teacher handed us a page of song lyrics that had a bunch of blanks, and we had to fill them in as we listened to the song. The song was basically a fairy tale about a prince and the beautiful fairy he fell in love with blah blah blah, so, needless to say, I was a bit caught off guard when the song turned out to be a hard rock, heavy metal, lead-singer-screams-all-the-words kind of song. And when I say “caught off guard”, I mean “laughed uproariously the whole time”. Okay, maybe not the whole time, but quite a bit. And now the song is still in my head.

So, back to the beach. We were finally able to take a night “out of site” this weekend, so a lot of people had plans to hit the road. I went to a beach called Jaco (“Hah-koe” not “Jack-o”) with four fellow trainees and one of their host-sisters. Her name was Susanna, and her aunt and uncle own a little condo in Jaco, so we stayed there. We left really early on Saturday morning and got there around 10:30. We had to wait a little while for the guard at the gate to verify that we had permission to use the condo, but as soon as we got through, we put on our suits and headed to the beach. It was beautiful, and I keep hearing that it isn't that great of a beach, so I can't imagine what the good ones are like. The water was really warm, like bathwater pretty much. The waves were pretty big too, and apparently a lot of people have drowned there. Fortunately, that was not the case for any of us this weekend. I was in the water most of the time, and it was a lot of fun.

I was really afraid of getting sunburned though, so I put on SPF 55 (waterproof) and reapplied two times. Strangely enough, though, I felt myself burning after a little while! I ended up getting a sunburn, which both annoyed and perplexed me. Later, upon closer inspection (or rather, noting which parts of me felt like they were on fire), I realized that only my arms and shoulders, face, and toes were burned. Hmmm that is odd, since I wasn't wearing a sleeveless wetsuit with partial footies attached. Then it hit me: I didn't have sunscreen on when we got off the bus and walked to the condo, and then waited (a total of about 45 minutes all together), and I was wearing a tank top and jeans that covered my feet except my toes. Aha! I was happy to have solved The Case of the Mysterious Sunburn, but also mad that I didn't put on sunscreen before I left the house, since I do that every day. I was in a hurry though to get out the door, and then I forgot. Ah well, the best laid plans, blah blah blah, right?

So, that night we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant which was delicious, albeit a bit pricey (it's a tourist town). They also played a mix of classic 80s and early 90s tunes, which definitely included “The Right Stuff” by the beloved New Kids on the Block. Unfortunately, they only played each song for approximately 20 seconds (no exaggeration), so the nostalgia was frequently interrupted. Later on, we went to a place called The Monkey Bar (haha), which was a lot of fun. They played all sorts of good songs, American stuff at first, then Reggaeton. Two of the guys I was with were joking around about how they were going to milk the Peace Corps thing and say stuff like, “Oh yeah, I saved four kids this week...Oh, you went on a four-hour hike? Yeah, I went on a four-week hike, and that was just to find some water for the kids...Yeah we just built a pool for the community--out of their tears...etc etc” (obviously none of this is true...yet...jk, it isn't true). Oh, that reminds me, my Spanish teacher taught us a pick-up line once that goes “Me gustaria ser bizco para verte dos veces” which means “I wish I were cross-eyed so I could see you double” which I thought was hilarious especially since I think being cross-eyed would kind of hinder one's chances in that department.

Anyhow, at one point in the evening, this 45ish year old man started talking to me and was asking where I was from (since I was obviously a fellow gringo). Anyway, he was wearing this crazy red and white Hawaiian shirt and was in CR to surf and was just “livin' the dream”. He asked what I was doing in CR, to which I replied “Peace Corps” and he was like “WOW!” and then he asked what my degree was in, and his jaw dropped again, but THEN he saw me dancing by my Peace Corps buddies and he literally shouted, “Kate!!! You continue to impress me!!!!!!” and offered to buy me a drink. (Don't worry Dad, I declined!). Ah, drunk old guys, I guess they're good for the old self-esteem, haha just kidding. Actually, I am going to start a series of workshops with some 5th graders in my town on Self-Esteem for part of training; maybe I should just tell them to go the Monkey Bar and look for Jim...

Anyway, we got back Sunday afternoon/evening, but we had Monday off for a holiday. My host parents told me that they wanted to take me to their “casita” (little house) in the country, so on Monday we went up with two of their sons and their wives and kids. The casita is in the little town where my host mom grew up, so she has a lot of other family there too. It is surrounded by coffee fields, so I finally saw what coffee looks like au natural. It was up in the mountains too, so it was really pretty. Pretty much, it was just green wherever you looked. They have banana trees and lime trees and avocado trees mixed in too, and some others, so it was pretty cool, needless to say. We just had lunch up there and they gave me a tour of the little town and whatnot, and then got back around 5:30. I really had a good time though, and I liked being out of the city too.

Well, I have a loooong day with all the other trainees Tuesday, then another loooong one with just the CYF (children youth and families) program on Wednesday, but then we have Thursday off since it is another holiday. This is the one that people from all over the country walk to a city called Cartago (it's called a “Romeria”), and it's a really big deal. I am planning to walk with my host parents' sons and their families (I don't think my host-parents are making the trek), which should be a pretty cool experience. We aren't too too far, but it will still be a 5-6 hour walk or so. Apparently the roads are just full of people walking, and in fact, some people have already started, but I haven't seen any yet, just on the news.

Well, that's all for now. Adam, I hope it's up to par with your standards and you don't need a jar of anti-wrinkle cream by the end. Maybe you should learn how to read faster...oh! As for the rest of you, chao!

What what? Look who posted again...

2007-07-25T17:26:00.001-06:00

Hello everyone! Well, I bet you are surprised to see another post so soon! By the way, I don't go back and read these things, so sorry if I repeat myself. I can't always remember what I said before.

Anyway, I think I last left off with Saturday. By the way, I finished Harry Potter last night, and let me say, it was AWESOME, definitely the best book yet. There are a few other PC trainees who want to read it now, so it is making the rounds. Okay, so Sunday was pretty relaxing. I love the weekends because I can do whatever I want, like read HP for example :) Anyway, my host-dad just turned 70, so the whole family (their 3 sons, 3 daughters-in-law, and 6 grandkids) and I drove up one of the mountains and had lunch at a restaurant at the top. It looked down on the whole San Jose area, and the view was pretty incredible... for about 15 minutes. Then, it just started POURING. And that is putting it lightly. Not to mention, the restaurant had a tin roof, so it was really loud. It was cool though. The place was all windows (to take advantage of the view, obviously), but all you could see was white, because we were inside a cloud. The food was really good though. It was typical CR food: rice, beans, plantain, some other veggies, a little chicken, the usual.

We came back to the house after that and had cake and ice cream, but they only put 5 candles on the cake, so of course my host-dad blew them all out...cheater. Just kidding! 70 candles would be a bit excessive, I suppose. When I was on my site visit, I bought a wooden turtle at the reservation. It was handmade and really cool. I gave it to my host-dad for his birthday gift, and he really liked it. I didn't even realize that they have a couple other turtles made of stone and something else, so that was pretty cool. Turtles are kind of a symbol of CR, since a bunch of them lay eggs in a certain part of the country. I don't know too much about it though. Anyway, the family stayed over for a while, and then I think I just read and went to bed.

So, Monday I was going for a run in the morning, and I decided to go a new way. There is a fork in the road I usually run on, and I have only ever veered to the right, so this time I went left. I have driven on this road before though, so I knew it went into another town. Anyway, I had just reached the fork and gone a little down the left road when I saw about 5 large dogs in the road ahead. There are a ton of stray dogs here, but usually they're pretty calm, and its the ones who are behind the gates that bark like crazy (the grass is always greener on the other side of the big black metal bars, right?). Anyway, I was a little hesitant about approaching these dogs and was contemplating turning back when I heard loud barking and saw a big black dog the size of a small bear come tearing down a driveway across the street. I got really scared, but fortunately, a car came speeding down the road right between me and the dog, and it retreated. I turned around and ran straight home, and luckily, the dog stayed put. Apparently, in one of the other training communities up the road, any dogs that are dangerous and/or diseased they paint completely green, to warn people to stay away. I haven't seen any green dogs, but I am not sure I want to either. I did, however, just get my pre-rabies shot today, so I'll be okay if I do get bitten. That shot really hurt going in, and I can hardly lift my arm now! It is really sore...but better than rabies, no doubt.

Let's see, today we just had a long day of training with our whole group, got a couple shots, had some of the staff talk to us about health and safety and security and whatnot. The health talk was kind of a joke though because we have no control about what we eat; we eat what our host families make us. I guess once you get to your site, you can negotiate how many meals you want your family to cook for you and then pay your rent accordingly, so I'll probably just get my own food then. Apparently it's only a little more expensive than if you just ate all your meals with them. Also, we had another downpour like the one on Sunday last night—I thought the roof was going to cave in! It is amazing....I have been here for a month, and every morning it is really sunny and warm, and I can't imagine that is is going to rain, and then 3:00 rolls around and it gets darker and cools off, and it pours. One of these days I'll learn...

Oh, in other news, I guess someone was murdered just up the road from my house yesterday. I don't know the whole story, but I think it started out as a fight between two brothers over some cigarettes...maybe I should sing some of my T. A. T. U. songs (“Smoking stinks, aha that's right!.....”). But really, isn't that awful? I do not understand some people (actually, I don't understand a lot of people since everyone here speaks Spanish, but that is not what I'm talking about. Oh yeah, Lindsey, quería un poco de espanol, verdad? Pues, si quiere Espanol, necesita venir a CR para visitarme!).

So, the rest of the week I just have Spanish, but tomorrow I am also going to the elementary school to observe a classroom and interview a teacher. It is part of our training program; I will also start working with a group of fifth graders there soon! I am excited for that, but I don't know what I am going to do with them yet. I have to talk to the teacher, and then think of what I want to do. Then on Sunday, I am going to the beach with some other trainees! It is just for fun, not part of our training. We are allowed a few nights out of our site during training, and we can start using them this weekend, and Monday is a holiday, so we're going Sunday, staying that night, and getting back on Monday. I'm exciiiiiited!!! In case you are wondering, Monday's holiday is to celebrate when the Nicoya peninsula seceded from Nicaragua and joined CR. It really falls on the 25 of July, but it is observed on Monday to make it a long weekend.

Well, I guess that's all that's new for now. Also, thanks a lot Adam for the “tech support”! And Ange, just for kicks, you're my favorite little sister in the whole wide world! :) That should get me some brownie points, hey?? Okay, take care everyone, and I miss all of you a lot!

Sorry this took so long!

2007-07-22T10:31:00.000-06:00

Okay, this is going to be a looong one! I wrote a note to myself when interesting stuff happened, so now I can remember a few good stories. Before I launch into that, though, I just want to say thanks again for the good comments-- I love reading them! I am not sure if I should respond with another comment (is that weird to comment on your own post if it's part of a conversation?), or if anyone else even reads the comments besides me, or if I should reply in my next post, or what. Okay, too much thinking about that! Without further ado...

I remembered a couple things I was going to say before but forgot when I was typing. First of all, one of the cultural things here is that, while the mom of the house does everyone's laundry, all the girls in the house are responsible for washing their own underwear. That's just the way it is. So, I waited a while till I had enough underwear to do a small load and had my host mom show me the ropes with the laundry machine. The machine is on the back patio, which is covered with a roof, and that is where they hang up all the laundry to dry (no one has dryers here). Anyway, after I was done, the whole patio was covered with my underwear hanging from the ceiling...quite a site. I should have taken a picture...

So, last week on Friday I tried to make contact with the youth group in town for the next part of my technical training. I went to the church and found out the name and number of the director, so when I got home, I called him. I got a little nervous though, and all my Spanish flew out of my head, and it was the worst phone call ever! Okay, I am exaggerating a little, but imagine calling someone up and then having to repeatedly say, “I'm sorry, I don't understand what you said, can you repeat that?”. It's like, why did you call in the first place? The man Berni was very nice, but he did tell me the group was meeting that night, but I was the only one that showed up. I think it was because kids were still on winter break (yes, it is “winter” right now).

So, then Saturday came and it was time to go on our site visit. We left our communities at 5:30 am to get to San Jose, where the buses are. We were early for our bus, so we walked through all these fruit stands that were on the street the bus station is on. It was pretty cool, but for some reason, the carrots here all look like they are on steroids—they are huge! We got on the bus and rode for a while when the bus suddenly stopped and the driver informed us that we would continue on in an hour and a half. What could possibly cause such a delay, you might ask? Well, the road was being painted up ahead, so everyone had to wait. Incidentally, there was another bus a couple cars behind us, and some other trainees were on it, on the way to their site visits as well. We got off the buses and hung out for a little bit. I really had to go to the bathroom though, so the bus driver advised me to just go in the trees on the side of the road. This is not an easy feat, considering we were driving through the mountains! I literally had to climb a practically-vertical hill and hide in the trees, since the road was full of stopped cars and buses that were pretty much in plain view. Good times. Anyway, the bus eventually got rolling again, and I was looking forward to seeing the pineapple fields that are apparently all over the place. I have no idea what pineapple looks like when it is growing, so I was curious. Unfortunately, it was like when I did the Lighthouse Run and never saw the actual lighthouse, despite running right past it. I was reading a book, and so I have yet to witness a pre-slaughter pineapple.

So, we arrived at our first destination: a reservation of about 500 people. We were out in the country where there are approximately 17,000 mosquitoes per person. We walked through the community with the volunteer there, and I was wearing shorts and no bug spray (ahhh!). Needless to say, I was devoured in no time, but miraculously, the bites disappeared about 15 minutes later. Not everyone was so lucky... That night, we went to the common area where every Saturday and Sunday night they play lots of music and the people do fancy dances like cumbia and merangue and whatnot. It was cool to watch. Since the area is really rural, the family I stayed with there had an outhouse, but hey, that is still better than poppin' a squat on the side of a mountain, hey? They did have a shower inside, but it was cold water, but since it is hot and kind of muggy, the water felt really good. It wasn't icy cold either, more like swimming pool temperature.

The next day, we went on an awesome 3-hour hike. I have never really been hiking before, but I loved it! The reservation is in the mountains, so we basically climbed one of them up to the top and came back down. It took three hours in total, but the views were incredible. I took some pictures, but of course, no camera can do it justice. It was really nice to get out there after being in a pretty urban area the whole time I've been in CR too. Anyway, as we were walking, I noticed that it smelled a lot like Pledge, and then I realized how conditioned I am from doing chores every Saturday morning as a kid that I am comparing the great outdoors of Costa Rica to dusting spray...thanks Mom... A guy from the community who was about 18 years old came with us on the hike, and it was so funny. Here we are, all in our hiking boots, and he is leading the way in nothing but an old pair of flip flops! And he kept popping out of nowhere too! He'd be behind us, then next thing you know, he comes out from the trees 10 feet ahead of us. He helped us through the barbed wire along the way, and when we were almost back to the town area, he made a leash for his dog out of a vine so the dog wouldn't get hit by cars on the highway. Maybe you had to be there, but he was pretty hard core.

Before the hike, we had a little history lesson about the tribe, and they showed us these wooden masks they make that are part of their culture. They are so awesome, I took a few pictures. The colors and carvings are really impressive. We also cleaned the school one morning, asked the volunteer a bazillion questions, and heard about her projects. It was a really good experience, and I definitely think I could really enjoy a rural site like that (in spite of the fact that I have a picture of a scorpion that the volunteer shook out of her bandana!).

After the rural site, we took another bus to visit an urban site a little ways away. It was a lot different from the first site, but it also has it's advantages. Since there are so many people, the volunteers there have lots of projects going on, and there are usually more resources available in terms of finding funding at the local level and such. The volunteers there have their own neighborhoods where they work on various projects, but they also come into the city and work with PANI in the orphanages. We went with them to an orphanage and did an activity with the two kids that were there. We had to make a chart of all the high and low points in our life (part of a bigger project they were working on). Anyway, one of the current volunteers was showing us his, and he had a drawing of what looked like an asthma inhaler, so I assumed he was diagnosed with asthma at one point in his life. When he explained all the drawings, I learned that the “inhaler” was actually a gun, and it represented when someone held a gun up to his head in Honduras...so I was a little off. We also visited a school, and later we had some free time, so we went to the mall and saw Harry Potter (dubbed in Spanish of course). It was pretty cool though. I could definitely see myself in a site like that too, so who knows where I'll end up! The one thing I didn't enjoy was being constantly in a group of people for five days straight. I really need my me-time, even if it's just a little bit each day, so it was hard to not have that freedom for a while. But, I asked a lot of questions and I learned a lot, so it makes me excited to finish up training and get to my site, but one thing at a time.

Okay, it is now 9:30 pm (I am pre-typing this at home, not in an internet cafe), but it is waaaay past my bedtime, so I'm out. Also, as a side-note, Mom, I am not going to talk about my dreams because you are the only person on the face of the planet that actually likes listening to people's dreams! On another side-note, Mom, you'll be most pleasantly surprised to hear that coffee has become....palatable. Okay, I have a long day of technical training tomorrow, so that's all.

Okay, it´s not all… After much frustration in trying to get this thing up, I finally figured some stuff up, but it has been a couple days. So, to summarize, let´s see…a friend of mine from training named Alex did something really nice for me (long story), but I decided I would attempt to make him some cookies to say thank you. I went to the grocery store, which is part of a chain that is ubiquitous here. It isn´t a full fledged grocery store, but it has the essentials. In other words, there is an entire aisle of rice, and another entire aisle of tang and kool aid. They don´t, however, have chocolate chips, so i got stuff to make sugar cookies. My host mom watched me make them and asked for the recipe, and I gave half to her and half to Alex.

Alex and I had plans to meet up yesterday, since we are both Harry Potter fans. We went to San Jose to buy the book (in English), and then we coincidentally ran into some other PC trainees. We hung out for a little bit, then Alex and I went to the mall to see HP movie in English with Spanish subtitles. So yes, I have seen the movie twice, but seeing it in English really made it 10 x better. All in all, it was a good saturday. I can´t believe I have been in CR for a month! I guess I could say the ¨novelty¨ is wearing off, and sometimes I do get frustrated and wish I were just at home, but for the most part, I am really happy to be here, and it is a great experience so far.

Noticias

2007-07-13T12:58:00.001-06:00

Alright, first order of business is to attempt to reply to some comments (which are great, by the way!!!). Okay, first of all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Angela, aka Gangsta A. Does that make you happy? Also, I do intend on replying to your late-night chitter chatter, but I´m sorry, I´ve been really busy lately, and I don´t exactly have an all access pass to the internet, hey? I promise a good email soon though! (That goes for anyone I have not replied to yet, including Megan and Adam, and Brianna, I have to send you an email too!).

Okay, now that that is resolved, EJ Eva and Liv, I love all of you and loved reading your messages! I miss you so much and wish I could hang out with you guys and do lots of fun stuff. As for the stuff in Mercado Central, it is very inexpensive, and some things are not stuff you find in your average mall, like machetes and the lining of a cow´s stomach. So yeah, I can tell I´m in Costa Rica... Also, I haven´t used names of my PC friends because I don´t want to put other people´s info on the internet I guess.

So, this week was really busy. Monday I had to go to San Jose with my whole PC group to visit the mercado central and some other places. The post office is a really sweet really old building that is huge and green. Then on Tuesday, I had technical training with the whole group in a nearby town. Then Wednesday I had to do a presentation using Nonformal Education techniques (in English) for my small group in my community (just PC trainees). I did mine on HIV, including some stats and the molecular mechanism...gotta use that science education somehow, hey? It turned out well I think. Then Thursday we visited the PC office in San Jose, which is pretty cool. There is a library there for the PC vols and trainees to just take books from and bring back when you´re done, so I grabbed a couple. Then let´s see, today, just class, but I´m going to try to make contact with the youth group at the church in my town to do a project with them (a continuation of the nonformal education stuff--part of our training). I have a little more Spanish class this afternoon too.

Then, I´m really excited for tomorrow since I´ll leave with the other trainees in my community and one other to go to the south of CR for a five-day field visit! We are going to visit a real site of a current volunteer, have interviews with our program directors, talk to volunteers, see some of the area, etc. I am really really excited for that!!

Okay, again, sorry, I can never think of good stories to put in here! I will have to start taking notes or something when good stuff to write about happens. Till then, this will have to do. Chao!

2007-07-09T13:32:00.000-06:00

So, I had a really great weekend, and I went to two different cities on two different days! Saturday I went to San Jose with two of my PC people. We took the bus and just walked around for a little bit. The central part of the city is full of tourists, but we felt cool because we actually live in CR…ha! So, we went to the Mercado Central (“You know I don’t speak Spanish!” Okay, Central Market, ha) and checked it out. It was not what I expected. It was all inside, and they sell EVERYTHING. Lots of Jansport backpacks for some reason, plus souveniers, grocery food, restaurant food, clothes, shoes, you name it. Aka, I will definitely hit that up when I need to send home Christmas gifts—ha ha! We kind of strolled through it, then stopped and had some ice cream at one of the vendors. (Oh, note to Christina, it kind of reminded me of the Deer and Turkey expo in a way, and I felt like I should be raucously manning a ticket booth somewhere, yelling crazy stuff at customers and teetering on the edge of getting fired…). Anyhow, the ice cream was a little heavier on the ice, lighter on the cream than what is in the US, but it was really good. It came with these long edible sticks that you use to scoop up the ice cream, and all together, it tasted like pumpkin pie…yum yum (although I know Emerick wouldn’t like it!).

So, after that, we walked around some more, then went to an internet café (where I sent out my last post), and afterward we sat down at an indoor/outdoor restaurant (no, that does not mean it had indoor/outdoor carpeting…) for a beer. After that, we caught the bus home and got back around 5ish, so it was just a really relaxing afternoon. I hung out at my house the rest of the night with my host parents’ granddaughter who is nine. She is a lot of fun though! Oh yeah, we went to church that evening. By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but the sun sets around 6:30, which is why I go to bed and get up so early. It feels later than it is. Besides, I doubt I had anyone convinced that I was cool before, so if going to bed at 9 on a Saturday night is the straw that broke the camel’s back, well, sorry. Oh, at one point, this old man bumped into me really hard, and I thought he was trying to steal my bag, but turns out he is just clumsy, or drunk, or a really bad thief. (Or I am just that intimidating…)

Sunday, okay… let’s see. I took a new running route that I like and will do again. My family had a funeral thing to go to, so they brought me along. We got in my host brother’s car and drove to the gas station. After filling up, the car wouldn’t start. My host brother kept trying to start it though, and I think that flooded the engine. We pushed the car out of the gas pump area and some of my host parents’ other sons showed up and brought a mechanic I think, and they monkeyed around with the engine for a while, and we waited some more, and then we all got back in the car and drove away. We got to our destination and had lunch outside (we brought it with us). We ate right behind the most famous basilica in CR, and my host family showed me around it and told me some of the stories about it. Apparently, every year there is a huge pilgrimage to this church from all over the country. People come on foot and just camp out along the way and at the church. When it happens in August, I will see tons of people walking down the street on their way.

Anyhow, after that, they took me to a building that is really just the perimeter of what was once a church. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times, but after a big earthquake in 1910, it was destroyed and not rebuilt. What remains are the walls of the church, maybe one story high, (no, two) (ish) with no roof. Inside is a huge garden with lots of flowers and other gardeny stuff.

Finally, we went to my host mom’s sister’s house for the funeral thing. Actually, it’s just a gathering of people to pray for someone who died, and they do it once a month for the first year after someone dies, then once a year after that. It was just in the garage, and there was a lumpy shape covered with a sheet, which for a split second I thought was the body. Don’t worry, I am sure it was just to cover a workbench or something. After a long prayer session, they passed out a cafecito and people just chitchatted and whatnot. Then we came home around 4ish. So yeah, that is pretty much a play by play of my weekend. Nice work if you can get it, hey? Everything is just kind of nice and easy right now, so, sorry I don’t have a bunch of crazy stories or anything. This week I have some different things going on, including a field visit next weekend and into next week. I’m excited for that! So yeah, that is all for now, and I hope things are going well back home!

Oh, sidenote: Irish, I saw someone who looks JUST like you, except with brown hair, really really tan skin, about 25 years older, and hot pink lipstick…but other than that, TWINS! I swear, it was wild!

A Day in the Life...

2007-07-07T14:38:00.000-06:00

Okay, sorry about that last entry--terrible! I am still getting used to the keyboards here though, so sorry about that. Anyway, I{m visiting San Jose with a couple other trainees right now, and it{s kind of nice to get out a little bit. I{m really looking forward to seeing other parts of the country, but all in good time, right?

So, I thought I{d write what a typical day is like for me here. I wake up at 5 to the rooster next door (ha! yes, there is a rooster, and I{m in a pretty urban area). I stay in bed till 6 though, then I get up and go for a little run (usually, but I didn{t today). It is very hilly where I am, plus we are at altitude, plus I haven{t really been running regularly for the past few weeks, so needless to say, it is not super relaxing yet. I don{t go for very long. Anyway, I return home, take a shower (not a cold one, yay!), then get dressed and such. My room is all organized, and I am unpacked, so it{s a nice little set up. Then I go into the kitchen and eat gallo pinto, which is a mix of rice and beans. Sometimes I have an egg, or some cheese, or something, and I have the best orange juice I{ve ever had, and even a small cup of coffee. I feel like those commercials for cereal that have the [part of this complete breakfast[ message.

Anyway, then I walk up the road to this little building next to the clinic. It{s kind of like a garage, because it{s made of cement and has an window in front with bars but no glass. I meet with my spanish teacher and two other pc trainees, and we have spanish class. It{s interactive stuff though, and sometimes we have to go ask people on the street about stuff, or we draw pictures and describe them, or whatever. I go home for lunch )more rice and beans, sometimes some chicken, maybe a little salad or avocado) then return for another hour and a half of spanish. Once a week, I have to go to a bigger town for technical training, and that kind of sucks because it is a long day next to a dirty river that doesn{t smell the greatest. Oh well, lo que sea (ie whatever).

So, in the afternoon, I come home, do some homework, have a cafecito with my host parents (a cup of coffee and some crackers or bread or something), and I actually really like the cafecitos. My parents are really sweet, so it{s a good time of the day. Then, I do some more homework or read some of the paper or visit my compañeros (ie pc trainee friends) or go to the nearby internet cafe, or whatever.

At 6, 6:30 ish, we have dinner, which is similar to lunch, but we have fruit afterwards usually. Then just do some more hanging out, homework, reading, whatever, until 8, 8:30 when I am pretty tired, then go to bed. Repeat.

It might sound kind of eh, but actually, I really like it! I have a little routine, and it varies a bit, but it{s nice, and I really like the people I{ve met so far. I might be going to a funeral tomorrow though, so we{ll see how that goes. I wish I had some funny stories to put in here, but maybe I{ll have to wait till next time I post. My time on the internet is almost up anyway. Okay, that{s all for now, until later, ciao! Also, thanks for the emails and such--they are great to read! I really appreciate it. Okay, that{s it.

Í´m in Costa Rica!

2007-07-02T15:20:00.000-06:00

Okay, I have to make this snappy since i´m runnig out of time on the computadora. Also, sorry if there´s weird punctuation, but this keyboard is a little goofy.

Anyway, I am at my host family´s house in CR, near San Jose. I Love love love everything!!!! my host parents are a bit older, retired, and they are very friendly. My spanish is getting better, but wow, i need lots of learning! I placed into intermediate high )much better than I expected yay), so i can´t get kicked out of peace corps for not knowing enough spanish, but there is lots to learn still. i really like the way the spanish classes are set up. i´m getting a real taste of cr, now that we´re done with the retreat.

i drank my first cup of coffee ever yesterday, and my second today. Since I don´t like coffee at all, i can almost drink it black, since it tastes the same to me no matter what. but hey, it´s a cultural learning experience, and maybe someday i´ll love coffee. ahhh only two minutes!!! okay, so the people are great great great. i like my little community. the ticos aka costa ricans are really nice, and so are the pc volunteers. I don´t know what else i can say quickly. okay there´s a community pool right up the road from me, and my companeros de spanish class )interestingly all three of us are the ones from wisco) want to invite some of the other vols to come swim there maybe this weekend. tomorrow all 35 of us are back together for some technical training, which happens approx once per week.

okay, gotta go, love you all!!ª! mucho much!

Welcome to Miami

2007-06-26T16:05:00.000-06:00

Right now I am in Miami, and tomorrow morning I am off to CR!

I didn't expect leaving to be so hard! It all hit me on Sunday, but I made it! I did have a brief urge on the plane to pull a "Sarah from 8B" aka, book a return ticket home as soon as I landed in Miami. But I decided against it and here I am.

Getting to the hotel was a little nervewracking because I had to be the grown-up and figure it all out, but again, here I am. Right away on the shuttle to the hotel, I met about 5 other volunteers (we stand out with our 80 lbs of luggage). We got to the hotel and had lunch in the hotel restaurant, but I could barely eat anything--no one could; I guess we were all nervous! We got into the room where we had staging, and most people were there. It is a group of 35 people, maybe 1/3 male, 2/3 female, most right out of college or just a year or so out. Our training sessions have been a lot of info about Peace Corps, cross-cultural stuff, safety, etc, but they are interactive programs, so we're getting to know each other, and it's kind of fun.

Last night, most everyone took cabs into the city area for dinner. Kind of reminds me of freshman year when no one knows anyone so you stick together like glue... We ate at a cool restaurant that was indoors and outdoors and had lots of colored lights and stuff. It was in this complex that was kind of like a 2-story outdoor mall (the restaurant was upstairs). We hung out at the restaurant for a while, and then came back to the hotel and went to bed. Everyone was really exhausted. Sidenote: there are actually a couple other Wisco natives here, but not from UW Madison. I guess the cheese doesn't stand alone after all, hey? (Okay, sorry that was cheesy...pun intended :) ).

Today we had more training. At one point I looked over and saw two of the three facilitators in the back of the room with a big thing of blue yarn. They were cutting it, and at first, I thought they were playing with a Cat's cradle! I almost burst out laughing, but I kept it in (no Kate-laughs yet :) ).

Well, tonight I think we're just going to chill here, maybe hang out at the pool, relax, since tomorrow's a big day. Yeah that's right, joining the PC = "chilling at the pool"...haha. That will change soon though! I am in charge of all the passports and tickets for the whole group, so...yikes! Just kidding, I won't lose them.

Okay, that's all for now. I won't have any email access till Friday, since I'll be on my arrival retreat. Thanks for the emails and comments so far! It's really good to stay in the loop!

I have InSoMnIa

2007-06-22T00:32:00.000-06:00

In all of college I pulled two all-nighters: one was for "fun", the other was not so fun. In this past week, I've already done one, and I think tonight might be another one. I can't help it--I can't sleep! I am not nervous or anxious or excited; I'm just not tired. I hope this doesn't catch up with me...

So, this is what's left on the agenda: go downtown and pick up some postcards of Racine/Wisc stuff to give to my host family (along with some other stuff), pick up a couple last-minute essentials (i.e. soap...could come in handy), clean my room for once, finish packing, cancel my cell phone, mail some stuff, watch the season finale of the Office (season 3, my brother has it on his ipod), attend Ezra's 1st birthday party, maybe take the boat out one more time, and get my hair trimmed. All in all, it should be a good weekend.

Sorry this is the most exciting thing I have to say as of now. I'm tempted to start making things up... :) Although, this is true: something just fell off my closet shelf, and I am sitting on my bed...spooky...then again, my window is open, and it is kind of breezy. Great, I just ruined that.

My first post!

2007-06-17T20:59:00.000-06:00

I am getting ready for my last week in the US for a while. I just unpacked everything I had packed, and now I am repacking it all. There is a purpose to this. (For example, some things will be folded when they go back in the suitcase). I don't really have anything else to report at the moment...