At least the wallpaper hasn’t changed

December 8, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged

Perhaps, if you’ve been visiting here for a while, you’ve noticed I’ve added a few nifty features to the sidebar. Or maybe you’re new here (welcome! Come on in! Take a seat! Care for some coffee?) and haven’t yet had the time to investigate what all’s here. (Or maybe you’re neither, and shall be named “other readers.”)

Hello, "other readers"!

So for my meticulously observant readers, my heartily welcomed visitors, and my “other readers,” here’s a couple things I want to highlight:

  • You can subsribe by e-mail to my blog! That’s on the sidebar right above the search box (third item down). Using that, or the RSS feed, you can receive a notification every time I post something new.
  • My blog posts that have been popular recently are now listed in the sidebar, if you scroll down far enough (below my Twitter posts).
  • This isn’t really a new feature, but you can keep up with the latest comments under “What’s happening?” and that’s probably the most useful feature you need to know about.

Of course, I added those things to help you, and I hope you like them and use them. Now, in return for my oh-so-gracious user-friendliness, you can do me a favor and tell your friends about my blog and leave comments. :) Also, be looking forward to more stories of MVNU on-campus life once I return to normal classes in January! Yes, Virginia, there is life after study abroad. (And that life begins within the next 48 hours. I cannot believe how quickly this wonderful adventure has gone!)

Leave a comment »

The beach, a week later

December 6, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged , , ,

I never got to tell you about my wonderful second visit to Manuel Antonio, did I?

To start off with, it was a beach, which (I hope) conjures up images of scrumptious clouds, sultry sunshine, glistening sand and undulating waves, because that’s exactly what I experienced there. (How’s that for a few ACT-prep-worthy words?) But really, a lovely opportunity such as that is made ten times better with the addition of some friends.

Including crazy friends such as these.

Although my fellow MVNU Spanish major on the left has been with us since August, the guy on the right flew down over MVNU’s Thanksgiving break specifically to visit us and renew his acquaintance with Costa Rica. His name is Jonathan, and I’ll let him tell you about the weekend himself.

I decided I was going to spend this year’s Thanksgiving in Costa Rica during this past summer. I wanted to spend some time with my Tico friends and family and I wanted to visit my friends who were going to be studying there this semester.

I was very thankful to be able to spend such a wonderful time there. I enjoyed Thanksgiving both with my MVNU friends and with the wonderful family I was staying with. It was also such a pleasure and such a great time to go on a paseo with the group studying there. We went to Manuel Antonio National Park and enjoyed the beautiful beach while it was freezing cold in Ohio. It was especially fun for me because I have visited Costa Rica twice before and on my first visit I experienced the beauty of Manuel Antonio and on the second visit I was unable to do so. It was great to see it again and to spend a little extra time just exploring it, seeing monkeys, defending our bags and food from raccoons and watching tiny crabs scurry across the sand.

Jonathan spent the fall of 2008 in the same Costa Rica study-abroad program as I have just completed, and is currently finishing up his senior year at MVNU as a Spanish major. When he returned to campus last January, he brought me a “Costa Rica” beaded bracelet, and that’s when I really began to look forward to coming to Costa Rica. I peppered him with questions and began to realize that I would really be able to live, in real life, in a foreign country!

P.S. During one of our many bus rides to the beach, Jonathan told me his mom read my blog, which was quite a pleasant surprise to me. Hello, Mrs. Jonathan’s Mom! :)

Leave a comment »

Climate change (annual style)

December 6, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged ,

For the last few weeks, Costa Rica has felt like it can’t make up its mind about the weather.

Sometimes the sky decides to pour down rain upon us, though it’s hot outside. Other times, it’s cool enough that we wear jackets outside in the good breezes, when it’s maybe 70 degrees out.  (Yes I know 70 degrees is very warm. But you get used to it being in the 80s, and lower 70s are almost cold!)

And still other times, sometimes it decides to be nice and hot again, like today. I went to a fair over in a local park wearing a tank top, and I was still sweating. In December.

My host family has told me this crazy weather, especially the cool breezes (and resultant need for jackets) is the Costa Rican herald of Christmas.

This is another clue.

Usually in November and into the beginning of December, the weather changes from the rainy season to the dry season, and the winds cool down for a while right around Christmas before everything heats back up again. The States, especially Ohio, get frosts to accompany the Christmas anticipation; we in Costa Rica get nice cool breezes. It’s part of being in a tropical zone! (The downside is that, after the weather is finished changing, it gets really really hot.)

As Dennis pointed out in a comment on my last post, Christmas during such warm weather is actually normal for much of the world. Funny what you realize when you get out of your familiar surroundings, isn’t it?

I hope you students who read my blog are finishing the halfway point in the school year well, and that you enjoy your Christmas vacation. I will be starting my Christmas break in four days, with a plane flight to the States. More later on how much I will miss it here.

Leave a comment »

Biodiversity

December 4, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged , , ,

Costa Rica has an amazing climate… the Ticos celebrate Christmas in sleeveless shirts and shorts!

But besides the comfort of not having to bundle up in parkas to leave the house, Costa Rica’s  climate allows a lot of cool plants to grow.

Yep, including cactus.

And flowers that look like spirals!

We learned quite a bit about the various kinds of forests (and the accompanying flora and fauna) in Costa Rica during our visit to the InBioParque (English link), an educational zoo-like park intended to educate Ticos and tourists about the biodiversity that Costa Rica is blessed with.

(I just happen to love spiral, swirly plants.)

It’s amazing to think how many different Tico animals we could see.

OK, so maybe that last picture wasn’t of a zoo animal…

But the oddest thing about Costa Rican biodiversity?

DEER ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES.

Comments (2) »

Quick one: Thanksgiving

December 3, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica, Quick One · Tagged , ,

OK, so I know it’s been a week since Thanksgiving… but I’ve finally gotten around to uploading some photos!

This is me, one of my friends, and my little Tica sister at Thanksgiving. My hermanita was wearing one of our Indian paper hats.

All 12 of us MVNU students worked together to put on a huge Thanksgiving dinner for our Tica families! We cooked 4 turkeys, and made lots of food to go along with the meat: stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and 3 kinds of pie.

That is my recipe of sweet potato casserole. It's topped with some... very cute, unique marshmallows.

We also wore paper Indian and Pilgrim hats, and explained the history behind the U.S. Thanksgiving celebration. Unfortunately I didn’t take as many photos of the preparations/meal as I would have liked, but I’m hoping to get some from another camera-happy friend.

Coming soon: Highlights from another trip to Manuel Antonio, and pictures (plus stories) from working at the day care! I will also be explaining some of the photos from the biological park we visited.

Comments (2) »

Music is the soul of life

December 1, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica, Musings · Tagged

Let me start by saying this weekend was amazing. As in, you can’t beat kayaking on the Pacific for an hour and a half. :)

On the long van ride back to the city (during which we were packed like sardines in the van), a friend let me listen to a song or two on her iPod. Then another friend had me listen to a horrible rendition of “O Holy Night” (which only exists because it’s so bad it’s funny).

Then I found that Amazon had free music downloads (obviously completely legal), so I browsed through those last night and found a bunch that I liked. Including “Pat-A-Pan” from Mannheim Steamroller! That is one of my favorite traditional Christmas songs.

And to top this all off, I got to sing in a Christmas choir concert tonight. Beyond all my expectations, a group of students got together a month ago, polished up three Christmas choral arrangements, and sang them tonight; and a friend of mine rounded up a few other performances (a solo and a couple bands) and a Gospel message to present. Somehow, a nice idea a month ago turned into a wonderful hour-and-a-half concert/Christmas story presentation tonight. It’s amazing what God can do, isn’t it?

But anyways. Music is the soul of life because… well, because it just is. Because wherever I walk, I have a song playing in my head… and I often whistle it. Because music has the power to put me in a melancholy mood or to pull me from such a mood into a mood of exhilaration. But mostly because I quite literally cannot imagine what life might be like without music.

I really wonder–do deaf people feel music differently? Do they have a sort of music within themselves that substitutes for our addiction to the radio and iPods? I figure I would have songs running through my head if I ever lost my hearing… but still, what about people who were born deaf?

Even Beethoven had his hearing when he started composing music, although he had lost it by the time he died. Would he have been such a composer, I wonder, had he never been able to hear?

Is there life without music? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it to me.

Leave a comment »

Thanksgiving!!!

November 26, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged , , ,

Wow. You know, for temporarily living in a country where Thanksgiving is not celebrated, I’ve been surprisingly conscious of its coming arrival. I’ve been thinking about it even more than I would living in the States!

That, you see, is because I and the other MVNU students are preparing a large, grande, or even grandísimo meal tomorrow for our Tica families. In other words, we prepared food tonight to feed 70 people.

This included a lot of turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, ]potatoes (which will actually be made into mashed potatoes tomorrow), green beans (for the green bean casserole, also to be made tomorrow), and of course pies (4 each of pecan, apple, and pumpkin). Then, tomorrow we’re cooking half of that, plus making the bread rolls and such. A montón of things to do!

Furthermore, we just celebrated my birthday this week. My birthday always falls pretty close to Thanksgiving, but having both in the same week has been crazy (a good kind of crazy). I was out till about eleven the day we celebrated my birthday, and had to be up the next morning before seven in order to work four hours with 16 children under the age of 2 and a half. Tiring, right? But worth it.

Then, early this Friday morning we will be going to the beach again–Manuel Antonio, where we’ve been before, but this time we’ll get to visit the national park there and spend the whole day. I’m quite excited.

And on top of all that–a friend of mine, who was here in Costa Rica last fall for his Spanish major, has come for a visit this week and is staying till Monday. Suffice to say, I’ve had a lot of fun stuff to do.

Pictures of Thanksgiving preparations (and all the other stuff) will be forthcoming. A lot of crazy stuff happened tonight, especially, and I haven’t the time to tell you all about it because I need sleep before the big day tomorrow. :)

Leave a comment »

Life in a Tica house (kitten edition)

November 21, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged , ,

So, here I was, sitting at the kitchen table. I was using my laptop, minding my own business.

I left the room for one minute to put some homework away, and when I came back, I heard a sound…. “miaow.”

Picture this. I, the gringa student alone in the Tica house. A kitten is in the house.

I see the kitten, it sees me, and we start a merry little chase. I yell “scram.” It leaps behind the Christmas tree and clambers up the curtains. Then it walks the tightrope-like path on the curtain rod over to the other side of the room… and I am standing there thinking “that is not my idea of scram.”

Then, the kitten (we shall name him Kitty) jumps from the curtain rod to the top of the entertainment center and perches himself right up there in the middle of its uppermost shelf. And doesn’t move. I keep telling Kitty to “scram,’ but he is a Spanish-speaking kitty and doesn’t understand me. (Or so I tell myself.)

Thus, I retrieve a handy mop from the kitchen and return to threaten Kitty with it. Apparently, Kitty does not take this as a sign to leave, but to plant himself and watch me carefully. After a little bit of fruitless waving-of-the-mop, I finally get Kitty to move off the entertainment center.

Back to the curtain rod. *Sigh.*

I wave the mop at Kitty again, and this time he leaps more quickly. Oooh, maybe he’ll run off! But no, he leaps for the entertainment center again. And misses. And falls behind the entertainment center.

Lucky for me, and for Kitty, there is just enough space between the entertainment center and the wall for Kitty to walk. If only Kitty would take advangate of it! This time, I use my flashlight to try and scare Kitty out from behind the entertainment center. Kitty just sits there, so I use the mop again. Kitty moves away, but is still behind the entertainment center….

This goes on for another minute or two. Finally, Kitty moves to the corner of the room, just barely out from behind the entertainment center. Here I see my chance! Kitty is crouched just under the side edge of the entertainment center, so he can’t see where I’m putting the mop… right behind him. I nudge Kitty on his rump… he moves forward… realizes he has a clear shot back to the kitchen and back door, and finally makes his getaway!

My family returns home five minutes later… and I begin reenacting the story for my Tica mamá. She then proceeds to tell me how much she hates cats and we laugh and exchange stories. (Once she had three kittens in the house, one in her son’s room, and the other two in the furniture.)

Comments (1) »

Bananas Foster exists here too!

November 19, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged ,

Bananas foster

That is what is called Bananas Foster in the MVNU cafeteria. Of course, it’s not served in that large or fancy a dish in the MVNU caf (or it wasn’t last I checked, in the spring). It’s an amazing dessert, and I have sorely missed the occasional days it was served in the caf. Until last weekend, when I discovered something called “banano flambiado” on the menu at our hotel. I was quite happy.

Restaurant

That's the restaurant that served me this fabulicious dessert.

Anyhow. The weekend in Guanacaste was wonderful; we got to spend most of our time on the beach, but also visited a major historical landmark in the area. Unfortunately we arrived at the landmark–a large house turned museum–about ten minutes after the tours had stopped for the day and the house had been shut. We fortunately still got to see some stuff in the adjacent mini-museum, and the outside, so our bus ride there wasn’t completely wasted. Of course I took a lot of pictures, as always….

Costa Rica #11: Guanacaste

Leave a comment »

Idiay!

November 19, 2009 · Filed under Costa Rica · Tagged

That, friends, is a very common exclamation in Costa Rica. It’s pretty much like “woah” I think.

Other random Tica words are:

–mae (like “dude” and used at least as often)

–pura vida (literally “pure life” and a very acceptable complete response to “how are you?”)

The hard thing about some words, though, is that you just have to learn how to use them from context. So, I haven’t exactly figured out what in particular “idiay” can be used for…

P.S. Yes, pictures will be up soon! I have to work on homework first though. :)

Leave a comment »

« Previous entries
Next Page »