Boots with the Fur

Hello all.. I continue not to be able to make the @ symbol independently, and because no one is home right now, I must first google search Peter Smith´s email address, for example, and copy the at sign before I can log in. This, it turns out, has not been my biggest cultural setback. But in the same way that I solved the ¨@ dilemma¨, I find myself able to overcome most difficult situations. Yeah, it´s great! All I have to do is google search Costa Rican table manners, right there in my chair! Of course, I mean using resourcefulness and flexibility, not google. Removed from the bee-lining efficiency of the states, this round-about method of success is sometimes frustrating. For example, when I wake up from a nap and the house is deserted, my ingenious solution for finding out where everyone is consists of going back to sleep or reading until someone comes home. Works every time!

Well, this week I actually got a job at the school instead of just a title. My days of napping in the classrooms (with the senior class... (yes, they have nap time)), helping to teach English and assisting in gym class with the adorable first graders, reading Malcolm X in the library and drilling my Spanish slang (or Pachuco) flash cards until the bell rings at 2 are over. That´s just as well because I was getting a little antsy after finishing my book. One day at school I was especially tired because I had gone to a huge independence day party the night before in Paso Canoas with a famous live act and I had returned home at around 4am. I spent the day at school propped up on coffee and trying to avoid as much human contact as possible. But as I was boarding my school bus to go home, the head nun told me to get on a different bus. I could have asked her why, but I was too tired to go through the steps of understanding a complicated subjunctive and future-tense sentence in spanish (: ¿Cómo?...Lo siento, no entiendo, más despacio, por favor... Si, pero ¿que debo haccer depués?... etc. I almost always end up pretending I understand when I don´t, after about the third repeat.) So I boarded this alien bus without my sister and dozed until I awoke to someone tapping me to get off the bus... I guess they knew what was going on. I stepped off and into a beautiful home somewhere on the outskirts of Neily.

A woman served me coffee (maybe my 5th cup that day.. it´s so good here) and toast with nutella. Then a man came in and asked me how long I´d been in Costa Rica and how much Spanish I spoke. After I answered him, he said ¨Alright, we will speak English together to make things easier.¨ I was so happy! I hadn´t heard someone addressing me in English since my friends at La Finca. We got in his truck to drive to his office and I found that he was a design head at an architecture office. We went into his cubicle and he said, ¨So tell me what you know about your job,¨. And I had to laugh because up until then, I hadn´t actually assembled all the lazy pieces of my day whose sum was allegedly my volunteer job. He told me that I was going to be in charge of the landscape architecture of the school. ¨I trust you have experience in this field,¨ he said to me as more of a statement than a question.

I marveled at the disorder that has been my placement. Originally, I was assigned here to teach English to underprivileged children at the city´s public school. Now I had been imported as some horticultural expert from the states, sent to rescue the tattered and overgrown surroundings of the wealthiest private school in the area. I suddenly realized that the only possible way my environmental experience had been misconstrued was the bit about my small volunteering stint for Recycle Ann Arbor that appeared on the resumé I sent to AFS (Like my dad said, well just be glad you didn´t write anything about a mild interest in surgery!). At any rate, I wasn't about to deny this charge as A.) I sometimes do stupid things to shake up unbearable monotony, B.) This man had a powerpoint and a task packet of my job all ready to go on his computer, which he had obviously put a lot of effort into and C.) I really like nature, I really like designing things, and I really like challenges.

From the powerpoint I learned that the school has some dangerous and ugly areas that I had yet to see. There were heaps of organic waste in the back, slivery wood piles (according to this man, filled with snakes), a teetering bridge over a rushing river , haphazard and crowded tree layout and dilapidated play equipment. My 6 month job is to essentially solve all of these problems, along with fixing the completely ineffective recycling program and designing new garden and eating areas. If I successfully accomplish these goals, the school would win more stars for their schools environmental flag from the government which currently only has one. The man was flipping through plush gardening magazines, pointing out to me the ones he thought would look best behind the soccer field and so forth... they all looked to be million-dollar jobs. I was handed my packet of instruction and information (in Spanish) and I turned to this designer. ¨I´m excited and honored to try and do all this for the school, but isn´t it a little ambitious?¨. He said, ¨Oh yes! It´s very ambitious! We will be working together. You have access to the money, supplies and man power you need. The school´s gardener will be put to work on the projects with which you need assistance. After you finish drafting up your vision for the lawns, I will have my people come in, and they´ll cut down any trees you see fit to go.¨

AHHHHHHH!!!

Imagine me taking this all in, thanking him and going home in a daze! I had had about two and a half hours of sleep the night before.

So, this week I told myself that I should just go for it and fake it until I make it! Clipboard and pen and nothing else in hand in hand, I walked out to the front garden, my first project. I looked around at the foreign plants (which I label with names like (no joke) ¨big twisty tye-dye plant¨ or ¨the one that sorta looks like a trumpet vine, but it´s not a vine¨) and for the second time laughed to myself. Very professional. I have so far made a couple pirate-style maps of the two front gardens (complete with a paced-griding system) and some drawings of how I´d like to see the play structures look when I´m finished. I´m borrowing a design motif from the school´s beautiful tiles, and the color scheme from the ¨big twisty tye-dye plants´s¨ green, red and yellow leaves. I even drew up plans for Semana Ambiental or Environmental Week, which was fairly easy because student council had tried to get something like that off the ground at Pioneer. I ran my sketches and ideas by the nun, and she seems impressed.

The downside to this new hectic job outlook is that by the end of the school day, when my sister is pleasantly refreshed from her napping and socializing, I am completely tired and in no mood for the endless miscommunications of our Spanish. I only want to curl up with a book. But then I get mad at myself because I feel like I should be invested 100% into all aspects of life here, seeing as I´ve been waiting so long to come, and my main goal is to learn Spanish anyway. I´ve started taking the one and a half hours before lunch to spend continuing my journey through each word in the translation dictionary. I´ve finished every A word and made corresponding flash cards. I now have about 1,000 cards

Hopefully, the weekends will prove more social after I get some rest. I continue to meet Katerina´s slew of really nice, really funny friends in the afternoons, and they seem to enjoy my company, if for nothing more than the novelty of an exchange student. I need to find a way to make myself more socially valuable. Ideas?

PS, I was doing core in front of the television and Wyclef Jean`s new song Fast Car came on... Now do you believe in the super-natural?

Paz y Bein,

Elaine

Fast Car

Fast Car seems to be the theme song to the trip so far. I always hear it at the weirdest times. I get those good music tingles across my skin.

This afternoon I write from a fabulously air conditioned internet cafe I discovered across the street from the supermercado. This place certainly isn`t poverty-stricken, but when you really think about it, there are less luxuries than in Ann Arbor. You really do have to think about it though. Everyone walks around here as proud as any Old West Sider or Burns Parkian. This makes the third worldliness difficult to detect. Now, granted, I know that because of the volunteering nature of AFS, only families that have the means accept exchange kids. I know there are places much worse off. It`s just that things that would seem shabby in the US don`t here. There is a harmony in the tattered signs, rubbled sidewalk, gnarled trees and barefoot children. It`s like the way that everyone drives. In the US, any one Tico driver would be arrested, if not killed first in an accident. But because everyone drives like a maniac together, there is a balance in the chaos. This applies to lack of stress, slow pace and cultural vagueness around time as well. Pura Vida, mae.

On the weekdays, I`ve started waking up at 5 with my sister, Katerina, but because I go to school a couple hours later than her, I take a long run around the city. I can feel how out of shape I am, but at home I talked a big mess about how I`d come back all fit, but the rich food here isn`t going to allow me that. Not without a fight anyway. There`s no way I`m going to diet because A.) I love food too much and dieting never works, B.) I want to be polite and accept all the food I`m offered and C.) because food is one of my best friends, and the papas fritas, gallo pinto and carne asada are as comforting like a letter from home. Plus, the run helps me become more familiar with this little town, and the sunrise over the mountians is astounding. Every day, I try to remind myself to never take the scenery for granted, because every day, it feels more and more like home.

Yesterday, I went on a beautiful long bike ride with Lijia and Natalia, two friends from school. We went outside of Neily towards a pool, but a huge thunderstorm suddenly crashed over us. The biggest rainbow I`ve ever seen stretch out of the mountains as the pavement sizzled and flooded. Once back downtown, the people all laughed to see the sopping gringa. I`m trying to be seen in public as much as possible, but I still get those staring looks. I don`t mind, really. I`ve never had reason to be different than the people around me, and for now, it`s kind of fun.

I have been voraciously reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I try not to let it take time away from being social, but it`s engrossing. I have a lot of respect for him, but qualms as well. It`s a difficult read for any white "devil", I think. While not everything he says is easy to accept, or even true, it`s understandable once he backs up his opinions with personal anecdotes or history. That is, except for his hypocritical view of women. Using his same justification for calling the white person the devil, the same could implicate the male gender. At any rate, I`m not finished with the book, maybe he reforms these hypocrisies. I only bring it up, because I`ve been thinking about him a lot. Following his example of time spent in jail, I decided today that I was going to take control of my Spanish education and learn the entire English-Spanish dictionary. I`ve finished five out of 340 pages today.

Okay, I`m out of time.

Love to everyone,

Elaine

Detroit Red, Cleaned Up

Hey everyone. It´s my last day at the home of my liaison, Lorena and her husband, Victor. It´s cooler today than it has been, which is a sigh of relief for my poor gringa armpits. It doesn´t seem like anything has happened in the last three days, but I guess a lot has. 

After my last post, I went to church with Lorena. I continue to not understand the value of that ritual. Yes, it is a nice community gathering, a place to meet people with common morals, and a way to spend time together as a family. It is not, however, a useful place for piety or reflection. Just as it is in the states, my thoughts are stolen by the off key singing, loud children and drone of fans as I sit cramped against strangers, sweating together in the pews. It doesn´t make sense to me to give thanks to a paternal entity in a group, or inside for that matter, anyway. I feel most at peace with God when I´m rowing in the eight on the Huron, surrounded by nature and serenity. It´s then that I truly appreciate life and this beautiful world we live in. ...Religious rant aside, at least it serves as a useful vocabulary lesson. 

On Sunday, Victor, Lorena and I climbed into Victor´s monster SUV, and we made our way to Las Gambas, or The Roots, for a natural excursion. I really enjoyed myself there. We learned about all the different plants and their uses. There was one plant that our guide kept trying to explain to me, but I couldn´t understand, so finally, frustrated, he sighed and wiped his butt with one of the leaves. ...Oh, gotcha. Our guide was a really cool dude. He had two Lord of the Rings-y pieces of jewelry that he made himself out of gold he sifted out of the waterfall. They were gorgeous, I´ll post pictures later. We made our way down to a beautiful waterfall that crashed down over smooth black rocks. I changed into my suit and happily played in the fresh water reenacting all of the waterfall-postcard poses I could think of, and sun dried on a rock. It´s just too beautiful here. It doesn´t seem like this place could be a home. And it is my home, so I´d better get that worked out. When we finished out hike, the guide´s relative cooked us comida tipica in a rustic open air bar. All of a sudden a woman clicked on the TV and speakers, blaring US rap and near pornographic music videos. I am really self concious about the way people here must think about the US when I see the sources of their information. Somehow ridiculous reality shows like Dr. 90210 and Denise Richards (colon) It´s Complicated it across the boarder, but I can´t find a channel playing anything intelligent from the states... wait, is there anything like that? I´d give up my gallo pinto for a month to see an episode of Arrested Development. 

I was telling my friend Scott that no one understands that I´m weird here, yet. I´m this normal, polite, pleasant exchange student. It´s awful. I don´t have the knowledge to be perverse or sarcastic or anything besides normal. Thanks a lot, Spanish 5AP! We spent a year on the subjunctive tense, and no one ever even bothered to teach me the equivalent of a that´s what she said! joke. Oh well, all good things will come with time.

I move back in with my family today, which will be a good change. ´m excited to become part of the Reyes family. Everyone is so nice. I went to the school where I´ll be working today, and attended classes with my sister, Katerina. It´s my second day of doing that. I have a lot of contact with my bosses, the nuns, but they keep sending me to class instead of putting me to work. It sort of seems like I don´t have a job. My AFS friend, Asger, is in the same ¨predicament¨, but as far as I can tell it´s not really a problem. I´ll just find useful ways to fill my time. Victor said something about maybe getting me a column in the local paper to write about my experiences which would be really cool. 

Anyway, all the kids in the senior class at the school were really nice to me. I helped them practice English in their class and we joked around a little. I hope I´ll make friends with them while I´m here. I HAVE to start doing something with my period from 2 to 10PM, or I´ll die.

I hope everyone is well and maybe even enjoying the first of the fall colors.

Much Love,

Elaine

August Rain

Hello everyone. Sorry it took me so long to log back on, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to make the @ symbol. I just conquered that cultural battle after about 4 minutes of randomly hitting buttons.

So as long as I'm keeping a cliche' travel blog, I thought I might as well go ahead and make an on-going list of stupid ways I've messed up for our entertainment.

1.) For two days I used sunscreen as shampoo because I couldn't read the print on the bottle. In my defense, it was in German, in my offense, it said SPF 30 on it. I couldn't figure out how the heat was making my hair that greasy.

2.) When the nice cook at La Finca was serving me food, I asked Como' se llama? in reference to her name, as she served me bananas. She thought I was asking what bananas were called, and she answered, Banano. For three days after that, I called her Banano.

3.) I called the beach a derogatory work for gay person by switching my a and o.

...Surprisingly, I believe that's the extent of my faus pas espanolas.

Let's see, right now I'm living with my super duper nice AFS liason, Lorena, and her husband, Victor, because the Reyes family had to take Francini to Guanacaste for a four month internship, and they didn't have room in the car for me. That's just as well because I didn't really feel like sitting in a packed car for 11 hours. This house is way nicer than my own in the US, which is a little strange to get used to. The same argument could be made for the Reyes' home with three huge TVs, a state of the art kitchen, etc. Obviously, it's nothing to complain about, but the life-style certainly doesn't seem standard for a third world country.

I'm enjoying all the contact with my friends and family. I received a letter from Lilia yesterday and it brightened up my whole morning. Today, I spent most of the day making about 300 flashcards of words I learned in class at La Finca. I think it's the only way I'll be able to quickly learn what I need to, even though the plastic bag filled with words I don't know is a little intimidating. Today, I also helped Lorena cook a yummy lunch. We talked more about the political repercussions of the TLC program and about my new job. Yesterday, I found out my job has been switched from teaching English at the public school, to being the horticultural specialist (I'm pretty sure aka, groundskeeper) at the private, Catholic school. That's fine. I don't really care what I do as long as I'm doing something, and learning Spanish while I'm doing it. Also, when I'm not at work, I'll be able to have fun with my family and their friends. Two nights ago, we went bar and club hopping until 4 AM, which was pretty crazy. I can't believe people stay out so late on a Thursday in such a small town.

Going to Panama' is a normal activity, as I've been three times now. Everyone agrees La Fronterra is really ugly, but it's true that the prices are hella cheap, which we all enjoy. I bought two pairs of nice roll-up H&M shorts for 10 bucks, USD! I'm sure there are more attractive parts of Panama, but the skinny dogs, drug addicts and lurking prostitutes put a bad taste in my mouth... NOT literally regarding any of the aforementioned facets of life on the boarder.

At 6 this evening I'll be headed to church with Lorena so that tomorrow we can get up early and go see a waterfall!

Everything remains fresh and fun here in Ciudad Neily.

Pura Vida,

Elaine

Hola de Ciudad Neily, Mi Casa Nueva

Well I made it! I sit here in the spacious, cozy and colorful Reyes home in Cuidad Neily in the San Vito valley. The birds looping what sounds like a Planet Earth soundtrack outside as the rain lightly patters on the fenced barrio. 

After I made my last post, I took a nap in the guest room of Paula´s little house and woke up with a start, soaked in sweat. I think I´m going to stop taking this Malaria medication because there is no threat of illness, but the dreams are getting annoying. Last night I dreamt I was backstage at the musical Wicked with a pizza delivery boy and Sarah Holmes. Too much. Anyway, later my padre adoptiva, Ronald came home with Paula and her boyfriend. Together we ate a delicious dinner of beans, rice, Guanauana and my first red meat in what feels like a month. The RNC was on TV, and I did my best not to act as I would have at home as the red-clad crowd yipped about freedom fries and their love of our current vacador. I still think I may have gotten my point across though, because when W. reared his head, Ronald said Mira! Tu mejor amigo! I´m upset to be away from the electric political scene that must be buzzing in Ann Arbor right now, but my dad e-mailed me my absentee ballot today, so at least I´ll be able to vote. 

I spent the night in San Jose and the nest morning, Ronald took me to get new tires for Paula´s car. This turned out to be a three-hour ordeal because we were searching for the best price and the actual installation was took an hora tica, but I got to watch Spanish cartoons in the waiting room which was fun. (On a total side note, Wheatus fans will be delighted to hear that the credit song on the animated Jackie Chan cartoon show is an altered version of Punk A** B****!) Ronald is a very nice father. He wanted to pick up a mango for Paula and he tried three different Pulperias to find her one. It reminded me of my parents. Strangely no one in San Jose seemed to have mangoes, so we settled on nectarines and watermelon. 

After dropping her car off, we set out on the five-hour car ride to el sur. I tried my best get into the first chapters of Malcolm X, but the view was completely unbelievable. We sped up out of the valley into the mountains and once we broke out of the clouds, I saw the most beautiful vista of my life. It occurred to me that if the Alps were baked potatoes, the central range of Costa Rica would be steaming garlic buttered mashed potatoes... don´t try to read into that, it just popped into my head (potato metaphor... oh yeah, that´ll look great in the blog). Ronald has made that trip many times, and it was so fun to drive with him, going triple the speed limit, switch-backing like crazy, but a feeling of safety too. He let me put on a CD listening to Paul sing Go the Distance coated memories of La Finca and home in syrupy nostalgia, as good memories often are when returned to in long car rides.

I fell asleep for the last two hours of the trip, and awoke drool-coated to a roaring birthday party in the Reyes home. This was a little overwhelming, until I realized I could put the yelling, zeal and commotion into the context of a Harmon family gathering. After that, I felt right at home and did my best to joke around with the extended Reyes family. I met my mom, Magaly, and my two other sisters, Katerina and Francini who all seem so nice. I was shown to my own (hyper pink) room at around 10 where I unpacked and crashed.

I woke up at 8 this morning and ate gallo pinto con platanos y carne with my sister Francini and her best friend who stayed the night. Now we´re going to travel the 15 minutes to Panama where everything, especially the perfume, is supposed to be really cheap. ...I think I received the correct placement.

Ama y paz,

Elaine

Hola (esta vez) de San Jose!

This time I write from the comfortable little house of my host sister, Paula. Her two yappy dogs, Tomas and Pancho, are happily licking my ankles. The last few days have been a total blur. To try and catch up, I will use the photos on my camera to remember what has happened. 

After we spent time in the internet cafe in Cartago, we all went to the SuperMercado to buy things we need and to experience what it´s like to shop in a big town instead of the modest and friendly pulperias of La Flor. There wasn´t much of a difference except you had to check all of your belongings at the front desk before you shopped. I really hate carrying my passport around. It makes me so nervous! My friend Molly and I decided to thank the patient, nice and all around incredible staff of the finca by making a chocolate cake for everyone. We bought everything we needed with the best of our spanglish. (I couldn´t remember the word for oil (acete) and I tried describing it by saying, when you mix it with water, it goes on top... I am obviously an Ezekiel.) After we bought everything we needed, we all went to the bus station to hitch a ride back to La Flor. The bus was over two hours late. This is the cultural pace of Costa Rica affectionately known as La Hora Tica. We ended up having to take a cab, but the ride was so beautiful up the mountains with all the stars and city lights, that I´m glad we did. Fast Car by Tracy Chapman came on the radio and we all sang along, crawling up the rubble to la finca. 

In the end, the queque turned out beautifully, and after our closing play during cultural talent night in the common room, we brought it out with sparklers and little sugar roses. 

The most fun I´ve had here in my time so far has been the day we rented the local soccer field, and about 20 of the kids and instructors played soccer for hours. It had been so long since I had played an actual game, and I was amazed at both how naturally the muscle memory came back to me, and the amount of pain I felt the next morning. We only stopped because a cloud descended upon the field, and you could hardly see anyone.

For the one of the evening activities we watched La Ciudad del Silencio which was a movie about the negative social consequences of TLC or CAFTA on Mexico and Central America. The film was startling and upsetting and we discussed it in class for over two hours. Although troubling, it felt good to become more informed about the politics in Central America and especially Costa Rica. On a lighter note, the next night we learned the hypnotizing Brazilian form of dance-fighting called Capuera. It was one of the most beautiful art forms I have ever witnessed. Last night, one of our instructors named Alan and his girlfriend taught us more advanced Meringue and gave us a Fire-Poi show. I took some photos that I´m very excited about.

This morning I had to pack my bags and leave the farm at around 1 which was very sad for me. I feel that somehow I want to become a farmer there for a year. The people were so in tune with nature, so interesting and so light-hearted. They offered me a volunteer job outside of Cartago if I was interested. It was difficult to say goodbye to my new friends, as a few of us piled in the jeep taxi to go to the AFS office in San Jose. We stayed up very late on our last night together, sharing languages, music and smoke rings. I was dreading the lonely 8 hour bus ride ahead of me, but to my surprise my host sister, Paula was waiting for me at the office! She is really nice, beautiful and fluent in English. She is a Civil Engineer who specializes in columns and posts. She went to work at 2 and will be there until 5 while I anxiously await meeting my host father and our ride to Ciudad Neily tomorrow morning.

I wonder if things will stop feeling so charmed, because it´s almost disconcerting how everything is working out so magically. 

Hast Luego,

Elaine