Well I started my first Kerouac novel. He`s crazy. Hopefully this blog will turn out to report half as many escapades as I make my travels. I love all this time I have for reading! I have been missing out rowing all my free time away. That`s actually not true, I miss crew more than most things. If only there were a way to erg while reading...
Speaking of traveling escapades, I rewarded myself yesterday by spreading my laminated Costa Rican map before me on the teachers` room table during work to plan my future adventures. And oh what adventures they will be! So far, I`ve been invited to travel to the North to a beach called Playa Ostional where every year, for one week, thousands to turtles come to lay their eggs. My job as a volunteer will be seeing to it that the hatched baby turtles make it to the ocean safely. I`ll be working for around 8 hours a day, one shift for sunrise and one for sunset. I am also traveling for my mid-stay orientation (mid-stay!? time is flying) in Nicaragua later next month. Later this month, some of the AFS kids are trying to get together for a weekend together at La Playa Hermosa nature reserve/beach to catch up and enjoy each other's company. I also want to climb Costa Rica`s tallest mountain, Chirripó, which should take about three days, visit the cloud forests of Monteverde, visit my friend Molly in Guanacaste and see the city of David in Panamá. Let`s see how far my Holiday`s waitressing tips will get me. The gorgeous eight-hour bus ride to San Josè costs about 6 dollars. Pu-ra Vi-da!
I haven`t made any new posts recently because a.) it would be pretty difficult to top the impressive craziness of earlier this month and b.) every day Neily feels like less of a vacation and more of a home. I am filling up my free time simulating the same insane schedule I have in the States. Maybe it`s just a natural inclination. Yesterday I was teaching English or preparing for Environmental Week between the National University and the school where I work from 7:30 to 8pm. The best feeling in the world is to walk out from the grey, sopping streets of Neily after a lonely bus ride home to be greeted by my family in warm light and the smell of frying plàtanos. This family life is the best part of the AFS program, and something I wouldn`t have had the chance to experience sight-seeing from hotel to hotel. Our home is like the clubhouse for the whole extended family. Cousins, aunts, boyfriends, babies and grandparents fill the seats. The coffee sock is always straining hot water, the TV is always alive with latin music videos, the rice kettle is always full and so are the pitchers of crazy fruit juice. There is this one juice that looks like bubble tea, but the little fuzzy spheres are potable seeds from the fruit. You have to shake it up or you`ll choke. I feel thankful for my placement into such a loving family. However, I`m not sure of how unusual this home situation is, as I`ve grown aware that Ticos are the very nicest people on Earth.
I take advantage of my waning time, the fact that I have nothing to lose, and extra sympathy and patience I receive as an exchange student by chatting everyone up. Taxi drivers, college students, restaurant owners... everyone is my own private Spanish tutor. And it`s nothing like those grammar lessons out of the dry Spanish curricula at home. These people smile with their eyes and laugh with their whole bodies. I think my favorite symbol of Costa Rican hospitality are the little Sodas that you can find on every street corner. They look like the breakfast nook of any house, but the counter is exposed to the street and lined with about five stools. Inside you can see a normal stove and oven, a fridge and a mix of plastic tableware. You plop down on a stool and tell the cook what you want, and for three dollars you can sip fresh fruit juice and discuss life with the other customers while the woman cooks you a home made meal.
I taught English again today, which is good because that means I don`t have to again until next Tuesday... Last week was culture fest, so I was offered an opportunity to show the school a slide show on powerpoint of my daily life in the states and give a speech in Spanish about it. Everyone loved to see the differences, especially a photo of the snowy arb, and I managed to pass with an air of fluency if I do say so myself. The head nun is fond of me, and I think I`m doing a good enough job that she shows me off to school officials. This will be helpful when I want to ask for travel time off. Really though, I walk into work happy to be there every morning (except Tuesdays, that is!).
My sister`s graduation dinner is this weekend. I think I might actually be proud of her. Not that she`s the typical little sister, as she knows everything here, and I`m essentally incompetent, but all the same.
I`ll leave you with a humorous anecdote: I spend most of my day sitting in the quiet library working. It`s usually empty except for the librarian nun who is generally very quiet. She has huge glasses that magnify her eyes for an animated effect. Anyway, she was the nun who was scared by the plastic alligator at the baby shower. So when she tapped the back of my upturned book with a giant toy iguana, I laughed, unsurprised, to pacify her feelings and continued reading. Then a tail whipped around the table, and I saw the toy blink. I screamed and jumped out of my chair, realizing that this 4 foot monster was alive. The nun merrrily cackled and went outside to put her friend back where she found him. That incident opened up our social sides, and I learn about being a nun from her as I prepare for my lessons.
Pura Vida, Much Love,
Elaine
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