PICTURES!!!

Our lovely little beach (playa blanca) at the end of the day

Best Ceviche of my life

My dad... probably making fun of me

View from an island in Puntarenas

Dinner in Limon followed by dancing in the hottest weather imagineable... but way worth it

Adam with the most giant pig known to humans

My future family and dinner in less than two months

Lengua de Vaca (cow tongue) and some other goodness

Me and my sister at Volcan Poas

21!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow
I´m not sure where to begin. I feel like it´s been forever since I´ve last blogged, and now I have so much to say. If I was only to write one more word to describe the past week it would be "beach goodness," which is actually two. Thankfully I wont only be writing that one word, but most likely a novel or two again.

Last weekend was our Limón trip from friday to sunday. Something I´m extremely thankful for in this program is how much I´m learning about the culture. It would be easy to just travel around Costa Rica somewhat removed from reality while hardly getting to know the people you encounter. But one of the main reasons we went to Limón was to understand poverty in Costa Rica from an Indigenous and Afro-Costarican perpective. There was a lot of preparation before we left with speakers and reesarch. We were also required to interview 3 people in San Jose before we left, and 3 people while in Limón about poverty. All I can say is that it made me see Limón, and Costa Rica in general, for more than just it´s beaches, although that was a huge part of it, it´s been a healthy mix of fun and learning. But I´ll try not to bore you with the school stuff too much.

On our way to Limón we stopped at 3 different plantations (fincas). I don´t think I´ve ever been to any type of plantation, so all 3 were new to me. The first was coffee. A plantation I probably should´ve visited a long time ago considering how much I drink. The second was a pineapple plantation, which in case you were wondering, pineapples from the ground out of bushes. First, I thought they grew on trees... silly me. Then I thought they grew IN the ground. But no, they grow from these weird plants. The third was a Del Monte Banana plantation, which was loud and exciting, and we got a bunch of free bananas.

During our drive to Limón, we could immediately tell by the weather when we had reached the Carribean. Once we finally got there the weather was unbelievable. It was some of the hottest, stickiest, most humid weather I´ve EVER experienced. I´m not what I was expecting but I wasn´t prepared for the massive amount of sweating I did the entire weekend. Showers felt pointless, and towels were useless, since nothing is dry there. Although it was uncomfortable at the beginning, you get used to it quick, since everyone around you is equally sweaty.

Saturday was the best day of our trip, mostly because it was my BIRTHDAY!!! We started the day by visiting an indigenous reservation of a tribe called the Bribri. The reservation was crazy. They raise animals and grow all of their own food, but the biggest thing they farm are Iguanas. Iguanas are realy important to them not only for food, but also help replenish the forest. They are extremely in touch with nature, and always seek new ways to sustain the resources they consume. But they are also really marginalized in Costa Rica, and hardly have a say in any political decisions. They receive little medical care, and many times the government treats them as if they don´t exist.

After that, we went to a nearby national park, Cahuita, where there were tons of beautiful beaches. As I was swimming in crystal clear, warm water, while everyone in my group sang me happy birthday, I thought to myself, "I´ll probably never have a birthday like this again." And it´s true. We spent several hours at the beach, and although it wasn´t very sunny, everyone had a really good time. When we got back, we had an authentic carribean meal, which was amazing, followed by dancing, with music from a live carribean band. Literally, one of the best birthdays I´ve ever had.

The next day we went home, and I immediately appreciated my situation in San Jose more than before I left. The weather, which I use to think was hot and humid, felt dry. And my house, which sometimes made me squirm with cockroaches, felt like a mansion after seeing the wasy people live in Limón. That afternoon when I got home, I decided to eat an early dinner. Then I found out that it was my cousins birthday and that we were going to their house to eat more. Basically I´ve never eaten that much in my life. I´ve learned how to say no to food at my host home, but when I´m a guest at a different home, it´s harder. Sooooo either I ate so much that I made myself sick that night and next day, or I had a bug. Who knows.

On monday my family surprised me and told me that since I wasn´t in San Jose for my birthday, they wanted to take me to the beach on Tuesday, which was Independence Day. Woo hoo, more beaches! So since everyone has school and work off on September 15th, yesterday we went to a city called Puntarenas to a beach called Playa Blanca. It was equally, if not more beautiful than Limón. Like nothing I´ve ever seen. There were vendors that came by selling fresh Ceviche and Coconuts, and the sand was made of only seashells. I basically spent 8 hours in paradise all in the name of independence and my birhtday. I definitely wouldn´t say that I´m living a vacation here everyday, although it sounds like it, but it´s crazy to me that I can drive only 2 hours to places many people dream of vacationing. Very fortunate.

One downer, is that during the past two trips to the beach, I´ve gotten water in my ear that wont come out. So on top of not always being able to understand the language, I´m now part deaf. Great. Hopefully they have something at the store that can take care of this little problem.

I definitely could say way more, but now my fingers are tired of typing. I´ll try to write again before we leave for Nicaragua on Monday, but if not I wont have any communication while we´re there for two weeks. So if you have anything to say before I leave, ya better do it soooooooon. Much love

P.S.- please please please comment and leave me updates about yourselves. I really miss you all!

Tembloresssssss

Hello again,
I´m writing to you happily from an internet cafe after a sweet weekend of hikes, earthquakes, dance clubs, and of course, more cockroahes. They just seem to love me.

The weekend started off well when one of my friends invited me to her host sisters bday at an electronic dance club. I´ve never been to an electronic dance club, so I thought I´d give it a whirl. Her host sister, Priscilla, was turning 18. Turns out 18 is like 21 in the U.S. but even better because that´s basically the age you can do anything (driving, drinking, tobacco), but probably not good to combine them all. As we went out I thought to myself, "how many more birthdays am I going to have to celebrate in the name of drinking before my own?" Then I remembered my own is just around the corner, Finalmente! Anyways, the club was good, but I think I would have preferred different music. All in all it was really great to hang with Costa Ricans and keep speaking the spanish.

The next day me and three of my friends from the program attempted to go on a hike. We took a series of buses to Coronado which eventually led to the Cloud Forest (Las Nubes). By the time we finally reached the town where the mountain was located we didn´t really have time to hike. But it didn´t matter much because we were all just happy to be out of the city and in a less concrete landscape. The town we were in was beautiful and I actually took pictures for once so I´ll upload them soon!

As soon as we got back to San Jose I quickly went home to change and then headed downtown to watch the Costa Rica/Mexico game. At first we went to this americanized restaurant, which didn´t feel as authentic as our game watching could be. So at halftime we ventured to a Costa Rican bar and truely experienced the thrill of Futbol. Sadly, Costa Rica lost, but the experience and atmosphere was still awesome.

When I got home from the game I immediately went to bed after being out all day. As I was sitting in my bed writing in my journal my bed started shaking a bit. If I haven´t already mentioned I share a bunk bed with my host sister. She´s on the top and I´m on the bottom. I thought she was just having some dream that involved her thrashing around. But about 5 minutes later my Papi burst into the room and said, "¿Tiene miedo? Fue un temblor." Are you scared? There was an earthquake. Apparently my host sister thought I was doing the same thing. So I guess earthquakes don´t scare us.

Yesterday was the best day of the weekend, in my opinion. At around 11 am, my Papi called home from work and asked if I had a lot of schoolwork. I said no, even though I did, and he said the whole family was going to go to the Volcano Poas. After a crazy 2 hour car ride there, we finally reached Alajuela, the town where the volcano is. It was one of the coolest things I´ve ever seen. First we saw a lagoon, then the HUGE crater where apparently there´s a lot of lava underneath the water, but all we could see was green water and smoke. Still an amazing site. Afterwards we went to a restaurant where I tried the Lengua de Vaca (cow tonge). To be honest it tasted like beef, but just knowing it was the tongue, and after seeing it raw in my family´s meat shop, I could only take one bite. The best part of the day was just spending time with my family. I´ve never felt so at home with another family in such a short amount of time. They are extremely patient when I speak, or atleast when I try, and always take the time to explain things when I don´t understand, which is a lot.

Basically, I´ve really been enjoying myself here. Now that I have an idea of the city, transportation, and am in a routine, I feel the possibilities are endless. In 4 days we leave for Limon and I can´t wait to see the town. I don´t think it´s a vacation, so much as school. But that aint stoppin me from going to the beach and livin it up on my bday.

I hope everyone is doing well and, as always, I miss you :)
Buenas Noches!!!!

Cockroaches and Marijuana

Ha I knew my title would get you all excited to read this blog. No I haven´t smoked any blunts... yet, haha just kidding just kidding. But my blog does have some good stories.

To start, this last weekend was, to be honest, one of the hardest weekends of my college life. I think it hit me that I´m going to be living in this country for the next 3 months away from home. To suddenly be stripped away from everything you take for granted (car, english language, internet, cell phones, and other conveniences) is a bit taxing, as well as being in a place where you have no idea where you are. But as different as it´s been, it´s all turned out really well.

Feeling that way encouraged me to get out and explore the city. So I now know the bus system really well. And it also made me realize that this is an opportunity of a life time and I don´t want to spend it missing home constantly. Although, I´ll always be thinking of you all, I just don´t want that to keep me from seeing and experiencing things here. The best part of all of this has been my host family who make a huge effort to make me feel at home and apart of their family.

So I´ll just update everyone on my weekend and first few days of school:
I´m not sure if I mentioned this already, but my sister Susan has been really sick from a mosquito bite. Her leg is swollen and has this pretty good size gash in it, not pretty. So she´s been to the doctor a bunch and after getting some injections she´s beginning to feel better. We like a lot of the same music, so she told me when she´s better we´ll go to concerts, etc. Ooooohhh baby.
My brother Julio, the 16 year old who talks the least to me, randomnly approached me the other day at the computer. I was just sitting there minding my own business, trying to figure out how to make an apostrophe on a spanish keyboard, when he pulls a large nug of weed out of his pocket. He showed it to me and told me that he knows I like that and not to tell his mom. I really had no idea what to say, especially in spanish, so I just started laughing, and then our Mom walked in. I tried to think of anything I have that would give him the impression I like lighting up, but no, nothing. I must just give off that ora. Which is a first.
On sunday, I worked on some homework, and sat around the house when I finally decided to go explore and find a track to run. My host sister told me there was a track not too far at the U of Costa Rica. But "not too far" meant two buses a long walk. While walking across an overpass, completely lost, I asked a runner who was approaching me where the track was. Turns out he was from the U.S. and was headed to the university right then. While walking there he told me he´s been living here for the last 4 1/2 years because he hated Bush so much. He talked quite a bit, but being older, he had a lot of wisdom about life. With out even telling him how i´d been feeling living here, he explained to me that loneliness is common when we´re in unfamiliar places. It´s what we do with that loneliness that´s important, because sometimes that´s when we learn the most. Vulnerability is a hard thing and easy to shy away from but it´s when opportunities are presented to us the best. That was really cool to hear and after that we parted ways. It sounds creepy that I met some random guy who took me to the university and talked to me about hating Bush, but it was just what I needed to hear. After running for a bit I decided to head home only to realize I didn´t have enough money for both buses. Soooooo I ended up walking for an extra hour, while getting caught in a down pour, and then finally reached the bus for home. Needless to say I got my exercise.
This week, so far, has been busy with school. MWF we have language class in the afternoons from 1-4:30, and TTH we have our Latin American Studies class from 8am-12 and then language class from 1:30-4:30. So yesterday was the most school I´ve had in one day in a looooonnnngggg time. After class a bunch of us wanted to go out danicng that night and get dinner. It ended up being way more complicated than we thought, since we only have house phones, buses, and taxis. When I got home from school to drop off my stuff, my family told me our phone wasn´t working and was disconnected. So that changed my plans a bit, and I ended up meeting my good friend Adam (who is the only person I knew coming on this trip) downtown and no one else. This has happened several times already, where we think we´re meeting other people and then don´t because no one can get a hold of anyone. Since we were starving we went to dinner, and I accidentally ordered two meals, which with drinks, made my bill over $30. I know you´re sitting there wondering who could do something that stupid, but it´s a lot more complicated than you think. Too complicated for me to write about. But it happened. Oh well!
Anyways, I´m sure I have lots more to say, but I´ve already written a novel, which you may have had to read in two sittings. I miss you all! Please comment and let me know how you´re doing. Ta ta
- Carli

P.S. - I forgot to say that two nights ago I had to kill five spiders, which is a big deal if you know how much I hate spiders, and last night I came upon the biggest cockroach of my life in the bathroom. I also showered with mini slugs the other day and this morning when I woke up I stepped on a large caterpillar. I think the spiders at home will seem like nothing after this!