They´re here, AND they´re alive...

Dear Adoring Fans,

Hello to you all!

Sorry that it´s been so long since we´ve written, but a recent and quite entertaining post from our aunt Nancy prompted this post. If you haven´t read hers, go read it. Thanks Nancy!

We´re alive. And what´s better, our parents are here! And what´s better yet is that they arrived alive and well and almost ready to attempt all sorts of Spanish! Well, dad is. Mom´s playing it safe and sticking with "Gracias."

Greg and Gail and Danny Wilcox made it safely also last night and are on their way to Monte Verde, while our parents are staying around here to spend some quality morning time in a fantastic hotel overlooking a valley and some waterfall while spending time in a hot-tub, and spending some quality afternoon-time hanging out with their beloved children (me. And Sam. I guess) and Kristen.

I can´t remember what the last couple things were that were posted on this blog, since even I have neglected to read them...ssshhh...so I can give a brief two weekend update.

Two weekends ago, Sam and Kristen and I made plans to go to Guanacaste, which I think I spelled wrong, but that place nontheless. Sam was supposed to take a bus at 1pm after classes, which he missed, so he tried to get tickets for the 2pm bus but they were sold out and the 3pm bus wouldn´t stop in San Ramon to pick up Kristen and I and the 4pm bus would be getting to Liberia which is cose to Guanacaste until like 8pm.

SO.

We aborted and decided to head for Volcano Arenal, which is a quite active volcano that spews lava that can be seen at night running down the side of the mountain, which we viewed after spending 4 hours at a natural hot springs that had 20 different hot-pools and swim-up....soda fountains...um, yeah. Anyway.
Not a bad back-up plan.

This past weekend was my 23rd birthday, which was somewhat different (and by ´somewhat´i mean ´completely and totally´) than my previous birthdays. First, the BAD different.

Kristen was sick. And by sick, I mean that she suddenly got food-poisoning at the Albergue (= orphanage) that morning and threw up 9 times in an hour and a half. Not that we were counting. Ever single one. (Nope; definitely didn´t count the two times at the orphanage, the one time in the street gutter on the way to the bus back home, the three times on the bus in a leaky plastic bag, the one time in front of the mall when we got off the bus, the one time in the bathroom in the mall, and the one time on a street corner on the other side of the mall before we got home. Not counting (seriously now) the times she threw up once we finally (F I N A L L Y) got home.

If you´re thinking "Oh! Poor thing...", Kristen approves, as do I. It wasn´t pretty.

So by this time I´m singing "happy birthday to me..." in what one might call a slightly dismal tone.

But then the GOOD different.

I went to an internet café to call my parents (those of you who are saying to yourselves, "right...by ´went´ he means ´fled,´" might be on to something). Things got quite a bit better when the Skype video camera turned on and I saw our family´s "birthday bear" holding a birthday candle with my parents singing to me in the background. Pretty great bit of work. I felt much better.

Then, our host-mom´s aunt, Tia Macha, who is determined to inform and re-inform me every time she comes over that I have "the face of a baby!" (...yep, I sure do! ...) baked me an incredible carrot cake. Our host-sister Gaby put 26 candles on it (shooting for 23 but missing the mark by 3..oh well) and played me a recorder-flute rendtion of "Happy Birthday". It was quite fun.
Then, Kristen handed me her gift, which was a surprise. Weeks before we had looked into getting tickets to go see Placido Domingo live in San Jose that Friday, thinking it would be a fun thing to do. I was a little bummed out when Kristen looked online and told me sadly that they were all sold out.

Liar.

She gave me my present after the flaming (quite literally almost on fire) cake. Inside the card were two mock-tickets to Placido Domingo!
Awesme.
And that was last weekend. The concert was phenomenal, his voice is phenomenal, the orchestra was phenomenal, and the company was...wel, you get the idea. :)

SIDE NOTE: For those of you who are purportedly constantly asking mom and dad if A.) We are engaged, and B.) We are going to bring children back with us, the answer to A.) is NO. The answer to B.) is also NO. If you would like to come and take home a Naranjo Albergue child, you may come and do so at your own risk. But we are not.

And so now, I am sitting in an internet cafe where the cry of "GOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!" is ringing from the TV nearby, the wind is blowing like crazy, the sky is spitting rain, and the northern air currents have dipped the temperature to a very cold 60ish.

Yes, 60-ish. We´ve grown accustomed after three months to having a nice but rainy climate.
January is going to be...bad, for lack of more colorful words.

Tomorrow we´re going to sit in a hot-tub with our parents and eat overlooking some gorgeous green valley with a waterfall. And then Friday we´re going to a picturesque beach for five days.


Like I´m always telling my dad, we never get to go anywhere.

Yeah right. =)

Peace to you. Kristen and Jeff and Katherine say hi.
I´ll tell them that you (all of you) say hi too.

ben.

Update from Aniiita (as they affectionately call me here)

Greetings from the 'eternal spring' of Costa Rica! Although I think often of the smells, colors, and brisk weather of fall back home, I’m still thoroughly enjoying living in a tropical climate. Life here continues to be wonderful, rich in learning, people, foods, and culture. I’ll share a few of my thoughts with you in this letter and look forward to more extended conversation when I return in a short month and a half.

U.S. ELECTIONS IN COSTA RICA
I found it so exciting to be abroad for the recent U.S. elections because of the global significance of the new presidential administration. Many Ticos share my excitement and are eager to see how the coming four years will affect Latin American and the world as a whole. The leader of my abroad program here has connections to the U.S. ambassador in Costa Rica so the other students and I received invitations to an election celebration at the U.S. Embassy on November 4. Ticos and Americans waited side by side in anticipation of the results and celebrated with food and beverages on the government’s tab! Being some of the only young Americans at this gathering, pictures of us made two Costa Rican newspapers on November 5 and my host family saw us live on TV as well! It was a celebratory, meaningful, historic evening.

CLASSES IN COSTA RICA: THOUGHTS ON DEVELOPMENT, POVERTY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Development, poverty, human rights, and sustainability—globally and with a special focus on Central America—are the topics that shape our classes here. I’m finding it invigorating and refreshing to study subjects outside of English and religion for a semester and, as with any meaningful learning experience, I am also challenged and frustrated by the material. The academic questions that frame our study are both exciting and overwhelming: Why have many countries in Central and Latin America had such a challenging history in terms of poverty, political corruption, and development? How can national and international policy makers focus on human development in addition to economic development? Why and how must environmental and human sustainability be the focus of development? What are the consequences that the world (and the region) is experiencing as a result of deforestation, industrialization, corporate agriculture, pollution, waste, and unsustainable development?

While these questions are fascinating and stimulating for me—not to mention imperative for the world—I struggle with the purely academic perspective with which we look at these issues. I think only looking at these issues academically removes some of our personal responsibility from the equation. While creating indexes for human development and compiling research about poverty or gender are important, if we neglect to ask how each of us can live differently in order to create change, I think little progress will be made. Challenging questions about our lifestyles, our actions and our involvements are largely missing from our program’s discussions (both inside and outside of the classroom). I think these personal questions must be asked side by side academic questions. And so my thoughts these days often revolve around questions such as, how do these issues translate into our comfortable lives? How can I live in a way that doesn’t deny others of resources, opportunity, and well-being? In what ways does the developed world need to “un-develop” to create environmental and social justice? In what ways should we look to the developing world for simpler lifestyles that don’t exploit the earth’s resources as much? In the past month or so I’ve developed some good friendships within my program which help me to explore these questions more deeply and help me to connect academic questions with those that are related to how we should live.

OTHER CHALLENGES WHILE LIVING ABROAD
One of the unexpected things that I miss while being abroad is having responsibility (don’t take this paragraph too seriously, Mom and Dad!). During these four months abroad all of my laundry, cleaning, and cooking is provided. While this is a wonderful luxury on the one hand, it also causes me to be ready to provide these things for myself again. I miss having a job where I earn some money before spending it. And whereas last semester at Concordia my commitments to organizations and involvements on campus sometimes felt overwhelming and burdensome, this semester I long for a community that demands more of me. While my host family now allows me to participate in some of the cooking and cleaning, and while we’re developing a really good, interconnected relationship, I miss having a religious community, a music community, and deep-rooted friends and family to hold me accountable and to remind me of how my actions affect those around me. I find that life in this study abroad program feels rather temporary and unsustainable because of this lack of responsibility and commitment. While many students in my program thrive off of this complete independence or unaccountability, this aspect of my experience is causing me to look forward to being more grounded and committed when I return home.

TRAVELING
Because my program schedules classes Monday through Thursday, I’ve been able to do a lot of traveling around Costa Rica on the weekends. Here are some of the highlights:

• Sam, Ben, Kristen (my Sioux Falls friends who are also volunteering/studying here), and I hiked up the inactive Volcan Barva near Sam’s home in Heredia. We also spent a night with Ben and Kristen’s host family in San Ramon.
  
• A few students and I traveled to Montezuma, a beach town on the Nicoya Peninsula (Pacific coast) known for its beautiful waterfalls, warm-water swimming holes, and live reggae.
  
• My host parents, Gaby and William, have taken me on two short hiking trips in the mountains where we viewed some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen and eaten the freshest of tropical fruits and vegetables.
  
• Three students and I made the long journey by bus and gondola to the isolated Tortuguero Village on the Caribbean coast in hopes of seeing green turtles lay their eggs. The Village is full of Caribbean character including one of my new favorite foods—rice and beans Caribeno, a dish soaked in fresh coconut milk with spicy, jerk flavor. We not only got to witness a mother turtle laying her eggs in the middle of the night, but we also saw a variety of birds while canoeing, a group of white-face monkeys chasing a bright green lizard (who we named “Jesus Christ Lizard” for its ability to walk on water!), baby turtles making the epic journey from their eggs to the sea, and a few huge crocodiles and caimans lounging on the shore of a lagoon. It is indeed one of the richest places of natural beauty and biodiversity!
  
• My two closest friends from my program (Amanda and Caitlin) and I took two long hikes in the rural town of Orosi. The village is nestled in a mountain valley near two volcanoes, making the soil rich and fertile for incredible plant life. The views from the mountainside were breathtaking and we also enjoyed talking with locals because of the non-touristy nature of the town.
  
• Our main program field trip included site visits to the Dole banana plantation, Earth University (a four-year school that offers agro-engineering degrees to students of developing countries with an emphasis on equipping those students to return to their countries and begin or continue grassroots environmental sustainability programs), a sustainable organic macadamia nut farm that also focuses on maintaining Costa Rican culture and traditions, and a sustainable Quaker dairy farm that specializes in homemade ice cream (where I milked my first cow and thought of the Wolds!). In addition, the final overnight of the field trip were spent in rural host stays at some of the farms in the region. My friend Mike and I stayed at an old woman, Chepita’s organic chocolate farm! Her humble, yet sustainable lifestyle included fresh chocolate milk at every meal and a patio that overlooked the Caribbean on one side and a volcano on the other! The field trip stirred dreams of organic gardening and opening up a café that specializes in local, organic foods and feeding the poor……:)

JOHN’S VISIT
This past week John (my boyfriend) visited for about five days! It was so wonderful to see him again. We traveled to Cahuita, a small beach town on the southern Caribbean coast, and had a relaxing weekend of hiking, swimming, biking, and eating excellent food. We walked the trail in Parque Nacional Cahuita on Friday and Saturday and saw a sloth and two kinds of monkeys. On Sunday we rented bikes and rode 15 km to another beach town, including a stop at Punta Uva where we found the most beautiful sandy beach lined by a palm tree forest with mountains in the distance. When we returned to San Jose John got to meet my host family and see the Universidad Latina where I take classes. It was a highlight to have him come visit!

ESPANOL, MY HOST FAMILY, AND FOOD
My Spanish is still certainly up and down, but I’m enjoying being able to understand and speak with a bit more ease. I still celebrate when I can get full sentences out with correct grammar, but my conversational abilities are at least a lot better than in my first weeks and I’m enjoying the challenge of learning the language.

I continue to absolutely love my host family. Our conversations over coffee and meals are so enjoyable and their patience and persistence in wanting me to feel happy and wanting to teach me Spanish is nothing short of admirable. I am so grateful for how easily and enjoyably we can live together.

Finally, I must write about the food here. One of my favorite ways to encounter Costa Rican culture has been through eating and cooking. Gaby buys a weekly supply of fresh fruits and vegetables from the ferria (market) of local farmers that come to our neighborhood each Saturday. And she is a firm believer in home cooked meals eaten around the table with family and friends—I couldn’t agree with her more. With some frequency, Gaby and I join each other in the kitchen for her to teach me some of her specialties. So far she has taught me how to make sopa negra (her black bean soup), tres leches (a famous Tico torte), arroz con leche (rice pudding), rice and beans Caribeno in coconut milk, apretados (coconut ice cream), fresh fruit batidos (smoothies/milkshakes), patacones (plantain chip-like things), empanadas, and corn tortillas. ¡Que riquisimo!

I apologize for the length of this message—you might think it’s been almost two months since I last wrote!

I miss you all, think of you often, and would love to hear about your lives. Send an update when you have a moment!

Puerto Viejo, dog update, and election night!

It’s been entirely too long since my last blog post, and for that I apologize. The family computer here at home is still out of commission, and by that I mean it completely died. Which is lamentable on various counts, my inability to have internet access at home being one of them, though dwarfed by the fact that their hard drive was one of the things that was fried. Meaning, they lost everything they didn’t have backed up, including years of pictures of students they’ve had with them, I don’t know how much music and video Eric had, and four years of university work of Jessica’s. Life goes on. . . pura vida.

In other news, a couple weekends ago I went to Puerto Viejo, a Caribbean getaway town near the Panamanian border on the east coast. I spent the weekend there with Genna, a friend from Chicago, and Marius, the Norwegian. Genna asked me literally the day before if I wanted to go with them, and so on a whim (and two buses) I headed out with them Friday after class. The culture there was about as relaxed as I’ve ever encountered . . . it seemed most aspects of the lifestyle revolved around Bob Marley and marijuana; I’ve never been surrounded by so much of either (though I personally had none of the latter . . . hi mom!). We hung out at the beach most of Saturday, after which I once again escaped a full day of beating sun with very little sunburn! In the evenings we heard live reggae bands play, including a fun jazzy-acid-reggae group called JasminKarma, from whom I got a free CD!

The second night we met up with a couple more Heredians/gringos we knew, Chelsea and Ben, and had dinner at an excellent Indian restaurant. Afterward we headed to a couple of clubs, and at the last one we met two gentlemen in classy white shorts, sports jackets, and bowler hats (think outfits from The Untouchables with short sleeves), one from Colombia and Honduras. I talked with both of them as much as I could, and although the Colombian provided more intelligent dialogue (his companion was rather drunk), the man from Honduras said one of the more interesting things I’ve heard while down here. Not wanting to limit my input from locals to Costa Ricans, I asked various cultural things to both. When I asked (in Spanish, of course) the Honduran “What’s the Honduran government like?” he gave me a very serious look and in an extremely sober (despite his drunkenness) tone, he told me, “Fragmented . . . greedy . . . and corrupt. But, I love my country. I love my country.” Shortly afterward we regressed into a conversation about the evils of the United States for which I lacked the energy and he the ability of articulation, but his commentary about his country was not something I will easily forget. I can’t help but wonder if his attitude is entirely common amongst Central American countries we so easily label as “backward” or “corrupt” (and usually with some good reason).

On an entirely different note, I’d like to give an update on the dogs in my community. Pork Chop (whose real name I still don’t know) has learned to trust me, and only comes barreling at the gate of his home barking away if I’m accompanied by people he does not know (just ask Ben & Kristen!). Charley (our family dog) is learning to like me more and more, mostly because I’ve been taking more opportunities to go out back and give him even one minute of attention, a major highlight of his day. There are two pieces of news regarding The Captain. The first is that it is a she, much to my surprise. The second, sadly, is that The Captain is no more. She got a little cavalier with a passing car and no longer greets any of us. Strangely, I learned (along with the news of her fate) that she was not owned by anyway. Apparently she just found our neighborhood one day, one of the neighbors occasionally gave her food, and she just decided to live here guarding the neighborhood of her own accord. Dogs are so cool.

On election night, Ben and Kristen (who do not have cable in their San Ramón home) came over to Heredia. We had Pizza Hutt for lunch (the first American food I have had, thank you very much!), then headed back to my house and watched CNN for about six hours straight, from about 5:00 right on through Barack’s speech around 11. It was very fun for all of us to feel somewhat a part of the excitement that night, connected to the events of our home so far away. It takes a trip outside our borders to see how important our presidential election is to the rest of the world. Obama made front pages everywhere I looked Wednesday morning, the vast majority of Ticos being happy with the results. The evening before Election Day I talked about the candidates, electoral system, and other things with my host brother Erick. He was pretty frustrated, agreed that the Electoral College is bunk, and expressed strongly his hopes that Obama would win. He made another cultural comment that moved me: after telling him in the past two elections in presidential years our country averaged roughly 46-47% voter turnout, he shook his head and said, “How can it be that over half the people in the United States that can vote don’t take the time to do so? They must not understand that they have a voice in deciding the fate of the modern world.” Central America sits on edge while half of us stay at home . . . yet another interesting perspective you don’t get in the states.

As I write this, I just got back from a weekend near Volcán Arenal with Ben and Kristen (Anna, unfortunately, is sick). I’ll let them fill you in on the details about that. My parents are coming in a week! That’s got me pretty excited. As always, if you’re reading this, I’d love to hear from you – not to ask me about my life here, but I want to hear how you’re doing. You matter to me =)

Take care!

We´re alive!

Hello everyone!

Just to let all of you know, Kristen and I are alive and well despite the recent lack of blog-activity.

So, to catch up a smidge, here´s the latest:

Kristen and I visited Volcano Poas two weeks ago (I think). It´s one of the largest volcanic craters in the world, spanning just over a mile and reaching a depth of 1000ft. Our guides all said to go early in the morning because, like most mountains but especially Costa Rican ones, Poas gets cloudy in the afternoons. Well, we got there around 11:00 and expected to see very little, but to our surprise and great pleasure the whole crater was visible; a stunning expanse with a sulferic springs at the center of it all. Pictures will be posted next time...the internet connection today is spotty.
Poas also has a beautiful lagoon that Kristen and I hiked to, as well as an informative (albeit in Spanish) visitor center. Lots of fun.

This past weekend, Kristen and I fled to Nicaragua for three days. Costa Rica gives out temporary traveler´s visas, which expire after a 90-day period. To renew this visa, one must simply leave the country for 72 hours. Easy enough.
So we went to Nicaragua. Our destination was Managua, to rendezvous with Annie, an American (and Midwesterner to boot!) working with ELCA Global Missions at the Lutheran Church there. She and her Nicaraguan boyfriend Luis acted as our guides for the weekend. Luis and his family are very involved in the heated Nicaraguan political atmosphere, so we received government, history, and culture lessons as we went. Managua is a very poor city - so poor that the poverty and general uncleanliness of the area surprised Kristen and I. There was a violent revolution in ´79 and a bad earthquake some years ago that aided in defacing the city, but it is still unfortunately impressive. Over 50% of the people in Nicaragua live below the poverty line, and unemployment is around 60%. Incredible.
Grenada, by contrast (where we went last Sunday) is beautiful. Churches, parks, and a boulevard with a European flavor inhabit Grenada. The poor and beggers are present in some force, as well, but the city is much neater than Managua.

So. That was the past two weeks. In brief. This weekend is Halloween, and today we made masks with the kids at the orphanage, pretended to ¨trick or treat¨and filled plastic gloves with popcorn. Everything went very well. Until four of our beloved 5/6 year olds dug through the garbage (after being asked not to repeatedly), found and removed the empty microwave popcorn bag, tore it up, and proceeded to lick the salty and buttery inside, making a point to find Kristen and I to show us just how well they couldn´t listen. Sigh. You win some, you lose some.

The rest of this weekend is going to be filled with a scary movie, pizza-bagels for dinner (we´re cooking) a trip to Sarchi (maybe).

Blessings to all of you, wherever you are.

¡Uff da, que lluvia! (and not as much theology)

So, my weekend plans have now changed somewhere around 347 times. Last weekend I did not go to Volcán Arenal as planned, because the trip organizers changed some plans, people dropped out, etc. So we were going to go this weekend. Then we decided not to, and instead go to Guanacaste. Well, it’s been raining in Costa Rica like you wouldn’t believe. And not just like, “Well, duh, you’re in Costa Rica, dude” rain. We’re talking serious rain. It makes the locals a bit worried. So, of course, buses to Guanacaste aren’t exactly running like normal right now, so we’ll be finding
something to do around Heredia/San José this weekend.

In other news, I just gone done with a final exam in Spanish 410, and I think it well. Tuesday I start 411, and after that I’m not sure what comes next as far as classroom Spanish. Some classes are a little slow, others are very interesting, and just like back home, a great deal depends on the quality of the professor. I can only imagine how difficult it is for these professors to organize a curriculum that roughly suits and fits in with what we students are doing in our various universities all across the states (or, in some cases, all around the world). Some days I have moments of “Oh, yes, I’ve always wanted to get into this area of language in more detail!” Other days, it’s more of a “Um, didn’t we learn this the second week of high school Spanish?” I would say, overall (to put it in such a way wherein I really would not like to come off as elitist or uppity), that my Augustana professors did a pretty darn good job. ¡Muchas Gracias, Sr. Ogdie y Sra. Herman!

I’m still in search of a comfortable faith community down here. Sooner or later I’m going to go exploring in San José for the alleged Lutheran Church that I have such high hopes for. In some ways, I do feel very much (at the risk of sounding hypocritically heretical) “spiritually fortified” down here. Maybe “theologically tested” would be a better term. The fact is, I’m living in a country in which the state religion is Catholicism, my host family consists of staunch Pentecostals, I’ve been approached by at least five Jehovah’s witnesses (one of whom I took twenty minutes to argue theology with), likely the only Lutheran in my entire city is an agnostic Norwegian, and the best friend I’ve made in my program here is an atheist. I was talking to Anna last weekend on our way to San Ramón, and we both seemed to agree that we feel a fairly daunting lack of the religious communities and theological discourse we both had become accustomed to back in the states. In short, I miss worship at Spirit of Joy and Augie’s chapel, and I miss debating theology. Lost in translation doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Speaking of the Norwegian (by the name of Marius), I have a short story I’ve been meaning to share. I was speaking with him one day with some other kids in our group, and he was teaching us some Norwegian words. For some reason, we wanted to know how to say “cheesy.” He said they don’t really use the word much, but asked for a scenario in which he used it. I said something to the effect of “Well, imagine you and some Norwegian buddies are in Mexico, and you bite into a really cheesy tortilla, and you want to say ‘Uff da, that’s cheesy!’” Time sort of froze just then (for me anyway), as I proceeded to mentally beat myself for being such an ignorant punk and for even daring to say such a stereotypical thing around a Norwegian. I can’t describe how stupid I felt. Imagine my surprise, then, as Marius immediately responded to my comment with a very amused chuckle and said “Ah, I see you already speak Norwegian!” I didn’t really have time to realize he wasn’t offended before another girl asked “Wait, what did he say?” to which Marius responded “Uff da. We use it all the time. I haven’t heard that for a while!” and went on to explain its meaning and use, complimenting me all the while for knowing the expression. Whew. The cultural things you learn when you study abroad…I tell you what....

That’s about all for now. Last night I went with my dance class to San José to see a dance performance at the Teatro Nacional that was very.......modern. Yeah, we’ll go with that. I’ll save a fuller description until later.

Until then, take care of yourselves. Challenge someone’s faith back home for me. =)

Cultural Experiences in San Ramon!

(Note: this post is mostly intended for Ben, Kristen, and Sam)

Ben, Kristen, Sam and I shared a wonderful weekend of cultural experiences in San Ramon. I feel so enriched and immersed via these experiences--so much so that I even feel compelled to write about them.

We enjoyed time with Ben and Kristen's host family, who are wonderfully hospitable, cooked dinner for them, explored the town a bit, and enjoyed good conversation with one another. It was great to be together again!

I'll write more soon (really, I will. I've even begun writing it...it's just too long to post at the moment), but for now I'm off to study for a really important mid-term and write a paper. Ciao!

Quality time with Andrew, Caitlyn, Sam T. Coleridge, and drug dealers

This is part 2 of 2 regarding my Tortuguero/Panamá trip. Scroll down to read part one if you have not yet done so.

After a 6:30 breakfast at the hotel we loaded up in the boat for the last time and rode back to the place where another tour bus awaited us. After a very long ride in which we watched a movie and I shared the iPod of my seat partner, Caitlyn (a friend with whom I bonded immensely over the course of this trip), we finally arrived at the Costa Rica/Panamá border, which basically consisted of a bridge and respective border patrol offices on either side. Our tour bus was not allowed to cross the bridge, so we all had to carry our things across and wait at the Panama border office. It’s always fun to get your passport stamped in a new country, but the organization (or rather the lack thereof) left us both frustrated and unprotected under a sun that was beating down on us, little more than 6° above the equator (so I´m told). After getting everyone through, we loaded up in vans and took off in the direction of Bocas del Toro. Transportation the entire day was very mixed – by the time we arrived at our hotel in Bocas, we had taken a boat, a bus, walked across the bridge, vans, and finally another boat to the island where we were staying.

The town of Bocas del Toro gave the impression of being a tourist hub, but somehow managed to retain a sincere feeling of a true Panamanian island community….well, I guess that’s not exactly a topic to which I claim any expertise, but it certainly seemed as such at the time! Our arrival at the hotel included my first chance to meet Don Carlos Salas, the USAC coordinator for all of Costa Rica. We had the evening off, and after dinner on our own, most of us spent the rest of the night at La Iguana, a local club where I and a couple others had run-ins with a prostitute and two friendly marijuana dealers. Welcome to Bocas! That’s not entirely fair, of course, although admittedly there were times here that reminded me a bit of the town of Tortuga of Pirates of the Caribbean fame.

The next two days’ planned activities included island hopping around the area, which was a collection of groundbreaking experiences. Over the two mornings and early afternoons we were out and about, I walked the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen, swam in the warmest water I’ve ever felt outside a pool, ate the best fish I’ve ever tasted (including one of the eyeballs, a throwback to my China adventure), and snorkeled, saw wild dolphins, and held starfish (none of which I’d done before). I’m really running out of steam in describing this trip’s natural beauty; thus, I’ll let my posted pictures do most of the talking. At one beach there was a volleyball net which we used for almost two hours, also under an intense sun. Being an almost pure-blood Norwegian, I was certain that I would be supremely red and downright crispy after days of this, but amazingly I managed to return to Heredia with little more than slightly pink shoulders.

I should note here that this trip included the second of October, my dear mother’s birthday. Though I wasn’t able to get a hold of her that particular day, I did manage to call home once in Bocas, using a friend’s Skype account. It was really great to hear from them, and my only regret in doing so was that I couldn’t properly let them know how much fun I was having and how absolutely amazing everything on this trip was. I did find a little birthday present for her there, and I look forward to giving it to her when they come visit Ben, Kristen, Anna and me in November.

Speaking of shopping, I finally got around to doing a bit of that down in Bocas. I really haven’t spent that much in Heredia, but being surrounded by such a multitude of tourist shops in Panamá persuaded me into being a little more cavalier with my cash. I found a wooden necktie-paddle looking thing (and I’m not entirely sure it has any practical use) with a beautiful hand painting of a couple parrots on it, a comfortable black shirt which screams “I got this in Central America!”, an amber necklace, and a beautiful hand-painted feather (apparently that’s a popular thing here).

Another interesting part of our time in Bocas was the water shortage. The whole island just ran out of water the second day we were there, and didn’t come back until the evening before we left. This of course made shower and toilet use micromanaged activities, and we were all starting to smell a bit by the time the water came back. Ironically, all the clothes we had seemed to get extremely wet from the island activities we did in the mornings, and in the humid climate it was simply impossible to get anything to dry out. And yet, literally surrounded by salt water, washing hands or getting drinking water from the tap was just not possible. “Water, water, everywhere...”, as Mr. Coleridge put it (Rime of the Ancient Mariner).

Night life in Bocas was very fun as well. The places in town varied from small restaurants whose tables went out onto the water to one club which included an actual sunken ship. Our last evening there happened to be my roommate Andrew’s birthday, and so of course due celebration was in order. I personally chose to avoid the dance floor that night (despite the fact that I was sporting my classy new Panamanian apparel), and instead opted for a few hours of meaningful conversation with friends, another strong bonding experience. A small number of us even got some card games in during our time out. By this time, one simple yet fun game in particular (whose name we invented, dubbing it O.S.G., or Original Stupid Gangster...you can ask me if you’re curious) had become very popular since our first night in Tortuguero.

Despite the enormity of this blog post, there is so much more I could write about. As I mentioned previously, I’m not going to forget any of this, and I can only do so much to express how much I enjoyed it all. I suspect that has been (and will be) true of all my blog posts, but it rings especially true for this trip. Sometimes I forget I’m actually going to school down here, and a week-long trip like this almost gets lost in a semester full of adventure and fun.

In the meantime, I received a package from my friends at Augustana which included much appreciated food, letters, and an assortment of miscellaneous trinkets and gifts. Thank you guys!! Mail makes my week!!

This coming weekend I’m heading out to Volcán Arenal (which I’ve heard nothing but good things about) and surrounding area for some hiking and exploring with some of my fellow students here. I’ll try to throw up some pictures from this past trip as soon as I can, but before I know it I’ll be back next week with hopefully more fun stories and photos. It just never stops down here. Someone needs to remind me to breathe.

Once again, take care of yourselves. I miss you all. ¡Pura Vida!

¡Corre tortuguita, corre! ...and other majestic sights

It’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve been out and about doing some serious adventuring. I wish I could send all of my photos to all of you! After a week of so much adventure and bonding with both gringo compañeros and Costa Rican/Panamanian scenery, it’s difficult to know where to begin (say nothing of what details to exclude in order to keep this blog post at reasonable length)!!
*edit – after a couple single-spaced pages on Word I realized I’d have to split this post. You are now reading part 1 of 2 covering my trip to Tortuguero and Panamá.

Like virtually all excursions I’ve had so far here, this one started extremely early in the morning. Most of the kids in our program (about 25 or so of us) met up at the University at 6:00 am (meaning I had to get up a little before 5:00...the horror!). After a short wait – read: I should have slept more – we were joined on the tour bus by almost all of the students from the USAC San Ramón program (about 15). Over the
next few days we would get to know each other very well, and many of us made some good very good friends.

After stopping for breakfast, our bus continued to the east coast (that is, the Caribbean) whereupon we had to get off the bus and take a boat into Tortuguero National Park. From our first glimpses of the canals that led to Pachira Lodge, we knew the park would not fail to captivate us over the next few days. I know I must sound redundant – it seems that every blog post I write I mention how jaw-droppingly majestic this or that part of Costa Rica is, but the simple truth is that it simply is as good as I try to make it sound, and usually better still. This country has given me no reason yet to cease my praises of her natural beauty, and as such I won’t. You really have to see it yourself (hint, hint – come visit me!).

Pachira Lodge itself was quite the place in itself. Some of it looked a bit like something off the set of a Survivor series, but we were well accommodated by large rooms, excellent food, courtesy usage of canoes/kayaks, a spa, and two swimming pools. After lunch in the hotel, getting settled into our rooms (I roomed with a friend name Andrew this entire trip), and a short swim in one of the pools, we headed over to Tortuguero Village, which was on the actual Caribbean coast (whereas we were separated from the village by another canal). We watched a short video on the work being done at Tortuguero and around the world to protect the sea turtles that come here multiple times every year to lay eggs. Later we got our first look at the beach, and found some tracks of a turtle who had come the night before. We returned to the hotel that evening and had dinner, after which I joined my friends Ashley, Katy, and Brittany for a late swim in the rain. We met a very nice Tico named Alex in the pool (it was just the five of us) who playfully ordered us to not speak English while there, for which I was actually quite thankful – this week has really set me back on my Spanish skills! Finally, we joined a couple more Heredia girls and a couple San Ramón guys for some card games in one of our rooms.

The next morning we had a guided hike through a small section of a rain forest nearby. We had no problem getting up that morning, thanks to the lodge’s healthy population of howler monkeys. In case you’ve never had the pleasure of waking up to a pack of howler monkeys, imagine Chewbacca of the Star Wars universe standing right outside your window, screaming at you at the top of his lungs at 4:30 of 5:00 in the morning.
*edit- in his last post Ben described this phenomenon very humurously and surprisingly accurately. i encourage you to review this information now.
Anyway.... The rain forest tour was magnificent. I can hardly compare it to anything near my home part of the world (i.e. Minnesota/Wisconsin north woods…apples and oranges, and all that), but I can certainly say that this was one of the more beautiful woods I’ve ever walked through. The sheer variety of plant and animal life to which I was exposed was amazing in itself. To provide but one of many examples, I’ve never seen trees as big as some of the ones there – trying to take it all in was a task in itself. My solitary complaint about the hike was the state of the trails. Though it is through no fault of the park service there, the grand majority of the trail was wet and muddy, littered with unavoidable puddles. Luckily our lodge provided rubber boots (required in the forest) to trudge through.

That afternoon we had lunch at the hotel again, took advantage of the pools yet again, and then got on a boat (again) to take a wildlife/canal tour, which turned out to be immensely successful. We had the good fortune of having a tour guide blessed with extraordinary sight, spotting iguanas and toucans in far-off trees or practically invisible caimans in marshy waters. Although it was difficult to get a good photo of all that we saw (due to distance, a moving boat, and a not yet experienced camera operator), the sights and sounds of the jungle wildlife, backdropped by a beautiful sunset, left an impression in my mind that will not easily be erased. I did not yet realize, however, that the best was yet to come – nine hours of my life which included two of the most majestic (there’s that word again, in all its sincerity) and awe-inspiring events I’ve ever witnessed.

That evening, we went to the Caribbean beach once again, but this time all was dark. This was our night tour – our chance to see, if we could find one, a sea turtle laying her eggs on the beach. It was late in the season for the Green Sea Turtle, and they told us our chances were slim. Moreover, the beach goes into a sort of total lockdown at night – these people take their job of protecting the turtles VERY seriously. You are only allowed on the beach at night with a professional guide, who undertakes strict training and whose certification is easily stripped from him or her. White light (flashlights, head lamps, etc) is strictly prohibited, and even brightly colored clothing is not allowed on the beach, because the bright light disturbs the turtles. You don’t even want to know what happens if you get caught with a camera.

After a short wait, the guide of our group of about 10 (larger groups are also banned, so we split up) received a radio call that they had found a turtle and they she was available for groups to observe. After stumbling around the beach (and the path to it), led only by the silhouette of our guide and his dim red light, we found her. We missed the digging of the hole, but got to see her up close and personal depositing her eggs (which break the triple-digit count every time these turtles do this). The turtle, we were told, goes into a sort of trance while the eggs are being laid, which is a process that takes around a half-hour, but can last much longer. She certainly seemed oblivious to those of us watching and to the ranger holding up her back legs/fins so we could clearly see the eggs. After she was finished, she took the next 45 minutes to slowly and carefully cover the eggs with surrounding sand. At times she flat-out violently flung the sand behind her, overshooting the hole and spraying us onlookers with sand. We waited for her to finish as other groups cycled in and out to watch, when finally she headed back to the water, ever so slowly. The guides were extremely careful not to shine any of their dim lights into her face. The whole lot of us advanced slowly behind her as she crawled back, and after getting in the water, we could hardly see her dark shape after swimming a mere 20 feet into the water under the black sky. Though not a single picture was taken, it was a night of images that will never leave me.

We returned to the hotel around 10:30, and shortly I went to bed. After about five hours of sleep, I crawled out of bed again at 4:30 in order to head to the dock by 5:00. This morning a few of us would head back to the beach, but this time to search for baby turtles. They told us that we were very fortunate the night before to find a turtle and see so much of the process, but it was even more unlikely that we would find any baby turtles, again due to the time of year. Well, lightning struck twice.

Shortly after arriving at the beach our guide found a group of them – they had just popped out of the sand. There were so many of them, and of course they were all ridiculously cute. Yet another one of nature’s wondrous curiosities – each and every tortuguita (little turtle) knows exactly which direction it needs to go and does so with full force and soon as it hits the air. You can turn them around or even move them down the beach some distance and they’ll eventually figure it out nonetheless. Despite the sad statistic that only 1 to 2% of these little guys will survive, we did not enjoy watching them any less. Rules on the beach in the morning are significantly less strict, and as such my camera was put to good use (though, as luck would have it – as if I were going to ask for more – my batteries died that morning, but thankfully after I had taken many shots). We had nearly a full hour to watch them scurry across the sand in their desperate pursuit of the sea and a safe life. To top it all off, the whole scene was brought to us by a Caribbean sunrise so beautiful that a proper description would put my own powers of written expression to shame. Being able to watch an adult turtle lay her eggs the night before and seeing a group of them begin their lives the next morning brought to me a powerful sense of satisfaction, of almost participating in something so breathtaking and yet something that not many will ever see outside of Discovery Channel.

Majestic.

scroll up for part 2

"What size flippers you wear?" and Kenny G.

Hello all!

Kristen and I had a wonderful time at the Caribbean coast this past weekend. But first, we have some businessto clear up.

Item #1: Kudos to the Twins for a good season, and boo to Chicago (and Thome) for ruining the ending. There´s always next year. Unless Jesus comes back, which would be kinda disappointing. Disappointing because the Twins wouldn´t get another shot. And because the world would be ending.

Item #2: Kristen´s crushes have stalled out. Handsome David from the Nav Cafe held back some of his charm when we went there for lunch to celebrate having been dating for one whole year. We ate, talked, and watched Air Force One, which was a nice relaxing movie on their plasma screen TV (right). But David is on yellow alert for now. Computer Speak Video Store Guy hasn´t been seen more than once since my last post, and that one time he came out from behind the desk to shake my hand, and is under suspicion of hoping that Kristen would greet him with the traditional Costa Rican kiss on the cheek. She nervously turned towards a stack of movies and attempted to look very busy rummaging through a stack of DVDs. So that´that.

Item #3: How long can a three-year-old cry for, in consecutive minutes? At least 27 minutes, before Kristen went and consoled her. (Turns out she had only been sent to her room for hitting another three-year-old. Poor thing.)

Item #4: And Herb the Cucharacha (Cockroach).... Well, we had a block of space all set up for Herb when he introduced himself to us, but that space is going to be squeezed tightly closed now, thanks to Kristen. Herb introduced himself to us in the shower of our bathroom, before scurrying back down the shower drain from whence he came. However, last night Kristen entered the bathroom and Herb was stationed at the edge of the door frame, and when Kristen closed the door, Herb left (residue) with haste. So, a hearty farewell to Herb.

And now, Cahuita. A Corona commercial in actuality.

The beach area of Cahuita is powdery white sand, which stretches through a national park around a point and through some forested areas. At the point there is a reef, which Kristen and I snorkeled in for a couple hours early Sunday morning. The reef wasn´t typical deep crystal blue with hundreds of colors clashing and moving around. It was a dimmer brown, without brilliant coral, but the colors of many of the fish we saw were stunning. Bright oranges, sharp blues, flashy silvers, lime greens...something I´ve always wanted to do, and it was awesome! We even saw some volleyball-sized sea urchins - black spiny creatures that move little and sting a lot if touched. The only downside was that the tide was out when we went (early in the morning) which meant that sometimes to avoid touching coral (which is forbidden!!!!!) we had to awkwardly stretch ourselves out on the surface of the water and maneuver sideways or backwards in humanly unnatural manners. But it was worth it.

Now for Kenny G. When Sam and I were younger, Mom and Dad went to Hawaii for a Eisele family (Dad´s family) trip. They went snorkeling. When they were underwater, they couldn´t take any pictures. So when they surfaced and made it back to the Snorkel House, or whatever, they purchased a video of some scuba divers in the middle of an fish-full, coral-full reef, knowing that their Ben and Sam would love to see that video. The sounds of scuba diving, however, are not entertaining at all (blub blub...gasp...blub blub), and so the producers of the video decided to put Kenny G playing sax in the background to all of the fish and coral. I liked that video, and watched it several times. But when I went snorkeling, guess who I had in my head?

Yup. Kenny G. The whole freaking time.

But it was still a really good time. Hence, the "Kenny G" in the title.

That was the highlight. Swimming in bath-warm water was another high point, and pausing swimming to get a close glimpse at a pack of howler monkeys was awesome, too.

(Intermission: How to imitate a howler monkey in three steps:
Step 1: Open mouth and form an "o" with your lips, as if you were going to say "oooooooo".
Step 2: Begin an intake of air, allowing your vocal chords to catch the air and make a choking, painful noise.
Step 3: First, increase airflow (and therefore volume) and slowly open mouth, followed by slowly closing mouth and decreasing airflow (and therefore volume).
Your lips should slowly mouth the word "wow" while you breath in and emit a pained, dying sound.
End Intermission)

Kristen and I ate Caribbean BBQ, had Rice and Beans with coconut milk (which sounds odd, but is, in fact, delicious), and played Cribbage while sitting in the hammock on the deck of our Cabana. It was awesome.

Our host family continues to be awesome. The weather is, apparently, just entering the really rainy month (seriously...holy cow). And the Orphanage is getting better! Today, no one seriously hit anyone else, and they all were making a good effort toward saying "Please" and "Thank You"! Small signs of improvement are cherished.

Hope all is well on the home front. Our thoughts are with you all.
Peace,
ben.

That´s all for now.

Will you continue torturing your mother? and other glaring PSAs...

This past weekend Ben, Kristen, Brendan (another uVolunteer person) and I went to Zoo Ave, a zoo near Alajuela that contains mostly birds (ave is the Spanish word for bird) but an enjoyable variety of other animals as well. An ongoing theme throughout the park that thoroughly amused all of us was the propaganda of guilt, prevalent throughout the entire zoo. Upon entrance to the zoo, for example, we were invited into a mini theater where we watched a 15 minute movie whose information regarding the positive work the zoo conducts towards the preservation of Costa Rica’s wild animal population/diversity was extremely overshadowed by images of destruction and heartlessness to which we were undoubtedly contributing. A short cartoon segment at the beginning of the film depicted the tragic scene of a poacher (whose dark clothing, slightly twisted moustache, and hooked nose screamed evil) wrenching baby birds (by way of breaking off the branch on which they lived with violent blows of his evil truncheon) from the wings of their loving, heartbroken mommy bird (who begins to weep with tragically large tear ducts) and selling them to greedy heartless consumerists like you who put the baby birds in cold, small cages where they will forevermore lead sad, solitary lives. Welcome to Zoo Ave!

Nevertheless, we did greatly appreciate the natural beauty and diversity of yet one more piece of Costa Rica that adds to this country’s infinite photogenic-ness. Aside from the incredible birds – including toucans, parrots, and all the other birds one would hope to see in Central America, and then some – there were cats, monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles, and more. We couldn’t help but encounter a constant stream of guilt inducing posters and signs throughout the zoo (including a sign whose caption inspired the title of this blog post – see posted picture in the gallery), but thankfully that didn’t seriously detract from the overall experience. Once again I sincerely doubt the pictures we’re uploading really do justice to the real thing. The colors of many of the birds were amazingly vibrant, and yet some of the reptiles gave them a run for their money in that category. As with all zoos, some of the animals were not exactly in plain sight, but we I would say we saw more than enough to call it a successful day. When you’re in a country that’s globally recognized for their diversity of wildlife, this kind of day trip is always a sure shot.

Once again, traveling became an adventure when we decided to go home. After eating at a nearby restaurant, I asked Ben & Kristen how we get back to San Ramón from Alajuela, whereupon they realized they weren’t exactly sure. Hence, I was elected to ask the staff at the restaurant, which turned into a conversation between six different people, all with slightly different opinions on the best route, the cost of getting back, and the schedule of various buses they were considering. Finally they arrived at a group decision, which we more or less successfully followed, and we got back to San Ramón safe and sound mid-afternoon. The next day we managed to catch our parents and grandparents in Sioux Falls with a Skype call in the afternoon, and it was nice to see all of them again.

Tomorrow I will be heading to Panamá for an almost week-long trip with the rest of the students in my program, plus many from the USAC program in San Ramón as well. I’ll try to take plenty of pictures and bring back lots of stories from that part of the world. Until then, take care of yourselves.

Crushes, Mortified Fishing, and Montezuma

So.

I agree with my brother's musings about the word "home." I think. I'm actually not sure. But I'm starting to mean our "Tico-home" when I say home. I think that was the gist of the last post.

Anyway.

Kristen and I have had a busy week. We begin with Costa Rican Crushes.

There is a cafe up the street. It is named the Nav Cafe. It has a beautiful botanical garden and very good drinks. (Like, fruit smoothies and cappuccinos. Seriously.) It has two plasma tvs and as of two weeks ago wireless internet that doesn't quite work yet. But maybe the best part of Nav Cafe is David. Maybe.

Kristen and I have been there twice. The first was with Fiorella, our uVolunteer coordinator. The second was just the two of us. It was on a rainy afternoon and we just wanted to use the internet and get a couple fruity drinks. It was a slow day at the Cafe, and David, the young, bearded, clean-cut, smiling new manager met us at the door. He informed us that the internet was not working, sadly, but that we could sit wherever we wanted. We said, "How about the couches over there?" David replied, "How about the VIP room over here?" We said, "Ok."

So we get to sit in the VIP room, he gives us the remote to one of the plasma screen tvs, and takes our order. He jokes with me about how tall I am, and then (still smiling) leaves. Kristen's first words after the door to the VIP room closes: "I have a big crush on him."

Uh oh.

David returns with our drinks (still smiling that handsome smile). We drink, watch some TV. David returns. He takes our glasses. As we get up to go, he turns to Kristen and says, "Do you like Thai food?"

Uh oh.

Actually, I didn't put this one together as fast as Kristen did. Her thoughts were, "Seriously? My boyfriend is standing right here..." As it turned out, David was just advertising for their new menu, which includes Thai food, USofA style wraps, and other things. It sounded pretty good, actually. The whole place is cool, actually. So, actually, when our parents come, we're going to take them there.

Kristen assured me that her "crush" was just an "I think he's cute." In the clear.

Then we met Video-Rental-Store guy.

Piracy is completely a non-issue in Costa Rica. By non-issue, I mean that everyone does it. People run businesses renting out filmed-in-the-theater movies. There is a store that we've been renting movies from down the street, and in that store works a young, smiling, dark-gelled-haired Tican boy who talks in very quick phrases that reminds me of computer gibberish. We rented a movie or two once, and after smiling-computer-talking video guy stalled the rental process to make small computer-like Spanish talk with Kristen, we left the store, only to have Kristen smile at me and say, "I kinda have a little crush on him."

Now, seriously. David the cleancut, smiling, business manager I can understand. But computer-speak video guy? Hmm...

TO BE CONTINUED...?

Switching gears to fishing...uVolunteer does weekly report meetings with its volunteers. Which are pretty fun. They're going to be more fun now that Kristen and I aren't the only volunteers in Costa Rica anymore (we have a Canadian running abowt and a Californian coming soon). In addition, every Wednesday they have an activity. This last week was fishing at La Paz (not the waterfall garden). There is a local restaurant (a few miles out of town..) that has pools where you can catch trout on the spot and have then cooked on the spot. All four of us that went caught one. Kristen really didn't want to catch one. To her horror, when she dropped in the hook with cornmeal bait, a fish bit and hooked itself. Surprise..? She reeled it in, the son of the restaurant owner beheaded it on the spot, and then we went to eat our catch. For a great picture of a mortified Kristen with a fish on a line, check the pictures above.

Finally, Montezuma. Finally, a beach.

Montezuma is a tourist town on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. In non-rainy season (which it is NOT), I'm sure the place is a zoo. Now, it's relatively quiet.

As a part of our decision to go, we took into consideration Kristen's brother Josh's complaints about our complaining about the orphanage. Kristen told him that we have a steep, long hill to climb every day, and that the kids aren't the greatest. He said that he felt SO bad for us, living in a destination location. So, we took that to heart and went to a beach.

We rode a bus, rode a ferry, and rode another bus, then took a taxi to Hotel Los Mangos, which sits right on the coast with the sound of waves in the background. A short way from the hotel is a (semi)trail that leads to a beautiful waterfall and pool. We climbed behind the waterfall, dove through it, and swam in the pool. Then we headed down to the beach and played in the ocean; my first time swimming in an ocean. We played Cribbage, read, watched the sunset, listened to the waves and the rain.

It was a good weekend.

This week: more orphanage. Going to try activities that distract kids for longer periods of time. Going to hang ouwt with our Canadian friend, Brendon (who speaks no Spanish) and maybe the new volunteer.

Peace to all of you.

PS: We have a real address!!! Send fanmail to:

Ben Eisele & Kristen Wilcox
uVolunteer
Apartado 130-4250
San Ramon, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Next time, on SDinCostaRica: Ben&Kristen: What does this new, video-guy crush mean for Ben and Kristen? For how many consecutive minutes can a three year old cry? Will Gretel continue to forbid dish-washing? And, introducing Herb the Cucarracha! Stay tuned...

philosophical revelations, including conversations with Pork Chop

In a couple days I will reach my one-month mark of being here in Costa Rica. After that, it will be the longest time I’ve ever spent outside the United States (followed by my months in Germany and China), and it soon will surpass any period of time I’ve been away from home.

The word “home” is something I have thought about frequently while here in Costa Rica. My home is certainly the United States, with my family, but the definition has certainly expanded. Of course when I first arrived here I thought to myself, “This is my new home,” but the truth of the statement varies for different perceptions of the word. From day one, this house in which I sleep and eat is where I live, and thus is my home. Having been here for some time now, I feel a stronger connection. After a long day, a trying experience, or even a weekend away, I am beginning to feel more and more the comfort and relief one can only get with a place that they truly call “home,” on so much more than a superficial level.

And yet, this particular sentimental profundity is but one example of how my perspective on daily life has changed here. Perhaps even more importantly, I have found new meaning in its smallest aspects (that is, those of daily life). Adapting to an entirely new culture, particularly when it involves use of a different language, brings the most subtle parts of my day out of the woodwork. A casual conversation with my host family, sharing a bus seat with a stranger, or simply walking throughout Heredia for no reason in particular are all experiences for which I exert an elevated level of concentration. In other words, the intensity of new experiences has not waned in the least. Because of this, I find myself in awe of the significance one finds in such “superfluities” or “accessories” of life, if only given the appropriate attention. I realize I’m waxing philosophical in attempting to describe this vague revelation (and probably failing), but it’s certainly worth noting, and certainly worth experiencing. I really don’t know how to explain it.

On a less complicated note, things are still going very well down here. I’m starting to get heavier workloads for my classes (something I do not lament….yet), and I also can tell I’m regressing into a familiar schedule – doing homework much later than I ought, and being disappointed the following morning upon realizing class times have not been rescheduled to fit my sleeping needs.

Life at home (there’s that word again) continues to treat me well. The neighborhood dogs still bark at me pretty much every day, but we get along. Since I don’t know the owners (yet), I’ve taken the liberty of naming some of them. My favorites thus far are Pork Chop, who lives a few houses away and lets me know how unwelcome I am every day I come home from school, and the Capitan, who is something of the neighborhood sentinel, sitting at the entrance of our barrio (neighborhood). Unlike Pork Chop, the Capitan has become more or less accustomed to me, although the first few times I walked past him alone (that is, with no one he recognized) he bared his teeth and growled at me in something of a doggy death threat. He now allows my passage in silence.

Kudos to my brother and cuñada** in San Ramón for their accurate, descriptive, and at times poetic blog posts. It´s true about their host mom. She´s great, in a hospitably confining way (although I too had the privilege of washing dishes once when I was there for the weekend…but don´t tell Gretel, she doesn´t know).

As far as the much-discussed fiber issue, I´m not sure what kind of beans they eat in San Ramón, but here they work just fine. And that´s all I´m going to say about that.

I’ve started to receive some letters (of the tangible sort) at my university, much to my delight. Hearing from any and everyone makes my day, regardless of the medium of correspondence. Thank you to all of you for your kind words, and as always I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Until next time, take care. Say hi to the cold when it gets there =)

¡Pura Vida!

**Interesting culture note: cuñada is the Spanish word for sister-in-law, and while here, to be culturally correct, I refer to Kristen as such. The first the locals said this I quickly explained that Ben and Kristen are not married, but that doesn´t matter here. Brother´s got a girlfriend? She´s your sister-in-law. Daughter´s got a boyfriend? He´s your son-in-law. Etc, etc. We all found this to be an interesting cultural difference, so I thought I´d share it with you all here.

el desfile fue estupendo!

The title is for you, Jeff. It's Kristen, adding just a tiny bit to Ben's recent post. I know, I know, it certainly doesn't need any more length, but Ben wants me to put in something about this last weekend, (apparently his creative juices have been drained,) so I will fill you in as concise a manner as possible.

Sam came to San Ramon to spend the weekend with us, which was great, except for my being under the weather. Our Mama Tica took very good care of me, although when she offered to make me a tea of "la buena herba" (the good herb) I had images of a drug-induced trip to fantasy land. Alas, buena herba doesn't quite have the magical properties I was hoping for, but I did get better quickly. We explored the city a little, went to the neighboring town of Zarcero for an afternoon, which is famous for it's highly unusual garden in the central square. This garden has giant bushes that have been cut into shapes. According to our guide book, these shapes included a monkey on a motorcycle, an elephant with light bulbs for eyes, and a bullfight with a matador and charging bull. This may or may not have been the case, but one would need a view from an airplane, an ability to find meaning in the abstract or a highly-active imagination to see any of these shapes. Luckily, Sam has just such an imagination, so we found all sorts of things that may or may not be what the artist intended...We'll post pictures soon.

Monday was Independence Day here in Costa Rica, which is a huge deal. The festivities started on Sunday night, and the three of us went downtown with our host family to check out the first of two parades. We missed the parade (typical Ticans) but had a good time wandering around and watching the aftermath. Monday morning was the big parade, complete with marching bands, floats, baton-twirlers and traditional Costa Rican dance. However, as this was a Tican Parade, a few things were different: 1)The people are told that the parade begins at 9:00 so that everyone will get there by around 10:00, so the parade can start by 10:30. 2)The marching bands are mostly composed of elementary-school kids who play a snare drum, cymbals or a xylophone, all with great enthusiasm. 3)The float were mostly pick-up trucks with something set up in the back. My favorite was the large truck that crawled down the street, emitting black fumes every ten seconds and boasting a display of recently-picked plants and some kids sitting in costa-rican dress, waving signs about their environmentally-focused school...4)There was anywhere from 6 feet to 600 yards of space between the participants, so the parade was rather slow going. We enjoyed the first hour and a half and walked away with our fill of parade for the next long while...

Okay, less concise than it could have been, but we really enjoyed having Sam here and being a part of the celebrations. Walking around downtown it was clear that we were accepted as a part of the community, which was a great feeling.

Hoping you are all experiencing similar great feelings- please send a line and let us know how you are!

Less Albergue, more...fiber?

Hello everyone. It's been a whole week now since I've posted ("I" being "Kristen or I"), and Sam's well-written post about Volcan Barva and 'having a splendid little chat about the jovial things in life, as only the very best of friends can do' was a whole week ago now (jolly good work, chap). So we're updating.

Life here is good. Life is challenging at times. Well, more like the Albergue (orphanage) is challenging at times. Not necessarily bad challenging...(insert exclamatory cough here)...oh, okay, so not every challenge is a welcome one. But life is proceeding.

The orphanage has 14 kids (and climbing). It is supposed to have around 10, but as most places in this line of work seem, they have a surplus of children in need. Kristen and I work from about 8:30 to about 12:30. The "about" is due to bus schedules that fluctuate within a 15-minute window and due to hours that change depending on the childrens' needs. We initially were 'just' occupying the kids with games and our attention. Now, as we become more familiar with the kids' schedules and the "tias" ("aunts" who live/work there) we have been asked to put together a more consistent schedule that includes doing homework, teaching English, and playing.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well...
As it turns out, the ages at the orphanage range from 3 to 13ish. The different age groups have different school schedules, as most Costa Rican students have classes either in the morning or in the afternoon, alternating every week. Our kids have such different schedules that predicting who will be there is a difficult task. Furthermore, the kids seem to rarely have homework, and often only one or two will have anything to work on. Likewise, teaching English is challenging because the kids are all at very different places with what they know. Some have only a Sesame-Street level, some know more. So the whole 'organized schedule' thing kinda goes out the window (and over the gate, down the street, out of town and into the nearest active volcano). But hey, Pura Vida ("Pure Life") eh? Schedules are....well. "Schedules aren't," is more accurate.

There are days at the Albergue when we leave with kids holding onto us with hugs. There are other days where we leave and the kids are holding onto each other in a fight to the death. They are very possessive of everything, disrespectful to others, and deaf to me. But they need attention, and a safe environment. We're doing our best, but patience wears thin at times. We'll see where we are in a month or two.

Aside from Albergue frustrations, life is very good. Our host mom is pretty awesome, as Sam can attest to (he was here this last weekend). She refuses to let us clean our dishes, the floors, the bathroom. She dislikes it when we clear the table. She even insists that it's her job to make our beds.

I like her. :)

But life is getting more reasonable. At first, we literally could not move our dishes. Now when we clear the table, we get an eyebrow raise and a playful scolding, but we are permitted to do so. We can even get away with cleaning the occasional dish. The first time we made it into the kitchen and cleaned something (well, Kristen cleaned something...), Gretel was conversing with a visitor in the living room. We finished the dishes. Kristen went to our room down the hall, and from there she heard:

"*GASP!* She...she cleaned them?! What shame!" I was standing too close, and she turned to me and said (with her expression and maybe her words (??): "Why? Why did you let her do this?" But things are more reasonable now....It's more of a joke, because at first (and now) she always would say, "This afternoon, this afternoon" or "tomorrow, tomorrow" or "Later. There is time." Which distracted us for awhile, but we're catching on.

So, by now you're wondering what the "fiber" in the title is all about. Well, the truth is, we're running short on it. Whole grains and whatnot are not a big thing here. Rice and beans and corn are. So (and those of you who were in China with me remember this) instead of having the problem of just going with the flow, it's been pretty slow going. We've been healthy though, except for a two-day Kristen vs. digestive system battle. But that's over.

Other than those couple minor complaints, we're great. The people are great, our family is great, the uVolunteer people are great, the food is great, the blackberry smoothies are great, the frozen chocolate cappuccinos at the Aroma Cafe are great...

Pura Vida.

I've written a lot.

Blessings to ya'll in the midwest and wherever else. Thinking of you, and our thoughts and prayers are with you as your's are with us.

We´re cold, wet, tired, and hungry.....and it was an awesome day!

This past weekend was incredibly fun for all of us. On Friday, Anna, Ben, and Kristen all came over to my part of the country – Heredia – to socialize, explore, and do whatever else we felt like for the weekend. Once again, I managed to make everyone wait for me, as I was late in finding both Anna (15 minutes) and the Ben/Kristen pair (allegedly an hour and a half). We’re obviously adapting to the culture down here quite well – la hora tica!

After we all found each other, we headed back to my home to introduce my friends to my family and to have some dinner straight from the increasingly famous kitchen of my host mother Elizabeth. I can’t even begin to describe how cordial and welcoming the families we’ve encountered here are. Anna’s family greeted us extremely warmly for the night we were in San Pedro, and my family here was more than delighted to shack up all my friends (and feed us, offer us car rides, feed us, arrange bedding, feed us, etc…). Ben and Kristen are very excited for Anna and me to meet their host family. After a lovely meal Friday evening, we decided to head to bed early for the following morning’s travels. There was hardly room for all four of us in the two rooms that we had, but we managed.

We decided to go to Volcán Barva, a volcano here near Heredia which has long been inactive. Most people recommend seeing Volcán Poás because you can drive straight to the top (in other words, no hiking required) and it’s more organized for tourists. Well, we prided ourselves as more adventurous people than that. =)

Getting to Barva was an adventure in itself. Despite getting up at 5:30 Saturday morning, we missed the bus we needed to take to get directly to Sacramento, a small village near the entrance to the Volcano Park. After navigating through a maze of buses (and the usual scrambled directions from helpful locals, of course), we finally found a bus to San José de la Montaña, a small town a little farther away. Once there we looked for a taxi rojo (the official, licensed taxis of Costa Rica), but not being able to find one we were forced to take a taxi pirata (pirate taxi) which was expensive, slightly illegal, and probably not entirely safe. Nonetheless, we arrived safely.

By arrived, I mean our driver took us up a road that made a sudden transition from paved street to 4WD terrain only, and he told us that was where we get off. We had read that one must either take a 4WD vehicle or walk to the ranger station/park entrance, but we didn’t know that this would be such a middle-of-nowhere switch. This was about 8:30 am, and so began our walking. Getting to the ranger station itself took about an hour, and hiking through the park another four hours or so.

The park was absolutely incredible. The beauty of the paths was well worth the mud that we trudged through. The pathways are surrounded by incredible flowers, trees, and other plants we’d never seen before, including sombrillas de pobre (poor man’s umbrella), whose leaves are unbelievably large (see posted pictures). After reaching an observation point (from which we saw mostly cloud, but plenty of green lands stretching far below as well), we trekked to a small lagoon. The lagoon was absolutely tranquil, and surprisingly majestic for being so small. Starving at this point, we rested and ate our soda crackers with PB&J we had packed. Shortly thereafter the clouds rolled in – we watched as a cloud gracefully descended the hillside and filled the lagoon. Not five minutes later, we literally watched rain approach us from across the lagoon and it did not cease until after we had past the ranger station on the way back to Sacramento. This made for a somewhat miserable hike back, but I don’t think my companions would disagree in saying the natural beauty surrounding us made up for the cold feet and wet clothing.

After finally getting some hot chocolate and food into our stomachs from a couple restaurants in and around Sacramento, we made our way back to Heredia (an even more adventurous myriad of means of transportation). Following a wonderful dinner at home – a meal whose taste was augmented by our fatigue – we spent the evening at a relatively quiet bar discussing all the important things in life, as only close friends can do.

I’ve certainly written too much for a single post, but as this weekend was shared by all of us, vale la pena (it’s worth it). Pictures of the weekend will be streaming in as soon as we can post them. We hope all is well with you back home. ¡Pura vida!

Dirreciones? Go 8 blocks, then go left, down the hill, then ask someone else...

Wow. Today was a long day. Not necessarily a bad day, just a long day.

We started this morning like we´ll start most mornings. We went to the bus-stop and waited for the bus. We´re still not sure when exactly the bus comes...there is about a 10 minute time differential accross the last 3 days. At least 10 minutes. And it was raining, which isn´t a surprise anymore. At all.

Well, the last time we went to Naranjo, someone from the office of orphanages and other not-so-good situations drove us to the orphanage. Dirrections in Costa Rica are hit and miss, as you will soon see. For example, the directions to (and actual translated address of our house) are:

Costa Rica, Alajuela, San Ramon. Park, 50 blocks east and 50 blocks south of the dental clinic, on the right-hand side, the house with the light-green color inside.

No Joke.

We were driven to the orphanage on Wednesday.
Today, we thought we would remember how to get there.

We didn´t.

Turns out that you take a right at the Muebleria, not go straight. As a result of this little error, we spent the next hour and a half walking around (still in the rain) trying to find our way to wherever it was we were supposed to be. Turns out that asking for directions is about as hit-and-miss as stepping outside and hoping to stay dry. We asked 6 people for directions. The first five over the course of an hour and a half had very helpful things to say:
-¨Go a block that way and ask someone else.¨ Well, we were just that way.
-¨Go to the other side of town, you cant miss it.¨ Well, that was the office building that we were at the day before, which we only realized after walking accross town and reaching the top of a very steep street.
-¨Go 8 blocks that way, and then go right.¨ This was from a taxi-driver. After 6 blocks in the designated direction, we ran out of street, out of buildings, and out of town. So that was a big miss.
-¨Go to the end and turn left.¨ This was from an elderly gentlemen who was on his front porch. At the end of the street (from whence we had just come) and to the left was a large puddle of mudd and some bushes. We then asked the nearest stop-sign where to go, and it proved more helpful than anything else we had previously asked.

Finally two gentlemen told us to go down the only street we hadn´t been down yet, and behold, the orphanage appeared. Victory.

The orphanage was good, although it continued to rain the entire time (which is supposedly because of Costa Rica´s proximity to Hannah right now). Then more events:

My recently purchased (like, yesterday purchased) umbrella broke, which I decided to string back together with thread from Gretel (mama-tica´s) supplies. BUT when we arrived home after this long morning, we were informed that something was wrong with the water supply, so the water wasn´t working. At all. This was perhaps the most puzzling thing to me thus far today. The mere thought that we are indeed suffering from a water SHORTAGE of all things is mentally staggering.

Then my sunglasses broke. Not like I´ll need them, I guess.

So, that was the long day. But we rebounded quickly, found some 2-dollar flip-flops and good bakery-goodies, and got to email and check up on all of you. Kristen even got to talk to her parents for a while, which was encouraging for both of us. (Mom and Dad: this is not a guilt trip for not answering the phone. I know you love me very much, and rest assured that I still love you too.)

As for tonight, we´re going to find something in english to watch on tv, or a movie to rent. Then we´re going to eat a dinner of something, depending on the water shortage situation (????). Then Kristen and I will play some Cribbage, read and write, then fall asleep.

Tomorrow, more orphanage. But nowwe know where it is. Along with everything else in Naranjo.

Greetings family and friends!

I can hardly believe that I’ve already been here for two and a half weeks. The time has flown in part because the newness and difference of this place is stimulating and in part because the time here has been wonderful so far. It really is a beautiful place; rich in natural beauty. The gates in my neighborhood of Curridabat (near San Jose) spill out plants of deep greens and exotic flowers of all colors. And the mountains that surround the valley of San Jose bulge with abundant trees. It is a very exciting place to be studying for four months!

When I first arrived in San Jose, it was late in the evening and I was taken straight from the airport to my host family’s home. I greeted my family with a confident “Hola,” kisses on the cheek, and a smile—that was about our most effective communication for the evening, as my Spanish is very poor. Nonetheless, I managed to tell them that I am from Dakota de Sur (South Dakota), that it’s very cold there in the winter, and that the mango they fed me was “muy rico!”

In the weeks since their initial warm greetings, my host family and I have already gotten to know each other quite well. They are gracious, welcoming, gregarious, relaxed, and fun. The house is lively, with friends coming and going as they please. As my mother happily admits, they are “muy popular.” Gaby, my host mother, is a sweet, laid back woman who loves to talk, exercise, joke around with her children, and cook. She sets a tone of ease and joy in the house, which puts any of my anxieties about entering into a new family to rest. She is very diligent about helping me learn Spanish. We have informal lessons nightly and I learn so much from her. She calls herself mi mama y mi professora de espanol, and she succeeds greatly at both roles. Among my highlights of the first weeks here have been long, enjoyable conversations with Gaby. Some days I’ll return to the house and she’ll drop what she is doing to talk for up to two hours. It is simply delightful and incredibly helpful. I anticipate learning a lot from Gaby, not only about the Spanish language, but also about how to relax, enjoy life, and be hospitable.

My host father, William, is equally wonderful. He is an affectionate, sweet man, who runs the small, neighborhood supermarket with Gaby. As I continue to stutter with my broken Spanish, he continues to encourage me, saying that Spanish will be very difficult during the first and second months, but by the fourth month my Spanish will be “perfectissimo!” He, too, is full of patience when talking with me and full of excitement for teaching me.

I have three host siblings: Bayrum (pronounced Brian), who is 21 and who I’ve connected with most; Francini, who is 18 and a high school student; and Joan (a boy, pronounced jo-On), who is 13 and also a student. It’s great to have a full house, and all of them are remarkably welcoming and friendly.

My host parents love to exercise, so in my first couple days here I found myself sweating profusely in “la clase de spinning” (stationary biking class) and in “la clase de baile” (dance class, including meringue, swing, and salsa). I also love going running with Gaby and thoroughly enjoyed hiking in the nearby mountains with the whole family.

My first weekend here I traveled on the bus to the Pacific coast with three other students. We had a blast hiking in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, jumping enormous waves in 80 degree water, searching for and finding monkeys in the wild, enjoying beaches that were neither commercial nor crowded, staying at an inexpensive hostel, and getting to know one another. Last weekend a few friends from my program traveled to the Caribbean coast and had another weekend full of natural beauty and fun. This coming weekend will be filled with me teaching Gaby to make homemade bread and Gaby teaching me to learn more Spanish. Wish me luck with my bread-baking vocabulary!

I must say a few words of gratitude before I close this message. Even as it is becoming commonplace for students in my generation to have at least one abroad experience and exposure to at least one other language, I regard the opportunity to be here as sheer privilege; one that must not be assumed. I am so thankful to be given both the joy and the discomfort of studying abroad. I am thankful for classes that will stretch me in new ways, for the ‘eternal spring’ weather of San Jose, for gracious strangers who accept my daily stumbles as I adjust to the language and the culture, for afternoon coffee break during the predictable daily rain, and for the way this experience causes me to be open to challenges, surprises, and awe-inspiring beauty.

I hope you are all doing well, I think about you often, and I would love to hear about your lives!

Peace,
Anna

Oh dear—I just realized that I haven’t yet mentioned my classes! Very briefly, I’m taking five classes through a Costa Rican organization called Centro Internacional para el Desarrollo Humano (the International Center for Sustainable Human Development). We take classes from international professors at Universidad Latina, Costa Rica’s largest private university located in San Pedro (a 40-minute walk or a 20-minute bus ride from my neighborhood). This week, we’re having our second class sessions and so far the course content is very stimulating. I am taking Human Development and Poverty in Latin America; the Politics of Democracy and Development in Latin America; Current Environmental Issues of Latin America; Justice, Gender, and the Challenges of Development; and Spanish. They’re providing an exciting contrast to my English and religion classes back at Concordia and I’m looking forward to the learning!

más detalles

So, apparently Ben volunteered me to offer more details, but I'm not sure where to start. We've been exploring San Ramon a bit, and like it so far, although much of what we've seen has been through veiled eyes as we hurry through lots of rain. Today we were supposed to meet the director of the orphanage and kids themselves, but, in Tico fashion, the director had another meeting and hadn't contacted us to let us know, so we will go back to tomorrow and hope for better luck. We did get to see some of the countryside (the orphanage is in a neighboring town called Naranjo) and it is beautiful!

Our host family is wonderful; Gretel is our host mom, and seems to want nothing more than to keep us happy. She refuses to let us help with meals or cleaning, even clearing the table, and today we came home to a clean room and laundry- Gretel wanted to be sure it was okay that she was washing our clothes for us...Gaby is Gretel's 10-year-old daughter, and already a great friend of Ben and mine. She has shown us a few of the sights in the city, and loves to play games of all sorts. Also, Gaby more than makes up for my lack of a competitive spirit, so that should keep Ben happy. We also have two host brothers, Grebin and Paul, but both are older and work a lot, so we don't see much of them. Yesterday we met Grebin's three-year-old son Joshua, who is learning to say thank-you and is very sweet. And, as you can see from the pictures, we have a host dog- Lucky, pronounced "Luke-y." He is six months old and very much a puppy, which means he is very fun to play with but difficult to discipline.

The uVolunteer staff has been great so far- very welcoming and helpful. We have volunteer meetings every Tuesday, starting tomorrow, so that should give us a better idea of who is who. Other than that, the afternoon rain is clearing, at least until this evening, and we have more errands to run before we head home. We'll blog again soon, and please keep us updated on how and what you are doing.

Un abrazo muy fuerte!

"Ayer, Comi Caballo" and Other Adventures

Hello fans.

Kristen and I are alive and well. We arrived at our host-home Friday night and have been surviving well enough ever since. Kristen is going to write more details later, so here are just a few highlights.

We arrived at the right time to party in San Ramon. Granted, we've been so overwhelmed recently that "party" really means "observing craziness." This weekend was the festival of San (Saint) Ramon, and the whole center of the city we live in was made up to be like the county fair, complete with a petting zoo, cotton candy, and lots of music and trinkets. Part of the festivities included a parade of saints, and the parade of oxcarts.

The title of this post is now explained: We walked up and down the street with our uVolunteer staff (one of whom knows EVERYONE...much like Bill from Good Sam) and at one streetside tent we were pulled over. They gave us drinks (which were super strong) and some sausage (which was fairly strong too). When I asked what the sausage was (hoping/fearing to confirm Kristen's suspicions of what word she had briefly caught in Spanish), our vVol coordinator told us we didn't want to know, at which point the other vVol staff person promptly said, "It's horse." Awesome. I ate horse. It's not bad, actually. Kind of tastes like sausage. Polish sausage. Kristen declined, imagining thereafter that she was devouring Mr. Edd, or some pony.

The most interesting food tidbit we've been fed was at breakfast this morning. It was a "Tico sandwich," which consisted (I think) of: Bread, eggs, refried beans, catsup (salsa), mayo, and something that might have been fish (?). You make your own judgments about that one. I had two. I think Gretel is observing (I KNOW she is observing) everything we eat very carefully, so she is lessening the rice and beans count.

That's about it for now. Kristen's up to bat.
Thoughts to you all.

Satisfyingly discombobulated

Well, after a full week here I’m very settled in, yet still taking in more than I can handle each and every day. It’s a strange experience to grow accustomed to so many things and yet experience so many new ones all at the same time. None of us can imagine the first year of our lives in this world, but I cannot help but wonder if the experience is not so different from cultural immersion.

I second everything Ben said about this past Thursday - it was incredibly fun to see Ben, Kristen, Anna, and her family. I look forward to our next reunion :)

One would think that getting away from Augie for a year would certainly cause an increase in my average class size (it’s tough to compete with a prof-to-student ratio of a university that’s the size of Augustana, no?), but that’s certainly not the case here. After all, there are only 38 or so students in the entire program, and we’re spread amongst four different levels of Spanish. This semester, if you take away my Latin Dance class (which consists of pretty much everyone here), my average class size is around 6. Wow. No hiding from your professors here =). The Classes themselves seem like they won’t be unbearably challenging, but neither will they be unnecessarily easy. Again, this is coming after a week, so I really can’t say as of yet.

I’ve also now attended two church services with my host family. When I first asked what denomination they were, my (host) mother told me it’s the “Iglesia Cristiana,” or simply the “Christian Church.” To me of course this was confusingly generic, but after going a couple times it seems pretty much like an Assembly of God style community, with some slight differences. It’s certainly not Lutheran (not that that would bother a German/Norwegian like me, haha), but the people are very cordial and welcoming (and energetic!). Soon I’ll likely be going to a different, though allegedly similar, church with my sister.

On an entirely different note, the food here is really growing on me. I’m still not much of a breakfast person here, but everything I have had is really good. I’ve been trying many new things, despite my complete lack of Spanish food vocabulary. My culinary knowledge is limited in English, so many of my adventures in eating here teach me on multiple levels (as if I’m not learning enough every day!).

Yesterday our program group went to a couple national parks: INBIO, a sort of state-funded biodiversity center; and La Paz Waterfall gardens. La Paz immediately jumped out as a strong competitor for one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. I’ve already written too much for this post, but I’ll post about this weekend soon, and hopefully throw some pictures up for all of you to enjoy. Until then, take care!

Good First Day

Hello blog-followers and admirers from the States. Today was a good first day for Kristen and I. We spent most of the day with Sam (who took a bus, another bus, walked, then took a taxi to find us at our hostel) walking around San Jose in the various parks here. Some of the city is quite pretty, while some of it reminds us of how rundown and lacking upkeep Rome was.

We walked for a few hours and then met up with Anna after her class at the Universidad Latina. From there we went to her Costa Rica home and met her family, who are very fun. Sam and Kristen spoke marvelously with them (Sam has been told a couple times that he's as good as the Ticos here, although he insists its more credit than he deserves. Which is probably true.) Anna and I do a lot of listening. I'm able to understand much of what is said, but I have little confidence in speaking yet. That'll come.

Anna insists that she will write on the blog here at some point (since she's been here much longer than the rest of us...) but it's still a work in progress.

Kristen and I go to Sam Ramon today to see the orphanage and meet our host mom and her kids. We're pretty excited after meeting Anna's family.

Peace and blessings to all of you. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts.

Estamos aqui!

Hello everyone! Kristen and I made it safely to the Costa Rica Backpacker's Hostel in San Jose. The hostel is pretty nice.... Google it for some pictures. Vegetations, a courtyard with a pool, wi-fi... nice. The plane rides were fine and uneventful.

Can't tell you much about our surroundings yet, since it's been dark. I looked for Sam at the airport, but didn't find him and didn't want to look too much longer because cab-drivers and people longing to give out all kinds of information kept coming up to me and saying, "You looking for sumting, brother?" Sam: if you were there and we missed you, sorry. Probably your bad anyway. =-)

Kristen and I are planning on wandering the streets of San Jose tomorrow with Sam, since for some reason he has no classes whatsoever. We're also planning on meeting Anna at the ULatino to wander and have some not-in-South-Dakota-anymore-bonding time.

That's about it for now. We'll upload some pictures in the slideshow tool above, which you'll be able to get a close look at by clicking on the pics. More on that soon.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. We will continue to update you as life permits!

Pura Vida!
Kristen and ben.

I´m here!!

Hi everyone!

My plane landed in Costa Rica yesterday afternoon, and I´m safe and sound now in my new home. The flight was great (although I was a bit nervous the whole time). On the flight from Houston to San José, I just happened to end up sitting next to a very nice girl named Jessica who is in the same program as I am, so we talked about meeting our host families, how much Spanish we knew, saying goodbye to family and friends....basically all the things that were stressing us both out, which destressed us both considerably. ¡Gracias a Dios por nuevos amigos! Blessing number 1 of my adventures here.

After landing, customs and all that went very smoothly. I had to wait a little while for my host mother to show up, but I met a nice woman named Claudia who works with USAC who talked with me (in Spanish) until my host mother arrived.

My host family is fantastic. I´m living with Elizabeth, who is around 50 (although we´ve already established a little joke between us that she´s actually 25), her husband Luis, and their two children, Jessica (pronounced "YESS-ee-ca") and Erick ("Eh-REEK"). Elizabeth is very hospitable. She speaks a little English and Jessica speaks even more, but neither use it when talking with me unless they need to help me with a specific word. From what I´ve seen thus far, Elizabeth is a fantastic cook, and is in the kitchen often. Jessica is extremely nice, and very understanding of my slow Spanish. She has already taught me many idiomatic expressions and local gestures that I should know. I learned more (and spoke more Spanish) yesterday than I have for a long time. I´m having trouble understanding them when they talk amongst themselves, but they slow down when addressing me. Apparently, they´ve hosted over 50 students before me, so this is not a new thing for them at all. Luis is very nice as well, but still speaks a little rapidly to me. Erick I just met today, and haven´t had the chance to talk with him. There is one dog here (Charley), and a gazillion birds. Elizabeth loves to hear them sing all day (and sing they do!!), but it seems to drive everyone else nuts. I don´t mind it...I´m too busy taking in everything around me.

The house itself is very nice. Like virtually all residences here, it has a large gate in front with a small driveway/patio just outside the front door. Out back there is another small patio (where Charley and a few of the birds live [including Melissa and John, parrots, who occasionally speak loud Spanish phrases just outside my room]). Beyond the back patio there is a small coffee field, and beyond this (easily visible from upstairs) there is a fantastic view of San José, which is beautiful at night. Upstairs is the computer with internet access, though it´s not wireless so I use the family computer for online stuff. Downstairs is a living room, kitchen, and a few bedrooms including mine and Elizabeth and Luis´s, and a bathroom. Apparently hot showers are possible, but I couldn´t figure it out this morning and had to take a cold, cold shower. It reminded me of bathing in Rainy Lake in northern Minnesota (I asked Elizabeth afterwards how to work it, so hopefully tomorrow morning will be a little less frigid).

Today I had my orientation to the university (Elizabeth accompanied me there, showing me the proper bus route), although we didn´t so much tour Heredia or the campus as get a bunch of helpful information on living in Heredia, what classes are like, safety tips, study tips, language practice tips and things like that. After taking a proficiency test (which I discovered was optional after all but took anyway), I found that, based on the results, I was in fact up to par by their standards for "Track IV", the highest level of language classes they offer here. Class starts monday (yikes!). I met many more of my fellow USAC students today, although as always I´m having trouble remembering names. It seems like the grand majority of them are going to school in California or Nevada, particularly UN-Las Vegas or UN-Reno. It seems like a good group, and I think I´ll have a good semester. I have not yet met anyone else in Track IV (I think there are very few of us), nor do I know anyone yet who is staying the whole school year like myself.

After orientation a group of six of us wandered around downtown Heredia for about an hour (we had plenty of spare time before our host families were supposed to pick us up). While waiting for Elizabeth, I conversed with a friendly old tica (Ticos are Costa Ricans) who was waiting for her student to get done with registration. She was very kind, complimented my Spanish, and said I already sound like a Tico myself (though I didn´t believe her....I know I´ve got a long ways to go =D). Elizabeth found me a little after 4, brought me back home (again, by bus), and here I am having strong tea and small galletas (cookies/crackers). Tomorrow I´m going to go to church with Elizabeth and probably rest/study for the day.

That´s all for now - thank you all for your kind words in the emails you sent. I´m thinking of all of you.

¡Pura Vida!