new paint, new car, and new people!

Hi again from the land of the pure life. Thanks for all the emails you’ve been sending! :)

Last weekend I did in fact go play some basketball with my friend Ashley – felt really good, but I was a little more out of shape than I thought I would be! We’re not allowed to use the University’s gymnasium until their school year officially starts (February), so we went and found an outdoor public court. It wasn’t great, but it was available, and we had fun. While we were there we ran into David, a fifty-something-year-old gringo from Portland who was spending some time in Costa Rica with his Colombian fiancée while they waited for her to receive her engagement visa from the U.S. We were going to simply ask if he wanted to play with us, but he ending up telling us a good deal of his life story and providing a fairly detailed discourse on his opinion of the United States and our collective outlook on Latin America. Interesting conversation. His Spanish was pretty good, I suppose (ought to be, seeing as how he’s marrying a Colombian in February), though he’s one of those gringos I’ve decided are a little “accent deaf.” Anyway. . .

Things are sure active here around the house. They’ve been painting pretty much the entire house, and Luis is currently working on the living room right now. Eli keeps asking my opinion on different colors for walls without actually showing me the color or knowing exactly which walls she’ll put it on. She just says something like “Sam, what do you think about brown here and yellow here?” I, of course, have no idea what shades she’s talking about, and what’s more, I simply can’t believe that she doesn’t really have it planned out ahead of time. It seems like they just went and got a bunch of colors that they liked and are painting walls on-the-go in combinations that seem to work at the time. I’ll let you know how it turns out. In other news, she finally got her new car! It’s a 2001 forest-green Vitara, and though I haven’t ridden in it yet it looks very pretty. She’s very proud of it, and the rest of us are all very happy that the search and process of buying it is over (*whew!*). Charley is still here, even though they’re still trying to give him to someone else (they just don’t have the time to take care of him properly anymore).

It’s still “very cold” down here, according to Eli and occasionally the others. Eli told me today that she thinks I brought some frigid South Dakota weather with me (so if it’s warming up at all up there, you’re welcome!). Every time she starts telling me how cold it is, I’m always happy to tell her that putting on a sweatshirt might help. She’s starting to catch on to my perpetual response. To be honest, it is considerably cool at time, particularly at night. This is mostly due to the stronger-than-normal winds they get this time of year. I can’t quite say “strong,” because, well, I'm from South Dakota. When they told me how cold it is, I told them they don’t know what cold means. Likewise, when the wind picks up, I tell them that they’ve got nothing on good old SD. Even the gringos down here think it’s pretty blustery.

Speaking of which, I’m still getting to meet a few more people every couple days. I would say that our group isn’t quite as eclectic as last semester’s, but I’m not complaining at all. It’s been very fun getting to know those with whom I’ve shared some casual conversation. Once again, it’s a little different being “one of those ones who were here last semester.” Sometimes I feel very helpful letting people know where stuff is (the best coffee shops, cheap lunches, bus stops, post office, etc) and things like that, but other times I feel a little awkward when we start talking about how our Spanish is coming. Having completed the “Advanced Spanish” track last semester, everyone seems to assume I’m perfectly fluent, which of course is far from true. I’m still learning plenty every day. That having been said, I’m really glad I have another 4 months to smooth out some of my rough points.

This weekend I’ll be spending a day in Palmares, which is a once-a-year mega party that seemingly all of Costa Rica’s youth goes to for music, rodeo, and I’m not sure what else. I saw some coverage of the festivities on TV yesterday and it looks pretty nuts, but fun. I spoke with more than a couple ticos last semester about it, and they all were pretty excited for it. More details to come after I get back.

This past week Angie’s parents and sister were living with us as well, so it was very fun to meet them and have them around the house. Her mom, Vianey, is a hard working mother of three (the eldest was not here) and was very amiable. It was a little odd to hear both her and her daughters refer to Elizabeth as “tía” (aunt) when there’s actually a generation split, but oh well. Angie’s younger sister, who’s very dark complexion has earned her the title “la India” (little Indian girl) was ridiculously shy, and it took almost a full day of being in the same house for me to hear even a sentence out of her. She was very cute following her mom around the house, and it was too bad to see them leave a couple days ago. Angie, by the way, has become considerably more talkative. We talk all the time now when we’re both around, and she’s even joined Jessica and me in our efforts to drive Eli insane. The four of us (Eli, Jessica, Angie, and I) all watched “Hitch” the other night in Eli’s room, all of us managing to cram together on their queen sized bed. Fun night.

Couple more random things: First of all, the title of my last blog post (with the musical notes) actually is a hyperlink to weather.com’s current conditions for Heredia. So, if you ever are feeling particularly cold maybe you could give that a click and feel a little bit better knowing that someone you know is enjoying it!! =)

On a completely different note, please keep Jessica and Eric’s dad in your prayers, as he was assaulted last week in a town here by a couple of men who robbed him and beat him up pretty badly, including breaking his leg in three. Thankfully, the socialized medicine here will cover his upcoming operation and medication costs. That’s not a political statement, just a fact. I very much doubt that he would otherwise have coverage for this.

That’s about all for now. Again, if you ever want to know any more details or input on any aspect of my life down here in particular, please let me know! Until next time, take it easy.