There and back again: A Gringo's Tale

Hey there everyone...

It has been a LONG time since ANYone posted on this blog, so please forgive us and allow me to do a little catch-up. After our parents left Costa Rica, I had a good but fast few weeks before I headed back to the states myself. It was SO good to see everyone at home – even though I missed all my friends a ton, I don’t think I fully realized how happy I’d be to see everyone again. I spent pretty much my first week back at Augie (it was finals week and I wanted to see as many people as I could before everyone went home for the holidays). Afterwards, I had a very relaxing couple weeks leading up to Christmas. As most of you reading this may already know, Ben and Kristen surprised everyone by coming back December 23, just in time for Christmas, instead of the January 6th arrival that we all had been expecting. A six-month lie, while terribly naughty of them both, turned out to be the joyous surprise that I’m sure they had in mind when they bought their airplane tickets in June (even going so far as forging documents indicating a false date of return). I’ll let them post to fill you all in on the details.

Christmas was great – seeing my family was fantastic. I called my host mom Elizabeth Christmas morning, and Ben called Gretel. After passing through Minnesota and Wisconsin, we came back to Sioux Falls in time for New Years Eve events. Nevertheless, before I knew it, the number of days before my departure to Costa Rica quickly became 0. It’s a very confusing state to be in, being simultaneously excited to come back to Costa Rica and see my host family and all the new students in my program, and at the same time having to say goodbye to a hundred-and-too-many people all over again having just spent such a great month with them. To everyone to whom I didn’t get to say farewell, I’m sorry, and I’ll see you in May (unless you Skype me!). I’m trying not to think about it too much, but just for an FYI I’ll be flying back into the states on the 7th of May. Until then, letters are still appreciated and are still the highlights of my weeks and months.

That having been said, I’m back here in Costa Rica! Saturday I spent pretty much a full day on planes and in airports, which happens to be one of the worst ways with which I’m familiar to spend a day. My Spanish is not as bad as I thought it might be after a solid month of not using it at all. It is, of course, a little behind (which my host sister is delighted to point out at all possible moments – we haven’t lost our wonderfully bickering brother-sister relationship). Classes started today, and I’m sure the Spanish will come back fast and furiously and be better than ever by May. Being in my host family’s house was a little odd – the evening I got here I looked around and felt at the same time as if it had been forever yet at the same time like not a day had passed. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but hey, I’m Lutheran. Speaking of which, I still need to find that Lutheran Church that’s allegedly in San José somewhere….

A word about the earthquake: For those of you who aren’t aware, this past Thursday there was a major earthquake in Costa Rica which made world news and had some pretty serious effects in different parts of the country. Fortunately, neither Ben and Kristen’s host family nor mine here in Heredia were affected, but certainly a little scared. Nevertheless, communities not too far from here were hit hard. As I write this blog entry I think the official death toll is 25, but the number of missing people exceeds 60. I watched the local news here tonight, and some of the landscapes they showed are a more than a little disheartening. La Paz Waterfalls Park, for example, which I visited near the beginning of my time here last semester, has been ravaged and access to it aside from helicopters is virtually impossible. If you log onto KELO TV’s website (http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/index.cfm?VideoFile=010909costarica) there is a story about the quake featuring interviews with my brother and me (does not seem to work in Mozilla Firefox).

Anyway, life goes on. They’ll be talking about this quake for quite some time, and rightfully so, but everything is still pretty pura vida around here. Our first trip for the program is supposedly this Friday, including a stop at Volcán Poás. Seeing as how you can’t really get there anymore, I’m sure that will change. Since I was already here last semester I didn’t attend orientation, so I’ll have to start meeting people at class. It’s going to be different without Ben, Kristen, and Anna around here (a matter which also obligates me to post more often to this blog, as I’m the only one here now). I’m not the New Year’s resolution-type, but one thing I’m determined to do this semester is speak less English. I certainly learned plenty of Spanish last semester, but I feel as though I regressed way too often with my fellow gringos. I suppose that if the grammar and spelling of these posts become really terrible, you’ll know I’m doing a good job of keeping mi resolución.

I’ll try to get an update posted after the first week of classes. All new professors, all new classes, and almost all new classmates (including Derek Harmon, a fellow Augie Viking!). This semester I’m taking Spanish Stylistics (a sort of advanced composition course), 20th Century Latin American Cinema, International Political Economy, School & Societies in the Global Environment (I’m not entirely sure what this class will be about), and hopefully an internship in a local school. I’ll likely be adding to that list, if not in another class from my program then perhaps an audit or two in classes with the locals. Neither my internship nor audits with the ticos will start until February, so I’ve got a pretty lazy schedule until then.

Take care of yourselves. Email me anytime! =)