Pic Dump 2

Hola Todos,

Okay, it’s 9:10pm here. I’m going to try to finish up this entry, since Ericka and Wilbert are upstairs having a beer, and Crystal and Sarah are out at a Casino. I, however, am home with the beginning of a cold, talking to Ryan on AIM (Aim is a wonderful thing), and trying to get the rest of these pics posted.

So, I mentioned the Volcan Poas, with it’s mist, and more mist. We went to a restaurant after that was very nice. That area is famous for milk and strawberries, so we were all served strawberry juice for our drinks, and tiny strawberry cakes for dessert. We had the Casado, the typical, traditional Costa Rican meal which can be had for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Here is the picture:



What it has: beans, vegetables, salad, usually meat but cheese and more vegetables in this case since it was vegetarian, rice, avocado, and fried banana. So, NO that is not bacon. It is a fried banana. Lol. But yeah, sometimes I have this for lunch at school as well, only it is not as fancy.

After we had lunch, they took us around back, where the workers of the restaurant had made a hummingbird garden. Of course, I had to take a picture of a hummingbird. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one in real life, let alone the ten or fifteen that were hanging around. Here is one:



After that, we went to another church, which was made entirely of metal so it would withstand the earthquakes. I took a picture of the altar, but because I am not Catholic and I had to pee like you wouldn’t believe, I was not very interested in the church at that moment. Maybe you will be interested in the altar- because it was very pretty:



After the Church, we went to Sarche (or maybe Sarchi? Sar Chi? I dunno). Anyway, it’s a town famous for it’s wood work. We saw the world’s largest oxcart, which was so boring I neglected to take a picture. However, there was something that was interesting:



At the shop we stopped at, there was a drink machine. In the drink machine, at the bottom, was:



Yep, a can of Imperial, Costa Rica’s favorite beer. The people in this country really do drink and party all the time, and the proof is right there in the drink machine. And, at 600 colones, it is just a few cents more than a dollar.

After the store, we drove an hour home. I think at this point I was feeling sick, so I just wanted to go home, study, and sleep. Mostly sleep. We had gone to the Jazz club the night before, but since I am on a weird schedule of going to sleep at 10 and waking up at 6, it was hard to stay awake. Now, in my defense, we are two hours behind all of you in Estados Unidos. So really I would be getting up at 8 and going to bed at 12, which is not so weird. Anyway, last night Crystal and I both went to bed at around 9:30, because I think we are both getting sick, and today we went to a manmade rainforest reserve. They had all kinds of things, but one of the coolest was the butterfly area. Butterflies were everywhere, and one landed on my hand when I was trying to take pictures. The guide showed us this butterfly, which has wings that look like the head of a snake, to scare off predators. It’s amazing how much it actually looks like a snake:



They also had the most poisonous frog in Costa Rica. This little guy looks adorable, but if even a tiny bit of it’s venom gets into your system, your throat will close in a matter of minutes, and you will die:



After the park, we went on a walking tour of the city, on which I got sunburnt. Surprise! John, Johnny, Jacque and I went to a small place for lunch, and in the process of getting there, in the block between the restaurant and our bus, we were offered fake Rolexes, Cuban cigars, accosted for change, and offered cocaine. Awesome- not. The city is a very different place from home, and that’s the understatement of the year. Thankfully, my house is not in the downtown area. It is several miles away in the Granadilla district. So, no worries, and no frantic emails please.

After lunch, we stopped at the central market, and then ended the day early. After than, Crystal and I went to the mall where she got some money out of the bank on a Sunday (about 75% of all businesses here are open on Sunday, even banks.). Then we went home. The rest of our group made plans to go to the Casino tonight, but I don’t feel like gambling, drinking, or staying out til 2. Basically, I feel like taking some cold medicine, talking to my boyfriend, and going to bed. Here is a picture of the group- try not to look at me- the tired, sick, sunburned chick. Lol.



In the back, starting from your left with the older guy in the blue shirt, there’s Johnny, Danielle our director, Daniel, John, and me. In the front, starting from the left again with the chick in the too-short shorts, that’s Ronnie, our bus driver who’s name escapes me, Diego our tour guide, Jacque, Brian, and my roommate Crystal, who also is wearing kind of short shorts but is blonde. So, in the future, you will know who I’m talking about if I start complaining about someone or explaining a funny situation.

Anyway, that’s all I got, and I hope you guys are having fun without me. It wouldn’t hurt to drop me a comment sometime, whoever is keeping up with this. I feel lonely with zero comments, and only one follower (thanks Ryan- at least I can count on someone out there. Lol.) Let me know how things are!

-Mal

Pictures!

Hola todos,

Today is going to be a picture dump. We have been touring for the past few days, and it’s been kind of tiring to tell the truth. We won’t have a free day (where nothing is scheduled) until next Saturday when we go to the beach. Until then, all our days are full.
I have a lot of pictures, so I’ll try to load as many as I can in the 20 minutes I have before breakfast, and then maybe load some later on this evening if I can. They are always using the computer here, and I like to have some privacy, so it’s about 6:40am right now. Ok:



This is a picture taken in my host house, of the room they have just for drying clothes. Like I said before, no one has a dryer here. There’s just a room with no ceiling, with a few lines strung around.



Another thing: the bars. This picture is my wooden front door, which is open, and the iron grate, which is closed so you can see it. That webbing is thick metal, and you have to unlock it to get in and out. Many people have said that this is because, when the Spaniards came to Latin America, they had bars on all their windows and doors as decoration, and the Costa Ricans misinterpreted it. However, a few students that John from my group is friends with got robbed at gun point last night, so it’s really up for debate whether they are used just for decoration, or also to keep people out.



This is a picture of San Jose, part of the proper city area. All the buildings are not the typical skyscrapers here, because they have probably 2500 small earthquakes per day- San Jose is in a valley, surrounded by Volcanoes. Most of these earthquakes are so small, you can’t feel them, but if there’s a skyscraper, or even a shingled roof on your house (they use metal sheets here instead of shingles), the ceiling will crack eventually and you’ll be out of a house. I live on the outskirts of the city, in San Pedro, where there are about 7 or 8 different Universities, which would explain all the bars. Lol.



This is a very small part of the main market in San Jose. It is a huge building with a ton of different vendors, restaurants, butchers, fruit and flower stands- everything is in here, and it’s packed tight. The guy in the picture is Johnny, one of our group, and the chick behind him that you can barely see with the red hair is Danielle, our coordinator. They were just in my way at the time. Lol.

On one of the tours, we went to the Volcan Poas. It is a huge active volcano about an hour away from the city. When we went though, it was very misty, so all you could smell was the sulfur, and all you could see was this:



Interspersed with brief intervals of this:



Lol. Well, that’s all the time I have for this morning- later, I’ll put up everything else and give you some more school reports, as Katy calls them. Sorry girl, I want this to be kind of informative, and we can’t all be as witty as you. Lol. Today, we are touring a manmade rainforest that is also a habitat for rescued wildlife. Then, we are going on a walking tour of the city to learn about more history. Fun fun. I’ll talk to you guys later!
-Mal

Early Morning

Hola Todos,

It's 5:30am here. I've been getting up really early like this all week. The sun rises around this time, and I guess I'm just not used to daylight coming through the window. Last night when we finally got home, (the bus ride was like 40 minutes, because of traffic, and had standing room only.) Ericka made vegetarian lasagna, and Wilbert talked to us for like two hours about soccer, and all the other host students he's had, and poker, and movies, and he even taught us a couple card tricks.

A new host student just moved into the house yesterday- she flew in from England. Her name is Sarah. I haven't met her yet because she was asleep all yesterday evening, but sometime during the night she locked our door to the shared bathroom to pee or something, and then never unlocked it. So, I'm going to have to go wake her ass up shortly. I don't know what I'm going to do now- I was using the empty bedroom to dry my hair in the morning- everything echoes here, so the hairdryer is too loud to just use in the bathroom.

Today we are going on some tours. I don't know what, but our whole weekend is planned out. Tonight, Crystal, Jacque, John and I are planning on going to a Karaoke bar in our neighborhood. I think it will be fun, and John said that even if you don't drink, it's fun to listen to people sing.

However, as fun as it is to go out and do stuff every minute of every day, we have to study as well. I have about 25 new verbs to learn to conjugate this weekend, as well as vocabulary and sentences to write for homework. We are learning all the irregular past tense verbs, like decir and traducir. It's beat up. I need to find a cafe and just study for a few hours, but it's hard when you aren't really able to go anywhere alone, and you don't know which cafes are even close or what their names are. I guess I'll just take my book on the tour today, and try to study when we have a bus ride or something. I really want to do well in the class, and I don't see how other people make time for studying if we are always going out.

Yesterday, we went to the mall and bought some shampoo and stuff, and I bought a shirt with a monster face on it that said "What are monsters afraid of? The Dentist!" lol. It was like 15 bucks american, which is 7500 colones. The lady asked me if I wanted to try it on (en espanol), and I understood the gyst of what she was saying, but I didn't recognize a lot of the words. That's the hard part about talking here- I know a lot of grammar, but not a lot of vocabulary. It's hard to even understand Ericka sometimes. And it takes so long to form sentences. You're just like: Quiero aprender... um... mucho espanol sobre... um... es muy facil y divertido. lol. That translates roughly to: I want to learn a lot of Spanish, because it is very easy and fun. Edward, my teacher, assures me that in three weeks, we'll be speaking Spanish very smoothly and we'll know more than we ever thought. I told him: Como se dice contract? Tiene escribir su nombre en un contract con mi, y entonces sabemos es verdad. Which, hopefully, translates roughly to: How do you say contract? You need to write your name on a contract with me, and then we know it's true.

Anyway, enough spanish. I've got to go wake Sarah up so I can get a shower. Also, fun facts: Ketchup comes out of a pouch here, no one has a clothes dryer- they just have a special room that has no ceiling and has lines to dry clothes. There is no personal space. Rush hour traffic is worse than at home. They don't cover anything in the fridge. You only get hot water for maybe 30 seconds. When there's a futbol game on (soccer to us), if Costa Rica is playing, everything stops. Everyone watches. If Costa Rica wins, people are given the rest of that day and the next day off. And I mean everyone. The coffee is delicious here- that is not just bullshit that people say. It really is delicious- I could drink it black. It's smooth, never bitter.

Anyway, I'll definitely get some pictures today- I got some of our house, but I haven't had time to post them. Maybe sometime this evening between studying and karaoke and bed. Let me know how you guys are doing!! Oh, and thanks for the email, Kat!! Glad you guys had fun. I'll reply asap.

-Mal

First night out in CR

Hola todos,
The night before last was my first night out in Costa Rica. It was interesting. Crystal, Ronnie, Brian and I went to this bar called Cirros. Brian had been wanting to go out practically since we got to the country, so he invited us all out and bought us the local beer, Imperial. I promptly passed mine over to him, and ordered dinner, which was Patacones. Patacones is a fried plantain dish with black bean dip. It was pretty good, and cost three dollars American, which you really can't beat.

Brian introduced us to a couple other students at the bar- Izzy, a girl from Germany who had been making her way up the coast of Latin America for several months, and Saul, who was a native Costa Rican. They invited us back to their place, which was a short walk away. There we met a few more locals and a couple more students. At about 10:30, they decided to go to Cuartel, apparently the best dance club in the San Pedro area. Being the square that I am, I opted out. I wasn't going to get drunk- I can hardly drink, and I didn't want to stay out on my first night after school started. So, I caught a cab back to mi casa, studied a little, and went to bed.

At about 2:00 am, my roomate was getting into bed. She was pretty drunk, and I asked her how the evening went. She said she got drunk and started making out with Brian. Wow. She doesn't even like him. Anyway, so the next morning I got up at 6, and Crystal didn't want to get up. She was really hung over. She finally did, but threw up at the bus stop where my host dad and I were waiting, so he made her go back in the house and sleep for a while. She ended up missing the entire second day.

Speaking of the second day, it was awesome. We had spanish classes (my class is four people- crystal, john, johnny, and I. Our teacher's name is Edward.) The classes are hilarious. Not intentionally, but you just get a lot of stuff that translates differently, or you don't know a phrase. He didn't know what a q-tip was in English, so I had to draw a little one on my paper. After classes, which end at three, we had dance classes (which, I'm not very good. But, I can do about three steps of slightly jacked up Costa Rican Salsa. Yay!) Then John, Jacque and I went to conversation class, where we talked about some different customs and holidays of Costa Rica and other countries. There was a dude from Panama, a chick from Germany, a chick from Costa rica, and us. After class, John and I went to the mall to look around and we got smoothies- which, are delicious here. I rode the bus home for the first time alone, and talked with Crystal a little bit, did my homework, and our hostmom got Chinese for us to eat. Only, she forgot that I was Vegetarian, and I ate a cheese and avocado sandwich. She said the next day she'd make special vegetarian lasagna just for me, to apologize. lol.

Ericka, Crystal and I had our first legit all Spanish convo after dinner- they have been speaking a lot of English, but it's so hard to understand the classes if you aren't speaking Spanish all the time. I told her thanks for using Spanish, because it helps me learn. She said she'd teach us how to play Texas Hold 'Em. lol.

It is the morning now, and I'm getting ready for school. Tonight we're going to go see Toy Story 3 in espanol, and have a nice dinner afterward. I have got to find something else to do besides drink here! In the culture, drinking is a huge thing. My hostdad put liquor in my coffee yesterday morning, because he said it was a cold morning and i needed to be warm on the inside. I was like "Gracias, Gracias" *pour down sink at first available moment.* But yeah, drinking is a huge recreational activity here. Jacque is the only girl in my group who also doesn't drink, so I invited her to get together to find stuff we could do that didn't involve alcohol. John doesn't drink very much, so he might come along too, and we'll find a museum or a park or something. Another big thing here is Futbol (soccer to us). My hostdad has a tattoo of his favorite soccer team, and he was telling me about how he and his wife are on rival teams, and showing me all their team logo cups, shirts, etc.

So, it's interesting so far here. Sorry I don't have any pictures today- I will try to take some soon. I usually leave all the important stuff at home, in case my bag walks away from me. That's common here as well. My hostdad said not to wear anything expensive. He said he's had the sunglasses stolen right off of his face- someone just runs by and takes them. Isn't that crazy? But, hey- every place has its good points and bad. Anyway, I've got to go get a shower. I'll write soon. Sorry for the long entries!!!!!

-Mallory

First Day of School and the Irazu Volcano.

Hola Todos!!

I have pictures today, I think. If I can get them to work properly. Today we went to the Irazu Volcano, where it was very misty and cold. It was hard to get a good shot, but I tried. The bus ride to the Volcano took about an hour, and one of our group (a girl named Ronnie) got motion sick because of all the twisty roads. I got a chance to chat up some of my group mates as well. We went up to the volcano, and our tour guide Ken (who looks disturbingly similar to Cesar Milan) talked to us about it and how many times it has destroyed the former capital city of Cartago (3 times). We were 11,000 feet about sea level, which is impressive.
Here are some attempts at pictures of the giant craters the lava from Irazu has formed:





If you see those big leaves in the bottom pic, they are called "The Poor Man's Umbrella," because they’re waterproof and people use them to keep the rain off.

---
Later:
Okay, I had to take a shower last night and those pics were taking forever to load, so I figured I’d finish today.

After we went to Irazu, we went to the largest Catholic Church in Costa Rica. It was
very large, very ornate, and flash photography was permitted. Lol. Something like 75% of Ticos are Catholic. They make requests to the virgin Mary and when they are blessed, they bring back a small silver token, about the size of a charm bracelet, to thank the Virgin. For instance, if they had a problem with their leg, they will bring back a tiny silver leg as an offering. It is really creepy looking, but interesting. Here is a pic of the tiny silver legs:


I thought it was odd that people were selling stuff right outsider the church- like on the steps, like toys, carvings, pictures, and little tiny virgin marys.

Later that night, Crystal and I decided to try taking the bus to go to a supermarket to get some groceries. It is hard to always like what kind of food you are served in a foreign household. Anyway, we got completely lost, and it was dark, and rainy, and we didn’t know the bus route, and we weren’t sure how to pay in colones. We didn’t even know the exact location of the market, since nothing here has a bloody address. Eventually, our host dad found us walking up the wrong road and took us home. He was laughing all the way.

Today was our first day of school, and it was very fun. I understand Spanish better than I thought, and everyone is super nice. The school has coffee breaks, fresh squeezed juice whenever you want, and a very charming cafeteria that serves standard Tican food. It is very easy to go vegetarian here. My group is very friendly, and we are meeting at the Iglesia de Lourdes tonight to go get some dinner and chill. Here is a picture of the school from the outside.:



Last but not least, I finally got a picture of the view outside my bedroom window- it was yesterday evening- kind of cloudy, because it rains every evening here. The mountain in the background is Irazu, where we were, and you can see the tiny backyard with the huge stone wall for security:



Okay, that’s about it for now. Sorry my entries are so long, but everything is new right now, and a lot has happened so far. I miss you all. Kat and Ryan- have fun at the Rudder on Tuesday!!

-Mal

Hola Todos!

Hi everyone! I am not dead, first of all. I made it fine, and am about to spend my first night in Costa Rica. The airport was an early morning, but Ryan went with me, and once I found the gate, it was no problem. In Atlanta, where my connecting flight was, there are a ton of different concourses, and I had to take a train to get to my gate.

The plane ride was very long. At first, I didn't like looking at the window, because it's kind of scary. I mean, I know it's safer than a car and all that, and I'm really calm during flights, but something about looking down scared me at first. 30 minutes in, and I was so bored and restless that I couldn't keep my head away from the window. The flight total was about 4 hours in the air, Atlanta to Costa Rica. The weather was beautiful until the last, maybe 30-45 minutes. Then we hit a storm, because it rains pretty much every day here (only for an hour or so) during this time of the year. So, that was scary. But, we made it to the ground.

The airport in San Jose is tiny compared to Atlanta. Immigration consisted of standing in a gigantic line, just to have a guy stamp your passport 45 minutes later. I got through customs fine, exchanged money, got my bags fine, and nothing was stolen. I found my driver, and we were off to my host family.

Something you probably didn't know about the driving situation in CR- they are maniacs. A lot of people don't like to use seatbelts, and they drive a lot of old used Korean cars (which Korea sold to CR) that don't even have airbags. My driver was cutting people off, going 85 mph, zooming around motorcycles, almost getting sideswiped. This is not a joke- they are nuts on the road. Horns go off continuously. My driver, apparently, was one of the few that spoke English, and he asked me about North Carolina, and gave me some tips on life in CR, like don't walk at night, don't get cabs- only buses, etc.

Another interesting thing I learned- they do not really use house numbers or addresses here. They have points around the city, and they use those to map out related locations. And, to find a house, instead of saying "I'm 164" they say "Una casa mostaza y blanca"- the house with mustard yellow and white. They go by color, or by how many houses it is away from a certain corner. The address of my school, which I was officially instructed to put on my customs form, is CRLA, 70 metres este de Taco Bell San Pedro. Yep, that Taco Bell. I shit you not. That is the official address here.

My Hosts are very nice. Ericka and Wilbert are their names. Ericka says that I should "Be at your house"- which is essentially "Make yourself at home." Wilbert and I bonded over tattoos, since he has a large dragon arm piece. He also loves cooking, trying exotic food like monkey, snake, alligator, etc. And he LOVES Star Trek. He LOVES it. He has all the movies, all the posters, all the little ship models. I have it on good authority that he has loved Star Trek faithfully since 1969. He's a really cool guy- I just wish I knew more Spanish so we wouldn't have to use English as much. Ericka welcomed me, and gave me the grand tour. She's a petite, thin woman, and kind of dresses like she's on the Jersey Shore. You know what I mean. But She's really nice, and she gave me plantain ceviche for lunch when I was freaking starving from the flight. They are an interesting pair. They have a maid, a poker table, and last night they apparently stayed up til 5am having Wilbert's birthday party.

Almost all of the houses here have high stone walls or metal bars surrounding a courtyard. Some of the walls are even topped by barbed wire. I was surprised to see this, but apparently petty theft and break ins are a problem here. My host house has a stone wall, and it is topped by electric fencing. So essentially, they are well off, and they want to protect their stuff. They own a few businesses- a tanning salon, 3 video stores, an internet cafe (which I am free to go to at no charge as long as I'm here), and a few rental houses- ironic. They host students because it is usually just the two of them, and they get bored. They are currently hosting a girl from Austria in addition to us, but I won't meet her until tomorrow.

My roomate's name is Crystal. We share a room, which has two twin beds, two nightstands, a desk, a tv with cable, and a giant closet. Out of our bedroom window, we have a view of a bit of the ciy and the biggest volcano. (I'll add pics at some point, when I get around to taking them and it isn't dark or rainy, which it was this afternoon.) We also share a large bathroom with Austria girl. This is definitely not the jungle, but it is very different from home. Crystal seems nice, and she is almost as tall as I am. That's a good thing- I won't be the only giant.

Whew! Well, after I got unpacked, I took a shower and a nap, and we had dinner, which was: White rice, then a sauce of onions, vinegar, tomatoes, spices, and something else, then you are supposed to add meat but I did not, then little fried potatoes on top. I wish I had asked them to spell the name of the dish- it was pretty good, and I was starving. Wilbert says he will get me to try turtle eggs, since I eat chicken eggs. So, anyway, now I think I'll go to bed. Tomorrow at 8am, we have to be at the school to start a day of touring the volcanoes and whatnot. I hope all of you are doing good! Don't forget to leave comments- I want to know what's going on!!!!!!!

Oh, and the one thing I forgot to pack? A spanish to english dictionary. (wait for the collective groan- lol) That's okay, though, I'm getting one tomorrow.

Buenas Noches Amigos!
-Mal