Hey Everybody,
I am sooo tired. It's 7 am here, and we were all up late last night, but the sun rises so early that it's impossible to sleep in. This week was basically a lot of school, but I don't mind. On Monday, Crystal and I walked home from school, which was an insteresting experience. Like I said, the drivers here are maniacs. But, it was nice to get some exercise. Funny- when I came to Costa Rica, I thought we'd be hiking and doing stuff every day, but now I see that we hardly to anything physical. We ride the bus to school, we sit in school all day, we sit in after class activities, and then we sit on the bus, then sit around doing homework, then sit around at dinner, then maybe go out to a bar, where we sit around drinking (well, some of us) and trying to talk over the extremely loud music. It's pretty lame. My roomate doesn't really like to workout at all, and after that first day walking home, she opted out of that too. I would just go by myself, but you can't do that here, especially if you're foreign and people can tell that you don't know your way around. So, it's a little lame.
After school, on Wednesday, I went out for the first time this week. Sarah and Crystal convinced me, since I'd just been staying home and going to bed early. We went to a tiny, tiny bar called Caccio's that everyone in the group and some people from the school were going to. They have these gigantic Liter mugs of beer,that they color and flavor. The drink is called an "Olaffo." I got a Smirnoff Ice, so people wouldn't hassel me about not having a drink, and talked with some people who were all hanging out at one of the tiny tables. Almost everyone drank a lot that night, because one guy from our group kept buying everyone drinks. When it's been an hour and you've only made it through a quarter of a Smirnoff, and some douche who wants to get everyone drunk puts a liter of red beer in front of you, and then continually tells you drink, it gets pretty freaking annoying pretty fast. Mini Bitch session alert: I can't stand it when people who can't have fun sober try to force me to drink. I didn't even finish my one little bottle, and that's just the way I am.
On the way back from the bar, Crystal was pretty drunk. We stopped at the AM/PM to get some chicken and rice for her. She ended up hitting on the cashier. It was hilarious- I felt bad that she was making a bit of a scene, but it was sooo funny and cool the way she just walked up to him and asked him if he had a facebook. And, I was there to apologize to him in spanish, and tell him my friend had had too much to drink, so no big deal. He laughed about it.
Yesterday, I was very excited. Ericka had said she was going to take us to the Mall to go shopping. Crystal needed some shorts, and I was curious to see what kind of clothes they had. Ericka ended up just dropping us off for a couple hours, and most of the stores were full of radically overpriced American imports. When we did find reasonably priced stuff, it was very brightly colored and kind of skimpy- not my taste lol. After shopping, we went back and had chili con carne for dinner (chili sin carne for me. Then, Ericka and Wilbert sprung the karaoke on us. At first we were just eating, but it was in the dining room/living room as opposed to the kitchen. That was odd, but I didn't think anything of it. Then, Ericka came with a can of Imperial, and turned on the karaoke thing to play music videos, and put mics down in front of the three of us, and I was like "Oh, no." lol.
I really just wanted to go to bed, since we'd been out late the night before and up early that morning. I know, I'm an old lady. But, I wanted to be a good sport as well, so we all sang a few songs. I sang one in spanish, and that was a mistake, because they kept giving me the mic with their favorite songs, which got progressively faster and harder. THen, at 11:40, they wanted to teach us all Salsa. It was fun at first, but eventually I was really tired and wanted to go to bed, but they kept wanting to sing more, and dance more, and I didn't feel like it was possible to politely excuse myself. Finally, they released us.
Today, at noon, Crystal and I and the group are starting the trip to Arenal, an active volcano with a hot springs resort. I've heard they have ziplining and hiking and horseback riding through the mountains, so I'm pumped to do some fun stuff that doesn't involve laying by the pool. Learning Spanish is getting really fun- half of me wishes I had the next 6 months to keep learning and being exposed to Spanish. However, another part of me is desperately looking forward to going home, walking into Target or Starbucks, and having everyone speak English.
The prospect of a cashier or salesperson speaking English, or having a car to go wherever you want alone, or being able to walk at night, or starting a conversation with a random person without having to struggle to think of how to phrase things to work around words you don't know- well, I have definitely come to miss those things, without even really realizing it. However, I've also gained a new respect for our ability as humans to adapt to new situations. I've only been here a short while, but things have evened out into normalcy, and I am picking up new things every day as far as how this place functions and what the people are like and how the language works. It's really amazing, and I only wish I could continue to experience the learning aspect of it longer. Guess I'm going to have to find someone else who wants to practice/knows spanish. Any takers? Ha, well, I'm going to go get packed. I'll talk to you guys soon!
-Mal
No comments:
Post a Comment