I´m Not Really Stupid
Thanks to a really helpful little white pill, I slept well the first night in Costa Rica, despite the honking horns and wailing sirens, and the shaking foundation and vibrating tin roof of my host family´s home. I think I´ve landed on a street that is the equvalent of I 40. Chris and I have been regretting buying a place in California that has too much traffic noise for our tastes, but after this, it will seem like a soundless void.
Last night, I managed to understand that breakfast )desayuno) was at 8 00 am, and I^*m up and dressed and ready to help by 7 30. Of course there was no sign of las sobrinas when breakfast was on the table, and I had to go knock on their door. Twice. Nothing like being thrust back into moming with no warning. But since our sweet, sweet hostess was waitig with such an expectant look about how we were going to like her cooking, I just couldn´´t help but respond in mom fashion. Can´t stand to hurt anyone´s feelings, especially when they can say anything about how rude I am right in front of me and all I could do was say Bueno and smile about it.
Anyway, we had a good meal, if somewhat awkward, and once again, good manners smoothed the path. Amazing how quickly the cook will warm up to you if you clear your own table and rinse your dishes.
School starts at 12 00 on Tues. and Thurs. so I had a few hours to figure out what to do with myself. All of the teenagers on this trip are athletes, so they had already found a gym and wanted to enroll. I walked with Stepi and Brenna the few blocks to el gimansio , where we met Lora and her charges. Everyone went in and crowded around the registration window and proceeded to buy monthly passes. Of course, no one understood how much this cost, what you got for the money or how to pay in colones. Seven teenagers talking at once is hard to understand even when you´re not trying to translate dollars into colones.
I got a couple of minutes to say hi to Lora for the first time, and I decided to just wait until later to try to decide if I wanted to join the gym. Plus, I still hadn´t had a chance to change any money.
So I slipped away and left everyone there, happily stair stepping and found my way back to my house. I spent another hour unpacking and futzing with my enviornment, setting things up, and then set out to walk the 3 blocks to the school, alone.
Being such a good little muchacha, I was there 20 minutes early and spent another awkward moment with the receptionist, who was extremely nice, but she was lacking the most essential element of personality at that moment. English. I got the feeling that she´s seen dozens of bewildered first worlders trying to make sense of an environment where they aren´t quite so confident for a change.
I was paying for missing that plane in LA. Everyone else had a 2 day jump on me and that´s a lot.
Everyone else finally arrived, and after a short social hour in the patio garden in the back of the school, went to class, leaving me and a young woman from Holland waiting to be tested for fluency. This young woman´s name was Maria, just to make things more culturally crossed.
They placed me in a class with Brenna, Kara and Sam. Of course it was in the class room at the front of the school, where it was so noisy from the traffic noise I could barely hear. Someone is trying to tell me something´, what I don´t know. I probably just can´t hear it.
I haven´t been to school in years, and it takes some time to readjust the pay attention button in your brain. Especially when you´re trying to filter out un mil worth of decibels assualting your synapses.
But I got the job done for 4 hours.
This day was one of the longest I´ve lived in a while. At home, )califronia) I´ve worried how fast time was passing. Little did I know that I could change that just by coming 2000 miles closer to the equator.
Today I helped with breakfast in a foreign language, tired to figure out how to get hot water out of the shower, took an evaluation test, spent 4 hours in class, found a bank and changed money, walked home alone, found an email place, set the dinner table, did my homework, read a book for an hour and unpacked my suitcase. And sounded like an idiot the whole time. Tengo un piquito echar de menos.
Tomorrow
Sleep Cures Everything, Everywhere
Last night, I managed to understand that breakfast )desayuno) was at 8 00 am, and I^*m up and dressed and ready to help by 7 30. Of course there was no sign of las sobrinas when breakfast was on the table, and I had to go knock on their door. Twice. Nothing like being thrust back into moming with no warning. But since our sweet, sweet hostess was waitig with such an expectant look about how we were going to like her cooking, I just couldn´´t help but respond in mom fashion. Can´t stand to hurt anyone´s feelings, especially when they can say anything about how rude I am right in front of me and all I could do was say Bueno and smile about it.
Anyway, we had a good meal, if somewhat awkward, and once again, good manners smoothed the path. Amazing how quickly the cook will warm up to you if you clear your own table and rinse your dishes.
School starts at 12 00 on Tues. and Thurs. so I had a few hours to figure out what to do with myself. All of the teenagers on this trip are athletes, so they had already found a gym and wanted to enroll. I walked with Stepi and Brenna the few blocks to el gimansio , where we met Lora and her charges. Everyone went in and crowded around the registration window and proceeded to buy monthly passes. Of course, no one understood how much this cost, what you got for the money or how to pay in colones. Seven teenagers talking at once is hard to understand even when you´re not trying to translate dollars into colones.
I got a couple of minutes to say hi to Lora for the first time, and I decided to just wait until later to try to decide if I wanted to join the gym. Plus, I still hadn´t had a chance to change any money.
So I slipped away and left everyone there, happily stair stepping and found my way back to my house. I spent another hour unpacking and futzing with my enviornment, setting things up, and then set out to walk the 3 blocks to the school, alone.
Being such a good little muchacha, I was there 20 minutes early and spent another awkward moment with the receptionist, who was extremely nice, but she was lacking the most essential element of personality at that moment. English. I got the feeling that she´s seen dozens of bewildered first worlders trying to make sense of an environment where they aren´t quite so confident for a change.
I was paying for missing that plane in LA. Everyone else had a 2 day jump on me and that´s a lot.
Everyone else finally arrived, and after a short social hour in the patio garden in the back of the school, went to class, leaving me and a young woman from Holland waiting to be tested for fluency. This young woman´s name was Maria, just to make things more culturally crossed.
They placed me in a class with Brenna, Kara and Sam. Of course it was in the class room at the front of the school, where it was so noisy from the traffic noise I could barely hear. Someone is trying to tell me something´, what I don´t know. I probably just can´t hear it.
I haven´t been to school in years, and it takes some time to readjust the pay attention button in your brain. Especially when you´re trying to filter out un mil worth of decibels assualting your synapses.
But I got the job done for 4 hours.
This day was one of the longest I´ve lived in a while. At home, )califronia) I´ve worried how fast time was passing. Little did I know that I could change that just by coming 2000 miles closer to the equator.
Today I helped with breakfast in a foreign language, tired to figure out how to get hot water out of the shower, took an evaluation test, spent 4 hours in class, found a bank and changed money, walked home alone, found an email place, set the dinner table, did my homework, read a book for an hour and unpacked my suitcase. And sounded like an idiot the whole time. Tengo un piquito echar de menos.
Tomorrow
Sleep Cures Everything, Everywhere
posted by Karen | 1:09 PM
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