San Jose is not very lively on Sundays, so I took advantage of the lack of cars to go for a run. I got to know the city a little better, at least around where I live. The thing is, there are NO street names! My address is actually based on landmarks! Ex: by the supermarket, 50 meters south and 25 meters east. These landmark directions are actually working to my advantage with my .... "unconventional" sense of direction (a win for visual acuity!) but I can't understand who thought unlabeled streets was a good idea!
My host family is nice. My mama Tica talks with me a lot at breakfast and dinner, but her husband is a lot more quiet. They’re an older couple, and they go to bed REALLY early. This was discouraging the first few nights, but we’re so busy anyway that now I am either heading out an hour or so after dinner, or doing homework. The meals are great – some examples of what I’ve had are empanadas, fresh pineapple/cantaloupe/banana every morning, these fried yucca patties which reminded me a lot of latkes, and mashed plantains. Although I’m not adhering to veganism here, I’ve found that dairy products are really not as common here (although it’s impossible to avoid egg for breakfast, at least in my house).
I can’t believe it has barely been two weeks in Costa Rica. The weeks feel so long! (Hmmm, might have something to do with the fact that they’re six days). I really like our group: although we kind of have to like each other, since the 13 of us are together all the time for 15 weeks, it’s a great mesh of people. I’m loving it so far – San Vito to San Jose is a huge jump in different experiences, but it’s great to have one stretch where we feel like we live in and know our way around a city, and we aren’t just camping at research stations.
Last night we went to this Retro-bar – the theme was the 90’s, and along with some pretty fantastic music they had Tetris blocks as lights and a “Gameboy Lounge.” It was really fun, although I have to say the 90’s music in the chill-and-talk-to-your-friends area was a LOT better than the disco/techno/dance area. Which was literally the same beat for hours. I’m glad that the program keeps us so busy these few weeks, because let’s face it, San Jose isn’t the prettiest city and it’s nice not to feel pressure to go out all the time.
My Spanish class is great. My teacher is really sweet and funny, and we literally just talk for hours. No analyzing texts, no reading poetry, just talking and review of grammar and conjugations (very necessary!). And she corrects us as we talk, which is great, because I didn’t realize how many errors I commonly make! I have four other people in my class (it’s the Tufts class: Vanji and Kristen are in it), and we get to talk a LOT. It's a really great class and five hours fly by!
Speaking of flying by, the drivers here are terrifying -- Boston drivers seem tame in comparison. Not only do pedestrians not have the right of way (you will die without a well-executed street crossing), but I have seen many cars accelerate toward a pedestrian! There aren’t a lot of traffic lights, or regulation at all, so there’s a whole lot of cutting off and beeping. As for the bus transportation, it’s slow but convenient for getting back from CRLA. I’ve managed to navigate my way around the buses last week without my host family guiding me, and I only messed up and got off a stop early once.
We went to the Museo Nacional yesterday, and had an assignment to complete that took us all around the Pre-Columbian/colonial/civil war exhibits. The museum was small and quaint, and tied in to what we're studying. Some tidbits (some from the museum, some from lectures):
-Coffee and bananas, Costa Rica's two big exports, aren't native; coffee of course came from Ethiopia and bananas from Asia.
-Cartago was the first capital of Costa Rica. The country used to have an ambulatory capital, so that it would change every ...year I think? And then when it got to San Jose, I the people in San Jose didn't want to let it go, so they conveniently decided that from now on the capital wouldn't be ambulatory.
-Costa Rica is ranked #26 in the world's most peaceful countries (it has no army and no military expenditure). The US is ranked around #85.
I'm really digging the field trips (a good thing, because our program is one long field trip).
Also, while the city itself may not look so beautiful, San Jose is in the Central Valley and everywhere you look there are gorgeous mountains! Even cooler, there are houses crawling up into the mountains, so at night when the city’s all lit up you can see trails of light heading into the mountains. Not quite the same as the stars in San Vito, but at least a redeeming factor.
Tomorrow we're going to Grano de Oro, and back to San Jose and CRLA on Wednesday. This program is pulling us in so many cool directions that it's impossible to keep track of it all the time, but there's something great about heading out and exploring all the time and not really settling in for extended periods.
Hasta luego!
Anya
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