Volcanoes, colonial towns, and fútbol!!!!

Today was nuts! Mostly because of Costa Rica playing and WINNING against Greece, but there were a lot of other new experiences along the way...

First, we had a day of excursions planned, but everyone was worried for Costa Rica to win, because the people fill the streets and cars cannot get through, so we were worried we wouldn't be able to get back home.

We set out anyways for the Volcán Irazú early in the morning before it got to cloudy to see all the views. It was so cool to see a volcano! It's a National Park as well, so there were trails for a bit, then all we did was walk in ash. I saw the crater where lava comes out of, and then we went to a peak above that to get a better look into it and we were inside of the clouds! It's freezing in one of those! We could see it all around of us like everything was white, kind of like as if it were foggy, but it covered all above you and you could feel it on your skin. We also saw a new kind of animal called pizote, which is a coati in English. I've never heard of or seen one before, though.
1) the cloud from below... 2) the crater... 3) inside the cloud!



On the way down, we stopped to take pictures with a statue of Jesus, like the one that is famous in Brazil, and there was a guy selling fruit called pejibaye, so I decided to be brave and try one. It tasted like a pumpkin or squash, so in my opinion, it's a vegetable, but I ate all of it anyways.

Our next stop was the oldest church in Costa Rica in Orosí. We got to see the museum and inside of the church. They did a mass-baptism of babies, because as we were going into the church, I saw at least 5 of them dressed in fancy white outfits with people taking pictures. We also saw a really bouncy foot bridge there that we crossed. I freaked everyone out by bouncing up and down on it. I figured it had to be structurally sound with all the people crossing it. On the other side was a food stand that sold empanadas. I shared one with chorizo in it with a friend.

Cartago was the next city we went to that has a replica of a catholic basilica. They also have the ruins of another construction of the same church. The legend has it that el Virgen de los angeles told the people where to construct the church, and they didn't listen. Instead, they constructed it in a place that just happened to be where some tectonic plates met. The church was destroyed twice by earthquakes, so they moved it to another spot, and there it has stood for over 100 years. The legend says if they would have listed to el Virgen the first time, it would have never fell.

While there, a bunch of ticos were going crazy for the fútbol game already in the town center. They had a concert and everyone was dressed in red to support the team. We wanted to get back to town early before the game so that we could watch it to, so we cut our visit a bit short. When we got back to San José, there was no room to watch the game. All of the places were packed and people were blowing horns and yelling and singing. We ended up watching the game at a friend's house. They went into 2 overtimes and then had shoot outs and ended up winning! Everyone was so excited and now all of the streets are full with people celebrating! I couldn't catch the bus or take a cab home because there was too much traffic, so some girls walked me home and we were blowing horns and yelling the whole way home while cars were honking and doing the same. When I got home, my house family was so excited about everything too and they made ice cream sundaes to celebrate. It's very exciting to be a part of all of this.

Well, I missed a lot of details, but this day was soooo long and I'm sooo tired!

Orientations

Today and yesterday were both orientations for our program.
Yesterday was orientation about families and rules, and today was for the university and its classes.

We didn't have to be at school until 2:30 yesterday, so we spent the morning talking to Imara and Samuel's son, Harold, about Costa Rica, Latin America, the Spanish language, and fruit. He is a professor of languages at the University, so we had a lot to talk about and he helped us with difficult or new words since he also knows English.
Through our conversation about fruit, we were able to try a whole bunch that we had never heard of before like the nance, granadilla, and I already forget the others because they have strange names.

We had spaghetti and chicken and empanadas de platano before going to school. We took the bus for the first time for 250 colones, which is 50 cents. Here, they don't even use cents because it's not worth anything. It's about 550 colones to a dollar, 1,000 colones to 2 dollars, etc. The smallest coin they have is a 10 colones coin, but they never have prices with decimal points because they do not have currency that small.

Costa Rica is not very pedestrian friendly. You are lucky if you find a crosswalk on the road and the pedestrians do not have the right of way. So, we were walking with our 70-year-old house mom Imara down across the street to the bus. She doesn't walk very quickly, but she's not afraid of stepping out in to traffic. She was laughing at us cause she would walk right out in front of cars like nothing.

Anyways, we got to UCR and had a really boring orientation where they just read us information they already sent to us in an e-mail. Afterwards, Imara's daughter Carla was able to take us back home in her car since she was off work at the University. When we got home, she said that North Americans have the bad habit of slamming car doors, so she asked us to shut them softly. She has a Yaris, like my sister Jessica, so I usually close her doors softly anyways. However, my definition of "softly" must be different, because I thought I shut it lightly. Judy, my housemate from Puerto Rico, knew though because she had the same custom of closing the door almost all the way and then gently patting it shut, so I'm sure one day I'll learn how to do that. I won't tell Carla about how my dad shuts car doors, she would think that there was an earth quake!

After dinner, we sat and talked in the kitchen and started telling jokes. Samuel had some about lawyers and mother-in-laws, but he didn't know about the dumb blonde jokes, so I told him some of those. I asked my professor why they weren't familiar with these types of jokes, and he thinks it might be because blondes here are known for their beauty.

Today, we had to wake up early to go to the University orientation. We met the professors and went on a tour of the campus. Judy and I did not have to take the placement exam to see what classes we would take because we are already in advanced classes. While the other students took their exams, we did our own tour of the campus and took lots of pictures. Then, the study abroad organization provided lunch for us which was chicken, fish, salad, potatoes, zucchini, and flan de higo for dessert.

We decided to go to the mall afterwards instead of going home so that we could have something to do before dinner. The mall only has a few name brand stores, like Tommy Hilfiger, and then the rest are all different. When you walk into the store, the workers say "buenas" to greet you and immediately ask if they can help you find anything. If you accept their help or tell them what you want, they act like your personal shopper and show you different outfits that you could make with the one piece of clothing. After setting you up in the dressing room, they keep coming back to ask how everything is going and ask to see the outfit on you to help you accessorize. I was surprised at this, because the stores look regular and have clothing costing $10-$50, so it's not like these are luxury stores. If you say "gracias" to them, the ticos don't say "de nada", or at least I haven't heard it yet. Instead, everyone so far has said "con gusto", which means "with pleasure". I feel like I'm at Chik'fil'a all the time with that expression. I ended up buying 2 pairs of "jelly" shoes that are silver because the rain wears at other shoes. Each pair only cost $10, or 5,700 colones. Throughout the stores, we could hear cheering for all the people watching the football games at the stores with TVs. They even had horns inside the mall, like my dad has to cheer at American football games. So I guess Colombia won against Uruguay and Brasil won over Chile.

We left the mall and started walking to the bus stop. In the middle of the street were people juggling and then holding out their hats for drivers to give money. Carla said these are called "maravilleros" because they are always doing "maravillas" for the drivers.

My feet were so tired from walking all day, that I sat on the patio in a rocking chair and put my feet up. Imara and Carla worked in the garden and took care of the dog and the cats. Carla brought in another granadilla to make juice with for us. So far, I haven't drank water here. With every meal we have fruit juices, or "frescos" from different fruits, or I have cafe con leche.

Tomorrow, we visit the volcano Irazú, the dam at Orosí, and Cartago which was the old capital of Costa Rica, so it's supposed to be like one of those old Spanish colonial towns. I can't wait to share about that!

Exploring and Meeting la Familia Mendoza

Today started early, at 6 am, due to a variety of reasons:
1. It gets light here that early
2. I went to bed at 9 the night before, and
3. The train that goes through the city goes through the streets, but there are not safety features that block the tracks from the cars, so it has to honk loudly every time it goes through the city so that the cars know a train is coming and they should stop.

Anyways, then we went downstairs for breakfast. I had toast with guanabana jelly, café con leche, meat with cheese and crackers, yogurt-which they pour out of milk jugs here so there is no spill-, and fruit which was pineapple, watermelon, and papaya.

After breakfast, it was time to explore the area around us. I discovered that it is perfectly acceptable to trim the edges of your front lawn with a machete and that trash is placed in pretty little metal baskets so that animals do not get into it.

We also stopped at a really cute hipster-type café. They serve crepes, macaroons, teas, coffees and fruit juices.

Finally, it was time to meet our families. My house mom is named Imara and my house dad is Samuel, who pastor a baptist church, and I met their daughter Carla, who is a nurse at the Universidad de Costa Rica. They have a Volkswagen they drove us in, and when they were putting our suitcases in the trunk, they had a huge bunch of plantains in there that they said they will make tostones with, which are my favorite! When we got to their house, they had a fruit tree out front with a fruit I have never seen before, the granadilla, which is a passion fruit, but I guess I've only had passion fruit flavored things without seeing the fruit itself, and they make a juice with it, which they served to us. They also have a dog, Rocky, who is a husky, and orange cat, Tigre, and a grey cat. So far, the animals haven't come inside yet at all. I think maybe they just live outside on the porch that has a roof over it, but I'm not sure yet.

They have a very nice house with 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large kitchen, a large family room/dining room area, and a nice patio that has a table to have dinner at and laundry things. I'll take more pictures of it later. I live on the second floor, up a skinny spiral staircase, so it was an adventure to get my suitcase up, but now I'm all packed and settled in.

For lunch, we had steak with onions, a veggie medley with carrots and another veggie I have never heard of, the chayote, which is green and shaped like a pear, but tastes like zucchini, and rice. I also had a different kind of cheese and hand made tortillas.

Afterwards, Judy and I, that's the girl that is also living in my house from CSU, went to find the University's swimming pool. It was only a 10 minute walk away from our house, but the main campus was another 20 minutes from that. Some guys had to help us find our way there, and it is a very nice but very huge campus. It looks easy to get lost in. Luckily, Carla works as a nurse at the university, so she is going to drive us to school with her every morning. Walking was no picnic, because there are very few cross walks here, people drive like maniacs, the side walks are super skinny, and sometimes disappear, and there a parts that have big holes in the ground or its rocky or steep. I felt like I was hiking in an urban jungle. The homes and businesses that line the street are very colorful.

We found a park in our residential neighborhood that has a basketball court, slides, monkey bars, swings and see-saws, so we got to play on those a bit before dinner. For dinner, we had rice mixed with beans which had a special name, but I forget, with café con leche and picadillo, which is a mix of cubed meat, cubed carrots, and cubed chayote in a good sauce. Any leftovers we had were given to Rocky and then we sat and shared about our families.

Tomorrow, we take the bus to the university for orientation. I hope to get better familiarized with the campus and see if the professors are nice. Hasta luego!

Tiring Tico Travel Day

"Tico" is another word for "Costa Rican" here, just FYI...

So today I left beautiful Cleveland, OH for San José Costa Rica.
It's only 7 pm here, but I'm sooooo tired because that means its really 9 pm at home, and I got up at 5 am this morning.
We had a nice flight to Houston, TX and then had to run to the next gate and get right on our next flight to San José, CR. It all happened so fast! Just an FYI, United Airlines does not hand out free snacks, so when I ordered ginger ale, I asked to keep the whole can for myself. So there.

When we got to CR, we of course went to customs and I was able to have my first conversation with a Tico as I explained the reason of my visit. The guy was surprised I spoke Spanish, but I'm sure I'll get that a lot here. I'm not sure how many red heads live in CR...

Next, we took taxi's to the Tairona Inn where we will be staying for the night until tomorrow when our families pick us up. The Tairona Inn is called an "apartotel" which means it is a hotel that has rooms like an apartment does. It's kind of like a studio with a desk, TV, beds, a kitchen with fridge, stove, sink, and microwave, and then of course the bathroom.

---inside of the hotel, where the breakfast area is---
---our room---



We went to the mall for dinner. There are a lot of strange stores there that sell very bright things, kind of like there are a lot of Clair's and Spencer's and Hot Topics. I did see some clothing stores I liked, though, so I will be going there for some shopping.
They had some unique American stores, like this ice cream stand that only sells McDonald's desserts:

The food court had all the same American fast food places, but then some different chicken places, Mexican, Chinese, Pizza, Italian, and one place that was authentic CR food. Well, for whatever reason, when we were first looking for food, we didn't see the authentic place until after we ordered. So I ended up getting tacos al pastor, of course, at the Mexican place. They were very good, but there wasn't any hot sauce to make them spicy. It came with tortilla avocado soup, which was delicious, and a mango juice drink.

I was going to explore the town more after eating, but it's raining and I'm exhausted. Hopefully I have more exciting stories for you to come!