I should start posting more.
I had a fantastic night with James. I love him so much.
Update on the past 2 weeks: The rest of the trip to Monte Verde was great. We went dancing that night and hiking the next morning with a group we met from Scottland, England, and Maryland. We dubbed them the MaryEnglScottlanders.
The following week, Shannon and I met with Diego (program director) because our job had too many volunteers and not enough to do. He was super understandi9ng and worked out a placement switch for us. Now, I work at El Centro de Nutricion here in Atenas. It’s great cause there’s more to do, the hours are better, and I can walk instead of the 45 min bus ride! Also, I HAVE to speak Spanish because I’m the only gringa there since Shannon had to leave early for RA trainning. Yep, thus far I love my new placement. The kids are super affectionate and adorable and the other adults are really great to work with.
The rest of the week after I went to Monte Verde I had a cold, so I cuoldn’t go to work and infect the kids, so it wasn’t very exciting. However, the day before I got sick I discovered a swimming pool in the forest real close to my house!
That weekend, me and all the other volunteers went to Volcan Poaz with my Spanish teacher. It was pretty and an easy walk. I have pictures but I can’t post them until my family’s computer monitor is working again. It was kind of crazy that a volcano, such a powerful force, is so touristy.
This weekend, one of the new volunteers and I went to Quepos and Manuel Antonio. The first night we pretty much just ate and then crashed because for some reason extended bus rides are exhasting. The food was great (ceviche) and we found a farmers market going on at night on the way back to the hotel (wierd, right?) and I bought a coconut with a straw in it. yum. The next day we went to the park. We got a guide and saw lots of animals through his binoculars and up close: bugs, birds, sloths, and LOTS of monkeys! It was awesome to ee everything, but the park was so crowded- we found out later this was partically because it was a long weekend this weekend. We hung out on the beach inside the park for the rest of the day. It was beautiful, and the water was the perfect temperature, and we returned home that night.
Today was one of my favorite days of the whole trip! I went with my host-mom’s sister, Ana and her husband Guijermo, who I’d met before at the house, all over the area around Atenas. I have great pictures, but again I can’t post ‘em yet. They picked me u at 7:30 and we drove to a nearby town with a happenin’ Parque Central. Tons of sloths and Iguanas and Costa Rican red haired squirrels live right in the middle of the town! Que Tuánis :). Next, we visited a city garden that looks like it was designed by Edward Scissorhands- tons of really great topiaries! This garden is right in front of a really colorful Catholic church, which we toured. We drove all around the countryside and saw rural Costa Rican life. I got out of the car to take a picture of somefarmers who were leading horses with huge bags of seeds on thier backs. They still use them to plant since thier fields are on mountians! I saw coffee, milk and electric processing plants all small, rural operations. The last stop was a trout farm. We all fished for trouth and I caught two big ones- most cause the guy who worked there was helping me cast. Fishing is surprisingly bloody! The guy who was helping me took out the fish hook then ripped the fishes head off by the gills- right in front of me!!! I closed my eyes the second time. These trout killings splattered blood on my shoes and skirt! Anyways, they cleaned and cooked one of our trouts for us to eat and we took the other one back to my host mom. My travel buddies were great and told me lots of interesting thins about the area- I also got to use tons of español, even though Guillermo was trying to work in all the english words he knows. They even said that they could take my family around when they get here!
I’m excited to go to work tomorrow. Only 8 days of it left!
I’m still reading lots of books, this week it’s Irristable Revolution and Water for Elephants.
The last two days have been my favorites of the trip. I had my first Spanish lessons on Thursday, which went wonderfully and were a lot of fun. It’s just me and my prof for 3 hours of Spanish twice a week! It’s so easy to speak with her, and I’ve already learned a ton.
Today, I woke up at 4:30 to catch a bus to Monte Verde. We got tickets last minute which means we got seats if someone didn’t show up. I snagged a seat amist a bunch of German kids. Just as I was getting super annoyed with thier loud 4 am talking and seat back kicking, the lady with the ticket for my seat arrived. So, I stood in the crowded walkway for most of the 5 hour bus ride. It wasn’t so bad though because I had an intesting neighbor- a Tico was was visting his parents darily farm. In Monte Verde, Raha, Elshe and I found this great hostel with queen sized bunk beds, a constant playlist of Reggetone, and a comunal kitchen. Within a hour of putting our stuff down we we on a canopy tour- flying through the rain forest, which was beautiful and thrilling. We just made some eggplant-tomato-chesse-thyme-pepper stacks. And now we’re chilling in the common room untill it’s salsa time :)
To catch ya’ll up last weekend I decided to stay pretty close to home. On Friday Michael (the other American who was living with my host family) and I met up with the girls who work at Rostro with me at the Fería. It’s basically a farmer’s market they have every Friday 5am-12. It’s the same as an American market accept for the crazy early start time, lots of unrecognizable to the gringo fruits. Oh, and instead of crafts they sell knock-off Hollister and American Eagle clothes. Later, the other girls and I went up into the Mountains to check out a coffee plantation. They gave us a really nice tour of each step in the coffee process. This plant sells about 60% of their stuff to Starbucks. So, maybe you´ve had some of there coffee. We were thinking about checking out a “discoteacha” that night but the one in little Atenas was pretty dead, so we just had a late and long dinner and dessert at a local Italian place. Saturday we went to this beautiful beach that a sixteen year old tica recommended to us. It was a long bus ride for a day trip, but it was totally worth it- even though I got chomped on by a hermit crab. Sunday I took my friends back to the waterfall I went to the weekend before (I’ll post pictures of that later) and we watched the World Cup and got ice cream afterwards.
This weeks been a little boring at Rostro since the kids are still on a vacation- lots of cleaning and sitting. Oh! And I made mango juice from start (picking the mangos) to finish. This includes hand squeezing boiled mangos for juice. It’s kind of frustrating, but the kids will be back on Monday! Today a few kids hung around and we played soccer for a bit. That was lots of fun, especially in the midst of such a slow week.
I’m getting lots of reading done on the commute to Rostro. I’ve already read “Love is a Mix Tape” and “Honeymoon with my Brother”- that was my fave. Now I’m reading Norweigan Wood and Velvet Elvis.
I’m going to Monte Verde this weekend with a couple of the other volunteers. We’re staying in this hostle that´s supposed to be ah-mazing :). I’ve heard there’s a sweet night hike where you see tons of animals!
Also, today´s the first day since I’ve been here that is hasn’t rained!!! Yay!
I started my volunteer job on Tuesday. I´m with 2 other volunteer girls. It´s a 45 minute bus ride away with one connection, so not bad but enough to make me feel like a local a little bit. The place I volunteer at is called Rostro de Maria. It´s got a really relaxed environment. We usually clean or pick mangos in the morning, then eat lunch. There´s a giant mango tree on the property and it produces dozens of mangos a day right now! After our lunch the kids, moms, and old people come to eat. We set the tables and then do the dishes. After that we just play with the kids and teach them english words until it´s time to go. The ladies who run it are super nice and interesting and speak very clear Spanish. One of thier names is Blanca Nieves (translation: Snow White!)
I had cooking class yesterday and dancing today. Both were cool because I got to meet some of the other volunteers.
We´ve been having some weird food at Rostro. Today is was oatmeal juice (oatmeal sugar and water served as a beverage) and miel de mango (mango cooked with a TON of sugar and allspice) they peel it and leave the pit so you have to eat around it.
People go to bed by 11 at the latest here and get up around 6. Everyone! It actually hasn´t taken that much getting used to.
I had cevieche today (yum!)
My host family is currently watching Gilmore Girls in español.
I´m tryinf to decide what to do and where to go this weekend. Lots of the volunteers get gropus together for overnight trips.
Mi primer fin de semana (My first weekend)
So, it´s the end of my first weekend in Atenas. I had orientation today with a couple other student volunteers and tomorrow I´ll be starting my project.
Let me catch ya´ll up on what I’ve been up to so far.
Friday- I pretty much arrived, hung out at the house with my host family and went to sleep early. I also met the other American staying here. There´s a guy named Michael from NC who just graduated architecture school and has been volunteering and staying in this house for 6 months. He´s in a program with about 10 other architects, whom I met the next day.
Saturday- After I explored the town a little bit, Michael invited me to play volleyball with his group, which was real fun. I´m glad to know some gringos for the first week or so while I get aclimated. I even met a kid who goes to UF, and knows some people I know. Small world, right? He invited me to hike to a waterfall with him and his host family. The waterfall hike has been my favorite thing I´ve done so far. We swam, ate mangos, and of course I took plenty of photos. Later on, I went to a gringo pizza party with the group I played volleyball with.
Sunday- I went to church with my host family. Thier all involved in the church in some way: Marvin (the father) plays drums, Wendol (the older daugther) plays congos, Augusto (the brother) does the sound, Antonella (the younger sister) dances, and Nuria (the mom) cooks snacks. This Sunday was a special service. About 25 women and girls in special outfits ribbon danced almost the whole time! I´ve never seen anything like it! We took communion at the end. I wonder if that´s why they ribbon danced, or if this happens often? I couldn´t really tell.
Later, some of thier friends from church came over to celebrate a few recent birthdays. We ate and sat out on the porch and played music and sang. Having so many people speaking Spanish around was a little intimidating but I relaxed more at the end, especially when they played songs I knew. There was one guy, I forget his name, who was really good at flute. His favorite songs to play were Metalica and Green Day hits- on a flute! He was trying to learn how to do the flute/beatbox thing too.
Monday- Today, I was awaken muuuuy temprano (reeeal early) to the sounds of mowing- early like 6 am early. I got up and the family was having breakfast and someone was mowing outside my window. People are mostly early to bed early to rise here… It´s gonna take some getting used to. Around 9:30 the director of my program picked me and two other girls up for orientation Brittany from Canada and Isabell from Minnasota. The director also gave us a contact list of other volunteers. I´m so glad to have some adventure buddies!!!
Tomorrow I start volunteering at Rostro de María!
