Side note: I just started reading Wuthering Heights for the first time in like 15 years, and while I can't put it down, I also don't really like the characters. I'm already half way through and Catherine just died, and I'm not sad at all. I don't really like Catherine or Heathcliff, so it's hard to feel bad for them/moved by their twisted love story. The first time I read the book, I remember being really in to it and the tragic love story aspect, but this time, not so much. Still, it's a good read. Also, I tend to be really anti-social when I get in to a book, but I think my family here finds it weird. I have to be careful not to become too anti-social because I don't want to hurt their feelings. Elba told me yesterday that I shouldn't read so much because it's bad for your eyes....I think that was a sign that I need to be more social. whoops!
Desmoche
About a week ago, Cesar and Luis Enrique taught me how to play a Nicaraguan card game called desmoche. It's pretty easy and really fun, so Cesar and I have been playing a lot. It's a good chance for him to practice his English and for me to practice my Spanish. Also, I've been winning like there's no tomorrow! HA! In fact, it was kind of funny because Elba was sitting on the patio with us while we were playing one night and she was laughing because I just kept winning. In fact, this whole card-playing thing taught me how to say, "I won! I won!" "¡Gané! ¡Gané!" hehehe. I bought a little notepad to keep in my purse about a week ago, so I can write down words/phrases/sentences as I hear them to help me remember new vocab, etc. However, at the end of the notebook, I also started tallying Desmoche wins. Right now, I've won 21 games and Cesar has only won 5. ha! Friends back home, don't worry, I will teach you how to play desmoche when I get back to Cali. All this card playing makes me miss our nights at the Hop!
New Friends
Cesar has been taking an English class on Saturdays with this guy named Gilbert. Gilbert lived in Montana for about 6 months like 9 years ago, and picked up English while he was there. Now he is an elementary school teacher, mechanic, and teaches English two days a week. When Cesar told Gilbert that I was living with his family and am here to teach English, he wanted to meet me, so he came over last Tuesday and the three of us hung out for a while. Gilbert was saying how he hated his first few weeks in the US because nobody spoke Spanish, he didn't have any friends, and everything was different. He just wanted to cry and go back to Costa Rica. In other words, he knew exactly what I was going through when I arrived here!
It was nice to have someone to commiserate with who understands how difficult it is to be submerged in a completely different culture. We also swapped a lot of funny stories. Like the time Gilbert was in the grocery store and almost had a breakdown because he couldn't figure out which of the canned goods contained the meat he was looking for. He was so desperate, he just started yelling "does anyone speak Spanish?!?!" Finally, one of the employees said they spoke Spanish, but when he told the girl what he was looking for, she said she didn't know and couldn't help. He ended up just buying a bunch of food without knowing what it was. haha. Or for me, when I was buying a cell phone with Nieves my first day in Liberia and I heard Nieves say I needed a phone that was "cheap" and I thought, "oh good, "cheap" is the same in English and Spanish!" so I kept telling the guy that I needed a "cheap" phone. ...only to realize later "cheap" was "chip" and Nieves was telling the salesguy that I needed a phone to put a "pay as you go" chip in. No wonder the guy was rolling his eyes at me when I was saying I needed a "chip phone!" hahaha. oops!!
Out on the Town
Anyway, Gilbert and I exchanged phone numbers and he offered to be my friend in Costa Rica. So now I have like three friends: Cesar, Esteban and Gilbert. Woo Hoo! On Friday night, Cesar and Gilbert and I went out to the bars. I thought we were just going to grab a drink, but we really ended up bar hopping for a while, which was fun. First we went to a karaoke bar, which was very different than the karaoke places back home. They had a giant screen suspended over a pool (which was kind of cool), but people just sing karaoke from their tables....in other words, no stage! And most of the songs are kind of slow and serious. Not the rambunctious karaoke I'm used to in the states, but still fun!
Then we stopped by Gilbert's friends' house to have a drink. The house was very bare and nowhere near as nice as the house I'm staying at. I was sitting in a folding chair and I swear on my life, that's where I got attacked by fleas! I am literally covered in flea bites :( For those of you who have never been bitten by a flea, they are the itchiest freaking bites of all time. And they present themselves over a series of days because they can have a delayed effect. I feel like I have the chicken pox! I keep telling my host family that I think I got flea bites on my night out, but they keep telling me its a heat rash or mosquito bites. I wonder if they think I'm insinuating that I got the flea bites in their house and are offended? I don't know, but I really hope these suckers go away soon because they are such a freaking pain!
It's actually kind of funny because the family I live with is very Catholic, and look down on drinking (because it's not healthy and the bible says you shouldn't drink?). Also, it seems to be less socially acceptable for people, especially women, to go out to the bars. Everywhere we went, there were other women around, but the bars were predominantly filled (and by filled, I mean mostly empty) with guys and they were mostly just hanging out by the bar, watching soccer. A few people were dancing, and Gilbert and I did a little salsa, which I'm really bad at! I didn't drink very much because I didn't want to get drunk and I definitely didn't want to have a hangover, since I knew my family wouldn't approve of that for sure! Anyway, the flea bites are kind of funny because it's like a punishment for going out! Long story short, I'm really glad I went out and scoped out the bar scene in Liberia, but now that I've seen it, I don't think I'll feel the need to go out to the bars very often. The bars in Cali are way more fun :)
To the Beach!
The great thing about living in Liberia is that there are like 30 beaches within a few hours of town. There is also a volcano known for its hot springs, and lots of hiking/canopy tours. So, I have made it my goal to go to the beaches/parks as much as possible. Since Cesar doesn't have to work on Sundays, he went with me to Playa del Coco. It's only about 38 kilometers away, but it takes about an hour on the bus. I was really glad Cesar went with me on my first bus excursion because the parada de buses can be a little confusing. However, once we found our bus, it was smooth sailing. I have some pics from our excursion. Here we are on the bus, heading to the beach:
The little town area at Coco beach is really cute and very very touristy! Cesar said it's one of the more expensive beaches b/c there are so many tourists. Here's a little pic of one of the main streets: (it's kind of a bad photo, but there are lots of little tiendas and restaurants along the street. And straight ahead is the beach).
New Friends
Cesar has been taking an English class on Saturdays with this guy named Gilbert. Gilbert lived in Montana for about 6 months like 9 years ago, and picked up English while he was there. Now he is an elementary school teacher, mechanic, and teaches English two days a week. When Cesar told Gilbert that I was living with his family and am here to teach English, he wanted to meet me, so he came over last Tuesday and the three of us hung out for a while. Gilbert was saying how he hated his first few weeks in the US because nobody spoke Spanish, he didn't have any friends, and everything was different. He just wanted to cry and go back to Costa Rica. In other words, he knew exactly what I was going through when I arrived here!
It was nice to have someone to commiserate with who understands how difficult it is to be submerged in a completely different culture. We also swapped a lot of funny stories. Like the time Gilbert was in the grocery store and almost had a breakdown because he couldn't figure out which of the canned goods contained the meat he was looking for. He was so desperate, he just started yelling "does anyone speak Spanish?!?!" Finally, one of the employees said they spoke Spanish, but when he told the girl what he was looking for, she said she didn't know and couldn't help. He ended up just buying a bunch of food without knowing what it was. haha. Or for me, when I was buying a cell phone with Nieves my first day in Liberia and I heard Nieves say I needed a phone that was "cheap" and I thought, "oh good, "cheap" is the same in English and Spanish!" so I kept telling the guy that I needed a "cheap" phone. ...only to realize later "cheap" was "chip" and Nieves was telling the salesguy that I needed a phone to put a "pay as you go" chip in. No wonder the guy was rolling his eyes at me when I was saying I needed a "chip phone!" hahaha. oops!!
Out on the Town
Anyway, Gilbert and I exchanged phone numbers and he offered to be my friend in Costa Rica. So now I have like three friends: Cesar, Esteban and Gilbert. Woo Hoo! On Friday night, Cesar and Gilbert and I went out to the bars. I thought we were just going to grab a drink, but we really ended up bar hopping for a while, which was fun. First we went to a karaoke bar, which was very different than the karaoke places back home. They had a giant screen suspended over a pool (which was kind of cool), but people just sing karaoke from their tables....in other words, no stage! And most of the songs are kind of slow and serious. Not the rambunctious karaoke I'm used to in the states, but still fun!
Then we stopped by Gilbert's friends' house to have a drink. The house was very bare and nowhere near as nice as the house I'm staying at. I was sitting in a folding chair and I swear on my life, that's where I got attacked by fleas! I am literally covered in flea bites :( For those of you who have never been bitten by a flea, they are the itchiest freaking bites of all time. And they present themselves over a series of days because they can have a delayed effect. I feel like I have the chicken pox! I keep telling my host family that I think I got flea bites on my night out, but they keep telling me its a heat rash or mosquito bites. I wonder if they think I'm insinuating that I got the flea bites in their house and are offended? I don't know, but I really hope these suckers go away soon because they are such a freaking pain!
It's actually kind of funny because the family I live with is very Catholic, and look down on drinking (because it's not healthy and the bible says you shouldn't drink?). Also, it seems to be less socially acceptable for people, especially women, to go out to the bars. Everywhere we went, there were other women around, but the bars were predominantly filled (and by filled, I mean mostly empty) with guys and they were mostly just hanging out by the bar, watching soccer. A few people were dancing, and Gilbert and I did a little salsa, which I'm really bad at! I didn't drink very much because I didn't want to get drunk and I definitely didn't want to have a hangover, since I knew my family wouldn't approve of that for sure! Anyway, the flea bites are kind of funny because it's like a punishment for going out! Long story short, I'm really glad I went out and scoped out the bar scene in Liberia, but now that I've seen it, I don't think I'll feel the need to go out to the bars very often. The bars in Cali are way more fun :)
To the Beach!
The great thing about living in Liberia is that there are like 30 beaches within a few hours of town. There is also a volcano known for its hot springs, and lots of hiking/canopy tours. So, I have made it my goal to go to the beaches/parks as much as possible. Since Cesar doesn't have to work on Sundays, he went with me to Playa del Coco. It's only about 38 kilometers away, but it takes about an hour on the bus. I was really glad Cesar went with me on my first bus excursion because the parada de buses can be a little confusing. However, once we found our bus, it was smooth sailing. I have some pics from our excursion. Here we are on the bus, heading to the beach:
It was a semi-overcast day, but here are some pics of the actual beach (it's a little cove, surrounded on both sides by really pretty green mountains!)
Right above the beach area, there are volleyball nets, basketball courts, etc. A lot of people were hanging out in the little downtown area:
After hanging out at the beach for a while, we got hungry so we marched back up to the main street, and went in to a place claiming the best pizza in Playa del Coco. While the "typical food" in CR is crazy good, I was craving a little comida Americana, so I was excited for a slice of pizza. The service ended up being really slow, and the pizza dough was a little bland, but here it is nonetheless:
After lunch, I stopped in a scuba shop because I definitely want to go diving while I'm here. I haven't been in like 6 years, but they have a package that includes a little refresher and two dives, so I'll probably start with that. I'm super excited to go diving again...especially since the water here is so nice and warm! Can't wait!
When we went back to the beach, we played a few rounds of desmoche (I won a few more games!), and then hopped on the bus back to Liberia. A very fun Sunday for sure!
Up Next
Now that I'm getting more familiar with my town and how to get around, I'm excited to go on more weekend excursions. Once my actual classes start next week, I think I will be kept pretty busy during the week with lesson planning, teaching, etc. And I'm excited to have the weekends to explore local areas. I am actually going to Nicaragua this weekend with my family because one of their cousins is getting married. I'm excited to get another stamp in my passport, experience another country, and get to partake in a wedding celebration with the family.
Holy crap! You get to go to a wedding in Nicaragua?!?! Talk about lucky!! Make sure to take your chip phone with you. LMAO Seriously, that made me laugh out loud so hard! Also, SEE I TOLD YOU!! Wuthering Heights is a horrible story because the characters are so terrible and you don't feel bad for any of them!! Uh huh....yup yup, I was right :-)
ReplyDeletehaha, I will be sure to take my "chip phone" with me! Glad you enjoyed that! Trust me, it's just one of many awkward misunderstandings that I've had since moving down here! And I will be sure to do a post all about the wedding in Nicaragua :)
ReplyDeleteOkay, so now I'm 90% done with Wuthering Heights and it's great! I totally forgot about the love story between the children! I mean, it is generally a really well written book and keeps the reader interested, but you were right, I'll admit it, Catherine and Heathcliff are horrible, but the other characters are good, and it all turns out well in the end. You should give it another read? We can discuss in more detail in six months. And I still like Jane Eyre better anyway. :)