It's Like This...

It’s like this… I find myself saying this phrase more and more since I have arrived in Costa Rica.  I have been translating everything that I say into my Spanish, and when I am explaining something, I tend to start with,  Esta como asi…

               

It’s like this; I am addicted to the internet.  I have not had access since I left the retreat center on Saturday the 5^th of March.  Every day, I spend a large part of my time thinking about how I am going to get access to the internet, or when will be the next time I can realistically expect to have the internet.  I have dreams at night, that it’s no big deal that I don’t have the internet because in the morning I can just go to Starbucks, where there is free internet.  This is not the case.  There is not a Starbucks here, and if there was I am pretty sure that it would not have free internet, because in Costa Rica there is no such thing as free internet.  Further complicating the problem is that two of my neighbors have Wi-Fi, and both of them are password protected networks.  All I want is to find out what these passwords are and if I ever saw the people that lived in this houses, I would for sure ask them to supply me with the password, but it seems that they are never home, or when they are home they immediately lock their gates and enter the house without talking to any of their neighbors.  Let me just tell you, that this is strange behavior for Costa Rica.  Everyone on my street seems to know the business of everyone else, so I am not quite sure how the two houses bordering me have escaped this happening. 

It’s like this, we eat rice and beans.  Every day, for every meal we eat rice and beans.  Lucky for me, I happen to really like the rice and beans here, and the beans are not always the same kind of beans.  The protein that we eat with it also changes on occasion, sometimes being fish, usually avocado, and in the morning’s eggs.  We also tend to cut these types of foods with snacks of fruit and bread.  But you definitely can predict with certainty what is going to be for dinner, lunch and breakfast. 

It’s like this; I literally live on a mountain.  I realize that I am famous for my tendency to exaggerate, but this is not an exaggeration.  I really live on a mountain.  I walk down into a valley and then back up the mountain every day when I go to school.  Every day I find a new part of my body that hurts and then I try to compensate for this pain by walking in a different way, creating more soreness the next day.  Today, I walked to a nearby community and I almost passed out from the effort, it was way down in the valley and then we explored the whole town, which consists of about 5 buildings, but all the houses of the other volunteers are spread out all over this mountain so we climbed up and down for several hours and then walked all the way back up to the top of the mountain where I live.  I am tired all the time.  I go to sleep around nine every night and then I am up by 5:30 or 6:30 in the morning.  My family wakes up very early because there is one bathroom and pretty much everyone needs to leave the house by 7:00

It’s like this; I take a cold shower every morning because there is no such thing as hot water in our house unless you boil it in a pot for cafecito.  My options in the morning are cold, or freezing cold.  I tend to choose cold because it’s a little less of a shock to get out of my warm bed get naked in the cold air and then jump into a cold shower.  But you can imagine how disheartening it can be to realize that getting up means shaking with cold for the first hour you are awake.  The best part of waking up…

It’s like this, my family Tica is amazing.  I have three sisters (13, 14, and 15) and my mama and papa Tica.  They could not be more loving with each other.  Let me just say that I have never seen three teenage girls who are so respectful of their parents and still obviously love them.  The family is very physically affectionate which is something I am not used to, but they also show affection by making fun of each other.  They are constantly joking and laughing with one another and teasing is a big part of their family dynamic, lucky for me, I am an expert when it comes to teasing.  My mama Tica is pretty hilarious, she sews for a living and has a workshop in the house so people are always stopping by to drop things off or pick things up from her.  They also tend to call the house to tell her that they are coming by or need something done etc.  She always answers saying to me, ah the cost of fame! Then she answers the phone saying, Hallo, It is I.  I think this is a pretty awesome way to answer the phone.   

               

It’s like this; I cannot speak Spanish.  I am pathetic.  I understand about 80 percent of what is said to me, but I can barely say anything in response.  I know I seem like a total idiot, I mean, I speak like a baby, no, more like someone who had a stroke.  For example, yesterday I was trying to tell my family about the time I backpacked through the Grand Canyon.  First problem, I don’t know how to say Backpack as a verb, so I said… I think 4 years ago I walked with a very big backpack through the Grand... Canyon? That’s the right word right? There were stairs? And we walked the stairs.  That was one day.  My whole body hurt from walking.  Then I am pretty proud of myself for getting all that information out but then the questions start… Who did you go backpacking with, did you go down into the canyon and walk through it or did you walk around it?  Did you cross the canyon?   Once the questions start that’s when things get really bad, because I don’t know how to answer the questions.  So  the responses you go something like this, oh well, you know that thing where you do this… I don’t know… How do you say this…. You know where you do that thing? (Action).  Then my family laughs at me.  Yes family, I am incapable of forming sentences.  At least I am not a beginner…  Yesterday we met with the group to watch a movie and just get some good old buddy time in, and one of the beginners was trying to describe (in English) a person from another group that something couldn’t remember and so she says, Asian, One Bag (The person in question happens to be of Asian descent and was the only person to check only one bag..  She has been speaking in single words since she arrived with her host family a week ago.  Hungry.  Bathroom? The other day she came back late from class and all she could manage by way of explanation was, Juice, Beer, Friends, Sorry.  I think this person was able to say all that needed to be said about how we are all feeling right now.  In English the only way she could think to describe someone was with three words, Asian, One Bag.    We are currently at that stage where everything must be translated before we can say it and our minds are constantly working to decipher what is being said while trying to formulate a response at the same time.   Many of us have been complaining of headaches, and I think its probably because our brains are on overdrive. 

As soon as I am able to borrow the internet of one of my fellow trainees, I will post this blog, until then…