Well, it has officially been a month that I have been in
Costa Rica. I still find it hard to believe how fast the weeks fly by. I am
continuing to enjoy every experience that the unique country has to offer, as
the events of this week are sure to reveal. Here is what happened this week
(9/23-9/29):
Monday: Classes
were in session all day today…Spanish class from 9am to 1pm and then following
that class for NCC from 2 to 4pm. We have a new student in our Spanish class
for this week. Her name is Dominique and she is from Switzerland. It is neat to
be able to learn about more than one country at a time. After a busy day of
class, I went to Zumba. Dinner tonight was strange for me because I was the
only student at dinner. It was almost like being an only child, which I have
never experienced. David, the man who stayed with us for a week, left today to
live with another family in Quepos because he decided to attend a different
language school.
Tuesday: Today I
had Spanish class in the morning as always. However, this afternoon the
students from NCC took a cooking class with Ilvania. She is an employee of COSI
and serves as janitor of sorts. In cooking class, we learned how to make
tortillas from scratch and picadillo. Picadillo is a mixture of potatoes,
carrots, peppers, garlic, oregano, and a few other spices. All of the
ingredients in the picadillo are finely chopped hence the name picadillo coming
from the Spanish verb picar meaning to chop. To eat this dish you place the
picadillo on top of the tortillas and enjoy. Similar to all of the food in
Costa Rica, it was delicious. ¡Que rico! We also celebrated Kayla’s birthday
today as a group and went to the Manuel Antonio Beach to watch the sunset which
was incredibly beautiful as always.
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| NCC group at Manuel Antonio Beach for the sunset |
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| The beautiful sunset at Manuel Antonio Beach |
Wednesday: Once
again I had class at COSI in the morning and class for NCC in the afternoon.
After classes, I went to a local place that serves hamburgers and French fries.
I know, how very American to be eating this in Costa Rica! Nonetheless, it was
very interesting to taste the difference between the burgers here and those in
the United States. Today, I realized that in Costa Rica they do not have
mustard. Instead of mustard in the yellow mustard bottles that normally contain
ketchup and mustard, the bottle contains mayonnaise. The Ticans mix together
mayo and ketchup and dip their fries in the mixture. It is surprising really
tasty! After this adventure to taste some American food in Costa Rica, I went
to Zumba, then later I ate dinner and finished my homework.
Thursday: Spanish
class in the morning and beach in the afternoon filled my schedule today. I
once again attended Trivia night at Dos Locos. My team is still a far way away
from winning the gold, but we always have fun. I continue to learn more and
more each time I go to Trivia and my brain always seems to hurt when I leave
from thinking so much!
Friday: As
always, we took a quiz today in class. However, the quiz this week was a
midterm for our class. How crazy that I am halfway done with Spanish classes in
Costa Rica. After class, Kelly and I set up our Canopy and Zip line Tour for
tomorrow. We then went to get pizza from Pizza Pata before sitting down to get
a start on our homework for the weekend. I finished off the night with Zumba.
My papá tico brought my mom and I umbrellas while we were at Zumba because it
started raining while we were there and he thought that we didn’t bring them
along. However, my mamá tica quickly told him “Mujer preparada vale por dos.”
and that we had our umbrellas along. In other words, she told him that women
are always prepared not only for just themselves but for two people.
Saturday: Today
was a fun-filled and very busy day. I went Zip lining through the rainforest
this morning! It was an awesome experience. There was wildlife all around us as
we rode on 10 different zip lines through the rainforest. We had to learn how
to “break” or slow ourselves down before we reached the platform at the other
end. I struggled with this technique at first and had to be stopped abruptly by
the guide on the other end before running into the tree that followed.
Thankfully as time went on I figured out how to break on my own.
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| Here I am zip lining! |
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| A picture of the zip lining crew while on a short break |
After an exhausting but very fun morning of zip lining, I came
home to relax for a little while before going to see a play with my padres
(Tican parents) tonight. The play was a comedy and although I didn’t fully
understand everything that was being said in the play, I was able to comprehend
the general storyline. I definitely had some good laughs as well. It was great
to be able to spend the night with my Tican parents.
Sunday: I took
today to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather here. I went to the Manuel
Antonio Beach for a majority of the day. When I returned, a new exchange
student had arrived. His name is Jon and he is from Germany. We took time
before dinner to play with Samuel and Antoine, which is always a fun adventure!
Thank you all for continuing to read! ¡Adios!
~Kailey
