Firsts and Lasts

This week marks the last week that I will spend in Quepos with my host family before heading off to San Pedro (a suburb of San José, the capitol) where I will spend the next six weeks. This past week flew by as I realized with each day that I was not going to be in Quepos for much longer. Here is an overview of my last week in Quepos (10/21-10/27):

Monday: Spanish class today consisted of reviewing for the final exam on Friday. Gloria, our teacher, informed us today that most of this week is going to be a review of everything we learned. However, we will also be learning Spanish words unique to Costa Rica. ¡Que chiva! (How great!) Our class decided to make Oreo Balls (aka Bolas de Oreo) for our host families. We started this process in class while we reviewed. After class, Kelly and I walked around Quepos to find a gift as a going away present for our host families. I ended up buying a hand made napkin holder for my host families. I figured this was a way that my host family could be reminded of my presence at each and every meal as I know I will be thinking of them often.

Making Oreo Balls in class!

 Tuesday: I had another day of review in Spanish class today. After class, I went to Tipico, a restaurant very close to COSI, where I ate chips and guacamole before going back to the school to work on my final paper for my NCC class. After working hard on my paper all afternoon, I went home to relax for a bit before dinner. Once dinner was over and I was done conversing with my mamá, I talked with my family from home via Skype. Towards the end of the conversation with my parents we went downstairs to talk to my Mamá Tica so that my parents could say thank you to her for caring for me for the past two months. I served as the translator during this conversation and afterwards I realized more and more just how much I am going to miss my mama.

Wednesday: Today was a very long day of class. I had my last NCC class this afternoon. We had a round table discussion about our final paper topics. I talked about the legends of Costa Rica and how they apply to the culture of Costa Rica today. After class, I came home to work on a bit of Spanish homework for class tomorrow. Then, as tradition holds, I attended Zumba for the last time tonight! My Mamá Tica said that she couldn’t come tonight to Zumba with me because she has a huge sewing project to work on. She was sewing around 130 hats for the fish market where my Papá Tico works.

Thursday: Reality hit today because after Spanish class I came home to pack up my things for when I leave for San José. It was something that I really did not want to do. However, I knew that if I didn’t do it this afternoon I would be up very late tomorrow packing because Jacob and I were making dinner for our host families tomorrow.

Friday: Today was a day filled with many “lasts” as it was my last day in Quepos. I took my final exam in Spanish class today and did very well! It was great news that I preformed so well on the final showing that I had really learned a lot but I am really going to miss my teacher, Gloria. Jacob and I invited her to dinner tonight at Jacob’s house for a meal made by both Jacob and I for our host families and Gloria. Luckily that was one less goodbye that I had to say early in the day on Friday.

After class, Jacob and I ran some errands and then went to La Feria (the open market) with his parents that were visiting from the States to buy supplies for dinner tonight. At La Feria we bought 12 tomatoes, 10 potatoes, 6 onions, 6 peppers, 3 gloves of garlic, 3 chili peppers, 3 avocadoes, 3 limes, and 1 cucumber. We bought all of these supplies for about 6500 colones or around $13 in order to make salsa and picadillo. My mamá insisted on making the rice and beans for the meal that was very kind of her and ended up working out for the better because Jacob and I ended up cutting up ingredients for a very long time. We started preparations for the meal at about 5:30 and we didn’t eat until 8 o’clock, granted we did have a few interruptions to our cooking including a trip to the super market to get meat, chips, and more peppers. All in all, the meal turned out very well and the experience was very eye opening to witness first hand the materials and conditions that our host moms cook with each day. The only downside to the meal was at the end I had to say goodbye to my teacher, Gloria.

Before preparation...

I graduated!

The Last Supper

 Saturday: It was quite sad waking up this morning and knowing that today is the day that I leave Quepos, the town that I called home for two months and will forever be my casa Tica, to go to San José. After saying goodbye to Jacob’s host family and my host mom’s sister and mom, Jacob, my Mamá Tica and I all piled into a taxi to drive to the location where we would be picked up to head onto the journey. Once the bus arrived (20 minutes late due to an accident) it was officially time to say the hardest goodbye yet…saying goodbye to my Mamá Tica. We had spent so much time together and I have gotten to know her so much better since the time that I arrived that saying goodbye knowing that I wouldn’t see her everyday was going to be difficult. However, I knew that this goodbye wasn’t the final goodbye as I plan to make at least one more trip back to Quepos to spend a weekend with my host family and say one final goodbye. Nonetheless, it was difficult to say goodbye and I still miss her dearly.

Once all goodbyes were said and done, we were on our way to San José. It took about 3.5 hours to arrive at COSI in San Pedro (a suburb of San José). We drove on roads that had many curves and turns and swerved in and out, up and down the mountainside. It was quite beautiful. However, when San José hit it felt like a whole new country! There was traffic everywhere and stores that we see daily in the U.S. we saw scattered throughout the city. For example, we saw Starbucks, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, etc. This was definitely going to take some getting used to because for the last 8 weeks we had been living a very laid back lifestyle with very few modern conveniences. Although it is quite a change, I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks!

Tomorrow we leave bright and early to spend a couple of days in Nicaragua. Check back next week for an update on how that trip went. ¡Hasta Luego!

~Kailey