It's been a while

It's been a while since I've last posted but here's some catch up now that I'm getting wireless in the living room of my house. This past weekend was spent just getting to know everyone. Just having fun in San Jose and getting to know the area before classes begun on Monday. Friday night everyone went out together to a bar in Curridebat (one of the barrios where students are living). My host sister made me shave before I went out, saying that facial hair is unattractive. We must have seemed a bit out of place, 16 gringos taking up pretty much half of the bar. The setup was a bit odd: there was a huge screen which was showing Aerosmith music videos and The Beatles Anthology however you couldn't hear any of it because of the reggaeton (a hybrid version of reggae and hip-hop that's extremely popular and extremely bad) that was blasting, all of which was under the sole light of a disco ball. It was good fun just getting to know everyone and for my birthday, they surprised me when they brought me la cucaracha (the cockroach) a drink that was lit on fire. Now I'm not a good dancer by any means but I'm certainly a creative one (if anyone I live with is reading this I'm sure you remember my performance at Folley Beach) and I did everything from the tango to the robot and eventually everyone was dancing. Although my birthday was three days ago, I honestly couldn't have imagined a better 21st birthday celebration and all of this from people that I barely even know! I know that this is going to be an amazing trip and that I've made some great friends already.

Saturday I woke up with my tongue a little burnt thanks to la cucaracha. A group of 6 of us decided to explore some of downtown San Jose. We took a bus from to the beginning of a pedestrian walkway which winds through the central part of the city around Plaza de la Cultura. It was a very hot day and I cannot tell you how quickly I get dehydrated down here. Stepping from the sunlight into the shade is a difference of about 15 degrees. However there is always a very nice breeze to cool you down when you're walking under the sun. I've been surprised at how windy it is down here. We grabbed some lunch at a restaurant overlooking the people walking below. We had come to explore San Jose but we ended up staying in the restaurant talking for an hour and a half. Nothing is better than good conversation. For most people visiting Costa Rica, San Jose is one thing: the location of the airport. Everyone is in a hurry to get out of the capital and to the beach. So San Jose is a city catered more towards the residents themselves than foreigners. So as far as attractions there are only a couple one of which is the Teatro Nacional which we passed. There were some very unique statues surrounding the building but we didn't go inside because of the fee. The pigeons in San Jose are just as if not more aggressive than those in Central Park in NYC. It seemed like everyone was out that day. The walkways were crammed with people shopping, eating and getting ice cream (POPS is the place to go). There are so many shoe stores here, like 1 every 25 feet. I don't get it, I only saw a couple clothing stores. There was a market with over 100 stands selling products for tourists to buy. Aside from colorful bags, the most common item in the market were Imperial t-shirts, the beer is probably the most famous icon associated with Costa Rica even more so than the nation's popular slogan, Pura Vida! This says a lot about the influence of tourism on the country. By the way Pura Vida! has like 10 different meanings so I say when in doubt just say Pura Vida! I plan on going back to the market to get people gifts and to barter for a drum. An afternoon walking around in the sun had left me dehydrated and not feeling very well. Everyone was going out that night but I was hesitant. I went home and drank a lot of water. I asked my host mom to not make a small dinner for me. She still gave me like 3 different dishes but it's really sweet of her to cook so much for me. I still wasn't feeling great but I wanted to hang out with everyone so I decided to go. I'm glad I did because once I was out with everyone I started feeling a lot better. We went to this Reggae club which had a huge poster of Marcus Garvey so you know it was legit. The place was really low key and it was a relaxing evening.

My room doesn't let me sleep in, which is great for during the week, but frustrating during the weekend when I don't have to get up early. You see the sun comes up around 5 a.m. here and my curtains aren't very thick so the sunlight comes right in. I tried to stay in bed as long as I could but it's seriously impossible and I fought for sleep, eventually giving up around 10 o'clock. I knew the day was going to be an interesting experience because the plan was to go see San Jose's popular futbol club, Saprissa. Futbol games in places like Europe and Latin America in particular are a bit different than soccer games in the U.S., the reason being the fans. They're more than just rowdy, they riot. I wondered how they would feel when a bunch of gringos showed up. It was a hassle to get a taxi from downtown to the stadium but we got there during the first half. It was somewhat comforting to learn that they didn't serve alcohol in the stadium, I could only imagine would fuel it would add to the fire. Lucky for us it wasn't an important game. When Saprissa plays their arch-rival Liga from Alajuela people die. We chose to sit by the die-hard fans who beat a huge drum the entire game while they all, many covered in Saprissa tattoos chanted. They made Philadelphia Eagles fans look soft in comparison.
I kept expecting to get hit with something or at least hear some taunts (there probably were some but my poor Spanish skills kept me from recognizing them). I expected a great game with fancy footwork, bicycle kicks, etc. but it was rather disappointing. There wasn't much intensity and spirit in the way the teams played. But you wouldn't know that from the way their fans acted. We would later find out that that was not a good place to sit. It was cold and dark by the time the game was over and we put the girls in a taxi to go home and got some McDonald's. McDonald's here is much different than McDonald's in USA, here it actually tastes really good. I spent the night sitting around and watching the family play with Julian, someone in the extended family's baby. It's funny to think about how much I don't know but they've probably explained to me at some time. Oh language barrier. I kind of felt like part of the family playing with little Julian. Apparently North Carolina is getting snow and I kind of wish I was there to see it.

The reason I’m in Costa Rica is not to study Spanish, that’s only a small part of it.

The reason I’m here is to study Sustainable Human Development.

The five classes I'm taking at ULatina are:
Justice, Gender and the Challenge of Development
The Politics of Democracy and Development in Latin America
Justice and Human Rights in Latin America
Human Development and Poverty in Latin America
Intensive Spanish (thank god)

For me, this is the perfect class schedule.

Monday I had Justice, Gender and the Challenge of Development at 9 am and I really like the professor and I'm psyched for what we're going to learn about. You can't find this kind of material taught at Elon. We have class only four days a week and so most people travel on the weekends. That afternoon we decided we'd go to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a town on the Carribean. To save money we're going to sleep in hammocks on the beach. It's going to be awesome.
San Jose isn't exactly the safest place in the country and crime is on the rise here, particularly muggings. As an American it is automatically assumed that you have a lot of money. But of course not all of San Jose is sketchy and most of the places we will be going are relatively safe (Although my host sister told me last night that Vargas Araya, where I live is a pretty rough area but so far all thats happen is Brendan got hit with an egg). All of this being said there is one sketchy spot in San Jose that we will all have to go to and that is around the Coca-Cola Bus Terminal where we must go to get tickets if we want to travel. This is the number one area of pickpocketing but the danger is mainly at night. We're pretty safe and smart kids though so after class on Friday we walked to find the bus station to get our tickets to Vargas Araya. The place was crawling with people and the area is definetly shady. We couldn't find the place to get tickets and we eventually decided to get a taxi and leave instead of walking back to the bus.

Tuesday morning I finally figured the shower out. I can either have hot water and no pressure or pressure and cold water, I go back and forth. Class that day was The Politics of Democracy and Development in Latin America (which is also going to be awesome) and Spanish. We had too take a placement test to determine what Spanish level class we will be in. I just wanted to tell them I didn't need to take the test, that they should just put me in the beginner level class. I did alright on the oral part of the exam but butchered the written section. That's all fine with me. We made plans to play futbol later that afternoon which is good because I needed some exercise but bad because I had played in years. Abby and I tried to get my host brother Alonzo (or Zo as I call him) to come with but we were late to the bus and he couldn't go because he had his Mormon Youth Group at 5:30. He's definetly coming next time. So that left me and Abby. We were all supposed to meet at La Iglesia de Curridebat but I made the dumb mistake of getting off the bus to early and we had to walk a good ways to the church. We got there a half hour late with no idea where the field was so we had to go to into the church to get directions. I am so lucky Abby was with me because she is a Spanish minor. She asked a man cleaning the church and got directions to a field and a history lesson on the church and the town from him as well. Eventually we made it to the park and found our group playing on the basketball court. It was gringos versus chicos. Two minutes into the game my body was telling me I was out of shape. But it was fun and my initial pain and shortness of breath went away. Although we lost we weren’t beat by much and I was impressed with our group since most of us don’t play soccer. It had been such a great day but when I got home I saw on the television that Heath Ledger had died. I was completely shocked. Heath was one of my favorite actors and one of the best current actors in Hollywood. His performance in Brokeback Mountain was excellent and I have a lot of respect for him for playing such a controversial and difficult role. I’ve been so excited for his performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, the Batman Begins sequel that comes out this summer. His career was just taking off and he had the potential to become one of the greatest actors ever. I thought about stars that during my lifetime died under the age of 30 and he sticks out as the first famous talent I have seen die so young. For some reason, his death really shook me up and I can’t get it out of my head. Maybe it’s seeing someone die so young, I’m not completely sure. It's just such a tragedy. R.I.P.