Day Five - Dancing in the Rain

Kelly and I definitely seem to be getting into our routine here in Costa Rica. Wake up, shower, breakfast, class, coffee, more class, lunch, read, rain, and the list goes on. It's nice to have our routine, but I am excited to go on some more adventures.

Our activity for today was dance class. One of the coolest parts of CPI is the fact that there are covered areas so that activities can happen no matter the weather. This was especially important today because there was a heavy downpour during our dance class. The class was about an hour long and we got a crash course in three Latin dances - Salsa, Merengue, and Cumbia. I really liked the Cumbia because it was very fast and reminded me a lot of Tae Bo. After class, I was super soaked with sweat - Costa Rica is very humid! - so I ran onto the soccer field and danced some more in the rain. It's a natural shower right?

We have one more day of classes here in Heredia, and then we're off to Volcano Arenal for the weekend. We're supposed to see an active volcano, climb in a waterfall, and swim in some hot springs. Sounds like it should be a pretty good time.

Day Four - It's a Monsoon!

Hola Chicos y Chicas!

Today was our first rainy day of our trip. Right now we are in the green season in Costa Rica, which basically means it will be raining, if only for a little bit, every day that we are here. Truth be told, this morning, Kelly and I woke up to a misting of rain. Perhaps that's why I was able to sleep so well last night.

To make the rain feel like no issue at all, my host mother, Maji, made us pancakes this morning. The pancakes were awesome, and we ate them with honey. It was super sweet, but really good nonetheless. I love our breakfasts in the morning...I just we had as much time or a host mother to make them for us back in Minneapolis.

Classes weren't too bad today. Review of verbs and numbers. However, we did have a comico moment thanks to me. We were talking about money and buying items from the super mercado and I asked what you would call a piggy bank in Spanish. My maestra had no idea what I was talking about, so I tried to use my broken Spanish and came up with "Banco Puerco." After I said that, the laughter almost didn't stop for the rest of the class. We tried really hard to find some sort of word to describe a piggy bank, but it was to our dismay. Finally, un chico who works at the school had the answer for us - alcancina.

After class, I went to go do my homework, but as I was conjugating my verbs, it started to rain. No just your regular day rain, not just your thunderstorm rain, but rain like you see in the movies like a monsoon. It was pouring in sheets for about an half hour! I guess I understand why they have such deep gutters in the streets. I tried to take a picture of the rain, but the photo would not do the rain justice. Take my word for it, it was crazy.

The activity for the night was a short bus ride to Heredia to see a movie in Spanish at the mall. Kelly and I chose to see Cars 2. I felt like I was a baby again watching the film. I could pick up about 20 percent of what they were saying, but I mostly stuck to following the pictures. It may seem like a waste of money to see a film in a language you barely understand, but our tickets were 2000 colones a piece - 4 bucks - so overall it was a pretty cheap date.

Prior to the film, we got dinner at the mall food court. Sweet, right? A Costa Rican food court with Costa Rican inspired food. Not so much. It was like I was transplanted back to Gurnee Mills with the McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Quizznos, etc. We tried our best to find something that we couldn't get at home, but we settled on this pizza and chicken place because it had a vegetarian option. Skeptical as I was to have pizza in Costa Rica, the food actually was pretty good. Reminded me a lot of the decent pizza you can get in Kenosha. Not so much Carl's, but pretty darn close.

We're still having a great time, but we're sad to be leaving our family in San Jaoquin de Flores. Dos mas dias here - let's try to live it up!

Pura vida,
Casey

Mas Fotos!

Another picture of mamon chino...this is the part you eat!

Kelly and a statue in a park in Heredia.

Kelly found a delicious looking plant.

These ants looked like mini-stegosauruses! 

An old church near our school.

Muy delicioso pancakes!

Taking a break between classes. =)

Day Three - Muchos verbos!

Buen Dia Mis Amigos!

Another day, another adventure. Even though I wasn't zip-lining through the cloud forest, I had a mega adventure  today, -ar verbs. During class I learned 70 verbs and had to conjugate them all in the present tense. Muchos notes, but I feel like I learned a lot. It's only been two days of classes and I can definitely see and hear a difference in my Spanish. It's getting  better...poco a poco.

Funny story about how small the world truly is...As I was getting done with my classes today, I peered out the window at the large group of teenagers from California, and something catches my eye. It was a face that looked very familiar...Turns out, it was one of my students from my advisory class this year. She was as surprised as I was to see someone from Minnesota in Costa Rica. Que comico!

After classes today, Kelly and I went for a walk around San Jaoquin de Flores - the town our campus is in. We explored the super market called MegaSuper and walked down the main road of the city. There were many different shops and places to eat. We stopped at a panaderia for some snacks - the dulce de leche one was muy rico. It was about an hour long walk total and was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Per usual, dinner was amazing. Flora cooked up una sopa con huevos, basically a soup with eggs and noodles. I want to bring Flora home with me so I can have muchos home cooked meals!

After dinner, Kel, Mayi, Kelleanne - our other housemate, and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was a beautiful night - cool and tranquil. That is except for the massive number of dogs barking and running about the streets. It was like being in a haunted house - every corner you took, a dog would be there to start barking at you. I definitely saw Kelly jump a few times...but not me. =)

Pura vida,
Casey

Some Photos of Our Trip So Far!

Kelly on our rooftop patio.

A typical coffee break at CPI.

A view from our school.

Two new treats - Mamon Chinos (the red one) and Mamon (the green one)

A delicious fruit - Guanabana - Like a pineapple - only much more sweet!

Day Two - Vida es Rico

What a long, but amazing day! I promised myself that I would write a blog entry each night to recap the days events, but I don't know if that will be enough! As I sit here at the keyboard, I'm already finding it hard to remember every detail of the day...but I'll try.

Sleep was rough. I'm happy to have a bed and a pillow, but the cacophony of sounds from the night kept me tossing and turning. Needless to say, I woke up pretty tired.

After a quick shower, I went downstairs with Kelly and had my first Costa Rican breakfast - fresh bananas, pineapples, and toast and jelly. The pineapple was absolutely amazing, but the highlight of the meal was the Costa Rican coffee. You hear people say that this stuff is to die for, and let me tell you, they're not lying. It's a strong flavor, but so much more deep than your typical cup of Folgers. I can already say I'm going to miss the cafe when I'm back stateside.

Breakfast completed, we headed off to our first day of classes at CPI. Check out the campuses at www.cpi-edu.com. When we got to campus, we had to take our entrance exam to find which classes would be best for us. It was a multiple choice test, and I went with my classic theory of the answer is always C. Definitely landed in Spanish 101 - exactly where I needed to be.

We headed upstairs after the test to start our first classes. I have three other people in my class with me - a couple from Montreal and an older woman who barely can say burrito. I find myself explaining what our maestra is saying to her because our maestra does not speak very much English. We spent much of the day just pointing at things and getting the Spanish words for them. There's a lot of information coming my way, but I can already tell some of it is sinking in.

Classes are 4 hours long, but we do get a coffee break at 10:00. Seems pretty nice to have even more of the glorious coffee, but it gets even better, CPI also provides fresh fruit! Watermelon, mango and more pineapple were on the menu today. Super  sweet and mucho delicioso.

After break we had two more hours of class and I was assigned my first homework of the trip. I needed to practice my alphabet and create some dialogues for some pictures. I feel like I'm back at Lincoln Middle School in my first Spanish class, but hey, it's Costa Rica, and I'm having fun.

Kelly is taking an extra hour and a half of Spanish conversation in the afternoon, so I have some free time to myself. Luckily the school has wireless and I was able to surf the net and find some helpful resources - verb conjugation and dictionary - for my disposal. The school also has some ping pong tables and Foosball tables set up, so another student and I played a few matches.

On the slate for this afternoon was a walking tour in Heredia. There was about 10 of us who hopped a bus and went to the center of the city. There we found bustling streets and crowded markets. One of my favorite stops along our tour was the fruit stand in the market. Our guide, Chris, shared some of the more exotic fruits on the stand. My two favorites were guanabana and momon chino. Guanabana was like a pineapple with super sweet white flesh, and the momon chino looked like a strawberry with a lot of hairs all over it. Both were very rico.

After the market we wandered the streets of Heredia. There seems to be little to no traffic laws - or at least the Costa Ricans really don't pay attention to them. You have to be careful crossing the street...the drivers won't stop! Dodging cars aside, our stop in Heredia was really nice.

We came home around 6:00 pm, and finally were able to meet our host mother Flora. Flora is extremely warm and welcoming - just like any grandmother should be. She had already prepared dinner for us - roasted squash, rice, garbanzo bean salad, and to top it all off, sweet plantains covered with queso. The meal was to die for! Such simple food is making me realize how easy it can be to eat well back home. I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and make my Costa Rican comida. Oh, one more thing, Flora had tres leches for dessert. Do I have to come back?

Pura vida,
Casey

Day One - Dinner is Served

So after writing last, Kel and I took some time to relax after our long days of travel. Minneapolis - Madison - Kenosha - Heredia...That's a lot to cover in three days!

Just a while later, our host, Mayi, came home from CPI and had two new friends along for the ride. We all sat and chatted - or at least I listened while everyone else spoke speedy Spanish. I tried my best to add my two cents and I was able to come up with my mantra for the trip - Poco a Poco. Little by Little.

Dinner was delicious. Mayi crafted a home cooked pasta dish with a creamy red sauce and garlic bread. The sauce even had some diced jalapenos to add some heat. Normally, I would have been delighted with just this...but to make the meal even more rico, Mayi brought out two avocados from the tree out back. AUHMAZING. Not going to lie, they were like little tidbits of heaven. Interesting thing about avocados in Costa Rica - the outside shell is not dark brown like we seen in the states, it's actually green with some brown spotting and very smooth. Needless to say...this could be a very dangerous couple of days. =)

Weather is surprisingly cool. I'm excited for sleep tonight and class tomorrow. Day one bodes well for a great trip.

Day One - Here We Go!

I did it. I made my first step in international travel. Kelly and I landed in Costa Rica about an hour ago and we are already loving it. After a bit of a delay getting our flight started from Houston - typical first classers arguing over who get the extra pillow - we hit the skies and made our way south.

Once we landed, I got my passport stamped, went through customs, and ventured out into a mass of taxi drivers and chauffeurs carrying signs with various names of people and universities. I felt like I was back in Madison protesting with all of the signage, but we were able to make our way through the hoopla and find our ride.

After a quick pit stop at the our school - CPI - we made our way to our host family's home with Mayi, our host. Kelly and Mayi were talking up a storm and with my French and Greek and Latin background, I was able to pick up about...30 percent of it. I did see my first coffee plantation on the way so I was pretty excited about that.

The short drive from CPI brought us to our AWESOME home stay. This place is huge! Very open and welcoming. I'll share pictures soon, but for now, just imagine me typing away on the rooftop patio looking out over an avocado tree and a myriad of bird noises filling the air.

This is day one, and I can already tell this trip will be great.

Pura vida...
Casey