I Beg Your Pardon

Excuse me! I miss the days when I could use just one expression to excuse myself all the time. I think I've finally learned all the different Spanish phrases for it now (let me know if you think differently):

Perdón - a general pardon, like if you did or said something wrong or bad. Also can be used if you didn't hear somebody clearly

Disculpe - catching someone's attention to ask a question

Discúlpeme - saying sorry. I haven't heard a "lo siento" yet

Con permiso - if someone is in your way and you want to get around

Perdón mí - said after coughing or sneezing

Cheapskate's Paradise

I just bought four good-sized bananas and half a loaf of french bread for lunch at the supermarket. It cost a little over 50 cents. Needless to say, I am ecstatic.

Cock-a-Doodle-Doo

Chickens are a seemingly common pet in this country. You can frequently see roosters strutting about on the sidewalk outside their owners' houses with a few hens clustered nearby looking anxiously around at the new world they've stumbled upon outside the gate.

You can also frequently hear the roosters crowing at 4:30 in the morning, whether you'd like to or not.

Yo Versus the Volcano

This weekend's excursion was a trip to Volcán Arenal. After an ungodly 6:00 am departure Saturday, we made a quick pit stop at the town of Zarcero to take pictures of the topiary garden there. We only stayed about 15 minutes, but here's some more info I found on it later: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18602490.

Next we stopped at a waterfall near Arenal. A small stream blasts over the side of a cliff then falls at least 50 feet to a small pool below. We all stripped down to our bathing suits and jumped in the cold water: a welcome relief after a cramped four-hour bus ride (not to mention in-transit movies Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "All About Steve". Both just awful).

After that, we briefly stopped in the town of La Fortuna de San Carlos for lunch before driving to our hotel, excuse me, our resort near the base of the volcano. The resort offered (potentially natural) hot springs, pools with large water slides, a miniature zoo of sorts with butterflies and crocodiles, and a hiking trail. While most of the night was spent at the hot spring (did I mention its wet bar?), I opted to hike the trail the next morning.

Or I tried. The hike became a wild goose chase for an apparently inexistent observatory. Furthermore, though Arenal is one of the world's most active volcanoes, the Fates were not on our side this weekend; most of the time, the top was covered by clouds. We did not see any lava flow, but the volcano was still impressive without. This is the best picture I got of the cone.

Yet another fantastic trip. Back to the beach next weekend!

Pura vida,

Eric

Boyz N The Barrio

Today I had some free time and took a tour of my neighborhood with my camera. Montelimar is a middle- to upper middle-class neighborhood within walking distance of downtown San José. Here are some highlights:

Awesome house with downtown San José and the mountains in the background.

Montelimar is a barrio organizado, so we basically have neighborhood watch but with night guards. They hang out in these little structures that dot the sidewalks throughout the barrio. This one has campaign stickers for Laura Chinchilla, the woman who (hopefully) will be elected President in a couple weeks.

I'm really hoping we'll host "Jersey Shore II: Dumber and Italianer".

Palm-like trees. Enough said.

Conspiracy Theory

The following message appeared as I tried to watch last week's episode of '24' on Fox.com: THE VIDEO YOU ARE TRYING TO WATCH CANNOT BE VIEWED FROM YOUR CURRENT COUNTRY OR LOCATION. It's like someone's trying to cut me off from all access to American television. Really, mysterious conspirators? You just had to pick a foreign cultural immersion trip as the time to do this?

Babel

Every single conversation I have is a comedy of errors.

Something There Is That Doesn't Love a Wall

Each and every house in the city is hidden behind a massive gate, giving the appearance that all Josefinos are under siege by their neighbors. Robert Frost would hate it here.

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html

The Horn on the Bus Goes Beep Beep Beep

Today I'm starting a series of observances of day-to-day life in San José. They will be limited to one or two sentences in length. I'll try to post daily during the week. Let it begin!

If you go driving and don't honk your horn at least once, you're wrong.

Who's the Bosque?

This week's adventure was a trip to the bosque nuboso, or cloud rainforest, at Monteverde. After a five-hour drive from the city, we arrived at our hotel at sunset and immediately took pictures. The hotel, about a mile above sea level, looked out over the surrounding mountains and offered a view of the Pacific Ocean, about 20 miles away (it's the slightly brighter sliver just above the mountains on the left side of the pic).

Friday night was spent chilling at the hotel bar until about ten; the next morning our adventures would begin early. I awoke at 6:00 am to go on a rainforest canopy tour. By zip-line. The longest line was about 600 meters long, and was suspended 80 meters above a creek bed between two giant hills. Needless to say, it was epic.

That afternoon, we visited local museums about bats and frogs. The next morning was equally epic. We hiked through the rainforest. Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals in the forest though we had found both a tree snake and a sloth at the hotel.

All in all, an awesome trip. You can find more pictures of the rainforest on my Facebook page, but maybe not because I think I broke Facebook. Or at least its photo application. Next weekend I'm off to a volcano, so expect more photos then.

Pura vida,

Eric

¿Cómo?

Just got back from my first Curso con Ticos, my only class with local students: Spanish Writing and Style. ¡Qué horror! I barely hung on to the roller coaster that was the professor's lecture as he cruised along at 500 words per minute up the steep climbs and around the sharp turns of the Spanish language. And he was only explaining the syllabus. For two hours.

At one point he was talking about the difference in writing styles of two local papers, La Nación (legit) and La Extra (sensationalist). I understood perfectly what they were. Then he asked me if I knew what they were. I stared at him dumbfounded, like an iguana, precariously situated in the middle of a narrow mountain highway, watching as a tourbus brimming with beachbound gringos barrels towards it at a speed breaking not only Costa Rican but also God's traffic laws.

Even worse, he was the only person in that classroom I could halfway understand. The other students all spoke as if they were participating in a contest to see who could stuff the most marshmallows in their mouth; I don't think I heard one of them enunciate a single consonant.

The class should be fun though. I have to find 15 errors in local newspapers, write a few essays, do a CEPA evaluation (I have no idea what that is...), participate in some in-class foros (don't know what they are either, and they're next week...), and not get discouraged.

Going to email the professor all of my questions about the class now. Thank God it's the weekend. Off to the mountains tomorrow, so I'll update with pictures Sunday night or Monday.

Pura vida,
Eric

Blame It (On the Alcohol)

Perhaps the biggest difference I've noticed so far between Americans and Ticos is their attitude toward alcohol. Americans think it's a big deal; Ticos don't. The drinking age here is 18, perhaps a reason for the difference. A couple funny observances:

1) Our guide, a well-educated curator of a local museum, was sipping straight tequila out of a small flask called a whiskera on the bus to the beach. No big.

2) In class, our sixty-something lit professor asked us if we liked beer. She told us she preferred Bacardi cause it didn't make her go to the bathroom as much. So what?

3) I learned there's an important festival here coming up on Thursday. Apparently more beer is consumed there than at any other festival besides Oktoberfest. A bunch of the host families are going with their kids. It's whatever.

Despite the alcohol culture, no one really gets trashed. It sure will be frustrating returning to the States.

Glossary of Terms

Some words you should know before continuing to read:

Tico(a) - Costa Ricans' nickname for themselves

Ticamama - Host mother

Tiquismo - A Costa Rican slang word

Pura vida - A tiquismo meaning "pure life" that represents the laid-back Costa Rican mindset. Can be used to mean "Hey", "goodbye", "ciao", "you're welcome", or really anything.

Gallo pinto - Ubiquitous rice and bean dish. Delicious.

Colones - Local currency. The rate fluctuates between 550 and 600 colones to a dollar.

Montelimar - My neighborhood in San Jose

The Beach Is Back: or Fish Jaco

After a second day of orientation, the group of my classmates from my neighborhood (which I will dub the Montelimar Neighborhood Watch Association) hastily decided to go to the beach. Which beach and how? We did not know. Luckily, one of our Ticamama's sons just happened to be going to "the beach" too and he agreed to escort us. We threw some clothes into backpacks, called a cab, and clambered on to a bus at la Coca-Cola (the main bus terminal in San Jose, so named for the once-abandoned factory it now occupies).

We wound through the mountains on narrow roads for more than two hours before we reached Jaco, the city nearest our beach on the Pacific Ocean. We later found the city to be flush with American tourists and the restaurants that cater to them (e.g. los Pizza Huts), but we were headed to tiny Playa Hermosa: still lots of Americans, but at least no Taco Bell. Our bus was traveling through to Quepos, the next city, and Playa Hermosa had no stop of its own. After we realized we had passed the beach, we had the bus driver drop us off on the highway. And we walked.

We arrived at the black sand beach a short kilometer or two later.

We needed to find a room first so we could change and put away our bags. Unfortunately, all the cabinas with $15 rooms were full; we were forced to upgrade to a condo with an ocean view.

The rest of the day and this morning were spent swimming, exploring the nearby rocks, laying in the sun, and watching the surfers. We also feasted on fish tacos, Pilsen (seemingly the cheap Tico beer of choice) and banana pancakes. I resisted all temptation to play Jack Johnson on my iPod.

The end of the trip proved to be less than exciting. The afternoon bus to San Jose had standing room only, so we paid $3 a ticket for an uncomfortable ride back to the city. But for <$50 trip to the beach for a day, ¡vale la pena!

Pura vida,

Eric

Everything Is Slightly Ridiculous: Parte Dos

First full day in San J. After a bit of university orientation we took a walking tour downtown. There were people everywhere selling telephone cards on the street, pushing through the crowds to be on time to work, and feeding the pigeons in la Plaza de la Cultura. I would have pictures for you but I left my camera at home. Something about walking around in a group of 25 gringos loudly speaking English made me uneasy carrying anything valuable about.

I do have for your viewing enjoyment, however, a couple of pictures from the airport bus yesterday.

A view of San Jose from the highway above and a lovely mural below.

Solidaridad...the Jesuits must have been here. My house is also awesome. Following the Spanish style, the house is built around a courtyard, which my room overlooks.

My room also looks out over the mountains. It's a much better view without the clouds.

Class starts on Monday, so I'll write again then!

Pura vida,

Eric

Everything Is Slightly Ridiculous

My day is currently entering its 19th hour. After a 4:00 am alarm and an hour-long drive through subzero temperatures, I arrived to the airport two hours early. The flights went well, nothing was delayed too long, and I arrived at San Jose at about 2:30 this afternoon. The flight would have gone even better if I could have ordered a margarita while listening to steel drum bands on my iPod as we passed over the Caribbean. Alas, the plane was subject to US laws, not Costa Rican.

Exiting the airport, I stepped into the sunny, 70 degree weather. Then things got crazy. A few highlights of my day:

1) Traffic. New York plus LA times ten. With motorcycles buzzing around between lanes, buses and cars constantly cutting one another off, and no one observing the speed limit, I was shocked I did not bear witness to a single death. I am terrified to go anywhere.

2) Spanish. I think I've made up more words than I've used correctly. But I managed to have an hour-long political discussion with my host mom Nina over dinner. Apparently, some people here think 9/11 was a government conspiracy targeting Latinos? Strange.

3) Toilet Paper. The pipes are too thin. It is placed in the trash can next to the toilet.

4) Burger King. Everywhere. Refer to #3.

5) Mountains.

Orientation and a tour of San Jose tomorrow. I'll post again soon with pics from my room.

Pura vida,
Eric