Los Bailes Latinos

Before I leave for my break (tomorrow at 5am), I just wanted to post about my dance class!!

My Latin American dance class was terrible. Our instructor's name was Marta and Marta taught as the cha cha cha and merengue for FOUR weeks. If you don't know anything about latin dance, cha cha cha is the worst one there is and no one ever dances to it in real discos. Merengue is fun but we were learning it at such a slow pace that it was boring.

Our program advisor, Carlitos, who by the way is awesome and a little ridiculous, heard about this and was not pleased that Marta was doing such a bad job. Carlitos also happens to be the best dancer ever. So he is taking over our class which is super exciting! SUPER exciting because dancing is fun! So fun.

Our first class with Carlitos was last night and it was so. much. fun. He took 20 minutes to teach us more merengue than we had learned in a month with Marta, and then taught us Salsa (finally!) and my new favorite Cumbia!!! I think Cumbia might be the most fun dance in the world. It's really bouncy and you move around a lot and apparently the Costa Rican version is even bouncier than the Mexican version which I love because bouncing is FUN:

And the music is such a blast:

As I mentioned before, Carlitos is an all star dancer. When he would use me to demonstrate the dances, all he would have to do would give me a slight push or pull and somehow my body would just do what it was supposed to and I looked like an all star dancer, too. Amazing! 

OK off to Nicaragua! Hasta proximo domingo! 

PURA VIDA

Spanish is HARDD!!!!

Buenas Noches to all!

Spanish just got really hard really fast. We have our midterm for our 2nd class of the semester tomorrow  (remember I am taking 4 levels during the time of this program) and have learned so many tenses in only the past 2 weeks. The hardest part is that these tenses don't exist in the English language.

Let me try to explain...
In English, if you wanted to ask someone to tell you the truth, you could say:

Tell me the truth.
or
It is necessary that you tell me the truth.
or
I think that you'll tell me the truth.
or
You need to tell the truth.

Nothing changes-tell me the truth is always present.

In Spanish, however, the verb tense changes with each change.

Tell me the truth is a command-Dime la verdad.
-
It is necessary that you will tell me the truth is subjunctive-Es necesario que me diga la verdad.
-
I think that you'll tell me the truth is indicative-Pienso que me dice la verdad.
-
You need to tell the truth is the infinitive-Es necesario decir la verdad.

Di, diga, dice, decir. And that's not even including past tense, imperfect (another form of past tense), future, conditional, etc etc.

    My Spanish teacher says that there are so many different verb tenses because Spanish is a romantic language, and there is a lot more emotion put into each sentence. Thus, when the emotion of the sentence changes (from a command to a suggestion to an emotion, etc) the verb changes as well.
    While English is a very direct language, there is a lot of uncertainty in romance languages like Spanish. In English, when you say you are going to the beach, it is simply a fact and the verb will never change. In Spanish, you may say that you are going, but you may also say that you are thinking about going or excited about going and each time you change that level of certainty or emotion, the verb changes.
    And they change that level of certainty a LOT.

Aaanyway...

This week has been good so far! I played soccer today and made this kid on my team angry because I was so bad. Whatever! And this weekend starts our first spring break, so I am off to Nicaragua and Northern Costa Rica until next Sunday. If you want to have some idea of where I will be, look up:

Granada, Nicaragua
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
and
Rincon de la Vieja in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

That trip ends on Thursday (it is with the program) and then some of us are going to travel more through Gunacaste and return on Sunday.

It is going to be amazing! I am so so so so so excited.

I will check back in sometime 2 weeks from now to post a summary of our trip =)
Until then,

PURA VIDA
<3 Rachel

This weekend

This was the first weekend we didn't spend away from Heredia the whole time, and it was nice to save some money and catch up on sleep.

Thursday
On Thursday night we went to a futbol game between San Jose's team and a team from one of the rural provinces. I don't remember either of their names because futbol is pretty irrelevant to me. Luckily San Jose's team is purple which, being a Ravens fan, I have no shortage of. The game was at the National Stadium in San Jose, and it was really fun! Costa Rica is super into soccer and I don't think they were quiet the entire time I was there. And, I was able to get home and into bed by the time I usually do! Which is a big deal for me because I do not function very well without sleep.

El Estadio Nacional

Some amigos at the game

Friday
On Friday, Danielle, Scott, Jacob and I were planning on doing a hike to a volcano that is pretty close to Heredia, but we didn't plan well enough (apparantly you need mega 4-wheel drive to get to the entrance, or else have to walk 3 hours just to get to the front of the park) and were tired so we just decided to try it another time. That night we went out to a bar near school. It was "ladies night" so we were able to drink for free the whole night-there wasn't even cover! College Park needs to take notes from Costa Rica.
We met a lot of Ticos and Ticas that go to UNA or work in the area. Since we've been traveling so much, I hadn't been out in Heredia for a few weeks so it was really nice to go out here again and meet more locals.

Saturday day
Saturday we all met early to go to Puntarenas, a port town on the Pacific side about 2 hours away, for the biggest Carnaval in Costa Rica. There were a million vendors set up, a ton of people, and some really good music acts playing! Apparantly one of Bob Marley's sons was going to be there later that night after we left, but the guy who played before we left was sooo good. I have to figure out who he was. I don't have any pictures of that because Puntarenas is kind of sketchy and I didn't want to bring my camera, but imagine a smaller scale music festival with a lot of hispanic people without shirts on.

Thoughts on being a white girl in Costa Rica
If you want to feel like a celebrity, move to Latin American and be a white girl (Credit for this joke goes to one of my old camp counselors who is blonde and currently in Korea). In Heredia they mostly stare and whistle, and sometimes yell things that I can only assume to be innapropriate. In Puntarenas, they had a different approach. They would stare at us intently, tell us "you are so beautiful" (in English), and ask to take a picture with us.
All of this can be a confidence booster but also gets old fast. Like, really old. I can't wait to walk on streets in May when I am home and not have one thousand Costa Rican men staring at me.
I think they do this to Tica girls too but I would imagine that it doesn't phase them as much.


Saturday Night
We got back to Heredia after Carnaval with time to shower, have dinner, and go meet our friends out at a discoteca in a town right outside of Heredia. It was a super fun night!
Afterwards we went to one of our friends' house that lives around there, and apparently my sense of humor is different from all of my friends who are from the West Coast and Midwest, because they thought I was being so funny when all I was being was normal.

Today
Today I mostly did nothing. This nothingness was premeditated as I had been thinking about it all week, looking forward to the first day since Winter Break when I could sleep in and spend the whole day accomplishing nada. It was great!

I did end up going grocery shopping as I had literally no food in my house and the choice was either grocery shop or starve. I must have looked super Tican today or something because SO MANY PEOPLE were asking me things in the grocery store, on the street, in the park, hoping I could supply them with an answer to whatever the hell they wanted to know, but only getting a blank stare and a "uhhh...No se" (I don't know) in return.  This group of guys on my street were in their car and pulled up to me and asked me something and then looked at my blank stare and were like "Oh...you speak American, nevermind."
I'm getting pretty good at Spanish but there are a lot of words I still don't know and unfortunately every single question I was asked today included nothing that I do know. Hopefully by the time I leave I will be able to answer everyone's questions!!


I should note that if, as you read my blog, you are imagining Costan Rican people to look like other Latinos that you might have met from countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Columbia, etc (areas that have a larger pool of immigrants in the US), then you are imaging wrong! Costa Rica has a lot of European influence so they are one of the more lighter skinned populations in Latin America. They all have brown hair and brown eyes, but I would say about half the population is only a little darker than the average Gringo. This is why it is not absurd for pale little me to be mistaken for a Tica.

Other things:
-I have had 2 more cockroaches in my room, both of which were handled much more calmly than the first incident with simply a can of raid. I make my roommate do the disposal though because I am still too scared to get that close. And today I bought traps. They do not stand a chance!!!!! (I HOPE)
-Hillary and Mahila bought plane tickets to come visit me during UMD's spring break. I am so so so so so so excited. =D
-This weekend starts my first spring break (yes, I have 2. So lucky!). We are going to Nicaragua (with the program so I will be safe, don't worry) and Guanacaste in Northern Costa Rica. I can not wait!!!!!!!  Can't believe we get a break already.
-I found this cocoa farm on the Pacific Coast that apparently does a really awesome WWOOFing/volunteer program. I am considering spending half of my second spring break there (the other half we are going to Panama), but I may just do a long weekend there with Danielle and Austin next month.

Danielle just posted this picture from Montezuma last weekend. This is another example of why Montezuma is AWESOME. Instead of stray dogs everywhere like in most of Costa Rica, Montezuma had CATS!!!!!!!!! What a dream land.  This little guy sat with us for dinner, don't worry I washed my hands before I ate. =)

Montezuma!

Buenas!

What another amazing weekend! Every weekend here just keeps getting better and better. Montezuma is definitely my favorite place I have traveld to so far, although it was a pretty long travel there and back.

Montezuma is on the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, which is on the Pacific side. It is a bit of an expat town as was Puerto Viejo, but there were a lot more locals/Spanish being spoken and it is a lot less touristy and crowded than Puerto Viejo was.

Friday
You have to take a ferry to get to Montezuma, so me and my friends left after class on Friday to catch the ferry in Puntarenas. We had to wait in Puntarenas for a couple hours so we ended up drinking quite a bit while we waited..and they served alcohol on the ferry...so by the time we got off the ferry on the other side of the water we were pretty drunk but still had another 2 hours to go before getting to Montezuma. Not the most pleasant bus ride I've ever been on.

Track 1&2 on the ferry after a lot of Imperials

Such a beautiful view from the ferry

When we got off the bus at Montezuma, we were absurdly hungry and ran to the nearest restaurant we could find. And, being the hippie expat village that it is, there were so many vegan options. I had the best hummus and falafel ever on the best foccacia bread ever. After dinner we chilled on the beach for a little but were pretty tired so we went to the hostel to sleep.

The hostel was the nicest one yet-it's actually a hotel that has one dorm-style room in it for only $10 a night. The view was iiincredible.

View from the hostel at night-moonlight on the water!

Saturday
We woke up early on Saturday to walk to the waterfall that Montezuma is best known for. It's a short and easy hike to the main waterfall (although there are some longer hikes to different waterfalls that I want to try if I return there), and it is huge and incredible.

Main Montezuma waterfall

A lot of the group stopped there, but 4 of us decided to trek up this cliff and then hike around to 2 more waterfalls that are behind the main waterfall. The hike was pretty difficult and un poco peligroso but so worth it-such a beautiful view and it was less crowded then the main waterfall.

View during the hike-those are our friends down at the bottom waterfall

This pool leads into the main waterfall

Waterfall a couple stories above the main waterfall

Blurry, but this is me jumping into the waterfall!

We swam around and did some jumping into the water before hiking down. Luckily there was anotherway down that was a lot less dangerous/scary, with more great views of the ocean.

View during the walk down

We went back to the main waterfall and swam around more (the water was so refreshing!) before calling it a day and heading back to the hostel. We ran into a bunch of howler monkeys on our way back, which was so exciting because they were the only Costa Rica monkey we had yet to see!

Baby howler monkey munching on leaves

After shower and dinner, we went to the hostel that some of our friends are staying at and played some drinking games before going out. There is only one bar in Montezuma so we danced there for a while before walking to the beach where some of my friends set up a bonfire!

USAC crew before headed out

The bonfire was so fun- at first it was just a few of us USAC students, but eventually people from all over came over to hang out around the fire. We met so many cool people who are either from Costa Rica, studying in other places, traveling around Central America, etc. It was such a great night!

Sunday
I was awoken on Sunday to the beautiful sound of Howler monkeys at around 5:30am. And by beautiful I mean loud, annoying, and scary. Here is a video that I took during the day on Saturday of what they sound like:

I was preeetty hungover on Sunday (I blame mixing wine & beer over the coarse of the night) and so sitting on the super hot beach did not appeal to me. Luckily, there was a hotel near ours that has an awesome backyard with shaded hammocks. They had no problem letting us lay in them despite the fact that we weren't staying there. It was so relaxing.

Paradise!

Then, just as we were about to grab lunch, my friend John from Alaska called me and told me he and his girlfriend, Zara, had just gotten into Montezuma!! So I changed plans and ran to find him and get lunch with him before my bus came to take me home. Such a crazy, awesome coincidence! It was so good to see him and catch up, but it made me miss Ionia a lot.

Zara, John and I

So that was my weekend! I think we are going to stay fairly local this coming weekend. There is a volcano really close to Heredia that I think we are going to go visit, and maybe go to Carnaval in Puntarenas on Saturday. We shall see!


In other news:
-I have started to have dreams in Spanish.
-I got an A in my first Spanish course =)
-There is a place that makes Tempeh on the Osa peninsula, and they just e-mailed me back and said they come into the San Jose area every month to sell tempeh. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!
-Today I took a 5 hour nap...
-Apparently I am the only person in Costa Rica to have slept through a 6.1 level earthquake Monday morning...
-Here is a cool video that I took 2 weeks ago in Cahuita. These plants are so cool!

Feliz Dia de San Valentin!

Pura Vida,

Rachel

PS I miss everyone from home so much! I think about everyone all the time. I can't wait to see all of you when I return in May =)

Weekend in Manuel Antonio + this week

I told you I would be bad at updating this thing!
It has been almost a week since I got back from our weekend in Manuel Antonio and I should be studying for my final tomorrow (I will have officially completed Intermediate Spanish I!) but here goes...

Manuel Antonio
Some info about Manuel Antonio:
-It is the second most popular tourist destination in Costa Rica (Behind Arenal Volcano, which I am going to in March with my program)
-It is on the Pacific Side of Costa Rica
-It is home to the Manuel Antonio National Park, which is only 3km squared in area but PACKED full with wildlife and biodiversity
-It is where Spy Kids 2 was filmed. (SO COOL)
-It's awesome.

Me being a happy person in Manuel Antonio

The "Island of Lost Dreams" is really just in Costa Rica...

Friday
Only 5 of us decided to leave Heredia last weekend and book it to Manuel Antonio at 6am. We got to our hostel by like 10am. The hostel had a beautiful view of mountains and valleys, and had a pool and hammocks to relax in.

The view from the porch of our hostel-Backpackers Manuel Antonio

Side Note to all the Bowers' out there: One of the girls at the hostel graduated from Poolesville and knew Brett! Such a small world.

After settling into our room, we decided to spend the day at the beach. Going to the beach is not as simple as going to the beach at home-Manuel Antonio is basically a beach situated at the bottom of cliffs and mountains, so we had to trek up & down some serious hills to get to the ocean. The walk down was beautiful because we could see the ocean and all of the rainforest from the top of the hill.

The view during our walk to the beach

Our day at the beach was really fun and relaxing. We found an area that was pretty secludedt, with tons of rocks and stuff to climb around. We body surfed, lay in the sun, and I took a really nice jog on the beach. It was so refreshing to run on flat land after running on hills so much in Heredia. And I got a nice tan =)

La playa bonita

Playing on rocks on the beach

When we got back to the hostel, we made a deliciiious dinner and then went to listen to some live music and watch a bit of a local soccer game before going to sleep really early since we had to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn.

Saturday
We got to the park in the morning just as it was opening and decided, per recommendation of some of our friends, to get a guide to take us on a tour. It was SUCH a good decision, as William, our tour guide, was able to spot animals from kilometers away and had a telescope that we could see everything through. He knew we were learning Spanish so he spoke to us mostly in Spanish which was great practice. (Interesting side note-tour guides in Costa Rica are as highly regarded as doctors and lawyers. They have to have a degree and a lot of experience.) He was so funny and nice, and with his help we were able to see Capuchin Monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, Sloths, Tucans, Iguanas, and tons of other really cool things. The tour was only supposed to be an hour and half, but there was so much wildlife out that it ended up being 3 glorious hours!

This is some serious actual forest. 

William, our super awesome tour guide. He said he would give us a free tour next time we are in Manuel Antonio.

This iguana was really big!

More sloths!

Squirrel monkey! William saw this little guy from so far away (these pictures are taken through his telescope)

Butterflies mating

Tucan! Que dicha!

After the tour was over, we hiked up a side-trail that went up to the highest point of the park and overlooked the ocean and forest. It was beautiful! We ate lunch up there and then hiked back down to the beach. While we were lying on the beach, a bunch of Capuchin Monkeys started jumping around in the trees above us. It was so cool!!! One had a baby on her back which was really special to see.

this was right next to where we were laying on the beach

We ended up being at the park from open to close, and then got some pizza (Danielle and I had been craving cheese-less pizza since the discovery that we are both vegan) and attempted to go out but were so tired that we just went to sleep.

Danielle and I with the "Sin Queso" delicioso

We had to leave early in the morning because all of the other buses were sold out, but we accomplished so much in that weekend! It was wonderful.

This week
Classes started at la Universidad this week for the Costa Rican students. It is "Semana Bienvenidos" or Welcome Week, which means that there are so many fun activities going on. There is live music every day outside the cafeteria, and the bands that play are really talented! The campus is so much more lively now that it is more than just USAC students and Ticos taking summer classes. I'm loving it!

Something silly about Costa Rica-since people typically live with their parents until they are married here, couples don't have too much private time together. This results in them SERIOUSLY making out every chance they can be together on campus. And not privately. At all. I have had to side-step some serious make-out sessions on my way to class.

The start of the semester also meant that I got to start meeting up with my language exchange partner! My Tica's name is Amelia, and she is the sweetest. I told her that I want to practice as much as I can, and she told me that I can hang out with her and her friends any time I want and we can speak Spanish the whole time. She is MUCH better at English than I am at Spanish, but hopefully I will improve with her help!

I also am going to help out in on of the University's English classes on Monday nights and be a sort of conversation partner for all of the Ticos in the class. The first class was this past Monday and it was so much fun. There are about 20 Costa Rican students in it and we spent the first class just doing ice breakers (in English) and conversing. They were all so fun and nice, and they want to go out with the me and the other USAC students who are volunteering with their class. At the end of the class, the English teacher had us switch to talking in Spanish so that we could practice.

This weekend
This weekend a group of us are going to Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula. It is supposed to be really wonderful there, so I am very excited!! Also, my friend John from Alaska is going to be coming in to Montezuma on Sunday, so I am really really hoping I get a chance to see him.

This is where I live!

"Costa Rica is world's greenest, happiest country"
How lucky am I to get to call this place home for 4 months?!
(I'm not sure if that sentence is gramatically correct-we learned the MOST confusing grammar today in Spanish and my brain has not been functioning very well ever since)

-Rachel