Familia Guanacasteca

Mood: Even more exhausted than yesterday
Music: Mago de Oz – Posada de los Muertos

We didn't have to be ready to leave this morning until 8, so of course my body woke me up at 6:30. I sat on the porch of our room and just watched it drizzle for a bit. Everything here is so freaking green!!! Mango trees grow in the hotel yard, and instead of spiders, there's a gecko infestation (I want a gecko infestation!). We went to a restaurant called Pan y Miel for breakfast. Apparently it's a chain, though I never would have guessed. Breakfast was rice and beans, some kind of carne and some orange juice. It was also not air conditioned... we've been informed that just about nowhere is, unless it's a brand new building or the owners are loaded.

Orientation was a couple of kilometers out along the highway (a kilometer is .6 miles, fyi), and they made us walk. Which was great for digesting breakfast, but not so great for someone who sweats buckets, and especially not in a climate this humid... It wasn't too bad, though, and at least the orientation room was air conditioned. They're having orientation at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR)'s Liberia campus. There are 20 of us, 18 girls and only two guys, and one of them is gay (feels just like AU). We were only in session for about an hour and half before we took a break, which involved a snack - a potato-chili thingy on top of a tortilla. While it was really delicious, it seemed kind of unnecessary, because we ended at noon and walked back, at which point we met our host families, who took us home and fed us (they eat so often here).

My family is just a retired lady, Dona Melida, and her husband Don Carlos, who's also retired. They have three grown sons; two live in San Jose and the other lives in California. The youngest son, Edgar Eduardo is actually here to stay part of the week; his friend from Spain, Angeles, is on vacation, and he's showing her around the country. Dona Melida seems really nice. Even though she's retired, she keeps busy – she and Don Carlos are both in the Lions Club (apparently that's international?) and she's in some group for the promotion and preservation of culture in Liberia. She told me she wouldn't be able to do much with me, but I reassured her that it would be fine, that I could take care of myself. She showed me that one of the other girls, Jen, lives three houses down with Don Carlos's sister; I think she expects me to go hang out with Jen whenever she's not around.

After lunch (sopa de res), which was just Dona Melida, me, and their empleada Petrona, Dona Melida had a dentist appointment. So she made Jen's host sisters show us where Alex (the only straight guy) was staying – just around the corner from us – and then told them to show us where the nearest internet cafe was. We went to get Alex and then we all went sandal shopping (Alex broke his on the walk back from UCR). We stopped in a little book store on the way back. I bought a copy of Maria by Jorge Isaacs – it's one of the ones we read selections from in Latin American lit, so it should be pretty good: unrequited love and all that. After that, we went to the internet cafe, which was awful... I think I spent a third of the half hour I paid for waiting for pages to load.

I went home and had a nap afterwards. I met Don Carlos, Edgar Eduardo, and Angeles when I woke up. Edgar and Angeles were just back from hiking all day, so they both grabbed showers and then we all had dinner, though Don Carlos didn't eat. Edgar is a crackup – he's very worried about how the dry spell in Ohio is going to affect our corn. We spend most of dinner (gallo pinto [rice and black beans, the national dish of CR], garlic chicken, and plátanos) just talking about the United States and where things are, about AU and why I chose Washington, and how my Spanish got to be so good. Dona Melida also explained to me that I'm going to take the bus to school tomorrow, which required about half an hour's instruction on how the bus system works, ha.

Once we finished eating, I went to see if Jen wanted to take the bus with me (she's going to come). We went to see if Alex wanted to, too, but his family is taking him. The three of us went for a walk and ended up people watching in the parque central for a half an hour or so. I just got home a minute ago, said goodnight to everyone, and now I'm going to bed.

Pura vida,
Sarah

New words:
volar caite caminar mucho
vaquita lady bug
llave maya flash drive