Music: Weezer – Pink Triangle
Yesterday, we started the day by meeting at UNA to get our fingerprints taken, as part of the process of converting our tourist visas to student visas. I didn't want to do it – fingerprinting is a little too “Big Brother” for me – but I bit the bullet and dealt with it. I don't want my study abroad screwed up over a bit of ink.
After we finished with that, we all took one of the public buses into San Jose. Kate, Alex, Kelsey, and I went with Mariana, the same girl who took us around UNA two days ago, and her friend Yeimi. She took us down the avenida central, which is closed to all but pedestrian traffic. We got to look around in the mercado central, where they sell a bit of everything. Then we went to lunch at the Teatro Nacional, were the kids from UCR (Ashley, Michael, and Katie) met up with us. We got a private tour of the theater, and they informed us that student tickets can cost as little as 240 colones (about 50 cents american, though those are nosebleed seats). After that, we split up again, and Mariana took us through a bunch of parks and two artisan markets. The first was apparently kind of a big deal – it was the first day they had ever held the market, and they asked us all to sign our names in a memory book. For some reason, they found it really awesome that gringos had come to their market, haha. I found a Mother's Day present for Dona Dimia there – a little dish made from coconut with a butterfly hand painted on the inside (I checked with Sofia, she says Dona D. will love it). The second market was the Mercado Nacional de Artesania, which was actually a lot like the mercado central, minus the food. I got myself some presents there – a Sele jersey (La Sele is what the Costa Ricans call their national soccer team; it's short for 'seleccion'), an Imperial t-shirt, and one of those hand-woven bracelets that you see everywhere.
We got home around 4:30 or 5. I had about a half an hour to relax before Dona D.'s family showed up to watch the game – La Sele played Mexico at 8, and before that we watched the US play Honduras. Unfortunately, Honduras lost to the US (2-0), and even though Costa Rica and Mexico tied in points (1-1), Costa Rica lost on the penalties. Sigh. But still, it was a good excuse to sit around, drink Imperial, get tipsy with the family, and scream at the television. Dona D. informed me that I should call her “Mami” the same way her own girls do; I'm part of the family now.
Today was the last day of orientation. All of us (UCR kids included) took a microbus up into a hotel in the mountains, where IFSA had rented a conference room for the day. The view of the valley from up there was absolutely gorgeous, but I forgot to take pictures... Not to worry, though, at least five other people did, ha. The orientation itself was kind of pointless, like most of their orientation activities have been, but it was a good bonding experience. The only planned part of the day that was actually fun was when the dance team showed up. That's right. IFSA payed a local dance studio to send up an instructor and some students to teach us how to dance salsa, merengue, and swing tico (or cumbia). Now, if you know me, you know I don't dance (unless I've had tequila, ha). I took the opportunity to be the photographer, but even then, I still somehow got pulled onto the floor. As predicted, I danced like an idiot, but it wasn't tooo bad... The dance instructor was hottttt (*fans self*) and I jokingly told Ashley that I wasn't big on dancing in public, but that if he wanted to give me private lessons (*wink wink*), I would be more than willing.
Now I'm just at home, relaxing. A bunch of people went back to Liberia for the weekend, and a bunch of other people are going out. We're just having a night in with the family though - I plan to go to bed early-ish and sleep in late-ish. I'm sure I can get Naty and Sofia to go out tomorrow night. Hasta manana.
Pura Vida,
Sarah
New words:
Apretarse To Make out
(care)picha (vulgar) dick
Esta hecha picha (vulgar) It's ruined
chocante annoying
eructo burp
Esta cayendo un pelo de gato It's misting
lodo mud
curita band-aid
arbitro referee
portero goalee
renovar renew
guanabana chewy white fruit
Least you didn't take pictures, put em on your comp and then reformat it w/out saving them, which is what happened to me from Mexico. Fortunately, everyone else took pics too and someone had uploaded my memory card for the bday girl, so eventually either I'll get my pics off FB or I'll have hundreds that it won't matter much what I missed. I do like taking my own pics though. Cool that you're like part of the family now. I'm sure the lesson thing wasn't a total joke;)
ReplyDeleteGetting intense with the vocab lol. I like 'chocante'...I do believe I'm going to use that as a last name in my a future story ha. Interesting phrase for it's misting...it having gato reminds me of raining cats and dogs, never heard a cat expression used for light rain.
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