Este fin de semana nos fuimos a Manuel Antonio. Fue muy bonito y más divertido que Monte Verde. Yo vi muchos animales como osos perezosos, iguanas, monos, melpechas, y más. Fue mi primer (goal) ver un oso perezoso y cuando vamos salir el parque, vimos lo en un árbol cerca del (path). Mi vida es completa; o lo mínimo eso viaje fue completo.
Ok back to English. I went to Manuel Antonio and had an incredible time! It was extremely relaxing and exciting all at the same time. I went into the national park both days and saw so much wildlife. The first day was more relaxing and hanging out on the gorgeous beach and swimming in the incredibly warm water. Then we got to explore the peninsula for a while and saw a few wombat looking rodent things, some monkeys, and lots of lizards! I think this trip certainly made up for the fact that I didn’t go on the night walk last weekend. The biggest downside of this weekend was that everything was so stinking expensive! As soon as you get into the touristy areas they jack up the prices so much. Anyway, no regrets… The second day we went back into the park and I hiked to a waterfall. I walked the trail barefoot and it was so nice to feel the mud between my toes. I had a few blisters from a few days ago on my feet still, so hopefully I don’t get any scary funguses on my feet any time soon and loose my feet. I will keep you updated on that. So far things appear to be ok still though. There were so many times this weekend that I just felt so amazingly blessed to be where I was. I am also proud to say that I got my Costa Rican (ok Costa Rican burn) this weekend. It is making it a little difficult to wear my backpack right now, however I can’t return back to the states as white as I started out, so this was a good step in my efforts to become more tan ;) It is interesting because on these trips we spend almost as much time on the bus to and from our destinations as we do time at the destination. The bus ride for this trip was about 4 to 4.5 hours. I really enjoy the bus rides, however, because the countryside is gorgeous and I get to know the others on the trip much better. We definitely have some interesting conversations.
Speaking of interesting conversations, I am definitely enjoying my Spanish class. Every day we talk about some controversial topic (in Spanish) and so far we have covered abortion, gay marriage, right to own weapons, and illegal immigration. We also talk about less serious items, for example the perfect date, strange dreams you have had, fears, habits, etc. We have really covered quite a range of topics. Sometimes it is so frustrating because I cannot convey my point, but it is quite amazing to be able to sit and listen and understand. Spanish is a perpetual struggle for me because I love learning it so much, however it is really quite hard and I am certainly feeling the struggle of being in a class that is over my head. I am really interested to see how next month goes when I have much fewer English speakers around me and when I need to describe to the technicians how to repair the equipment. In our labs in the afternoons our Spanish professor is coming around and listening to us as we work on the equipment and we have to speak in Spanish as much as possible. It is going to be tough for sure, but I am really looking forward to it. I think these weekends away are also screwing me up a bit because I usually don’t speak Spanish at all because when we go to the touristic locations all the workers speak English and don’t really try to speak Spanish to you. And also I am around the whole troupe of English speakers. So I always return from my weekends away and have to re-transition into thinking in Spanish. I think I may stick around San Jose this weekend to save on some cash and save my Spanish thinking mentality.
So for my parents I was going to write a bit about the farming in Costa Rica. As we were riding through the mountains I saw a lot of farms and it was interesting to see the milking barns. They were mostly tiny, maybe 8 cows or so. Cheese is a huge commodity here. Unfortunately it isn’t really my favorite cheese. Actually I have only had one meal here that I did not like at all and it was a grilled cheese sandwich with the nasty Costa Rican cheese. I guess the good news is that I have really enjoyed the food here so far. Oh and if we don’t get the nasty white Costa Rican cheese then we get American Kraft singles… my roommate Margaret says good thing they don’t have the nasty spray cheese here. I decided that if I every move to Costa Rica I am going to live in a house in the mountains and hang out with the mountain farmers. That sounds like a pretty sweet life to me. I will be the strange American woman that just hangs out and knits sweaters and speaks bad Spanish.
Oh and turns out that sloths are actually called oso perezoso… not oso peligroso. Osos peligroso means dangerous bear… yeah maybe not an accurate description of a sloth, an animal that can’t even fight off moths. My entire Spanish class has decided to write all of our homework sentences for this evening about bears.
Anyway, time for bed. More class and such tomorrow.
Blessings!
P
Ok back to English. I went to Manuel Antonio and had an incredible time! It was extremely relaxing and exciting all at the same time. I went into the national park both days and saw so much wildlife. The first day was more relaxing and hanging out on the gorgeous beach and swimming in the incredibly warm water. Then we got to explore the peninsula for a while and saw a few wombat looking rodent things, some monkeys, and lots of lizards! I think this trip certainly made up for the fact that I didn’t go on the night walk last weekend. The biggest downside of this weekend was that everything was so stinking expensive! As soon as you get into the touristy areas they jack up the prices so much. Anyway, no regrets… The second day we went back into the park and I hiked to a waterfall. I walked the trail barefoot and it was so nice to feel the mud between my toes. I had a few blisters from a few days ago on my feet still, so hopefully I don’t get any scary funguses on my feet any time soon and loose my feet. I will keep you updated on that. So far things appear to be ok still though. There were so many times this weekend that I just felt so amazingly blessed to be where I was. I am also proud to say that I got my Costa Rican (ok Costa Rican burn) this weekend. It is making it a little difficult to wear my backpack right now, however I can’t return back to the states as white as I started out, so this was a good step in my efforts to become more tan ;) It is interesting because on these trips we spend almost as much time on the bus to and from our destinations as we do time at the destination. The bus ride for this trip was about 4 to 4.5 hours. I really enjoy the bus rides, however, because the countryside is gorgeous and I get to know the others on the trip much better. We definitely have some interesting conversations.
Speaking of interesting conversations, I am definitely enjoying my Spanish class. Every day we talk about some controversial topic (in Spanish) and so far we have covered abortion, gay marriage, right to own weapons, and illegal immigration. We also talk about less serious items, for example the perfect date, strange dreams you have had, fears, habits, etc. We have really covered quite a range of topics. Sometimes it is so frustrating because I cannot convey my point, but it is quite amazing to be able to sit and listen and understand. Spanish is a perpetual struggle for me because I love learning it so much, however it is really quite hard and I am certainly feeling the struggle of being in a class that is over my head. I am really interested to see how next month goes when I have much fewer English speakers around me and when I need to describe to the technicians how to repair the equipment. In our labs in the afternoons our Spanish professor is coming around and listening to us as we work on the equipment and we have to speak in Spanish as much as possible. It is going to be tough for sure, but I am really looking forward to it. I think these weekends away are also screwing me up a bit because I usually don’t speak Spanish at all because when we go to the touristic locations all the workers speak English and don’t really try to speak Spanish to you. And also I am around the whole troupe of English speakers. So I always return from my weekends away and have to re-transition into thinking in Spanish. I think I may stick around San Jose this weekend to save on some cash and save my Spanish thinking mentality.
So for my parents I was going to write a bit about the farming in Costa Rica. As we were riding through the mountains I saw a lot of farms and it was interesting to see the milking barns. They were mostly tiny, maybe 8 cows or so. Cheese is a huge commodity here. Unfortunately it isn’t really my favorite cheese. Actually I have only had one meal here that I did not like at all and it was a grilled cheese sandwich with the nasty Costa Rican cheese. I guess the good news is that I have really enjoyed the food here so far. Oh and if we don’t get the nasty white Costa Rican cheese then we get American Kraft singles… my roommate Margaret says good thing they don’t have the nasty spray cheese here. I decided that if I every move to Costa Rica I am going to live in a house in the mountains and hang out with the mountain farmers. That sounds like a pretty sweet life to me. I will be the strange American woman that just hangs out and knits sweaters and speaks bad Spanish.
Oh and turns out that sloths are actually called oso perezoso… not oso peligroso. Osos peligroso means dangerous bear… yeah maybe not an accurate description of a sloth, an animal that can’t even fight off moths. My entire Spanish class has decided to write all of our homework sentences for this evening about bears.
Anyway, time for bed. More class and such tomorrow.
Blessings!
P
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