Sometimes I almost feel like a different species...

 Well, I'm now at my parents' house in Beebe, AR... but here's what happened my last couple of days:

Thursday was pretty normal.  I went to my morning class. At lunch, I went to pay my exit tax at the bank  In the evening I hung out with the family.  On Wednesday night, I had had my first nightmare about the beginning of school, so I spent part of Thursday evening working on school stuff.  

Friday I woke up early for no good reason, so I started packing.  When I got to school, I had a long conversation about politics with one the teachers.  I was pretty proud I pulled that off in Spanish.  Cathy and the boys were overly impressed... I guess they had never heard me speak Spanish really.  Which is sad since we had been in Costa Rica together for 5 weeks.  I also took some more pictures of the school and my teachers.

Forester from the front

The back garden at the school.

We liked sitting at the table on the back porch during breaks.  Cathy, Nigel, and Simone.

With my morning teacher, Halder.  I had him for the last week.

My teacher!  She was awesome, but you put us together and its hard to believe we are the same species... I'm probably not standing totally straight either.

    During our last class, Simone and I kept hijacking the conversation to reminisce, in Spanish of course.  At the end, I got a certificate.  After class, Simone, Violet, Cathy and the boys headed to Rio for one last time.  I went home.  Mathias was there and so was the neighbor girl who is 10.  We had a big time playing.  The little girl can actually speak quite a bit of English.  We spoke in Spanglish.  After dinner, Isabel and I visited for quite awhile.  Jorge even did the dishes so we could keep talking.  We then took pictures.

Mama Tica y Papa Tico.

We visited for awhile longer.  I was getting tired and headed up to finish packing.  I think it took me until about midnight to get it all organized.

Saturday I woke up even earlier than I needed to.  It turned out to be good, because my taxi came even earlier than we asked for.  (We had scheduled 6:30 instead it came at 6:15.)  Anyway... I worked on not crying... we loaded my stuff into the car and off I went.  I talked to the driver all the way to airport in Spanish... so I was pretty proud.

The trip home was super easy.  The flights went smoothly and my luggage made it.  Mom, Dad, and mom's college roommate picked me up.

An Opera or Captain America... same thing right?

This last week is flying by.  Last night (Tuesday) I got home early.  Isabel and Jorge were out and Mauricio was apparently asleep.  Papas Ticos called Mauricio to ask if I was home, he said no.  (I was in my room.)  They came home and were in the house for a little bit before they realized I was in my room.  We were invited to go to Isabel's sister's house for dinner.  So the Papas Ticos and I headed over to my Tios Ticos' house.  It was another night where I felt a bit like a pet.  Autumn, come.  Sit.  Watch TV. Eat. 

Actually its the first time I've felt a bit better about my Spanish.  (I feel like I can't say anything most of the time.)  BUT I could follow most of the conversation at dinner.  Usually I have a hard time with a bunch of people and with Isabel's sister and brother-in-law.  (Especially the first week I was here and we spent a lot of time with them.) Anyway... it was fun.

6 hours of classes a day are still brain melting.  BUT I think I'm learning a lot. 

Simone and I were going to see the opera Carmen tonight at the National Theater, but it was sold out.  So since we had told our families that we would be out for the evening, we decided to see "Captain America."  Another student from school Devon, who happens to be from Arkansas, came with us.  We were going to try to go to the 6 PM 2D version.  It was sold out, so we went to the 6:40 3D version. We were not going to have our plans foiled!  My eyes still aren't quite the same... but I enjoyed the movie.  So there you go... not as many exciting stories without the tours.

My first pilgrimage?

As I have mentioned before in this blog, the patron Saint of Costa Rica is La Virgen de Los Angeles, nicknamed La Negrita.  Legend has it that missionaries were having trouble converting the natives to Catholicism.  A little girl named Juanita found a little dark statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.  No matter where she or the priest put it, it returned to the rock where she found it.  The priest took this to mean that they should build a shrine and church there.  The Costa Rican natives then found faith because she was dark like they were (hence the name La Negrita.)

La Negrita on the stone where she was found.

Many healings have been attributed to La Negrita.  Her Saints day is on August 2.  People walk from all over some from as far away as Nicaragua and Panama to Cartago to celebrate her day.  The main road from my house to school is the major road from San Jose to Cartago.  Thousands upon thousands (probably in the 100 thousands) of people walk this road on the days leading up to August 2... August 1 is the big walking day.  From where we live it is about a 4 hour walk. My Papa Tico got up this morning and walked to Cartago.  He said it took him about 3 1/2 hours.  (By the way, this walk includes going over the continental divide... there is a mountain between here and Cartago.)  I saw small groups all weekend walking which I thought was impressive.  Seeing 5 or 10 people walking it together was cool. 

After class today there were so many people walking that it was safe and easy to walk home (there was police stopping traffic and everything.)  So I guess I did a couple miles of the walk. The sidewalk which is generally pretty empty walking long distances was full.  I was even more impressed than this weekend.

Apparently mi familia tica has the tradition of walking up to the ice cream shop on the corner and watch the walkers... I've never seen anything like it.  They had closed down one direction of the road totally and the other direction mostly...  The road was full of people.  What impressed me the most is that while we saw the very old and very young... I'd say most people were between 15 and 40 years old.  I would not expect to see that much devotion from people so young. It was really something to see... There were families pushing babies in strollers or even carrying them in arms.  There was one guy in a wheel chair rolling himself.  There was a very old woman being pushed in a wheel chair.  There were church groups walking together singing.  Some people had on sensible shoes... others did not.  One guy was pulling a rolling suitcase with another bag on top... I'm guessing he came from further away than San Jose.  Oh and a lady carrying her little dog.  Yikes!  Anyway, it was really interesting.  I felt uncomfortable taking my camera, but I did steal this picture off the interwebs... I'd say its about what I saw.  We watched for a half an hour to an hour or so and saw thousands of people.

In other news... it is very weird at school with just a few of us there.  I enjoyed my first day of intensive school with 2 hours of one-on-one in the morning and four hours of now two-on-one (now that everyone else has left) in the afternoon.  But my brains were ready to fall out.  Those of us that were left were a bit sad without the old crowd.... but I'm learning lots.

The Beginning of the End

Friday was the last day of classes for most of my friends.  Those of us in Intermediate 2 have really loved our profe Hazel.  (Simone and I get to continue with her for one more week.)  We decided to get Hazel a present.  The fact that she had never read Harry Potter but wanted to had come up in class.  I had volunteered to be the one two buy the first couple of books Friday morning.  An easy task as I had seen them everywhere earlier in the month, or so I thought.  Well, with the last movie coming out there must have been a resurgence of interest in reading the books, because it took me 4 stores in a rain storm to find them.  In the store where I finally found it, I bought the last of copy of the first book. Its all David's fault... he had jinxed me the night before.  Simone made a loaf of Swiss bread (her dad is Swiss) and brought it to class.  Hazel had bought iced coffee drinks, so we had a little party.  We had the option of watching a movie or doing more exercises with the subjunctive.  We chose the subjunctive... we are a sick group.

Intermedio 2 - Julio 2011 Back: Eric, David, Me, Simone, and John.  Front: Rob and Hazel.

After class, we headed to El Rio for something to drink as per usual.  Stacey had to go pick up a friend who had come to travel with her for a few days.  After a while we headed to a Mexican restaurant down the street for a goodbye dinner.  We eventually had to break up the party and head home.  Saying good-bye was not a lot of fun.  It has been a great group... I feel very fortunate to have made such good friends here.  It was kind of funny.  I said good-bye to Stacey for real.  I knew I was going to see Simone, Eric, and Jenee again.  John, David and I rode the same bus toward home.  I get off a stop or two before they do.  So once the bus hit my stop... it was basically a... "Well.. uh... see you guys."  and I hopped off the bus.  (Well stepped down carefully, I keep waiting to fall down the bus stairs but you know what I mean...)

Saturday, I decided to head into Downtown San Jose.  I had been there a few times on various tours, but never really looked around.  There were lots and lots of people around.  This coming Tuesday, Aug 2, is the day they celebrate (for a lack of better term) the patron saint of Costa Rica, La Negrita (I've mentioned her in previous posts.)  Anyway, I'll probably talk about this more later, but people walk from all over to for Mass on Aug 2 in Cartago.  The main street near my house is a major thoroughfare to Cartago.  There were lots of pilgrims walking, which added to the crazy number of people around.

Anyway, I wandered through a couple of markets again.  I holed up in the smaller one when it started raining really hard.  (It's covered.)  It was funny because most of the people at the various stalls knew who I was at least for awhile.  Several told me that for me they'd give me a good price (In Spanish or English depending on the person.)  I'd laugh and say, "Just for me?"  Most would laugh and say "Of course."  BUT one guy looked at me with a very serious face and gave me a very flat, "No."  (I mean seriously lady, why would I give just you a good price.)  I found it hilarious.  I only ended up buying stuff from people who spoke to me in Spanish.  It went about half and half on what people would use with me first.

After awhile the rain lessened a bit and I caught the bus home.  In the evening, I had the house to myself.  Jorge's aunt died earlier in the week (I think.)  And so Jorge and Isabel went to the wake.  Mauricio went out... although he was in for a bit in the evening.  I actually really enjoyed having some time in the house alone.  Isabel was a bit worried about what I was going to have for dinner... I assured her I was capable of making a sandwich for myself.  :)  I got to sit around and watch movies in Spanish.

Sunday was another quiet day.  In the afternoon I decided to go the the Museum of Costa Rican Art.  It is supposed to be open on Sundays and free.  I took a taxi there, because I wasn't sure which bus to take, and its on the other side of town.  When I got there, it started raining again... of course.  (I've been very grateful for my umbrella the last month.)  And there was a sign that said it was open and free on Sunday and Tuesday... and this was true kind of... parts of it were open and it was free.  Mostly the outside parts and a couple of the inside rooms were open.  I did get to see some cool stuff, but it was weird how it was only kind of open.

I decided to walk back to the city center which was a 2-3 kilometers away.  I stopped in a Quiznos with internet access for lunch.  (The internet had been down all day Saturday and Sunday.)  I then walked on through the downtown and caught a bus back to home. 

Jenee, Eric, and I had made tentative plans to go to a ballet Sunday night, but the ballet had been postponed until September apparently.  So we met at the Mall near my house.  We aren't really mall hanging out people, but we managed to kill a few hours.  Particularly with Jenee and I oohing and aahing over all sorts of stuff in a home decoration store. After the shops closed and we ate dinner, we caught a cab.  They dropped me off by my house.  The head home tomorrow (Monday).  In the group that I hung out with... it is now just down to Simone and I.

When I got home Jorge and Isabel had just returned.  They had spent the afternoon with Jorge's family.  I hung out with them for awhile.  Then I headed to bed.  I was about to go to sleep when I saw the internet had finally come back on... so I took the opportunity to post.

Tomorrow (Monday) starts my private lessons in the morning and just two of us in the afternoon... it should be and interesting experience.  Its hard to believe that I'll be back in the States in less than a week.