July 13, 2010: Heredia

Hola, All! On Sunday I left Monteverde and arrived in Heredia that afternoon. I am living with a couple who don´t have children, Carmen and Javiar. Carmen is a principal at a school and is on a 2 week break. I´m not sure why Javier is not working; they tried to tell me in Spanish but no comprendo. They are a wonderful couple! Carmen´s parents and sister live next door. I think they have adopted me! Everyone speaks slowly so that I can understand what they are saying. This morning after Carmen made me breakfast, she sat and talked to me for around 25 minutes. It was a great way to start the day. They live about 12 minutes from the school; on Sunday they showed me how to get there and on Monday Carmen walked me to school. I had to write down the directions because there are probably 5 turns I have to make before I get there. The school is bigger than in Monteverde and has more students. I´m meeting new people everyday. Yesterday I met John, a Spanish teacher from Houston. Since he has been here for 2 weeks, he knows his way around and is taking me on a tour this afternoon. Today at lunch I met a woman, Tera, and her daughter, Bailey, from Canada. There don´t seem to be as many single women here for me to hang out with. The weather is warmer than in Monteverde, but not hot, and not as much rain. All in all, I´m going to enjoy myself here!
Chao for now,
Dawnie

July 10, 2010: Horseback riding

Hola, All! Yesterday´s adventures entailed riding a horse, cabello in Spanish, for 1 and a half hours. I was with other students from the school, mainly 3 moms with their kids. Of course, I got the horse with an attitude! He knew where his place was...fifth in line. Everytime the horse behind us tried to pass us, he would nip at the other horse! Or if we were doing down a wide trail, he would zig zag so that no other horse would pass us. The scenery was alsolutely beautiful! There were times we could see all the way down to the valley, seemed like it was a mile below us. Other times we would be riding in the clouds! My favorite part was the last third of the ride, when we were riding in the forest on nothing bigger than a hiking trail and it was so foggy that I couldn´t see 20 feet in front of me. It would have made great scenery for a scary movie! Another interesting thing was when we got almost close enough to touch some wild bulls. It was cool also getting to see them run, kind of like dogs runing. My booty got a little sore, esp since I have such a boney one!
Love to all, love reading your comments!
Chao for now!
Dawnie

July 9, 2010: dance class

Hola, All! Last night I went to a free dance class at the school. My teacher from last week, Royner, was the instructor. He taught us 3 salsa moves and of course talked to us in Spanish. Since there were more women than men, 2 of the women learned the men´s parts. Ele, who is a little taller than me and also has long legs, was my partner. Because of the size of the steps that one takes, having someone with a similar stride works well. It was great fun as we danced up a storm! Today my calves are a little sore, which seems weird because Monteverde is in the mts and it seems like I'm always either walking uphill or downhill. So my calves should be getting a workout regularly; go figure.
Love you, chao for now,
Dawnie

July 7, 2010: Cooking class

Hola, All! Today I signed up for a free cooking class at the school. It was really nice because there were only 5 of us students and 1 cook. As we were talking to each other in English, the cook told us to practice our Spanish instead. Even in the kitchen they want us speaking espanol! The first thing she asked us was if there were any vegetarians. Since I could see the hamburger meat, I raised my hand. I also told her that I could not eat cheese or food made with milk. Then she told us that we would be preparing salad, meatballs, potatoes and making homemade tortillas. We were really cute because we all had to wear hairnets. I was in charge of cutting the cucumbers, and mixing the flour and water by hand to make the tortilla dough. I had both my hands in it up to my wrists. Then we rolled the dough into circles for another student to cook the tortillas. Only later did I realize that one of my acrylic nails had come off in the dough!! Someone sure got a surprise in their tortilla!

Yesterday I realized that I have been amiss in teaching you some Spanish words. So, I thought I would teach you how to pronounce my mama-tico´s name. Virginia is pronounced: Ber hen e a (with the ´e´ being a long sound). Something else you might be interested in is the word ´tico´.....this is the name for the native people of Costa Rica.
Love you, chao for now!
Dawnie

July 6, 2010: Coinsidences

Hola, All! Most of you know that I do not believe in conincidences. I believe that people or things come into our lives for a reason. For instance, last week my instuctor, Royner, told me about the School of Friends (Quakers). Last Fri this young woman named Eli sat at my table at break. It turns out that she is a Quaker from Pennsylvania. On Sat as I was walking to the farmers market, I ran into her as she was returning from there. After going to the farmers market, I went to a small store where natural products were sold. The young woman whose family owned the store told me that she attended the Quaker school. (Come on, this is really too much!) Since Royner and Eli both asked me to go to the service (called a Meeting) on Sunday, I decided to go. My other choice was to attend a Catholic service. Sunday morning I walked about 25 minutes to the Meeting. I got there just as they were finishing their last song. Then a woman got up to explain the Meeting. Really it was a time of silence, or meditation, when anyone could voice a prayer. After different people spoke, this woman would translate into Spanish. It was almost all about a member who had died recently of a disease. There were no more songs, no sermon, no religious affirmations, just some silence inbetween the people who had a prayer to say or who read a poem about something that was important to them. I found it really interesting when a man spoke about what they did during the childrens time, which took place outside. The kids were throwing a frisby back and forth, sometimes dropping it. Then he talked to them about staying in the present moment and really paying attendtion to what they were doing. After they resumed playing frisby, the kids did not drop it much. After the end of the silence period, there were announcements, introductions of the visitors, and then a pot luck lunch. All in all, I enjoyed the Meeting and the lunch.
For those of you who are wondering if I am learning any Spanish, the answer is yes. I go to school for 4 hours M-F, plus I probably study 2-3 hours a day. The teachers here are really good, and even give us homework.
Love you, chao for now!
Dawnie

July 5, 2010; sugar cane tour

Hola, All!

Update on mom; she has moved into a retirement center in Round Rock and seems to like it. And, of course, the work continues on clearing out her house.
Last week I went on a tour where they grow sugar cane. This particular place also was growing coffee, bananas, plantains, pineapple and some kind of squash that I had never heard of, and all grown organcally. Way up in the trees were a couple of sloughs. Did you know that they stay in the trees and only come down once a week to defecate? Can you imagine the size; I was definitely looking where I was walking! The system that they use to extract the sugar from the cane looked so antiquated; they even still use oxen to collect the cane and take it into the barn. Also, because everything is grown on the side of a mountain, any kind of natural products that they spray on the cane and fruit has to all be done by hand. Oh, they also grow some kind of berries that have to be havested by hand also. Near the end we got to make some candy out of the sugar; we could even add coconut, peanuts or chocolate to it. A little bit went a long way since it was so sweet. All in all it was a very interesting tour.
Someone is waiting to use the computer so must sign off.
Love you; chao for now,
Dawnie

July 2, 2010; different things

Hola, All!
Update on Mom: the last I heard she is moving into a retirement center, not sure when. In the meantime, my sisters have continued the process of cleaning out her home. It is a BIG job! We are starting to divy things up because she does have some nice things.

I thought today I would talk about how some things are different here in Monteverde than home. For instance, the shower head in Virginia´s house is directly overhead, so every day that I don´t wash my hair, I am doing the limbo trying to keep my hair from getting wet! (slight exaggeration!) Also, the way the shower works is that the hot water comes out first with the least amt of pressure. As you turn up the pressure, the water gets colder! Very intersting system, it makes you use less water if you want a hot shower.
On my bed there are 4 really thin blankets plus a sheet. It was different at first but now it makes sense because if I am only a little warm, then I just throw off one blanket.
Yesterday was the first day since I´ve been here that it didn´t rain in the afternoon. Today is another story. It is raining now and rains almost everyday this time of yr. Everything is so beautiful with lots of colors.
The food here is good but I don´t know how many times I can eat rice with beans without getting tired of it. For breakfast, instead of cereal, I have eaten rice with beans, fruit, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal. For lunch I go out with my friends and eat at a different restaurant everyday. It´s really amazing how many restaurants there are here for the number of people. For dinner, I have had fruit, salad, r & b, chicken once, and various vegetables. Virginia has been so kind to me. She makes me a cup of hot tea every morning, then something for breakfast that always includes fruit. For dinner she asks me everyday what time I want to eat, then has it ready. The second day I was here she asked me if I had any laundry. Of course I did- then she said to just drop it on the floor in my room everyday (I´m loving this!). On top of this, even though I have told her not to, she irons my clothes!!! Now I know what it feels like to have a maid! Thanks for all the comments and emails; it makes me feel like I am not so far from home.

Love you, chao for now,
Dawnie