Costa Rica!

I haven’t updated this for awhile but I suppose I should as the end is drawing near. First of all I want to share a poem that Ana Istarú, a famous poet from Costa Rica wrote. We read her work in my Lit class and then she came to talk to us and it was absolutely amazing! She is such an intelligent woman and had amazing ideas about the role of women (and men for that matter) in society. This poem is called Soy Igual.
Soy Igual
No olvides
Por favor
que tengo
nombre.

Yo soy igual
y soy distinta.

Soy igual
en la tierra
y en mi oficio
de obrero.

Soy distinta
en la tibia
luna de mi sexo.

No hay eclipse
más dulce
que tu cuerpo
y mi cuerpo.

Pero por favor
no olvides
el nombre
que tengo.

Soy distinta, a veces,
pero soy igual.

Tengo la misma
hambre
de trigales
y vientos.

It is so cool that through the connections of ACM we are able to have these visitors. Anachristina Rossi, La Loca de Gandoca, who spoke so eloquently about the deforestation and lack of knowledge/support for the environment in Costa Rica. Luis Guermmo Solis who came to speak about TLC. Which I now completely do not support! Write a letter to Bush, your senator, congressperson, who ever about the difference of CAFTA for Costa Rica. It is a much more well off country and has many things going for it that CAFTA will destroy. Not to mention it was badly negotiated and only benefits the US. Ana Istarú, who was so good and could act better than almost anyone. Manuel Monostel, who is the Pete Seeger of Costa Rica (who we saw last night and it was amazing!)
Favorite memories as of now (as I sit here procrastinating, worrying about the end being sooo soon)
* Fire on the beach of the Carribean with the full moon just sitting there.
*Making cookies with my brothers and walking to the internet café and chatting
*Jazz Café, what a cool atmosphere, who cares how much drinks cost they are good!
* All the amazing meals at El Candil, the Costa Rican version of Birchwood, 3 bucks for amazing soup, a huge plate of meat (usually good fish), rice, beans, salad, and café.
*Buenos dias con Don Hermes, the ACM guard who is so jolly and every morning greets each one of us with a big smile and BUENOS DIAS!
*Snuggling with Miguel, Diegito, and Kevin in front of the TV in Pejibaye
*Zumba (the dance workout video) with Miguel and Jazmin

So far this has been so amazing and so much more than I expected! I can’t wait to have my final paper done, (10/15 so far), and to show my family around when they come! Feliz Dia de accion de gracias!

Wow, the experiences we have all had in the campo make me soooooo glad that I had a good experience. Some people weren't fed, some weren't talked to. I had an amazing family, learned a lot, but also felt so much pressure to speak and learn as much as I could. I visited so many places.....
-La Parcela- The family farm where we would spend the weekends, soooooo beautiful. Lots of cows and chickens and talapia (that was so good when we ate it). We would drink coffee (the best coffee I have ever tasted in the world, they make it with a felt pouch and it has no bitter taste at all) and eat BEANS and RICE and talk and talk and talk. I would play with Los Locos, the three little boys who became the loves of my life. We would swim in the fresh creek, eat berries and oranges from the trees. Amazing and relaxing with a side of mud.
-La Marta- The biological reserve that is by my house with plantation ruins and amazing wildlife. Blue ferns that only grow in this one location, tiger birds, morfos (the large blue butterflys you always see in the guidebooks). We would walk everywhere and it was amazing!
-El Huemo Sugar Cane plantation- I watched the entire process from cane to the honey candy that I ate fresh from the boiling pot. Wow is it sweet and wow is it an intricate process. My dad worked as a sugar cane picker and distributer (he is 58).
-El colegio- I taught english and it was so much fun and what a learning experience! The kids have little to no respect for teachers but at the same time would ask me sooooo many questions about US culture and English.
-Zumba- the exercise/dance video I would do with one of the locos and his mom every morning (as they would tell me I needed to due to my "weight issue") it was actually really fun and I learned Cumbia.
Overall wonderful experience and I have added to my Costa Rican extended family! Now it is back to classes, we started with lit this morning and I have 36 pages to read in Spanish for Thursday along with 2 essays to write. WOW we're back!!! I am missing fall and wishing some leaves would fall here so I can crunch but as I read emails from all you Minnesotans I am glad that it is 23 degrees here as well, CELSIUS!!!!! Hope you enjoy the snow! :)

I have celebrated the one month aniversary of my time here in Costa Rica. Wow! How things have changed, the level of comfort, my ability to adapt, confidence in Spanish, and most importantly less stress. I love Pura Vida...seriously the Gagne need to be early is gone! I love it!!!!!! This last weekend at the beach, wow....how relaxing. I want to live somewhere when I am older where a hammock on the beach is within a close distance. I cannot tell you how nice that was. I am hoping that my rural stay will be relaxing. I talked to my mom to finalize plans and couldn't understand her very well. She watches her 8 grandkids during the day at home and so I am sure I will have lots of time with kids, which should be fun.
My theme for my final investigation is shaping up slowly. I am focusing on the acquistion of culture by children in Costa Rica and how the media is the most influential and that is being influenced by the US strongly. Ok bad explanation but I can't quite get it into the words I want to use to describe it.
Well short entry. Gotta run, final exam tomorrow and my grammar group is going to get Mexican food and study!

Thursday we had our first Spanish exam, it seemed easy…well some stuff was tricky but nothing as hard as I used to think Spanish exams were. We’ll see if that reflects in the grade or not. ☺ It was a good week overall, well we only had 4 days of school which helps! But I also have found a good group of girls (there are like 4 who would def. be thetas). We went out to a salon to get manicures the other day (they are so cheap in Costa Rica) then we went out to eat at a really good Mexican style restaurant. It was nice to have some girl chat time, and also to see that I am not the only one who is experiencing culture shock, homesickness, boredom at my host family’s house, getting sick of rice and beans. They also taught me to get over my fears of taking a taxi here, after all the security warnings I just couldn’t get into one…..But after taking a pirate taxi after a not-so-safe night I know I can live through anything! Nick has come over a lot to my house. My host parents love him (but really who wouldn’t). We watched the 40-year-old Virgin with my brother one night and it was fun. So now back to my big weekend…..
THURSDAY: Test, home to nap and get ready, light festival with my brothers. For independence day they have the whole country sing the national hymn at 6pm and the schools march around the neighborhood with drums and little lanterns, it was so pretty and peaceful and I think really reflects that they did not fight for their independence, it was not about we are the best country check out our big guns! It was about the kids and the message of hard work, and then I went out to El Pueblo (a kinda sketchy bar area in San Jose) with like 15 ACM students, tried guaro (the Costa Rican alcohol), lots of dancing, sick people taking the taxi home and who is mom again? ME!!!! My host parents also made fun of me for getting home so EARLY! (at 12:45am)
FRIDAY: Woke up early because there is a light in my room that automatically turns on at 4am…it’s annoying! Got ready and then was hounded by my brothers to make puppy chow or cookies with them. The little one (who wouldn’t talk to me before) has decided that I need to be initiated to the house so he always yells for me and then when I get there he says “Nada” haahahahahahahaa. It makes me feel accepted if not a little loved ☺ So Eduardo (the chubby little 13 year old) and I went to the supermarket together and that was an experience. They don’t have chocolate chips in Costa Rica nor do they know what they are (well at least in this store)…..I asked the store manager and he handed me a chocolate bar and some sugar sprinkles….then I showed him the betty crocker mix which clearly had chocolate chips in it and he handed me a bag of chips ahoy….well we can say there might have been some language barriers. So we bought the Betty Crocker mixes and walked home, it was a nice walk as I got to see my neighborhood more…..lots of uphill and downhills, small roads with potholes, houses so close together and very colorful, dogs running after traffic, straddling the moats (as I call them) next to the road for the rain, street vendors driving by selling eggs, shrimp, fruit, and more. We made the cookies which was an experience, those two just wanted to eat the cookies and not help….Nick came over and we watched a movie and ate cookies with my brothers.
SATURDAY: Woke up early again to the neighbor trimming his lawn at 5:30am, got ready and caught a bus downtown with 2 friends where we walked up and down the main shopping street and went into the Mercado central, a small cramped somewhat scary shopping area. Imagine the state fair international bazaar with 10 times more people and lots of meat (like modongo cow stomach or cow tongue). I bought some jewelry and just enjoyed walking around. Downtown San Jose is much like a dirty version of Chicago or Boston. There are street vendors and beggars EVERYWHERE so you quickly learn to hold your purse close and ignore the “Gringa necesito dinero, mi familia………..” the same story every time. Funny cultural experience of the day…..me and my friend Lyndsey were outside a store waiting for our other friends and we were at this intersection on these pedestrian streets and there were street vendors everywhere you could look. All of a sudden they all disappear and start running everywhere trying to hide their stuff. Some fold it up and quickly become another shopper, others are not so lucky. 3 policía come from every direction and grab all the vendors they can and take their goods and write them a ticket. It was crazy! Then I went home had lunch, got ready and went to the Teatro Nacional with Nick and friends to see the Ballet Juvenile perform A Mid-summer Nights Dream”. The building is so crazy, it is the most beautiful building I have ever been in!!! We had wine before the show in the café and it was so classy! The show was cute, reminded me of my Nutcracker experiences. Then a bunch of us went to the Jazz Café for Martinis and live jazz. It was a group playing jazz versions of Costa Rican folk and tradicional music. It was so fun and a wonderful way to sit and chat and reflect upon our oh so cultural day!
SUNDAY: Do lots of homework, went to Nick's house and had the BEST dinner EVER!!!! His family is so relaxed and nice it was so fun! We had this fish thing with good salad and an amazing garlic dressing that I seriously wanted to drink! Then we had a chance to hang out and play uno with his host sister and her boyfriend again...The ladies won again (thats three times!!!!)
Well hope all is well with all of you! con amor- Emily

Today started bad as my whole house was late and so everyone was crabby. I was glad to get the ACM but then class just seemed to last forever!!!! Now I am getting ready to go to lunch and then after that my favorite class of the week so things can only get better. I am in the process of choosing the family that I will live with for my rural stay. I have three top choices, two that live in Guanacaste on the Pacific coast and one in Limon on the Atlantic coast. They all have volunteer opportunities in schools and the one in Limon has turtle egg rescue too! They are all smaller families and families that don't eat a lot of meat which is good! I will live with them for the first two weeks of Oct during which I will volunteer and just observe how life is different in the campo then in the city. Should be fun and hopefully relaxing!
I am excited for tommorow! We go to Poas (a volcano) and get to eat lunch in the crater (it's not active), then we get to tour the rainforest both during the day and at night and just generally get to know everyone on the program better. It should be a good weekend too because the heavy rain passed by yesterday and today it is soooooo sunny!
My new favorite activity here is the discussions I have with my host parents, especially my host dad about American and Costa Rican government or policy. We always spend like an hour after dinner just talking and it is so fun and so good for my spanish. It is also really interesting to hear the perspective of someone from Costa Rica on things like 9/11 for instance. It gives me a good sense of how they are as a family and also makes me realize how much he is just like my dad! Seriously if the two of them could speak the same language I think they would never shut up!!!
The one thing that I think people don't know about Costa Rica that affects my life daily is the trafffic and the huecos (potholes). Costa Rica has a serious problem with it's streets and for this reason there are lots of accidents (well and Ticos drive crazy). For instance yesterday, I catch my bus 2 blocks from ACM in front of an outlet mall and a very busy intersection. Usually it takes about 10 minutes to get from there to my house. Yesterday the cars and buses were lined up in both directions forever!!! There had been some sort of accident with this taxi and a pirate taxi and so everyone was driving on the wrong side of the street and honking trying to get around everyone else. Oh and it was pouring! It was quite comical and an hour later I got home!
Ok well I am gonna go try and find some good food, I am craving lasagna for some reason! I doubt I will find that easily but we'll see.

It's lunchtime and Nick and I just returned from a pizza place and are eating in the ACM center with like 10 other students. It's really nice today and hasn't rained yet which is nice! We have class this afternoon that I am not looking forward too, our intro to Costa Rica class has a bit of an angry lady for a professor who does not slow down her spanish for us at all. She also does ALL powerpoints, which is a bad combo, post-lunch, rain starts, no lights, well you can imagine what happens, maybe that's why she is so angry? Then we have a dance class, that should be fun and a good break from academics. Yesterday a group of us went to a poorer area of San Jose to tutor some kids in English, it was fun but really dificult. They couldn't speak Spanish that well either so communicating was dificilisismo y con lots of hand gestures! I think I want to continue to do this as it is good practice and also a good way to conduct research for my possible final project.
This past weekend Nick and I went to the beach with his host sister Diana and her boyfriend Roldando (who is super cute). We stayed at a cute little hotel in a cabana and it was sooo nice to relax. We sat around the pool, walked on the beautiful beach of the pacific ocean, and ate good food. It was really fun to hang out with them, we played uno in teams with them and it was really great to have that chance to be using my spanish in a fun way. (The mujeres team always won!!!!) We went out to eat at the restaurants in town and had good seafood and then would always come back and lay in the hammocks next to the pool. The heat there was undescribable, I could not stop sweating but it was really nice to be in the water. The ocean there is a like a big bath it is so warm! There were lots of Costa Ricans surfing which was fun to watch. The town was interesting at night because it transforms into a pretty nasty area of drugs and prostitution but thats ok becuase Nick and I were so tired by 10pm that it was time for bed!
I am really starting to miss all my Beloit friends, there is so much I want to do with you all and so much I want to show you all. The bars here have no idea what they would be in for if Beloit came to town! :)
This weekend we all go to Sarapiqui which is rainforest, volcano, banana plantation land. It should be a fun weekend of lots of nature. I am reading a really interesting book about the rainforest that has given me lots of new perspectives on life and co-existence of animals and plants. I am staying in a hotel room with 2 other girls, who seem really nice and I am excited to get to know them better!
Well off to boring class, let's hope it's different this week! Que vaya bien!

As I sit here in the salon grande of ACM it is pouring buckets outside, it seems to rain more heavily every other day or so. I was on my way back from the bank a couple blocks away when ay empezo a lluver muchisisismo!, Nick and I needed to change money for our weekend at the beach. We are heading out to Jaco which is on the Pacifico Oceano with 13 other students for the weekend. We are leaving a little later because tomorrow is my mom's birthday so I want to celebrate in the morning with my family. Jaco is supposed to be a good beach, not the prettiest but is supposed to have the best night life! I am excited to go dancing, this group seems like a good party group!
Nick just brought me a cup of coffee, the sweetheart! (I told him I would say that). The coffee here is really good and I usually have 2 cups a day, nothing compared to my spanish prof. who drinks 20!!!!!! Ay que malo para la salud. Today we walked all around in San Jose and got a little safety orientation at the same time. We saw the government buildings and the national musuems and theaters. Nick and I might go see an opera or a ballet there sometime as it is muy barrata y tambien linda. We also walked through all of the littler mercados and for those of you who know me well......the earrings.....what a temptation. But I have to resist as my mom here makes jewelry and I want to support her as much as possible.
The end of the first week.....wow! I really like my classes, it's a lot of Spanish but I am beginning to understand everything and the grammar lessons are paying off. My intro to Costa Rica class was ABURRIDO the first day but I think that's because it was all geography and the teacher was a little sick. My seminar course, "Other Americas, Identity and Modernity in Latin America" seems sooooooo cool, it's taught in English (a nice break) and is also a really cool way to study the idea of Latin America, we are reading Che and Octavio Paz and other very brilliant escritores. There are lots of good Sodas on the UCR campus where we can eat and also I want to learn to cook more and eat more of the wonderful fruit here. My new favorite is mimonchiles which are leechee nuts, you peel the purple spiky part off and the middle is so sweet! The food here overall is good, lots of protein, rice, beans, and carne. I eat breakfast at 6:30am, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 8pm and I don't really snack much so you can tell how heavy the food is. My favorite so far is casados, which is rice, beans, chicken (or whatever meat) with onions and a little salad. It is simple and really good.
I wish I could show you the rain right now, usually the back of ACM opens onto a mountain and you can see really far, but now I can't see past the jardin and can barely hear anything else but the rain. Una torrmenta pienso.
Last night my brother eduardo and I watched the VMAs gringos on MTV, it was funny to hear his opinions about musical groups and also to see what lyrics he knew and understood. Try explaining what Justin means by "I'm bringing Sexy back". We also talked about TLC, which is the free trade agreement between the USA and Costa Rica, they are voting on this in Dec and it is a very controversial agreement. There is a lot of graffiti in opposition to it and also there willl be many protests that my Spanish prof (who is a little loco) wants to have us "observe"/participate in. A lot of things in Costa Rica are very cheap becuase they are imitations of the US items and with the TLC, that would not be possible. The president here Oscar Arias, who was president in the 80s and won a nobel peace prize is also controversial. Because many people think that he has ideas viejos (old ideas) for the betterment of the country. It is interesting to talk to different people and gather my own ideas.
Well I am going to get more coffee and hope to connect with my dad over skype. I talked to my family yesterday by phone and it made Costa Rica a lot easier, not sure why. But to know I have the support of everyone is very reassuring! Muchas Gracias!

So I am here. And let me tell you it is certainly different to live in a different country, while Costa Rica is much safer and healthier than other Latin American countries that does not mean it is without it's own interesting things. A list of my worries from my first day in my journal: traffic, money, pickpockets, my family that only speaks spanish, how far away i live from nick, that my light turns on in my room automatically at 4am and there is nothing I can do about it, that I don't understand when meals are or why I get fed a lot more at some meals than everyone else and a lot less at others.
Mi familia: My mom Flori-works in a school with special needs kids and does ALL of the work around the house. She also speaks the fastest and is the hardest to understand. My dad Hugo-works at the Universidad de Costa Rica and likes to hang out watching tv when at home, he is fun to talk to and a very nice person. My brother Eduardo-speaks a little english and by that I mean sings along to MTV here and asks me what everything means, try explaining what "get crunked" means in terms of a party. He is probably my favorite because we hang out lots and play play (playstation), I am learning Need for Speed! My brother Gabri- very very very shy, doesn't talk to me unless is forced and spends all of his time in his room. We also have two little kicking dogs but only one is allowed in the house. The house is small but nice, 1 floor and only 1 bathroom with no hot water. We have a huge gate to keep "malcreados" away.
Costa Rica in general is very nice, the vegetation is abundant and beautiful, the rainy season produces the best fruit. The mornings here are sunny and hot and then it cools down A LOT and pours! The streets are crowded and the buses even more so. The people are nice, the accent is not too hard to understand. We have lots of time to travel so I hope to see lots of the country!
Nick and I are hanging out some, he has an older sister who speaks English and she and her boyfriend took us around San Jose yesterday, to a movie and a bar and then on a little tour. it was funa and I hope to hang out more with them! OK this is long, more later after I settle in a bit!

All packed and ready to go......one big suitcase weighing in at 48 lbs currently and a little duffle bag! I am so proud!! Tonight is now a night of phone calls and well wishes, it is so nice to know how much you are loved before you go to another country! Tomorrow at this time I will be in a new home and new country. I hope that my family is a good match and that I don't mess up too bad with my spanish! I have been brushing up on some vital (or so I think) vocab and if all else fails I can always give them a winning smile as I ask how to say it! It's hard to sit here leaving the house and the family, it feels bigger this time....I guess because I know I can't just drive home or even call home whenever I please. I'm glad I've had this time to re-connect at home, it's been very therapeutic. Ok I promise these entries will get longer once I am there (probably too long for some people)..Talk to you from Costa Rica!

So it is Monday morning and as I sit at home getting ready for my day, I am beginning to realize that in less than a week I will be in Costa Rica. This causes me to worry (well stress out..you know how I can be) and also to be SO excited! I was talking with Nick last night and realized that after explaining for the five millionth time what classes I will be taking and what I will be doing, that I don't even really know. ACM...why couldn't you send a schedule or something? Ah well, I guess this will be my first lesson in the pura vida...it's all good...don't worry. Kind of like a Costa Rican Hakuna Matata.
Almost done with shopping, I only have a few odds and ends left. That feels so nice! As I sit here Bliss is eating the flowers and when I tell her not to she comes and rubs the computer so I can't type....nice Blisster. I wonder what down time in Costa Rica will be like.....probably lots of soccer with Eduardo and Gabriel, my two brothers. hmmmmmm.
Well I am off to coffee and then the outlet mall, the mecca of American consumerism, if we can only buy it cheap then we can buy more of it right? More later.....

So this is weird to have a blog but you know I figure I would be better about updating this then I would be about emailing people so here ya go! I mailed out my last details to ACM today so I am all set and ready to go (well paper wise). I only have two and half weeks left in Beloit to finish up my lovely internships and then it is time to pack and head out to Costa Rica!
Update on the internships for those of you who I haven't bothered with mass emails or phone calls this summer. I am a resident assistant for the Summer language program here on campus. I'm living in Haven again, woo hoo! It's a nice easy job that allows for free housing and lots of personal freedom. I have an official internship with The Stateline Literacy Council here in Beloit, working on their library and also writing curriculum and teaching a Spanish class to adults. Thats fun but a lot more work than I thought! I also am teaching dance for 3 hours a day to 5 little crazy kids at a Montessori school in Janesville, that is fun but it is the best way to convince me I don't kids for a LONG time!!!
I leave for Costa Rica on the 26th of August. I am excited/nervous/anxious....Nick coming with is a mixed blessing I think in terms of that it will be an amazing support system but I really hope that we aren't automatically viewed as the "annoying couple who are studying abroad together". I doubt we will but you know...
Ok so this is just a beginning entry, I probably will write more before I leave which is when I hope to keep this as updated as possible.