Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Time to Adapt

A Time To Adjust

Now that I have been in country for more than a week and all my nervous jitters have come to pass I am now entering a transition phase, adjusting to my new Costa Rican life.  Like most things some of it is awesome and some of it kinda sucks.

The town I live in is small so that means there isn’t too much to do we have a restaurant, a pulperia (convenience store), a candy shop, a café and a coffee shop and that’s it.  No bar, no market, no plaza no mucho. What is cool about the situation is that I don’t really feel like we need any of those things.  I always have something to do and chilling with my family has turned out to be one of my favorite things to do.

This is my family... and Allen (the tall Chinese guy) who I spend most of my time with, we are quite different but we have a good time


My average day…

Yesterday in Spanish class we had to talk about our daily routine here vs. in the states, it wasn’t until then that I really stopped to think how different my life is now.  Sometimes I even forget I am in Costa Rica and I just think I am in a small town where they happen to speak Espanol.

Here is what I do most days…
I wake up around 5:45 or 6 am sometimes I chill in bed, sometimes I read and sometimes I finish my homework. Regardless which I do at 6:30 I head next door to meditate with Allen in his room.

I have been meditating for about 2 weeks now and it isn’t very easy.  The type of meditation we practice is one where you memorize a passage containing some sort of wisdom and slowly repeat it in your mind.  We do this for about 30 minutes sitting Indian style with our backs upright.  Its amazing how hard it can be to concentrate your mind on one thing, I often find my mind drifting in about a million different directions, and once it starts meandering its hard to get back on track.  Some days are better than others but every day I’m glad I took the time to do it. I feel alert and ready to start my day.

After that its time for breakfast, which consists of a full plate of gallo pinto (rice and beans), tortillas, an egg and coffee, I have the same thing almost everyday.  Sometimes there will be a variation, instead of an egg and tortillas I will have an empanada with gallo pinto.  Its always good, but it took me a while to learn to start my day off with a full stomach.

At 8 I head of to one of two places Spanish class or technical training.  Spanish class consists of 4 people, John, Allen, myself and our professor Fiorella.  Our teacher just turned 25 that being the case it isn’t really much of a classroom setting. Oftentimes we go outside, go to the café or go on field trips.  The goal for our language training is that we learn to communicate and feel comfortable interacting in the Tico (Costa Rican) culture.  So most days we are sent on missions to interview local business owners, teachers and anyone else that will talk to us.



Technical training takes place in my town, that means that every other volunteer has to take a bus some are only like 15 minutes away and others are more like an hour.   Each day we talk about a bunch of different things, ranging from learning styles, classroom management, interviewing techniques, mostly its boring, but since some of this stuff may be useful once I get to my site,  I try to keep an open mind about it and pay attention. 

Regardless of whether we go Spanish class or technical training I have to walk up a monstrous hill, every time I end up panting by the time I get to the top of it. While it has gotten a little bit easier I am beginning to wonder whether or not I will ever be able to walk up it easily.

We come back for lunch at noon until 1 which means more gallo pinto.  We go back to class until 5 or so and call it a day.  By the time we get home its getting dark.  Being close to the equator there is 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of daylight all yearlong and it gets dark quick.  That makes it seem like its really late after my 6:30 dinner. 

After dinner we normally chat and play some cards, I taught them to play war, a game called 31, and am in the process of teaching them spades.  It is always fun and its something we can all do.  My niece Maybel and I got in a “fight” when I caught her cheating and told her I don’t like playing with “tramposas” she didn’t talk to me for a day, it was pretty funny.

Afterwards I go next door to do whatever homework I have with Allen and normally by this time I am beat and ready for bed its 9:30. I brush my teeth contemplate on whether or not I can go another day without showering and read until I’m too tired to keep my eyes open.  This normally happens before 10:30.



Were I in any other place, doing any other job I would say that my life is lame.  But the fact is that I feel really lucky to be here.  Each day is a new experience with new challenges, sites, and happenings.  For example today I found a dead coral snake in the middle of the road, its one of the most poisonous in Costa Rica and my Padre told me its been years since he has seen one in this area. I go to bed each night knowing I had a full day so I don’t feel bad about going to bed early.

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