Thursday – February 12, 2009

I can’t believe that I’ve been here for five weeks already. Time has just flown by. I’ve clearly been enjoying myself, since I didn’t even realize that I’ve already been in classes for a month. Speaking of which, classes are both laid back and rather intense. I never quite know what to expect when I get to class. Some classes start early, others right on time, and for one in particular, we generally wait about 30 minutes before we (professor included) even wander into our classroom. We usually sit in the lounge and talk beforehand, and my professors never really jump directly into the lesson. They always ask us about our weekends, our homestays, whether or not we saw the rainbow that morning, if we’ve visited a certain beach yet, etc. We almost always have breaks in our classes, even if they only last for an hour and a half. For the three-hour class I have once a week, we have about a 40-minute break. Having all of my classes in Spanish is sometimes exhausting. I have to constantly be paying attention to what people are saying. I never realized before how easy listening was until I discovered that I don’t do it very well when it really matters. Background noise – whether it was a conversation, music, a lecture, television, whatever – never really meant much when I understood it without even trying. But as soon as the background noise becomes important, listening becomes an effort.
(There is a mosquito in my room and it’s really distracting. I’d rather it not bite me, since it’s HUGE and although bites can be lots of fun, I can do without another one. Honest.)
Two weekends ago, a bunch of us went to a beach on the Caribbean coast, very close to Panama called Puerto Viejo. It was a great trip. The beaches were nice and, aside from the one day of rain, the weather was enjoyable. My favorite part about the weekend was the hotel we stayed in. It was called “Rocking J’s” and we slept in hammocks. If you didn’t know this already, hammocks are incredibly comfortable to sleep in. I would definitely recommend staying there if you’re ever in that area of Costa Rica.
Americans are strange. People say so many unflattering things about us, and sometimes I forget that we do have positive aspects to our behavior too. For example, on the bus ride to this beach, some people had to stand in the aisle because there weren’t enough seats and they were given a ticket that informed them they had to stand. One man (an American, who I’m going to call Bob) threw a hissy fit because he didn’t have a seat and he didn’t want to stand when he was supposed to have a seat. Even though he wasn’t the only one in this situation, Bob was the only one who complained about it, while the others who were supposed to have seats but didn’t (who, by the way, were Australian) merely said that they had no problem standing. Because of this one man, everyone on the bus had to play musical chairs until we were all sitting in our assigned seats. Bob was clearly one of the obnoxious American tourists who give all the rest of us such a bad rap... Once we were on our way though, it was heartening to see all of the people on the bus (minus Bob) exchange places with the people who had to stand. Most of the people on the bus didn’t know one another, and still they all offered to take turns standing in the aisle. On the bus ride back, which had more Costa Ricans on it than before, I noticed that none of the Costa Ricans exchanged places with each other. That’s not necessarily saying anything about one culture or the other, just the people that ended up on each bus, but it made me feel happier about being an American “tourist” when I saw that not all of them fit the stereotype I hear so much about.
(The mosquito bit me. Unfortunate.)
I think it’s amusing that the majority of people I’m introduced to, when they hear my name, immediately go “Oh! Like ‘Grey’s Anatomy!’” I suppose they do sound similar but actually, I just realized today that when “Grey’s Anatomy” is announced on TV, the announcer really does say “Grace.” Go figure.
Oh! Oh! Oh! I saw a sloth! It was so strange looking. It looked like a large cat (or a small, hairy child) curled up in a tree and I could have sworn it was grinning while it slept. Must have been a good dream…