Playa Flamingo

(written 8/26/13)

Week 3! And I have sadly left monteverde. However, as much as I miss the mountains, the beach is a pretty great alternative. Temperatures here are in the 80s (id guess. Google weather cant seem to figure out where i am) with lots of humidity. The sky is blue most of the day with showers for a few hours in the afternoon.

This seems to be much less of a community than in monteverde where everyone knew each other. On tours in monteverde the guides would always ask who our homestays were, and they usually knew our families. Oh! And another thing about monteverde I keep forgetting to mention. The have stray dogs everywhere but they're all fairly well behaved and healthy looking. I asked my host mother how it was that the dogs were so healthy and she said that the vets in the area occasionally come and spay/neuter all the stray dogs they can find, and hotels and restaurants put out their extra food for the animals. How nice! A community that actually cares for its strays as if they were the responsibility of everyone.

But now to Flamingo Beach. It's pretty touristy but I think well be able to find nontouristy places if we stay away from the resorts. Plus it's the end of tourist season so there's almost nobody here. We traveled on Saturday so that yesterday we'd have all day to explore. Our apartment has a kitchen, so the first thing we did was walk to get groceries. Almost everybody walks to get around here, yet none of the roads have sidewalks. Costa Ricans tell me that the drivers are used to pedestrians on the edge of their lane and are good at avoiding them. This may be true but there's nothing quite like a bus 2 feet away from you going 50ish mph to get your heart racing. So far so good though! Our map isn't very helpful and the apartments seem to be located in the middle of two small towns (or neighborhood centers maybe?), so after shopping we decided to just head in the general direction of water. We ended up on a beach with only a few locals around and after a while walking we ended up at this giant old, wall-less bar/ cigar lounge. It looked like in it's hayday it used to be a club and then an oyster bar, before settling down as a place for expats, Rastas, and the occasional lost tourist. Then we sat on the beach for a while and read before coming home for dinner and some evening pool/ homework time. 

Today we was our first day at this campus of the school. Classes are still going well, though I'm alone again this week so classes will be very intense. After class Lucy and I made a few plans for tours later in the week (more on that later) and then went in search of THE flamingo beach. Well... We didn't find it, but we did stumble onto a different beach without a single person on it. Just as we started to read it started raining, so we decided to head back to the pool by the apartment. No worries though! We're going back tomorrow:-)

Alright. Off to cook dinner!

Un Poco Loco

Today I experienced what it feels like to be a bird. No, really. I've heard many people say that the superpower they want most is to be able to fly. I've never totally understood the appeal (side note- in case you are wondering, my first choice superpower is time manipulation) but today on the zip lines I may have been won over. The course I went on has  5 or 6 zip lines, the longest of which is about a mile long and stretches across a valley between two mountains. You have the option of zipping while seated, or zipping with your arms free, superman style. I, of course, opted for the superman method and can honestly say it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I've heard about the zip lines in costa rica a lot, and they far surpassed my expectations. I was literally hanging from two cords, face and stomach towards the ground, arms stretched out, soaring through the clouds over a canopy of giant, vibrantly green trees. Exhilarating!! For this alone, I will have to come back to Costa Rica at some point in my life.

The rest of the week has been less blog-worthy, but wonderful nonetheless. We burned ourselves out a bit with all the activities last week, and that coupled with 5.5 hours a day of one-on-one Spanish class led us to take Monday through Wednesday as time to settle in and focus on our Spanish memorization. Each day after school Lucy and I, often with a few other students, walk into town (a 20 minute walk from the school) and go to our favorite coffee shop (ie the only one with fast wifi that's also open past 6pm) to work. We settle down on the porch with warm chai lattes and our books, and chat while we do our homework, check our emails, fbs, instas, words with friends games, etc, and watch the many tourists walking by.

My classes this week have been, while exhausting, especially entertaining. Even talking at my current speed (let's just say if the tables were turned I'd run out of patience within 15 minutes) 5.5 hours a day of mostly conversation leads to some creative, vocabulary-boundary-pushing conversations. Today in class my teacher asked me what news I was reading from the US (I get to school early each morning to read a bit so I don't feel totally disconnected) and I brought up Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning and his brave declaration of his true identity. This led to a whole discussion of sex vs gender, social construction, and progressive versus traditional approaches to the freedoms that people should be granted in their personal lives. I think I may have shocked my very Catholic teacher a bit, but she took it all in stride and we had as interesting a conversation as one could hope for with 4 years of high school Spanish 6 years ago, ultimately finding common ground in that people are born with the right to be respected until they violate someone else's right to be respected. More stories about my conversations later, but in general the teachers here seem to really enjoy (or maybe just pretend to enjoy?) talking about American politics, both the good and the bad, which has worked out pretty well for my personal engagement levels.

Lucy and I have been constantly reflecting on what we're learning about traveling that will help us plan and prepare for Argentina. Not only are we coming up with a (perhaps overly) comprehensive packing list, but we're reflecting on how we like to travel and what challenges we think will come our way. This has definitely been a reality check for our romanticized version of the year to come. We are still really excited to get going, but have internalized a little better that it's going to be tough. One important thing we discussed today is the 10 days theory. That is how much time, we hypothesize, it takes to feel out a new place and get into a routine. We've also adopted the barnacle method- an tactic loosely based on the idea that often the best adventures come from just saying yes to some other person's idea and tagging along.

Tomorrow is our last day in Monteverde. While we are looking forward to getting some beach time, we are also going to miss this small town a lot. Although every day I am taken aback multiple times by the beauty of this area (our classrooms even all have giant picture windows looking out into the forests) I still feel like I have taken it for granted. I have one more afternoon to do everything else I wanted to do here and Im going to make it count! On that note, it is 9pm, which means bedtime for Lily. I haven't had a regular bedtime (self-imposed or not) this early since... Maybe ever?

I rappelled a 130 foot waterfall today!

(Sorry! I just realized this had an error and didn't publish when I wrote it last thursday)

And 5 smaller ones (pictures coming soon). And went on a 4 hour nature walk where I saw spider monkeys, toucans, quetzals, a sloth (whose name here literally translates to "Lazy"), and a bunch of other animals whose names I can't remember. The picture below is of the friend im traveling with and I at the continental divide durin our hike. Today was mothers day in CR, which is a national holiday, so school was closed! It's nice that the government appreciates moms so much. I think it's a great idea (hi mom!). I wonder if they do the name for fathers day. If not, they should (hi dad!). 

Anyways, we decided to take advantage of an extra free day to fit it lots of activities, but now I'm exhausted and still have to do all my homework. Luckily I found a really nice spot in a cafe with wifi and tried to order a lemonade but somehow ended up with something green and icy and way better. See picture below! With all this English today, I'm feeling a little guilty so I'm going to have to step up my Spanish game tonight with my host family. Ok. That's all for now- tiempo para hacer mi tarea! Oh, yesterday we went on a fantastic tour of an organic farm that grows coffee, sugar cane and chocolate. I learned so much about the process of making all three. And it turns out that I actually do like 100% cocoa. Who says bitter is bad! Ok. Working for real now. Mucho gusta!

Week Dos

I'm back! Sorry I haven't written in so long. It's been an exhausting few days with very little down time. My legs are still bruised up from canyoning but the soreness is almost gone. Hopefully I can get to my pictures soon.

Last Friday, we decided to try to have a relaxing day just staying at the school, but there were so many activities I didn't get a chance to blog then either. Right after school we took a class in jewelry making, using natural materials. Then there was a class to learn salsa and merengue dancing. I caught on to salsa much faster than merengue but plan on taking the class again this week to prove myself. The school here has a hot tub,

and on Friday nights they have a mini-party with drinks and music, so after dance class I joined the rest of the 20-somethings there. This school is a very interesting mix of people. About half of the students are college age and the other half are vacationing families. Then there's a handful of people at ages in between, like a doctor studying for her boards and a German surgeon taking specialized medical classes so she can volunteer in developing countries. One thing is for sure, almost everybody here has a fascinating story about how they got here and why they're learning Spanish. Most people are from the US but there are a few from European countries learning Spanish as a third or fourth language. 

This weekend a few of us took an overnight trip to the Arenal Volcano. The volcano had a huge eruption in 1968, and smaller one in 1992, and then gave off a small flow in 2009. The lava from each eruption is in slightly different places and it's awesome to get to see how cooled lava ages over time and how flora grow back after an eruption. We couldn't go to the top but we got to climb around on some of the more recent lava towards at the bottom. The top is almost always covered by a mixture of clouds and smoke from the two cones, but we were lucky and had a small gap of time where the clouds cleared and we could see all the way to the top. It's huge! Apparently if we had been here 2 or 3 years ago, at night you could still see orange, molten lava slowly dripping out of the top. Also, the place we stayed there was incredible. They had a giant pool with a swim up bar that was filled by spring water warmed by the volcano. Ridiculous. 

Today we started a new week of Spanish classes. There are fewer people here than before because summer break is ending in the US so I am in solo classes all day. 5.5 hours of one-on-one Spanish is beyond exhausting. By the end of the day I was struggling to even remember English! I think I'll improve a ton by the end of the week though since there's nowhere to hide and the teacher can take as long as she wants correcting me. Plus I'm getting to a point where I can talk about more complicated issues. I spent my afternoon classes today talking about the infrastructure and social services in Uganda and what responsibility a government had to the poorest people in its country (in mostly very small words).

Alright. That's all I got for now. I'm taking a day off from activities so that I can make a giant stack of flash cards to keep my verbs straight. Llegar, llevar, llamar, here I come!

Oh also I finally got the pix from rappelling. Here are my two favorites:

Another beautiful sunset

Ah! Another day is almost gone. I've only been here 3 days but it feels like much longer even though time seems faster than usual. I guess that's how it goes. In my Spanish class today I learned that "time flies when you're having fun" is indeed an expression is Spanish as well. Just in case anyone was wondering. The other expressions I've tried don't seem to translate as well but it gives my teachers a good laugh.

Spanish classes are turning out to be really fantastic. My morning class has two people and my teacher is adorable. She gets so exited when we use new concepts correctly and is very patient with my many questions and mispronunciations. Looking ahead in the workbook, I think all this week will be review for me, which is good because we're covering a TON of material. At least 2 tenses and pages and pages of vocab.

My afternoon class is just me and a teacher that speaks very little English (he's a Spanish teacher at the local high school too). It feels really comfortable because he ends up learning English as I ask questions, so it feels more like a peer to peer dialogue than a lesson. Today we talked about different kinds of transportation in costa rica versus the us, especially the use of trains. It ended up becoming pretty abstract (responsibilities of the government, the relocation of people, etc) but I surprised myself and made it through with only a little bit of pictionary. We also talked about differences in Spanish between countries. For anyone planning on travel to costa rica- the use of "tu," the informal "you" in Spanish is considered extremely insulting here. It's very hard to break myself of the habit of conjugating verbs that way but people seem to be pretty understanding of stupid tourist mistakes.

Hmm. What else. After class today, Lucy and I went with a new friend we've made to explore the town. It is a total of 3 blocks in a triangle and only has souvenir shops, excursion ticket offices, hostels, and restaurants so it didn't take very long to cover. We stopped in this super cool restaurant for hot chocolate with Baileys. Its a cafe built in a tree house! Im going to try to attach a picture... Now we're sitting in a cafe, making use of wifi and drinking something lemony and fizzy. I'm on a constant sugar buzz here. I'm not a big sugar person usually but with all the juices and fresh fruit here I constantly find my foot shaking when I sit down. Yummm!

Alright. Time for homework! More soon!

And we're back

Hello from Monteverde, Costa Rica! Here I kick off the next, and
perhaps grandest, of my adventures. I am in Costa Rica for the next
three weeks awakening (and hopefully building on!) my high school
Spanish, so that I'm a little bit more prepared to spend this coming
November through May-ish in South America. My friend Lucy and I are
going down to Argentina in November to work on a farm (WWOOFing) for a
few weeks and then we're just going to see what opportunities we run
into.

We flew into San Jose yesterday morning and then met our transfer bus
at a nearby Denny's (authentic, I know) to head up into the cloud
forest of Monteverde. The drive was gorgeous, as expected, and the
roads were much better than expected. In the late afternoon I arrived
at my home stay- a mother and father with a few children around my age
who all still live at home. The custom here is to live with your
parents until you get married. None of them speak English and my
Spanish is pretty rusty, so our broken conversation was awkward at
best, but I'm optimistic about the coming evenings. Unfortunately, I'm
in one of the few homestays with no wifi, but I guess the silver
lining is getting a taste of being totally removed from communication.
Even in Uganda I usually had email on my phone. There aren't computers
at the school (well there are but they're too slow to handle any
website) but luckily I set up email blogging when I was in Uganda-
hence the continued use of this blog.

Today I started Spanish classes at 7am. When I woke up in the morning,
most of the family was already gone for the day! The Spanish school is
really beautiful. Its located on a fairly large compound and has
landscaping with flowers everywhere. A huge benefit of being stuck in
a cloud for the majority of the day is that everything around here is
unbelievably green and lush.

Spanish class was pretty rough at first but my learning curve is
pretty steep so I'm already more comfortable speaking than I was 24
hours ago. In the morning I have 4 hours of class with a teacher and
one other person. Then after lunch I have an hour and a half of one on
one conversation. My biggest accomplishment here so far is surviving
that first block of one on one conversation. I didn't know I
remembered enough vocabulary to hold a conversation even half that
long! Whew.

Usually in the afternoons we'll do some activity- they offer zip
lining, coffee and sugar cane tours, hiking, etc. Today though, I'm
thoroughly exhausted. Turns out all the adjustments take a lot of
energy out of you.

Alright. Thats all for today, but the school has wifi so I am hoping
to update fairly regularly. Ciao for now!

Kunming

I've spent the past 48 hours in Kunming, which is part of the Yunnan
Province. Our local guide was especially good at explaining the
culture of the province, so I'm leaving here feeling like I know a lot
more about Kunming than other places we've been. China has around 55
minority groups, and something like 25 of them are only found in this
province. Last night we went to a show that had the traditional dances
and music of some of the minority groups. It was incredible! I am
guessing they modernized it a lot for their 100% tourist audience, but
I still feel like I have a pretty good idea of the general styles.

One of the sixteen people on this trip had the common sense to bring a
China guidebook, so we turn to her for guidance about each city. It's
not that we don't trust our guide—we really like her—but she has a
very clear itinerary and set of speaking guidelines, so we often don't
get all of the information we want. For Kunming, the guidebook
basically says that the only thing for tourists to do here is go to
the Stone Forest, which is actually an hour outside the city. Living
up to our expectations, we spent all day yesterday at the Stone
Forest. The Stone Forest used to be covered by a lake, and over time,
due to Himalayan plate movement and erosion from the water, these tall
stone columns formed everywhere. I could not envision it at all before
we got there, but it really does look like a bunch of tall, stone tree
trunks with real trees interspersed between them. When you walk among
them, it is like a combination of weaving through tree trunks in a
forest and walking through caves with roofs that have fallen in. Ok- I
didn't do a great job describing this. Check out my pictures when I
post them. It was really cool to see though—almost magical. Definitely
not like anything I have ever seen before.

That's about it for Kunming. Now we're on an airplane waiting to take
off but are delayed for air traffic control reasons. This doesn't make
a lot of sense to me because, according to the departure board, there
are only about 6 planes leaving each hour. But I'm just gonna go with
it. They're showing a white water kayaking competition on the TV,
which seems pretty random, but, again, I'm going with it. I'll use
this time to write about some more general observations about China.

Architecture:
Everything is China is big. They have a huge influx of people moving
to the cities (remember when I said 8 million people was just a medium
sized city?) so everywhere we've been, the skies have been filled with
half completed apartment buildings that look a lot like the projects
in NYC, but are a little nicer and a lot bigger. Our guide joked that
the national bird of China is the construction crane. Other than the
completely boring and huge apartment buildings, China is full of the
most creative office buildings I have ever seen. Every building has
some kind of unique element to make it stand out from all the other
equally unique buildings. There are skyscrapers that are odd shapes,
consist of uncommon materials, or have huge sculptures on top. I'm
convinced that there is some big competition between all architects to
build the most creative building.

Fashion:
-Screen printed tee shirts in English are really popular here, but
most of them make NO sense. I'm not sure whether the people wearing
them just don't understand what they say or whether they know it makes
no sense and see it as a fashion statement. Most shirts are
accompanied by graphics that have no relationship to the words on the
shirt whatsoever, but here are two examples: Our adult, professional
tour guide wore a shirt the other day that said
"FREE
keeps evolving
ALIVE"
Oh, and the capitalized words were also glittery. Then, shopping in a
store a few days ago, I saw a shirt that said
"Big Rooster
Since 1983
Pursue Character
wear out the your it's best own style"

-One of the most popular hats that are sold in tourist shops and that
people wear here are fake panama hats that say "Ronaldino" across the
front. The "n" has a little tilde over it but I can't figure out how
to type that into this blog. Now I'm not super up to date on my sports
trivia, but the only association I have with that name is a famous
soccer player from (I think) Argentina a few years ago. I've asked
about a dozen people here what that means and nobody knows. I have a
hard time believing this is the same Ronaldino the hat refers to, but
I have no better explanation. Maybe the Chinese just really like South
American soccer players. Weirder things have happened…

-I haven't seen a single baby here wearing diapers. Instead, they all
wear pants with giant slits in the middle so that their butts hang
out. I guess it saves a lot of time doing laundry, and it's pretty
cute, but still doesn't seem super sanitary.

Weddings:
We see brides everywhere we go. I guess in a country of 1.3 billion
people, a lot of people get married every day. One of the people on my
trip (the only other one under 60ish) just got engaged, so we've been
talking about weddings a lot. All of the brides that we've seen wear
Western-style, white poofy dresses and, of course, all of the brides
are beautiful. Traditionally in China though, white is the color one
wears to a funeral, so the young brides usually compromise with their
parents and wear a traditional red dress to the wedding reception. One
of my favorite new customs that our guide told us about is that when
it is time to put on the rings, they are flown across the room to the
bride and groom via remote control helicopter. How creative!

Ok. The plane is finally taking off. Yangtze river cruise here I come!