Cooking, coffee, dancing; in that order

Hey all-

I feel like August hasn't been all that eventful; not much to report. I have been integrating into Santa Rosa pretty effectively, even making friends. I walked with a bunch of my host cousins and some friends from Santa Rosa to Cartago (about 2.5 hours, but all down hill) on a Catholic pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Los Angeles. The Virgin of Los Angeles is the patron of Costa Rica, easily equatable to the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico. People walk from as far as Nicaragua (some on their knees) to come to Cartago and see a tiny little statue that, legend has it, was discovered like 300 years ago, someone tried to take home, but kept miraculously reapperaring in the same spot. Plus, she has healing properties. When we got there there were, literally, like a million people, so needless to say we didn't see "la negrita" (it's a statue made of black rock) or even make it inside the church. Still, it was really impressive. It felt like a rock concert (and there was music) but instead of drugs and beer there was praying and people on their knees.

The day after our long walk (not gonna lie- I was pretty sore) I went dancing with my friend Nelson from S.R. It was so fun! Straight out of Dirty Dancing Havana Nights (ok, that was a lame reference. I am just kidding. But it was fun). I am still ignorant of Merengue and Cumbia, but am getting a hang of salsa, and Reggaetón doesn't change from Mexico to here. Plus, I am digging the Brazilean dance stuff a lot. When I got home it was the madrugada (new word=really late night) and I was exhausted. I have also started doing yoga again daily, so if I get fat, don't blame me. Or maybe, do blame me. I drink a ridiculous amount of coffee each day, and with that ususally comes a ton of bread.

I am finally getting used to the food, or rather, my family is getting used to the way I eat. They just don't do vegetables here. I gave up waiting for my fridge to come (it has disappeared into the pits of Cartago delivery men) and just asked Marta if I can keep stuff in her's. I went grocery shopping on Saturday at Hipermas, which is pretty much a Tico Walmart. It was like heaven! I realize that I am probably going to hell for equating Walmart to heaven, but it was really awesome to be able to buy everything you need in one place, without having to beware of pick pockets (a danger in the Cartago food mercado). However, I will keep going to the mercado for some veggies, because I seem to have made a friend. One of the vendors hooks me up everytime; last week I bought 5 tomatoes, 4 bananas, a star fruit, and a cucumber for US $1. Anyway, I cooked Mexican food for my host family (tacos, nothing fancy), but they actually liked it. I think I am going to introduce them to enchiladas next. You would be surprised at how much they don't like spicy food here, though. They say I have strong taste buds, which we all know is very much not the case. Also on the food note, I can now make torillas, from scratch. I am pretty proud. Plus, they are actually pretty good- round, fairly thin. I'll have a tortilla exhibition when I get back.


After about a zillion failed meeting attempts, I finally got together with the director of the colegio (high school), and arranged to start teach English classes to the ninth graders. Santa Rosa's colegio is actually a "telesecundaria", which only goes up to the ninth grade. There are 3 teachers, and what they don't know thye have videos for. The person who is currently teaching English to all 60ish students is a Chemistry and Science professor. He is really nice, but admits that his English abilities, while pretty good, don't necessarily make him qualified to teach it, expecially conversationally. It would be like me trying to teach Spanish in the States. I could do it, but it would be ugly. Anyway, I started last Friday, and it went pretty well. They are all really quiet, and I have to convince them to participate. Pretty much the exact opposite of the problem I have with the 5th graders. Speaking of 5th graders, I showed up to school on Monday, and my classroom was FULL of construction materials (for the roof they are putting over the patio). Doña Emily, the directora, told me she was sorry, and that I would have to figure out something to do. She didn't actually seem that sorry, but there was nothing I could do. I canceled class on Mon. and we had class outside on Tuesday (it wasn't that bad). I didn't mind having an extra day off from the kids.

Pretty much, things are good. Sometimes I wish that the projects could move a little faster, but that's just the way it is. Miss y'all

5th grade diablos

Remind me not to teach 5th grade when I come back to the U.S., ok?