Tranquillo, that's the way of living here!

                                        Day 35, Sabado 18 agosto 2012 22:18

Talking is key

I dreamed about home for the first time this night. I dreamed about our kitchen how my mom and dad removed the old kitchen and built the old one again. We had an new coffee machine and I was making coffee but didn’t know how to make it. It felt really good to dream about home in such a normal way. I don’t know what dreams mean, but it felt really positive!

Today was a really good day! In the morning I walked with my host mom, host dad and Glenda, the girlfriend of my big brother to a hotel. We walked 2,5 kilometer to the hotel. The walk made me think of home because we did these kind of walks as well on holidays. We only went to the hotel to watch it. The hotel looked like a paradise, there were perfect grass fields, with palm trees and fruit trees. There were wooden cabins where people sleep in, some cool wooden bars / restaurants and 4 pools, 1 with slides and stuff. It looked very cool and stuff but it costs €80 a night to sleep there. After viewing this whole park we rested at the pool and watch people going down to slides. It costs €8 to go to the pool, but it wasn’t that great, I’d rather find a 25 meter pool. We found a very cool fruit tree in the hotel park and we picked these fruits to make lemonade with it for later, pretty cool J.

When we got home we didn’t do that much, played a little bit soccer, watched some tv. Then it was time for me to make my homework, I have to write a report about the trip I went on 2 weeks ago to the national park and I need to describe 8 species of animals I found there. All in Spanish, pretty hard! That’s something what was not on my expectation list, learning stuff. But having tourism 27 hours a week in school I think this sure is good, I learn about ecotourism, animals, presentation and tourism overall. I’m half way this report and tomorrow I do the other half. Also I have to learn for exams because to next 2 weeks I have exams almost every day. And I do want to do good on these exams.

Also I talked a little bit more with my host mom today. I wrote down the things I wanted to talk about, like how I don’t like that they talk about the other exchange students they had a lot and that I want to do stuff and some other stuff how family works here. This talk and the talk we had 2 days ago were very important for me. It gives me better sight into this family and this culture. Now I know a lot more about how stuff works here and that makes adaption a lot easier. I think after this 2 conversation I can finally start enjoying my time here to the fullest!

Also I thought of more funny / weird /different in things Costa Rica:

·         Tico’s listen to either Reggea, Metal or Church music.

·         When passing a church they make a cross on the chest.

·         Mexico is the major country in middle America, a lot is based on Mexico and almost everything on the television are Mexican soaps, they are really bad. There are always people fighting, crying, or at a funeral.

·         Every night there are deadly accident and drug liquidations on the news.

·         My head goes crazy, I think in Spanish, Dutch and English at the same time, it’s amazing how fast that changes.

·         Everybody says that I learn Spanish really fast and good :D

·         Every morning at the bus stop there’s a policeman to help the little children cross the road.

·         On the television there is a lot of propaganda, about the president and country.

·         Everybody I just met tells me to watch out for people I don’t know, kind of ironic.

·         Big amounts of money are said in U.S. dollars and not in Costa Rica colones.

·         People often say ‘pesos’ instead of colones, or the color of the money.

·         In school if you answer right people clap for you.

·         We sleep very earlier on week days, I go to sleep between 21:00 and 22:00 and wake up at 6:00.

·         If I sleep late in weekends it’s till 10:00.

·         The difference between women and men is bigger here.

And these are just a few minor culture differences, so understand that I have a pretty hard time adapting to this culture, but I will push through! I didn’t expect of myself that I would write everyday on my blog but I do and I hope I will go on with it probably I will because it also became my diary, the blog is censored by the way.

                                                           

                                    Day 36,  Domingo 19 agosto 2012 21:36

Family renewed

Today was the first day after I talked everything out with my hostmom. Everything felt different,  way more natural. Like saying ‘buenas dias’ not because it’s a custom but because you mean it. I went to the restaurant to Skype with some people and look up information for my report about the trip to the national park 2 weeks ago. It was pretty hard for me but I made it! An 1100 words report about the importance of the park and the biological center and the explanation of 5 species living there, all in Spanish! Tomorrow I have to do an presentation about it and I have an exam in Civica, still not sure what it is but I think it’s with the law and stuff. I had a half lesson in this so that exam is going to be awesome!

Furthermore I went jogging today and of course like every Sunday evening watching ‘Voz… Mexico’ The Voice of Mexico. Also I looked up the information about the qualifications of FIFA world cup 2014. Costa Rica has to place first or second in this group with Mexico, El Salvador and Guyana, right now we’re second and 6 more matches to play but I think we will pass this round. After this round the next round is in 1 group with probably: Mexico, USA, Canada, Jamaica, Honduras and Costa Rica, in that group we have to place with the best 4. I really hope Costa Rica plays in the world cup, that would be sooo cool. 7 September is the next match against Mexico I hope there will be viewing parties here the same as in The Netherlands.

And today just felt really good within the family, the whole vibe changed. I now have conversations with the other family member and feel a little bit more part of the family!

Also I checked the statistics of my blog today, most pageviews are from The Netherlands, like 60% second comes Russia with 20% and third Costa Rica with 10%. Furthermore its Germany, Belgium, France, Servia, Bosnia and Canada. Also most links are from Facebook but also from Stumble Upon and some 18+ websites.. really weird statistics but very cool aswell! Also my blog almost has 10.000 words! Right now it 23 pages with 9.820 words! I really like doing it and I will keep on doing it!

                                           Day 36, Lunes 20 agosto 2012 21:16

In the Netherlands you hear the thunder, in Costa Rica you feel it!

A few weeks ago I was writing about finding my rhythm here in Costa Rica, and I think today was one of the first days in my rhythm J. I woke up after a deep sleep, with 1 nightmare and a few scary minutes being awake in the Costa Rica darkness. It’s really dark in Costa Rica, mostly because there are no streetlights or something.

 At school we worked a little in tourism class about some weird snake/salamanders. The school didn’t had water today so everything was a little bit weird, you couldn’t go to the bathroom or anything and lunch was 30 minutes  late. Tomorrow there’s again no water so only school till 11! Yesterday I spoke with Frida who always goes to school from 7 to 12, yeah that’s different as 7 to 4.. but I like my school! In the afternoon I had my first Costa Rican exam, it was civica, don’t know how to say it but it’s like social studies, but that’s also a subject here, very confusing! Anyways, the exam wasn’t that hard but I couldn’t answer everything though. Exams are also pretty different, we sat in a normal classroom, (normal is 3 walls and 1 ‘openwall’ with just steel bars) but everybody is talking, phones ring all the time, also of the teacher. The teachers switch pretty often and the teacher explains during the test. I’ll see the results soon!

At home I just chilled, ‘tranquillo’. There was really heavy rain and thunder, 1 time the thunder was so heavy you could feel it! The electricity shut down a couple times as well. Also I read some of the stuff EF give me, like handbooks and stuff that really gives a boost to my ways of thinking here!

                                        Day 38, Martes21 agosto 2012 22:12

Family time!

After the talks last week a lot got better, today I finally did a lot with my family! In school I only had 1 English exam which I finished in 10 minutes. The exam started at 9:30 but I was at school at 7:00, as always. In The Netherlands this would’ve been impossible for me, but I like being in school here with my friends. Today I heard howler monkeys in school! Also I spent 1 hour in the school lunchroom talking with the cooks, 4 typical school cafeteria women. I don’t know why movies and series always make this people look bad, they are so nice! They gave me free coffee and a sandwich with meat, and we talked about Costa Rican and Dutch food, 1 of them invited me to go to the beach with her family a few weeks later, and some other teacher invited me to go to Guanacaste with her, really cool!

After school I went to the bank to make a deposit to EF, I felt kinda weird to give my money to the bank since I only know internet banking. After making the deposit I waited with Pete for my host mom and we went home by bus, while talking about stuff, it feels really good to have conversations with my family! At home I danced (!) with my host sister and mom to Bob Marley, really funny!

Also I ate a lot of vegetables today, for breakfast there was like a double-clapped tortilla with beans inside, lunch was rice with beans, other beans and carrot, and dinner was the same. Maybe I will like all food when I come back, because I wouldn’t have ate this at home! Also I drank 5 cups of black coffee today so I hope I can sleep, but the coffee is just damn good!

                                        Day 40, Jeuves 22 agosto 2012 20:19

Yesterday I didn’t write because I was to tired. That day I didn’t do a lot special, except for watching soccer at my big bro’s house.

Today I didn’t do a lot either. I had only biology in school so I was done early, after staying in school 1 more hout with friends, after the classes were done I went home. In the Netherlands we directly went home when the classes enden, an other difference. At home I watched Barcelona-Real Madrid alone because everybody was gone, I wished I watched at someone’s house. Later I went jogging to Dixie’s house, both the Dixie’s are really nice and live in a cool area,with spiders monkeys, a lot of mango trees and an amazing view! Tomorrow I have a free day, so I might go to the river!