200 days in Paradise.

Day 200, Tuesday, 29^th of January 2013 13:24

200 days in paradise.

200 Days, another milestone. 200 days really is a lot, I just read my blog of when I was here for 50 days, and I wrote that a lot of time had passed. Well now a lot of time had passed for real. I don’t even see it as a milestone, I didn’t really achieve anything. It is more a sad moment. Because now; now I really am in my last months. I can put it in an even worse perspective: within just 3 months my parents will be here, and after my trip with them there will be just 1 little month left.

But I don’t see it that negative, I think that this part of my exchange; returning the school, will be the best part. Over these holidays I made a lot of friends from school, I now feel part of them. This gets boosted by the fact that there are coming more exchange students to my school. I will be more Tico as European to them, and that, that makes me very happy.

In these 200 days I have a place which is as much as home as my house in The Netherlands, not more, not less. I can drink from the bottle and steal socks, or just enjoy a day at a river with family. In the beginning of my exchange I always felt different, not just because of my blond hair and blue eyes but because of who I used to be. But now I feel equal to my friends, I am not ‘that exchange guy’ in the group anymore; I am a full part of the group. The only difference is that I still have blond hair and blue eyes and I still am 1 meter 92. And inside, inside I am a fine mix of Costa Rican influences with my Dutch roots. After adjusting to the culture I became a part of it. I won’t say that I am a Tico, or that I adapted 100% to the culture. There will always be the Dutch things about me; some of them did get replaced by Costa Rican things. But who says you can’t have 2 cultures? I have 2 families as well, and not to forgot 3 languages.  

I experienced a lot here in this paradise-like country. The earthquake is memorable of course, as well for my days in Guanacaste, or Panama, or Puerto Viejo. I have been to many places; I created memories all over the place. That is one part of my exchange; the holiday part; travelling, seeing stunning things and doing unforgettable things and sharing perfect moments with best friends for life. And then there is the mental part, the way of thinking, something which changed way more as thought it would. Over 200 days I changed drastically, so much that I for some moments thought I didn’t even know my own sister anymore. I am a very different person as I was 200 days ago. The way I act, think and live. Also a part of exchange is homesickness, I experienced it. It wasn’t that bad I dealt with it, I found a cure. Other things I learnt to deal with are saying goodbye, which goes me very well. And also jealously; always the need for something more, always the need for change.

One of the best moments of these 200 days, an my whole life.

I made it this far, now there are just a bit more than 100 days left, 100 days of normal, Costa Rican life. I will have joy from them, learn from them, keep on changing because of them and miss them when I’ll be back home. 

singing to baby jesus and an epic weekend!

Dia 195 el Viernes 25 de Enero 2013 22:29

Rice parties

Last Wednesday there was an ‘Arrozarium’ which can be translated as rice party. It was at my grandmother’s house from my hostdad’s side. There were about 40 people in a middle sized house so there were some people on the street in front of the house. The main activity was surprisingly not eating rice; it was singing. Everybody was singing religious songs on front of the ‘portal’, no to bad not a futuristic portal as we know in  the English language but a little house with surroundings where the birth of Jesus is displayed, yes it was still there on 23th of January, These things are pretty immense for such thingies, abut 1,5 meter by 1,5 meter! If you have this ‘portal’ then you HAVE to sing to it. We also have one so I’ll see when we are going to sing, which should be soon because Christmas decoration in February is just not down, especially when it arrived on the 1^st of November, which means we would have Christmas decorations for 25% of the year, for a just 2 single days of party, Ticos…..

So after the singing which took about 1 hour the rice came. On special occasions people eat rice with chicken which is extremely tasty, we ate it with some homemade drink which was watery milk with peanut taste, I didn’t like it. After this there was rice ‘n milk and later a little box with cookies and bread. The strange thing was that when the food was eaten people would leave instantly, what is according to Dutch ways of thinking not so nice.

Today I went to the pools at a hotel in Orotina. It was really nice, just chilling at the pool with 2 Costa Rican friends. Being at such a ‘holiday-style’ pool on a normal day makes me so happy! And I had a lot of fun with friends!

Dia 198, el Lunes 28 de Enero 2013 10:09

Such a nice weekend!

After chilling at the pool on Friday the weekend got even better on Saturday and Sunday! On Saturday I woke up early to go to San José to have a final breakfast with my sister. We searched for a nice spot and had a nice breakfast. We spoke about her adventures in Costa Rica and about mine. I dropped her off at her bus station and there is where we said goodbye. It was very different as the goodbye we had in The Netherlands, again we say goodbye for 5 months but this one was very different; it wasn’t sad at all. 5 Months feels so little that the goodbye wasn’t hard, fortunately.

Back in Orotina there was a family party of my host dad’s side. There were around 400 people at the recreation center they hired. I didn’t know that much people but I wasn’t the only one I guess. We swam in the pool, ate, watched the entertainer, (Costa Rican clowns aren’t that scary and pretty funny!) and best of all: played soccer. I love playing soccer for real, but I barely do it.  There was a player from the Costa Rican national team who appears to be a faraway host cousin from me! I didn’t really talk to him or anything but yeah, he’s family…

After this party I went to another party, at the house of my friend Chino. There was a concert of different Costa Rican artists. The music was very good and it was very nice just to watch and listen with some friends. There was one experimental group who were just amazing! I made some videos of the various artists, and photos, a lot of photos, I always make a lot of photos, just to remember everything. It is so epic that these people just organize all of this for everybody just to have a nice evening with good live music! Ticos are incredible!

At the pool :)

Epic band!

OmNomNomNom

With yu!

This crazy guy climbed a 6 meter Palmtree for some coconuts.

I like to fly.

Yesterday was even better! I went to the playa Jaco with 4 friends from my school. We hopped in a bus to Jaco which was loaded with people and some 11-year old boys who thought they were pretty gangster. First we went to the supermarket to buy some food; it’s always food, food, food! The beach was pretty loaded I’ve never seen it so full, but who managed to find a spot. We had a nice time swimming, eating and chilling.  The bus back always is horrible, a lot of people, wet, shorts, being tired, and having hunger. But even under these circumstances we managed to pull off some cool pictures in the bus.  

When I spent time with Costa Rican friends I feel that the culture difference is way smaller as with adults, everything feels more natural and just so normal! That’s probably I sign that I changed, because these Ticos aren’t getting any Dutcher.

This definitely was the best weekend I spent with Costa Rican friends!  

Rivaaahs

Dia 192, el Martes 22 de Enero 2013 10:56

I-I follow, I follow rivers baby

On Saturday I called a friend to go to the river and she called other friends and I called more friends so by just calling around a bit I made a good day. We went to the same spot as always, it is called: ‘venegas’. There’s a nice pond to swim and the main attraction: the rope. The rope is used to swing like Tarzan and drop yourself from 3-5 meters into the river; pretty damn awesome. First we always make a fire to cook some meat and tortillas the get our stomachs filled, and of course: Coca Cola. Being there at that river always makes me feel like a ‘normal’ Costa Rican teen, though the majority of the people still see me as a tourist, blond hair blue eyes and being over 1,90 doesn’t really help with that in Costa Rica.

It also was the second time I saw tourists in Orotina, while we were swinging from the rope 2 Canadian man came down with a tour guide. They were searching for some rare bird we actually just saw 10 minutes before they came. We walked with them down the river for a bit and found the bird again, I forgot the name but it was pretty beautiful. These are the things I appreciate so much about Costa Rica, going to a national park is a very special experience, but that is what every tourist can see, seeing a rare bird, or monkeys just around your own town, that is what makes it so special.

On Sunday I went to another river: ‘Rio Turrubares’. We went there with car with a lot of uncles and aunts. This river was very un deep and it was not in a forest, it streamed through a big field with pebbles. The only good thing about this river was the fact that it had a pretty strong current, but because there was just 20 centimeters of water it still was kind of a boring river. But the barbeque we made there with the family was very nice, and the river was nice to cool down since the temperature was killing. It’s a pity that there are no thermometers around my house, I have no idea what the temperature really is. Another interesting fact: Ticos don’t have clocks in their houses. We just don’t what time it is, xcept for random guesses. This can sometimes lead to irritations, for example: I am sleeping and my hostmom says it is 9:30 so time to get up, I get up shower and everything and it turns out to be 7. I don’t care about these little things anymore but I realized that I made problems about this in my old hostfamily, a lot of things which I didn’t’ like in my old hostfamily are still the same in my current one, the only thing which changed is me, I now understand the things I didn’t understand before. I still do not regret it at all that I left that other family because a lot more has happened with them. And I love this family.

Yesterday I was lying in my bed and I heard an Uncle talking to my hostmom, the words I heard were: ‘San José’ ‘bus’ and ‘Heredia’ that was enough for me to get out of my bed and join the breakfast. *(side note: Ticos drink Coca Cola(!!!!)) I joined this cola drinking cookie eating breakfast, ( I did get coffee instead of cola). We went with the car to Heredia the sing my hostbro up for the University there. I waited with him in the line of half-nervous tanned Costa Ricans who realized that their summer holiday is almost over and that the student life is about to begin. It was cool to be at a university, there are so many (sub) cultures and different people. I left the line of students-to-be to get to Heredia center to pick up my sunglasses I forgot at Valentina’s house last week. When I came back my hostmom was searching for my hostbro all worried and stuff; I found him within 5 minutes. I waited outside in the sun with a nice breeze until how was done. We had a nice cliché  conversation about how fast the time passed and about how I also will be going to university within 6 months. Even though it is such a cliché in 6 months I am 18, in the Netherlands probably having a barbeque or something like that if the weather is nice. And 6 months ago I had my first day at my old host family, my first real day of this exchange experience. I can remember it so well. (so much cliché, but so true). I must say that over the last weeks I have been thinking a lot about the next summer, being back in The Netherlands, something I didn’t do before. I don’t think it is homesickness, I still love Costa Rica and I don’t want to leave this country yet, it is a big mix of feelings I carry, and I think I will be carrying those until the day I leave, and then when I will be back it will be even worse.

Anyways, back to what happened yesterday. After the University we went to San José because my uncle had to change some shoes. Most Ticos really dislike San José and going there gets compromised by the fact that they can go to Mac Donalds. I went to subway with my uncle since I built I hate against Mac Donalds over the last months without any reason. Something what also I annoying in the Latin-American Spanish is that all the fast-food stores are pronounced different. So when I want to ‘Mac Donalds’ I have to say: ‘Mahk Doohnald’.

In the night at my house I spend some time with just me and my host parents, no hostbrothers, uncles, aunts or cousins just me and my host parents. We had dinner with the three of us and we had nice conversation after dinner about a lot of stuff, from grandmothers to universities and from war to girlfriends. And later we  watched a movie together. It was nice to spend some time with just my host parents.

Heredia Cityyy

Day 185, 15^th of January 2013 12:48

Heredia!

This weekend I got to see an other part of Costa Rica, the city of Heredia. Heredia is located a few kilometers out of San José in the central valley. It is a city for students with also a lot of international students. But I didn’t come to study, I came to spend some time with my friends.

I met up with Henry, Frida, Valentina and Valentina’s host sister at the mall of Heredia, Paseo las floras. If you enter a mall in Costa Rica you leave Costa Rica and enter a different world, because these malls don’t have any thing of the Costa Rican culture. But going there can be called an escape from reality? So we walked around this mall, shop in shop out drinking coffee and eating muffins. The toy store was the main attraction where our childhood lived up and we got to see all our old toys again, and some new weird toys kids these days apparantly use. I am happy that witg these friends I can be a little kid in the toy store again, just playing around.

After the mall it was time for walmart, another invasion from the United States. It made me think of the French supermarkets which are huge as well. We bought the stuff we needed to make sushi ( Henry is from Japan so he knows). Then we went to Valentina’s house mansion with pool and jacuzzi! There we chilled in the pool and the jacuzzi and we made the sushi which was pretty good.

I slept at Henry’s house who lives a bit more up into the mountains, we watched Criminal Minds all night with his family. The next morning we took 2 busses to get back to Vale’s house. We met some ‘gangster’ guy on the bus we talked like a gangster which was very funny, especially the part where he told us that his 1 month-old baby got ‘infections and shit’, you should have been there, seriously. It was Vale’s birthday so that had to be celebrated by chilling all day in the pool and we an amazing lunch. When Vale blew the candles on the cake we decided to do a nice tradition by smashing a few eggs on her head, always funny! While I am sitting here in my garden writing my blog and listening to Eminem I can’t stop laughing about the puppy which is so so cute and licking my toes all the time, all miss her when I go back. In the twilight we sang some birthday songs, everybody in their own language; Swedish, Swiss-German, Japanese, Dutch and Spanish. And after that we continued to sing some random songs while Henry played the guitar, that was very nice and a good memory to remember.

We made some blue pancakes with cereal and marshmallows at Henry house for dinner and watched some more Criminal Minds. The next morning we went to San José to get my bus. But first we went to the park to chill, we did the water cycles which was very cool, especially the part where found and old creepy cave on an island in the middle of the lake. Then I had to run for my bus to Orotina, I didn’t have enough money but luckily the bus driver was in a good mood and let me in.

Now I am back in Orotina, today is a rest day, and who knows what tomorrow will bring. 

Pics of the last 50 days!

Grab the sun

   

My little big sister

Grouphug <3

Ellie & Toscie! =D

the visit of my sister!!

Dia 179, El Miercoles 9 de Enero de 2013 15:59

Reunited with my sister                                                              

Loads of things happened over the last days and I practically just did not find the time to write my blog. Over the last days I changed a lot and a lot happened which made me think very different.

First of all, I was the most homesick so far after I said goodbye to Ellie and Lena. I kept thinking about being home, not about going home but just home, home and more home in my mind. I wasn’t doing a lot these days except for helping renewing the garden. Saturday this cycle got broken because the moment was finally there, my lovely sister from The Netherlands (living in Toronto) arrived in Costa Rica!

I picked my sister and a friend of her up at the airport. I was there 2 hours early so I kind of walked around the tiny airport all the time. I had a pretty high heartbeat while waiting for my sister on the airport. It was great to see her, and we had a good hug but we didn’t have so much time to talk since they went to a hostel with a shuttle, but I was going to see them the next day anyways. I took the bus back to Orotina from San José and slept on the ride. I now sleep most of my busrides since I am petty tired of everything all the time.

There was a festival in the night in Orotina, it was pretty mucht the same as the festivals in San Mateo and San José, bands, gymnasts, and parade cars. I missed most of the festival because I arrived late but I saw the car from my friend Chino’s mom’s ballet school. The king of the play, Chino’s dad spoke to all the people with a megaphone,; he was saying: ‘como estan my gente de Coyolar, y mi gente de San Mateo’ (how are the people from Coyolar and San Mateo). Then he saw me and said: ‘y como estan mi gente de Holandaaaaa’ (how are the people from Holland). So everybody was like ‘what da fuck’ and I was jumping and waving =D.  The festival itself was not the great but I met a lot of friends and had I good time by myself with my friends.

On Sunday morning I went with the bus back to San José to the hostel where my sister and Verena, her friend were staying. It was a really cool hostel and the best in Costa Rica chosen by the ‘Lonely Planet’. It was a huge old house with dorm rooms, pool, bar, restaurant and a ncie view over San José. I got a huge snickers bar ( like 30 centimeters pure SNICKERS like o my god!!!) from Casey Simone a exchange student I had in my house 3 years ago living in San Francisco, my sister went to visit her before coming to Costa Rica. I also got an ‘University of Toronto’ shirt from my sister, and I love love love it! I should start a ‘university of….’ Shirt / sweater collection.

I took my sister and Verena on a tour through San José, I came to some spots I haven’t been either but I love showing other people the city. It isn’t such a cool city but it has nice spots and it was so good to be with my sister, it doesn’t feel like 6 months ago that I saw her for the last time. In the evening we went back to the hostel, I got a dorm room with 5 random people, backpacker life. We wanted to eat out but apparantly everything closes after 6 on Sundays, didn’t know that before. So we ate in the hostel; I got ‘San José’s best burger’ and yes it tasted goooood. We watched the Hunger Games in the evening, damn that is a good movie. I miss all the movies while being here but I’ll catch up when I’m back, I got better things do to here.

On Monday morning we took a early bus to Orotina and there they got to know my host family. My host family doesn’t speak English and they don’t speak Spanish so I must be honest that that was a bit weird, but my host family was really sweet as always, and I am always happy to introduce them to people.

We went to Carara national park in the morning. I saw my friends from the park again, they are really cool and I am proud to have real  Costa Rican park ranger friends. The park was cool again, it will always be cool. We didn’t see any snakes or frogs because it is dry season. Most tourists come during the dry season eventhough the rain season is way more beautiful since there is just so much more life. We did see a mountain lion which was cool and scary, we stood still like statues to not get killed. It is funny how they notice a lot of stuff which became very normal to me.

In the afternoon we went to Jaco the get a quick dip and for them to start their tan. In the evening we ate a big traditional Costa Rican dinner and I think they loved it! My hostmom cooks delicious. We were tired of the day and we slept early, the next morning we had t get up at 6, for me normal, for them a horror.

After a nice and big Gallo Pinto breakfast we got dropped at the bus stop by my hostdad. We took a bus to Quepos, a harbor city about 2 hours busride from Orotina. On the way there was a car on fire next to the road, the busdriver tried to extinquish the fire, very brave but he did not succeed. The protect the bus and the people we drove on while the firemen arrived. In Quepos we quickly changed bus for a short ride to Manual Antonio. Manual Antonio is an epic  national park in the Southern part of the Pacific side and famous for it’s beaches.

And yes this fame is very logical, Manual Antonio is amazing. There is a lot of dense forest with a lot of nice trials where you can spot snakes, spiders, frogs and sloths. We only saw one frog though, again because of the dry season. On the main trail we did see a SLOTH! I love sloths! I did a presentation about sloths once in school so I told a lot about the sloth while watching it, and that also got the attention of some other tourist, who needs a $20 tour guide? On the same spot we saw a monkey, a tourguide said it was a sloth but I noticed the tail and told the people that it was not a sloth but that it was a monkey, winning!

We went to the beach, a beautiful beach, white sand, turquise water, green trees with monkeys and about 3000 tourists, half of them 60+ and from Florida if you know what I mean. There was a cool island which got connected to the mainland over the years and that also was a beautiful walk with very nice views, we also spotted another mountain lion. When we walked back over another beach and there were a lot of monkeys, jumping, posing and fighting with each other. I decided to take a last dip since the last dip always is the best, never miss out on the last dip.

On the busride home I finally had time to have a good talk with my sister about home, our family and about me and her. In the night we did a little walk through Orotina and we exchanged our photos. In the morning they got a bus back to Manual Antonio to finish their journey through the beautiful Costa Rica.

This visit of my sister is really hard to describe, it was very nice to see her again, eventhough it didn’t feel that long ago that I saw her. I loved showing my country, my family and my life and it made me appreciate my life her a lot. But it also made me realize how nice the Tico’s are, I don’t even see it anymore, but they noticed. And I must say that the ‘western’ people are different, and since I didn’t speak with ‘western’ people for 6 months I noticed that we differ  (I don’t see the other exchange students as ‘western’). And that just gave me the thought of I never want to go back to the Netherlands. I cannot leave this country and this life behind.  

nuevo ano!

Day 165, el Miercoles 27 de Deciembre 2012 11:38

Time to let go..

I think it is time to let go, a point in my exchange where I let go of my culture, and become a full part of this new and interesting culture. I already adapted to this culture but that means that I adapted my culture to live in their culture. Letting go of that part of myself is essential to be in this culture, to make it my own. I only got half of my exchange left, and that is scary, so scary, I don’t know where the time went; I feel like that I could have used it better sometimes and that is a good motivator to make the best of the time that I have left.

Letting go also means that I will eat everything, to everything I can do to live this culture no matter how contradicted it is to my culture, because if I will do it enough times I will make it my own.

This inspiration comes from an e-mail I got yesterday from my sister, who just finished her exchange in Toronto. It was an beautiful e-mail and it made me think about my time here. My sister will come here within 2 weeks; that as well is a weird-ass feeling. I am very happy to see here again, to travel with her and to chill, happy just because we will be reunited a lot of stories to tell for sure. That by the way, is also something a lot of people tell me: ‘you will have so much stories to tell’ and that is so true, but I have no idea what I should tell people, maybe I don’t know that just because it is not describable in words; I’ll show time pictures since pictures tell more as a 1000 words. But I do not feel like  need to see my sister, I miss her, I miss all my of my family but I do not NEED to be with them, I would be nice but not necessary. But I know for sure that seeing my big sister again will be one of the best feelings of my life and that the weeks she will be here will be awesome, and that it will give me a huge boost for me, for my exchange to finish those last 4 months which will rest me by then. 

Day 167, el Viernes 28 de Deciembre 2012 15:25

Where did my condition go?

‘Go on a exchange, and you will get fat’ they told me. Well I am Bram and I never get fat, I will always be a skinny boy. But I did lose my swimming condition. Yesterday I went to the river with some friends, we chilled, cooked and a campfire and threw ourselves with a rope from trees. Some of my friends where crazy good at it, doing all kind of tricks and stuff, I swear they are half monkeys or something. Anyways, I swam 100 meters through this river and I was tired, damn I’m going to have a hard sumer next year getting my waterpolo condition back. But who cares, I am enjoying now, and I got running shous for X-mas so that’ll help.

In a few minutes we are going to the beach, my family always goes to the beach in the afternoon, probably because the mornings are used for cleaning and you can’t go to the beach just after you ate lunch ofcourse. Ticos really are like that: ‘you just ate a sausage you must rest for atleast 30 minutes before you can do anything’.

I figured out that this year will be the laziest of my life, I just relax, go to the river, the beach or some even cooler trips all around the country. It will be very hard to go back to the real life.

Day 169, el Domingo 30 de deciembre 2012 11:08

Family barbeque

The beach last Friday was cool eventhough it was the ugliest beach  have even been on in Costa Rica. The beach ws actually the secondary activity, the main activity was the BBQ. We went to Caldera beach, the closest beach to Orotina. It is a small beach next to the main highway and a big harbor, there are no waves and it is very undeep, so not my favourite beach. But besides that it was a very nice evening. We went with my family, my aunt, uncle and cousin and the neighbour we is distant family as well. We swam a bit and played a bit soccer before the BBQ. The BBQ was pretty much the same as every BBQ except for the fact that it was on the beach so that makes it more special. At Costa Rican BBQ there are 3 main things, Carne asado, Sal Chichon and coca, supported by tortillas. Salads are not in the discussion but tortilla chips wit beans dip is always welcome. Furthermore it was telling stories and eating a lot. After the BBQ we had a ‘light globe’ a sort of lampion which flies into the air when you light it, pretty cool. we had the same 3 years ago in Belgium on chirstmas holiday, a very epic holiday by the way with the best Iglo ever! So this light globe brought up some memories but they weren’t homesick-memories, they were happy memories.

After the BBQ we went for a swim again, this time with more people. I played around with my little host brother and the little neighbourhod kid. Now I can be the seamonster instead of running away from it, somewhere I didn’t feel really comfortable doing it, I still don’t really know where the border lays for me as ‘big brother’.

Yesterday I finished my application for the university, so now let’s hope for the best so I can have the 3^rd part of my life secured.  I went for a run later, I decided to start a running programm here to get a better condition for both Taekwondo, and waterpolo. That way I wont be a bag of bones when I come back. Also I got the good new that my brother bought or hired a house in The Netherlands. That means that I will get his epic room, that got me pretty excited! But later a realised that our childhood really is over now. A time I can look back to really happy, I could not have been any better. Let’s hope I look back the same way in 5 months to my time in Costa Rica.

In the evening I went rollerskating with my hostbrother. It was nice, not that nice but nice. It was ‘disco night’. But it was mostly just riding in circles, well that’s probably what it is all about then. A did notice the niceness of the Tico’s again. I bumped into somebody on accident and I was like: ‘o shit’ I hope he isn’t mad, but he just said: ‘Tranqui mae’. In the Netherlands people would probably start a fight or something. I think I got used to the niceness of the Tico’s; that will be a hard time when I’ll be back in the ‘rough’ Netherlands’. 

Other good news, I dreamt in Spanish! I dreamt about a candy mountain climbing contest with some if my Dutch friends but we spoke Spanish! I now master Spanish in every aspect, goal achieved.

 Day 170, el Lunes 31 de Deciembre 2012 13:22

The last post of the year

Yesterday was a good day! I didn’t go to any beach or river or something cool like that. I just got another confirmation that taking initiative pays off. I called my good friend Chino f I could come over to his houe and I could! I felt kind of awkward to invite myself like that but I had a good day because of it!

There were some cousins of him in the house as well and they were very nice, they come from Panama City, since I don’t know anything about it asked a few questions and came to the conclusion that I defenitly have to go there, maybe not during this exchange year but later in my life. We gamed all afternoon, I haven’t gamed for 6 months so it felt good to do it again, but it also made me miss my Dutch friends for one of the first times.  It felt really good doing something normal with friends again, being a normal teenager in a different country. I also realised that I really have another life her now. Later we ate lovely home-made burrito’s and we watched Argentinian opera comic which actually was funny.

Day 171, el Martes 1 de Enero 2013 13:35

Año Nuevo!

Feliz año nuevo! Happy new year! Gelukkig nieuwjaar! My best wishes for everybody in my three lovely languages.

New years eve was very nice! I did not except the have so much fun at a party were the avarage age was 50. The party was in Santa Rita, a tiny village on the country side of Costa Rica. It was a pretty tipical house including old-school coffee grainer and some chickens on the loose. First the party was kind of boring and I just played with the music installation. Later there was some improvised crazy theatre which was extremely funny, and some people were like: ‘you must think that our family is crazy’ I replied with no thinking about my own dad dancing in a pumpkin suit. There was pork leg with rice and vegetables for dinner. Tico’s don’t really do big dinner’s where everybody sits around a big table and doing all fancy and stuff, no it is just plastic plate on the lap on a tipical chair made out of plastic wires (I’m sitting on one right now). After dinner and my second cup of coffee a got a energy-boost and started dancng salsa with my aunt with some switches to Gang-nam style and party rock anthem. Later the karaoke set came out and ofcourse I was there to sing the English songs. At 12 we listened to the radio, we all stood in a circle but we didn’t count down or anything. When the moment was there everybody shouted out into nothing and started greeting each other, the weid thing was that most people were crying! Then we stood in the circle again, now holding hands and an aunt said a blessing, I never knew New year also includes a blessing.

After 12 I get a bit boring again but after one more cup of coffee I got my energy back and started dancing again. I still have to learn a lot about dancing but I think I can learn at least the salsa within the 5 months that rests me.

NYE was very special, I will never forget it. Christmas didn’t make me feel a big part of the family but this evening certainly did!