Hola!
Where to start. This place is amazing. Today is my first day at Institute. No English. Only Spanish. Just buying time to write all you people was an experience. But on to some fun stuff.
My host mother is a sweetheart. She´s a retired schoolteacher,and keeps me well fed. She lives in a beautiful home,with a TV nicer than mine. Her home is in a kind of gated community, but she still has a barred gate in front of her house and concertina wire on the wall of her rear courtyard. The difference in wealth is drastic between her home and downtown Alajuela.
My first morning,I think I almost got arrested. I saw some children playing in a park down the street, so walked down there with my camera. As I walked, this guys was giving me the 'I'm watching you' eye. As soon as I got near the kids,their mom called them home, and then then gate guard rode by on his bike. That's when I decided it was a good time to head back. Oops!
It's quiet here at night, well except for last night. Some ugly Americans were partying across the street. "Beer! Vodka! Wiskey!" Seriously. But the night before, it was like camping in the woods. When there was no car driving by, it was silent. No ambient car noise or hum of lights. Just deep quiet.
I watched the Spanish version of American Idol last night, "Nace Una Estralla" or A Star is Born, I think. It was like Idol, minus the drama, which was refreshing. My host mother was on the edge of her seat the whole time. And the talent was amazing.
America is everywhere here, and at the same time not. The airport is surrounded by KFCs, Burger King, and McDonalds. The ads on TV are mostly for American goods. And the mall, Holy Cow the mall, that will have it's own post. But for now, suffice it to say that the International Mall looks like the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford, only PACKED! It's like the place to hang out. Lots of youth, either in packs or hanging all over their 'amores'. But at the same time, the people are still Costa Rican. They may wear Ambercrombie and Finch, but their easy attitude and laid back lifestyle is so counter to American 'consume, conform, concern' manners. It's interesting tojust sit back and people watch.
So, in my infinate ugly American ignorance, I didn't even think about getting pictures from my camera to the computers here. Don't they all come with SD card slots? No, señor. The space bar on this keyboard barely works, and I think the computer it's attached to was new when Bush was in office. The first one. So I'm going to have to find a way to get pictures off my camera and onto the Internet in some other way. I think a few other students have laptops, so maybe we can work something out. Cross your fingers. I already have some pretty neat photos. Sorry Sherri, nothing dead yet. But I do have some cool flowers and trees for Karen. Shiny!
Last night, my host mother and I were trying to figure out dinner, and the conversation completely broke down. We worked it out sort of, but after she left my room, I just started laughing. Like hysterical, can't stop kind of laughing. It was like a nervous break down of sorts with less tears and institutionalization. It's unreal how absoultely disconnected you feel when you can't really even discuss the show your watching on TV together. But at the same time it's very cool, just really, really overwhelming.
Off to lunch. More hopefully tomorrow. ¡Pura Vida!
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