Hola! It's my fourth day in Costa Rica and it's about time for me to update the people who want updating. Over the past few days I've been wavering between treating this as a sort of "Oh look what a great time Ashlee is having" blog or "the truth of the matter blog." I've decided on the latter. Not that I am not having a good time, mind you. As many of you know, I was supposed to spend 4 weeks on an animal reserve in Alejuela but my travel company can't do their job and realized they booked me incorrectly so I am attending the Costa Rican Language Academy in San Pedro for 2 weeks before spending 2 weeks on the reserve. It is good that I am taking the Spanish school, however, because I've found that I am much better at speaking Spanish when the person doesn't respond with it as their first language. It's quite intimidating.
The first 3 nights and 2 days were quite terrible, to be honest. I haven't had much information from Real Gap (the company with whom I booked). To say I got sufficient information would be generous. So when I got to the airport I was just hoping that someone was actually there to pick me up. Luckily there was, but no one spoke English. Vickie, who is now my housemate, was on the same connecting flight with me and therefore arrived at the same time. I think that was good for both of us, we both booked through Real Gap and while, I've learned from much discussion, my experience has been far worse than hers, she hadn't had much to go on either. She is nice, we've gotten along well and spent most of our time together. She's 31 and from London (I do love British accents). So, while someone had retrieved me from the airport I still had no idea what my program was, who I was staying with, how I was doing anything, or if I had a place to live after the 2 weeks of school. I was feeling a bit stressed to say the least. When we finally got to our homestay we learned that our host mom spoke no English at all and when we were given our rooms I somehow ended up with the smallest and darkest room in la casa. I don't need much in a room but that night it felt like an extra punch, like a prison cell.
The next morning Naomi (my host mom) took Vicki and I to school so we knew which buses to use. I have never been so terrified as the first time I was on the road during the day. They have little to no road rules. People drive on both sides, squeeze in between eachother, and somehow don't crash. There aren't really stop signs here, a few exist but I have yet to see someone use them. And I have only seen 2 stop lights. Mi professora says lights have 3 speeds: Green=fast, yellow=super fast, and red=not quite as fast. It's true. There's a new game we have, its called "try to cross the street without dying." I could never drive here, that is for sure. Not surprisingly, the number 1 cause of death in Costa Rica is car accidents.
When we got to school we had an orientation and were put into small classes. Luckily Vickie and I were put in the same class. There are 3 others, Max, Julia, and Kira. Max and Julia are from Germany and Kira is from Finland. So everyone but myself has cool accents. I have decided that Spanish sounds ridiculous with an America accent, but I suppose everyone thinks that really. I have found, unfortunately, that while I know a lot of Spanish and can read it and write it and speak fluent Spanglish, I cannot seem to have a conversation with a Spanish speaking person. Everyone pronounces things differently or uses different words for things because thyere are very few rules in the Costa Rican language so understaning, especialy with such rapid speaking, has been very difficult. We end school at 3 and there are some afternoon classes or whatever after that so we end around 5. The first 2 days we went home straight afterwards, quite depressing. Just sitting in my little prison at 5:30 at night with little to do but sleep, edit pictures, and feel homesick (which is not a feeling I'm used to (no offense to home)). I can honestly say that this month I will be sleeping alone more than I have in probably 3 years. Usually either HD or David is in my bed. So sleeping is lonely :( I don't really like San Jose, it's not why I came to Costa Rica. I came to get into the wild, take pictures, and rough it for a bit I s'pose. Not be in a mostly dirty too crowded city where I can go to the mall and get quiznos and McDonalds.
Tuesday night Vickie and I got to know another girl in our house, Joanna. She's 45, English, did 2 weeks of CRLA and is now working in child care. Speaking all together for a good 2 hours was really helpful to all of us I think. Yesterday went a lot better. Class was enjoyable, we learned a lot about eachothers cultures, way too much about the sexuality of Costa Ricans, and generally just tried to speak to eachother in Spanish a lot. A group of us from school booked a trip to Puerto Viejo for this weekend. We're staying at Hotel Pura Vida for 2 nights and generally enjoying the caribbean. Planning trips has been difficult, there's so much to do. And Vickie and I still don't know where we're living after the school and how/when we are getting there. We've been emailing Real Gap but neither of us have gotten a response yet. The trouble is we don't know how much time we have for tours and such. If we leave next Saturday that knocks off time so we don't want to spend 3 days in Puerto Viejo this weekend, we would rather spend 2 days and do a day trip Sunday. We just don't know yet. It's very frustrating not knowing what's going on at all.
After school yesterday Vickie, Joanna, and I went to Mall San Pedro and saw "Wolfman" with Spanish subtitles. It was quite educational I think. On the way home we stopped by el supermarcado by la casa. I like supermarkets in general and it was quite fun to peruse one in a different country. We got some Spanish chocolate, fruit, and I bought my first legal beer (21 is a simply ridiculous law...). The fruit here has actually been quite fun. For breakfast each morning Naomi cuts up fresh fruit for us (she has a mango tree, so that is extra fresh) and makes fresh homemade fruit juice. So each morning we get to kind of guess what we're drinking anf try to pick out the fruit components. This morning we had watermelon juice!
Tonight Vickie, myself, and whoever else ends up coming, are going to a bar called Jazz Cafe. We hear it's supposed to have good music and drinks. Sounds quite nice. And at 5 en la manana on Friday we catch a bus to Puerto Viejo to spend the weekend on the beach :-)
So, while this has so far been far different from what I was expecting and from what I wanted, it has time to get better. I'm just trying to make the best of what I've been given and I definately have some back up on the complaint to Real Gap I will be making when I get back. Any one of the problems I have would be grounds for a real issue, the culmination of the stuff thet have done wrong in relation to my trip and our correspondence will result in much...feedback from me. But it will all work out I'm sure. The Costa Rican Language Academy seems really helpful so far. It seems that, really, they do most of the work and Real Gap acts as a sort of booking agency rather than the volunteer organization they advertise themselves as being. Money suckers. Next time, I book this on my own, no company.