Wow it's the last week of February! We are over halfway through our stay in Costa Rica. We heard the weather has been pretty crazy back home with some somewhat extreme wintry weather but here it is finally feeling like early "summer".
This past two months primarily brought cloudy to partly cloudy skies with small bouts of almost daily rain. I learned to look forward to getting to the beach the past few weekends if only for seeing days full of sun and clear blue skies. Of course, it is MUCH hotter on the coast, so we felt refreshed returning to the cooler, breezier climate in Coronado. Time reminds me of a roller coaster: it goes so slow going up the hill and then when you get to the top it flies. That's how our first two months have been compared to how the next month is going to go.
This week brought a few new students to the school. I had to the opportunity to participate in a couple activities there as well. With the warmer temperatures and rise of the "dry season" here, known as the "high season", there is an influx of students to the Academia Tica branch in Jaco (Hah-koe). This has required a transfer of most the teachers from the Coronado campus to Jaco, leaving my own professor to also plan the weekly activities, which she in turn invited me to and I happily obliged. It actually was the perfect end to my 6 weeks of learning.
On Wednesday morning, Clark took the kids to the temple, and they thought they would swing through San Jose for the Jade Museum (a pre-Columbian museum) but the traffic was terrible, so they arrived home around 1 pm. Andrea had mentioned in passing hosting a cooking class for arepas at school and I made arrangements for Rosabel and I to attend. There I struck up a conversation with one of the new students, Christine. Christine is from Georgia, USA. She traveled here for her first solo trip outside of the USA. She learned Spanish in college and wants to get back to speaking fluently.
After the class, Andrea invited me to come along to the San Jose city tour she was hosting the following day. I am so grateful for very patient, understanding, and accommodating clients who agreed to rearrange a couple classes so I could be free to attend. In the way, I ended up with not one, but two, unforeseen adventures for this week. Over these past few weeks, Andrea has become not only my professor, but a wonderful friend and confidante. I hope we will be friends for years to come. She truly is a gem and taught me so well. I wish I could continue with her but unfortunately, I must find a more economical way to pursue my new language skill. This isn't to say the price of the learning isn't worth the quality, of course, like anything, you get what you pay for, however now we must choose to prioritize some funds towards other pursuits. As a sidenote: if you haven't heard about the cost of living in Costa Rica, I'll tell you now; its expensive here. Moreso than other Latin countries.
On Friday, I was asked to say a speech of sorts as a goodbye to the school. It's the tradition of the school to have a circle of welcome each Monday for new students and a circle of goodbye each Friday. Every student is asked to write some words about their experience at Academia Tica. I wrote about 3/4 of a page. I cheated an wrote in English then put it in the google translator to ensure I could express all my thoughts clearly. Otherwise, it might have been only two sentences. I ran this by Andrea and she said it was great. I had seen students with much less time at the school become emotional and I was feeling pretty good. Then I made the mistake of looking at Mrs. Laura and the soft kindness in her eyes and face brought me crashing down.
I became very emotional. Everyone was so sweet, reassuring me and helping me continue through reading in Spanish while I was crying. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry when we leave this place; when I have to say goodbye to my church friends; to people who encircled us on our first day with open arms and overflowing love. They offered their friendship without even a second thought. I am in awe of how quickly we've developed relationships with some of them and so, so grateful to have the opportunity, no matter how fleeting our time, to know them and love them back.
Random Recollections:
Mozzie bites: Costa Rican mosquitos or whatever is biting me...well we don't along. I get the bites around my ankles where I have bare skin between my ankle socks and pants hem. Not only am I allergic, but because of the location, when I walk, the bites get rubbed which keeps them inflamed so they can't heal. These things are keeping me up at night. It's bad! I finally pulled out all the stops. I found this Chinese made "potion" (isn't it cute?) containing camphor and eucalyptus. I put it on with aloe and steroid cream, band aid over it and then wrap my ankles in vet wrap at night and when I go walking. Finally, after a month of dealing with the itchy misery, they are finally beginning to heal.
Cooking class:
San Jose: These aren't very much in order after the food.
Hunting and gathering:
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