Another action packed weekend. Friday night involved a big party at Oskar’s (one of the two bars in Ciudad Colon). My liver’s mortal enemy appeared to have negotiated a two-for one vodka deal which my weak-will just couldn’t control. This was also supplemented to the fact that I was trying to talk in my bad-drunken Spanish to a Costa-Rican boy who in my tipsy state looked like Diego Luna. (Those who have seen me try and talk to boys in bars know I drink unnecessarily copious amounts- last time footwear got lost, clubs got burnt. I just shouldn't talk to boys in bars). Anyway ended up dancing some merengue and either my swing dance lessons or the vodka meant now it seems I’m not as bad as being led as before- I don’t think I broke a single toe (mine or anyone elses).
The next morning the alarm went off at 5.30am and still a bit tipsy I grabbed my stuff and headed off for a trip across the country to Tortuguero a tiny town on the Caribbean coast. Took a bus to San Jose, a taxi, another bus to Cairari (in which the old man next to me told me I wasn’t allowed to sleep anymore but had to talk to him, and later made sure I took his number?!). Managed to buy some individually wrapped aspirin at the bus stop which felt like the lamest drug deal ever (I ahave just started watching The Wire series 2- it is influencing my brain. Next was a mini-bus (over the bumpiest road and through banana plantations) and soon we were sat on a long-thin motor boat ready for the hour boatride into the jungle to the town. Sat there in the middle of this beautiful river, surrounded by banks of lush jungle, with the waves gently lapping on the side of the boat I’ve never felt so disgustingly hungover, it was all I could do to not just totally chunder everywaaar, I had been out on the lash the night before, banter (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU)
We arrived into the town (stomach contents included) and realized the only path to the town-centre was via a tiny, precarious pathway over the water made of rusty metal bars and unattached lengths of wood. The combination of shaky sea-legs and shaky hangover very nearly ended in a spectacular dive. Fortunately we managed to find a hostel without drowning and went for burritos to get some strength back. Spent the afternoon on the black-sand beach chilling out and being befriended by the many many friendly local dogs.
Tortuguero is an amazing place- just like something out of A Hundred Years of Solitude especially when all the frogs came out at night. It was filled with cute children and even cuter puppies, they only needed to make the houses out of gingerbread and I may never have left. There are no cars and the only way to get around is by boat. Once side is beach and the other is river and jungle. It is so humid and warm and has a real Caribbean vibe.
That evening we took a boat trip out to the National Park (driven by our tour guide Ruben’s 8 year old son… he’d be driving boats since he was 4!) Ruben led us to the pitch black beach and suddenly pointed out into the darkness. “Look there, a tutle. Do you see?” I strained my eyes trying to make sense of the darkness but dishearteningly couldn’t see anything, just then Ruben turned on his red headlight and there in front of us was the HUGE turtle (the size of a respectable coffee-table). It was the most incredible moment. We followed the turtle as she made her way down to the sea where her mate was waiting in the water. The tide rushed in and she was gone, leaving her eggs buried somewhere on the beach behind us.
Ruben wandered off and then beckoned us over again. There below us another huge turtle had dug a hole and was popping out ping-pong ball shaped eggs like she was in some seedy Thai bar. She had laid about 10 when she scooped her hind-legs in and pulled them out crushing them on the side. Ruben said in 24 years studying turtles he’d never seen one do that- this one must be a ‘loca’. She laid about 100 more then started to pile sand over the top- violently spraying me with a face full of sand in the process and teaching me a valuable lesson about the recommended proximity of one’s face to a turtle’s butt.
Got home wet, covered in sand and turtle yolk but immensely happy.
Next morning alarms went at 5.50am (how am I still alive?!) and we headed out on a 3 hour open canoe tour. Ruben was our guide again and turned out to have phenomenally good eyesight! He kept saying ‘look over there an iguana’ and would point to a load of trees 100m away- we’d sail over and once we were about 2m away suddenly saw what he was talking about. He said that if I stuck around he’d teach me everything he knows about the jungle- I am seriously tempted to go back and take him up on the offer!
We (eventually) saw lots of iguanas, little baby caimans (which Ruben splashed with water to make them sit up in the water- pissing off crocodiles, even if they are the size of a small ikea-lamp, doesn’t seem that sensible an idea to me), chameleons (after much pointing and explaining what we were meant to be looking at), birds and those lizards that run on water who treated us to a display. Out of no-where we heard an almighty crash from around the river bend and Ruben was shaking with laughter- when he caught his breath he explained it had been from a monkey that had fallen in the river- gutted we missed that! We saw a spider monkey and a howler monkey but they were up high and not moving about much (Ruben said they’d probably smoked something)- but later on the bus ride home I was day-dreaming out the window and saw another spider monkey running in the trees.
I realized at one point whenever Ruben would catch a spider or frog and hold it out I was always the one to put my hands out to hold it without first asking if it was poisonous or would bite me. The silliness of this only hit me after I’d be holding a tiny red frog for a while when Ruben announced that it was a poison-dart frog, the Indians use the venom in dart-pipes to hunt. Fortunately Ruben reassured me the only way it’d kill me was if I ate too many off them- just a well he warned me really. Tried to thank him but it's hard with your mouth full.
We learnt about the different trees but mainly which ones were good to play as musical instruments- one has flat board like roots which you can play like a drum, another’s leaves make good whistles. Basically for a while it turned into the Jungle Book and we jammed out on the forest.
Got the canoe back to the town, said goodbye to a little puppy which I have fallen head over heads in love with (I named him Nacho) and headed back on the long journey back to Ciudad Colon. The boat cut out on the way back and it looked like we were going to have to swim for it but made it home finally in one piece.
Lessons learnt:
Household furniture is an effective yardstick for measuring wildlife. Yardsticks might be simpler though.
Weirdly, incredibly long journeys involving boats, buses and taxis are not the wonder-cure for hangovers. Back to the blurry drawing board.
lunes, 30 de agosto de 2010
lunes, 23 de agosto de 2010
In which I find my first Costa Rican beach, taunt my first Costa Rican alligator and invade personal space and dreams.
So thought I'd update about my first weekend in Ciudad Colon and my first day of classes- both of which went beautifully.
On Sunday morning Diego borrowed his dad's car and drove 7 of us up to the nearest beach, Jaco. (Very sadly saw a dog get run over on the way which was pretty traumatic.) It was about a 40 min drive punctuated by a stop at this bridge which we lent over to see a load of alligators sunning themselves on the banks below! We were all feeling pretty brave until a big lorry crossed the bridge making it sway badly and turning us all temporarily white with fear.
We carried on to Jaco and, after picking up beer, chips and other snacks, set off for the beach. It was such a hot day and the Pacific was pummeling us with huge rip-your-bikin-off-if-you're-not-careful waves. Lovely warm sea but not so much swimming as just battling to stay upright.
In one of our talks a professor had said "one of the best things you'll learn from being at school with people from 51 different countries is more about your own culture." This came true as after five minutes of sitting on the sand Ben, the only other Brit, piped up with "well I guess it's about time to make a sand-penis". I promtly decorated it with doritoes and I think we taught our multi-cultured friends a little something about how we do things the British way. (I resisted showing them beach time the N Irish way which was essentially as soon as you arrive set about digging the biggest hole possible until there is more hole than beach- ah the fun family holidays we had!)
It was pretty flipping hot but I managed to only burn my knees and shins, impressive considering that Costa Rican Diego and his cousin Daniel from El Salvador (who's job is inventing new ice-cream flavours! Dream jobs do exist. I have several new suggestions for him.) got fairly red themselves. Such a chilled out fun day and got home just in time to squeeze in a bit of study before my first day of classes.
Today we started the Conflict Resolution module which we all take together. Had some quite heavy reading but the depressing outcome was basically conflict's going to happen, the best we can learn is how to manage it and resolve it quickly.
Between lectures and seminars we had about 2 1/2 hrs off so we found one of the many many hammocks that are dotted around the tiny campus and pretended to study while watching the bushes moving amongst the fluttering of hundreds of butterflies. In my opinion all studying and philosophical thinking should be done in hammocks. I might suggest this to the UN Security Council next time I see them.
Spent tonight eating pizza (one of which was covered with strawberries and chocolate) with ten of the UPEACErs, having very inappropriate restuarant conversations and basically laughing far too loudly.
Also a lovely girl called Mari Celly from Puerto Rico just told me she'd had a dream about me where she was in a pet store and they were saying "urgh when are we going to do the inventory", then these sliding doors opened and my head slowly appeared from inside. I jumped out with a guitar and sang a song all about inventories and everyone else joined in in a big magical musical moment. I've just seen Inception so now am worried I may be unintentionally invading people's dreams- singing a song about inventories does sound a lot like something I'd do. I apologise in advance for what I might do in your dreams.
Lessons learnt:
In Korea you are 1 when you are born then you wait til the next new year when everyone starts counting up from then! So trying to work out how old everyone is can be tricky. (I also learnt to write my name in Korean- it looks like crop circles) Also in Korea they don't really hug to say hi so I am spreading hugs internationally (and simultaneous invading a lot of personal space).
Costa Rican drivers don't stop for dogs.
Stories about bridges collapsing are all well and good unless they come directly before a rocking bridge over an alligator infested river.
On Sunday morning Diego borrowed his dad's car and drove 7 of us up to the nearest beach, Jaco. (Very sadly saw a dog get run over on the way which was pretty traumatic.) It was about a 40 min drive punctuated by a stop at this bridge which we lent over to see a load of alligators sunning themselves on the banks below! We were all feeling pretty brave until a big lorry crossed the bridge making it sway badly and turning us all temporarily white with fear.
We carried on to Jaco and, after picking up beer, chips and other snacks, set off for the beach. It was such a hot day and the Pacific was pummeling us with huge rip-your-bikin-off-if-you're-not-careful waves. Lovely warm sea but not so much swimming as just battling to stay upright.
In one of our talks a professor had said "one of the best things you'll learn from being at school with people from 51 different countries is more about your own culture." This came true as after five minutes of sitting on the sand Ben, the only other Brit, piped up with "well I guess it's about time to make a sand-penis". I promtly decorated it with doritoes and I think we taught our multi-cultured friends a little something about how we do things the British way. (I resisted showing them beach time the N Irish way which was essentially as soon as you arrive set about digging the biggest hole possible until there is more hole than beach- ah the fun family holidays we had!)
It was pretty flipping hot but I managed to only burn my knees and shins, impressive considering that Costa Rican Diego and his cousin Daniel from El Salvador (who's job is inventing new ice-cream flavours! Dream jobs do exist. I have several new suggestions for him.) got fairly red themselves. Such a chilled out fun day and got home just in time to squeeze in a bit of study before my first day of classes.
Today we started the Conflict Resolution module which we all take together. Had some quite heavy reading but the depressing outcome was basically conflict's going to happen, the best we can learn is how to manage it and resolve it quickly.
Between lectures and seminars we had about 2 1/2 hrs off so we found one of the many many hammocks that are dotted around the tiny campus and pretended to study while watching the bushes moving amongst the fluttering of hundreds of butterflies. In my opinion all studying and philosophical thinking should be done in hammocks. I might suggest this to the UN Security Council next time I see them.
Spent tonight eating pizza (one of which was covered with strawberries and chocolate) with ten of the UPEACErs, having very inappropriate restuarant conversations and basically laughing far too loudly.
Also a lovely girl called Mari Celly from Puerto Rico just told me she'd had a dream about me where she was in a pet store and they were saying "urgh when are we going to do the inventory", then these sliding doors opened and my head slowly appeared from inside. I jumped out with a guitar and sang a song all about inventories and everyone else joined in in a big magical musical moment. I've just seen Inception so now am worried I may be unintentionally invading people's dreams- singing a song about inventories does sound a lot like something I'd do. I apologise in advance for what I might do in your dreams.
Lessons learnt:
In Korea you are 1 when you are born then you wait til the next new year when everyone starts counting up from then! So trying to work out how old everyone is can be tricky. (I also learnt to write my name in Korean- it looks like crop circles) Also in Korea they don't really hug to say hi so I am spreading hugs internationally (and simultaneous invading a lot of personal space).
Costa Rican drivers don't stop for dogs.
Stories about bridges collapsing are all well and good unless they come directly before a rocking bridge over an alligator infested river.
sábado, 21 de agosto de 2010
In which I dance for my social life, learn about Korean leg-hair and complete my first week in Costa Rica
It is funny to think I have only been here a week- I don’t know if it is the open, nature of the country or the friendliness of my school-mates but it really does feel like I’ve been here a lot longer. Me and a new Argentian friend Lucilla had a moment on Thursday when we realised if we were this emotionally attached after 3 days at school how on earth would we all leave in a year!
The past few days have been full of lots of orientation sessions at uni and lots of getting to know each other sessions at the pub- culminating in an amazing welcome party on Friday night. The uni had had a no-alcohol policy this year but after 3 days the UPEACErs showed their diplomacy and lobbying skills and got the ban lifted. This all happened in the space of a few hours and by the time we came out to the outside terrace for our party a load of beer and wine had miraculously appeared. So we had bbq and nachos and liquid refreshments and before long the dance floor was seriously shaking. There was lots of big dance circles and dance-off type displays. I feel I represented UK pretty well with my running man moves and Ben (the only other person from the UK) educated everyone on the British art of dancing with you arms rather than the Latin America hips. We’re going to introduce them to dub-step... just so they’re fully warned of its awfulness.
Had some great Shakira and Coolio moments (me and a US guy bonded instantly through our joint knowledge of every lyric to Gansta’s Paradise- wait til he hears me rock it out on the ukulele!) My big-fish-little-fish moves were slightly overshadowed by the arrival of a samba troupe with drummers who did an awesome performance and got us all into a massive conga.
The party carried on at the local bar Oskar’s where while taking part in a magic trick I managed to violently smash a bottle thus completing the UK chavesque moves of lairy dancing and broken bottles.
The next morning I was up dull and early at 6.30am ready to go to Tortuguero to see the turtles but my travel partner was ill so we didn’t go. Shame but will hopefully make it next weekend and have met a Mexican guy called Rafael who was always my favourite turtle so I guess that is ¼ as good as the real things.
Have spent this evening up at the massive house of some friends, eating nachos, drinking guaro the local firewater and discussing everything from getting mugged to reiki healing. Tomorrow we’re driving to the beach (a whole week in Costa Rica without hitting the beach! I need to sort it out!)
Lessons learnt:
People from Korea don't have leg hair above the knee! My friend Hansoal was completely shocked to find out everyone else had hairs on their thighs. Now I feel like a gorilla around her. Gorilla.
In Costa Rica they don’t have house numbers or addresses. Instead you just say I live 100m from that big tree and next to the large rock. This makes finding friend’s houses hard.
We live 100m north of the cemetery gates- this means I constantly have The Smiths in my head.
My biggest lesson so far is that I now drink coffee! Any of you that have see my pathetic reaction to it (or most caffeine) in the past know this is a big deal. It is so smooth here- not bitter at all. On the other hand I am buzzed all the time.
Have just started the reading for the first course- uh oh apparently conflict resolution is quite complicated... our reader is about 20 cm thick.
I haven’t seen any sloths or monkeys yet. I must rectify this soon.
The past few days have been full of lots of orientation sessions at uni and lots of getting to know each other sessions at the pub- culminating in an amazing welcome party on Friday night. The uni had had a no-alcohol policy this year but after 3 days the UPEACErs showed their diplomacy and lobbying skills and got the ban lifted. This all happened in the space of a few hours and by the time we came out to the outside terrace for our party a load of beer and wine had miraculously appeared. So we had bbq and nachos and liquid refreshments and before long the dance floor was seriously shaking. There was lots of big dance circles and dance-off type displays. I feel I represented UK pretty well with my running man moves and Ben (the only other person from the UK) educated everyone on the British art of dancing with you arms rather than the Latin America hips. We’re going to introduce them to dub-step... just so they’re fully warned of its awfulness.
Had some great Shakira and Coolio moments (me and a US guy bonded instantly through our joint knowledge of every lyric to Gansta’s Paradise- wait til he hears me rock it out on the ukulele!) My big-fish-little-fish moves were slightly overshadowed by the arrival of a samba troupe with drummers who did an awesome performance and got us all into a massive conga.
The party carried on at the local bar Oskar’s where while taking part in a magic trick I managed to violently smash a bottle thus completing the UK chavesque moves of lairy dancing and broken bottles.
The next morning I was up dull and early at 6.30am ready to go to Tortuguero to see the turtles but my travel partner was ill so we didn’t go. Shame but will hopefully make it next weekend and have met a Mexican guy called Rafael who was always my favourite turtle so I guess that is ¼ as good as the real things.
Have spent this evening up at the massive house of some friends, eating nachos, drinking guaro the local firewater and discussing everything from getting mugged to reiki healing. Tomorrow we’re driving to the beach (a whole week in Costa Rica without hitting the beach! I need to sort it out!)
Lessons learnt:
People from Korea don't have leg hair above the knee! My friend Hansoal was completely shocked to find out everyone else had hairs on their thighs. Now I feel like a gorilla around her. Gorilla.
In Costa Rica they don’t have house numbers or addresses. Instead you just say I live 100m from that big tree and next to the large rock. This makes finding friend’s houses hard.
We live 100m north of the cemetery gates- this means I constantly have The Smiths in my head.
My biggest lesson so far is that I now drink coffee! Any of you that have see my pathetic reaction to it (or most caffeine) in the past know this is a big deal. It is so smooth here- not bitter at all. On the other hand I am buzzed all the time.
Have just started the reading for the first course- uh oh apparently conflict resolution is quite complicated... our reader is about 20 cm thick.
I haven’t seen any sloths or monkeys yet. I must rectify this soon.
jueves, 19 de agosto de 2010
In which I have my first day at school, end up in a hot-tub and am thankful for Bob Marley
Writing this one quickly and slightly blurrily- yesterday was my first day at school and as a result I've had little sleep, and am pretty hungover. Suffice to say it went pretty well.
We set off early in the morning for the bus up the mountain, Diego had a day off so decided to come with us. We made him a fool-proof cover story, if anyone asked he'd just say he was studying International Hugs- at this uni that was bound to work.
After whizzing up the mountain, pulling in and filling out into the open walled atrium area was a kind of surreal experience, there seemed like loads of people but at the same time knowing there were only 180 people in the entire uni we definitely felt like a select bunch (51 different countries represented! It is awesome.)
Am now desperately trying to remember everyone's name have chatted away to a load of people and basically promised to start clubs, take huge trips and hang out.
We had a series of talks from a series of lovely teachers and vice rectors, etc. Sat in this long room with the professors stood in front of a room-long window with views out over the rolling mountains and forest gave me my first taste of how, even in this idyllic setting, I'm going to have to work hard to concentrate. I knew they were giving us valuable info about the year ahead but watching the 5 condors circling the trees outside was just more attention-grabbing.
What I did tune in for was to hear them say Ban Ki Moon might be visiting in Dec- oh yes, me and Banksey Moon painting the town red- I am quite excited!
Our completely adorable vice-rector also did some "role play" demonstrations to show how we will encounter cultural differences and also how to deal with settlement of disputes when they are couched in values- which probably is fairly serious but they were blooiming hiralious! Hoping all classes are this entertaining.
Anyway, there were lots of stupid ice-breaker things and breaks/lunches to meet my new student buddies.
After school finsihed at 5.30 Nabil who is an alumni and now teacher here invited us all to his place which is 5 mins from the uni and has... wait for it..... a hot tub and pool! So my first day of school finished in a candle-lit hot tub, drinking beer and chatting away to all my new friends who's names I can't pronounce but have forgotten anyway. Someone cracked out a guitar and I played the two songs I can remember. Had a confusing chat about the Mayan calender fortelling an imiment shift in human consciousness?! Then out of no-where this Canadian guy picks up the guitar and next thing I know I am crying with laughter. I basically remember this conversation Fran and I had when I said "Oh Fran what if no one likes me" and he said "Erm at the uni for peace they'll all be hippies- just learn to play Redemption Song and you'll be fine." Next thing I know there we are singing "Oh pirates yes they rob I". Brilliant. Quote of the night: "I'm a little bit aroused, a little bit hungry, but worried about slavery" (these are fun people!)
A bit later we got hungry so got a taxi (blasting regeatton) down the mountain to Oskar's (one of the 2 bars in the city) where I had my first beerarita (beer with lemon in and a salty glass- jury's still out) chatted away to more people. Diego, Patrick (an American guy) and I were obviously the most hardcore and by the end of the night were the only ones left- walked home in our dark little town, stopping for take-away tacos on the way (only veggie option was cabbage- boo!) Then home to sleep for 5 hours until I'd be woken up at dawn.
Lessons learnt:
You can party all night- the cockrel will still wake you up at 5am. This is a metaphor for life.
Friends in need are friends indeed, friends with hot tubs are better.
I learnt how to say some stuff in Korean but I have forgotten it all by now.
We set off early in the morning for the bus up the mountain, Diego had a day off so decided to come with us. We made him a fool-proof cover story, if anyone asked he'd just say he was studying International Hugs- at this uni that was bound to work.
After whizzing up the mountain, pulling in and filling out into the open walled atrium area was a kind of surreal experience, there seemed like loads of people but at the same time knowing there were only 180 people in the entire uni we definitely felt like a select bunch (51 different countries represented! It is awesome.)
Am now desperately trying to remember everyone's name have chatted away to a load of people and basically promised to start clubs, take huge trips and hang out.
We had a series of talks from a series of lovely teachers and vice rectors, etc. Sat in this long room with the professors stood in front of a room-long window with views out over the rolling mountains and forest gave me my first taste of how, even in this idyllic setting, I'm going to have to work hard to concentrate. I knew they were giving us valuable info about the year ahead but watching the 5 condors circling the trees outside was just more attention-grabbing.
What I did tune in for was to hear them say Ban Ki Moon might be visiting in Dec- oh yes, me and Banksey Moon painting the town red- I am quite excited!
Our completely adorable vice-rector also did some "role play" demonstrations to show how we will encounter cultural differences and also how to deal with settlement of disputes when they are couched in values- which probably is fairly serious but they were blooiming hiralious! Hoping all classes are this entertaining.
Anyway, there were lots of stupid ice-breaker things and breaks/lunches to meet my new student buddies.
After school finsihed at 5.30 Nabil who is an alumni and now teacher here invited us all to his place which is 5 mins from the uni and has... wait for it..... a hot tub and pool! So my first day of school finished in a candle-lit hot tub, drinking beer and chatting away to all my new friends who's names I can't pronounce but have forgotten anyway. Someone cracked out a guitar and I played the two songs I can remember. Had a confusing chat about the Mayan calender fortelling an imiment shift in human consciousness?! Then out of no-where this Canadian guy picks up the guitar and next thing I know I am crying with laughter. I basically remember this conversation Fran and I had when I said "Oh Fran what if no one likes me" and he said "Erm at the uni for peace they'll all be hippies- just learn to play Redemption Song and you'll be fine." Next thing I know there we are singing "Oh pirates yes they rob I". Brilliant. Quote of the night: "I'm a little bit aroused, a little bit hungry, but worried about slavery" (these are fun people!)
A bit later we got hungry so got a taxi (blasting regeatton) down the mountain to Oskar's (one of the 2 bars in the city) where I had my first beerarita (beer with lemon in and a salty glass- jury's still out) chatted away to more people. Diego, Patrick (an American guy) and I were obviously the most hardcore and by the end of the night were the only ones left- walked home in our dark little town, stopping for take-away tacos on the way (only veggie option was cabbage- boo!) Then home to sleep for 5 hours until I'd be woken up at dawn.
Lessons learnt:
You can party all night- the cockrel will still wake you up at 5am. This is a metaphor for life.
Friends in need are friends indeed, friends with hot tubs are better.
I learnt how to say some stuff in Korean but I have forgotten it all by now.
lunes, 16 de agosto de 2010
In which I crash mothers' day, improve my Cockney and am so eager I arrive 5 days early to uni.
Well I am in my new home! Took a long taxi drive through the pouring rain (yep "rainy season" is definitely on) up away from the city into the hills and finally we arrived at a little town: Ciudad Colon. We managed to find the house despite there not being road signs or house numbers. When we got there I thought they'd been a mistake- it is such a lvoely, huge place and my room is ridiculous after years of shoeboxes! I have my bedroom and then a whole section off it that I suppose should be a study area but I'm thinking more music/yoga/breakdance room.
Barely got through the door when Iyvonne, my land lady invited me up to her farm and then next thing I knew we were driving 11km up into the forest covered hills to her farm (46 hectares of mountain farming inside an indian reservation!). Some amazing views on the way- this is the most breathtaking place, huge rolling mountains covered in lush, green forest!
We arrived into the farm (they have 4 quad-bikes! Must restain myself, last time I went quad-biking I quickly discovered I am a maniac). Arrived into the house to be greeted by about 25 people- turns out it was Mothers' Day in Costa Rica and I had basically crashed a huge family meal! Everyone was totally lovely and very sweet to me. Some of Iyvonne's family were over from the US and her nephew and his friends were making everyone dinner. I was on garlic brad duty and only managed not to burn it all by the fact that the EZ-bake style oven was as strong as a weak candle. We ate loads of spaghetti, talked away and then had 3 types of cake! Oh yes it appears my new land lady is a master baker- jackpot. The grandmother told me I was now part of the family and to call her anytime, and I've been invited over for Christmas.
Got a lift home down the mountain with Iyvonne's son and his family- chatted away to their 5 year old about all her school activities (she said she'd teach me karate- Plan Karate Kid is coming together.) As we whizzed down hill they were also sweet enough to tell me about their brother who had come off the same road, fallen 30 metres and broken his back! (He's fine now though, but made me think twice about the quad-bikes!)
Arrived home about 9ish and met my new flat-mate Diego. He's Tico (Costa Rica) but speaks amazingly good English- he even showed me his impressive Cockney accent- he did this by using the phrase "Ahhh I shat in a turtle". I think I have found a kindred odd-mind! We also established that because we live opposite a cementary (yep not walking home alone at night!) and he was weraing a T-rex t-shirt (thus validating everything I knew about Costa Rican) that he is the ghost of a tyranosarus. We stayed up drinking horchata and comparing drunken embarrassing stories and music until our next flatmate arrived (Diego isn't a student, he works, and has lived here for 4 months so is full of good advice about where the party's at and how to escape velociraptors).
Ainura arrived at about 10pm, she's come over from uni in Manilia- there are 30 people on an exchange programme from there. She's actually from Krygyzstan so she's going to teach me Russian. So I said the one Russian phrase I know "Goodnight grandmother" which was at least half way appropriate and we went off to bed.
The next day Ainura and I hung out and checked out the town- she's so sweet and I basically got her to promise to go see turtles with me at the weekend so all is good. About mid-day our other 2 flatmates arrived and the house was complete. Maryia (Kurdistan) and Natsuko (Japan) are also from the uni in Manila so they all know each other and are here for 6 months. They're all really nice and I feel totally at home already.
Iyvonne came round and we took a drive 6.5km up into the mountains to see the uni campus- it is stunning! Up in the hills there is the the most beautiful view of the forest and hills all around. The uni grounds are full of busts of inspiring people but even better- hammocks! It turns out this year there are only 150 students in the entire place! So if I bunk off it is going be quite noticeable I guess.
The road down was just as picturesque- although we almost ran over two proper gauchos herding their horses. Made it across the rickety bridge in one piece but we all decided the first thing we are going to organise is a fundraiser to buy a decent bridge- the old phobia is coming flooding back.
Now just back at the ranch eating avocado and Belgian chocolate Ainura brought from her 2 hour stop over in Amserdam (I thought my change in Dallas was bad- these girls took 4 flights!). Soon Diego's going to introduce me to the all important liquor store. So far the cementary ghosts are keeping to themselves. I think I'm going to like it here!
Lessons learnt:
Missing the bus is not an option- 6.5k up-hill is not going to happen.
You can come to the otherside of the world and find people who find the idea of T-rex ghosts as funny as anyone back home would.
Barely got through the door when Iyvonne, my land lady invited me up to her farm and then next thing I knew we were driving 11km up into the forest covered hills to her farm (46 hectares of mountain farming inside an indian reservation!). Some amazing views on the way- this is the most breathtaking place, huge rolling mountains covered in lush, green forest!
We arrived into the farm (they have 4 quad-bikes! Must restain myself, last time I went quad-biking I quickly discovered I am a maniac). Arrived into the house to be greeted by about 25 people- turns out it was Mothers' Day in Costa Rica and I had basically crashed a huge family meal! Everyone was totally lovely and very sweet to me. Some of Iyvonne's family were over from the US and her nephew and his friends were making everyone dinner. I was on garlic brad duty and only managed not to burn it all by the fact that the EZ-bake style oven was as strong as a weak candle. We ate loads of spaghetti, talked away and then had 3 types of cake! Oh yes it appears my new land lady is a master baker- jackpot. The grandmother told me I was now part of the family and to call her anytime, and I've been invited over for Christmas.
Got a lift home down the mountain with Iyvonne's son and his family- chatted away to their 5 year old about all her school activities (she said she'd teach me karate- Plan Karate Kid is coming together.) As we whizzed down hill they were also sweet enough to tell me about their brother who had come off the same road, fallen 30 metres and broken his back! (He's fine now though, but made me think twice about the quad-bikes!)
Arrived home about 9ish and met my new flat-mate Diego. He's Tico (Costa Rica) but speaks amazingly good English- he even showed me his impressive Cockney accent- he did this by using the phrase "Ahhh I shat in a turtle". I think I have found a kindred odd-mind! We also established that because we live opposite a cementary (yep not walking home alone at night!) and he was weraing a T-rex t-shirt (thus validating everything I knew about Costa Rican) that he is the ghost of a tyranosarus. We stayed up drinking horchata and comparing drunken embarrassing stories and music until our next flatmate arrived (Diego isn't a student, he works, and has lived here for 4 months so is full of good advice about where the party's at and how to escape velociraptors).
Ainura arrived at about 10pm, she's come over from uni in Manilia- there are 30 people on an exchange programme from there. She's actually from Krygyzstan so she's going to teach me Russian. So I said the one Russian phrase I know "Goodnight grandmother" which was at least half way appropriate and we went off to bed.
The next day Ainura and I hung out and checked out the town- she's so sweet and I basically got her to promise to go see turtles with me at the weekend so all is good. About mid-day our other 2 flatmates arrived and the house was complete. Maryia (Kurdistan) and Natsuko (Japan) are also from the uni in Manila so they all know each other and are here for 6 months. They're all really nice and I feel totally at home already.
Iyvonne came round and we took a drive 6.5km up into the mountains to see the uni campus- it is stunning! Up in the hills there is the the most beautiful view of the forest and hills all around. The uni grounds are full of busts of inspiring people but even better- hammocks! It turns out this year there are only 150 students in the entire place! So if I bunk off it is going be quite noticeable I guess.
The road down was just as picturesque- although we almost ran over two proper gauchos herding their horses. Made it across the rickety bridge in one piece but we all decided the first thing we are going to organise is a fundraiser to buy a decent bridge- the old phobia is coming flooding back.
Now just back at the ranch eating avocado and Belgian chocolate Ainura brought from her 2 hour stop over in Amserdam (I thought my change in Dallas was bad- these girls took 4 flights!). Soon Diego's going to introduce me to the all important liquor store. So far the cementary ghosts are keeping to themselves. I think I'm going to like it here!
Lessons learnt:
Missing the bus is not an option- 6.5k up-hill is not going to happen.
You can come to the otherside of the world and find people who find the idea of T-rex ghosts as funny as anyone back home would.
domingo, 15 de agosto de 2010
In which I explore San Jose and get cultural
After hours of beautiful sleep I awoke to the sound of someone in my dorm who had appeared to have wrapped each piece of clothing in a seperate plastic bag and was now creating a one-woman crinkle-fest going through each of them in turn. Yes, I am cranky in the mornings.
Braved a cold shower... apparently, according to the sign, in Costa Rica the more you turn the shower on the colder it gets, therefore to get it warm you have to hardly turn it at all, or in other words, keep it off. In other Costa Rican bathroom news it appears it is much the same as Chile in that you don´t flush toilet paper but put it in the bin, at least I hope so or I have seriously pissed off the cleaner.
Had an awesome breakfast of rice and beans (with magic spices that makes it in Costa Rican favourite ´Gallo Pinto´), plantain, scrambed eggs and little tortillas. I could get used to this! All fuelled up I headed into the city to explore.
San Jose seems like a mix of other cities I´ve been to, it has the grid system of roads, the hundreds of street vendors selling everything and anything on the pavements and the surrounding collar of mountains like Santiago in Chile. But it also has a very tropical feel with the heat and the banana trees and exotic fruits like Havana. Other things about San Jose include:
- the pedestrian crossings make little chirping noises like birds
- there are loads of butterflies
- there are a hundred and one clothes shops but you can´t buy a guitar for love nor money
- despite the heat everyone is in jeans and you´d look pretty silly if you were the only one in shorts having rashly thrown away all your long trousers after getting sun-stroked while on holiday in Wales.
Apparently "rainy season" is not just a turn of phrase and it is really hot and sunny in the morning but then there´s a bit of warm rain in the afternoons. Nice and refreshing though.
After my delicious breakfast I decided to shun the crassness of the many McDonalds and Burger Kings in the centre instead going for real authentic fayre: Taco Bell. But hey, a burrito filled with nachos (?! I need to get better at ordering, at the minute I just say all the words I recognise) for 70p isn´t half bad!
Decided to keep on with the cultural exploration by going to the cinema where I saw Karate Kid (dubbed in Spanish. I now know how to say "Haiiii-ya" in Spainsh! It is "Haiiii-ya"). Watching little Jaden Smith deal with moving to a big, scary, new county gave me an idea....but walking home up hill made me out of breath so instead of learning the complex, discipline of martial arts I have decided to just keep air-karate-chopping at the men who sometimes try and pester me on the street. This is working very well, if only by making me look like just the unstable kind of oddball their mothers told them never to pester.
I quite like San Jose but the wide, grid of roads gives tantalising glimpses of the forest-covered mountains beyond and the hostel is full of people that have been to amazing places. I could go see the leatherback turtles nesting tomorrow but instead my plan is to wait until I have hopefully made friends to go and do the fun things.
I am feeling happy and not too panicked but it did bring home to me how alone I am when I tried to get a SIM for my phone and the lady asked me for the details someone who knows me in Costa Rica and I had to say "I don´t know a single person". But instead of making me sad like I was in my first weeks in Chile I am just really impatient to get on to uni (I´m moving to the town later today) and meet people. Fingers crossed they´ll be someone who wants to go turtle spotting with me.
Lessons learnt:
One UK pound = 785 colones. This means I am quite quickly having to learn my 785 times tables! Also it means everything costs big numbers. As there is no Offspring song that goes up to 140,000 I haven´t had much reason to practice the bigger Spanish numbers.
Everyone here seems to speak really good English but I am stubbornly keeping on in Spanish, even/especially if it means I keep eating nacho-filled burritos.
Braved a cold shower... apparently, according to the sign, in Costa Rica the more you turn the shower on the colder it gets, therefore to get it warm you have to hardly turn it at all, or in other words, keep it off. In other Costa Rican bathroom news it appears it is much the same as Chile in that you don´t flush toilet paper but put it in the bin, at least I hope so or I have seriously pissed off the cleaner.
Had an awesome breakfast of rice and beans (with magic spices that makes it in Costa Rican favourite ´Gallo Pinto´), plantain, scrambed eggs and little tortillas. I could get used to this! All fuelled up I headed into the city to explore.
San Jose seems like a mix of other cities I´ve been to, it has the grid system of roads, the hundreds of street vendors selling everything and anything on the pavements and the surrounding collar of mountains like Santiago in Chile. But it also has a very tropical feel with the heat and the banana trees and exotic fruits like Havana. Other things about San Jose include:
- the pedestrian crossings make little chirping noises like birds
- there are loads of butterflies
- there are a hundred and one clothes shops but you can´t buy a guitar for love nor money
- despite the heat everyone is in jeans and you´d look pretty silly if you were the only one in shorts having rashly thrown away all your long trousers after getting sun-stroked while on holiday in Wales.
Apparently "rainy season" is not just a turn of phrase and it is really hot and sunny in the morning but then there´s a bit of warm rain in the afternoons. Nice and refreshing though.
After my delicious breakfast I decided to shun the crassness of the many McDonalds and Burger Kings in the centre instead going for real authentic fayre: Taco Bell. But hey, a burrito filled with nachos (?! I need to get better at ordering, at the minute I just say all the words I recognise) for 70p isn´t half bad!
Decided to keep on with the cultural exploration by going to the cinema where I saw Karate Kid (dubbed in Spanish. I now know how to say "Haiiii-ya" in Spainsh! It is "Haiiii-ya"). Watching little Jaden Smith deal with moving to a big, scary, new county gave me an idea....but walking home up hill made me out of breath so instead of learning the complex, discipline of martial arts I have decided to just keep air-karate-chopping at the men who sometimes try and pester me on the street. This is working very well, if only by making me look like just the unstable kind of oddball their mothers told them never to pester.
I quite like San Jose but the wide, grid of roads gives tantalising glimpses of the forest-covered mountains beyond and the hostel is full of people that have been to amazing places. I could go see the leatherback turtles nesting tomorrow but instead my plan is to wait until I have hopefully made friends to go and do the fun things.
I am feeling happy and not too panicked but it did bring home to me how alone I am when I tried to get a SIM for my phone and the lady asked me for the details someone who knows me in Costa Rica and I had to say "I don´t know a single person". But instead of making me sad like I was in my first weeks in Chile I am just really impatient to get on to uni (I´m moving to the town later today) and meet people. Fingers crossed they´ll be someone who wants to go turtle spotting with me.
Lessons learnt:
One UK pound = 785 colones. This means I am quite quickly having to learn my 785 times tables! Also it means everything costs big numbers. As there is no Offspring song that goes up to 140,000 I haven´t had much reason to practice the bigger Spanish numbers.
Everyone here seems to speak really good English but I am stubbornly keeping on in Spanish, even/especially if it means I keep eating nacho-filled burritos.
In which I question it all but am too tired to find answers
So here it is: my first blog (that is not obsurely linked to a UNICEF theme). I warn you in advance that this may be an exercise in self indulgence but I also figured it´d be the easiest way to keep anyone that is interested up to date.
I left London with an all too familiar sinking feeling that once again I am walking away from happiness and a great life for no other reason than this weird impulse I have to keep moving.
I don´t know what started this restlessness, it may have been my over imaginative childhood games set in the darkest regions of the rainforest, it may have been the tantalisng glimpses of other cultures from the books I buried myself in,or it may have been a natural reaction to growing up in a town where nothing ever happens... the constant desire to escape.
So for whatever reason there I was sat in the back of a taxi at 5.30am making small talk to the driver about IRA bike-bombs while trying to repress my stomach´s screams that I am an idiot and am throwing everything away. Still, I reminded myself, this is exactly how I had felt before Spain and Chile and they worked out brilliantly- plus I have the best possible friends who have proven themselves to be infinitely patient over the years. No going back now, I didn´t have enough for the taxi fare.
The flights were full of fairly bad movies but ok food (I don´t know what the comedians are complaining about, but then my meals were seasoned by a little smugness that as a veggie I got served before everyone else. And yes I realise that it is pretty lame that this made me feel special, but it´s the nearest I got to first class after Hannah pointed out that my plan to get bumped up to business by pretending it was my birthday was inherently flawed by the fact I would be handing over my passport at the same time. It is logic like this that makes Hannah a doctor and me, me. (Plus I was essentially wearing my pyjamas- not my most business-class look, although, actaully, they possible are.)
I´d been told 101 horror stories about US customs but they were fine really, to be honest they could have said I was going straight to Guantanamo because in that brilliant Dallas accent anything sounds great. I looked around to find some typical US grub but the place was full of Irish pubs. Managed to resist the Guinness and carried on to San Jose.
I arrived into the capital at 8.45pm which was about 3am UK time (my super-magic ability to sleep anywhere finally met its match in American Airlines seats which were so cramped I actually ripped my trousers/ pj bottoms getting out of them!) Reunited my aching arms with my 3 huge bags and dragged myself off to a taxi.
My sleep-deprived brain could just about make out San Jose, a blur of star-like lights, dark hills and neon signs for McDonalds. Hostel seemed nice with outdoor pool and hammocks. Had a little chat with a girl who was about to do an internship studying frogs in Panama for 6 months, though at this point I might have just hallucinated all of that. There´d be time to explore the city the next day, right then, after 24 hours of travelling and enough crap movies to permanently damage my brain, all I needed was sleep. Need sleep, must sleep, ahhh.
Lessons learnt:
Getting your entire life in possesions form through Kings Cross and onto the Picadilly line is about as fun as you´d imagine.
Listening to The Tallest Man on Earth in Dallas definitely makes you feel more like a cowboy (The Gardener is a good one to have a private ho-down too while in the immigration queue. Though too much line dancing could affect your chances of getting through. (Villagers also got me through some streeful flight moments- The Pact cannot fail to make you feel good, even in bad turbulence)
Little two-years olds, as entertaining as they might be for 10 mins, are not the best people to be sat next to on long-haul flights.
I left London with an all too familiar sinking feeling that once again I am walking away from happiness and a great life for no other reason than this weird impulse I have to keep moving.
I don´t know what started this restlessness, it may have been my over imaginative childhood games set in the darkest regions of the rainforest, it may have been the tantalisng glimpses of other cultures from the books I buried myself in,or it may have been a natural reaction to growing up in a town where nothing ever happens... the constant desire to escape.
So for whatever reason there I was sat in the back of a taxi at 5.30am making small talk to the driver about IRA bike-bombs while trying to repress my stomach´s screams that I am an idiot and am throwing everything away. Still, I reminded myself, this is exactly how I had felt before Spain and Chile and they worked out brilliantly- plus I have the best possible friends who have proven themselves to be infinitely patient over the years. No going back now, I didn´t have enough for the taxi fare.
The flights were full of fairly bad movies but ok food (I don´t know what the comedians are complaining about, but then my meals were seasoned by a little smugness that as a veggie I got served before everyone else. And yes I realise that it is pretty lame that this made me feel special, but it´s the nearest I got to first class after Hannah pointed out that my plan to get bumped up to business by pretending it was my birthday was inherently flawed by the fact I would be handing over my passport at the same time. It is logic like this that makes Hannah a doctor and me, me. (Plus I was essentially wearing my pyjamas- not my most business-class look, although, actaully, they possible are.)
I´d been told 101 horror stories about US customs but they were fine really, to be honest they could have said I was going straight to Guantanamo because in that brilliant Dallas accent anything sounds great. I looked around to find some typical US grub but the place was full of Irish pubs. Managed to resist the Guinness and carried on to San Jose.
I arrived into the capital at 8.45pm which was about 3am UK time (my super-magic ability to sleep anywhere finally met its match in American Airlines seats which were so cramped I actually ripped my trousers/ pj bottoms getting out of them!) Reunited my aching arms with my 3 huge bags and dragged myself off to a taxi.
My sleep-deprived brain could just about make out San Jose, a blur of star-like lights, dark hills and neon signs for McDonalds. Hostel seemed nice with outdoor pool and hammocks. Had a little chat with a girl who was about to do an internship studying frogs in Panama for 6 months, though at this point I might have just hallucinated all of that. There´d be time to explore the city the next day, right then, after 24 hours of travelling and enough crap movies to permanently damage my brain, all I needed was sleep. Need sleep, must sleep, ahhh.
Lessons learnt:
Getting your entire life in possesions form through Kings Cross and onto the Picadilly line is about as fun as you´d imagine.
Listening to The Tallest Man on Earth in Dallas definitely makes you feel more like a cowboy (The Gardener is a good one to have a private ho-down too while in the immigration queue. Though too much line dancing could affect your chances of getting through. (Villagers also got me through some streeful flight moments- The Pact cannot fail to make you feel good, even in bad turbulence)
Little two-years olds, as entertaining as they might be for 10 mins, are not the best people to be sat next to on long-haul flights.
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