“Good morning! How are you doing?”
“Why? Uh...How? Uh...What?”
“Good morning. How are you doing?”
“Uh...much well, thank you.”
“Would you like some breakfast?
“Uh...what?”
“Would you like some breakfast.”
“Me very have. Thank you.”
“Today we have fruit and eggs.”
“Fruit and eggs”
“Ahh, yes! Fruit eggs for breakfast I much like. What family you eat?”
Noah and I were commenting the other day that we must sound like aliens to our host families. Imagine asking your guests if they want to go shopping with you and they responding “Me to go my like when all days” ...and somehow they put up with us. ;-) Out families are so gracious. (Although I think the 12 year old, Maria José, thinks we are all crazy.)
Anyway, a lot has happened since I posted last. On Friday, we celebrated mi mama tica’s birthday. They ordered comida from one of the nearby restaurants and we had fried seafood. :-) Most of the day, however, I was at school or in town. I scouted out the local stores to find the ingredients I need to bake the rum cake. When I went shopping, though, I got rained in and instead of trying to walk home (like I did last time...and got soaked) I thoroughly learned my lesson and just hung out at the store for about an hour. I also decided to by myself a real umbrella because my small travel umbrella was falling apart. First, I was about to buy a neat dark green umbrella, but on the way to the checkout counter, I realized it was not a paraguas (for hombres) but a sombrllas (for mujers). Apparently there is a big difference. Since I didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb, I went back and got a paraguas negra (black umbrella) that is for hombres. I got home, and my familia told me it was an umbrella for niños, pero no esta por muchachos y hombres. Turns out a bought an umbrella that is for kids under 12 (I was thinking portability I guess :-P). So many choices, I never realized buying an umbrella was so hard ;-)
On Sabado, we (mi familia y yo) got up early and went shopping in Heredia at a HUGE food market (see my picture album on Facebook). This is where my familia goes shopping. We bought several bagfuls of fruit. I would have taken more pictures, but I was carrying two large bags so too bad :-P Apparently people openly sell pirated videos at the market. I could have bought Star Trek for a few dollars but my conscious overcame my NPR instinct and I refrained. It seems like the venders burn DVD’s on their home computers and make their own packaging. It actually looks very professionally done, but you can tell very easily that these are pirated videos. Anyway, I just think it is interesting that pirated videos are the norm here. In the US, there is a lot of piracy, but here, it seems like people don’t even realize it; it is completely culturally acceptable and done by legitimate business. Anyway...it truly is a different world.
That afternoon, a whole bunch of family members came to the house to celebrate mi mama tica’s birthday. I met Sofia y Ricardo, the two grandchildren and they are really cute. But Ricardo is a little bit of a brat for a three year old. I am sure he has no idea what he is doing but he goes around giving people the finger with a big smile on his face. A whole ton of his family think its cute :-P Anyway, I played catch with them for about an hour and then Noah and I entertained them with our computers. They loved the games on Noah’s iPhone and they played with PhotoBooth effects on my computer for a bit.
That night we went dancing. One of Noah’s classmates had a birthday that day and so we asked our familia’s a good place to dance. Our families all recommended a place called “La Rumba.” Some of our other classmates (whose don’t exactly have the same standards we do) said that they had been there and that it was lame, too tranquil, and they recommended another place. We ignored them and went with the suggestion of our families and I am SO glad we did. If this place was “tranquil” then I don’t ever want to see what “lively” is. The place was very upstanding and respectable. I am thankful it was not a raunchy place where people got drunk. It was actually a very good dancing establishment. I guess the best way to say it is that considering it is not a Christian environment, it was about as good as it gets. But the culture here is very...passionate; there were dancers all around that we hope were married. It is interesting, though the difference between the US and this hispanic culture. It seems like there is a huge difference in intent and connotation here. The Costa Rican people are extremely pro-family. The same action that in the United States would be interpreted and intended to be suggestive in the United States is not the same here because the intent is completely different. People dance truly to have fun, and it completely changes the environment.
Anyway...I will write more later, but I have to go now. Hasta mañana!
This is dad again. When I was in Florida it rained everyday, especially in the afternoon. A tropical storm would just loom in from a distance, swiftly cover Orlando as a blackish cloud, dump about 4 inches and then move on to make way for another cloudburst coming soon from the Atlantic or Gulf.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I had not gotten soaked. The lights in the Shingle Creek Resort Convention Center did go out during the severest downpour, but only for a few seconds.
Tell us more about the food... Actually, take pictures of the food you've been eating and post them on Facebook. I met a gentlemen who travels around the world on business and that's what he does using his iPhone. His iPhone screensaver shows a Five Guys soda cup.
Love,
Dad
Hola mi sobrino Gregorio, soy su Tia Gayle. Escribi una e-mail mas temprano hoy, pero no se si tu recebilo. Tingo mucho problemas con mi e-mail con "Verizon". Yo llame su mama y se dice que tu tiene un "blog". ! Que interesante!
ReplyDeleteSi tienes tiempo, va a la vocan "Poas" en la fin de la semana. Cuanto acercarte, las gases de sulfur son muy fuerte. Un buen excursion para la tarde es el muso de Oro in San Jose. Actualidad, hay dos museos value por un visitante.
Hasta tarde,
Tia Gayle