Big City Livin'

Since I last posted, I have made TWO big trips into San jose, the capital of the province where I am living and of the country. On Friday we caught the 6:30 am bus to Plaza Vizquez, where we met our group of 48 other gringos and inconspicuously made the 15 minute walk to the PANI facilities, where we are having our core training. After a long day of talking about safety and security, health and what not to do, we went in search of pizza and beer and unfortunately could not find the combination so we opted for pizza. I think we were kind of on the outskirts of the city but were advised to stay around there because there are some not so nice parts of San jose, so there wasn't much going on. Thursday we are going to explore the whole city so hopefully I will have a better sense of it then. We bused home to Tarbaca only to turn around 10 hours later and go back to San Jose for our teaching English training. We learned to teach English to Spanish speakers by being taught Hawaiian during the course, which was somehow effective. We got some useful tools and now I am feeling more confident about crafting a lesson plan, which I am going to have to do next week to teach English to a group of three or more people in Tarbaca by myself...ahhh.

After another long day we opted for beer this time and found a kind of sketchy saloon-like bar restaurant near PANI. We headed back on the bus around 6 but went past Tarbaca to Vuelta de Jorco, a town 15 minutes away where 6 other CED volunteers live. Carmet had us over for a fiesta on her lovely porch where homemade salsa and chili cone carne were served along with many cold beers and my new favorite food group, butter cookies with chocolate. We danced some salsa and merengue (or at least attempted to) and I have some amusing pictures to prove it, but my Internet is pretty spotty right now, so I might now be able to upload them.

Today was finally a day off, in which I slept until 6:30, only to be awoken by a man outside my window who was apparently selling dogs at 6:30 in the morning. I guess it was really the dogs that woke me up...But I went for a great walk/hike during which many cars stopped and asked me where I was going and offered me a ride and i had to explain with my limited Spanish vocabulary that I was just talking for the sake of walking and not really going anywhere. After breakfast I went with my host sister to Acosta, a nearby town with more amenities than Tarbaca, and she showed me her high school and I had my first real Costa Rican ice cream, chocomenta, which was heavenly. Then we came home and did some homework outside while listening to Spanish ska, her favorite kind of music. 

Now I'm in my newly discovered favorite place, an Organic Cafe up the hill from my house that has delicious beverages and treats for non-coffee drinkers as well as wireless, although it's not working so well for me right now. Tomorrow Spanish class begins again and next weekend I am going on my PCV visit, where each trainee is assigned a site to go visit a current volunteer and spend three nights observing their life and work, which should be pretty cool and helpful for me to get a better idea of what kind of site I am most interested in working in. I will attempt to post some pictures before then if my connection improves, and I promise to write to/call you all as soon as I get my bearings (ie figure out where to buy a cheap phone card and get better Internet).

Pure Vida, 

Katie