Wait, we have to take classes?

I thought this was a vacation!

There is a lot of homework on top of everything else we have going on here than I feel like I have had so far in college! I have class in the morning for LASP from 8 until 11:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We have speakers come in and talk to us about a different issue each day related to Latin America. We have discussed Colonialism, Costa Rican History, Economic systems, the War on Drugs, Poverty and the providence of Limon so far. It has been really interesting and presented new ideas that blow my mind every time. I think that this experience is really important to have. I believe that everyone should have to study abroad in college because we need to see the world from another perspective at times! It has been really interesting to understand the United States from a Latin American Perspective. Every day I am blown away with new thoughts and new convictions as to how to live my life! Then in the afternoons Monday through Friday I have Spanish classes at ICADs from 1:30-4:30. I am in the second lowest Spanish class of all the students here and there are 2 other girls in my class. It's like in cross country...we are the fast of the slow kids! The ones you cheer for because we are trying! LOL! We are all about at the same level, but all have different skills than the others. I understand a lot better than they do, but we are defiantly at the same level. We have a quiz every Friday and a final presentation by the end of the five weeks we have classes! We are learning really quickly! And it helps I’m sure to be surrounded by Spanish all the time! I love it when I can ask what a word means and my family or teacher can explain what it is to me in Spanish and I can understand what the word is! The language barrier is tough and frustrating, but I do enjoy learning the language. I walk to ICADs with a couple friends every day, it is a 45 minute walk there and I also walk home as well! My friend Sarah and I have made friends with the receptionist at ICADS because she lives close to us and we walked home with her the other day. Her name is Pamela and she is married and awesome! My first tican friend. She is our age and I hope that we will be able to walk home with her often and maybe hang out a few other times as well!

Besides Lasp and ICADs which I will only have for 5 weeks and am already on week 3, we go to Nicaragua for a couple weeks, I travel around costa Rica studying the rainforest and everything, and then I will have an internship…counting sea turtles, collecting iguana eggs, something crazy awesome, lastly we all get to travel to Cuba for a week or so! I think that it is going to be an amazing semester! Just keep praying for me to have courage with the language barrier because until I get across that it is tough!

Guanacaste not Guadalajara

When I was trying to think of the place we were going it came out Guadalajara in conversation with my mom and she laughed at me and said that we were not going to Mexico! 

Last weekend my family and I went to the beach in Guanacaste Costa Rica. We went to stay with my aunt Yadi at her apartment. After the process of getting out of my Spanish class on Friday, we were ready to go early Friday morning. We left around 5:30 and took the 6 am bus to Guanacaste. The taxi Adri called got here a little early so we were rushing out the door! On the bus there, everyone fell asleep except for Fabi who said that he wanted to see everything! Everything I saw out the window, I wanted a picture of; however, I didn’t feel safe getting my camera out on the bus! 

This country is so beautiful and changes so quickly! Guanacaste is a very hot and dry place, it reminded me a little of being in Nebraska or Colorado in the summer time. The bus ride took about 4 and a half hours, with a 15 minute break at a rest stop with a couple snack shops. My aunt met us outside of this mall in what seemed like the middle of nowhere! We took a taxi to her apartment which was like a five minute walk away. However, because it was so hot, it was nice to get to take a taxi with great air conditioning! She gave me my own room with a single bed, and my mom and sister slept on a blow up mattress in the living room, I felt bad about it, but they are very hospitable people. After lunch of meat and rice and beans and salad, we left for the beach! But on arriving at the bus station, we realized that the bus had just left! So my mom and aunt had me wait with the kids while they found a taxi to take us to the beach, they didn’t want me with them because then the price for the taxi is so much more expensive! Since I am a gringa and apparently gringas have money! LOL! So we took a taxi to the beach and spent the afternoon there. We went to Playa Panama. It was beautiful and had black sand. The waves were fun to play in and I enjoyed taking pictures of my family playing!

I was also blessed with the opportunity to take pictures of some amazing birds!

 

We took the bus home, which took about an hour, but it was fun to see the country side more. On the walk home in the dark, favi was a little freaked out! He is so fun! Also, I checked my email and got my pin for my credit card just before I needed to use it! I got cash from a carjeta automatica or an ATM! It was literally just in time! That night I didn’t eat much for dinner because I was still full from lunch and when it is really hot it is hard to find an appetite. They were really worried that I didn’t like the food, I did, I just wasn’t hungry! I went to bed pretty early that night after watching several Disney channel shows in Spanish with my brother and sister in my aunt’s bed! She made me feel more at home there, then I do in my house in San Jose! 

 

The next day, I got up around 8 to get ready for the beach and then we didn’t go until after lunch. That was hard for me to understand since in my actual family, when we go to the beach, we go to the beach for the whole day…but we didn’t leave until after lunch. We missed the bus again because it left 10 minutes early and we had gotten there right when it left. So we took another taxi to the beach and decided not to go Sunday because it was so expensive to take a taxi! We spent the afternoon at Playa Hermosa, which was a touristy beach! There were a few older gringos there! I had a lot of fun trying to body surf, but the waves were really intense there and I was afraid to go too far out in fear of rip tides. At times I would get pulled under against my will and tossed and turned in a dirty sandy wave! My mom said that it was much dirtier than normal but she didn’t know why! It was natural debris, not like trash, but it was pretty dirty! However, it was a fun day at the beach and we took the bus home again that night! On the walk home, I stepped on a packet of mayonnaise that squirted all over my other leg! It was so gross! LOL! I had sand everywhere that night when I took a shower! I pulled it out of my ears for a week afterwards! We decided that we were going to walk around town on Sunday and just chill. 

Once again in my head I thought that we were going to walk around in the city and spend the day in town, but during breakfast my grandma and this random girl show up and then my aunt gave my mom a pedicure and I just read my book for class and watched TV with the kids. The girl my grandma brought with her was a neighbor who is from Nicaragua and lives in a pretty shanty house. But she was nice and it was fun to hang out with her. We didn’t leave until around 12 and walked to the mall with everyone, saw grandma and the girl off and just meandered around the mall and the house and then went home and ate lunch! I thought it was really strange that grandma came 4 and a half hours out to visit for a few hours, but whatever works!

We headed home Monday morning around 6:30, we took the 7 bus back to San Jose, and right as we were getting on the bus home I realized that I was missing a meeting for class! But after worrying all day to no end, when I did talk to Trevor on Tuesday, he said that it wasn’t a big deal at all! I hate worrying, there is no point and it drains me! I got home, ate lunch and ran out the door to meet my friend Sarah to walk to Spanish class. It was a great weekend at a beautiful beach!

Mi Familia

Sorry to all for not blogging in so long…I’m sure you are all wondering where I am and what I am up to! Living with a family here has been a wonderful rewarding experience but has also been time consuming and difficult. It is a demanding experience to transfer from living on one’s own and providing for oneself to have to find a role in a new family and spend time with that family. I forgot what it was like to live in a family and get my homework done and spend time on myself. It is a great balancing act!

My family is wonderful! My mother Adriana is a wonderful women, she is a stay at home mom and sometimes sells food to the people at the pharmacy or some of the employees at lasp (which is the program I am here through). She is 40 but looks so young. Adriana is very beautiful and very patient with me, especially with the language barrier! Today, when I told her she was beautiful, she responded, “I know!” That was the best response to a complement I had ever heard! I can’t wait to start saying that J  She is an incredible cook and I have not been hungry at all since I have been here! I eat so much! I have found that I love beans and rice or here it is called gallo pinto. Her empanadas are so amazing I can’t wait to try and cook them! She is a wonderful lady and I love her very much and hope that she likes me as well!

 One day, I decided to tell Adri that I really liked to cook and wanted to learn all her ways! But due to my terrible Spanish, I found out in my Spanish class the other day that what I actually said to her was I like nasty and wanted her to teach me! The word for nasty and cooking in Spanish are similar! LOL! That was why she kept correcting me! Cocina not cucina. Just a little antidote for your entertainment! I just keep failing and failing, but I am learning!

I also, in addition to having the greatest mother ever, have two siblings!

Priscilla, or as the family calls her Pris, is beautiful and smart and is always wanting to try and speak English with me! But they are only supposed to speak Spanish so that I will learn! Though sometimes they will say things in English that I know in Spanish and I just laugh at them ;) Pris is 10 years old and is in that awkward stage between being a kid and being more grown up! She likes to watch Yo soy Betty, la fea, “Ugly Betty” the original Colombian version. My entire family is addicted to the show! It is so dramatic and hilarious to watch…most times I end up laughing at how dramatic it is rather than because it is funny! It is on every week night around 7 if you are ever wondering what I am doing! I usually sit and do homework or journal at the same time as watching! Pris is also a pretty good drawer and enjoys playing with her little brother fabi!

Fabian, or fabi which sounds like favi, is six years old and my little bro! I love him so much! Every day when I get home from class he runs out to the gate and screams Kris! He gives me a hug and kiss and asks me if I want to watch a movie with him in his room or play toys with him! It is the cutest thing! It is a lot of fun to spend time with him! Usually when I first get home from class I will sit in his room with him and watch some kids movie from the states in Spanish and do my homework at the same time! Fabi’s birthday is the day before mine, the day in between my real brother and sister’s birthday and my birthday! We have the same favorite animal: Elephants! He and I have a lot in common J We also both love to take pictures! I let him use my old camera (just a point and shoot) and told him he could take as many pictures as he wanted! He took pictures of all his toys! It was hilarious! One day when I was going to go to the park with them to play, after I got out of the shower and was ready to go…fabi saw me and was like, “Wow!” and then hid his face in the couch because he was embarrassed! His mom said that she thinks he is going to end up with a gringa (white/United States) wife! He is my little buddy and I enjoy attempting to play with him! It usually looks like this: I have the girl toy (usually a McDonalds happy meal type toy) and scream ayudame (help me) and he beats up whatever is the bad guy that day with his new the mole McDonald’s toy! It is fun, but I usually don’t understand what he is saying! He tells me “Te amo” (I love you) often and I really do feel loved by him!

We all live in a house about 5 minutes away from my lasp classes…which means that I arrive to class right on time every day! Everyone in Costa Rica has a gate in front of their house…robbery and crime is pretty rough in San Jose, but if you take the right precautions you will be fine! The gate in front of our house is salmon colored and past the gate there is a front porch with tile on the ground. Then inside the house you are in the living room, take two steps forward and you are in the kitchen dining room and two steps to the right and you are in front of the stove! There is a wash room/ storage room that is through the wall across from the table, they air dry all their clothes and don’t even own a dryer, which is great because when one air dries their clothes, they last longer! My room is to the left, next to the bathroom and across from my mom’s room. The kid’s room is right to the left when one enters the house; they have bunk beds and their own bathroom!  What is crazy to think about is how my house here is about the same size as my apartment in CCU, it is a little bigger but similar in size! I love the simplicity of this house and how my family has everything they need and no more. I realize how I have so much stuff that I don’t need and am thankful for this lesson in simplicity and how it makes life easier.

A few things that have been interesting to figure out about the house: the shower, toilet paper, washing clothes, the trashcan, the dishes, and I’m sure a lot more that I don’t even know yet!  The shower is electrical and when you turn it on you don’t turn it more for hot, you turn it a tiny bit, wait until you hear it start to spurt and then it is warm. The water is never hot; it is lukewarm but not hot. Besides my family, boyfriend, and friends the thing I miss most about the United States is taking long hot showers! I take about 5-10 minute showers and probably take up a lot of the hot water! It took me a while to figure out the shower, thus I took some pretty cold showers the first few days! Like I am standing there shivering to death trying to go as fast as possible! LOL! In most places here, there are signs and it is just known to put ones toilet paper in the trashcan. However, in my house there is no trash can in the bathroom, which is a little tricky when one uses feminine products! Anyway, I had just been flushing my toilet paper for the first week until I finally asked my mom what I was supposed to do. She affirmed my knowledge. The weird thing is that when one uses a feminine product they have to throw it out in the laundry room. So I have just been using a bag and will throw it all out when it gets full. I’m sure that is more information than anyone wanted to know…but I just want to express how awkward things get in a different culture! The trashcan is a sack on the wash sink that sometimes isn’t there and the trash barrels are like a metal structure that consists of a stick with a box on top to put ones trash in! But there is trash in all the streets and everywhere. From everyone I heard that I was supposed to wash my own underwear, but after talking with my mom she said that she would just throw them in with all my other clothes if that was okay with me! Which is nice, everyone else has to hand wash their own underwear. 

I made lunch for them my first Sunday here, we didn’t end up going to church because my mom wasn’t feeling good. I made homemade macaroni and cheese with hot dogs in it. While acting out what kind of bowls and pans I needed was interesting enough, it is also different that they wash their dishes to put them away and before they use them because it is a tropical place and they have a lot of bugs (cockroaches). La cucaracha, La cucaracha, ah, yayayayayai! That song comes in handy here! I haven’t seen a cockroach yet, but I know I will eventually!

Every time one leaves the bathroom the door must be shut when no one is in there. The bathroom door is always to be shut, which is very different than what I am used to in the United States. I often forget to shut the door and my mom has one of my siblings do so. I haven’t walked in on anyone yet, but I have a feeling one day I will! Also, when one is not using the electricity…or not using what is plugged in, then one unplugs it. So when I am not using my computer or my lamp, I am supposed to have those things unplugged because they use up energy just by being plugged in even if they are not on. That has been another thing to get used to!

My aunt Janet lives with us and sleeps in the same room as my mom. She is 36 and a masseuse. She makes me food at times and I feel like is constantly serving me. I love the dynamic between her and my mom because they make fun of each other often. She is nice but not very patient with me. When she asks me a question, it is super-fast and then when I understand what she asked me it takes me a while to formulate a response, but she thinks I don’t understand the question, so she re-asks me the question in like 5 different ways as I try to formulate a response! It is frustrating sometimes!  But I am learning and understand more every day!

My grandmother lives a few streets away and comes over often. She is 80 and really cute but really impatient with my language barrier. She just asks me the question again louder and slower, but when I don’t understand the words it doesn’t make a difference. She is divorced as well as my mom.

My grandfather is 76 and is from Guanacaste Costa Rica. He stayed with us for a few days but rarely came out of my mom’s room and only did so to eat. I didn’t get to talk to him much.

My mom has 4 brothers and 4 sisters. Janet lives with us, but I have also met two other sisters and a brother. One sister lives a few blocks away and I only got to see her house and say hi, I don’t even know her name. The other sister is Yadi (I really like her name) and she is 46. She lives in Guanacaste with her South Carolinian Husband. I didn’t get to meet him because he is currently in the states visiting his sick mother. Yadi had cancer but has been without for two years now, praise be to God! She was in town visiting us to get tests to see if she still had cancer, but she is clean and good to go!

We went this last weekend to visit her, but I will write more about that in another entry. She is very beautiful and strong and caring. She lives 20 minutes from the beach, which is really nice!

Last but not least, my Uncle Jose owns a sushi restaurant and when we were driving around the other day with Janet’s amigivo (boy that is a friend but not her boyfriend even though they have been close friends for 10 years) we went to my uncles sushi restaurant and he gave me some sushi and it was pretty good…I am not sure I would pay for it, but it was fun to have the experience tasting sushi! He has a daughter that is a year older than me and a son who is a couple years older than me but I have only met them both once and very briefly.

So that is a brief overview of my tica familia and mi casa and mi vida here in Costa Rica!

Just in Time

I finally got on my flight to Miami around 4 in the afternoon and barely made it! Right when I arrived in Miami I called Trevor…who was traveling with the group of us down to San Jose and he said that I just needed to get to the gate and meet the group and forget about my luggage. So that is exactly what I did! I was in the same area so I got to my gate pretty easily! I met up with my group and hit it off with some of the girls immediately…despite being so exhausted that I really wanted to be anti-social!  Luckily, the flight to San Jose was delayed around an hour that way me and the many others who had trouble flying made it just in time. I met Megan who my friend Brooke Tiley from CCU met randomly at a wedding and told me to get to know! We hit it off pretty quickly; she is very spirited, extroverted, and fun. We are going to be doing the environmental concentration together too…which will be really great! It is only going to be Megan, Josh, (maybe another girl named Leanna), and me in my concentration…which will be awesome because that means that we will get to do a lot of cool stuff and have a lot of personal attention in learning! My flight to San Jose was really great! I sat next to a lady who looked like she only spoke Spanish…and I wanted to try to speak to her a little, but I chickened out! The man on the other side of me was an older man with really long finger nails…quite the eccentric fellow. I was reading a book about Costa Rican culture and he kept giving me advice on what to expect! It was really funny! He ordered 2 beers and a bloody mary mix for the plane ride and when we were getting close he told me that he knew we were close because his second beer was almost gone. He said he has been visiting Costa Rica for about 10 years and used to have an apartment in San Jose. He gave me some good tips:

·         The Tico (Costa Rican) men are very forward and hit on pretty girls “like me” and that I should just ignore them.

·         Always bargain for a better price.

·         He also warned me about Tico time and how the Ticos never show up at the time you plan to do something…they are most always late J (They operate on their own time)

·         When we were off the plane, he even yelled at me one last tip: “Don’t exchange your money in the airport.

It was an interesting flight, but I made it to San Jose around 1 in the morning! Then once everyone else had their luggage they went out to get on the bus while me and the 5 others who didn’t get their luggage waited to ask them to find it and get it to us. Luckily, Trevor did all of the work for us! My bag was supposedly still in Ohio…it never made it out of that airport, where I waited all day! We got on the bus and got a snack and drove to the compound we were going to stay in the first night! Once we got there we grabbed out luggage and paired up into rooms for the night! I stayed with my friend Rene (who goes to Ceaderville University in Ohio) and Victoria (who is from Ohio)! It was a room full of Ohioians! Lol! We got to bed around 2am the first night in Costa Rica! What a day of travels! 

Winter Wonderland

Today is the big day of travel! I had a flight from Columbus, Ohio (home) to Chicago to Miami...where I am to meet my group in order to travel down together with them to San Jose Costa Rica. I got to the airport around 8:30, my bag was perfectly packed weighing exactly 50 lbs.! Then it all went down hill from there! It is currently snowing, there is about 2 inches on the ground and there is no sight of it clearing up anytime soon! My flight to Chicago got very delayed, so I changed my flight to a direct from Columbus to Miami that will leave at 2:20. Hopefully, I will make it out quickly and in time to get everything done and get on the plane to Costa Rica! I was supposed to meet my group at 5 pm- being through customs and having my bag transferred...but I don't get into Miami until 5:40! I called and let the man in charge know the update...though I'm sure everyone is going to be late today...since it seems like everywhere all flights are delayed! So now I sit here and wait until I get on the plane!

It seems as though my life has been in a constant stressful state for the past week! My sister just came through a surgery in which I spent most of the last week in the hospital with her...in which I got nothing done that I had hoped to be able to get accomplished. I have been running around getting the last few things I needed for my trip the last 3 days and finally at 10:30 last night was ready to go! And I ended up crashing big time! I'm excited to get down to Costa Rica finally just so I can be a little less stressed out!

They have this saying in Costa Rica, "Pura Vida" which means pure life. It is a fresh and optimistic view on life that Costa Ricans use to say "cool" or "alright". It keeps them in check with reality. This is my hope in traveling into this new place, I want to have Pura Vida! I want to live life and just enjoy everything that comes my way. God is with me and is going to teach me so much about him through this experience. My only goal is to grow closer to him! He is the giver of Pura Vida! :)

Pre-Departure

Kristine Tunnell here. Thought I would start keeping an online journal of my travels so that everyone who would like to keep in touch with me while I am out of the country and unable to communicate all the time will be able to do so! I will be in the wonderful country of Costa Rica for almost 4 months! I leave January 11th and will return to the wonderful United States on the 26th of April but won't be home until the 28th!

While down in San Jose Costa Rica I will be studying Espanol (Spanish) and Environmental Science. When I first get down there late on Tuesday night the 11th I will stay with the other kids in the program in a rec center. The 12th, I will meet my Christian host family and will stay with them for over a month! The first week I am down there I will be going through orientation. Hopefully we will be learning some customs and culture to help us not make huge fools of ourselves! Although that is very much so expected! All I can do is try to learn and understand and go into every interaction with a strong sense of humor! The next month I will be studying Spanish for 3 hours every day and taking a Costa Rican History Seminar class in which I will be going on many field trips to important landmarks and buildings in the area, listening to speakers from different careers in Costa Rica, and learning about the customs and culture of the area. This seminar is going to count as my history credit, which is nice since I didn't want to take American History again! After taking these classes I will get to travel for a while in some of the different countries in Latin America, like Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala...when I figure out where and when I'll keep you all updated. Then for the last 5 weeks of my time down there I will be traveling every week to a new destination to study environmental science. I will get to study volcanoes, the coral reefs, the mangrove forests, the cloud forests, work with sea turtles, work with the community to teach them about sustainable agriculture, and much more! It is going to be a great time! I'm really excited to go!