Busy Week&Weekend

Earthquake!
Okay, so my week wasn't that busy. Although, the 7.9 earthquake made it a little more interesting. This was my first earthquake..not technically but I count it as my first. When I was really young I remember we had an incredibly small earthquake but I pretty much slept through the whole thing, so I don't like to count it as an earthquake. Anyways, it happened on Wednesday, September 5th. I was sitting in history class when literally my entire world was shaken up. Not only was the ground shifting from side to side, it was tilting. Everyone in my class was running, screaming, and crying as I was looking to my teacher for help. It started off very smooth, so I assumed it was just a common small earthquake and would be over quickly. That was not the case! Suddenly it got harder. Once again I thought that would be the worst of it. By this time most of my class had ran out of the classroom and into the courtyard outside. Then, it got harder..and harder. Now, I knew I had to get out of the building so I ran with the rest of the class outside. Luckily I found I friend very quickly and she was one of the few generally calm about what we had just experienced. We stayed in one place to wait for the ground to completely calm down and when we were able to walk again, we went to find our other friends who were not doing as well. After calming some people down, my sisters found me and we started making our way to the house with a couple of my sister's friends. While they were still in tears and shaking uncontrollably, I was in utter shock. It is the wierdest feeling I have ever felt to have literally your entire world shaken up and to lose your ability to confidently put one foot in front of the other.

Busy Weekend
Now, when I say I had a busy weekend, I mean it! Friday night one of my host sister's took me to a discotheque with her and her friends for dia de los niños. It was incredibly fun, and I had a great time! Then, Saturday I pretty much slept and rested because I was exhausted from the discotheque and we didn't have any plans that day. Then on Sunday, we went to a soccer game, I got to skype with my parents, and my host sisters and a friend tried to teach me how to dance. I have come to realize that dancing like a Costa Rican is pretty much impossible if you didn't grow up dancing to spanish music. You may be able to learn the steps to a dance, but it will take an immense amount of practice to learn how to dance. We ended up going to bed around 10 30 sunday night, and I was woken up at 12:30 (only 2 hours later) to Ivannia and her friends chanting my name. This brings me to a whole new catagory.

Monday's Ceremony
Each year, every section that is in their last year of school does something like this to celebrate. They don't do it as a whole grade, they do it with the kids in the class. Only one person knows the night and day that it will be, and it is up to them to plan everything. Here is how the tradition goes:
You have a cattle car, and written down where everyone lives. Depending on where you are in the line up decides how much sleep you get that night. The cattle car goes to everyone's house to pick them up. When you arrive at the house, you take anything loud you can find and bang on the windows, the doors, the walls, and sing as loud as you possibly can to wake the person up. When the person wakes up, you rush them to get   their stuff, take some of their food, and get them into the cattle car. In the cattle car, everyone was screaming, chanting, and a few made the attempt to sleep..although it was a very loud and bumpy ride so I don't think that worked out very well. We made it to the center of Naranjo at about 2 :30 in the morning and waited there until 4:30 for the bus to take us to wherever we were going. We arrived in a place called Fortuna de San Ramon at about 6:30 in the morning and everyone showered(no one was looking their finest at this point), ate breakfast, and headed straight for the pool. We spent the entire day in this gorgeous residancy playing various games in the pool, playing pool, foosball, and basketball in a small room they had, singing karaoke, and dancing to spanish music. Dancing to spanish music was not a highlight for me since, as explained before, I have a lot of difficulty with it. One of the guys who is a phenominal dancer asked me to dance and I had to explain to him that I simply don't know how! It was incredibly embarresing. But, overall I had a great time and was honored that Ivannia's friends wanted me to join them on the trip! We ended up getting home around 6:30 at night, and I headed for bed at 7:00. My family didn't make me go to school today since I was so exhausted, so that is the only reason I have time for this blogpost!

Well, I believe that is it for this week and weekend. I hope everything is well with my readers and I hope you are enjoying my blog!

Tieta

Playa, Playa, Playa

Yesterday I went to my first tropical beach! It was absolutely gorgeous and the waves were amazing. I would say I have mastered how to not get tossed around by a massive wave! I went with my host dad, and my three host sisters. My host mom doesn't like the beach because she doesn't know how to swim..so I think it is pretty understandable that she gets scared by the waves and isn't very fond of the beach. Also, we unfortunately did not make it to the beach that has monkeys and sloths because of something having to do with the amount of rain, and the beach having a lot of trash. My host dad did explain though that when the weather changes, we will make it to that beach as well!
At the beach, even though it is not tourist season, there were plenty of surfers! Most of them were speaking english, but it was very obvious that they were not from the United States, due to the variety of different accents.

On to a different subject, I am having a fair amount of trouble with my Spanish skills. Languages are most definitely not a strength of mine. I try to talk more and more, but I feel bad when my host family and I or my friends and I lack communication. I know that everyone is trying their hardest to help me, but so far I am pretty unsuccesful as far as picking up the language. I think one of the biggest problems is how I came here for the experience, for the travel, and to become a part of a new culture. As far as those goals, I would say I that has gone extremely well! Although, learning spanish was more of an after-thought for me. I don't see it as a big priority, especially when talking to the other exchange students. 99% of the exchange students are either fluent or almost fluent in english! I enjoy expressing myself through english and learning about complicated ideas and concepts through english rather than being at the same speaking level as a 2 year old.
I also think that my need for change is hurting me a little bit. For most people, change is seen as a bad thing and people fear change. As for me, if I get into a routine and if I am in one place for a long amount of time, I get extremely bored and start thinking of new places I want to see and experience. I am not saying I think I have seen everything there is to see in Costa Rica, because that is 100% not true! Me wanting to see more, is the problem. I have a desire to learn more about the culture and see more of the country.. but it is extremely difficult with the language barrier. Well, that is enough for my ranting. I have 19 weeks left and about 13 weeks left of school, wish me luck!

Tieta

Costa Rican Culture Becomes Normal

For a while now, I have felt at home here but I am beginning to realize how accustomed I am now to their culture and ways of life. I am no longer surprised when I hear people randomly whistle or howl when someone gets up during class, when there are dogs constantly at your feet, when there are thunderstorms that could take away your ability to hear, or when someone pulls a snake out of their backpack on the city bus or at school.

I don't feel like there is much to tell here, as things become normal for me. My adventures most likely are not normal for my readers..but they are normal for me. Such as when we were getting jogotes(delicious fruit) from a tree in the mountains, and were caught in the middle of the biggest storm I had ever seen. I was scared out of my mind while my host family continued getting jogotes from the tree. Of course when we finally made it back to the house safely, the storm was pretty much over. I have made peace with that and the daily thunderstorms no longer frighten me or surprise me the smallest bit.

Second Orientation
Last weekend we had our second orientation to check in on everyone's progress and get the different visas settled. Although many parts of it were broing and repetative, I had a lot of fun. I made friends with more kids from around the world and thoroughly enjoyed comparing my schooling system in the US, to theirs in their country, to here in Costa Rica. The kids from Germany agree that it isn't normal to bring snakes to school for them, either. Although that is besides the point! Mostly from talking to them, I realize how little I know and how much I want to know. I have the desire to learn about each and every culture that I got a taste of this weekend.

Upcoming Weekend
I am extremely excited for this weekend, because I am finally getting the chance to go to the beach with my host family! Apparently they have monkeys there, and sloths, and other animals that I don't know of! I am sure you will be hearing about how that went in my next blog post! Also, on Friday I am not going to school so that I can go to San Jose with my sister to buy a traditional dress of Costa Rica. I need it for something that Naranjo is doing on the 15th od Sebtember..but I am still not completely positive what exactly.

Anyways, I really need to be seeing more improvement in my Spanish skills, so I should go converse with my family! I hope everything is well with my readers and to everyone in South Burlington High School, I hope your first day went well!

Tieta

One Month

I have been in Costa Rica now for just over a month, and I am realizing how little time I have here. 5 more months in this beautiful country with these amazingly nice and open people. 5 more months with the opportunity of a lifetime to continue stepping out of my comfort zone and experiencing everything that Costa Rica has to offer. Unfortunately, I do not have much to talk about for this blog post but I know friends and family are wondering how things are going here and I am trying to update my blog about once a week. So, for this blog post, you are in for a couple short stories.

Snakes And Cockroaches

Last week in school, I held my friend's snake. It was one of those moments where you just need a couple seconds of courage to do something that causes fear to run through your body. Fortunately, the snake was a regular size at this point, but it is the kind that when it gets to be bigger, could easily strangle you without any effort. It took a while after my initial freak out to build up the courage to hold it, but I did! Although, me holding the snake wasn't what surprised me the most about the whole situation. It was the fact that teachers weren't surprised to see a kid bring a snake to school, and the other kids were intrigued enough to want to hold it rather than think that the situation was abnormal in any way. As I was holding it and panicking a little, my friend was laughing and said, "bienvenida a Costa Rica, verdad?" meaning, welcome to Costa Rica, right? So yes, that was a great welcome into Costa Rican culture.

As for the cockroaches, I had to comment on them. I have only seen a couple, but I know a lot of exchange students who have seen multiple. I have only seen one in my room and one in a classroom at school. It is awful seeing people try to kill them, though. It was like a game for the entire class to step on it. Of course, the cockroach didn't die; they never do.

More Rolling Hills Filled With Coffee

On Wednesday, we didn't have school because it was mothers day here. So, my host family and I decided that would be a good day to collect plantain tree leaves..I am not actually positive what they are called but they are massive leaves from plantain trees that they collect around this time of year and cook with in December and January. It was about a two hour adventure there and back with both sunshine and heavy rain taking turns.On the way, we collected guavas, oranges, and lemons to eat there and on the way back. Once again, there was an amazing view of the coffee plants. It was a moment where you realize how big the world is, and how small you really are. When you are looking at enormous mountains such as these, all of your problems quickly shrink to the size of a penny.

I do not have many other stories to share that pertain to life in Costa Rica. Fortunately I have been able to become good friends with another exchange student from the United States who is living a town about 20 minutes away from me. It is good to have her so we can talk and do things together that I can't do with my host family or friends from school. On Saturday I showed her the spot I mentioned in an earlier blog post about the soccer here and how after my family and friends showed me a view at the top of a mountain. We also managed to get our own oranges from an orange tree!

Well, I hope everyone who is reading this is doing well and enjoying hearing about my time in Costa Rica! Less than 5 months to go, and I am ready to do everything I can to enjoy it!

Tieta

The Rain Drags on, and They Continue Dancing/ Happy Goodnight

The rainy season has finally decided to show itself in Naranjo, Alejuela, Costa Rica. Every day for about the past 5 days we have had a fair amount of rain and thunderstorms. I named this blog post The Rain Drags on, and They Continue Dancing beacuse I feel it reflects the tico (Costa Rican) attitude. Ticos/ticas love to dance. If a song comes on that they like, they will get up from the couch and everyone will start dancing and laughing together. A couple nights ago, we were sitting on their porch when out of the blue it started raining harder than I have ever seen. My younger host sister (13 years old) got up, went out from under the roof over the porch, and started dancing to her favorite song with my 16 year old sister. I'm not positive if this is only something common in my host family and their friends, but either way, that one moment summed up their overall attitude for everything.

Happy Goodnight

Happy Goodnight is a saying that my family has created and adopted for their own. Sometimes rather than saying buenas noches before going to bed, they say feliz buenas noches. They once asked me what that is in english, so I gave them the direct translation. Happy goodnight. I tried explaining to them that in the United States, we just say goodnight when we are going to bed, but now every night they insist on saying Happy Goodnight to me. That isn't much of a story, but to me it shows their efforts to make me feel at home.

All is well here in Costa Rica. My spanish is improving, and I am much more confident within the family. The idea of being here for 6 months (about 5 more months now) is settling in. On one hand, it feels like forever, and on the other hand it feels like no time at all. I am trying to focus on living in the moment while I am here and enjoying every second I can, because soon enough I will be back in South Burlington telling stories about my time here in Costa Rica..I need to make sure I have good stories to tell rather than saying I have regrets because I spent too much time thinking about home or what it will be like when I come back. I hope everyone is enjoying the blog and if you want to read about my best friend's journey in Chile, check hers out as well! She arrived in Chile on Friday and just met her host family recently! eebriody.blogspot.com

Adios!

Tieta Keetle

3 weeks

It has now been three weeks since I left South Burlington! It seems like a long time, yet not because I still have a little over 5 months here in Costa Rica! Things are looking up with people at school, I am now sure I have made at least a couple new friends! Everyone is extremely willing to help me understand questions and make an effort to keep me included. They always encourage me to talk more, because they know that's the best way to learn. That is definitely my biggest problem, though. I have never been someone to talk much at school, but now it is necessary I do so if I want to become fluent in spanish and if I want things to get easier with the language barrier.

My host dad was telling me the other day how last year they went on a trip to an island by kayaking there and staying overnight. I'm not sure if it is a yearly thing that they do or if it was one time, but I am really hoping they do it again while I am here!

I don't believe I have mentioned the showers here, and they were definitely a shock. It is more of a spicket in the bathroom with water that literally takes your breath away. Luckily, I am starting to get used to that and I know I will be grateful for it when it gets hot out! I'm hoping that will be soon because I am not enjoying needing my sweatshirt and jeans all the time. On the other hand, our school uniforms are pants and a hot shirt, so maybe the weather should stay a little cold for longer so that I don't over heat during school!

Well, that's it for now! I can't think of much to write about, so if anyone is dying to know something, let me know and I can post the answer so everyone can see!

Tieta

Events In the Past Week

In the past week I have been going to school, and seeing little pieces of Naranjo. On Saturday we went to a town called Zarcero where they had sculptures made out of trees, and once again beautiful views on the way there. After, I met more family and friends when we went to San Juan for a little cousins' birthday party. On Sunday me and one of my host sisters attended a gathering for people in Naranjo and we hiked in the rain forest and planted trees. That was probably my favorite thing I have done so far, because I was finally able to see a different side of Costa Rica and talk with a lot of nice people! It rained a lot, everyone was drenched even with umbrellas, and I loved every second of it. I have been getting very antsy to do more things like that because I have had a lot of free time on my hands that I spend either on the computer or sitting outside the house.

As for school, it has been hard. People make an effort to talk to me, and I feel bad when we can not communicate as much as I would like. A couple of the guys have resorted to using the little they know of english to talk to me because I can´t understand them when they speak in spanish and I can never find the right words to successfully talk to them back in spanish. As much as people try to include me, I don´t feel like I fit in at all. Hopefully that will change soon because everyone in my class is really nice and I would love to get to know them more!

I promise I will post pictures at some point, when I have the ability to ask them how to do it on their computer!

Tieta