Day 6
On
the 2nd, I went to the Bull Parade with Chandler and her family. Of course, we
met more sisters. Luckily we were able to sit for this parade, so that was
nice. As we sat there waiting for it to start, more and more of Chandler’s
family kept coming over and greeting each other. It’s weird, you never know who
is going to give you the customary kiss on the right cheek and who is not. Lets
just say we got a lot of kisses that day. Chandler’s cousin (?) lady kept
coming over to us with strange foods that we felt we couldn’t refused, even
though we weren’t sure exactly what they were. We had chichirones, which are
basically what is between the layer of fat and skin on a pig. Apparently there
are two different kinds, one that is really good with lots of meat, and one
that is really crunchy. Of course, that’s the one we tried. Chandler couldn’t
quite get through hers, so I ate it. There was something a little iffy about
it, but it was fried and I was craving KFC, so I just went with it.
The
bulls were really awesomely huge. But the hand painted carts they were pulling
were amazing. There was so much detail, and all the designs were geometrical
and symmetrical. Unfortunately, several of the bulls decided to drop huge nasty
and also runny number twos right in front of our spot. Soon after it started to
rain, which only made to poop situation worse. I don’t know how many people
went slipping through the brown mud that just happened to be placed in the
middle of the road.
After
the parade, we had lunch at Chandler’s aunt’s(?). We had lots of funny
conversations, as usual. And Chandler’s uncle was the only male. He started
telling us all about the differences between Spanish and English. It was quite
the lesson. Later that day, I splurged and bought white chocolate covered
coffee beans and Pepsi which have been helping get through all the cravings
I’ve been having for foods from back home. They made everything so much better.
Day 7
On
the 3rd we had our first day of school! Finally, right? It is almost
like we are back in high school. We have Spanish from 8:30 to 11, go home for
lunch and have history from 1:30 to 3:15. Class was pretty boring the first
day, but school is school, wherever you are.
After
class Chandler and I finally got cell phones! It was so simple. We went to this
store called Claro with some of our classmates. It was right across the street
from the museum where we go to school… We just walked in, and asked for their
cheap phone. It was about 30 dollars for the phone and the chip, which really
means that we got screwed on the other chips we bought. But at this point we
didn’t care. Yay cell phones!
Day 8
On
the 4th, we had service learning and ecology. I found out that I get
to be partners with Chandler for our community service, so that was a relief. I
was pretty worried that about Chandler getting lost if she had to get there on
her own ;) We found out we are working at the CEN San Juan, which is an
educational/nutrition center for underprivileged kids between about 3 and 6.
BUT it is in San Juan, which sounds far away, but it actually isn’t that bad.
We have to either take the public bus or take a 35 minute walk (which doesn’t
sound very pleasant).
Our
ecology teacher is really young and speaks perfect English. He is from Costa
Rica but studied in the US for a long time, and actually married a woman from
the US. He basically spoke English the whole time which was aaaaamazing, but
kind of defeats the whole purpose. He told us about our up coming field trip
and his plan to take us to a waterfall. The bad news was that he said we would
see a minumum of 5 snakes! Ahhhh! And they are all poisonous, and we have to
wear all long sleeves because we don’t want to get bit. I was really looking
forward to the trip after that.
Day 9
The
5th, the big day! We were sitting in Spanish in the morning
listening to our teacher. I started to feel the table shake a tiny bit, and I
turned to look at Chandler. She asked me if I was shaking me leg, which I often
am, but I wasn’t. We looked at each other in horror, both of our eyes getting
huge, as the room really started to shake. Everyone was looking around at each
other in shock, not sure exactly what was going on. Eventually, when the room
was rocking back and forth we realized it was an earth quake. Our teacher, who
is only two years older than us, got off her desk and nonchalantly basically
said, ok let’s get out of here. So we are all laughing (not sure why) and
joking around about each others reactions. The building is still rocking by the
way. And so we walk out of the class room, about to go down the stairs, and we
peek into the other class room and see all of our classmates, under their
desks. For some reason this makes all of us laugh. I don’t know if it was being
in a foreign country or being so far removed from elementary school, but all my
years of earthquake drill training went right out the window.
Finally the earthquake stopped. It
lasted probably about 45 seconds. It started off pretty soft but ended up
shaking pretty hard. It was tough to get back to class after that. We found out
it was a 7.6 earthquake. None of our phones were working, the power was out,
there was no internet, and there
was no water. My first thought was, oh no, my dad is going to be FREAKING out.
He probably thinks I’m dead. Oh how I know him so well.
So
not only did I have no way to contact my family but I had nothing to do when I
went home for lunch. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but the normal routine
that I have here is I come home, I check my email/facebook, I watch a little
Friends on TV, I go to the kitchen, get a plate of food and sit down at the
kitchen table and watch either the news or telenovelas with my family haha. I
don’t know how they did such a great job placing us in our families. How did
they know I always watch TV with my family at home while we eat? It really is
crazy. BUT there was no internet or cable or power at the house. So what do you
do when there is nothing to do? I guess that is when you talk! So it was great
not having access to anything because I really got to talk and get to know my
host brother, Guillermo. Granted, we finally had a full on conversation in
English, but it was nice to finally be able to actually express myself.
So
I got to hear all about my families experiences from the earth quake.
Apparently (if I heard correctly) my mom and tita started screaming and running
out of the house into the street, and my mom was jumping up and down (because
apparently it makes you not feel the earthquake). Then Guillermo starts to tell
me about his experience, and I can’t stop laughing. (Hopefully you aren’t
reading this, but if you are sorry if I embarrass you! I told you I may use
your life for my stories and benefit) I guess he was naked when the earthquake
started (haha). Not exactly sure why, but I’m going to go ahead and assume he
was about to shower? Anyways, the power went out, and he had not clothes and
had to find pants in the dark while the earth was shaking. As you can imagine,
I’m sure it was a pretty funny scene.
So
since we had nothing better to do, we got to talking and that was really nice.
He told me some very funny stories, which to spare his embarrassment, I will
not share at this time. Of course we went through the whole, “what are you
studying?” “Creative writing” “Oh, what does that even mean? What are you going
to do with that? How are you going to make money?” hardy har stuff. And so I
informed him of my plan to live in my parent’s basement until I come up with something
brilliant. (Thanks mom and dad!)
After
all the earthquake talk, I had history class and then dance class. Oh how
embarrassing that was. We learned “salsa” but how can you really learn a
complicated dance in an hour and half? I really do not enjoy dancing in room
full of mirrors in front of 16 other people. Now if it was just me and some
crazy friends from back home I know, that would be another story. But salsa was
hard for me, and I believe the majority us from what I saw. And since there is
only one boy in our group it was very confusing dancing and not knowing who was
the man who was the woman.
After
salsa, I went to Chandler’s to try to call my family because her family has
free calling to the US. So I called my dad and he didn’t realize it was me.
When he finally did he started freaking out. I had nailed it. He was so
worried. I guess he didn’t find out until 2 PM and I’m sure he immediately
thought the worst. But he was glad to hear from me, and probably very angry
that no one ELSE had called him to let him know I was ok. For his sake, I
decided to call him first, since I knew he would be the most worried. (You’re
welcome Dad). After talking with my family back home, I got a call on my cell
from my tica mom. I started to panic! I thought, omg! She’s calling me! I can
hardly understand what she tells me in person, there is no way I’m gonna be
able to have a conversation on the phone! So I answer and basically get that
the power is still off and that they are going out for food, or I should go out
for food, or something along these lines. I wasn’t entirely sure. So when we
are done I call Guillermo, and I ask him what she said. He just happens to be
standing right next to her, so of course he leans over and asks her. And I’m
saying no, no, no, don’t ask her! Haha You were standing right there, can’t you
tell me? I told her I understood! So that was embarrassing.
So
after all the confusion, I found out that I should go out to eat, because we
couldn’t cook at the house. So Chan and I went on a search for food. We passed
by this little hole in the wall pizza place. Oooo pizzzzzaaaaa… It sounded so
amazing! So we went to circus pizza and ordered an Americano (which was
pepperoni). We drank coke and fanta and talked and ate great pizza. It was so
great. The worker was really nice and even turned on country music for us! It
instantly became our new favorite place. We felt so at home. Hadn’t seen
Chandler smile so wide the entire trip. It was a crazy day, and a great night
I realize that this is day 9, and I’ve been here over a month!
Going to start focusing on specific events and not days soon! More to come.
Kristin
