Viva la Vida

The schedule just said Team Building. We were given no other clues as to what was going on. Were we going to do trust falls? Do a human knot? We had no idea what to expect, but what we definitely didn't expect were Costa Rican men with sticks that have feathers and attached to either end.

On Tuesday we all gathered together at the university to become more “united.” As we walked onto a sports field which included a worn down basketball court, we were told to throw our backpacks against a tree and then come to be divided into teams. We were divided by which program we were with: Summer 2 (green team, my team), Global Impact, and two week.

Our first activity involved us holding hands in various confusing ways and passing a hula hoop over the whole group without letting go. I was put at the front of the line, and when the whistle blew to begin I climbed through the hula-hoop, and though I planned to let go, my mind never really connected with my hand, and I continued to hold the hula-hoop, which pretty quickly developed into a winning strategy. I would move with the line holding the hula hoop up for my teammates to make it easier for them to pass through. The people behind me were kind of forced to be pulled along with me as I did this. In the first round, we finished before any of the teams had gotten even halfway, and in the second round all the teams tried to mimic our strategy. We still were faster and more efficient, having gotten practice in the first round. Lots of high-fives were passed around for our accomplishment.

Our next challenge was to flip a member of our team over in various ways while she was holding water and to have the water not spill, followed by a challenge to stand up and sit down while all of us were hanging onto a rope that was tied in a circle. There was also a contest to see who could build a sort of bridge over an imaginary river with blocks faster and another to carry a tennis ball using strings from point A to point B. The ultimate test we did was we were given a man made spider web and through each hole we could have only one person pass. There were just enough holes for all of us. Being one of the lighter ones, I got to be hoisted in the air for one of the holes that was higher up and essentially got to experience a little bit of crowd surfing – though that life goal still doesn't count as accomplished.

This morning, we had to be at our activity for the day a little later than usual, at 10:00am in the morning. So my friends and I took advantage of this spare time to wake up early and walk around Heredia for a while. We took a similar route to the one we took during our tour, and just spent some extra time enjoying ourselves and taking in our surroundings. We ended at the market with the intent to buy something, but we ran out of time.

We returned to the university to have an art class, where we were given three dimensional wall hangings of a typical Puerto Rican house to paint, with assistance and help on how to do it well. In the end, all of ours turned out better than originally expected, which was a welcome surprise, and we were allowed to add a pre-made figurine to it, which ranged from a small dog to a woman carrying a pot.

Over the past few days, we've been battling with the people at the mall who sell cell phones. Every day we came back looking for a phone line or a cell phone, the process seemed to become more difficult. Finally, today it worked out. I received a local service plan for extremely cheap which is activated by a new SIM card I had to put in my phone. This will allow me to more easily and cheaply contact my friends in Costa Rica, taxis, or directors in case I need them. My other friends got cell phones, so now we can all communicate more efficiently.

And random fact of the day: For the past couple days I have been furiously scrubbing at my feet. Its extremely muddy here because of all the rain, and my feet have been dirty wherever my sandals weren't. Today, looking down, I realized it wasn't dirt/mud. It's a tan. For the last two or three days, I've been trying to scrub my tan away.

When I received my information about who my family was going to be, I was told I would have a host mother, father, brother, and two sisters. My actual family, however, is bigger than this. They forgot to mention another brother and another sister. These siblings popped up because of their association with my immediate siblings. The extra brother is the boyfriend of Mariela, my 18-year-old sister, and the extra sister is the girlfriend of Eric, my 17-year-old brother. Over the weekend, they spent most of their time at our house.

Surprisingly, there wasn't that sort of awkward dynamic between the parents and the boyfriend/girlfriend of my siblings. They were treated exactly as family. It was Eric's girlfriend's job to wash down the place mats we used for dinner every day she was here. The parents would ask the boyfriend/girlfriend to go retrieve something from the house and they would know exactly where it was. They would sit at the dinner table with us and help set the table, and were just in general completely integrated into the family.

When we are just all spending time together, they sit on the couch with us and watch television, or just talk to everyone. I don't know how long these relationships have actually been going on, but there just seems to be a much smoother integration into the family which is a bit of a contrast I feel to the United States. Though a relationship may be supported in the U.S. by the family, and the family may approve, there's never fully a sense of “He/She is part of our family,” which is very apparent here.

Julia and I walked to the University for the first time today. It's about a half hour's walk, but this is how long it takes just about everyone to get there. Our oldest sister walked us and there was a large group of our peers both in front and behind us. We agreed that we would walk with a couple of our friends tomorrow morning.

We received a tour of the University today and in general talked about what was going on this week. Today was placement test day. They divided us up first by program. The 2-week students, the Global Impact students, and the Summer 2 students were all divided up. Next, they divided us up by level. Each of us then had to take a placement test to make sure they had guessed correctly where we belonged.

Our classrooms are actually in the mall next to the university, which is a bit strange. Supposedly, those are the best classrooms La Universidad Latina owns, so no complaints there. We take two classes, one in grammar and another in conversation and culture. Our grammar teacher seems to be really laid back, while our Conversation teacher has a very inflexible plan about how the next few weeks will go. My class is made up of five students, and together we've decided to work on the LPI scavenger hunt, where students go around and essentially find out what there is to experience in Costa Rica and then do it. We call it the Reta, or the challenge.

Slowly as the group gets to know each other the pieces are beginning to fall together. We are starting to get the hang of life here. We still have a lot to learn, but we're getting it.

The first night, while my roommate was busy getting physically sick and dealing with stomach pains, I was busy with my own bout of homesickness. My roommate went to bed early to try and feel better and I was left awake alone, working on my blog. I was fine; I had no worries or qualms then. It started when I finished writing and it was time for me to get ready for bed.

I had left the light on in the bathroom for no logical reason to be completely honest. Our bathroom has a window leading outside which essentially works like those rigid hanging curtains some people have where you pull a string for them to turn left or right to let more or less light in from the outside. What this means is that it is pretty easy for a bug to get inside our bathroom, and therefore our room as well. Since it was nighttime, our light was one of the few the bugs could find, so fly to it they did. When I got into the bathroom there were at least 10 moths banging themselves against the uncovered light bulb, and more were flying in along with the occasional mosquito.

Occasionally they would settle down, but if I produced any sort of air current by moving, they would start buzzing in circles again. Not really a pleasant experience if an insect doesn't really fall under the category of being your favorite type of animal. As I moved through the bathroom, I stayed low to the ground, doing my best not to disturb the annoying moths.

When Julia and I arrived at the house, our host family showed us how to use the shower, but somehow, I just couldn't get it right. I could not get the water to be any warmer than freezing no matter how long I waited, or which way I twisted the knob. So at some point I just jumped in and out to douse myself in the Lake Michigan worthy water and repeated the process after I soaped up. I was cold, kind of miserable, and felt a lot like our chihuahua did after it poured rain and he was stuck outside. I kept thinking, “what went through my mind when I decided that Costa Rica was right for me?” and “I only have to jump in that shower twenty-eight more times, twenty-eight more times...”

Today, though, I made an effort to make adjustments. I avoided turning on the bathroom light completely if possible and asked for additional help in figuring out the shower. Hot water is possible! It works differently than in the United States. Here, showers are very much just a mechanism of cleaning yourself. They are not a place for relaxation or reflection. The way they warm the water is different as well. They use a sort of “on-demand” hot water system. Above the shower head is a sort of box. When one turns on the water, they also turn on the box. Water runs through this box before coming out of the shower. In this box is a set of coils that heat up. As water runs over them, the heat is transferred to them. As a result, the less water you use, the warmer the water, since it has more exposure to the coils. The more water you use, the colder the water, so it ends up being a sort of trade-off.

The moths ceased their spirals around my head, and the water ceased to be cold, all before the week has even begun.

There's a mall right outside of our university, complete with various stores that are similar to those in the United States, but with different names, as I believe I mentioned before. A walk down a single long street brings you to the center of the city. You must be careful as you walk, however. In order to accommodate for the endless rain that pours during the winter here (and it is currently winter), ditches are built between every road and sidewalk (where there is a sidewalk). Cars also have the right of way here as opposed to pedestrians, which is definitely something that will take some getting used to with some helps from the tugs on my shoulder from my friends.

At the center of the city, we found a park adjacent to a church, complete with street vendors and an incredible amount of greenery. There was also a plaza filled with statues. The statues are all by a single artist who was a drug addict and used art as a way of recovering. We also found a pool and a sports stadium which we are looking into to attend an event.

Towards the end of our day, we were driven down to San Jose to visit the San Jose campus of our university to have general orientation along with the ISA students. Along the way, we quickly discovered that Costa Rican ads are just not the same as those in America...

As I walk across the patio to my room, a ruckus starts up from somewhere deeper in the garden. Endless barking and growling begins as I enter my room and continues nonstop until I leave. Even my host family occasionally comes out to try and quiet the chihuahua down. Don't blame it all on the 15-year-old dog though, its the lizard's fault too. He should probably quiet down from his post on the outside wall of my room. He just sounds like a giant cricket gone wrong. And the actual cricket chirping in the background? Well, I can deal with that.

After lunch, our host parents took Julia and me for a ride around the city to sort of get a feel for the place and how it worked and where things were. We stopped at a few markets and at the local mall, across the road from my university. The mall was pretty amusing. It's just like our mall back home, but with different names for the shops. Jamba Juice turns into “Tangerines”, and Claire's turns into “Oops!” (more fitting I think).

We spent some time before dinner just sitting on the porch with our host dad getting to know each other. At dinner Julia and I presented the gifts we brought in thanks for hosting us. Julia started to feel really under the weather at this point. It had been a long day of little sleep and lots of stress, since she'd never been out of the country before and was experiencing major culture shock. She went to sleep early to snap out of her condition for the upcoming day.

This is much more of a car city than it is a walking city, and yet driving here is almost impossible. According to our host parents, we live 15 minutes by foot from the university, and when I look back on how we drove there, it seems about right. Our host parents have also been really helpful with Spanish, teaching us new words and helping us figure out how to speak correctly if we mess up the grammar and such. Tomorrow will be the first day the whole group meets up, so it'll be interesting to see what people's home stay experiences have been like thus far.