Costa Rican Phrase of the week: really?/seriously? -- ¿al chile? [al chee-lay]
This is used just like the Spanish phrases "¿En serio?" or "¿De verdad?". Just a little Costa Rican twist, and a little bit more slangy.
Percent complete: 62%
I'll keep this one short...
Time is flying by here. I can't believe that in 3 days, I will have been here for 4 months, and in only 2 and a half months, I'll be on my way back to the US. It truly has been unbelievable though and I expect a lot out of the next 38% (which, if I get to do everything that I did in the first 38%, should be quite an adventure). Classes are really making it a lot harder to travel though, so I doubt I will get to leave the city as much as I would like... I guess I can't complain though since I am here, after all, to study. Speaking of classes, they keep getting harder and are becoming more of a workload, but that's expected. I have two tests, a quiz, and a paper all due next week (which are basically my midterms, while everyone back home is preparing for finals...weird). I have made lots of Tico friends in classes and my Natural History class has our second field trip next week. The first one was fun and educational; for each one we have to do a species collection of either plants/trees or animals, which is interesting to learn more about specific types of tree species, etc., of Costa Rica.
A few of us had agreed previously on yesterday (May 1) to be the start of our "full submersion". Although we speak lots of Spanish around the city, in classes and with our host families, we always seem to slip into English while with others in the group (expected, because it's more comfortable). As of yesterday, we are going to try and not speak any English other than that with family and friends back home, and on social media (blog included, I would want you all to have to Google translate these posts). It should be interesting, but also very beneficial for improving language skills. My English might take more of a hit, but I guess that's part of it. Speaking of, I made up another word last week: interpretary. Instead of interpretive. I might start keeping track of them.
Oh! I finally bought an umbrella and have had to use it a few times. It's raining pretty much everyday here now, some more than others, but I can basically count on a shower in the 4:00pm to 6:00pm window.
Off topic: Obama comes tomorrow to San José to meet with Laura Chinchilla (the Costa Rican president) with some tour to strengthen Central American ties, or something. Anyway, the whole city is pretty much shutting down to keep people off of the roads so the transit isn't super congested. Kind of funny that that is a problem.
There are only a few places left on my list of "to visit", so hopefully I can get to those before the July 15 departure (one of which, Corcovado National Park, I will be very upset if I don't get to because it's home to ~5% of the biodiversity on the planet, but it's rather hard to get to so I need to find a 5 day chunk to make it possible). This last weekend we made a return trip to the Santa Teresa area (see Day 39 of the blog, the one with the sunsets), but this time we ended up staying in Mal País which is just down the road. Playa El Carmen, the beach there, had a surfing competition coincidentally, and we got more of the same sunset action that we saw at Santa Teresa. Unfortunately since it's the start of the rainy season, there were a lot more clouds hanging around. This introduced a new challenge to my limited photography skills, but it was a fun learning experience playing around with exposures and compositions.
Below are a few pictures from the weekend:
Here is the stretch of road known as Mal País... just as dusty and just as surfer friendly as Santa Teresa. Both had great atmospheres that would be very easy to fall into for a couple of years (I wish). We found some great restaurants here too.
This was our hostel, Tranquilo Backpackers. If you don't understand the cognate, tranquilo means tranquil in English. With hammocks on their decks and a very laid back staff, it was a fitting name. Probably my favorite hostel that we have stayed at so far.
And I finally saw howler monkeys! I was really excited because I have wanted to see these the whole time I've been here. Although I didn't get a great look at them, they still sound terrifying from far away. If you have never heard a howler monkey before, click HERE. I found that video on YouTube which was shot at Montezuma, just a few kilometers down the road. Sometimes they have a deeper, more demonic sound, but you will get the idea.
Now for the surf competition:
These next three are from the men's division:
We had three sunsets while we were there, and decided to sit the first one out from taking pictures and just enjoy it. Unfortunately, that was probably the most clear, but the next two nights weren't too bad either. The third night was the most cloudy, so the majority of these are from the second. I found a tide pool to have some fun with the reflection, too.
That's about all I have to report (I think) since the last post because I've been primarily focused on school work. Hopefully the next few months will be full of trips and adventure, with less school work and studying, but I'll see how it plays out. I'm excited for my Natural History field trips, so hopefully those bring some photo ops as well. Other than that, Duncan and I did some graffiti photography last month in San Pedro and we are going to go around San Jose as well, so I will make a post for that once I get all of the pictures put together. It's quite an impressive display of art.
Good luck to everyone at KU (and everywhere else, if you're reading) with upcoming finals. Sounds like the weather isn't any less-weird since I left... snow in May, ¿al chile? Until next time,
¡Pura vida!
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