Bailamos!

Hola! I don’t even know where to begin… well, some exciting news is that I have a tica friend who is my age! My host mom has tons of hermanas and sobrinas (sisters and nieces, among many other family member visitors) who come over to chat or have lunch or a snack of arroz con leche. Yesterday I heard an unfamiliar voice in the kitchen and went in to meet Pilar, the daughter of my house mom’s niece (we’ve been learning names of family members in Spanish, but I don’t even know what that relationship would be in English, let’s just say cousin). Anyway, Pilar is super sweet and came over to visit my host mom because she hadn’t seen her in a while—she is working at a bank and going to college at night, so needless to say, she is super busy. We were all working on making our almuerzo (lunch—in Costa Rica they have a more European eating schedule of a big lunch and small dinner which I am a big fan of because it is so much healthier to eat more at lunch than at dinner) and my host mom was saying how I like to run and do stuff outside and I was planning on going running before lunch and Pilar offered to come with me. I had been planning on going with one of my PCT friends, Jenny, who lives in my town, so I invited her along too and it was great! Pilar took us through the mountains on these little paths and the views from the mountains are breathtakingly beautiful. It’s so amazing that we’re so close to San Jose (from the top of the mountains in my town which I can hike up in about 10 minutes you can see an amazing spread of the central valley of San Jose) but we’re totally in el campo (the country). So Pilar has started planning all of the many things she wants to do with us to show us Costa Rica—go camping, go to the beach, etc. It’s just really great to have a tica friend who is super sweet and wants to take us under her wing. I can’t wait to have lots of adventures with her!

Backtracking, last week my house mom told me that on Saturday nights there is a dance class in the salon communal (the community hall). I thought, genial! (pronounced he-nee-al en espanol, it’s one of my favorite phases in Spanish because we’d never say “genius!” in English, but they say it all the time here and in Spain, too) and told the other PCT’s in my town. The class began with a warm-up that was reminiscent of an aerobics class (complete with random 80’s music) and I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, especially because Jenny, Heath (another PCT in my town) and I had spent the afternoon running/hiking and then doing all kinds of pushups, situps, etc. (Heath does body building and is going to get us into shape in the next 3 months!). But then the dance class began and it was SO much fun—we did salsa and chachacha and all kinds of other dances whose names I don’t remember at the moment, but all great Latin dances from the Dominican Republic and Colombia and more. The cutest thing was watching my host mom who is in her early 60’s breaking it down on the dance floor—she was totally adorable! The class was great and at the end the teacher announced that next week he was holding it at his house with a little fiesta afterwards which sounds like so much fun! So after the class my host mom and I went home and were eating sandwiches when the teacher called and invited us to his house right then and then to comer algo (eat something), see his house, etc. So my host mom and I went up to his house and there was a mini-fiesta and he showed me around his beautiful house (amazing architecture, tons of orchids and other plants, and paintings, many of which he had done himself). There were 2 soccer games going on, one with Saprissa, the most popular team down here, so we were watching fútbol, eating, and chatting. All in all, a really great night!

I feel like I’m going all over the place in this entry, but another great thing that happened this weekend was on Sunday afternoon. After lunch I was relaxing on our porch watching a soccer game (I LOVE being right next to the soccer field and having a perfect view from my house) when I saw one of my house mom’s sobrinos who was teaching his daughter to ride a bicycle (she is 5 years old and absolutely adorable). I had met the whole family (mom and 8 year old son, too) the day before because the dad came to my host mom’s house to get his hair cut—she has a room in the back that is a little peluqueria (hair salon). A little while later, the dad and daughter returned to my house to say hello and we ended up talking for over 2 hours! Along the way, the mom came over, too and the two kids were playing and we were just chatting about anything and everything—learning languages, the Peace Corps (it’s harder than you would think explaining the PC in Spanish!), life in Costa Rica, life in the US. It was really great because it was my first conversation that really felt like a conversation (in Spanish) since I’ve gotten here. That may sound weird—of course I’ve had plenty of conversations in Spanish since I’ve gotten here, but this was more in depth and meaningful. It is definitely a confidence boost that I can actually have this kind of conversation in Spanish. But it was just really nice because the parents are really sweet and I can definitely see getting closer to them and I think the feeling is mutual. Three highlights of the conversation:

1. The dad was saying that at least once in his life he wants to experience snow and right before I left CT, there was that big snowstorm and I went outside and took some pictures so that I could show people in Costa Rica. So, I got to show them and they were so excited to see snow and my house so I was really glad I had thought to take those pictures!
2. We ended up talking for a while about the fact that in the US, children don’t take the mother’s last name (here, and in Spain, too the children have two last names, both the mother and the father’s). The dad thought it was incredibly machisto that it is the mother who gives birth and raises the children, but that her last name is not carried on through them. But then the thing is that when their children get married and have children, it is indeed the father’s last name of both the mother and father that the children receive, so the mother’s last name is indeed dropped, eventually (hope that wasn’t too confusing!).
3. At one point, the mother says to me, “OK, I have a question about this Halloween. What is the significance?!” I explained how everyone gets dressed up, etc etc and she said, yes I know, but where does it come from, why do you do it? She told me about Day of the Dead in CR which is a day to honor deceased loved ones. I told her that Halloween definitely does not carry the same significance, but that I wasn’t really sure of it’s origin. So, if anyone can help me out on that one, it would be much appreciated. I know I’ve learned about it before—All Hollow’s Eve, etc etc, but I don’t remember the whole story. No easy access to “just google it!” here!

And on that note, I’m off to the porch for some more reading!
Until next time!
Ciao,
Tes