ok, sad day, I tried to post pictures, but the internet failed to do so. I'm sorry! when I can, I will show my family, house, beaches, gym, adventures... ;)

g'night! tengo que dormirme : O

Coast to Coast

Bueno.

Tengo que decir que demasiada vida pasa cada dia que no puedo escribir ni casi toda.

oh jaja al momento la noticia de Laura esta en la tele, puedo oirla y tiene la gente de todo el pais cantando una cancion rara... no me gusta. : } las eleciones sera en el 7 de feb. --la ultima debate era esta noche. Es interesante observar que pasa en mi casa entre mis parientes ticos, diferentes membres estan en favor de candidatos diferentes y los discuciones son grandes a veces. Una noche, mi hermana dio banderas a la propia persona quien le gusta a cada candidato y hizo una bandera para mama. : )

Mis emociones estan arriba y abajo cada dia. A veces estoy muy contenta y me encanta la experiencia, el pais, mi familia, amigos, aprender, etc. Otras veces, me parece muy extrana y extrano los estados y tengo muchos pensamientos...

Estoy aprendiendo mucho en la lengua, la vida, mi fe, el amor de dios aqui en costa rica... pura vida :)

pues, (jaja antonio siempre dice este) esta semana pasada:
En clase, hemos aprendido de neoliberalismo de Javier, quien es un Tico, la pobreza de Elmer, quien nacio en El Salvador en el botadero y es un artista, sistemas economicas de un profesor de los estados unidos, y la perspectiva de los estados a la embajada hoy.
Tambien estoy pensando en el rol de la iglesia, de cristianos en el mundo y como amar y servir ...

algunos de los estudiantes en mi programa, y yo, fuimos a Manuel Antonio --un parque nacional, en la playa del pacifico. !Que bonito! La naturaleza, animales, todo! Tuvimos algunas adventuras con donde para quedar en la noche, monos robando las galletas, dios nos ayudo por Julio con los buses :)...

Estoy muy gringa, y creo que es bueno para entender mas como siente la gente "afuera" y para vivir en los momentos incomodos y en las dificultades y sentir las emociones...

Manana vamos para Limon --el atlantio, el puerto principal y conoceremos una cultura diferente y nueva.

Puedo poner algunas fotos aqui de mi vida y mas seguiran :)

(lo siento por la gramatica terrible, tengo que dormirme :} )

buenas noches,
Lina

clase, pobreza, cansancio...

Ok, entonces,

?que estoy haciendo? ?Que pasa? Mucho, claro, pero, unas pocas cosas antes de dormir...
Y no se preocupen, escribire despues de este fin de semana.

Esta semana empezamos las clases. aye! el silabo ma da miedo a veces : } pero, todo esta bien.
Mi horario de clases es como este hasta el 12 de feb. :

lunes, miercoles, viernes, tenemos clases en ICADS desde la 1 hasta las 4:30
martes y jueves tenemos seminario base a LASP a las 8 y nos fuimos para ICADS hasta 4:30

tenemos lecturas para cada seminaro y hacemos cosas diferentes para ICADS--alli, estoy en el grupo de "advancados bajitos" espero que por el fin, estaremos advancados real... todavia, no.

Vamos a ver... para ejercisio, corri en lunes--muy alta, pero mas mejor que el sabado. y Fui al gimnasio con Michelle en miercoles y asitimos a la clase de baile popular por un poco tiempo--somos gringas y nuestro instructor puede bailar bastante bien y con muchisima energia. jaja (corri y levante las pesas un poco tambien. manana quiero ir por tae bo!)
tambien, caminos desde lasp a ICADS y esta manana camine con mi papa para conocer la ruta al segundo bus para LASP, pero caminabamos muy tarde--oops! no hubo problema, llegue a clase en temprano despues de tener prisa. :)

Me encanta la fruta aqui-yum! Hoy comi un cas y sandria rica tambien. me mama ha comprado sandria, moras, manzanas, bananas, mangos, cas, ... y para mi, un sabor favorito es de cas tambien!

Tengo que dormir, pero, manana vamos por la playa manuel antonio--tanto como tengamos boletos etc. aye!

___________________

[Traduccion y MAS]

We started classes this week--mwf just language class 1-4:30, but with buses and/or walking ...mas tiempo :) oh and we hit the traffic perfectly when we come home so that we get stuck in huge lines and it takes forever to get home. It is how it is. T/R we have seminar at 8 and then language class at 1:30 so that we have time to eat lunch and get over there after 12

We have speakers come in to give life to our readings and such (already scared of papers and the sylabus for both places)

Today, Elmer was our speaker in core seminar, because the topic was poverty and he is of a lower class. grew up in a garbage dump in San Salvador-- he knows the war, the mystical hope of the United States, and the terrors that the U.S. support of militant governments has brought to other places. He salvaged and asked God to allow the rich to continue their habit of throwing out nearly new and barely used things. He met hope in the dump as well, he has read an enormous amount of works of literature, and he is a painter with both words and paint whose works are beautiful and all hold hope of peace and a better relationship between the poor and the rich.

For exercise--I ran up up up on Monday (better than last saturday, por seguro!) Went to the gym with Michelle to dance class--ha. we are white and our instructor was over the top good and energetic with every movement that my body will never be able to do. I think I'm going to Tae Bo tomorrow
We also walk to class the parts that we can for exercise and saving money, but today, my dad showed me how to get to one of my bus stops, so we took a morning walk, but we were running super late because my host mom didn't think we needed to get up very early..hmm... so I had a "taxi" ride to class. oops!

Tomorrow a huge group is headed to Manuel Antonio, so that will be fun, I think a few people may be going to palmares on Sunday, I know my host sister is, but I don't know her real well because our schedules are totally different, so we haven't talked about that...

Someone else great that I met with a friend, heather, was a cute little older lady named maria lucia who is a vender at a little market, pretty touristy. She is a great saleslady and makes little clay (apparently from the lava and the clay) sculptures/flute-like instruments that look like 4 different animals depending on how you flip it and are fun colors. She played when the saints go marching in and my heart will go on. ha! how great!

love love love fruit, and here a new favorite flavor is cas--I'll put a picture up sometime-- i need to take and put up pictures in general...

Feels like we've been here so long, even from how we talk in our group, but it's been just over a week! Some times are super frustrating and we want to quit spanish all together, but it's really good, I have learned so much already about my host family and their stories, about the latino/tico culture, about spanish, myself, etc. all this week! We're discussing poverty, inequality, capitalism, socialism, elections here, spirituality, etc. I need to challenge myself and persevere because--vale la pena--it's worth it.

*notense bien--blogspot no usa "spell check" por eso, estoy seguro que hay errores. disculpeme.

Buenismas noches y fines de semana!
~ Lina Ness "Torrez Duran"

A few facts about Costa Rican culture:

Costa Ricans: Ticos
White People: Gringos

Don't throw the toilet paper in the toilet--I know, weird, in English we call it toilet paper so you know where to put it when you've used it... pero, "por favor, ponga el papel higienico en el basurero."

If you don't over thank-you, it might mean you don't really appreciate something...if you don't eat a double portion, same thing sometimes. Even if no one in the family comments much on the food--you love it, you really do. :) (no worries, we eat pretty good food, a lot is really similar, but really different...hmm una paradoja!)

Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way--as my professor laura pointed out, "They will avoid the pot holes, and not you." the lines, when they exist, are general guidelines, taxi drivers, and even buses need not follow them if something else works out better.

jueves a sabado

Buenas noches,

Solamente tengo tiempo para unos pensamientos muy rapidos. : }

Ha pasado menos que una semana--he estado aqui cuatro dias y sali de mi casa hasta cinco dias. Aunque, parece que mucho mas tiempo y es estoy casi comoda como estar en casa realmente.

Entonces, acabo de leer una poca de mi tarea en ingles, por eso, voy a escribir in mi lengua natural...

Switching to English, I am confused a lot because I follow conversations and sometimes can converse and even think in Spanish, but much of my thoughts are still in grammatical constructions and translations, even now, my brain is thinking of how to say this en espanol : }, but I hope I can get past this phase, which my Spanish teacher said is their hope at ICADS--our language school--as well.

A little summary of the last few days since me da cuenta de--I realize that I haven't written since I first arrived.

Martes y miercoles ya saben de esos dias...

el jueves:
Dia en San Jose--Spent the day with Taylor --who knows Hannah : }--from point loma/San Diego and Leah--from New York, a high school student "running with the big dogs" since her parents are a couple of our professors.

--public transport, buses, taxis, hopefully I'll remember the routes I took with mi papa y otros...

--new fruits like tamarindo, limon mandarina, papaya that I actually like; all the fruit es tan dulce--much sweeter than home--haha except the watermelon that was shockingly bitter from being over ripe at our cafecito, and Pop's ice cream--cas flavored sorbet yum!

--finding that gringos stand out-- a lot, for various reasons, and you should sometimes just not open your mouth, but at the same time, you need to fail in order to improve ...

--Taylor has a marriage proposal from an older lady who danced for him...if things don't work out with his novia

--Good conversations begun and to be had with some "non religious" friends, Christians, and my host sister who is catholic in an evangelical family . . . she's actually in Guanacaste until monday...

--Gave my Minnesota presents to my family and stumbled through explaining some of the weird stuff--ufda!

--my suitcase came thursday evening! We joked that it wouldn't come until I left in April, and once I decided not to be frustrated to crying and just accepted the peace of God--Laura and Trevor received it and brought it to me--Gracias a Dios! Same clothes and no stuff for three days--woohoo!

Viernes
--should probably write a little less-- I should sleep!

--Finishing of orientation, so I took a different bus with papa to LASP, we counted 6 paradas before mine and saw Dalia's school etc.

--As a group, we reflected on observations in this culture of more openly affectionate and open ticos with different roles for men and women, las mujeres serving a lot but also holding a great deal of influence... and things like this

--covered our core seminar, concentrations, safety, and health--perfect, I have just recently contracted a cold--tengo resfrio, perfecto.

--ate lunch together--guess what it was?? arroz y frijoles, por seguro :) Yet, it's obviously much more tasty and varied with other things at every meal than it could be en los estados unidos...

--showed our funk with interpretive dance, bowling for culture shock, and group sound offs ( it was difficult to organize and help figure out the second group...) before we did an alpha/beta activity
--I was an alpha, and each society had rules according to which we behaved and had vistors switch and report on each other's group... They were shockingly different and led to discussion of values, and how to approach a different culture etc. It is difficult to discern what truths and Truth is/are certain for all people, all the time and how that is manifest in a certain people ...

--Walked from Alto de guadalupe home with Papa, spur of the moment, it was a good hour of walking which caused mama to worry when she called and we weren't home that Fernando forgot me or something, but we were just walking and talking and stopped to buy water, then again to buy bread for coffee--meals and snacks are different
--speaking of which, figuring out how much to eat is tricky because they're very concerned that you eat and that you like their food, so their might be a tica 10, so I've heard . . .

sabado
--my cold is here for sure, but I slept in some and am pumping the vitamins and the water, although the ticos don't drink a ton of water, or hardly any, actually, more coffee and tea, well juice too, I guess...

--I was ready but las chiquitas were not when mama returned because Carlos finally came today! Carlos is a cat--female, who Dalia thought was a male when she named her ; )--and she has been at the vet and was supposed to be here days ago, so she is all that Dalia talks about-- mama loves the cat much more than papa : }...

--we went to help the oldest daughter, adriana, move out of her old apartment and into her new one in the same area, but we had some extra time, so mama said I could go run for a while and we could eat lunch when I got back--Hacia color! of course, it was the hottest part of the day and my running got slower and slower haha I'm a bit burnt actually after only a little over half an hour when they found me to go eat lunch

--All of her things are in the new apartment, and I played outside some with Dalia and Evelyn.

--Have had some good conversations with my host parents in the car and walking and such about their lives here, in Nicaragua, visiting Cuba and other places, only a little in politics because Papa is not a registered voter and mama is having a hard time discerning what to do for the upcoming elections... and other topics too, of course I spend a lot of time looking pretty dumb--in both meanings of the word : ]

--Did some reading while the girls played computer games--they do this quite a bit, and we ate--you guessed it--rice and beans plus!

--I need to go to the supermarket soon for toiletries, maybe when the girls go to buy the notebooks they've been whining about--they want decorated ones, Dalia, especially wants hello kitty--I love it spoken with a spanish accent; I also like it when they make each other laugh over something silly

--Now it's time for bed; going to wake up too soon to shower-- kind of hokey pokey like Samoa, actually, although they have "hot water" when you flip a breaker up in the shower : } --before church in the morning. yay!

Buenas Noches!

Aqui estoy!

Buenos!

Estoy aqui, en la casa de mi familia, en el colonado, en San Jose, en Costa Rica... :)
Mi familia es muy amable y estoy agradecida a Dios por ellos y por todos.
He conocido otros estudiantes amables y ya me encanta Costa Rica.

En mi casa--Mis padres Fernando y Jenny, mis hermanos, Gabriel, Margarita, y Dalia. Evelyn, una prima esta aqui ahora tambien.

Hace un poco mas frio de normal, pero hace color comprado a Minnesnowta : }

Tengo expectaciones y esperanzas para el semestre para crecer y aprender mucho. Yo se que estare muy dificil a veces y encontre frustraciones, pero tambien estoy seguro en Dios y se que estare un semestre fantastico tambien!

For my fellow gringos/gringas who don't speak a lick of Spanish, I understand the confusion--I am like a toddler here, and am going to have to get excited about failure and folly in a beautiful way. : D

We arrrived late last night; unfortunately, I had to book it through the Miami airport to get to the connecting flight to San Jose, so mi maleta-my suitcase is yet en route...

Yesterday was pretty much all airport for me--up at 4:30 a.m. and in a bed at 1 p.m. or so. Spent a good deal of time in Dallas Fort Worth because once we borded a delayed plane, they decided, shucks, the engine doesn't work, so we'll wait around for another huge plane to show up. haha. It all works out.

We stayed in an educational center last night--there is some kind of crazy peace camp for young kids there right now, so it was fun to see them and share noisy meals for the day.
Katie was wonderful to me as I did not have my luggage, and our staff is great as well.
We did some preliminary orientation stuff today, and will be all over the city tomorrow para conocerla. ;)
It's been fun to meet people in the program, and I have been and am very nervous and excited.

Familia Torrez Duran is graciously hosting me, and they are wonderful!
I know it will be tough at times but rewarding as well, and we'll see what God has in store for this semester!

Entonces, tengo que salir. Dios les bendiga.
Pura Vida :)

Sinceremente,
~Lina

and meg, my family will probably call me lina because Linnea is pretty rough en espanol jaja.

Antes de salir

Hola!
Soy Linnea, o lina como algunos me llaman.
Estare en Latino America para estudiar y conocer-- la gente, los paises, el espanol . . .

Hoy, ahora, tengo que prepararme mas...

Hasta luego,
Lina