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.