hola todos!!!
typical week of classes except we started practicing for our soccer team on wedensday!!! woo hoo. i am sore cuz well i havent done any physical activity prior to practice but it was soo much fun!! our first game is on the 7th...hope to see u there : ) Other than that we had praise and worship time wed night which was great as always. this weekend we are going to limon a province on the carribean side of CR. going to be hott hott hott. : ) i´m excited...first time ill see a beach here in CR. well i would love to post more but i have already been on the internet for an hour and i havent done my homework yet. love and miss u all.
pura vida
kt
ps. frijoles are beans...and we eat them every day and surprisingly...i love them : )
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
¿hola me llamo kathy? and other hillarious costa rican moments
Hola everybody!!!! it has been over a week and trust me it has driven me just as crazy not being able to update u all as it probably annoyed u not having any entertaining semi-bilingual blogs to read. so wow first week of classes is done. as it turns out i did better than i thought on my languag exam...i´m in intermediate not basic...he he he. classes were good but i shant bore u with school stuff when so much more entertaining stuff has occured this week.
1. went to a 2.5 hour long pentacostal church service entirely in spanish last sunday...good times.
2. oh i forgot let me back up. when i posted the last blog i thought i was helping out with kids...turns out i was going to youth group. that was fun i understood a few words...and i accidently won a big booty type game.
3. i added it up and i have taken 19 busses this week. two taxis. and walked about 3 hours...woo hoo for travel!!!!
4. on the side of busses...i fell out of one on thursday night. ha ha wow talk about an ego bruise! it was supper crowded so to squeeze through the crowds i put my bookbag over my head and when i got to the last step i tripped and fell. to make matters worse the lady who helped me up i said ´´thanks´´ to which in case u have forgotten is english and not spanish. but alas a mildly bloody knee and a bruised pride and i have moved on. : ) in fact we had a good laugh about it the next morning with the girls who saw it happen.
5. might as well stay on the topic of busses for a bit. last night i couldn´t find my bus stop so i tried to flag a bus...sometimes that works...three drove past and one driver wagged his finger at me as if to say retarted gringo ur not at a bus stop. he he
6. when i did get a bus last night...the driver hit a taxis door...they are crazy drivers here...like chicago rush hour times ten and pedestrians dont have the right of way!
7. enough about busses lets see...ah yes food. tried two more knew things that i refuse to eat in the states...avocados and cuecumbers....and i am dismayed to say they were both good. ooops. : )
8. so when ur living in a house where they all know english but they wont use it with you there are lots of opportunities to make funny jokes in english but alas i cant use it so i simply chat with myself bunches and so that i feel slightly less retarted for talking to myself i shall share some of the things that have made me laugh in the last few days.
a. for Danielle Elizabeth Johnston...mucho gusto does indeed have two meanings other than pleased to meet you it can be used as your welcome...so when you gave that man ur plate everyday in guatamala u said either pleased to meet you or your welcome...he he sigh i hear that every day and i always think of my crazy teammates : )
b. for Becca Gremar the other day my mami was channel surfing and beyonces song put a ring on it was on...i immideatly started grinning like an idiot and thinking of you. miss u bunches little giant.
c. for anyone and everyone...there are 3 students in my language class which is super nice. this week we had a teacher who is from jamaican descent. every single day she had some sort of clothing malfunction. her bib over alls broke one day. twice she wore this ring that looked like a snow globe that i couldn´t look at without laughing at. and her eyeballs popped out of her head so i refused to sit on the side of her because it is even scaryier from a side view. he he
d. along the lines of clothes...it is 68 degrees here and the kids where scarves and gloves and hats!!!! it is freaking hillarious! everyday the ticans tell us how cold it is and every day i tell them how wonderfully warm it is here! especially compared to u poor ppl stuck in illinois! so sorry for you. : )
e. watched the 700 club today with my mom...pat robertson is very popular here...go figure.
f. tried to explain guantanamo bay to some ticos...problem is i dont understand what it is exactly...oh well. : )
g. i found peanut butter in a store the other day. i didn´t buy it but i made me soooo happy!!! auto mercados have all sorts of american goodies like oreos and snickers but they are twice as expensive as the costa rican versions so i stick to the costa rican ones.
h. food here is delicious. rice with everything and beans just about every other day. but yesterday night we had ground beef rapped in lettuce rapped in egg . with rice and steamed cuecumbers. i tried a pupusa the other day that was delicous....i would try to explain it but its too confusing so if ur really the interested u can google it. there really hasn´t been anything i havent liked so far.
i. starting to hear more about our later trips like nicaragua, panama, and the countryside of costa rica...basically i´m living in luxury right now...woo hoo!
j. i am one of the few the lucky who has warm showers every day.
k. i totally forgot....the whole kathy thing from the title of this blog. : ) my mom packs my lunch everyday and the other day she wrote my name on the bag...mi nombre = kathy. which of course made me think of my mommy en los estados. miss u mommy!!!
l. there are fast food places like kfc. mcdonalds. burgerking. quiznos. tcby. and the ever popular pollo companero ( remember from guatemala soccer team : ) i havent eaten at any of them but like the peanut butter in the store it is super nice to see familiar things.
m. started working on my 10 page in spanish research paper this week...i´m going to have to interview a priest in spanish...woo hoo hopefully he is a patient priest. my topic is to find out how catholics and evangelicals get along here in CR. if i ever stop blogging ill get to work on that but i´m not in any hurry.
m. i noticed that i have about 200 face book notices but the church computer that i am on right now hates facebook and locks up when i tryto use it so i´ll have to check those out when i get to an internet cafe.
n. branched out this week and had some fruitloops for breakfast...delicious.
o. my mom made me pasta and garlic bread for lunch one day! que rico! most of the food is traditional but there is a fair amount of variety which i love.
p. i havent exactly figured out the whole laundry system yet so that means that i havent washed my pj sweat pants yet...cuz i sleep in them every night...ooops. dont get grossed out though. i´m in the part of my semester where i get to shower every day. the non showering dirty clothes part comes later. : )
q. wouldn´t it be fun if i got through the entire alphabet on this thing?
r. we watch tones of american TV here with the words in english and the subtitles in spanish...so naturally i read the subtitles...ha. totally kidding. so far i have watched just my luck. the fantastic four part two. the swan (which ps. is disgusting no matter what language it is done in) i watched part of the marine.
s. its not all in english though. the 700 club or club setecientos was in spanish today. and the other day i watched a costa rican prison documentary in spanish....thriller....just slightly more exciting than march of the penguins.
t. i only have seven more letters to get through.
u. congrats if you have made it this far.
v. grandma g. if u made it this way which i know u have i found the little cards in the journal u gave me! love them!!! also love the count down. : ) i write my daily schedule in there every night before i go to bed.
w. i like to go to bed before 10.
x. the days start at about 6am here but for some reason it is so much easier to get up when the skylight directly above your head is sending sunlight down onto you. much easier to get up here than in the states.
y. everybody here has dogs and my next door neighbor has a golden retriever which is not nearly as cute as sadie but still it makes me happy.
z. thanks for those of you who send e'mails, facebook messages, letters and what not. i do read them even though i dont usually respond because well this computer is ancient and there is not enough time in the world.
z1. love you all. hope you are all doing well. miss u all bunches and i think that i shall take all of you who read this blog on an all expense paid vacation to costa rica sometime next year...right after i win the lottery.
z2. Ali i forgot!!! i have somthing for you when i get home...we talked about the school version of the history of the US and then we got a piece of paper with the real history of it...shall be great if u ever stop teaching 4th graders. ps. keep me updated on them chica...u know my e'mail.
z3. k that is probably about 5 pages single spaced and u are all about ready to shoot me so have a great week. hopefully it wont be so long till i post again. LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU ALL!!!! keep in touch.
pura vida.
kathy : )
kt
1. went to a 2.5 hour long pentacostal church service entirely in spanish last sunday...good times.
2. oh i forgot let me back up. when i posted the last blog i thought i was helping out with kids...turns out i was going to youth group. that was fun i understood a few words...and i accidently won a big booty type game.
3. i added it up and i have taken 19 busses this week. two taxis. and walked about 3 hours...woo hoo for travel!!!!
4. on the side of busses...i fell out of one on thursday night. ha ha wow talk about an ego bruise! it was supper crowded so to squeeze through the crowds i put my bookbag over my head and when i got to the last step i tripped and fell. to make matters worse the lady who helped me up i said ´´thanks´´ to which in case u have forgotten is english and not spanish. but alas a mildly bloody knee and a bruised pride and i have moved on. : ) in fact we had a good laugh about it the next morning with the girls who saw it happen.
5. might as well stay on the topic of busses for a bit. last night i couldn´t find my bus stop so i tried to flag a bus...sometimes that works...three drove past and one driver wagged his finger at me as if to say retarted gringo ur not at a bus stop. he he
6. when i did get a bus last night...the driver hit a taxis door...they are crazy drivers here...like chicago rush hour times ten and pedestrians dont have the right of way!
7. enough about busses lets see...ah yes food. tried two more knew things that i refuse to eat in the states...avocados and cuecumbers....and i am dismayed to say they were both good. ooops. : )
8. so when ur living in a house where they all know english but they wont use it with you there are lots of opportunities to make funny jokes in english but alas i cant use it so i simply chat with myself bunches and so that i feel slightly less retarted for talking to myself i shall share some of the things that have made me laugh in the last few days.
a. for Danielle Elizabeth Johnston...mucho gusto does indeed have two meanings other than pleased to meet you it can be used as your welcome...so when you gave that man ur plate everyday in guatamala u said either pleased to meet you or your welcome...he he sigh i hear that every day and i always think of my crazy teammates : )
b. for Becca Gremar the other day my mami was channel surfing and beyonces song put a ring on it was on...i immideatly started grinning like an idiot and thinking of you. miss u bunches little giant.
c. for anyone and everyone...there are 3 students in my language class which is super nice. this week we had a teacher who is from jamaican descent. every single day she had some sort of clothing malfunction. her bib over alls broke one day. twice she wore this ring that looked like a snow globe that i couldn´t look at without laughing at. and her eyeballs popped out of her head so i refused to sit on the side of her because it is even scaryier from a side view. he he
d. along the lines of clothes...it is 68 degrees here and the kids where scarves and gloves and hats!!!! it is freaking hillarious! everyday the ticans tell us how cold it is and every day i tell them how wonderfully warm it is here! especially compared to u poor ppl stuck in illinois! so sorry for you. : )
e. watched the 700 club today with my mom...pat robertson is very popular here...go figure.
f. tried to explain guantanamo bay to some ticos...problem is i dont understand what it is exactly...oh well. : )
g. i found peanut butter in a store the other day. i didn´t buy it but i made me soooo happy!!! auto mercados have all sorts of american goodies like oreos and snickers but they are twice as expensive as the costa rican versions so i stick to the costa rican ones.
h. food here is delicious. rice with everything and beans just about every other day. but yesterday night we had ground beef rapped in lettuce rapped in egg . with rice and steamed cuecumbers. i tried a pupusa the other day that was delicous....i would try to explain it but its too confusing so if ur really the interested u can google it. there really hasn´t been anything i havent liked so far.
i. starting to hear more about our later trips like nicaragua, panama, and the countryside of costa rica...basically i´m living in luxury right now...woo hoo!
j. i am one of the few the lucky who has warm showers every day.
k. i totally forgot....the whole kathy thing from the title of this blog. : ) my mom packs my lunch everyday and the other day she wrote my name on the bag...mi nombre = kathy. which of course made me think of my mommy en los estados. miss u mommy!!!
l. there are fast food places like kfc. mcdonalds. burgerking. quiznos. tcby. and the ever popular pollo companero ( remember from guatemala soccer team : ) i havent eaten at any of them but like the peanut butter in the store it is super nice to see familiar things.
m. started working on my 10 page in spanish research paper this week...i´m going to have to interview a priest in spanish...woo hoo hopefully he is a patient priest. my topic is to find out how catholics and evangelicals get along here in CR. if i ever stop blogging ill get to work on that but i´m not in any hurry.
m. i noticed that i have about 200 face book notices but the church computer that i am on right now hates facebook and locks up when i tryto use it so i´ll have to check those out when i get to an internet cafe.
n. branched out this week and had some fruitloops for breakfast...delicious.
o. my mom made me pasta and garlic bread for lunch one day! que rico! most of the food is traditional but there is a fair amount of variety which i love.
p. i havent exactly figured out the whole laundry system yet so that means that i havent washed my pj sweat pants yet...cuz i sleep in them every night...ooops. dont get grossed out though. i´m in the part of my semester where i get to shower every day. the non showering dirty clothes part comes later. : )
q. wouldn´t it be fun if i got through the entire alphabet on this thing?
r. we watch tones of american TV here with the words in english and the subtitles in spanish...so naturally i read the subtitles...ha. totally kidding. so far i have watched just my luck. the fantastic four part two. the swan (which ps. is disgusting no matter what language it is done in) i watched part of the marine.
s. its not all in english though. the 700 club or club setecientos was in spanish today. and the other day i watched a costa rican prison documentary in spanish....thriller....just slightly more exciting than march of the penguins.
t. i only have seven more letters to get through.
u. congrats if you have made it this far.
v. grandma g. if u made it this way which i know u have i found the little cards in the journal u gave me! love them!!! also love the count down. : ) i write my daily schedule in there every night before i go to bed.
w. i like to go to bed before 10.
x. the days start at about 6am here but for some reason it is so much easier to get up when the skylight directly above your head is sending sunlight down onto you. much easier to get up here than in the states.
y. everybody here has dogs and my next door neighbor has a golden retriever which is not nearly as cute as sadie but still it makes me happy.
z. thanks for those of you who send e'mails, facebook messages, letters and what not. i do read them even though i dont usually respond because well this computer is ancient and there is not enough time in the world.
z1. love you all. hope you are all doing well. miss u all bunches and i think that i shall take all of you who read this blog on an all expense paid vacation to costa rica sometime next year...right after i win the lottery.
z2. Ali i forgot!!! i have somthing for you when i get home...we talked about the school version of the history of the US and then we got a piece of paper with the real history of it...shall be great if u ever stop teaching 4th graders. ps. keep me updated on them chica...u know my e'mail.
z3. k that is probably about 5 pages single spaced and u are all about ready to shoot me so have a great week. hopefully it wont be so long till i post again. LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU ALL!!!! keep in touch.
pura vida.
kathy : )
kt
Friday, January 16, 2009
kisses and language barriers
hola todos. dont expect this regular of an update but i am accidentally sitting at my mamis church waiting for my host sister to do something with kids...i´m not sure what ha ha. so i thought my mom asked me if i wanted to help her with kids at church tonight so i said of course but then my mom left and said stephanie will be here at 630 and we shall be home by 830 ha ha i have no idea what i´m doing but there are kids involved so im sure i will make a fool of myself and have a great time. in other strange news i just kissed my sisters boyfriend. ha ha that might freak some of u out but thats how we greet here and he just came to the church and said hola and then kept coming over to the computer where i am at and then he leaned over and i was like o crap i´m suppossed to kiss his cheek. it is really more of an air kiss with the brush of the cheeks but it takes some getting used to. today was the last day of orientation we talked about really getting into new cultures and not judgeing them for at least 4 months...ha ha. side note can i tell u how much it drives me nuts not putting my usual two hundred smily faces in notes but they key boards are different here and all i can find is the period.... oh well. classes start monday with language classes every day of the week in the afternoon and with culture classes twice a week in the morning. on average i will take 4 busses in a day and they dont use street signs here they use landmarks so i have much to learn about the city and plan to get lost several times. there is talk of starting a lasp soccer team so hopefully that gets off the ground cuz that would be amazing. ! woo hoo i found the exclamation point!!!!!!!!!!!! sigh...so much better!!!!!!! excellent. food is still delicious and i´m eating all sorts of things i would say no to in the states like coconut cupcakes with rice and sandwiches with jelly...look at me branching out! i am excited for whatever i am doing in the church tonight...that should help me branch out and meet some new ppl. homework is going to be a challenge as it will all be written in espanol but thats okay. i talk to myself in spanish a lot which is entertaining. i dont know for sure what language group i am in for classes but based on my spectacular interview i think i´ll be in the basic level : ) WOOO HOO! I figured it out :) :) : ) yippee...ahh the simple pleasures. lets see my host home is teal and my room is tiny but filled with pictures and posters and precious moments so basically it is my home in the states shrunk and put in costa rica! we eat dinner on the couch and i must always have shoes or slippers on in the house. my blind costa rican dog runs into the walls sometimes which is sad...but also very funny. i havent used my lap top yet because i have to find a three prong to two prong adapter but they said they have those in stores...i just have to figure out which ones. : ) it is fun to see other tourists in the cities because our group tries to blend and they stick out far worse than us : ) cameras and shorts are a good indicator that you are not local...oh and being gringo. all though many costa ricans are very fair skinned...it is interesting the contrast between costa ricans and the guatamalans i met a few years ago. lets see...weather is unseasonably cold...probably about 65 but its windy...so thats been rough : ) hot chocolate is big here which i love and coco krispies are my breakfast of choice. well i suppose i should be mildly productive and do a bit of homework. God bless! miss you all.
pura vida.
kt
pura vida.
kt
Thursday, January 15, 2009
i am here
hola todos i´m here and safe and i love it just to give u a heads up there will be no punctuation in this because i cant figure out the computer i am using we are currently in down town san jose exploring the city i got my host family yesterday i have a mom ana lorena madrigal and a sister who is 20 se llama stephanie y un hermano se llama esteban que tiene 23 anos i have decided to educate u all back in the states so i shall use spanish and english in this blog just to keep u on ur toes. i also have a blind dog named cherry yesterday i hung out with my host mom most of the day we talked and talked and talked and i said si a lot i can understand most of what she says but my responses are very 2nd grade ish my most entertaining moment was when she started talking about dodge ball she wanted me to explain it to her it was entertaining. she loved the j316 soccer ball i brought her and this weekend we are going to go to her church and play with los ninos i am very excited. the food has been great and very filling...no illness yet. things start very early here i was up at 545 this morning. i had coco krispies for breakfast they were delicious. not sure what else to add...the other students are nice and my mom is everybodies friend which is cool she talks a lot so i listen alot. i showed her pics of my family last night and she thought my mom was me in one of them and she thought becca was a model..so some things are the same in costa rica and in the states. miss u all bunches but i´m loving it here so far. i´ll try to update this as often as possible. love u all oh and one more thing...it is 70 here and they think it is cold...ha ha ha muy chistoso. mucho amor. dios te bendigo.
pura vida.
kt
pura vida.
kt
Monday, January 12, 2009
Last night in the states!!!
This is it! The night before departure to Costa Rica! Packing four months into one bag is a challenge but I finally got everything in. Interesting feeling, knowing your are leaving home for four months. I went around and said some more good byes today. Got some solid advice from my boss at the library...don't worry because the God who watches over you here in the states is the same God who will be watching over you in Costa Rica. Well I'm off to eat my last
made-by-mom-dinner for a while. I'll keep you posted.
Happy Monday.
KT
ps. pray for the weather tomorrow! Thanks. : )
made-by-mom-dinner for a while. I'll keep you posted.
Happy Monday.
KT
ps. pray for the weather tomorrow! Thanks. : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)