Monday, January 26, 2015

From English to Spanglish

From English to Spanglish


First week of school- done!
I absolutely love all of my classes as well as my teachers.  I also get to start volunteering at the Museo de Nacional next week. Woohoo! I'm kinda picturing "A Night at the Museum" every time I think about it. Last night we got back from a weekend at Jaco Beach, and today my backpack straps are reminding me of the lack of care I took on lotioning my shoulders.  I'm trying to wear shirts big enough to cover my sunburn so that my host parents don't see it since they reminded me at least a few times to put lots of lotion on. "Mucho blanca!!" they would say and rub their arms with their eyes really wide. And I would say "Si." and nod my head in a really serious manner.  Since they're my (host) parents I feel like I need to hide it for a while and save myself a lecture because the only thing worse than a lecture in English- is a lecture in Spanish.
Anyway, it was my first time staying in a hostel! That was an experience.  After getting lost for a while trying to find it, we came into a warm and cozy room with two beds set on top of some extremely creaky wood framing, a shower that was --I kid you not-- a hose coming out of a whole in the wall, behind a puddle gathering on the floor, and no running sink water.  But hey, for $13 a night you can't ask for much.  I guess with the free ladies night at the downstairs bar they had to cut back somewhere. For me, I was recouping from a major caffeine headache all day since I hadn't had my morning dose of coffee, so I didn't get in any participation at the bar.  BUT I did have some vanilla ice cream from a local hot spot called "POPS" across the street that was even better.
While I slept off my headache, my classmates had a great time salsa dancing at a club nearby and then roaming the beach afterwards.  I was a little bummed to not be joining them but you get some pretty crazy-disco dreams when you're sleeping above a Skrillex club with bass pumping until 4am,  so really it was a win for us all.
The funniest thing that happened to me this week was a 'Spanglish' issue with my host parents over dinner.  Earlier in the day my host mother and I were talking about what kind of snacks I like and whether or not I like palomitas, which is the Spanish word for 'popcorn'. I said yes, and she continued in saying that she didn't really care for it but her husband loves it, yada yada.. So later on over dinner, my host mother tells my host father in Spanish (broken english and Spanish) about our conversation from earlier.  I was a bit confused as to what was being said so he looked at me to translate in english and he said, "Lourdes says you like porn? yes?" ..... I continued to stare back at him and say "um....." with my eyes darting back and fourth, and Señora Lourdes, says "p-p-porn?" with squinty eyes trying to pronounce it.  I felt my face getting red and hotter and my heart rate start to pick up and I continued with my "um.. no... no intiendo.. no se..." and so my host father continues with "hmm.. como con peliculas.. ('like with movies')". I continued to stare and get really uncomfortable and now I really wished someone had been recording this whole conversation.  My host mother began making notions in the air and saying "pop", "pop", "pop". And that's when I got it.  I shouted, "POPCORN!!! YES! I love POP-(extra emphasis on the second "p")CORN!!!"
And then my host fathers face went pale, shortly accompanied by loud laughter. He realized what the mistake he had made in translation was and explained it to my host mom. A few seconds later her eyes widened as she said "No! No! No pornografia!"  I think all three of us were almost in tears from laughing so hard. Hahaha gosh that's my favorite story so far and I think they tell it whenever a new guest comes over and meets me for the first time.
It was so stinkin funny in the moment, and now when I look back at it, the multiple cry/laughing experiences that i've had with them are so much more than worth all of the communication barriers.  The way that my host mom lays her hand on my wrist or puts her head on my shoulder when we're laughing or don't understand something, and the struggle in my host fathers face in coming up with the words to translate for me are two of the greatest acts of love I've experienced. We haven't been able to carry on more than two consistent conversations but man do I love them, and oh how they show me how much they love me.  They're so full of joy and after over 20 years of marriage they greet each other with a soft smile when I say something in total jibberish/spanglish. This soft, warm joy that they hold is so deeply woven into their individual lives, their lives together, and their culture.  My host mom has tried explaining this to me several times, that they live on and take from the community what they need, nothing more.  They don't have excess food that goes to waste, they don't have decorations adorning their walls, they don't have cars for each person of the family, they don't have a spacious back yard just to look at.  They have a home that is just enough for them.  Simplicity. My Tika mom told me tonight at dinner even, that most Tikos just care. They love and care for one another.  That's where Jesus is.  He is here in the littlest details.  He is here in the faces of people who work long days in the sun, in the people who take care of their homes, the people who sell fruit in the neighborhood super markets, in the tattoo shop guy who was mid-stencil when he helped us find a hotel when we were lost today. A smile is Jesus.  And that's a wonderful thing. He is a God that is present without words but in the very creases of time carved into the faces of men and women who take the city bus to work every morning. He is in my host mother who cooks and cleans all day.  He's in the hearts of study abroad students who can't wait to experience more of the heart beat of God that is the scenery of mountains and fresh flowers in the morning.  He's all around, waiting to be seen and heard, just like he is in Memphis and anywhere else I'm taken. Faith is belief in things unseen, but seeing, really seeing, has to also mean believing. At least in Costa Rica.


"We come alive as we love... Our beauty comes not from pursuing a brilliant career track, but in the nitty-gritty endurance with difficult people or circumstances... Love will not grow if you check out and give in to the seductive call of bitterness and cynicism--or seek comfort elsewhere.  We have to hang in there with the story that God has permitted in our lives.  As we endure, as we keep showing up for life when it make no sense, we learn to love, and God shows up."
-Paul E. Miller, A Loving Life 








Sunday, January 18, 2015

En el Diseño de Dios

En el diseño de Dios


Thursday morning my fellow students and I boarded the bus to head up into the mountains of San Bosco for the night.  The retreat we were taken to was some kind of conference center that was previously built for Catholic Priests.  You could tell God had done some amazing work in this place from the overlook of all of San Bosco, the color of the flowers and fresh plants everywhere, through the wild horses that we saw running down below, and from the refreshing sound of birds and new life in an all-consuming breath-taking view.
To begin, we played a few get-to-know-your-classmates games.  One included a cultural activity where we broke up into lines and raced to put 100 colones (1 coin) down our shirts, filter it into our pants, and then out the bottom of our pant leg.  It was a race to see who could filter the money out of their clothes the fastest.  Unfortunately, the way that we split up into our groups put me into a group of four girls also in skinny jeans, so as you can imagine when putting a coin in your pants... it doesn't move.  After the first person released the coin and the second person began, the coin was lost into the abyss of the skinny jeans for the next two and a half minutes.  It took 3 girls to retrieve the lost colones out of our second teammates pants while the other groups cheered us on.  If you ask me, losing your money in your pants where no one can find it might be a much more useful skill in a city known for pick-pocketing.
Our next cultural skill to learn was the art of cheek-kissing, proper hand shaking, and chest-hugging.  In Costa Rican culture it is expected of women to kiss cheeks and shake hands when coming into contact with others and when introducing themselves. After meeting the second time a hug and a cheek-kiss is expected, and if you walk into a room full of family and friends, you must go around hug-kissing each tiko/tika in the room.  We were also shown the difference between how far away we usually stand from each other when having a conversation, and how far away tikos expect you to stand.  This might explain why Costa Rican hygiene is also much better than ours. I hopefully have it down now so after three months of this you might want to watch out when I see you again if you don't want a kiss and hug on the cheek accompanied by ¡Hola, Como Estas Amiga!!!!!
Following lunch and two coffee breaks later, we were let free to explore and wash up for dinner. (people literally wash their face, brush their hair, and typically change shirts for dinner. I wash my hands and then kinda pretend i'm doing something useful to soak up the time usually.)  I found a spot in the grass overlooking San Bosco with a couple other classmates and sat in silence as the sun went down.  We watched as businesses and streets slowly shut down for the night and as lights came alive with people returning to their homes.  Clouds slowly came in swarming the tops of the mountains and the sky filled with colors of red, orange, and blue. I've seen a few mountains in the U.S. but these surrounding us were much different.  Admiring the blue, purple, red, orange, and green flowers that outlined the view, I was amazed at the scenerey God has created here. There's just so much life and color; you can see it not only in nature but also in the way people live and how happy they are with simplicity. My host mom has explained this to me several times; they live on what they need, that's it. Costa Rica is ranked in the top 5 happiest countries in the world, something important to note, because of their quality of life. Sitting here in view of everything, we couldn't help but talk about it with each other after a while and to take pictures, but every time I take a picture of anything here I get frustrated because it just can't capture exactly what I'm looking at.
When 7 o'clock came around, it was time for another cultural immersion lesson. Dancing. If you've seen Along Came Polly where Jennifer Aniston salsa dances in the club, it's kind of like that.  Lots of foot work, hip shaking, fast salsa music, and arm gestures.  My phone died right before I started or else I would have taken pictures, but a video would have never surfaced.  Maybe after I get some more practice. The whole lesson was in Spanish so half of our group was really great at taking direction and looked ready for the clubs afterward.  As for me, I was doing something of the Macarena in the back row mixed with some square dancing-esc feet movements.
After a sweaty dinner with burning calf muscles, we retreated to our rooms for the night.  I volunteered to take the first shower in our room, which goes in the books as my least favorite activity almost every night.  Warm/hot showers just aren't a thing most of the time here.  Imagine jumping in the lake for the very first weekend of the summer and right when you surface for air it's like the wind got knocked out of you and your breathing is short fast gasps.  This is how I take most of my showers.  The sad thing is that I think there is warm water some way, some how, and my host mom has tried to teach me but every time I try it doesn't work.  I think someone looking down on me is having a hilarious time, I can't help but to laugh sometimes at how much I struggle with this.  But if a cold shower is the most of my worries, I can't complain.  
The next morning we gathered back on the bus to head to the National Rainforest with our elderly Costa Rican tour guide. Es tiko es muy loco. One thing in particular that I learned through this trip is that mosquito bitten feet inside tenishoes without socks in a rainforest es no bueño. But besides that, being surrounded by millions of types of plants and flowers and animals and rain was an amazing experience. Even the rocks were beautiful colors and sizes. Our guide told us a story of a boy who brought a camera in a plastic bag last time, and when he took it out to take pictures, a few monkeys happened to be walking by. When they saw the bag they recognized it as food, grabbed it, and ran up a tree to tear it open. Once they got the bag open, one started biting it to get the inside out, and when that didn't work they started banging it against the tree to break it open. After a while they got bored and threw it back onto the ground and continued on their way. Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see any monkeys and no one wanted to sacrifice their camera, but I kept wondering to myself how many of them were looking at us walking around. We did happen to see a snake though! A close cousin of the cobra our guide said. Not exactly what I was hoping to see, maybe something a little more soft, furry, and cuddly-looking, but it was still pretty cool I must say. After the Rainforest we toured the very first church built in Costa Rica, where they had a statue of a Costa Rican Jesus. As I said in a previous post, it's getting cooler and cooler to see the similarities between the cultures and the one that holds us all together. I cater who Jesus is so much to what I look like or who I am and he is so much bigger than that and that is so stinkin' cool. I could get use to looking at a bronzed, dark Jesus for a while. Just kidding. Kinda.
 Costa Rica just keeps getting better and better. I just finished my breakfast of coffee, mango, and bananas, and i'm headed off to go the zoo in down town San Jose with my friends. And for some reason they all really want curry for lunch. Multiple cultural experiences at once, who would thought! I think we're going to try to plan a beach trip for next weekend to celebrate our first week of school. I'm actually crazy excited to begin my Spanish lessons because my brain is starting to hurt from trying to comprehend conversation when I have to think about every word in such detail. My parents taught me the word for nose! And sunscreen. They make fun of my sun burn; that I can understand haha but that's okay because I can joke with them about wearing sweaters in 75 degree weather. Anyway, i'm off to the zoo! And hopeful i'll be able to find the sloth sanctuary. (on my bucket list to find before Lauren comes to visit). Everything we see/do I want to share with my family and friends but it's impossible to fit into words or pictures. Costa Rica is just too much to express, as is Gods hand in this place and in my view of Him as I remain here. I'm praying for more opportunities to see Him and to share Him with those around me, and I am SO SO SO thankful for all of my opportunities thus far. Thank you for the prayers! And if you have time, call my mom and tell her you love her. She's pretty cool. Adios, y Pura Vida!




Wednesday, January 14, 2015

¿Que es Eso?

¿Que es Eso?

Today's most commonly used phrase, "what is that?"
Starting off this morning Señora Lourdes (mi host madre) had corn flakes, pineapple, coffee, and milk ready to go for breakfast.  Me being her 22nd exchange student, she says she thinks she has a good idea of what to feed me until our communication gets a little better.  I pointed to mayonaise in a picture book that she had and said "no" but other than that i'm up for new things! I'm extremely thankful for my spanish-to-english dictionary and my google translator at this point. Mi madre knows only spanish and I know only english so translating has been difficult but we're slowly understanding eachother. My favorite is when she refers to the neighbors dog barking and she says, "ruff  ruff, grrrrrr" and points towards the house. That's something we're on the same page about--no dogs.
I've learned two important things about my host mother today: numero uno, she hates beans.  What are the odds I got a host mother with the same hatred for beans as I! Praise. Numero dos, Harry Potter is not allowed.  Luckily i'm not a huge Harry Potter fan, but she expressed that this rule includes any kind of witch craft of sorts on the tv or netflix.  Thankfully I finished American Horror Story the Coven right before I got here or else that would have been a real problem.
From what I understood during this conversation, and with the help of Señor Ugalde translating into some english that he knew, her religion is very important to her, therefore witches aren't allowed in the house.  I understand, no problemo (They're Protestant I believe). One of the neatest things I've experienced so far is prayer before meals.  Señor Ugalde says that we pray before every meal, just as the U.S. (...kind of..if I remember..eh sorry) and listening to his thanking and praising of the same Christ that I love was an amazing experience.  Although I didn't comprehend what he was saying, it crazy to think that the God of the Universe understood every bit of it, as he does every other language.  And I struggle to know more than one... oy vey. (German I think?)
Anyway, todays activities consisted of a 15 minute walk to campus down uneavenly paved sidewalks- seriously you have to watch where your feet are going almost every step,  accompanied by  mi madre, sunshine and a slight breeze.  I was taking in the greenery everywhere we went, the small ice cream shops and small markets, the stray dogs that play and run arround in packs, the brightly colored roof tops, and trying to keep a steady conversation in broken spanish/english. We stopped once for her to point out the difference between greenery (verdes) and flowers (flor).
After passing through the Universidad de Costa Rica San José, we continued on to the supermarkado for me to purchase more shampoo and deoderant.  Next, I had my first experience with the autobüs. ¡Ay, caramba! I had to look up how to ask her if the busses ever crashed into eachother.  I hold my breath every time it's moving in fear that it's going to side swipe another bus, let alone a biker.  Honking is almost as common as breathing to these vehicles. She reassured me with, "a veces" which happens to mean "sometimes". (.....)
After a tour through down town San Jose, we grabbed some lunch. For me I went with the standard arroz con pollo; I can thank El Mez Cal for that. It was time to head home for an afternoon coffee break, and then I got to meet up with my friend from Memphis, Danielle! It was nice to see a familiar face and to speak some English for a little while.  We grabbed some smoothies with fresh piñapple, mango, and banana, and enjoyed the outdoor patio seating.  It's crazy how different the fruit tastes here, it's fresh and much less acidic. After my walk home I was muy cansado (very tired) especially my feet from wearing my new Birkenstocks around.  Beauty is pain. Or shall I say refraining from large t-shirts and chacos is going to be a struggle.  Dressing like a normal casual person is harder work than I usually put in for class, but it's probably a really great thing to start encorporating into my normal day.
Tomorrow my fellow API students get together for an orientation-sleepover which I'm really excited about!  Friends! Necessito! (that means I need friends). Anywho, day 2 was even better than day 1. For once I cannot wait to start classes and absorb as much as I can!  Everything about this culture excites me, luckily my host padres are the sweetest in the world and never tire of hearing "¿que es eso?" It's time for dinner, and if it's any bit as good as last nights avacado salad, fish, and fresh vegetables, i'll be in for something good!

Hasta luego amigos!
continued prayer and thanks :)






Tuesday, January 13, 2015

!Bienvenidos!

Hola Mis Amigos!

(Just about the only Spanish phrase I know thus far). Today I arrived in the wonderful city of San Jose, Costa Rica! The wait is finally over.  And now, as I sit in my bed recapping the days adventures on my iPad, I wonder how the heck I got here. After my flight from Memphis to Miami, I found myself in the middle of two new study abroad friends in seat 34C headed to Costa Rica for the next 90 days.  After a 2 hour ride, as our plane continuously lowered for landing, our three heads magnificently fit into the tiny box-window at the end of our row with our mouths open and our hearts beating fast.  The three of us, Maiera, Sam, and I couldn't get through customs, immigration, and baggage claim quick enough it seemed.  We were greeted by five other API students and boarded our bus towards our host families.  A nice Costa Rican driver was there to escort us, help us with our bags, and I think he threw in a few jokes here and there but eh.. no entiendo? For the next 30 minute drive from the airport towards our homes, not one word was spoken. We all just stared as we passed mountains in the distance, small homes with red and orange roofs, small tikos chasing each other around, our iPhones capturing as many pictures as they could, and silent prayers to God that our driver didn't kill us on these insane streets.  (I've found that Costa Rican driving involves a lot more speed and agility than does the U.S. Also pedestrians do NOT have the right away. Duly noted.). 
I arrived at my Homestay greeted by my new host mom and host dad.  I think they must be two of the sweetest, most patient people i've ever met, and it hasn't even been 24 hours.  Naturally, we spent the first hour together drinking coffee around the kitchen table and establishing the fact that I know little to no Spanish.  My host father luckily understands and translates for my host mom and I but tomorrow we head into the city without him!  I'll keep you posted on how that goes.  I'd say i've used more Spanish from my old high school vocabulary words today than I ever have in my life.  I finally understand what it's like to be on the other side of a language barrier--no bueno.  I told my family I'm an easy learner, so I'll be kicking into high gear these next months with my Spanish skills, which really excites me. There's so much to do and learn and understand! 
I'm praying for the Lord's guidance and patience over these next few days.  God, come and show up in a real way.  Make your path straight and be a light to my feet as I figure out this recipe for the good life.  From Memphis to San Jose, i'm ready to see what's in store. Let your name speak louder in me than any word that can leave my mouth. You, my God are the same here as you are anywhere and the same today as you are tomorrow.  Come, captivate me here and take me among the high places of joy, peace, rest, patience, adventure, love, and reassurance.  In Jesus name.