Saturday:
Spanish Level: Today I practiced IM SCARED in Spanish. YO TENGO MIEDO.

This morning Kelly and I took a trip with the maintenance man from school, Mauricio. We went to a waterfall near his house. Well… it wasn’t really “near” but close enough. We took a 30 minute bus ride to his house and walked from there. We went down a dirt road, across a river, up a mountain, through a mud field and then down a steep hill to the waterfall. While we were walking down the dirt road Mauricio pointed out a lot of things growing, chocolate (coco), oranges, bananas, limes, a lot of flowers, some spice similar to cinnamon, and some other fruits I don’t remember now but I thought you could literally walk out here and pick your lunch off a tree and eat it. It was pretty amazing I thought. All was fine and good till we got to the part where we had to walk down the steep mountain to the waterfall. This was when I got really scared and was like: “No way I’m not walking down that”. Mauricio helped me down the mountain and the waterfall was worth it. A nice cold pool we could swim in and practically all to ourselves. It was a good trip overall. After we got back I told Mauricio he was now my adopted brother because my brothers are the ones who help me out when I get scared of falling down.

On the way back a man stopped and gave us a ride up the dirt road back to Mauricio’s house where we had lunch. Mauricio’s house is very small. He has a living room a bedroom and a kitchen. The bathroom/laundry area has a roof and a dirt floor. He has two kids, and they were watching Barney in Spanish (I know what I want for Christmas). I learned all about the alphabet and my colors in Spanish while we were there. Then we had to run to the bus. It’s such a different life. If we had missed the bus we would have had to wait 4 hours for the next one.

I was glad to be home. We went to Church and out to dinner after, we took Wilbert some dinner too as he had to work.

Friday:
Spanish Level: Today I gave my teacher one of the kid’s books I bought about a sloth in a race. She tells me all the time that in Spanish I’m like a sloth (lazy) in other words because if there are two ways to say something I say it the “shorter” way. Anyway, I read it to her as part of my class, it was a cute book and she liked it.

When I got home tonight Carmen and Stephanie had been to visit Kimba and they said he may be coming home next week, which is sooner than expected and good. They had gone by to visit him today.

At ladies night Marion had invited me to come to a restaurant, Dos Locos, on Friday to hear some live music. Well this was something I just couldn’t pass up so Kelly and I went to check it out. We had dinner at the cheap pizza place and Dos Locos was just a block away. We could hear the music coming from the restaurant when we walked up, it was this guy they call Robbie, his initials are RTC. He used to play in a band with Stevie Ray Vaughn and had recently been on tour with Elvis Costello. He was a tall skinny blonde guy and he was melting his electric guitar. He was great!! I was beaming with wanderlust. A couple from the US told me all this about Robbie because they had just bought a bar on the beach and Robbie and his little band were going to be playing there on Saturdays when they re-open.

Thursday:
Spanish Level: After school I called my tico mom, Carmen, on the phone to tell her I was going to a bar to watch the Auburn game and wouldn’t be home for diner and she understood me. So I can get my point across even when I can’t use “body language”.

I had no idea what time the game started here because when I looked it up on line it said 6:30, but it didnt say Eastern or Central or Costa Rica time?? So I couldnt tell. I assumed eastern, took two hours off and thought that would be 4:30pm here in Costa Rica. I went to the bar the couple from AL owns as I thought it might be fun to watch the game with folks who actually comprehend SEC football. I got there about 4. On the door there was a sign for a ladies group meeting there that day 5-7. Only one other person was in the bar, slowly but surely more ladies began arriving for their meeting and they though I told each of them I didnt live there they all stoped to talk with me. What a diverse and interesting group.

There was one lady there particularly who talked to me for at least 45 minutes. Marion, She is from Newfound Land (which is part of Canada, I didnt know...) She moved to Canada later, has 5 kids and 12 grand kids, one of her daughters works in Dubai. After her oldest finished college she left her husband and came on vaction to Costa Rica, while she was here (12 years ago) she bought a house and went back to the states. She retired and a year later she moved in. She is like 65 and lives on an island that you can only get to when the tide is high by boat or kayak!!

WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!!!!! What a friggin GREAT GAME!!!!!!!! Maybe because its the first one Ive gotten to actally watch this year (in spanish but I could see what was going on), maybe its becasue we beat Steve Spurrier, or maybe its because its the most at home I have felt in Costa Rica. What ever the reason, it was a great game I thought.

By the end of the game these 3 other folks had come in, a local couple who were accompanying a lady from the states (a FL fan), she was here to visit some friends of hers managing a restaurant here but seems they had some problems getting along. She had met this local bi-lingual couple and they invited me to their table to talk. Then one of the ladys from ladies night came over after the group broke, she was pretty drunk and was telling everyone how she owned this hotel ... blah.. blah .. blah. A little 3 man bad was walking down the street and the hotel owener had them come in and play some songs for us. Sort of like Mexican Mariachi said the bartender (I couldnt tell any difference at all??). I pored the lady into a cab and went home... pura vida!

Wednesday:
Spanish Level: After school tonight I didn’t go home. Next week is my last week here and I wanted an evening out to be a tourist… so I took a night off from Spanish.

Kelly from school and I went to the beach and shopping and to a restaurant called Mono Azul for dinner. Mono Azul is noted to have a good restaurant and a lot of monkey around 5pm. Kelly and I went there about 4 and it was absolutely great! The restaurant had a lot of looking wood and tile, an open air place with a lot of trees around so it was shady and you could see the ocean from the restaurant. When we got there and sat down Kelly spotted a sloth in a tree. He was moving so slow, it was amazing to sit and watch one awake and moving around. Another person working there told us there was another larger one in a tree behind us, so we watched him a while too. Then the waiter said the monkeys were coming (he heard them) and soon a whole team of titi monkeys were surrounding the restaurant in the trees, and many of them came into the restaurant looking for food. I mean they came right next to our table, we were just about the only people in there for most of the evening. It was great!

We left Mono Azul about 6:30 but we didnt want to go home yet so we stoped by Gran Escape and had a beer. There was a girl at the bar we met named Monica, she is here in a class with about 40 other students getting a certificate to teach English in foreign countries. With that she can go almost anywhere and teach English as a second language. The name of her school is TEFL. She is a very interesting person, a young black woman who went to Spellman college in Atlanta. She had a lot of ideas and a lot of energy. She was a lot of fun to talk to.

Tuesday:
Spanish Level: I read a children’s book to Carmen and Stephanie after school today, more like a pamphlet, about 10 pages long, Snow White celebrated her anniversary with the prince. Last night it was a book about a bears Kanai and Koda, tomorrow the Little Mermaid. After each page they explain words to me I don’t know. Sort of like reading and charades combined.

When I got home tonight we had moved to the little house. Carmen had moved my room for me. Carmen and Wibert also moved everything from the bathroom into the kitchen and den. The bathroom is huge, 3 times the size of my bedroom. They had a lot of shelves and dresseres in there with all their clothes and shoes (functioning as Carmen, Wilbert and Stephanies closets) as well as Carmen’s sewing and craft room and all the bed and bathroom linnen. So it was quite a sight to see all this stuff on shelves and tables in the middle of the house.

In the empty bathroom, Geraldo is applying a coat of cement, or stucco or something like that... to smooth out the walls. What ever it is, it has smoothed out the walls so they dont look like bricks any more, but a nice even wall. (Aimee, maybe they could do something like that to your driveway). I didnt think it was possible to put more concrete on concrete?

Living in the little house is sort of like being in a dorm. When the water main to the little house is “on” the shower head leaks about a gallon per 5 mintues so we have to turn it on and off when we want to use water. This sucks because if you need to go to the bathroom, you have to go outside and turn on the main first. Its also hotter in the little house because it is back from the street between the large house and some appartments so it gets sun but little to no breeze.

Monday:
Spanish Level: I got a new teacher and a new book today, Intermediate Spanish! My teachers name is Mitsi. She is a good teacher and it’s good to have a change.

I’m dreaming in Spanish now. A few nights ago I had a dream that Aunt Nancy was in a store somewhere with me and that I had this big ceramic plate with Spanish writing painted on it and I couldn’t read it but she took a look at it and told me what it said. Last night I dreamt that my mom and dad and the Lawson’s were all here going to Spanish school. I was sitting in some open air restaurant with my mom and Wade talking about Spanish to them.

Kimba had his hip operation today. He came through it OK. Thank heavens! Carmen was very worried about him this morning and about Stephanie having exams right now and about how they are going to pay for Kimba’s operation as well as having all the work done on her house while it is completely turned upside down. She was very upset at breakfast, Im relieved and glad it all went well.

Geraldo came back, this week he is not working on the 2nd floor any longer, he’s going to be working on the bathroom.

Sunday:
Spanish Level: I feel pretty good about being able to communicate in Spanish. While I was at lunch today I talked to the bar tender for a while and he could understand me pretty well. (I could understand him pretty well too). Maybe it was the beer?

I went to the pool because it was hot and there wasn’t much else to do. When I got there, two tico families were there swimming too. It was a nice day at the pool. I left about 3 because it was going to start raining. After the pool I went to a restaurant, Gran Escape, for a late lunch. It is owned by two American ladies, one of them is named Crystal. They have a lot of dogs and one of them is sort of a mascot for the restaurant, a big white lab named Cookie who is pretty old. The restaurant has been closed the last month for a few renovations. A lot of things in town have been closed, the hotel casino, a few other restaurants, some of the hotel pools, some smaller stores and tour places.

When I got home everyone was getting ready for church, so I did too and I took my little paper this time. I did understand a lot more words but still can’t tell what the lectures or the priest are saying. At least now I recognize some of the songs and words like, El Senor, Cristo, Amen and Hallelujah, and I don’t mess up the peace be with you part.

Saturday:
Spanish Level: I met a girl from Manuel Antonio on the Mangrove tour Kelly and I took today. Her name is Dylan and I was able to talk to her in Spanish enough for her to understand and I understood most of what she said too. I think I’m making progress… still a long way to go (I didn’t understand our bi-lingual guide) but I can function and can even chat a little about things besides beer and the location of the bathrooms or the bank.

The family had taken Kimba to the vet first thing in the morning so by the time I got up he was already there and they were already back. The doctor said he will need to x-ray him and examine him and he will call when he knows more but I thought the fact that the dog lived through the night was a good sign.

Kelly from school and I took a tour of the Mangroves on Damas Island near by. The tour is timed with the high tide because if there is no tide, the boat dosent have water to manuver in. We had a VERY knowledgable bi-lingual guide. She was originally from Switzerland but has been living here for 8 years due to her sons alergies. He had been sickly 8 years but here he is not affected so they moved here and has become very strong and healthy. She knew the Ocoee river in GA and had worked there for a summer. Her 18 yr old daugher is an exchange student in New Zeland. There was a couple from Holland and a couple from California but the husband was originally from England and has lived in Venezuela a while, a local girl (which I was surprised to see) and us.

The tour was very informative of the history of Quepos and the area as well as getting to see some monkeys pretty close, a rainbow boa, lots of birds, crabs, a pigmie ant eater, and some bats but no crocodiles. Our guide also explained the 4 types of mangrove trees to us, how and why they grow here and about the waters and tides. It was all very interesting. She told us all about the United Fruit Company who originally develped this area of Costa Rica for bananas, about the mystery spheres of Costa Rica they found, about how they built houses designed for the heat with an imported wood that would keep out termites, about the palm oil plantations, and about the changes el nino had on the lay of the island. She told Kelly and I at the end of the tour that if we needed anything to come by and see her, that she knew sometimes it is hard if you need something and cant speak the language. She was really nice and the tour was very good.

When I got home my family was drinking coffe on the front porch. I had a long conversation with them about the tour and about where Im going to school next month. I was amazed now at how much we can communicate now that I know more words. I still stay things in the wrong “person” sometimes like ‘I we went’ or something like that but I correct myself more often now and we can really talk.

Kimba is going to be fine but needs an operation. He has nothing broken but his ball and socket joint in his hip...well the ball is completed “out” of the socket. The x-ray looked like a biology book. Here is the ball, and here is the socket, and they go together to form the hip joint, but in Kimbas hip they are no longer together. He has to stay at the vet for 22 days.

Friday:
Spanish Level: I had a terrible day at school. I am just starting to feel confident I know enough to speak and today in class we had a day of nothing but drills and practice with verbs and phrases. It was actually a very good exercise for 20 minutes but after 4 hours I felt so stupid I burst into tears after class.

I got home that evening and the progress on the 2nd floor is now about 20 planks 60 ft long, all trimmed out and looking good. Wilbert is very proud so far. The wood Wilbert had saves is all used up, he will be getting more but not until Wednesday next week so Geraldo is going home for the weekend. He lives near San Jose, about 3.5 hours away.

We were all just about to go to bed and apparently Geraldo had come over to tell Carmen that Kimba, the family dog, was hurt and hiding under some other wood Wilbert is saving for another project. Stephanie and Carmen tried to get Kimba to come out they called and called but he wouldnt come, they got a flashlight and a broom and finally coaxed him out. It looks like he has been hit by a car or a motorcycle. He was limping and had some pretty bad cuts and scrapes. Carmen doctored him up for the night and they will take him to the vet in the morning. His leg seems to be broken or maybe his back? I dont think I can take a dog dying while I’m here.

Thursday:
Spanish Level: ¡Cumpleaños feliz! ¡Cumpleaños feliz! Te deseamos todos, ¡Cumpleaños feliz! This is one version of “happy birthday to you” in Spanish. Happy Birthday mom! I miss you!

After school today we went to the beach. It was so hot on the bus home we looked like something the cat dragged in. We stopped at a store for a drink and some cookies. Dad you would love the cookies here. They are like those brand X cookies you like with the cream in the middle, you know the ones that cost about $1 for 50 cookies and they have vanilla cookies with vanilla cream in the middle, or one chocolate and one vanilla cookie with vanilla cream in the middle, others have vanilla cookies with various flavors of jelly cream in the middle...NOW I know how they stay in business, Costa Rican sales and dad...hey maybe I can get a job with them when I get back? ...but all that is besides the point. We sat down on a bench and while we were sitting there a lady came up behind me and was calling out (I thought to someone in the store) come to find out, she thought I was her daughter. I knew I had gotten a little tan but I didnt think I was dark enough to be mistaken for a tica. I thought it was pretty surprising. The lady was pretty surprised too with the idea that her daughter might be sitting on the bench at that store and I think she was more surprised that I was NOT her daughter. Maybe my twin is a Costa Rican.

Soon after we got back from the beach Pearson packed up his stuff and left for Venezuela. He was taking the evening bus back to San Jose and flying to Venezuela the next day. So it’s just me and Kelly at the school now.

Wednesday:
Spanish Level: I graduated from Basic II today but I don’t think I’m really ready to move on to Intermediate. I comprehend the idea of the lessons but I have not had enough time to really practice a lot of the concepts to a point I feel ready to move on. I have two more days this week and starting Monday I get a new book and a new teacher.

When I got home tonight we had a new neighbor, Geraldo. He is here to install the second floor in our house. Wilbert took a week off to work with him. He is a very nice but quiet man. He said it will take about two weeks to install the floor. I didn’t measure but Id estimate the room to be about 60x40 for a total of 2,400sq feet (with an opening for the stairs) so probably more like 1,800sq feet of tongue-in-grove flooring to lay. I’m sure if I asked they’d tell me some measurement in metrics (I have not had time to re-learn the metric system yet). He doesn’t talk too much to me; mostly he and Wilbert talk about the house and the floor. Tonight when I got home they had installed about 3 strips 60 feet long. All day they sanded and painted the wood Wilbert has been storing the last month. It will be fun to see it when it is finished.

I brought Kelly and Pearson, the other two students at school right now, to see where I lived after school. I forgot they were installing the floor. I think Carmen was worried about anyone seeing her house turned upside down but Wilbert was very happy to have two new people as a captive audience. He told them they could only speak Spanish with him. He talked to the two of them for about 30 minutes, asked them all sorts of questions to try out their Spanish. He told them each if they wanted to practice he’d be happy to talk to them any time. He really likes helping the students learn Spanish and he likes to talk a lot. I’m lucky to have a family I get along with so well. If it were not so damn hot here I’d stay my entire 3 months here.

Tuesday:
Spanish Level: My focus now is completely on verbs (any nouns I need to learn are pretty easily remembered now compared to verbs). You don’t realize how many verbs there are until you try to learn another language. There are about 100 we use all the time, every day and about 500 more that are good to know if you want to have a conversation with any depth, or understand a TV program.

This week is “final exam week” for the high schools. If I failed to mention this before, the Catholic faith is very predominant here. A lot of the holidays are centered around the Catholic faith and holy days. You don’t have to be Catholic to understand life here but it does help to know how Catholicism impacts the community. I suppose in a very basic way I’d say I don’t think church and state are separated here. With that said, today for my weekly field trip we went to a special mass that was held for the high school kids to bless them and wish good luck on their exams this week. Maria Fernanda (our neighbor from last week) should have been there but she did so poorly on her exams last week that she will have to take another year of high school, no need to take any further final exams, and sadly, her trip to the USA will have to wait.

When we left church, there was a big commotion in town. There were all these cars that had words written in shoe polish on their windows and they were all honking and following one another very closely so as not to let any other cars/trucks/busses in the middle. There were probably about 80 cars doing this. Most of them said “anything is possible” in Spanish of course. This was the day of the country wide taxi protest. Taxis here are governed and only the red ones are the legal ones. The legal drivers have to have a 4 door, red or maroon car in good working condition by the taxi association’s standards. They are each assigned their own number which is on a big yellow magnet on their doors. If you take an illegal taxi you are not assured of having insurance incase of an accident (and believe me the way they drive here, YOU WANT INSURANCE). The illegal taxis are cheaper however and the fact they are illegal is not really enforced by the police. The legal taxis here line up in front of the bus station; the drivers sit in their cars and wait for a customer to get in or for a dispatch call. If you call for a taxi there is only one # to call in the city, that of the legal services. The illegal taxis however line up behind the bus station and the drivers actually confront you when you are getting on or off the bus, they are there all the time every day, so it seems the police “allow” them to operate. Anyway, today the illegal taxis had an organized protest in every city in the country. In Quepos, apparently one car lagged behind and a legal taxi got between two illegals and blocked off the road so no more cars could pass at all. This really messed up traffic for about 45 minutes till the cops came. The busses couldn’t get to the bus station… my bus parked behind the station where the other illegal taxis were so it could avoid the roads that were blocked. It was pandemonium!!! Wonder how you say THAT in Spanish? I suppose I’ll look up plethora too dad since its near pandemonium in the dictionary.

Monday:
Spanish Level: Well Id like to say I was smarter than the average bear and that I was flying back to the USA at the end of this week (I can’t believe 4 weeks have flown by so quickly) but I think I need a few more lessons. I purchased two more weeks at my school here in Quepos today. That means Ill be here till Oct 7th for sure. After that I plan to change schools to one in San Jose or close to there where it is cooler.

Today I had my Spanish lesson on football. Not US football but scoccer, the rest of the world’s version of football. Yesterday I tried to watch a game with the family but I didn’t understand enough really to even pretend to watch or be interested. So today in my discussion class at school (I’m the only person who goes) I asked my teacher if he could tell me the rules of football in one hour. I think he was glad to talk to me about football. His mom apparently used to play when she was younger. In Costa Rica it is VERY consuming for the general population. My family however, doesn’t watch much so I haven’t had an opportunity to learn from them.

Speaking of football!!! I SEE AUBURN is #2 in the AP poles, and guess who is #1???... OHIO STATE. Oh and be sure to check and see who is #9… GO DAWGS… *grin*. Thanks for all the voicemail messages everyone!!!

Sunday:
Spanish Level: I’m at a point now where I can communicate basic needs and wants. My grammar is getting better slowly but surely. The next step is to be able to have a little more meaningful conversation and the only way to get there from here is to simply memorize more words.

We watched a bad scary movie, House of Wax, till about midnight last night so everyone slept in. Most movies here are in English with Spanish sub titles. I am not able to read in Spanish fast enough to keep up in Spanish yet. Everyone came over for breakfast and we wanted to go to a pool but two pools Carmen knew of were closed for the month and the one I like to go to at Plinio had a special event going on, so no swimming.

Everyone went to lunch at Carmen’s brother's (Guiermo - who owns the store) house. This was an event because there were about 16 people there. It had to have been the biggest meal I have had since I have been here. The men sat around and watched football after lunch while we all did the dishes and talked. Guiermo gave the San Jose family a big fish to take home with them. A man from the fish market delivered it to Guiermo's house fresh after lunch. After they figured out how to wrap and pack the fish in the car for the 3 hour trip, the San Jose visitors headed home. We all took a nap!

On Sunday nights we watch a program called Bailar (or something close to that). It is a show where a normal person gets to dance with a professional and they narrow it down to the winners. It is a great show to learn Spanish with too because now that I have had my dance lesson I know what they are talking about more. The dancing and costumes are great too. The show also follows the lives of the person dancing in their families, their husbands and or wives come on stage with them whenever any of the dancers are recognized. It's an interesting look at "reality TV" here.

Saturday:
Spanish Level: I had a nice talk with Carmen’s family while we were at dinner. I must have said something good because they invited me to stay with them when I go to San Jose or at least to visit. HOW NICE!!!

Every Saturday morning on the edge of Quepos, vendors block off part of the street and turn it into a fresh fruit and vegetable market. Carmen likes to go here every week to get her vegetables and fruit. It is probably cheaper here than buying them at the grocery store during the week; either that or they are “fresher” if that is even possible. Her family wanted to go to the beach and I know if it had not been a necessary part of the meal planning for the week we would have skipped the market. So about 7:15am Carmen, Wilbert and I set out for the market. You shop first and then as you walk back through you buy so it’s on the way home. It was quite cute because Carmen picked out what she wanted, Wilbert would pay for it and between the three of us we would carry it. We called Maurico, the dance instructor/nephew, to come pick us up when we were done.

When we got home the entire crew headed for the beach. The beach we went to is on an island next to Boca Vieja. We got some snacks at Guiermo’s store (my tico uncle) took some little taxi boats over to the island and walked to the beach. The sand on this beach is the color of coffee with milk. When you walk on it, it is HOT! There are no cars on the island and there are no trees or buildings on the beach, except for a few surfers it is really a local’s only beach. Since there were no trees on the beach Wilbert and Maurico had the task of building a shade tent. They used a sheet and some limbs that were lying behind the dunes, it was pretty funny but functional. We walked down the beach, swam and hit a volley ball around and had some snacks. Carmen got out a can and I thought was sardines. For all I know it may have been but when she opened the can it had garbanzo beans on top in some sort of sauce and on bottom it looked like tuna fish. She put some of that on a plate with some refried beans for me and I ate it with chips and it was pretty good. I have never seen anything like it before.

Carmen and her niece, Marielos, painted a picture in about three hours time. I sat at the table and studied while they painted and whenever I would look up another part of the picture would be done. One minute there would be a gray mountain and the next it would be covered with trees and have little houses all over it.

For dinner we all went out to dinner at Wilbert’s brother’s restaurant (the one we walked to yesterday) Juibert’s but this time we took taxis. The seafood here is known for being great. Our meal was good, prepared by Juibert himself. The restaurant was so busy after our dinner that Carmen ended up helping Juibert out with some tables while we got eaten up by mosquitoes but on the way home we stopped for ice cream so… pura vida!

Friday:
Spanish Level: Spanish today consisted of three words, Salsa, Merengue and Cumbia. I think the word for two left feet is pronounced sah-ley. My dance teacher Maurico kept saying it over and over. hahhahha

Today is Independence Day – No school. In the morning we all got up and went into town for the parade. Did I mention it is hot here? Well it was just like the 4th of July in GA. I remember standing in my band uniform for parades and how hot it was. Quepos is a little smaller than Barnesville, GA. The parade started off with the national anthem and the pledge to the flag. The floats/cars instead of having a lot of paper to decorate had greenery and flowers on them. The bands for the schools here have only two instruments. Drums (various) and an instrument like a xylophone. No woodwinds or horns or flutes. The girls here are so beautiful, naturally tan skin, dark brown hair, and big brown eyes. All the kids were dressed in traditional Costa Rican outfits. A lot of the parents walk along with the kids on the side during the parade. Everyone was taking pictures. Just like home. After the parade we had some snacks at the vendors around and went home.

My camera was full so I downloaded my photos into my laptop and was looking at a slide show of them with Wilbert…then in the afternoon, Wilbert and I walked to his brother’s restaurant, Juibert’s, a sea food place about 20 minutes away on foot. If someone wants you to walk for 20 minutes between 12noon and 3pm here be prepared to sweat! His restaurant used to be just 3 blocks away from my house in Boca Vieja, Carmen used to work there, that is how she met Wilbert. Juibert moved his restaurant to ‘the country’ and the restaurant in town, Kukula, is now owned by his son. I met Juibert and his wife Isabel. Mostly I think Wilbert wanted to go so I would take a picture of his brother but I enjoyed meeting some of his family. Juibert gave us the 50¢ tour of his house.

Carmen’s only sister (she has 5 brothers), one of her daughters, one of her sons and his girlfriend from San Jose arrived in the afternoon for the weekend. The son, Marurico, works at a bank during the day and also teaches dancing. He gave me a lesson in Salsa, Merengue and Cumbia which was very entertaining for the rest of the family. I think I’m actually better at these than I am at Spanish (and I’m not light on my feet), whenever I would mess up I would just say “I had no idea what to do because I don’t speak Spanish” kidding. He was pretty patient, a good teacher and you can tell he like dancing a lot. It was a lot of fun actually but I must have sweated 3 gallons!

Thursday:
Spanish Level: Well I still am not so good on the fly, but for homework Tuesday night I had to write a little speech about Independence Day in Costa Rica in Spanish and today they had me read it as part of the school celebration.

I met an old man on the bus about a week ago who was very nice to me and today I saw him again. So I sat next to him to talk to him. He works at the beach. He speaks no English, but he thinks I should move to Quepos. What do you think dad? Wonder what I said to him…? Just kidding…

In school every day part of my day is just conversation with my teacher. Today somehow we got on the subject of gay folks in Quepos. I asked if Quepos is a popular place for gay people to come in Costa Rica. She said that because this area is more developed than some others it is more liberal and accepting and thus gay people in general are more accepted here. A lot of the x-pats here are gay, just an observation.

After school, David, the owner of the school gave us a ride to town. He is from the states, WI I think, but has lived all over the place. He was in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica for a while. He said the school in San Jose I am planning on going to, Conversa, is a good one and is run by a man he knows from the Peace Corps. David has a degree in Spanish and lived in Spain for 4 years. He’s been to Italy too. You can tell he’s a ‘player’ so I was surprised to hear his story. Wonder where he got his $$ from?

At home everyone was getting ready for the Independence Celebration. Festivities for Independence Day here start the night before. At 6pm, on Sept 14th, ALL Costa Ricans sing the national anthem, everywhere, no matter where they are. It’s pretty awesome. Kids here make these paper lanterns called farols shaped like houses and animals or whatever they like. After the national anthem they light their candles and parade into town with their farols. It was raining in Quepos so the kids just paraded around the school yard but it was still a fun tradition to experience and Carmen made a farol for me too while I was at school.

Wednesday:
Spanish Level: My Spanish is worse than I thought. I couldn’t even get through the first paragraph of the exercises Stephanie gave me without looking up half the words.

Tonight when I got home, Stephanie had come home early from school with a stomach ache. While she was home she made up 40 questions with about 7 scenarios for me in Spanish! I was so surprised and really flattered that she took all that time to write out practice for me. It was very nice. It is going to take me a week to get through it though because I’m on a 3rd grade reading level and the scenarios are written on about a 10th grade level.

Tuesday:
Spanish Level: Today I’m pretty much sick of looking up every third word to complete an idea or phrase. Ugh! I wish I had a photographic memory.

After school I went to the pool, on the way home from there I met some folks on a tour from Holland and the Netherlands. One lady in the group spoke Spanish very well. Between the 4 of them, they spoke about 10 languages; all 4 of them spoke English. It amazes me how many people from all different countries are here in Costa Rica. It also amazes me how folks from Europe learn 2-3 languages or more while they are growing up. I’m having such challenges with one more.

So here is how small our town is, when I got home no one was here, that makes two days in a row. I was home about 15 minutes when the phone rang. Wilbert has me trained to answer the phone for practice in Spanish, so I answered the phone and it was Carmen. She said she had seen me pass by on the street (three blocks away, she knew it was me) and told me she was working at her brother’s store for about an hour to help him out. I had a whole hour all to myself at home! I spent 30 minutes of it in the bathroom!!! It’s amazing how rushed you feel with one bathroom and 4 people in the mornings.

Our neighbor Marybell and her daughter went back to San Jose. They are supposed to come back next Monday so Maria Fernanda can take the rest of her tests but I just missed getting to say bye to them.
When everyone got home I helped Stephanie with her English homework. In Quepos/Boca Vieja, in order to get a job a lot of places require employees to be bi-lingual. So I checked over Stephanie’s English homework which I thought was not so easy even in English. I said I wish I had some exercises like this in Spanish to practice because I thought they were good.

Monday:
Spanish Level: I can understand a lot more than I can speak. It’s frustrating not to be able to say something you want to say, simple stuff like: Can I help you? or Where does this pot go? I did do my homework early but I must admit it was more to get away from the incessant din of Marybell’s chatter.

This morning our house was more like Carmen’s bed and breakfast. Ivana, the cousin, came by for coffee early with Carmen; Maria Fernanda had breakfast with me, then Wilbert and Stephanie. US Sept 11 ceremonies were on the news. At school, two new students arrived, Kelly and Pearson. Kelly is from Washington (state) she starts college this year and is going to be here for 6 weeks. Pearson is from San Francisco; he has already been at a school in San Jose for two weeks and is going to Venezuela and Argentina on a 3 month trip/class. I took them to the beach after school and after about 15 minutes there it started to rain. We went back to Quepos and I showed them where a few things are in town.

When I got home, no one was home. This is very unusual. I went next door to ask Maria Fernanda “¿Donde está mi familia?” They were all at the grocery store; it’s a family event when they shop so they can help get the stuff home. Dinner at my house is always ready at 6:30, so when they were not home by 6:15 it was very odd. They got home from the store about 6:45, apologized to me that dinner was not ready and then asked if Id like to go out to eat for pizza. Wilbert, Carmen, Stepanie, the neighbors Marybell and Maria Fernanda and I all went out for dinner. The family going out is a treat here, its not normal. We were going to walk but there was so much rain we decided to call a cab. At dinner Marybell talked so much it was amazing she could eat. Carmen made a comment about a man at the bar with a cowboy hat on, she said he left his horse on the street.

We walked home, on the way we stopped at another little store for an ice cream. Marybell told me about her visit to the US to the Hershey museum (which I went to with Aunt Theresa) and that she has one brother and one daughter living in PA and that Mary Fernanda has a visa good for 10 years in the US as soon as she finishes these tests to complete high school. Apparently it is very difficult for Costa Ricans to attain a visa to visit the US, so for her family to have 4 is pretty impressive. As Americans we just jump on a plane with our passport (depending where we’re headed maybe get a few shots first) and Adios! Before 9-11 we didn’t even have to have a passport to go some places, just an ID and birth certificate. It is interesting to see first hand how the ‘pecking order’ among countries affects travel between them. It’s just so easy for us. I planned my trip and was on a plane to come here in less than 2 weeks. My teacher has been waiting for 8 months for a visa to visit the US.

Sunday:
Spanish Level: I don’t know if this counts as Spanish or knowledge of the systems here but some man at the bus station told me I needed to walk 6 more blocks to purchase a ticket. I definitely didn’t want to walk 6 blocks in high heat with my stuff. So I said “no I know I can pay the driver here”. He kept telling me I needed to buy a ticket and that he was going that way he’s show me. He was right, the first stop the bus makes is at the ticket office, but to Quepos you can pay the driver you don’t have to have a ticket to get on the bus.

The bus for Quepos leaves at 11am. So I slept in, took a long luke warm shower and after my My Cousin Vinny BREAKFAST, took a walk down the beach to the pier. Puntarenas is definitely NOT a tourist town. I think I was the only North American on the streets. There were a lot of people in the parks and on the beach, the clerk at the hotel said every Sunday all the locals come to the beach. There were a lot of vendor carts all over the walkway. They were all looking at me like I might have had 3 heads. They don’t get many tourists here. Even at my hotel the other guests were Costa Ricans and they sort of looked at me like I might say “I’m lost” at any moment. There were people fishing off the pier and playing volley ball on the beach, your typical beach stuff. By noon it is low tide so the sandy part of the beach was very big at 10am. I saw a sting ray leaping full body out of the water two or three times it was pretty amazing.

The bus ride was a long 4 hours home. It was miserably HOT on the bus and one boring man sat next to me most of the way. As soon as the bus emptied out a bit (3 hours into the trip) I moved. Then I talked to these 3 girls from Germany who were traveling together, they must have been about 20 years old. But the amazing thing about these girls was that they each had only one book bag size back pack and they were traveling for 3 months.

About 20 minutes from Quepos we passed a wreck on the road. A car with 4 people had run off the road. They don’t wear their seatbelts much here, 3 of the 4 people were thrown from the car and were dead. I think the bus drive must have seen them run off the road, or maybe he just saw the car and people lying in the grass but for whatever reason, he stopped the bus and got off to help… so did most of the passengers. They helped the 4th person out of the car. Everyone got back on the bus and we left just before the ambulance arrived. I made it home to Quepos!

We have new neighbors as of tonight for a few days, Marybell and her 19 year old daughter Maria Fernanda. Their family used to live in Quepos and they have a daughter Stephanie’s age so they know each other. For some reason (I didn’t quite get it) Maria Fernanda has been in school in San Jose for the last 7 months (school is year round here) but she had to come back here to Quepos to take her high school final exams? I don’t know enough about schools here to understand why, but what I do know is Marybell talks A LOT!!! More than my tico dad Wilbert who talks a lot. We all had dinner together but there was no way I could keep up with either of them. It was good practice for me though because she just keeps on talking… and believe it or not, when she was talking to me I actually understood about 1/3 of what she was saying.

Saturday:
Spanish Level: The tour was in English and in Spanish and I’m sad to say I still need both.

OK so water in the shower was not cold but not hot, more like tepid, which I was glad to get! I brought a wash cloth (not nomally provided here). Linnens in general are expensive here. Breakfast however, was included. It reminded me of My Cousin Vinny as BREAKFAST is: scrambled eggs, rice and black beans mixed (gallo pinto) and bread with jelly, coffee and juice. I took a cab and all my things to the dock. I got there early while the crew was loading the boat. One of the musicians, an older man named Oscar, talked to me for about 30 minutes in Spanish. He told me a lot of words related to the boat and the water etc. and corrected my bad pronunciations. All throuought the day he would come find me when he noticed something I might want to know.

On the boat was great of course. We went 1.5 hours to the Isla de Tortuga in the Gulf of Nicoya. All the little islands in the gulf and the mountains on the surrounding main land make it a beautiful trip. Oscar told me to sit top-side near the captain for the best view. There were about 30 passengers on the boat and I think I met probably half of them. Two girls I met were in Costa Rica sponsored by/or on scholarship with the Rotary Club. This was some amazing information to me. Both the girls were younger than me and both had been to other countries on trips paid for by the Rotary club, one to Australia and one to South Africa. They are going to a school called Conversa in San Jose and I may go there next.

When we got to the Island I went with a smaller group on a little boat to snorkel. It was GREAT. There were a lot of fish and different kinds. The water is murkey this time of year due to all the rain but I still could see a lot of different fish. I met a guy from Brazil snorkeling as well as a guy from Costa Rica who lived in US for a few years and met his wife (also from Costa Rica) and they had recently moved back. He worked in customer service helping americans work with companies in Costa Rica.

They fed us on the island. Ceviche, yum! (very costa rican) and some other stuff. They eat a lot fruit here (some Ive never even heard of) and the meats of choice are chicken, seafood, pork and specifically a lot of ham, not much red meat. We hung out on the beach for a while where I met a lady from Ireland on vacation, who works in HR for the UN and a girl who is going to college in Chicago but is from Poland. She is studying spanish here as well with about 40 of her college classmates, one of her teachers was on the boat too. We headed back onto the boat about 3pm. On the way back to Puntarenas we saw a school of dolphins, some were jumping completely out of the water and spinning, there had to be at least 15 of them. Then of course, it started to rain. We also passed Isla San Lucas, it is an island here that is like Alkatraz, at one time it was a prison but it appeared to be about 3 times larger than Alkatraz.

The boat docked at 5pm and the last bus for Quepos left at 4:30 (about now I was wishing I had just rented a car). Everyone else on the boat headed back to San Jose. So, I stayed for one more night in my little friendly Hotel Tioga.

I have not been able to post any pictures so if you care to see me on the boat you can click here: http://www.calypsocruises.com/ click the Daily Photos button, and click the calendar day Saturday September 9th. I am in picture 39 of 57. Picture 1 of 57 is of the two girls from Rotary and Picture 26 of 57 is the girl from Poland-Chicago and the lady from Ireland with UN.

The Weekend Begins:
Spanish Level: The phrase for “oooughh the luggage” is “con mi monton´ de chunches” or “con mi monton´ de equipaje”, which literally means, with my mountain of things or my mountain of luggage.

Ok so I picked this boat, Calypso, I wanted to go on and it sales out of Puntarenas. Puntarenas is a city about 70 miles north of Quepos. In the busy season, there is a Calypso tour that will pick you up at 4:30am in Quepos, drive you to the boat, you sail and they drive you back to Quepos that night. Because I was the only one in Quepos going, I had to get to the boat and get home on my own.

Friday: After school, I took the public bus to Puntarenas, I thought this would be better than renting a car for some reason?? Bridges here are single lane and are most often made out of steel pipes. The roads have a lot of pot holes and are not marked or painted well which makes traveling at night dangerous. It gets dark here around 7pm every day. It cost $3 and took me 4 hours (3pm-7pm) to get there. No A/C on the bus so it was a bit “windy”. The bus was a lot of fun however because I got to talk to a lot of different people and practice my Spanish. Most folks didn’t want to take the seat next to me but when the bus would get full they did. A man sitting in front of me talked to me quite a bit too. He works near Quepos as a high school teacher and every weekend goes home to another area in Costa Rica called Guanacaste. His weekly commute consists of two busses one way for a total of 7 hours.

Now I booked the boat and a hotel room with the help of a travel agent in Quepos. When I got to the end of the bus line, we were just in the middle of some street in Puntarenas, no bus station with taxis like there are in Quepos. I had no idea where my hotel was or how I might get there from wherever I was. No map, I had no idea where I was. The bus driver was calling a cab for me when I told him the name of my hotel and he said “oh its just about 500 meters at the end of this street”. So I started walking. Puntarenas is a port town and in Quepos they don’t think too much of it. Most folks I told I was going to Puntarenas were like… why? …Be careful… watch your stuff… it’s a poor area… So I was a little nervous about walking 5 blocks with an overnight bag, beach towel and my school book. I had to go to the bathroom too after all that time in the bus. I stopped two times to ask directions and once to use the bathroom, what was 500 meters turned out to be more like 8 or 900, but I made it! The hotel is on a road that runs along the ocean/beach. The pier and surrounding parks were on the blocks I walked down so it was well lit with a lot of people about.

The town is actually not bad; it reminded me of Columbus, GA with the river walk. The city itself is not all that pretty or clean but it has its good points too. It is the capital of the Puntarenas province and it has a long public beach with showers and volley ball nets and a wide paved walkway about a mile long just this side of the beach, the street lies between the walkway and any hotels along the water front. My hotel lobby was pretty nice with a little open air plaza in the middle where the pool was, and had a restaurant and a casino. The rooms were older and simple but clean and fine. My bed was great and I had 3 big pillows.

More of week 2:
Spanish Level: Trying to unlearn my bad Spanish habits is hard. One of the teachers at the school said I remind her of her three year old who says I, Antonio, me do it. I do this in Spanish, no matter who is doing the action in Spanish I say “They, I do it.” Or “You, I do it.” Sometimes I say “I, I do it” and correctly but I say it when I really mean ‘You, you do it. Aye Caramba!

A lot of time has passed since my last entry so I’m going to lump a few days together to sort of catch-up. I can’t even remember everything that has happened now but these are the highlights:

• Did I mention it is hot here? If not, it is.
  
• Stephanie has a cousin named Ivana, she is Carmen’s brother’s daughter (the brother who owns the little store). She has been over for a few nights this week. I think she is having boy troubles and her dad is making her frustrated so she’s been hanging out over here a lot. Her family lives a few blocks away in the house where Carmen grew up.
  
• Aunt Nancy, I took my pictures over to Idela’s house and showed her some of you. She and Victor send XXXX’s and OOOO’s (no idea how to say this in Spanish?)
  
• Wednesday my teacher took me on a field trip to Pilino, a hotel with a nature trail and a great pool. We walked up this steep mountain trail to the top where you can see all of Quepos and some of Manuel Antonio. It was high!! We saw some monkeys while we were there as well, white face monkeys and titi monkeys (2 out of the 4 kinds that live in Costa Rica). Did I mention how hot and humid it is here??? hahahaa… students of the school are allowed to use the pool at Pilino and this is a super way to beat the heat!!! I have been back twice since to swim.
  
• I found a website that has a translation of Catholic mass with one side in Spanish and one side in English so Ill be ready for our next visit to church.
  
• While we were on our field trip, the yard man found a 6 foot python in a bathroom at school. He got it out and let him go after officially enrolling it as an honorary member of Escuela D’Amore.
  
• Friday everyone from school except me headed back to the states. Monday there are some new students scheduled to arrive.
  
• There are ants here that look like ‘piss ants’ but they bite like fire ants. HIDEOUS! I happened to be standing in a few while opening the door one night and have about 10 itchy bites driving me crazy. *ouch* On the ‘up’ side, they don’t have a lot of mosquitoes here as they have 100 species of bats in the country some of which can eat up to a pound of mosquitoes in a night!

Monday:
Spanish Level: Who cares…? The Crocodile Hunter is dead!!! Killed during filming in Australia, a manaray (normally harmless) hit him with a stinger to the heart. I’m sad. I loved that guy.

My classes have been moved to the mornings this week. So after a nice LONG WARM shower I said good by to hotel Kamuk, Best Western, and headed to class. Mom, if you and dad take out the hot water heater not only will dad save $$ on the water and heating bills but you will have many more takers on coffee. One day this week my mom didn’t make coffee for us and I was so disappointed!!! After that cold shower you need a cup of coffee.

After school I came home to find out that the night before Stephanie and Carmen had been at the hospital because Stephanie had an infection in her throat (maybe strep throat). Carmen was there with her till probably 10pm and she missed school today. She got a shot last night at the hospital and is feeling a little better now.

I put all my luggage down and headed to the beach. I stopped in town at a local restaurant near the bus station for lunch first. While I was there a tico came in and started talking to me. He eventually came over to my table and he helped me with my Spanish while I ate lunch. He was a tour guide for the Mangroves, Roger, nice guy, handsome too. If I get the least bit nervous, suddenly I forget a lot, so I’m sure this guy was thinking “what an idiot”. It sucks when you really want to talk to someone and you have no idea what words to use. He finished his coffee and left. Before I finished lunch it started to rain so I didn’t go to the beach.

At home Wilbert reviewed my verbs with me. Sheesh, there is so much to remember! I finished my homework while Wilbert and Carmen rode on an elliptical machine they got yesterday. Wilbert asked if I had any pictures so I went through my book with him and after dinner he had me to show it to Carmen. They liked my little stories. Then Carmen showed me about 4 picture books she has. She told me she was married to another man before Wilbert for 3 months, and that Stephanie is his daughter. Her wedding photo was in the pictures. When Stephanie was about 2, she met Wilbert. They have had A LOT of students and English teachers stay with them. She told me about one who was here for 4 weeks who cried because he couldn’t learn any Spanish. She also told me about a pressure cooker she had that blew up (I think that is what she said anyway) and for some reason that is why they don’t have an oven now (they had one in an old picture).

Sunday:
Spanish Level: Well no improvement from yesterday really but I did practice some today with some girls from Buenos Aires I met in the park.

This morning when I got up I took a trip to Manuel Antonio National Park. In line for the bus I met a guy named Thomas, a gringo, working here for the Fund for Costa Rica. Not sure what he was doing but he spoke Spanish pretty well and he helped me out with some of mine. He lives with a host family too. I talked to some locals standing in line and someone else on the bus. Apparently even the Costa Ricans here on the weekends are not from Quepos but are tourists. Everyone has such stories to tell.

At the park it was high tide so I had to take a boat about 100 yards to get to the entrance, in the afternoon the boats are not necessary. I took a guided tour and the guide was pretty good. Our group ended up being half and half English/Spanish speaking and our guide was bilingual. IT WAS HOT!!!!! We saw a lot of animals, Jesus Christ lizards (named because they can run on top of water), 2 and 3 toed sloth, iguana, spiders, snakes, bugs, crab, frogs etc. but no monkeys (boo). My guide and two girls from Argentina talked to me in Spanish a little for practice. At the end of the tour, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I took this off path our guide said went to a waterfall. Now those of you who know me know this is not normally something I would opt to do, hike through literally “the jungle” on a “not so good trail” for 20 minutes into the woods. But I made it to the waterfall and back and lived another day!!!
After all that, the day was shot. I was exhausted. I went home and packed for Hotel Kamuk for the night so I could call GA on the Vphone.

Saturday:
Spanish Level: Let it suffice to say, good thing I’m not going home today. Spanish still needs lots of work! When we went to Catholic church tonight, there is a time in the mass where everyone shakes hands and says “peace be with you” = “con paz” in Spanish. I didn’t know what they were saying so I ended up saying “que pasa” = what’s up? (They sound the same to me in Spanish…eeek!!!!!!!)

Today was the best day so far in Costa Rica. First thing in the morning I went out on a catamaran trip, we saw a sea turtle and some dolphins, snorkeled a while with some tame and bold sergeant majors and then we got to see a whale and her calf! Stephen from my school came too. It was great but mostly just being on the catamaran, Tom Cat, was wonderful to me. They cooked us a great lunch of fish kabobs and fresh fruit, with an open bar, what more could anyone ask for? The catamaran is owned by some guy from the states, Steve (I’m beginning to notice a pattern here with the USA owners). The guides on the boat were bilingual so I got to practice some with them.

After the catamaran I headed to the beach. On the bus I ran into Gary, another of my classmates. He wanted to check into a hotel, so we went to about 3 of them near the school. One of them was a Gay and Lesbian hotel (the attendant informed us immediately as I suppose he thought we were together). This was the only hotel that was booked for the weekend by the way, all the rest had vacancy, which made me wonder if Quepos is the place to go in Costa Rica if you’re homosexual? While touring the hotels we saw some monkeys so that was pretty exciting. Gary ended up staying at Hotel Nicholas, which reminded me of Nick.

After the beach I went home for church… well you already read about part of my experience at church. They don’t have missiletes so I told Carmen I wouldn’t know when to stand up or sit or kneel. I wish I had talked to Aunt Nancy before getting here and had her fax me a copy of some of the prayers in Spanish like the Apostles Creed and the Our Father at least. I wonder if God counts your going to church when you don’t understand any of what they are saying?? All I know is we didn’t win the cake they were raffling off.

After church we went out to dinner. Wilbert was at work. We walked to a chicken place but Stephanie wanted pizza so we left for a pizza place. The meal was very interesting with Carmen and Stephanie. We looked around at all the people in the place and Carmen told me about the locals she knew and we made fun of the gringos. Afterwards we took some pizza to Wilbert at work. His work is just on the other side of town. Carmen’s nephew is a cab driver so he drove us. It was a fun and busy day.

Friday:
Spanish Level: I forget…

TGIF! On my way to school this morning the neighbor across the street from us was in her yard. She stopped me and asked me if I knew Nancy. I have no idea how she figured this out but it is true apparently Aunt Nancy lived with her (just across the street from me) when she was here. My host mom, Carmen, remembers Nancy too.

On the way home my classmate Stephen took me by Banco Bar. The owners there are from TN and AL. They have been in Costa Rica for 2 weeks. They are trying to get the college games on TV in their sports bar. Their whole family came down and bought the bar with their inheritance. Quepos is a big sport fishing town so they have been coming here for a few years. Maybe next weekend I’ll have a place I can go watch a little football. WAR EAGLE!!

Today is the day Isabel, our neighbor, is moving back to San Jose. Carmen and Wilbert rent a small house next door to her and her husband and I think her son. They have been living there a month and today is their last day in Quepos. When I got home they were packing up. Carmen and Wilbert were helping them as much as possible. Every day Carmen sits in the window sill facing Isabel’s house and talks to her a lot. Isabel is very nice and Carmen is sad she is leaving. Isabel’s husband gave Wilbert some tongue and grove wooden planks and Wilbert is VERY happy about getting them. He can use them for his floor on the second level of his house (which is open to the 20ft ceiling right now). Wilbert fussed over these planks all night. Once Isabel left, Wilbert rearranged them again to keep the rain from damaging them. He reminded me of Daddy Phil and a batch of jelly. Everyone was very busy so I didn’t get to practice much Spanish.