Pictures!! The few I had time to upload...

Manual antonio igauna

The first day at the beach..... all white and energized and not covered in sand.....

The first day back less white, a much less energized considering how much sand I have to carry everywhere it makes sense.Proof that I am in the right place.

video attempt

I will attempt to post a video here. It's of me in National Park and Beach of Manual Antonio.

Transcript: "Hola Amigos, Pura Vida!"

I am on lava rocks, every times I climb on lava rocks I think of the time in Hawaii when Teddy found an eel in the tide pools in the lava rocks. He looked over at it and the eel fffing jumped out of the tide pool, snapped at Teddy's face and jumped into the ocean. Still scared to even look at the tide pools.

Brad Pitt and Pinas

Hi Y'all! I told you I was going to pick up a southern accent. I talk all slow and drag out my vowels and everything.

I have so much to tell whoever happens to be reading. Apologies at least to my mom who has been unable to log in and comment (sorry mom). May I recommend pressing preview after typing in you comment? When I commented on the post from another place that's what I did. If not you can all reach me at christinemorgan4@gmail.com. I can't post pictures of the kids, but I'm allowed to show friends and family so I can email them to you if your so inclined. All ready planning on sending some pics of the baby to you Liz.

Anyway.... The rain has been ridicules and all the kids crack up at me when I jump at the thunder. My mama tica picked up on my dislike of the thunder and made some good comfort soup for me last night.

I have learned all the names of the kids at the orphanage. Everyday I fall in love with another one. First there was Jene who is just the most content person let alone 3 year old I have ever met. Then there was Maite the little 4 month year old baby who will give me only 3 smiles a day if I'm lucky. Then there is Ceasar who is super smart and I have been teaching him how to draw micky mouse and grumpy, he wants to know how to draw goofy, but I never learned how to draw goofy at California adventure, so he came up with his own version. Today it was Reiner who is mostly in his own world (since he is only two), but he let me in today, we hung out for an hour this morning. All we do is really play with the kids, its kinda of awesome.

This weekend we went to beach. I went with my roommates Cassandra and Ashley. Ashley is from Mississippi (hence the accent) and will happily be moving to San Francisco giving me another excuse to drive north. Cassandra has spent time in California and New York, but is currently from Colorado. I also brought one of my co-volunteers from Little Rock, Arkansas. Her name is Alicia and she is awesome, she has watched The Very Potter Musical for one. And yes that is a link and yes if you haven't watched it go and watch it now and come back in 2 hours when my pictures have finally uploaded. If you have already watched it the sequel is right here. A Very Potter Sequel . She is also an English and Spanish major and is writing her thesis on magical realism in literature, she reminded me so much of my cousin Claire (Hermione). We went to Manual Antonio on a public bus costing a whooping 6 dollars instead of the 30 dollars for some shuttle (go us) and stayed at a 12 dollar a night hostel. We paid the 10 dollars to get into the park and I saw a monkey, a sloth and an iguana.

Then we mostly chilled at the beach. Some creeper who supposedly works for playboy took some pictures of everybody, I informed him that I am from LA and I know lots of lawyers, and he claimed he deleted everything of me at least, but I let him now sh*t is going down if any pictures of me in my bathing suit go up somewhere. How many days until you take that bar Erica? That was a bit of a damper on my tan, cause I put my clothes on over my bathing suit after that but, it was still fun, and I still got burnt. And according to him I ruined his weekend because I accused him of being unprofessional for not trusting him to just keep the pictures to himself. Apparently he is so professional that he even has a website! Does that make me a professional too? Anyway, chewing him out was kind of fun, so was ruining his weekend.

I wish I could say a burnt monkey was chilling with a pina colada this weekend with me, but it was mostly me with the pina colada. Sometimes minus the alcohol, because the pinas are so good!! I just ate fruit the whole weekend. Now I'm back to frioles and arroz. Rice and beans, not good for fitting into my maid of honor dress.

In fitting into clothes news, my friends and I joined a fight club in San Pedro. Not exactly what it sounds like, no Brad Pitt, we just learn how to punch sand bags and run a lot. The teacher is hilarious. When doing difficult things he says only ticos do this gringos don't even try. He said we will get better though, we return tonight.

The laundry situation is interesting. I'm almost to acceptance that nothing will ever be completely dry. And sand seems to have followed me from the pacific. What was that old anime movie with those moving dust bunnies? I'm hopping one of the Jessicas are reading cause they would know. I think it is something like Howls Moving Castle, but it could be another movie. But it is like the sand are those little dust bunnies and they just migrate out of my backpack and are sitting and waiting to greet me every night. I still find sand on my body everyday, and it has been what three days since the beach?

I am now taking private Spanish classes. And I have learned many new words and have mostly been working on my conversation skills. I have decided that I want to get Spanish completely fluently. I've finished my classes at UCSD, but I'm thinking of in the future taking a community college class, or something else? Not sure what the next step is. Because I can talk, but it is really difficult to explain or understand more complex things. Several times I have missed significant parts of a complex conversation. And what is talking with out interesting and complex topics? Even talking about Harry Potter is complex as far as I'm concerned.

Planing on a trip to Monteverde this weekend. It's up north and there are lots of trees and animals. And something called a cloud forest.

I will be attempting to post pictures soon. How is everybody else doing? How's school going for those in it? How's wedding plans going for those with a wedding this summer? Oh, and if you want gifts, give me suggestions now, before I run out of cash. Something small and not easily breakable.

Oh and let me know if I miss anything big while I'm here. I only just heard about New York, and I have three things to say about it "Awesome", "about time" and "Obama, come and jump on the freaking equality train already, it doesn't move as fast, but it's a much more fun journey with our crowd"

Audios Amigos!!

Lelo

So attempted to do my laundry last night. I washed my clothes in the sink and hung them to dry, I think they may be dry by the time my 6 weeks are up.

I'm getting much better at communicating with the kids in spanish. I get called a lelo a lot when the kids want me to chase them. I kinda recal learning that lelo is slang for ditzy or weird or something like that. I have also been told I'm very pretty but a bad swing pusher, and always in the same sentence. I don't let the kids go to high in the swing. I have learned a few words beyond no touching, mainly get down and not so high.

I have yet to take a single picture, but it's hard because it is either pouring rain or I'm in public. And everyone here keeps telling me not to take my camera out in front of locals. The attitute towards crime here is kinda of hilarious. My host mother is very upset because she has to have bars on her window. And everyone keeps ordering me to not take so much money with me. On top of it, many of the people here are from such calm places as rural america or even canada, so they agree. I've explained that it is common to have bars in the windows in the cities at least on the first floor and most people lock doors in the city. Also, I think it is only me, but I would rather not upset a mugger because I have no money and just lose the money instead of getting hurt. I also have been order into a cab instead of a bus, but I personally find the cab more sketchy. Maybe less likly to be pickpocketed?

The other huge cultural difference, university costs the equivalant of 100 dollars a year! And apparently most ticos are annoyed cause it is not free. You can usually get reimbursed for the money though I think if you are involved with the school.

The other interesting cultural differences are between the volunteers. Many of them are pretty shocked by the conditions of the city, mainly the roads, but I find they are pretty similar if not worse then many places in LA. The only thing that makes LA better is not as much rain. In Costa Rica the rain and the trash kinda mix all together. It is very gross when it is raining, but much cleaner afterwords!

The kids at the orphange and I with my co-worker had a full on dance party, I think it will be my highlight of the week. So so cute. 2-6 year olds dancing all over the place and trying to mimic us and get us to pick them up.

Ticos & Suenos

--written last night but posted 06/22 porque it wasn't working last night, i have not proof read cause I have to go to work

Horrible dreams last night, including dreams about mis amigos so you all may be getting a call soon to make sure everything is alright. It will be from a weird number, but it is me calling with skype, so pick up!

So thanks to my bad suenos (dreams, but an accent is needed), I slept in this morning and ended up getting hopelessly lost finding the orphanage. Last time it was raining, and everything seems so different in the sunshine. I found it eventually and had my first day there a little late.

It tunrs out Costa Rican kids are just like California kids. They have their own language that takes awhile to understand and I doubt it is just because of spanish. Most of the language barrier was figuring out if the words they said were in spanish or something made up. But they all want piggy back rides (arriba, arriba) and love chasing or being chased. I say no and no lo toce (no and don't touch him or it) a lot.

In very dangerous news, there is a very little baby there. I thought I only wanted to play with older kids, but then my co-volunter handed him to me while he was crying and he stopped when I held him and I may have fallen in love. He is only 4 months old and was born at 6 months! He is so beyond adorable.

My host family and I talked about politics in Spanish and I think I got the basics down. Coolist fact about Costa Rica, they abolished their military in 1948. I think they are the only democracy without a military right now. I remember reading years ago that when Bush asked for help in Iraq they may have sent monkeys instead of people. Cool, but I hope the monkeys didn't get hurt : (.

Other cool fact about Costa Rica, the people here are called ticos/as. Because they add tico or tica on the end of adjectives. For instance, bonitatica as a nickname for a pretty girl.

That's it for today, I'm planning a trip with my roommates and other volunteers to Manual Antonio on the West Coast this weekend. Thank goodness, for hostelworld!

-Christine

We've been through every kind of rain there is, little bitty stinging rain,and big old fat rain,rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes....

I now know why Costa Rica has so many rainforests. Today around 1:30, after a morning so hot I may have worn my fedora (that's for you dramawiz), a weird noise hit the house. It was rain like I have never seen rain before. It was like buckets of water being thrown at the ground.

I had a 1 minute walk to the center and I got soaked. Water at certain points was up to my knees. There was a dead rat earlier on the sidewalk, and it just floated on by me. I tried and failed to not think about all the other things possibly floating around my submerged feet. I just cannot belive how fast the cement flooded. I'm very grateful I brought my water shoes, not just for rivers anymore, for the streets of San Pedro tambien.

While soaking wet I went on to visit the orphanage I will be volunterring at. It is an orphange with tempory housing for children who have been taken away from their parents for one reason or another. The children run from 0 to 6 and the few I met are just pricless. One boy, Aron 5, upon learning that my co-worker does not speak any spanish, told her in spanish "I like that you do not know how to speak spanish" and then started laughing. I was very impressed. And now know to keep an eye on him.

I'm beginning to suspect my host mom speaks english rather perfectly. I was attempting to translate what Asheley (my roommate who doesn't speak spanish) and I were discussing and she seemed pretty knowledgeble despite my lack of palabras. I had my first spanish class today, and I learned the different meanings of pensar. Not that I can explain them now that the class is over.

I may go out with some new friends and see the town, if I can manage to not fall asleep. The fact that I don't have internet at my host house makes the possiblity of me going out highly more likely, so I guess that is good.

-Christine

!Pura Vida!

!Hola! This is Christine blogging from San Pedro which is a suburb of San Jose, Costa Rica. Everything here is in Spanish, including the spell check, so lo siento ahead of time.

I arrived last night, I'm staying at a host family, the host mom is very nice and has cooked me vegetarian meals so far. My roommate is from Missassipi so I may come back with a Southern accent instead of a Costa Rican accent. The shower is interesting, you get to choose between pressure and hot water, I'm just happy there is an option.

The organization I'm working for here is Maximo Nivel and it is just a few blocks from where I'm staying. It has internet, so I will be here a lot. I check out the orphanage I'm volunterring at at 2 today, very excited. I will volunteer in the morning and then take spanish classes in the afternoon. I took a spanish placement test and I am more than a little miffed I got into basics 1 spanish class. But according to my new friend who is a spanish teacher, it takes several years to get beyond the basics, so I should be patient and considering my experience trying to operate this blog in spanish, maybe I need some more basicis lessons.

I have mostly been able to communicate, only my pronucniation and general blondeness gets in the way. At custums I asked the guy in spanish if he spoke spanish instead of asking him if he spoke english. He and the security guards were sent into a fit of hysterics and insisited I ask in spanish because apparently my spanish is okay. I wanted to find the baggage claim, but only knew the word for purse, so I kept asking them where the purses were. Eventually they took pity on me and revealed they all spoke perfect english. In my defence, I was very tired, and I really wanted my bags.

I hope to have many adventures over the next 6 weeks and can't wait to tell you all!

Hope everyone is doing well!
-Christine