PST

March 27, 2013

 Alright, compared to my Australia days, I think I’m doing quite well with the blogging…I mean, it has only been a little over 2 weeks, but still! The major difference between my last post and now is that we are now in full blown PST (pre-service training….PC just like every other government agency loves its acronyms). So a normal week consists of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday being Spanish class days and Tuesday and Wednesday being either Tech or Core days in San Isidro. Tico 25 is spread out across 5 communities all relatively close to one another (granted I couldn’t tell you how in the world to get to anyone else yet, but we are assured we’re close to each other). The communities were formed based on everyone’s Spanish levels since we have Spanish classes in our communities, and since almost everyone here is quite good at Spanish, my community consists of only me and one other person, Nateara. So we have definitely taken up the buddy system and don’t do anything without each other…which would be slightly more helpful if one of us spoke better Spanish, but o well. Anyway, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Naty walks to my house and we head to the bus stop together. Granted this has only happened twice so far because the first week my host dad drove us both times because I think he had little faith we could navigate the bus system (which was true….but we totally got it down now). SO, we walk about a block to the bus and stand next to a horse that always seems to be wandering in the area, hop on the bus and about 10 minutes later we’re in San Isidro for a day of classes. On tech days we’re basically being taught things related to our specific project, TEFL, and on core days it’s more like, general Peace Corps things. So that’s my normal week in a nutshell.

 Hmm…some highlights of the week. On Thursday I got home pretty late because I finally got CR service for my iphone so yes, I now have internet, though often a pretty bad connection…but anyway, if I’m worth 99 cents to talk to for the next 2 years, download whatsapp so we can text! Anyway, I got home late and my family asked if I was hungry…since it was around 7:30pm…yes, I was hungry. So my host mom whips out 2 freshly made cinnamon rolls. Now, cinnamon rolls are fine and all, but I kinda wanted dinner…but my Spanish is no where near good enough to ask, “Are we having dinner soon? Or is this dinner?” So I just ate them. Then I was asked if I was still hungry…so now I thought I’d be served a real dinner, so I said, “Si!” Nope, I was then given 2 rolls (also homemade…Mom, are you taking notes! My host mom makes EVERYTHING from scratch ☺ ) So, at this point I assume that this is dinner so I eat the rolls, have an apple, and call it a day. About an hour later, my host mom comes out into the living room and says, “Cena!” (aka dinner). I was sooooo confused. But I walk into the kitchen and lo and behold, there is dinner waiting for me…JUST ME…as per usual…not sure what that’s all about, but anyway. So I sit down to my plate of yellow food…an egg, yucca, and a plantain. At this point, I’m full and don’t particularly like any of these foods on my plate, so I kind of pick for awhile until my host brother walks in a asks if I want to go somewhere with him. Its after 9pm at this point so I really should go to bed soon, but I figure if I go with him I won’t have to eat my dinner…so I go. Do I have ANY clue where I’m going? Nope. Tis my life these days. But it turns into a family affair and the mom comes with us and the dog. Turns out we were going to pick up the dad and sister. So now we are 5 people and a dog in a very small car…and we pull up to a McDonalds and they ask me if I want dinner. Yes, if you’re keeping track this would be about the 4th dinner of the night. They know I really like chicken so they just keep saying pollo but I insist that I’m not hungry but we pull into the drive thru line anyway to get the rest of the fam dinner. Somewhere in the waiting in line they family decides they don’t want McDs…and the dad proceeds to get out of the car. To go where? Beats me. Wish I could ask in Spanish, but I’m getting used to just not knowing what’s going on. Anyway, its about a 20 minute wait in this McDs line that we cant escape and then we drive a bit and arrive at where I guess they decided they should get dinner…KFC. About a 30 minute wait later for food…we are on our way home. Upon arrival (yes, at about 11pm) they sit down to dinner and are surprised that I don’t want to join. I mean I’m all for family bonding, but not over KFC at 11pm. But don’t worry…2 pieces of KFC chicken was my lunch the next day.

 Friday was actually a pretty big day…we went into San Jose for the first time. Naty and I made it and met up with the group just fine (which we were QUITE impressed with ourselves for). We were then broken up into groups and sent on a scavenger hunt of the city. I honestly didn’t do much since I let the Spanish speakers lead the way, but it was nice just to get a taste of the city. No pictures or anything though since 1. It’s a pretty dangerous place so we were told to leave everything of value we own at home and 2. We’re trying to not act like tourists. We were shown how to take the bus to the PC headquarters, tour HQ, and then were sent back home on buses to ensure we didn’t stick around San Jose since we’re not allowed in the city by ourselves yet as trainees. I also received my first piece of mail on Friday… THANKS MOM…I showed it to my host family and they absolutely loved the dog on the cover!

 Sunday was another big day…it was the first time the fam took me to do something touristy, so I was pumped! I thought we were going to a volcano…but when we were leaving, everyone else was still in their church clothes, so I started to panic thinking that “Vulcan” does not translate to volcano and I actually have no idea where were going…so I started frantically pointing to my clothes and they seemed to think it was fine so off we went. Turns out it was a volcano and I was the only one appropriately dressed. Pictures to come on facebook, promise. Afterwards we went out to lunch/dinner for the first time and I somewhat successfully ordered a hamburgesa, bien cocinado (well done of course). It was much more pressure having to interact with a waiter than with my fam at home so im hoping we don’t do that again for awhile.

 I’ve also decided I’m going to start tracking the amount of movies I’ve watched in Spanish. This weekend was:
1. The Hangover
2. Ratatouille
3. Four Christmases
4. Sherlock Holmes

 We’re supposed to be integrating with the family, which usually means I just in the living room and make my presence known, aka watch movies with whoever is sitting there as well. Considering I cant think of the last 4 movies I ever watched in the States, it is taking a while to adjust to a much, much slower pace and realizing that besides learning Spanish…I don’t have much else to do (hence really long blog posts when I reach a certain level of boredom).

 I am officially on a 4 day break though for Semana Santa…so tomorrow morning I’m going to go on a hike with some of the other trainees…so I’m looking forward to that! Speaking English for a solid chunk of time – awesome. Understanding what people say around me – awesome. I think I’ve conveyed to my host family that I’m going somewhere in the morning…but I’m not going to be surprised if they start freaking out when I walk out the door because perhaps I really didn’t tell them anything in my Spanglish…but we’ll see.

 Pura Vida!