"Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed - doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language.
But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps - who works in a foreign land - will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace." - JFK

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Intermediate Low!


Saturday, April 20, 2013

          Considering I’m about to embark on another PCV visit tomorrow, this time for a week, I figured it was a good time for an update.  Before today, I honestly haven’t had a single day of nothing so I definitely embraced sleeping until 9 (I know, Mom…9, not noon…its like I’m a new person) and not needing to rush anywhere.  I also hope to actually have time to run to a friend’s house this afternoon to use their wi-fi so these posts will actually get updated. (<--Clearly that didn't happen..their wifi wasn't working) About a week or so after I arrived here the house magically lost internet, which was extremely upsetting, BUT through my limited Spanish I think I hear the word router thrown around every once and a while, so I THINK we’re waiting for an upgrade to wifi.  I could be completely wrong, but I’m going to stick to that story in hopes it comes true.  I still have my pathetic internet on my phone which I am beyond grateful for, but being able to skype / make phone calls / write longer emails would be faaaaaantastic.

          So what’s been going on?  We returned from PCV visit weekend to a great week of only 3 training days (since we returned late Tuesday).  We did receive bad news that our training manager was in a car accident on the highway…with a horse… so we were certainly missing her and hoping she'll be back soon!  Saturday morning all of Tico 25 was up bright and early to head off for a beach weekend!  We get 2 nights “off” during training and that Saturday night was going to be our first one.  We headed to Jaco (I honestly couldn’t point it out on a map, I let others who speak Spanish handle the logistics…I just blindly hopped on the bus) but it was about 2 hours away and pretty touristy which I’m not going to lie….I greatly enjoyed.  We went to the beach, ate Subway, went out at night, and overall just had a great weekend together.  This whole experience would be so different without my Tico 25 family and I’m so lucky it is such a fantastic group.

          We headed back from Jaco on Sunday afternoon but got stuck in tons of traffic so when I returned home around 8:30pm my family began freaking out that I had my language interview the next day, which, I was freaking out about too.  They served me a giant plate of kraft mac & cheese…I know they do it because they think it’s super American and they give it to me when they think I had a bad day which is adorable and I just don’t have the heart to tell them it is reallllllly not my favorite food.  But alas I ate some mac & cheese as virtually my whole family stood over me asking what I needed help with.  I had them ask me questions, but they weren’t super helpful.  ie-  What is your room like in the US?  Me: Uh? Rojo?  But they hung with me until 10:30 when I sent them to bed and was so grateful they were so concerned.

          I had the interview the next morning with the language coordinator anddddddddd…I placed into intermediate low!!!!!  I came in at novice low and need to get to intermediate mid to swear-in…so making such a big jump in only one month is apparently not too common and got me a congratulatory e-mail from our training director, a high-five from the country director when we saw him last week, and many, many hugs from Tico 25. It was certainly a great feeling and while I don’t exactly feel like I can communicate much better with my fam, I’m at least not concerned about being sent home!

          Nothing too exciting happened the rest of the week…more Spanish, more tech and core classes.  I’m definitely used to my bread and coffee every morning for breakfast…except yesterday they put some kind of bologna on it…hope that isn’t a new thing.  I’m also getting used to eating the same thing for both lunch and dinner, who needs variety?  But it is adorable how my host mom already knows almost all of my food preferences…. They know not to put tomatoes in my salads, that I would much rather have chicken than red meat, and I have no desire to introduce rice into every single meal. They have started buying more bananas and apples since they’re deduced those are my favorites and they even bought me a jar of hot sauce.  It’s not buffalo sauce, but I’ll take what I can get.

          All in all, things are really good down here in Costa Rica.  Some days are tougher than others and I certainly have moments while I’m sitting through a 4 hour medical session on the symptoms of dengue and how to identify common rashes we’ll probably get, where I would give anything to be back with Team Lance.  Some nights where I have nothing to do but watch Spanish movies, I would give anything to grab a beer at Hill Country or Sun Tavern with all of you that I am missing so much.  But the texts and e-mails help, and I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone who is keeping in such great touch.  At the end of the day, I really am content and happy spending my Friday nights teaching English to members of my community and feel extremely lucky to be doing exactly what I hoped I would be doing at this point in my life.

Sending many hugs to all of you in the US!
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)