farfullar means to mumble

This past weekend, I ventured to my new location for the next two months. In some ways this is a bit troublesome. One, I love my host family. They are really so kind, and I like spending time them. I also am starting to forget sometimes that I am a random stranger in their house, and just feel more like one of the family. However, with travel, comes the promise of lots of change. Also, I knew that this change was coming (I mean I've known I was going to go do research since I applied for the program). I also will miss the group of students who I am here with. Though I think the possibility of reunions on the weekends do not seem unreasonable, it is nice to have someone every day to explain your happenings and such to, and be able to do it english.

But, my visit calmed some of these anxieties. I really like my new family, and the location I am in is also beautiful. Of my new host family I met my mom and dad, who I will live with. They have an adopted six year old, Angelina. I think that small children are extremely helpful in breaking the ice when you are meeting new people and was thankful to have her there. I also am excited to still have a young child around every day. I also have a host sister the same exact age as me, but she will be returning to San Jose (where I am leaving from this weekend) when classes begin the first week in March. I also have four older host brothers, ranging in age in early adulthood lives. One is living at home right now doing his medical residency, but the probability that he finds an apartment and moves our while I am there seem high. The town itself is home to about 3,000 people, and is really all I could ask for. There is fresh air to breathe, navigable streets to run and bike on, a nearby volcano, beautiful views, and a wonderful mentality of being almost a bit lazy. The mentality is something I am still working on, as I am not used to "tico time" of everything running between a half hour and almost two hours late. Every tico (Costa Rican) I walk anywhere with is astounded by how fast I walk, and always ask me why I need to get there so fast. I think when I get back to the U.S. it will take some practice to remember how to walk fast and assertively again.

My rural stay is also going to put my spanish into boot camp mode, as there is no one in my family or probably in my whole town who speaks English. I also will be going every day to schools, and explaining my study to teachers and principals, or spending time with kids as I take their weight and height. Maybe I will be thinking in Spanish by the time I leave this place. When I was there my brother did comment on how he was surprised at how much I understood, the first observation of a tico that I had any spanish skills. This comment definitely gave me hope for my fluency future. I've been working on speaking assertively and clearly, as my knack for mumbling multiplies exponentially when I become unsure of myself as I speak spanish. But I'm gaining confidence, and definitely speak with more authority then I have ever otherwise spoken with, in Spanish or English for that matter.

This is Angelina, my new host sister, and the view from up a little above Venecia, my new pueblo for the next two months. 

We had an author come speak to us yesterday, who emphasized this relaxed, appreciative mentality that I am learning while I am here. Her talk included a lot of fascinating and thought provoking ideas about life and maybe issues that Costa Rica faces, which will come in a later post. However, she did mention this poem, which I really enjoy.

Time to stand and stare

What is this life if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep, or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this, if full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies 1871 - 1940

cafe means coffee

Before I forget to mention it, as I did in my last post, I went to Tace Bell for the first time on Valentine's Day. It was quite the experience - we went the whole family. I was a little overwhelmed with decision making as to what to order (what a surprise) so my host sister said she would order her favorite for me. This was then followed by five minutes of explanation that could they please not put any meat in the food (no, not even chicken). But, it was enjoyable all in all. A memorable valentine's day to say the least.

Now, for a recount of my field trip to a coffee farm. I like coffee here, which is not really the case back home. I will drink coffee without upsetting my gag reflex, but I never have desires for a hot cup of joe. However, here the coffee is on a different level, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Which is good because I am offered it countless times a day. My withdrawal experience that I know will happen upon my return to the states is a dreaded event in my mind.

The coffee farm we visited is a free-trade organization, and though it is small, it sells to all over the world. So, the process with the help of pictures:

Here is what the plant actually looks like. And the farmer who showed us all around. 

These are what coffee beans look like. I think the color combination is absolutely fantastic. And they don't taste too terrible in this stage, though the farmer shown here laughed and laughed when I asked to try them and then did. 

They take out a sample in the beaker on the right, and then count how many green seeds are in that sample, and that is how they measure the quality of the batch. They have to get the seeds to the plant the same day they pick them, or they will begin to ferment in the bags. 

On the top of my hand is the skin of one of the seeds I ate, and the inside. On the lower part of my hand is the seed after it has gone through the heating process which removes all the shells/skins.

This is the beginning of the heating process, done with hot water and steam, which removes the skins.

This is the removed seeds, being dropped in a giant pile that kind of looks like poop.

The seeds (unroasted) in lots of bags ready to be shipped off to different locations. 

The roasting process- most wonderful of smells.

Yum yum yum fresh espresso. 

We also met with some women who have a co-op in connection with the farm. They make medicinal remedies and natural shampoo out of the coffee plant and other natural plants in the area. My hope is to return there for a week during the final parts of my time here to learn from them and spend time in one of the most beautiful places ever. The coffee farm is up at about 5,000 - 6,000 ft, and has such pure air and green landscape.  This picture doesn't even really show how beautiful it was. 

That was last Wednesday which seems like years ago (I still can't believe I have only been here four weeks. It seems like forever, but also no time at all).

Last week also included my adventures around San Pedro to find scrubs to make me appear as if I know what I am doing while visiting this schools. Hopefully I will appear as a knowledgeable and educated young gringa if I am wearing scrubs. Hopefully. It also really rained for the first time since I was here, a real torrential down pour, but luckily it only lasted a little more then ten minutes, and I found shelter during my walk home. It makes me wonder what the end of May will have in store as the rainy season begins.

Also here is my new favorite fruit. It kind of tastes like a combination of pomegranate and passion fruit.

Its really yummy. That's the tourist bus we take everywhere in the background. 

I also include in this post the recipe to the delicious mango cake that I talked about in one of my first posts. If you are reading this, as soon as you are done reading this, you should not do whatever you were going to do. Instead you should go to the store, get all the ingredients, and make this cake. I mean you only live once, and its really really really yummy. 

Ingredients:

Cake

- 4 eggs

- 1 tsp. vanilla

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1 cup white sugar

- 1 ½  cups vegetable oil

- 2 cups flour

- 2 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tsp. cinnamon

- ¼ tsp. salt

- 2 cups shredded carrot

- 2 cups peeled and finely diced mango

Glaze

- 1 can evaporated milk
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk

- 1 ½ cups peeled and finely diced mango

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Beat eggs until fluffy; add vanilla, brown sugar, and white sugar by the tablespoon andcontinue beating for 5 minutes, decrease the speed to low and add slowly add oil.  Set aside.

Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  With a rubber spatula mix flour mixture into wet ingredients using a slow, circular motion.  Finally, stir in the carrot and mango.  Pour into a greased and floured baking pan with a 12 cup capacity (she used a circular cake pan, I think that's approximately 10x2.5 round or a 13x9 inch rectangular baking pan).

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  In the mean time, prepare the glaze.  Mix together evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and finely chopped mango.

Once cake is cool poke a few small holes, drizzle with glaze, and enjoy!

I have many other updates, but as our last week is upon us, my workload is also a little more than usual with a final test, a skit, a powerpoint presentation, and a research proposal all due by the end of the week. I reminds me immensely of fourth week of the block plan, though I hadn't really missed this part of it. So for today, this will be all. But tomorrow for a study break I promise to update on some more pura vida happenin's. 

I will leave you with a picture of a poinsettia. Except I found it growing the wild near the coffee farm. Which means its always christmas here. This country is the best. 

churchill means snowcone

It seems most of these posts are about field trips and the like, so I'm going to try to update you on my daily happenings. I'm not actually in a rain forest every day, it just seems like it. My daily routine is now habitual. I wake up pretty darn early with the rest of my family, leaving my house usually around 6:45 am to walk to school and get then by 7:30 for class. When I return home, its usually is not until around six at night, which leaves little time to act before my exhaustion from speaking in spanish, humidity, and a long day set it. However, I fit in as much time with my family as I can, as well as completion of homework (since I am supposed to be learning here) and occasional contact with the outside world in the united states. I have also been trying to improve my day to day vocabulary, such as all the fruits and vegetables that I like to eat. So today my host sister helped me make over 70 flashcards for all the different fruits and vegetables I could think of. It is fair to say my flash card habits are still as strong as ever while I am abroad. My only regret about all my field trips is my lack of time during the weekends to hang out with my host family. However, I think they understand, and we all try to make the best of the time we have.

My classes in spanish continue on, with different variations to enhance the learning experience. On Monday, we cooked typical Costa Rican food - gallo pinto (literally translates to speckled chicken, but is just rice and beans), juevos (egg sort of pancake things are common protein additions at lunch and dinner), salsa (with mango and avacado - yum yum yum) and arroz con leche (similar to rice pudding). A great culinary experience all in all. Today for my conversation class, we walked to the UCR to talk with complete strangers (a little nerve racking) about their opinions on obesity, if they think it is a health problem, etc. It was interesting to hear their responses and I think we will continue to do it in the future just to get a better understanding of the cultural norms surrounding obesity. Many of them nonchalantly answered "of course" and "obviously" when we asked them if they knew any obese children. Many talked of food and exercise habits as the causes of obesity, but few mentioned genetics or other predisposing factors. It will also be interesting to see how these mentalities change once we move to more rural locations, and out of the big city. On the way back from our interviewing field trip, our profesor brought us to a small ice cream shop to order churchills, a summer snack we had talked about int class. Imagine a plastic cup with alternating layers of sugary fruit flavored syrup, ice, and dried sweetened milk. It was better than it sounds.

Also, as my move to my rural home stay looms in the distance (next weekend!) my research plan becomes more and more clear (or occasionally completely muddied). My research responsibilities now include going to each school and explaining the study, meeting with teachers, and then eventually returning to actually collect data. Seeing how it all pans out without use of internet, or phone sometime, unaccompanied by a higher authority, and my flustered spanish when talking to professionals will promise quite an experience. I think the research process will be interesting, and a definite learning experience. However, I think what I most look forward to is being able to act on what conclusions we make about our data. I want to make sure I can go back to these villages, talk to school, town and health officials, and see where intervention can begin. Though I like the research process, I am discovering my passion lies in what happens once the research has come to a conclusion.

Tomorrow I go to a coffee farm, and Saturday and Sunday I spend the night with my rural family to meet them and get a feel for the area. Sorry this is a picture-less post, but both those events promise more pictures to come.

The only downside I have found to being abroad today is that the Science Times (a section of the NY Times published every Tuesday that I really do adore) is just not the same when read on the internet. I appreciate more every week the daily free NY Times that CC offers its students.

cacao means cocoa

Well, I have had quite the weekend. I just returned from a two day field trip, filled with chocolate, rain forests, humidity, and more chocolate. There was really alot of chocolate.

Friday morning we left bright and early and headed for north western Costa Rica to visit an organic chocolate farm. The farm also produces its own organic chocolate bars, an initiative made by the wives of the farmers to create job opportunities for themselves, and increase their profits. It is also the future research site of one of my peers on this program (lucky, lucky her). We learned both about the growing process of the cocoa farm, and the manufacturing process of separating it from the pod, fermenting the beans (who ever knew chocolate was fermented?), roasting them, and then creating chocolate liquer (misleading, especially because of the fermenting process. there is absolutely no alcohol involved, its basically just baking chocolate). And now some visual aids to explain the process:

Rows of Cacao trees. Unfortunately they don't grow chocolate bars.

Opening it up - surprise! Weird white mushy stuff!

Cacao pod, once we had made a good dent in the seeds.

The inside of a cacao plant. You can suck on the seeds, but eating them promises indigestion. The white gooey stuff is good, it tastes a bit like a very slimy, a tiny bit sour marshmallow. 

Another interesting topic of dscussion were sloths. A strange change of subject it seems, but actually was logical. Sloths are an extremely informative species to study, but have the knack of hanging out in very tall trees, in very dense forests, and not really moving ever. This makes them a bit difficult to find. However, cacao trees are very low to the ground, and still a desired hang out spot for sloths. Thus, cacao farms are the ideal place to study sloths. Our program coordinator Chris has been involved in a long term study here in partnership with UW Madison. And sure enough, within fifteen minutes of being in trees, we found a sloth friend and her baby. I have concluded that sloths are one of the cutest animals alive. However, I also don't really think they are real. They are robots, like ET is a robot used in a movie. Someone made a bunch of robots for a movie, and then let them go as a joke. Now we have sloths. I will show you what I mean.

This is a sloth(robot) and its baby(robot).

We got really close to the robots (sloths). They're really quite indifferent to you.

After our chocolate growing adventure, we moved on to the chocolate bar making process. The women ushered us into a small building the size of a one story house, where eight of them work to make these chocolate bars that are exported all over the world. It is the best chocolate that I have ever eaten in my whole entire life. Yum. The women were wonderful, and also had a feast waiting for us for lunch.

Lunch. Feast.

The woman who started the chocolate bar factory. She has a great laugh.

Explaining the process of chocolate with lots of samples.

]

Yum yum.

After lunch, we reloaded our giant coach bus (the large size was required since we were traveling such large distances. Thus, with only seventeen people total, we each had a row to ourselves for quality siestas) and drove to the rain forest. We were visiting tirimbina, a large preserve of national rainforest that is used mainly for research and some eco-tourism as well. Our night included a bat talk (they make a fifth of the world's mammal population - who knew?!) as well as a night walk to hear the intensity of a rainforest as night. My morning began with a run in the rain forest, and then just got better from then on. We had another chocolate tour, but this included more information about the history of chocolate, and the process of making chocolate by hand. After a presentation which included tasting chocolate at every single stage, we walked off the gluttony with a guided tour of the rain forest. Thank goodness we had a guide or I would have missed many an animal in the dense foliage, along with probably stepping on a snake or getting bitten by the biggest ant I have ever seen in my whole lifetime. We then had a delicious lunch (food here is always yummy I have discovered) and drove back to San Jose. A birthday in our group led to a night of celebration in San Jose with many of the group and host siblings. All in all it was a great two days.

Different varieties of cacao pods.

Stone mortar and pestal for making chocolate, with a little added raw sugar and cinnamon.

Speeding the process up a little bit with a slightly more modern machine. 

so much rain forest.

deathly ant. unfortunately it looks rather small here, so i sound stupid. its almost 2 inches long.

Today was my first day without a field trip or class so I slept in until the late hour of eight thirty when my host niece knock "Con permiso, Jessie" and we began watching morning cartoons. I had plans for a productive workday. Instead, I made crepes with my host mom. Then I thought it was my turn to teach them some American food traditions, so I made them Puppy Chow. It was a slightly adapted recipe. Chex is a rarity, as are chocolate chips. So, it was Corn Flakes and dove chocolate instead. Also, peanut butter is like gold here. It's in the price range of expensive Nutella. But, it was still a success and the whole entire batch was consumed. The rest of the night was spent coloring, using glitter pens, and other such crafts. I also walked the dog. And now I am blogging. Homework is sometimes less exciting than usual when you're in a really cool new foreign country.

Tomorrow I head back to the classroom and school. Wednesday includes a day trip to a coffee farm, and next weekend will include a visit to my new research site and to visit my new host family.
I am also trying to put more pictures of my adventures on my picasa website, and hopefully will get to a facebook photo album sometime. But for now, here's the link.

finca means farm

Tomorrow, I venture to a cocoa farm - basically a place where happiness is grown. In addition, we're stopping at a rain forest. AND I get to sleep in a hotel room (I still find that exciting). Who knew so many cool things could happen in one weekend? 

Before I return from there, I want to make sure I am call caught up in my story telling, so get comfortable. If you have a long to do list for today and you haven't finished it, you may want to stop now. This post is going to include a video, and pictures and lots of words. The weekend is coming up, so you can leave reading this until then. I won't be offended, I promise. 

On Tuesday, spanish and research preparation continued as usual. However, our afternoon had dance lessons scheduled for all enrolled in our program. After an hour, we all had had a little taste of Reggaeton, Salsa, and Merengue. Our teacher's name was Roy (who has been described as "guapo pero muy pequeno! by many of our host mom's and sisters). He is a professional dancer/choreographer. We searched long and hard to find some videos of him actually dancing, as opposed to dances he has choreographed, and eventually found success. Here is Roy dancing (he's the shorter one). He currently choregraphs for the Costa Rican team on a show similar to Dancing with the Stars. We have a few more classes with him, and I'm looking into taking a more regular dance class while I'm here. 

My research is finally falling into place, and my research proposal (well, the first draft) was due today at five. It's exciting to learn about the research process, and to have a say in what I am doing. I also now know I will be located in Venecia during my research months, a town in the San Carlos region of Costa Rica. Don't really bother looking it up on google, I did for about half an hour and found out almost nothing about it. My new host family promises to be great, though I already am sad about leaving this family behind. My comfort level here is now that I don't feel like an intruder. My host brother's started school today (they were on summer vacation) so we are all on the same schedule now. And my nightly routine of playing with my host niece, television with the rest of my family, and talking with all of them over meals or while I do my homework will be greatly missed. 

Yesterday, we visited the farm of the director of my program. He bought it in the 70s and has since had an organic farm there. One of his friends, Mario, currently lives on part of the land with his family. Mario believes heart and soul in every aspect of organic farming, and it was interesting to hear all the methods he had developed of composting, farming and his beliefs about food and life. It was great fun to tour the farm, and we had a feast for lunch of sandwiches and fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Lunch preperation. I wish I could somehow include the wonderful taste of all this fruit for you guys to try. Maybe that's incentive enough to make some of you visit. 

The Mangos (or Mangas as they are called here) taste like gold.

One of Mario's sons.

Mario speaking to us, with his youngest son, one of the cutest kid's I've ever seen (especially with all his child size farm tools and hilarious side comments on organic farming). 

Chris's farm is also near one of the major water shed's along the continental divide. I thought it was pretty cool to be on the continental divide, a landform I had previously only associated (and visited this fall) with Colorado. Tuesday's schedule had also included the video Flow, which discussed the problems we are facing with water. It brought up an interesting point of if and how people are allowed to own water. CUrrently, water is more expensive to buy then gas for your car. I had never really thought about it like that, and it is definitely an issue I want to learn more about. Some of the farmers and friends of Chris have worked very hard to protect the watershed from developers and companies who want to take the water for profit. As we hiked from the farm to the watershed, we heard many of his stories about the fight, and about how three of his cows were hit by lightening in a field.  The hike was wonderful. It was nice to get exercise out of the city, and see the greenery I had seen from the plane my first day here. Its really so beautiful of a country. My research months will be in a more rural location and I hope to spend as much time in the mountains as possible. And now some visual aids for representation of my hike: 

 A bee hive we found along the way.

Views like this everywhere. While breathing fresh air. Fantastic. 

Water from the continental divide, soon to go into an aqueduct and quenching the thirst of many a costa rican. 

New fruit discovery - a little tart but really juicy. Could possibly be a ground cherry or something similar.  I like them lots.

Learning about the water shed from the farmers. 

una vaca. o un toro. 

There are just so many flowers here. Its wonderful.

Off to prepare for the chocolate farm. I'm hoping it looks like this, but we shall see. It'll probably be a little different since they speak Spanish here, not English here. Other than that, I expect a similar scene.

 I promise a full report on Sunday when I return.

El cometa means comet. La cometa means kite.

Currently, I find myself studying for my first test here in Costa Rica. Learning spanish here has been quite a fufilling experience. For once, I am finally learning all the conversational skills I have missed out on in a formal class room setting. Second, my actual spanish classes focus on the details that often were overlooked the first time we learned something. For example, when were learned masculine and feminine, I definitely learned only about two exceptions. Now, I am learning quite a few more (thus the title of this post). 

However, I do need to study. So tomorrow night I promise a fulfilling post. For tonight, some pictures and captions will have to suffice. 

My host niece, Miranda. I spend about as much time doing homework as I do playing barbie with her (that being alot of hw and alot of barbie).

My host sister Fer, and Miranda.

This is a slightly scattered collection of pictures. This is the upstairs library in the ACM building where my spanish learning happens. 

The view out of the door of my room in my house, looking towards the tv room and then the dining room and kitchen. I can usually find all of my six new family members in one of these locations.

Outside the Church of San Pedro, where I get off the bus every day to go to school in the morning. 

Tracks of the train we took to the site of a field trip today (an organic farm). Stay tuned to hear stories and to see pictures! 

A mural along the tracks - "Either we begin planting trees, or we bring the end"

Heaven.

humedad means humidity

I have returned from a weekend at the beach. I love the beach. Colorado should install a beach somewhere so I can go to it. The beaches in Costa Rica are like I am walking in a postcard. But I still get sunburned, so its not quite like a postcard. 

Lets start from the beginning. On Friday we had grammar class for a brief moment of time (that being about an hour) and then headed out into the city of San Jose. Technically I am located in the city of San Pedro (similar to me being located in Cambridge and next to Boston for a little reference comparison). A quick ten minute bus ride took us to the heart of San Jose for some quality tourist sight seeing. We strolled around to see many statues of famous people, a bunch of buildings with historical importance or home to some head honchos currently, and passed by many a street vendor trying to sell us anything and everything. It was nice to get a brief look at the city, and its close proximity promises more day trips to explore the streets as well as museums and theatres. Our exploration ended in the city's large park, somewhat comparable to Central Park but quite a bit smaller. It previously was the location of the old airport, but when the airport moved to a larger location, the city transformed it into a park (Denver, you should probably follow suit). We had a picnic lunch, and our professors attempted to finish our classes in the park but to little avail. Our group's mind was elsewhere as we booked hostels and made plans for a weekend at the beach. 

The following morning 12 out of 15 in my group boarded a bus at seven en la manana and made the three hour trip to Manuel Antonio. I did not bring my camera, but I think the google picture search about sums up its beauty. However, it does not convey the intense humidity or extreme heat (about 85-90 degrees) that accompanied the beautiful playa (beach). But, I guess it was a sacrifice I was willing to make,  even as I guarded my belongings from overconfident monkeys who have a knack for stealing all things shiny or anything that looks like food. The group of us spent the entire day at the beach, occasionally wandering to find food, water or more sunscreen. We spent the night at the hostel, spending a good portion of the night playing egyptian rat screw (a card game) until the owner of the restaurant told us we were a bit too rowdy. 

The morning began at 7 sharp, to make the most of the beach before some of us headed home early to make sure we were home in time for the super bowl. The super bowl in spanish was a fun experience, especially as I tried to explain the rules of the game to my host family. My host mom could not get over the large size of the defensive line, or how tight all of their pants were. All in all, they appreciated my efforts of explanation, and I appreciated their company during a time of high stress. The only down side of a superbowl in latin america seems to be a lack of good commercials during the breaks. But I've been doing my best to watch a few of them on youtube to complete my experience. 

My upcoming week includes a field trip (gira) on Wednesday to a watershed to learn about water issues in Costa Rica and in the world (the movie we watched in class - pretty interesting). Friday and Saturday we head to a cacao farm to learn about one of Costa Rica's most famous products. Yum yum yum. When I'm not triping in fields, I will be finalzing my research proposal for my research, and studying for my first examen en mi clase de espanol. 

Even though it has only been a week, I feel as if my routine is already habitual, and my life has been like this for a good long while. I attribute it to how welcoming this country in, and the great weather and experiences are definitely a help as well. I am looking forward to see what these four months have in store for me to experience. 

And, as many of you have requested, I have added a few pictures. The slow internet connection makes uploading quite a production, so a few will have to suffice for now.

The view from my window five minutes before stepping off my plane, and onto Costa Rica. Notice how absolutely ridiculously green this country is. Its unreal.

This is one of my three dogs, Fifarifufa, or Fifi for short. My three year old host niece is responsible for her extravagant name. 

My room! Two of the walls are blue, and two of the walls are yellow, its really exciting. The door leads into my bathroom, the window looks into our backyard.

The ACM building, a view from our backyard. Its terribly ugly and I have no fun here. 

The view from our library on the second floor. It looks exactly the same as Colorado Springs, minus the snow covered summit of Pike's Peak.

A view into our backyard from the second floor of our building. 

Another view from the second floor of our building. Also could be a view from a CC dorm room (typical prayer flags) looking out into the Springs.

Bananas ripening, ready for snacking in our backyard. The cage is so the bananas don't escape.

I like tropical flowers. Alot.