The road to campus broke. (I love the wording of that---it reminds me of Ghana!)
The heavy rain the night before washed away part of the road and it was impassable. This has never happened before, though Costa Rica's roads are notoriously bad. The university staff managed to coordinate a swift shift to a local gymnasium (with dreadfully uncomfortable bleachers and a hot tin roof that cooked us). I still haven't made it to campus yet and our classes next week are being held at another university until the road can be repaired (which I imagine would be difficult given that it's rained every afternoon except yesterday!).
Most conversations began with a run down of three main questions: name, country, program. There are only about 150 of us in 8 different masters programs, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to know everyone. One of the ice breaker games was a version of Speed Dating, where we'd speak to one person for 4 minutes before shifting to another--quite fun. There are so many amazing people here---one of the main things that drew me to this university.
There are 15 Japanese students I can try to remember Japanese with. There is one Egyptian student and his wife (and other Arabic speakers, too). There are two Indonesian students with whom I could practice my Bahasa Melayu if only I had known more of it and still remembered it! Then there's Spanish. My brain is spinning! I'm hoping Spanish is a language I can actually master, as opposed to Japanese, Arabic and Malay.
Wednesday night there was a community orchestra concert with a dance performance by high school students. About 20 of us that attended went out for drinks afterwards. The dynamics were funny in terms of who was going to take the initiative of where to head---we stood around, talking in various groups, with every intention of relocating, but no one leading the way....Surprisingly to myself, it ended up being me that moved the crowd to a nearby bar. Everyone was in sheep mode. Thursday night was a French girl's birthday, so we meet up in the main square and someone led about 35 of us to a big bar a 15 min walk away to celebrate (we all knew it was her birthday because of Facebook!).
Our welcome party was held at the same location last night. Host families, landlords and profs were all invited. When I spotted our landlords, Juan Jose and Maribel, I found my roommate Kathrin and we went to sit with them. The live music saved us from having to talk too much, but made it a lot more difficult when we tried because we couldn't hear them well. But we managed. Lots of smiling and saying "Me gusta." Babysteps. I realized I don't know the future tense at all yet...
When a few students started to dance, Juan Jose jumped up and dragged the three of us to the dance floor. Later, when the music turned to salsa, Maribel asked if I wanted Juan Jose to teach me and I agreed. I went salsa dancing two or three times in Ghana (where there is a group of hardcore salsa-ers who are really good), but Juan Jose's dancing didn't match my understanding of the basic step, but I made do. The more I thought about it, the worst I'd do, so eventually I stopped thinking about it too much. I hear there are salsa classes every Friday at the local cultural center! The party's music shifted between techno, hip hop, more salsa and eventually reggae. A dance and drumming group performed, decked out in big feather costumes and shaking their hips faster than I thought possible. They dragged students into a congo line, had hula hips and a limbo stick.
Throughout the night I noticed everyone's carefree spirit and intense desire to have fun. Most people were dancing and it was fun to see everyone's various styles. It's great to be surrounded by people who are so positive and full of life.
Juan Jose told us that they would wait for us and take us home, which worried us a bit, but they reassured us that they weren't ready to go yet and when they periodically got up on the dance floor, I felt relieved. By about 9:30pm it felt a lot later than that and so we headed out just as an Arabic song came on and our Vice Rector, who is Egyptian, got on the dance floor. Our landlords were among the few host families that I saw and I love them for coming, for dancing, for their smiles, even if the words fly through my uncomprehending ears. There was an Italian alum there who said she lived here for the year she was a student and one of the professors also lived here---I'm wondering if they might have had hotter water....
I ate the national dish, gallo pinto ("painted rooster"), yesterday for lunch--rice and beans. The day before I had a "casado," which means "husband" and is a combination plate with rice, beans, chicken, fried plantain (just like Ghana style!), salad and juice. There are some interesting juices here from fruits I've never heard of before. Yummy! Also good since Coke seems to be extra expensive here compared to West Africa, where it would generally be about $0.30 a bottle. There really isn't street food here like in Ghana and so far the cheapest meal (gallo pinto) was about $2. Not a lot, but more than I'm used to!
This is the first country I've been to where you can get US$ out of the ATM...the bad news is that it's also very difficult to get a cell phone chip because telecommunciations is run by the government and you have to have a residency permit. I'm hopeful that my old roommate's former boss (who is Costa Rican and a UPeace alum) can hook me up once he's back in town (and I just found out he's also our prof for the refugee law course in the spring!). But at least I've got Skype!
I was excited to be in Central Time Zone for the first time in 10 years, but it turns out that I'm in Mountain Time until Daylights Saving.
Today I'm off to the Multiplaza, a mall about 15 min away by bus on the way to San Jose. Tomorrow---reading for class Monday! Time for that academic part of this master's thing that I usually conveniently forget...
1 comment:
Hmmmm, it seems that I completely forgot that I ever studied Italian (two years in college and supposedly got 'proficient'). That is not a language I'm worried about practicing, though it will come in handy with the Spanish most probably.
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