Hola amigos!
This weekend has been pretty interesting. I stayed in San Jose for the third weekend in a row, but this weekend everyone else did too! On Friday night they had a ballet at the National Theater for $10! It was "La Sirenita" which translates to The Little Mermaid. I forgot that ballets don't have words but I guess that was a good thing because I didn't have to try to translate in my head. We did however have to read the program that was in Spanish to get some idea of what was going on even though we know the story. The ballet used a screen with images projected on it to tell most of the story but the way they used it was kind of hard to follow. We kept waiting for the prince to show up, but he only did on the screen. There wasn't a single male ballerina in the whole thing! After only about a half hour it was intermission and we were all surprised because not much had happened yet. Then we realized it was time for the switch to land to take place and figured that was why and the second half would be longer, only it wasn't! It was maybe an hour total and if I wouldn't have read the program I would have been lost! I did like it though, and we had fun getting dressed up and going!
Saturday, Kathleen and I finally decided to make dinner for our family. They've been wanting us to for awhile we just don't have time during the week and we're never both here on the weekends. We made Chicago style deep dish pizza, those pickle rolls with ham and cream cheese (which we've found out we're the only two Americans in our group that know what the heck those are!) and chocolate chip cookies! Everyone loved it and wanted to know how to make our ham and pickle things, they couldn't believe they were that easy! We ended up taking Deanna some of the pizza, a cookie, and some pickle rolls (because when we told her about the pickle rolls she thought they sounded disgusting) and she loved the pizza too! It did turn out really good, we made the dough ourselves and Kathleen even made the sauce too! And we measured everything for the dough by eye because they don't have measuring cups. Also they didn't have a pizza pan so we used glass pans. One of the glass pans already had a chip in it, and we ended up cracking it in half, oops! Our host family wasn't mad though. The pizza was supposed to go in at 500 degrees, but the oven only went to 300 so we cooked one in there and one in the toaster over which did go to 500 because both pans wouldn't fit in the tiny oven anyway. Only once we were putting the pizza on the table did we realize the numbers on the oven are in Celsius! But it all turned out ok because the pizza tasted great! I don't know how Mari manages to cook anything in that kitchen. The sink and stove and oven are all tiny and there's really no workspace, it's nuts! We also had to use a wine bottle for a rolling pin because they didn't have one. The only crazy part was we spent $60 on the ingredients, but it was for 8 people. Some of the people are supposed to chip in and pay us back for some of it, I really hope they do! We got a bag of mozzarella cheese for 9000 some colones....wait for it...that's about $16! Cheese is crazy expensive here, I miss it sooooo much! Dill pickles also weren't cheap, we've also missed them!
Anyway, our cooking adventure was successful!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Earthquake
Ok, so as some of you have probably already heard from the form of my facebook status or mom's (which apparently caused a bit of a panic back in Robinson) there was an earthquake here yesterday! I was laying on my bed on my computer and my bed started moving, at first it felt like there was someone underneath my bed trying to scare me then I realized my clothes were swinging back and forth in the closet!
It wasn't near as bad as the one that woke me up in the middle of the night in Illinois a couple of years back, and it didn't scare me at all! My host family freaked out though, Kathleen didn't even feel it! Everyone made a huge deal out of it but I thought they were being kinda silly!
Turns out it hit off the pacific cost of Costa Rica and was actually a 6.3 quake! We only felt slight shaking though and as far as I've heard it didn't cause any damage or anything, so no need to worry, I'm just fine!
Tonight we're going to watch a contemporary ballet of The Little Mermaid at Teatro Nacional! I'm really excited and I'll tell you guys all about it soon!
Love,
me
It wasn't near as bad as the one that woke me up in the middle of the night in Illinois a couple of years back, and it didn't scare me at all! My host family freaked out though, Kathleen didn't even feel it! Everyone made a huge deal out of it but I thought they were being kinda silly!
Turns out it hit off the pacific cost of Costa Rica and was actually a 6.3 quake! We only felt slight shaking though and as far as I've heard it didn't cause any damage or anything, so no need to worry, I'm just fine!
Tonight we're going to watch a contemporary ballet of The Little Mermaid at Teatro Nacional! I'm really excited and I'll tell you guys all about it soon!
Love,
me
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Inauguration, Taco Bell, and a movie!
Hola!
Today was the inauguration of the first woman president of Costa Rica! Since we happened to be here for this moment of history we decided we had to go see it in person! So on the first day we've had to sleep in for months, we got up early and went to the huge park downtown where they were holding the inauguration ceremony. We had to take the bus to downtown San Jose then catch another to the park. We figured the one to the park would be crazy busy but we got on the first one that came and it wasn't even packed. We got to the park and the people who were directing us where to go kept telling us different directions, finally we found a really nice girl who asked us where our tickets were. We didn't have any, they were free I think they were just on a first come-first served basis of what color section you got to sit it. She could tell we were confused so she just told us to wait there and brought us back three tickets in the red section! Turns out we lucked out with that cause the red section was pretty close and we actually got seats! There were also free hats/visors on our seats! They were handing out free umbrellas too but I didn't manage to get one, too bad because we were forced to sit and back in the sun for hours and none of us even thought to put on sunscreen. Suffice it to say, I have the worst sunburn I've even had in my life. My whole front side is a nice shade of tomato red, and even the tops of my hands are burnt, and my face as well. During the inauguration there were all sorts of tipical Costa Rican performers, dancers and an ox-cart with real oxen on stage and the huge "gigantes" which are like big puppets with people inside and it was really cool! I have pics up on facebook! The sung the national anthem and everyone chanted for the out going president and there were people there from all over the world, presidents, princes, and princesses and they all got introduced! I thought it was amazing, but my host family didn't seem to like it too much (they watched on tv.) I guess they thought all the performers and stuff was in bad taste and it stayed too far from tradition, but they're old so maybe that's why I liked it and they didn't!
After the inauguration, we figured again that the buses would be crazy and it'd take forever to get out so we left a little before it actually ended (but everyone else did too!) and were surprised to find the bus we needed just pulling up so we got on! We were starving so when we got to San Jose we decided to try McDonald's here for the first time just to compare but it was packed so we went to Taco Bell instead. I ordered a chalupa, and they asked if I wanted a combo and I said yes but since the sign said combos came with fries I asked for nachos instead. Apparently chips and cheese nachos you normally would expect from taco bell don't exist but they do have french fries. Also, I forgot a Taco Bell combo includes a taco so I ended up with my chicken chalupa, nachos supremes (with beef) and a beef hard taco (we also think they don't have soft tacos for some reason...) The really funny thing is they gave me the nacho supreme for the same price as a regular combo! I picked the beef off and it was all good, way more food than I wanted but it turned out ok cause it looks like I'm not getting dinner for some reason, but I'm not really hungry anyway!
After the Taco Bell experience, we came home and rested for awhile and applied aloe to our sunburns then decided to go see Bounty Hunter at the nearby mall. They have movies in English, subtitled in Spanish so it was great and cost less than $4! We took a taxi there because it was dark and needed to take a taxi back. I wasn't worried about this because there are always a ton of taxis near the mall. When we got out a lot of the taxi drivers were out of their cars and talking and there was a group of younger ones that was joking around and told us it'd be 2000 colones to take us where we wanted to go. Since we've taken taxis from the mall a couple times before we knew it was actually around 900 and they're supposed to have meters so they don't normally tell you how much it will be ahead of time unless you ask. They were also calling us all sorts of names and whistling and stuff so we were a lot freaked out, told them no and walked back into the mall. We also didn't see any ticos taking these taxis so we weren't exactly sure what to do, we had to take one of them! So we waited for awhile and headed back out, and on the other side of the mall there were taxis and none of the drivers were yelling or anything so we got one of those with an old driver and he took us home and charged us the correct amount! I was really scared for awhile cause we almost had no other choice than to take the sketchy driver and over pay. Lesson learned, taxis at night are not the same as taxis during the day especially if you're taking one from that mall! But, I was also reminded that there are a crap ton of taxis are if you look you're likely to find one that you like, there were literally probably 20 or more taxis around the mall!
Now I'm exhausted and sunburnt like no other so I'm going to attempt to find a comfortable sleeping position, we'll see how that goes!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Today was the inauguration of the first woman president of Costa Rica! Since we happened to be here for this moment of history we decided we had to go see it in person! So on the first day we've had to sleep in for months, we got up early and went to the huge park downtown where they were holding the inauguration ceremony. We had to take the bus to downtown San Jose then catch another to the park. We figured the one to the park would be crazy busy but we got on the first one that came and it wasn't even packed. We got to the park and the people who were directing us where to go kept telling us different directions, finally we found a really nice girl who asked us where our tickets were. We didn't have any, they were free I think they were just on a first come-first served basis of what color section you got to sit it. She could tell we were confused so she just told us to wait there and brought us back three tickets in the red section! Turns out we lucked out with that cause the red section was pretty close and we actually got seats! There were also free hats/visors on our seats! They were handing out free umbrellas too but I didn't manage to get one, too bad because we were forced to sit and back in the sun for hours and none of us even thought to put on sunscreen. Suffice it to say, I have the worst sunburn I've even had in my life. My whole front side is a nice shade of tomato red, and even the tops of my hands are burnt, and my face as well. During the inauguration there were all sorts of tipical Costa Rican performers, dancers and an ox-cart with real oxen on stage and the huge "gigantes" which are like big puppets with people inside and it was really cool! I have pics up on facebook! The sung the national anthem and everyone chanted for the out going president and there were people there from all over the world, presidents, princes, and princesses and they all got introduced! I thought it was amazing, but my host family didn't seem to like it too much (they watched on tv.) I guess they thought all the performers and stuff was in bad taste and it stayed too far from tradition, but they're old so maybe that's why I liked it and they didn't!
After the inauguration, we figured again that the buses would be crazy and it'd take forever to get out so we left a little before it actually ended (but everyone else did too!) and were surprised to find the bus we needed just pulling up so we got on! We were starving so when we got to San Jose we decided to try McDonald's here for the first time just to compare but it was packed so we went to Taco Bell instead. I ordered a chalupa, and they asked if I wanted a combo and I said yes but since the sign said combos came with fries I asked for nachos instead. Apparently chips and cheese nachos you normally would expect from taco bell don't exist but they do have french fries. Also, I forgot a Taco Bell combo includes a taco so I ended up with my chicken chalupa, nachos supremes (with beef) and a beef hard taco (we also think they don't have soft tacos for some reason...) The really funny thing is they gave me the nacho supreme for the same price as a regular combo! I picked the beef off and it was all good, way more food than I wanted but it turned out ok cause it looks like I'm not getting dinner for some reason, but I'm not really hungry anyway!
After the Taco Bell experience, we came home and rested for awhile and applied aloe to our sunburns then decided to go see Bounty Hunter at the nearby mall. They have movies in English, subtitled in Spanish so it was great and cost less than $4! We took a taxi there because it was dark and needed to take a taxi back. I wasn't worried about this because there are always a ton of taxis near the mall. When we got out a lot of the taxi drivers were out of their cars and talking and there was a group of younger ones that was joking around and told us it'd be 2000 colones to take us where we wanted to go. Since we've taken taxis from the mall a couple times before we knew it was actually around 900 and they're supposed to have meters so they don't normally tell you how much it will be ahead of time unless you ask. They were also calling us all sorts of names and whistling and stuff so we were a lot freaked out, told them no and walked back into the mall. We also didn't see any ticos taking these taxis so we weren't exactly sure what to do, we had to take one of them! So we waited for awhile and headed back out, and on the other side of the mall there were taxis and none of the drivers were yelling or anything so we got one of those with an old driver and he took us home and charged us the correct amount! I was really scared for awhile cause we almost had no other choice than to take the sketchy driver and over pay. Lesson learned, taxis at night are not the same as taxis during the day especially if you're taking one from that mall! But, I was also reminded that there are a crap ton of taxis are if you look you're likely to find one that you like, there were literally probably 20 or more taxis around the mall!
Now I'm exhausted and sunburnt like no other so I'm going to attempt to find a comfortable sleeping position, we'll see how that goes!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Update!
Ok everyone, I know you're not gonna like this, but instead of returning to the States June 26th as originally planned, I will now be returning July 24!
This is because mom, Hayley, and Shelby won't be getting here until July 17th and staying through the 24th. Since I really, really want to go to Panama and visit the canal before I leave Central America and it takes more than a weekend to get to the canal and back I needed to stay past my original plane ticket for June 26th and since it costs quite a bit to change it I'm just going to stay here until I leave with them!
So I'll be going to Panama for about a week after school gets out on June 25th and I'll be there for my birthday! Then depending on who I can find to do things with I'll either travel around CR, or find a place to volunteer at for two weeks here in San Jose!
My host family said I can stay with them longer, so at least I've got housing figured out!
It cost a lot more than I wanted to change my ticket so now my budget is squeezed really tight, but I guess I'll figure it out.
Hasta luego,
Me
This is because mom, Hayley, and Shelby won't be getting here until July 17th and staying through the 24th. Since I really, really want to go to Panama and visit the canal before I leave Central America and it takes more than a weekend to get to the canal and back I needed to stay past my original plane ticket for June 26th and since it costs quite a bit to change it I'm just going to stay here until I leave with them!
So I'll be going to Panama for about a week after school gets out on June 25th and I'll be there for my birthday! Then depending on who I can find to do things with I'll either travel around CR, or find a place to volunteer at for two weeks here in San Jose!
My host family said I can stay with them longer, so at least I've got housing figured out!
It cost a lot more than I wanted to change my ticket so now my budget is squeezed really tight, but I guess I'll figure it out.
Hasta luego,
Me
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Dancing and Nicaragua
imeHola!
So last Thursday night we had a CEA social which wasn't very conveniently timed because Deanna, Yolanda, and I had to leave for Nicaragua at 4 the next morning and the social didn't start until 9 pm, but since we had transportation and all we decided to go and just not sleep at all that night!
For the social, we went to a discoteque called Castro's and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun! It was a bar/dance place and I actually danced (I know you're all shocked!) A nice tico tried to teach me merengue, but I am not very good and ended up accidentally elbowing some poor tica in the head, I felt horrible! She wasn't too mad though so it was ok! I really can't do the whole spinning around thing. Anyway after Castro's I came home and barely managed to stay awake until 3:50 when I needed to meet Yolanda, Deanna, and Katrina at Veritas to catch the bus for Nicaragua. We got there in 2 minutes and then felt like maybe we had a bad idea, we didn't want to be late but being there early standing alone on a street in the middle of San Jose with big bags and our passports on us didn't really seem like a good idea..... Luckily, the driver got there a little after we did and we got on and were good to go!
The ride to Nicaragua took forever and we stopped multiple times to eat/bathroom breaks but every break took FOREVER or we would have been there much faster. We had to get out and stand in a really long line to leave Costa Rica, then we got to get back in the van drive for a little bit and get back out to enter Nicaragua. For some reason here, we only had to give our passports to the driver and he went and took care of it for us and then an official came and gave us our passports back. We were really hesitant to let our passports out of our sight, but we couldn't really do anything about it. It all turned out perfectly fine though because I still have my passport in my possession!
Once we got to Nicaragua we went to Laguna de Apoyo (Apoyo Lagoon) and it was beautiful! I really felt like I was looking at a huge painting or something and not real life! Then we got to shop around for a little and Deanna bought a dress (it's a big deal for her!) After wards, we finally got to our hotel (which was not the hotel we thought we were going to stay at but was amazing anyway so we weren't complaining!) It was in a huge old colonial house and had tons of corridors and what not. We think we somehow ended up in the nicer rooms cause they had air conditioning, hot water, and no bugs! My bed was really comfy too and we figured out how to work the safe so our passports were safe the whole time!
The next day we went to the New Markey in Masaya and it was a world of it's own. We got there and there were tons of people everywhere trying to help you find stuff but probably wanting paid and beggars and street vendors and it was all overwhelming. We were also like the only northern americans there so we stood out like a sore thumb! We really felt like we shouldn't get out of the car, but once we got out and got over our shock and started shopping it was a really cool place! They had leather sandals for $5! I only got one pair though, because apparently 8 is a really big size here and not many people had it!
Then we went to an old fort that had been turned into a prison and toured the cells, which was really depressing. They had torture cells and cells where they was absolutely no light and all the cells held so many prisoners I'm not sure how they all fit. Apparently there was another level of the prison we didn't get to go to that was even deeper but still held human remains, I'm sure glad we didn't have to go to that part!
Then we went to Managua which I'm still not really sure why and got dropped off at this huge mall that had us feeling like we were in NYC in the States. All the stores were expensive and the food court had Quizno's, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. In Nicaragua there are like the rich places and the poor places and there's a huge difference between the two. After lunch we went to the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral which had been destroyed by an earthquake so we couldn't go in. In the new cathedral, there was a double wedding going on.
After that, we went back to our hotel and then went exploring down the road for awhile. None of us were really hungry so we left our tour group and found a little cafe with great smoothies and chocolate cake! The next morning we got a horse and carriage ride around Granada and then toured the little islands of Lake Nicaragua in a boat. While waiting on the boat we were ambushed by street vendors but they had a lot of cool stuff and we all spent too much money! It doesn't make you feel bad to buy from the street vendors though because you know they need it more than you do! They had cute keychains for $1 and all kinds of jewelry from $2-$6. I bought a necklace and they threw in a free bracelet! When we got back to our hotel two very nice ladies had set up camp outside selling beautiful shoes, I bought 2 pairs because they actually had my size! The ladies were so nice we couldn't help but love them and we wanted to get more so we looked for them the next day too!
The way back was pretty much hassle free. We got to the border at the same time as two public buses so because of that we had to get our bags searched and had to wait for all of them to get theirs searched first. We got our passports stamped right away and waited forever. Our driver said normally the agents don't make their passengers get their bags checked cause they come through so often but since the buses were there we had to do it too. The check was a joke we had to open our bags they guy peered inside and then said ok. They didn't even check the van to see if we left anything in it. I'm pretty sure Katrina's words were "I could've had a baby in there and they would have never known" and Yolanda was like "yeah, a baby with cocaine in it's mouth."
Our travel agent here at Veritas had originally told us we'd leave early morning and get back by 2 pm so Katrina, Deanna, and Yolanda were all planning on going to class in the afternoon (I don't have Monday classes) but we didn't end up leaving until noon and we got back at 11:30pm. According to my host family it shouldn't have taken nearly as long but oh well!
All in all, it was a great trip and pics are on facebook if you'd like to see!
hasta luego,
Chelsey
So last Thursday night we had a CEA social which wasn't very conveniently timed because Deanna, Yolanda, and I had to leave for Nicaragua at 4 the next morning and the social didn't start until 9 pm, but since we had transportation and all we decided to go and just not sleep at all that night!
For the social, we went to a discoteque called Castro's and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun! It was a bar/dance place and I actually danced (I know you're all shocked!) A nice tico tried to teach me merengue, but I am not very good and ended up accidentally elbowing some poor tica in the head, I felt horrible! She wasn't too mad though so it was ok! I really can't do the whole spinning around thing. Anyway after Castro's I came home and barely managed to stay awake until 3:50 when I needed to meet Yolanda, Deanna, and Katrina at Veritas to catch the bus for Nicaragua. We got there in 2 minutes and then felt like maybe we had a bad idea, we didn't want to be late but being there early standing alone on a street in the middle of San Jose with big bags and our passports on us didn't really seem like a good idea..... Luckily, the driver got there a little after we did and we got on and were good to go!
The ride to Nicaragua took forever and we stopped multiple times to eat/bathroom breaks but every break took FOREVER or we would have been there much faster. We had to get out and stand in a really long line to leave Costa Rica, then we got to get back in the van drive for a little bit and get back out to enter Nicaragua. For some reason here, we only had to give our passports to the driver and he went and took care of it for us and then an official came and gave us our passports back. We were really hesitant to let our passports out of our sight, but we couldn't really do anything about it. It all turned out perfectly fine though because I still have my passport in my possession!
Once we got to Nicaragua we went to Laguna de Apoyo (Apoyo Lagoon) and it was beautiful! I really felt like I was looking at a huge painting or something and not real life! Then we got to shop around for a little and Deanna bought a dress (it's a big deal for her!) After wards, we finally got to our hotel (which was not the hotel we thought we were going to stay at but was amazing anyway so we weren't complaining!) It was in a huge old colonial house and had tons of corridors and what not. We think we somehow ended up in the nicer rooms cause they had air conditioning, hot water, and no bugs! My bed was really comfy too and we figured out how to work the safe so our passports were safe the whole time!
The next day we went to the New Markey in Masaya and it was a world of it's own. We got there and there were tons of people everywhere trying to help you find stuff but probably wanting paid and beggars and street vendors and it was all overwhelming. We were also like the only northern americans there so we stood out like a sore thumb! We really felt like we shouldn't get out of the car, but once we got out and got over our shock and started shopping it was a really cool place! They had leather sandals for $5! I only got one pair though, because apparently 8 is a really big size here and not many people had it!
Then we went to an old fort that had been turned into a prison and toured the cells, which was really depressing. They had torture cells and cells where they was absolutely no light and all the cells held so many prisoners I'm not sure how they all fit. Apparently there was another level of the prison we didn't get to go to that was even deeper but still held human remains, I'm sure glad we didn't have to go to that part!
Then we went to Managua which I'm still not really sure why and got dropped off at this huge mall that had us feeling like we were in NYC in the States. All the stores were expensive and the food court had Quizno's, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. In Nicaragua there are like the rich places and the poor places and there's a huge difference between the two. After lunch we went to the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral which had been destroyed by an earthquake so we couldn't go in. In the new cathedral, there was a double wedding going on.
After that, we went back to our hotel and then went exploring down the road for awhile. None of us were really hungry so we left our tour group and found a little cafe with great smoothies and chocolate cake! The next morning we got a horse and carriage ride around Granada and then toured the little islands of Lake Nicaragua in a boat. While waiting on the boat we were ambushed by street vendors but they had a lot of cool stuff and we all spent too much money! It doesn't make you feel bad to buy from the street vendors though because you know they need it more than you do! They had cute keychains for $1 and all kinds of jewelry from $2-$6. I bought a necklace and they threw in a free bracelet! When we got back to our hotel two very nice ladies had set up camp outside selling beautiful shoes, I bought 2 pairs because they actually had my size! The ladies were so nice we couldn't help but love them and we wanted to get more so we looked for them the next day too!
The way back was pretty much hassle free. We got to the border at the same time as two public buses so because of that we had to get our bags searched and had to wait for all of them to get theirs searched first. We got our passports stamped right away and waited forever. Our driver said normally the agents don't make their passengers get their bags checked cause they come through so often but since the buses were there we had to do it too. The check was a joke we had to open our bags they guy peered inside and then said ok. They didn't even check the van to see if we left anything in it. I'm pretty sure Katrina's words were "I could've had a baby in there and they would have never known" and Yolanda was like "yeah, a baby with cocaine in it's mouth."
Our travel agent here at Veritas had originally told us we'd leave early morning and get back by 2 pm so Katrina, Deanna, and Yolanda were all planning on going to class in the afternoon (I don't have Monday classes) but we didn't end up leaving until noon and we got back at 11:30pm. According to my host family it shouldn't have taken nearly as long but oh well!
All in all, it was a great trip and pics are on facebook if you'd like to see!
hasta luego,
Chelsey
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