A Weekend of Adventures

I finally have some interesting things to write about, so I figured I should post this before it gets too late.

Friday afternoon I got to skype with my mom for a couple hours, and then hung out with my host family for the rest of the evening. My host sister-in-law works at a restaurant called "Bagelman's," which is based in New York, and she was asking me how to say things in English and to explain what certain foods or names were. I think they get a lot of Americans in there, and she doesn't always know how to say the foods in English. It was really fun to exchange language lessons.

Saturday morning I met my friend April in the central park and we did some homework (or attempted to do homework) in the shade. I love this park--I pass it on my way to school every day, and it might be one of my favorite places in Heredia. It's not like a park back home; there's very little grass but there are lots of trees and benches, and a huge fountain and a huge gazebo. At one end of the park is the Iglesia Inmaculada Concepción. I say April and I tried to do homework because there was so much going on. A lot of people bring their kids there to feed the pigeons or roller skate, and there's lots of families and young people and couples walking through or just sitting on the benches. I also saw a line of "scissor"(?) ants carrying leaf pieces from a tree to their nest. So we stayed there for a while and then walked around central Heredia for a while, looking at stores and exploring a little. We ate empanadas for lunch at a little soda, and walked briefly through the central market.

Sunday I went to the same church I went to last week, by myself this time. My host mom called a taxi for me, but I walked home. The service was good, and we had communion. I wasn't exactly sure how to get home, but I made it without too much trouble. I had pizza for lunch and took a short nap before I had to leave to go to the theater.

Which brings me to my next "adventure". For my Appreciation of Theater class, we had to go see this play in San José called "El Métedo Gronholm" or The Gronholm Method. Thankfully, some of the girls in my class asked if I wanted to go with them, and they took care of ordering tickets and figuring out how to get there. We planned to meet in the Parque de los Angeles at 2:40 (the play started at 5). So when I was getting ready to leave, it was raining a little bit. I really didn't want to call a taxi, and it wasn't raining too hard, so I figured I could make it. And it's hard to know what the rain is going to do: it could stop, slow down, or speed up with no warning. Unfortunately, when I was just a few blocks from home, it started pouring. I think I've tried to explain Costa Rican rain before--when it pours, it just dumps tons of water. So I'm standing against the wall of this bakery, trying to decide if I should try calling a taxi (it's nearly impossible to find one when it rains like this) or wait for it to stop or just go for it. But then, gracias a Dios, a taxi pulled up nearby dropping someone off. I asked the driver if I could get in and he nodded, so I got a taxi to the park. I had to cross the street to the bank where we were supposed to meet, and it was still pouring. All the streets here have really deep gutters, probably about a foot deep, and they were overflowing with water. So I waded across the street and made it to the shelter under the bank's overhang. I dumped water out of my shoes (literally) and sat down to wait and watch the rain. It was still pouring, and the streets were practically rivers, flooding up onto the sidewalks. It was ridiculous, but this is pretty normal for the rainy season. I'm not sure where the water goes, but when it stops raining, the water recedes fairly quickly.

My friends were a little late getting there, because of the rain, but eventually they showed up and we walked to the bus stop. We took a bus to San José, walked to another bus stop, took another bus to the neighborhood of the theater, then walked to the theater. We were about an hour early, so we had to wait a little, but it wasn't too bad. It was a small "store-front" type theater, and there were only 4 actors in the play. It was about these four people who are candidates for an important job at a company, but instead of a regular interview, they're put in a room and given tasks to do to evaluate their character, ability to work as a team, etc. It was pretty funny and well done, although I couldn't understand everything that was said. Afterward, we took the same way back to Heredia and the bus dropped me off a few blocks from my house. It was only about 8:30, but I hadn't eaten dinner yet. My host mom had bought me a hot dog--more toppings than meat--which I ate, and then went to bed. I found a Hogan's Heroes episode on YouTube that I hadn't seen and watched that before I went to sleep. It was a nice change from a full day of Spanish. :)

Well I should probably get some homework done. Hopefully it won't be as long before I write again...