Sick :(

This weekend I was planning on going up to a national park nearby with some friends to hike and stuff, but at this point it doesn't look like I'm gonna go, because for the last few days I've been feeling really crummy. It's not anything serious, just stomach ache and nausea mostly, but I haven't eaten very much in the last couple days, so I don't think hiking is a good idea right now. I bought some Pepto Bismal today and just took some, so hopefully that will help, but I don't think I'll be 100% by tomorrow morning. I'm bummed, cause I was really looking forward to getting out of the city and spending time having fun with my friends, but hopefully we'll get to do something fun soon. I did just get an email from the ISEP director here about an excursion on September 11th, so hopefully I'll be able to go to that!

So anyway, if you could pray that I feel better soon, that would be great. Thanks!

Holly

¡Luces, Cámara, Acción!

So today I did something fun, something other than homework: I got to be in a movie! Just as an extra, but still. Supposedly my name will be in the credits. :)

See, my friend April is in this Latin American Cinema class, and her professor is friends with this guy who is making a movie, and they were going to be filming on campus today and needed extras. So April invited me and we showed up around 12:30 at the registration building, but they weren't ready for us, so we came back an hour later.

The movie is called "El Regreso," which means "the return," and it tells the story of this guy who's returning to Costa Rica after having lived in the United States for a long time. Here's a link to an article (in Spanish) about it:

http://www.89decibeles.com/noticias/hernan-jimenez-inicia-rodaje-de-el-regreso

and the same article translated by Google:

http://translate.google.co.cr/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.89decibeles.com%2Fnoticias%2Fhernan-jimenez-inicia-rodaje-de-el-regreso&sl=es&tl=en

The scenes they were filming today were ones where he was in the immigration or customs place trying to get his passport stuff figured out. There were all these chairs set up, and the main character (who is also the director) has a conversation with this strange guy sitting next to him. We extras filled in the other chairs and walked back and forth behind and in front of the chairs (to make it seem busy). So in the first scene, I was a person in the chairs, "reading" my Spanish-English Dictionary and moving over one seat every thirty seconds or so. In the second scene, which I think was supposed to be another day, we switched and everyone sitting in chairs walked back and forth while the people who had walked back and forth sat in chairs.

For the third scene, those of us sitting in chairs had to react to what was going on at the desk. Apparently, he's up there trying to get his passport but the lady working is being really frustrating. So he starts yelling, and we all look up and kind of look at each other like "What's going on?" The funny part was, nothing was actually happening when they filmed our "reactions." He just told us what was supposedly happening and told us when to look up.

It was cool to be able to see how a movie is made up close, but it was also a little boring. It took us about an hour to film a three-minute scene. I don't know how many times I moved over in those chairs. But overall it was a fun experience, and I'm going to have to try to find this movie when it comes out so I can watch it.

Below is a picture I took of the set. Of the two men sitting the chairs, the man on the right is the director, and the man on the left is the guy he meets while waiting in line. In front of them, they're setting up really bright lights. If you look closely you can see the camera (start from the red sign in the ceiling and go straight down). It was set up on a platform with wheels that ran along a pair of pvc pipes.

Random Things About Costa Rica

To the left is a picture taken from the "main" entrance to the university. A lot of times the mountains are covered in clouds, so I took a picture while I had the chance.

Okay, here are some random, interesting things that I've learned about Costa Rica:

1. Never go anywhere without your umbrella.

This is right up there with remembering your keys, wallet, and phone. At any time, any place, when you least expect it, the heavens could open up and pour gallons of water on you. Usually it rains sometime between noon and 4 o'clock, but it could start earlier or later. The one thing you can count on is that it will rain at some point during the day.

2. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way--and sidewalks are hit-and-miss.

Having lived in Chicago for two years, I feel like I am a pretty accomplished street-crosser. It's a little different here, though. First of all, cars do not have to stop for pedestrians. They usually will, and I've had people wave me across sometimes, but I've also almost been run over several times. Also, just because there's a stop sign doesn't mean that the cars will stop. If the way is clear, they won't even pretend to stop like people do in the U.S. They just go. Also, while most of the streets here are kept in good condition, the sidewalks are another story. Sometimes they're fine, but sometimes they're all torn up or super narrow or made from tiles instead of concrete. On my walk to church there's a whole stretch where there's no sidewalk at all.

3. Go into public restrooms prepared for anything.

The first thing you should know is that you do not throw toilet paper in the toilets. Their system can't handle it and it will clog. So, you throw the toilet paper in the trash cans conveniently located in every stall. The second thing you should know is that many restrooms have one toilet paper dispenser per bathroom--you take some before you go into a stall. And there's no guarantee that there will always be toilet paper, so come prepared. Soap is also often missing from bathrooms--although sometimes they have plastic water bottles filled with soap sitting on the counter--and paper towels are very rare.

4. None of my classes have textbooks.

Well, they do, but not in the way we do in the States. Textbooks are really expensive here, so everyone just uses copies. The first day of class, the professor tells you which fotocopiaría they use (there are dozens in the area around campus) and you have to go there to pick up your copies. For three of my classes I have an "anthology" compiled by the professor that contains all the readings for the whole semester. For my Anthropology and History class, I have to go each week to pick up the next week's readings. I'm not sure if it's entirely legal, but that's what they do here.

5. Cafecito may be best invention since the siesta.

"Cafecito" literally means "little coffee," but it's basically a break in the middle of the afternoon to drink coffee and eat pastries-Yum! Often I'll have cafecito with my host mom and whoever else is at our house, and we'll talk or watch a movie on t.v. My literature class on Wednesday afternoons has a twenty minute break in the middle for cafecito, too. :)

6. Don't say "de nada"--use "mucho gusto".

This has taken me a while to get used to, since for the past 6+ years I've been trained to say "de nada" after someone says "gracias." But here, they use "con mucho gusto," or "my pleasure." Which I really like, but I still catch myself automatically saying "de nada."

7. Costa Rica uses a different verb form/pronoun that I've never heard of before.

This is going to make very little sense to anyone who doesn't know Spanish, but they don't use the informal you (tú) form very much here. They use "usted", which is usually more formal, for everyone--friends, family, children, pets, etc. And they also use "vos" which is sort of like a singular form of "vosotros." It uses the "tú" form for most tenses except present, preterite, subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, and command forms. So yeah. I would pick one of two or three Spanish-speaking countries that uses a verb form I've never heard of before... :) Thankfully it's not too hard; again I just have to get used to using it.

Well, my computer is about to die, and I need to go home to start on homework, but it's pouring right now. I do have my umbrella, but I think I might hang out here at the library for a while and see if it stops.

Skype, Buses, Marcha, Alarm Clock

So I've just spent the last hour adding friends' blogs to my "dashboard" and reading through them a bit, and I decided I can put my homework off for another few minutes to update mine.

This has been a good week: Monday I got to talk to Drew for over an hour on skype. Tuesday I took the wrong bus home, spent 45 minutes on it and only made it half-way home, and then had to walk the rest of the way in the rain (funny story). Wednesday my Spanish class was canceled because the whole school shut down for a protest "marcha" (in which I did not participate, due to my status as an international student and my desire to not get deported). Thursday morning I woke up 15 minutes after my class started, got there half an hour later, and my professor just joked about it and made me read aloud #3 on his list of excuses students give for being late.

Well, I really do have a lot of homework to do this weekend, so I'd best be starting on it.

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...