Primiera Día del Escuela

Hola chicos! Hoy fue mi primera día en la esculea! And now I am laying on my bed, and it is almost 9:00 here. What I love about my room is that half of one of my walls is a large glass window. Above the window all along the wall is a built-in screen that acts as a permanent open window. If I close my eyes I can hear all the noises outside and I feel like I am camping! Currently I can hear the steady sound of the rain – it’s better than any American sound machine I’ve ever heard!

Contrary to my belief that all Latinos stay up late and sleep-in late, my Tico family goes to bed early – very early! Last night mis padres said goodnight and turned in at 8:00! Being a morning person, I have long had an overambitious desire to go to bed real early and thus wake-up early feeling refreshed and ready to start the day! After all, the saying goes: early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise! Thus I went to bed around 8:30 and woke-up without an alarm clock around 5:30 this morning. I had my quiet time, took a shower, and headed downstairs where Celsi had prepared breakfast: A plate of fruit. Then she brought out papaya juice… then toast… and finally, scrambled eggs and tortilla! It was a feast!

After breakfast Celsi walked me to school - only about a five-minute walk. Before Celsi left, she informed me that she would meet me at the gate to pick me up after class. I waited and pretty soon, one by one, the other students started to arrive. I was surprised to discover that almost all of the students are in college or in their early twenties! There are about 20ish students here for this two-month intensive program. The orientation began with a brief history of the school followed by a TEST! Uggg…. And so the work began! The test was a measure of our abilities to appropriately place us in the right level of classes. As soon as I began the test I wished that I had reviewed some of the tenses and irregular verbs before coming… two months off of Spanish is not good! I didn’t feel very good about the writing test, my Spanish grammar felt very rusty. But it really didn’t matter because I wanted to be placed in the appropriate class. After that we had a second test which was to assess our conversational skills. This was a 15 minute interview in Spanish with one of the instructors. The woman who interviewed me was very nice and we had a great conversation. I felt much better about this portion of the test than I did about the grammar.

While we waited for our tests to be graded and our schedules to be made, we had the rest of our orientation. I learned some very interesting things in orientation! We were informed on cultural differences that we should be aware of. For example, in many Latin American countries they use terms that we would find very offensive as a form of endearment and affection, such as “gordito” (fatty), or “negrito” (little blackie). This would explain why yesterday Celsi was describing her daughter to me and she said with a smile “ella es una gordita ahora” (She is a little fatty now)! Yesterday I was kind of shocked to hear this but now I understand haha! This is one cultural difference that I will not be implementing into my life! Also, we learned that the ticos are extremely friendly but also very sensitive! We need to eat everything that they give us but if they feed us too much, we need to tell them before they serve us that we want smaller portions. Before coming here I was told that we would only be fed twice a day but now I have no idea where that came from because it certainly isn’t true! In the orientation they said that the Ticos would take it as a great compliment if we gained weight while we are here! They said the Tico mothers would be calling their friends and saying “Oh, did you see my student? She has gained 10 pounds! She just loves my food so much!” – this explains the big breakfast I had this morning!

We also learned that the Ticos hate confrontation and do not do well with it. They would get really upset if we were to say something like: you are serving me too much food. Instead, we must always put the blame on ourselves. So instead of saying: you are serving me too much food, we have to say: oh, I have a delicate stomach, I just can’t eat that much food, or my stomach is too tiny etc. Something else that I found interesting is that Costa Rica (like many Latin American countries) is a matriarchal society. So the women run the household and make most of the decisions. I’m interested to see the dynamics of this played out in the Ticos that I encounter.

Random side note - Claim to fame: Max Lucado’s daughter came to this school a few years ago! And Max even came and visited! That means that this school must be “legit” ;)

I can’t go anywhere it seems like without running into someone who I am somehow connected to through Southeast – even in Costa Rica! It turns out that Gretel, one of the ladies who works here, is married to the former youth pastor from Nueva Vida (the Spanish church that used to be a ministry of Southeast Christian Church). They met when he came to the institute three years ago to polish his Spanish. They were married at Nueva Vida and now they both live and work here at the institute! Crazy how small our world can be!

Well after orientation we were assigned our classes based on the results of our tests. Much to my surprise, I somehow was placed in the highest level for grammar?! I’m still wondering if that was a mistake! For conversational Spanish I’m in the second highest level. I have three classes every day in the afternoon, two different teachers, and 4-5 students in each class! It’s so perfect! I love that the classes are small and that all of the students in my classes seem to be at the same level – I think that will really help us to move forward! Our teachers assessed our abilities in class today and decided on what areas we need to work on most… and there is absolutely zero English spoken in the classrooms!

Around three it started DOWN PORING rain and it hasn’t stopped since! Apparently this is typical everyday during this time of the year. Celsi was supposed to come pick me up so that she could show me how to get back to her house, but since it was down poring, she didn’t come. I was waiting for her (not knowing that she wasn’t coming) when someone came into the room and said: there is a taxi waiting for Abigail. My response was: I’m Abigail but I didn’t call a taxi… but apparently there was one waiting for me. I hesitantly went outside and saw the “taxi” - a gray sketch looking old car. I slowly started walking towards it when the door opened and Willi yelled out: Hurry up and get in the car!!! Haha, relieved, I obeyed! Apparently Celsi asked him to pick me up so she wouldn’t have to go out in the rain – I just never got the memo! ☺

Well the rest of the afternoon was spent doing homework and reading. This is certainly going to be an “intensive” eight weeks!

Y ahora yo voy a dormir, proque estoy cansada… buenas noches mis gorditos! :)