May 16, 2015

It’s Just The Beginning: Initial Observation

I have now been in Costa Rica for a day and a half. It is hard to explain everything I have observed. My first impression was, “Wow the beauty of this country is beyond words.” Yesterday, we explored San Joaquin. This is where I will be staying with my host family starting tomorrow night. The first place we ate was at a local Costa Rican restaurant. I ordered a tostado con pollo, the traditional Costa Rican dish. The restaurant was open and airy, most of the restaurants I noticed were like this. This was the initial cultural difference I obverse when we first arrived. As we walked around, I saw that all the homes had bars in their windows and gates in front of their houses. I thought this was strange and wondered if the area was unsafe. The next day I found out by our tour guide that the gates in houses first came about as decorations to separate the yard from the road. Then the ticans got paranoid after a few minor crimes and the gates got taller and bars appeared on many ticans windows. The guide insured me that San Joaquin was a safe place. The roads are paved but narrow and people drive crazy! I do not understand there traffic laws. Not many ticans stopped at stop signs and they passed each other constantly. I was shocked no one got hit. Also, pedestrian DO NOT have the right away. We ran into a little market as we were walking through the town. It was open and there were various types of fruits and vegetables lined up everywhere. I was able to try fruits that I had never even heard of before. I had one that felt like a little cotton ball in your mouth and it was very sweet.  Soursop was probably my favorite out of all the ones we tasted. Many products looked foreign to me. I imagine a student coming to America would feel the same way. We walked by an elementary and high school. The schools were gated and all the students wore uniforms. This wasn’t very strange. We see schools in the states that require students to wear uniforms. When we got to our hotel, we walked a couple blocks down to see what was around us. We saw a funeral. There were hundreds of people dressed in black and white walking up this great hill carrying the casket. I thought this was very interesting and different from our culture.

 

Typical Costa Rican Home

Open Restaurants

Open Farmers Market

 

Honeymoon Stage: Is this real?

We went to La Paz Waterfall Garden today. The view was wonderful. We climbed up this mountain in our van and it felt like we were on the very edge. On our way up we stopped at a coffee farm. I learned about a particular type of coffee they have called the peaberry. This coffee grain does not separate like a normal coffee grain would when it is roasted. We got to see and feel the different types of coffee beans. Hands on activities like this can really make the context stick. The farm went on and on for thousands of acers through the mountains. The view was to die for. I can only imagine starting my day looking over the mountains and drinking warm coffee. The waterfall gardens was like a resort. It was much more than just waterfalls. We walked into a huge bird aviary and a buffer fly sanctuary. I had never been in a butterfly sanctuary before and it was absolutely the coolest thing ever. We saw many animals including monkeys, pumas, jaguar, frogs, and snakes. I learned more about animals here than I have ever before. Having he experience of walking around and observing the animals allowed me to learn more than if I just read about them in a book. The pictures of the falls in took just did not do it justice. The feeling of look up at gallons upon gallons of water rushing down the side of a cliff is a crazy feeling. It makes me feel so small and appreciative of the wonders around me. Inhofe I can simulate the feeling I have had so far as I describe them to my students. As we rode in the van up the mountain, I had my face pressed up against the window trying to see every possible thing I could. There were many culture differences I noticed. Most of their graves are above ground, there are many soccer fields, titans serve rice with potatoes, the only condiment on the table are always ketchup and mayo, and almost every house has a tin roof. These culture difference are not better or worse but just different. The language barrier has not hit me yet. I’m still in the “honeymoon stage” as Dr. Powell would say. I know tomorrow night when I initially met my host family culture shock will hit me. There is so much I have learned already! This blog would be 5 pages if I told you everything. I will remember my initial impressions and observation when I have a student coming into my class in the US. I’m sure they will have lots of questions like I do!

 

Coffee Plant

Butterfly Sanctuary

La Paz