Thursday, July 23, 2009
Birthday!
Had an amazing birthday!! Will post pics on this blog soon, but I have some up on Facebook. My costa rica family threw me an awesome party! I'm leaving for Liberia on Monday and once I'm settled I'll get everything updated here. I have so much to write down to remember. Lots of awesome trips and cool experiences. Much Love!!
Spinning
Spinning…
“Spinst du?” –are you crazy?—auf Deutsch. I think the answer to that question is yes.
Went to a Spinning class at the gym. The gym that is apparently located across the street from my house.
My first evening in Costa Rica it was dark at 6pm as it always is and all I heard was Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Spice Girls, and other 90s greats blaring in the street. I asked my tica mom why the hell the neighbor was playing their music so loud and she told me “ejercicio!” Oh, exercise…but why so loud? I told her someone would call the cops in America because it’s so late/dark out and she laughed. For ten minutes. Almost every night, I get to hear the top 40 from the 80s and 90s. Kind of annoying, but also kind of entertaining.
After three weeks worth of Casey Casem serenades, I went with Yoleni, who is on a fitness kick, across the street. We’re talking about exercise and I once again talk about the crazy neighbor blaring his music so loud. She asks me if I want to check it out. “Of Course!” and we head over to the innocent looking house. To one side of the house, there is an entire gym! Complete with weight sets and a second floor of exercise bikes. WTF! I had no idea that’s what ejercicio meant. Needless to say I was shocked and I don’t mind the loud music anymore.
Tonight the six of us, Sybille, tica mom, Ilsita, Esteban, Yoleni, and me attend the 7pm-8pm spinning class given by Giovanni the owner of the gym/house, who is short, buff, and has a lisp.
As I’m sitting there (actually sweating there) I keep thinking that its so crazy how things happen that you would never expect. We had music blaring during class (of COURSE) but special music, not the hits. He played a bunch of techno beats; songs I’ve actually heard and like, and I didn’t think I really listened to techno: Kylie Monogue, Feddie LeGrand “put your hands up for Detroit!!” awesome song, and Prince “Erotic City” but in Spanish. After hearing Prince in Spanish, I couldn’t stop thinking how crazy and funny life is sometimes.
That was the first spinning class Sybille, Ilsita, Ilse, and I attended in our lives. Needless to say, it was hard! However, just finished eating some delicious fruits and buttery, BUTTery toast, including starfruit juice to find some of those calories we lost in the gym.
I mean, the toast was really buttery. Ilse puts a thick coating all over the bread. I’d say enough to cover the white of your nail if you stuck your finger in it before it was toasted. Just saying…things are so different here
“Spinst du?” –are you crazy?—auf Deutsch. I think the answer to that question is yes.
Went to a Spinning class at the gym. The gym that is apparently located across the street from my house.
My first evening in Costa Rica it was dark at 6pm as it always is and all I heard was Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Spice Girls, and other 90s greats blaring in the street. I asked my tica mom why the hell the neighbor was playing their music so loud and she told me “ejercicio!” Oh, exercise…but why so loud? I told her someone would call the cops in America because it’s so late/dark out and she laughed. For ten minutes. Almost every night, I get to hear the top 40 from the 80s and 90s. Kind of annoying, but also kind of entertaining.
After three weeks worth of Casey Casem serenades, I went with Yoleni, who is on a fitness kick, across the street. We’re talking about exercise and I once again talk about the crazy neighbor blaring his music so loud. She asks me if I want to check it out. “Of Course!” and we head over to the innocent looking house. To one side of the house, there is an entire gym! Complete with weight sets and a second floor of exercise bikes. WTF! I had no idea that’s what ejercicio meant. Needless to say I was shocked and I don’t mind the loud music anymore.
Tonight the six of us, Sybille, tica mom, Ilsita, Esteban, Yoleni, and me attend the 7pm-8pm spinning class given by Giovanni the owner of the gym/house, who is short, buff, and has a lisp.
As I’m sitting there (actually sweating there) I keep thinking that its so crazy how things happen that you would never expect. We had music blaring during class (of COURSE) but special music, not the hits. He played a bunch of techno beats; songs I’ve actually heard and like, and I didn’t think I really listened to techno: Kylie Monogue, Feddie LeGrand “put your hands up for Detroit!!” awesome song, and Prince “Erotic City” but in Spanish. After hearing Prince in Spanish, I couldn’t stop thinking how crazy and funny life is sometimes.
That was the first spinning class Sybille, Ilsita, Ilse, and I attended in our lives. Needless to say, it was hard! However, just finished eating some delicious fruits and buttery, BUTTery toast, including starfruit juice to find some of those calories we lost in the gym.
I mean, the toast was really buttery. Ilse puts a thick coating all over the bread. I’d say enough to cover the white of your nail if you stuck your finger in it before it was toasted. Just saying…things are so different here
Friday, July 3, 2009
Two weeks
I have been in Costa Rica for two weeks: took the wrong bus twice, walked home in a river that forgot it was a street once; got cured by the witch doctor twice and experienced the obligatory stomach-wrenching, cold sweating diarrhea vom only once ---thank god!
FOOD: I´ve eaten a day´s worth of food at each meal which includes RICE and BEANS, always, fried plantains, my favorite, coffee, usually a meat-sometimes a weird one like bologna\hotdog or a cooked to death piece of beef, and buttery buttery buttery fried everything. The fried eggs are soooo good because they are cooked in plenty of oil and sprinkled with delicious sea salt. I sometimes eat bimbo bread aka wonder bread drenched in thick yellow butter beside my fried eggs and fried plantains lol. Don´t forget the tortillas! which can be added to any meal at any time. But the best part of all is the fruit. Those frutas, que rico! I´ve tried some new crazy fruits: guanavana with a texture like juicy styrofoam and a sweetness that is almost too much. A papaya look-a-like that is SO SWEET, too sweet, the juice drips like simple syrup. A new discovery called tamarindo--a big wad thats brown and sticky like the inside of a fig newton. Its filled with large black seeds at random and is actually a little sour along with the tacky sweetness. It reminds me of nature´s slightly sour, brown, gum wad. Don´t be fooled by the description. Its actually quite good. Papayas are my favorite, but everything from Mangos to Bananas are a pleasure. Haven´t eaten too many veggies except for juicy avocados with a green skin...ymmmm...if you don´t count plantains, which the ticos DO consider a veg.
This is a lot about food, but its the most important thing that happens all day. All the ticos exclaim at how little I eat when my stomach is streching and I´m working up a sweat trying to eat all my breakfast!
My host family is awesome. My tica mom loves to talk and cook. Therefore, all hours of the day people come by and she fixes them food and they talk. and talk. and then someone else pops in to talk and of course my tica mom makes some coffee and sandwiches or cookies. Its just my host mom and her oldest son Rudy, 24, in the house besides me and the new foreigner Cybil from Switzerland. However, her daughter lives in an apartment upstairs with her hubby and two kids, ages 3 and 4. The house is behind a gate (like all houses, which have bars on their windows or are behind a very high enclosed iron gate) and inside the gate are three different families in small houses. Our neighbors are very close in the sense of space and also in the sense of friends.
I am going to Playa Hermosa this weekend which is near Jaco and only two hours away. This will be my first big trip out with a few people from the institute. I´ve been to Cartago--sort of---and into San Jose and Heredia-Alejuala. The fiestas in costa rica are incredible: birthdays, saint´s days, and going away parties! details and pictures later. Hasta Luego
FOOD: I´ve eaten a day´s worth of food at each meal which includes RICE and BEANS, always, fried plantains, my favorite, coffee, usually a meat-sometimes a weird one like bologna\hotdog or a cooked to death piece of beef, and buttery buttery buttery fried everything. The fried eggs are soooo good because they are cooked in plenty of oil and sprinkled with delicious sea salt. I sometimes eat bimbo bread aka wonder bread drenched in thick yellow butter beside my fried eggs and fried plantains lol. Don´t forget the tortillas! which can be added to any meal at any time. But the best part of all is the fruit. Those frutas, que rico! I´ve tried some new crazy fruits: guanavana with a texture like juicy styrofoam and a sweetness that is almost too much. A papaya look-a-like that is SO SWEET, too sweet, the juice drips like simple syrup. A new discovery called tamarindo--a big wad thats brown and sticky like the inside of a fig newton. Its filled with large black seeds at random and is actually a little sour along with the tacky sweetness. It reminds me of nature´s slightly sour, brown, gum wad. Don´t be fooled by the description. Its actually quite good. Papayas are my favorite, but everything from Mangos to Bananas are a pleasure. Haven´t eaten too many veggies except for juicy avocados with a green skin...ymmmm...if you don´t count plantains, which the ticos DO consider a veg.
This is a lot about food, but its the most important thing that happens all day. All the ticos exclaim at how little I eat when my stomach is streching and I´m working up a sweat trying to eat all my breakfast!
My host family is awesome. My tica mom loves to talk and cook. Therefore, all hours of the day people come by and she fixes them food and they talk. and talk. and then someone else pops in to talk and of course my tica mom makes some coffee and sandwiches or cookies. Its just my host mom and her oldest son Rudy, 24, in the house besides me and the new foreigner Cybil from Switzerland. However, her daughter lives in an apartment upstairs with her hubby and two kids, ages 3 and 4. The house is behind a gate (like all houses, which have bars on their windows or are behind a very high enclosed iron gate) and inside the gate are three different families in small houses. Our neighbors are very close in the sense of space and also in the sense of friends.
I am going to Playa Hermosa this weekend which is near Jaco and only two hours away. This will be my first big trip out with a few people from the institute. I´ve been to Cartago--sort of---and into San Jose and Heredia-Alejuala. The fiestas in costa rica are incredible: birthdays, saint´s days, and going away parties! details and pictures later. Hasta Luego
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)