I successfully recovered from my cold last week. On Wednesday, some friends and I went to the movies to see Monsters University. It was really cute....and in spanish. We could understand it enough but I am looking forward to watching it again in English in the future. That night I went home and watched the first Monster's Inc. when I went to bed. They are so cute.
On Thursday, ISA hosted a Farewell Dinner for the students leaving at the end of the week. I get to attend two of these. It is outside of the city in the mountains. The restaurant was beautiful and overlooks the valley. It was fun to get all dolled up and eat a yummy meal. Dancers performed traditional Costa Rican dances. I really enjoyed watching them but was quite perplexed by the strange noises and yelling they made.
The view of San José from the restaurant
Traditional dancers
Attempting to spell ELAP and failing
Dances
On Friday, I had lunch with friends and a dance performance. One of the dance classes I have been attending was for another students' internship at her home university. She held classes on basic technique and compiled a dance with several songs and a fusion between hip hop, jazz, and lyrical. We performed on a small stage in Veritas for a decent sized crowd. The performance went well and we all had a lot of fun.
A few of my friends and I before the performance
We visited the National Museum on Saturday. This museum is housed in a historic military building downtown. The start and end to the journey through the museum is in a large butterfly garden. It was so pretty and I was getting slightly freaked out by all of the butterflies. They were everywhere! The museum was pretty interesting and had a lot of different exhibits. We had a lot of fun being goofy instead of paying attention to the artifacts. Later, we had lunch and went to a free concert downtown. It was part of a cultural initiative that puts on free and paid admission events of all different kinds in the city. We didn't know they were going to be such popular bands but the headliner was an extremely popular Costa Rican band called Cocofunka. It was really fun but rainy.
We do things like take awkward family photos...
Mariposa
And we pretend to be sailors..
The view of the city and mountains from the top of the museum
On Sunday, we went to INBioparque in Heredia. This is Lauren's ELAP placement and was one of my potential placements. It is an ecological and conservation park. It is interactive and fun with all different exhibits, activities, and events. It was fun to explore and see different animals and fauna. We, of course, had fun being silly and playing on the playgrounds. They also have a petting zoo kind of section so we played with goats and bunnies. We went in a maze and did a baby zipline. It was a very good day. INBioparque is an excellent place to go to learn and have fun. Later, we went to Libby's place for pizza and a movie. We watched Mama Mia (ugh). It was nice to hang out and be comfy on the couch with the girls.
More butterflies
Las chicas
I got one!
Bff Bunny love
I also got stuck in a turtle shell...
It was a great weekend spent in San José with friends.
I had been struggling with work still last week. I had made progress in meeting with Ana Cecilia and others and was told that I would be sent work to do. It finally came on Monday morning. I was sent four documents to read, translate into English, and summarize. They all dealt with the TECOCOS law that I had become somewhat familiar with before. Though this isn't the most exciting work, it is difficult and I now understand that it is extremely important because they do not have any of this in English yet. It was exciting to really put my mind to something though. After work on Monday, I found a new supermarket and then attempted to get money out of the ATM but it wouldn't let me. This was slightly alarming. I checked with my bank and they said it wasn't my account or card. Later, we went to El Observatorio for Libby and John's birthday. El Observatorio is a really nice restaurant/bar/club. They have live music on Mondays and the floor was filled with amazing dancers. Some dancers had to have been trained because they were exceptional. I danced a few times with some of the other girls and with a tico who we hang out with sometimes. Luis and his brothers are the tico uncles of some other students. (Their mamatica's brothers) It was a lot of fun. I loved just watching the dancers and wished I could keep up. At some point someone's heel took out my achilles but I survived. Later, we ended up at a little Irish pub and had some delicious potato wedges. Us girls were in heaven.
On Tuesday, I continued to work on translating documents at CAP. Carolina brought a new ELAP volunteer for his orientation so we all met with Ana Cecilia and Francisco. Ana Cecilia clarified what parts she wanted me to translate. This was a huge relief because the documents I had't started yet were huge. Another new volunteer will start at CAP next week. I am interested to see what they will end up doing there. To some degree, I think I almost...prepared the way for them. They understand better now that this is important for us and the new volunteers will know to speak up clearly and early so they don't end up in a waiting game. Frustrating.
Anyway, I learned a lot in this meeting and Ana Cecilia told me how important the translation I am working on is.
Jenny and I met up and walked around downtown. We attempted to get my card to work at other ATMs but had no luck.
Wednesday was a great day. I learned in that day than I probably have the entire time I have been here. Francisco is "a walking monument" as Ann Marie put it today. He is a brilliant man with a great heart. He met Chris (the new volunteer) and I at CAP and gave us a lesson on the history of Costa Rica and Latin America in a world perspective and in regard to the geography of the world. Then he took us to the national government buildings that house the legislative and some executive offices. He was quite popular. Everyone knew him. It was funny. He used to work there for 20 years and was the advisor to the president of Costa Rica for part of the time. I guess he is kind of a big deal. He taught is the history of Costa Rica and its formation. We learned about major players in the government's history and how the government works now. My brain is still trying to process it all. We met several congressmen and the assistant to the President of Congress. We met the leaders of the group that represents the native indian population and others. CAP is right next to all the judicial buildings and these are just a couple blocks away. The president's offices are in Zapote, which is the district I live in and her house is outside of the city. They don't have a White House kind of thing like we do yet. We had lunch and learned some more.
Historical monument downtown that represents Costa Rica's freedom
Pretending to be official
Chris and I with the wonderful, Francisco
On my way home, I decided I would try the ATM and it magically decided to work. I don't get it but I'm not complaining. I stayed home for the rest of the night to try to catch up on things like this and get work done on the translations I needed to finish. I ended up falling asleep on my laptop with the light on. woops.
Today, was another great day. It was my last day of my internship which I have bittersweet feelings about. It was spent visiting the University for Peace, which is a international university chartered by the United Nations. Ana Cecilia, Francisco, and Ann Marie took Chris and I. We, of course, learned more from all three of them. The university is outside of the city on the top of a hill kind of by itself. It is a gorgeous drive. The campus is beautiful. We were met by two women that work at the university and gave us an overview of their programs and admissions and a tour of the campus. The classrooms have amazing views. There are hammocks everywhere. There are monuments and inspirational quotes everywhere. It was a LED certified building and a huge park with tons of trails for hiking, walking, and running. It has lots of gardens. They have masters and doctorate programs there and it looks like an excellent place to attend. They want to keep in touch with Chris and I and want to have us as students in the future. We'll see.
In 6 languages
Monument that represents important leaders for the university.
This weekend I will be going to Monteverde to go ziplining and to the beach for the day on Sunday. My new housemates also arrive this weekend.
It has been an interesting week or so with lots of ups and downs and adventures. I think I will save reflections for my next post at the end of the weekend.
P.S. Happy Independence Day! How strange it is to be in another country for the Fourth of July. I dressed in red, white, and blue today in order to feel festive.
Missing fireworks,
Taylor
Tay, you're cute as ever!! I was in Ecuador for the 4th last year... I totally get what that is like :) loved seeing your pictures!
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