Dancing with tico time, the need of spanish, and muggyness.
Hello Costa Rica. I met up with two other girls from my group in the Toronto airport before heading to Miami, and then San Jose final destination. It was nice to have travel buddies. Adam was on other flights, and he actually missed one in New York because he fell asleep right beside the gate, and he was then in the airport all night, and then finally made it today. Poor guy, running off like 40 hours without sleep. I have only been here a short time however I feel like it has been forever, just with the differences, and different emotions I have already felt. Let me tell you about my arrival, and imagine my reactions in these situations...
We arrive, hoping our baggage made it with us.Yay it did so we continued on, all of a sudden people knew our names and we were like oh no we did something wrong, however it was just community members making sure we made it. We are now swallowed by the humidity and smell of cigarrettes and the continuous¨- do you need a Taxi, everyone is asking as we exit the airport and see our names on paper, of course with a smiling lady holding the paper. As we are greeted we realize she doesn´t know english, and really no one else seems to know it at this point. This is a different feeling to feel so lost, and un heard. We wait around because Adam isn´t there yet, and we were really confused. However we left his name with a taxi driver and continued on with our journey where ever that was taking us.. of course it was organized by yci although we were not compeltely certain on these plans that always makes for an interesting time. I like to know what the next step is, and it was difficult to not know where I was going.
It took about an hour to get to a more civilized area, the homes are like chained up as the doors, like two gates chained together. We finally make some more turns and come to a stop at one of these gates. However the lady goes dos, as in two people. Well there was 3 of us not 2. So I take one for the team, and tell Melanie and Brigitte to go along. They hop out and a person meets them. I stayed in the vehicle, and continued on in a little bit of confusion because I had no idea where Adam was. We finally made it to another gate shack looking home, and a warm looking lady comes to the door. I soon discovered she knows no english, and Im thinking where am I! Of course I am feeling safe, just lost. She brings me to a room, literally acts out I will be sleeping there, and I understand. I felt uncomfortable, because I didn´t really have any direction or help. Anyway, I had some Tea and called home and that helped, however it took 45 minutes to get my point across I wanted to make a phone call. This is where my spanish phrase book really helped me. I am like is this a hostel¿ bed and breakfast? home? haha, she didn´t understand, i then assumed her and her family lived there and opened it up to people like me. Great. :)
Sleep wasn´t so great because I was constantly listening to a car to drive up and drop off Adam, I finally drifted off for a couple of hours. I woke up to more spanish of course, and ate some food, experienced my first costa rican cup of coffee. I had no idea what was happening next, She told me literally 3 minutes before I had to be ready. She was like pretending to run out of the door, and I was still in my pjays, so I ran. ANyway, today we went down to the RJI office and figured things out, met our project coordinator who lives with us.
I only have one more minute here, so I have to wrap this up. Tomorrow we leave at seven to San marcos, and I wil update when I can. My group is great, and I will figure out things here soon enough. Thinking of everyone, wish me luck..
We arrive, hoping our baggage made it with us.Yay it did so we continued on, all of a sudden people knew our names and we were like oh no we did something wrong, however it was just community members making sure we made it. We are now swallowed by the humidity and smell of cigarrettes and the continuous¨- do you need a Taxi, everyone is asking as we exit the airport and see our names on paper, of course with a smiling lady holding the paper. As we are greeted we realize she doesn´t know english, and really no one else seems to know it at this point. This is a different feeling to feel so lost, and un heard. We wait around because Adam isn´t there yet, and we were really confused. However we left his name with a taxi driver and continued on with our journey where ever that was taking us.. of course it was organized by yci although we were not compeltely certain on these plans that always makes for an interesting time. I like to know what the next step is, and it was difficult to not know where I was going.
It took about an hour to get to a more civilized area, the homes are like chained up as the doors, like two gates chained together. We finally make some more turns and come to a stop at one of these gates. However the lady goes dos, as in two people. Well there was 3 of us not 2. So I take one for the team, and tell Melanie and Brigitte to go along. They hop out and a person meets them. I stayed in the vehicle, and continued on in a little bit of confusion because I had no idea where Adam was. We finally made it to another gate shack looking home, and a warm looking lady comes to the door. I soon discovered she knows no english, and Im thinking where am I! Of course I am feeling safe, just lost. She brings me to a room, literally acts out I will be sleeping there, and I understand. I felt uncomfortable, because I didn´t really have any direction or help. Anyway, I had some Tea and called home and that helped, however it took 45 minutes to get my point across I wanted to make a phone call. This is where my spanish phrase book really helped me. I am like is this a hostel¿ bed and breakfast? home? haha, she didn´t understand, i then assumed her and her family lived there and opened it up to people like me. Great. :)
Sleep wasn´t so great because I was constantly listening to a car to drive up and drop off Adam, I finally drifted off for a couple of hours. I woke up to more spanish of course, and ate some food, experienced my first costa rican cup of coffee. I had no idea what was happening next, She told me literally 3 minutes before I had to be ready. She was like pretending to run out of the door, and I was still in my pjays, so I ran. ANyway, today we went down to the RJI office and figured things out, met our project coordinator who lives with us.
I only have one more minute here, so I have to wrap this up. Tomorrow we leave at seven to San marcos, and I wil update when I can. My group is great, and I will figure out things here soon enough. Thinking of everyone, wish me luck..
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