FOOD!
Costa Rica prides itself on its delicious fresh fruit. It's super cheap and you can get it everywhere (well, everywhere besides Concepción, where I live). Mamones, papaya, cas, mango, sapote, manzana de agua, bananas, pineapples, grapes, watermelon, etc.! Also, the carrots here are ridiculously delicious.
But realistically... I usually eat super-sized portions of fried chicken, fried pork fat, fried cheese, fried plantains, rice and beans, and rice by itself. Usually with a small salad on the side. Which leaves me to the next part....
EXERCISE!
I live on the middle of a giant hill/mountain thing, which means when I go running in the morning, I can either start out my runs on a steep incline and then run back down, or start out my runs on a steep decline and then run back up. There's no leveling-out, until about 15-20 minutes into the run. It gets old, but hills will never be challenging for me again because.... well, I have no choice here. So that's good.
Also, Chris brought the "Insanity" videos (for those of you who aren't familiar... it is a set of super intense exercise videos meant for crazy people - hence, "insanity") with him, so we decided that we would start doing these after Spanish class. To make it more fun, though, my entire family also does these videos with us, including my dogs. Me, Chris, my host mom, my host brother and sister, my host aunt, my little host cousins, and approximately 3 dogs. It is really quite the spectacle, but it's insanely fun (get it? insanity? insane? yeah). Tomorrow our "classes" might get even bigger, because a few other volunteers want to join the party.
WATER AND RAIN!
It rains a lot here. And because I live on the middle of a giant hill/mountain thing, I sometimes can't drink my water after it rains a lot because the dirty water from higher up pollutes our water source. It kind of sucks, but it's always cleaned up again by the next day. I also drank it once (dirty) by accident, and I survived. But it tasted kind of gritty and you could see dirt in it. Yum!
BUGS!
No Peace Corps volunteer would be happy if there weren't any bug stories. So the other day, as my host sister was picking up and examining everything that I own, we discovered a large, crushed, cockroach. I didn't crush it... so that was weird, and gross. Two days later, on the bus headed to San Jose, I reached into my backpack to take out my sunglasses, and was greeted by the dead cockroach's friend. He wasn't very big, but he was a cockroach indeed, so that was gross also. I dumped him out and he was brutally murdered upon arriving to class. Finally, last night at around midnight, I was woken up by what sounded like large wings smashing around the walls. When I turned on the light, there was a giant moth bashing itself around my room - and for those of you who know me very well, I HATE MOTHS, more than cockroaches. They are horrible creatures. So finally the moth landed someplace, and I dowsed him with hairspray until his wings stuck together and then I put him in the garbage.
But for every three gross bug stories, there must always be on cool bug story. So here's this guy! I like him.
This Thursday (August 15) is Mother's Day in Costa Rica. It is an official holiday, so I don't have training! My host family really wants me to share something of my own culture with them... but I don't really know how to cook, so it was tough deciding what to make. After spending about an hour and a half looking at pictures of food on Pinterest, my host brother and I decided that I would make chicken parmigiana, spaghetti, and cheesecake. I would love to make eggplant parmigiana instead, but Ticos apparently hate eggplant. I'll post pictures after the "event" (/debacle)!
BORING STUFF.
Despite all the silly banter that I've been writing about, I am actually learning a ton and working my butt off. Tomorrow I have to "teach a class" (I use quotations, because my "class" is really just Chris and my Spanish teacher, so it's just a practice class) on any topic of our choice, so I'm doing it on "El Pensamiento Crítico para los Negocios" (Critical Thinking for Businesses). That should be fun, and I'll have to update about how well (or poorly) it went afterwards.
Well that's all... bye!
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