I Can’t Think of a Catchy Title For This One

I just realized that I have now been in Costa Rica for one week and some odd hours. It’s going remarkably well in a very passive way.

Today (Feb. 7 at the writing of this) finished up our orientation process, though there are still plenty of fun, bureaucratic-like activities to take part in, e.g. the continued saga of the visa process. Most of it entailed your standard, “Don’t-be-a-moron-and-walk-around-with-your-camera-around-your-neck-and-your-iPod-in-your-pocket-and-your-money-jingling-loudly-while-you-comment-on-how-incredibly-lost-you-are-and-wouldn’t-someone-somewhere-please-serve-something-besides-rice-and-beans?!” intelligent, cultural sensitivity lectures. The other being intro information and tours of the university, Heredía and San Jose. And, much as I enjoy mocking the process, there was some useful information and the ISEP coordinator, Ivelina is really great.

Friday found us up, bright and early at 7:00, waiting for the bus up to Sarapiquí, a region to the northwest of Heredía (if I have my directions right; I really need to get a decent map). We spent Friday and Saturday, volunteering with the red cross (there was an earthquake which left over two hundred families homeless about a month ago), learning (for the billionth time) salsa and merengue, hiking through the rainforest, getting completely, wet-to-the-bones-of-your-bones, sodden while horse-back riding and, of course, eating rice and beans. It was a good trip. I particularly enjoyed sampling termites in the rainforest. Our guide picked them up on a stick, popped a couple into his mouth and informed us they tasted like peanuts before offering us a few. In all actuality, they taste much more like pine nuts.

Interesting note for my fellow dancing addicts: While the salsa and merengue lessons were less than inspiring (the instructor in Guanajuato is much better) I did see a new form of dance I’ve never seen before. Swing Criollo or Creole Swing; don’t know if any of you have ever heard of it, but I’ll be sending along some great videos to interested parties.

Anywhy, thus far, this trip has been a particularly interesting experience. One reason being, nothing is really that new. That sounds close-minded, I s’pose, but a lot of the stuff I’m doing, I’ve done before. I’ve lived with a host family (when I knew much less Spanish) and committed the faux pas associated therewith. I’ve trekked through the jungle, I’ve learned Central American bus systems, I’ve used cheap, crazy taxi services, I’ve learned Latin dancing, etc. Which is okay, because there is still a lot more I can gain from this experience, but it is an interesting perspective to have while with a group of people who, for the most part, have less experience than I do. I just don’t find myself really excited and interested in the same things they are. Because I’ve done many of the big, touristy things, I really want to focus on some of the smaller things that come with staying in one place and having a family and being able to feel established in a new place. Which, quite honestly, when everyone is making plans and talking about going to the beaches and climbing volcanoes and rafting down rivers, makes me feel like something of a homebody. I mean, I want to do those things too, but I’ll take them as they come and also appreciate what I have right here in Heredía. I guess it’s just important to remember that I’m the one who makes my own experience and I have to decide what I want out of it.

After all, everything in life has the value you give it. From the twenty-dollar bill you found last week after telling a really lame story to the tasty, pine-nutty termite you found while tripping through the rainforest.