Dia 28

Hola!!!


I have lot's to catch ya'll up on so this will most likely be a longer post with little to no pictures so fair warning!

Tuesday (Dia de San Valentin aka Valentines Day)- Today there was a lot of the same old screw v-day attitude, but I was surprisingly happy the whole day where a lot of time in the U.S. if you don't have a hot date, you're eating chocolates in your bed and crying over movies like The Notebook (ok dramatization but you get the drift). Here it's known as the day of love and friendship. I appreciated the friendship emphasis because I was able to still feel special this day without having a guy to make me feel that way, woo! At school we had a white elephant gift exchange and the program coordinators gave us cake and ice cream (U.S. style...YES!). I got some cookies (galletas) and was satisfied (although I initially had fresh strawberries and chocolate but a student 'stole' them from me..oh well Pura Vida!! ;) ) Dance class was cancelled because my teacher had a hot date with the 'dentist'.. When I got home I found a wonderful card from my host sister. It really made my day that she thought of me and made me a card. Love her! I want to take her home with me and make her my official sister haha wish me luck at customs! I took her out to the local pizza joint called Pizza Lissa for a sister Valentines Day date which I paid for! It only cost me $10 for 2 cal zones and 2 bottles of coke. Not too bad for a pizza and sister-time fix. I spent the rest of my night at La Pista chatting with a good Tico friend of mine and also met 2 new Ticos. I really enjoyed my night talking with them and practicing my Spanish. It was a real good Valentines Day :)

Wednesday- During class we had some interesting discussions. In Advanced Conversation we talked about a lot of things but two seem to stick in my head. First being religion in the U.S. and second being the education system. The thing that struck me most about the education system was how many rules there are in the U.S. about not 'infringing on other people's rights' aka not ever offending anyone. Disagree? Take this example of my U.S. brother who's in school to be a teacher. The story as I understand it is as follows; he was student teaching and was teaching the students about families in the U.S. and how some have 2 mommies, 2 daddies, a mommy and a daddy or other mixes. Some mom got upset when her kid came home and told her what they had learned. Sad, huh? I think so. If we can't even teach kids the facts of life-that it's simply not 'perfect' or cookie-cutter-ish then what are we teaching them? Teachers have so many restrictions on what they can and cannot discuss in class. Sometimes it feels like as much as the U.S. claims to give their citizens more liberties and freedoms, that they're actually restricting us. Things are so much different here in school and outside school. There aren't all these strict rules in class-we talk about real world things and don't avoid topics just because they might 'offend' someone. I say, get over it. Being offended is a matter of 1. Being disrespectful or 2. Taking things too damn personally. Alright, off my high horse-just had to get that off my chest. Thoughts are welcome, I won't be offended! ;)The other topic was based on religion the thought came up about how nowadays we have so so much information and dwindling faith. Coincidence? Another food for thought!

Today-Day before our three day weekend to Montezuma, the anticipation has been killing me! Today was long and boring but I got through it and made it home, packed and am ready to roll. I learned a ton of Costa Rican words at school today so I will hopefully post some of those here one day. On a random, side note. Last night I had a dream that I walked into my kitchen here and looked at the cupboards and there sat 2 boxes of Kraft spiral mac-n-cheese, Velveeta shells, and easy mac for school. I remember hugging my host mama with tears of joy in my eyes. Pretty sad, huh? Apparently I miss me my mac-n-cheese!! Another side-note, my brother finally pranked me back! He stuck a SUPER spicy onion in my dinner tonight and I caught it right as I was about it eat it. My tongue still burned for a bit but he got me good. Kudos to him. Tomorrow I head out at 4am to catch the bus to the beach. No internet access so I will post Sunday or Monday!

Love you all!
Kristin