Tastes of Costa Rica

Well another week has flown by here in Costa Rica. Monday we went on our fifth field trip to the University of Costa Rica in San Jose. We had a guest lecture on GMOs and ate lunch in the city. After we got back to the center, the rest of the day consisted of talking about GMOs. We talked about the economic, social, and environmental aspects. I have to say I dislike them even more now than I did before. I had bathroom pandilla this week. We had to clean the bathrooms every day after lunch. It didn’t take very long but it wasn’t enjoyable. We had another outreach this week as well and I decided to go to the orphanage. We thought we were going to hang the sign that we painted, but we ended up just prepping it for that. We scraped off (some) of the rust on the back of it and put an anticorrosive on it. We were given a talk about chagas, which was a little unsettling. Apparently there was an outbreak last semester and they felt the need to inform us about them. Weird little bugs, I don’t feel like passing my fear onto all of you by explaining them. We met with the INA kids again and played jeopardy. It was fun but also frustrating due to my poor Spanish. We had another Spanish class which I continue to do poorly in. We had our ECON FEX due Friday night; it was a little easier than the last one. My partner and I powered it out and got it done before dinner Friday. This allowed me to bake banana apple cinnamon muffins to give to my host family. I left after breakfast Saturday morning and walked up to my homestay house. A couple other students were right up the road, but the majority of the students went into Atenas to get picked up. I was really nervous to meet them. The father is retired and the mother works at home. They have one daughter. Their house was fairly small, but it had a big back yard. They had a lot of chickens and fruit trees. There were many orchids in their yard that were very pretty. There were many different kinds and they were flourishing! I couldn’t believe how many flowers there were on one plant. We picked sweet lemons which taste exactly like they sound. They are shaped like an orange and have a slight lemon flavor and a hint of sweetness. They are really good! I helped make lunch which consisted of chopping lots of vegetables and picking oranges that I squeezed for orange juice, which was again, amazing! I couldn’t stop drinking it. So much better than anything you can get in the US. All the meals I had (four total) were good, I think I liked anything they made. After lunch the mother taught me how to make bread using the cob oven they had. She mixed together the dough and I helped form the loves. We put each one on a plantain leaf and into the oven. It didn’t take very long for it to cook and it smelled so good. It was crunchy around the edges and sweet and delicious. We watched bullfighting on TV that night. I don’t think I’m a very big fan of it; at least down here there is a law that requires them to wear helmets. I went to bed really early and got woken up early by the rosters. I was pleasantly surprised when there was hot water for the shower. I was expecting the freezing cold water of the center and the hot (well I guess it was more warm) water made my day. Oh, the simple things. We went to church in Atenas. It was a really big church; almost everyone in Costa Rica is Catholic. We got back and watched some fulbol. I had trouble communicating, but I had a good time. I walked back to the center before dinner and started homework. Now to start studying for midterms....