Costa Rican Honeymoon

Wow.

There is so much to say, Americanos! So much to say!

But I can’t diagram everything I’ve done like a shopping list of sights, people, and emotions. I am not a stenographer at court trial Schabes v. San José. What I’ve seen, done, and said only comprise the smallest smidgen of what I’ve actually experienced while being here. Were this some normal blog of my boring Americano life, everything I have experienced so far would be worth mention. But what's that, Roald Dahl? A life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones? Thanks. I will try to be a good judge.

I have ridden on 12 airplanes since June of this year. That is almost a baker’s dozen. That is too many. Want to hear stories about flight delays? No? Good, because I don’t want to tell them.

Flight delay = small incident. Moving on.

We touched down in San José at about 10:00 PM local time and went through customs.

Customs = an x-ray and a conveyer belt. Moving on.

Our first taste of San José was a pulsating peoplameoba surrounding the exit to the airport. This is where I started to not really enjoy things. This is where I really wanted to be alone in a small room with no one asking me if I wanted a taxi. And even if there were someone in the room asking me if I wanted a taxi, that person would speak English and would leave me alone after I said “No” once.

Our bus finally came and I pessimistically boarded. I pessimistically looked out the window at the peoplameoba. I pessimistically listened to the chatter of the other students who still had energy after the plane flight. I pessimistically sat there and moped.

And then I entered the honeymoon phase. Moving on.

Just kidding! The honeymoon phase struck me all at once. Like the bus drove into an Olympic sized pool on the moon filled with honey and I had no choice but to be drenched in the stuff. I was no longer fatigued or nervous or embarrassed or frustrated. I was in love.

I was in love with the mountains. I was in love with the lights on the mountains. I was in love with the way the lights on the mountains looked like when a painter attempts to paint a landscape on a wall and it looks all wrong and flat. I was in love with the lights on the mountains that looked like star clusters only a handbreadth away.

I was in love with Spanish. I was in love with the fact that everything (unlike in the airport) was in Spanish. I was in love with the fact that I could understand the simple advertisements. I was in love with the prospect of being fluent in a matter of weeks.

I was in love with the Bimbo food corporation. I was in love with the man urinating against the stone wall of a building. I was in love with the terrifying way people drove.

I met my host family. Nery, la mama, does not speak English. Alejandra, la hermana, speaks flawless English. They are both nicer than XXXXX and YYYYYY ZZZZZZZ in Example #4 of Money Transfers Internet Fraud.

Alejandra and I talked late into the night about fantastic movies.

I have tubeless internet and my own private bath with full shower. The water is potable. The food is not spicy.

I am truly spoiled.

Yesterday Nery and I went downtown. I understand approximately half of what she says. We exchanged money at the bank and even got to see a parade. About two thirds of the stores downtown are shoe stores. I am not exaggerating. I look forward to going shopping. I have a list of things I would like to buy. Colones are exciting to use!

While downtown, I saw a store selling Skittles. Apparently, Skittles are a common candy in Costa Rica. I was planning on giving my host family a package of Skittles from Michigan. I ate them myself instead.

I did give them the rest of their gifts, though. Including the oven mitt they already had from their last Kalamazoo student. She said she could just hang it up next to the other one and display the reverse side (the Upper Peninsula). I laughed. The Upper Peninsula lol.

They really enjoyed the gifts. I wrote out Spanish descriptions for all the things. Nery says my written Spanish is muy bien! This is in contrast to my spoken Spanish, which is tan mal.

Tomorrow, I will go to orientation for my school. We are going to some rivers and a volcano. I will try to bring back some lava. If it cools down, I will reheat it in the microwave.

Sorry Americanos, I tried to only include great events, but it appears I’ve already written too much. I’ll post this, then read some of El Principito.

Say hi to los Estados Unidos for me!

Americano overboard!

Estoy en Costa Rica ahora and things are pretty good!

Pretty different, but pretty good!

I can´t give a super long update right now, this is just to let all you worried Americanos know that I´m safe and alive. And, more surprisingly, enjoying myself!

Four things to share:
1. My house has internet tubes installed!
2. I saw a man urinating in public!
3. My family´s last exchange student gave them a Michigan oven mitt!
4. International keyboard!¡?¿çñºªáéíóúÿö¨

I miss you guys already. I wish you could be here.

I´m staying safe. I´m staying happy. I´m staying well within the honeymoon period.

Chao.

Oh hi, Americanos!

I’m glad you were able to navigate the internet tubes and made it here safely. Those internet tubes can be dangerous! For more on the internet tubes, go here.

But the real reason you’re here might not be to hear about the internet tubes. Maybe you’re here because I’m going to Costa Rica next year and you want to know about the things? Maybe?

So here are the things:

On August 21, 2009, I will be leaving these United States for San José, Costa Rica. On February 28, 2010, I will be leaving this Costa Rica and returning to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States.

But what happens in between?

I am going through the study abroad program at Kalamazoo College, and I will be attending classes at ICDS, a local school for international students. The classes will focus on Environment, Sustainability, and Development in Latin America. The classes have long funny names like Human Development and Society in Latin America, Current Environmental Issues in Latin America, Rural and Urban Sustainable Development: Global and Local Perspectives, and Sustainable Tourism and Local Development. They will initially be taught in English, and will incorporate that nasty Spanish language as the year progresses. I will be taking an Advanced Spanish class as well. I think that class will be taught in Spanish.

I will also be staying with a local family. All I know about them is that there is a mom (54, retired), a dad (65, retired), two sons (26 and 30, work and go to school), and a daughter (23, work and go to school). They live at Sabanilla, del Gimnasio del Este (La Cosecha) 300 m. al Norte y 75 m. al Oeste, casa a mano derecha. (That's the address the school gave me, and it means as much to me as if it were in a foreign language.) Hopefully I can figure out how to get “home” when I get to Costa Rica. Hopefully “home” will feel a little bit like a home. I’m bringing them Michigan trinkets; they had better like oven mitts!

San José is the largest city in Costa Rica, and is the capital because it is the best city in Costa Rica. It is located in the middle of Costa Rica, about 40 miles from the Pacific coast and 60 miles from the Atlantic. 1,611,616 people (soon to be 1,611,616 people + 29 international students) live there and in the surrounding metro area. The city is, by many, considered to be the most developed part of Latin America. It will straight rain until November. For more on San José, consult the most trusted and reliable source of information on anything anywhere ever, here.

In Costa Rica, they have other things to do with their time than surf the internet tubes (I know, I don’t believe it either!). There’s only a small chance that my host family will have internet. But there will be places to get internet in the area, so feel free to drop me an email (BrandonSchabes@gmail.com) or throw me an instant message (my AIM screen name is MustaphaMond1989).

And here’s something to look forward to: In mid - late January, some very special Americanos (my family) are going to travel all the way down to Costa Rica to see me! Hopefully I’ll be able to spend time with those very special Americanos, but it all depends on how busy I am with my ICRP.

What’s that you say? What’s an ICRP?

I don’t really know. It’s something like a huge volunteer project that you organize and run yourself. Sounds daunting! I’ll be leading my Integrative Cultural Research Project between January 11 and February 19. I might teach impoverished children English, chain myself to a tree, or rescue baby sea turtles from hungry hungry birds. Read more about the ICRP, here.

Last Sunday made me realize that “You’re only young once.” Since I just turned 20, I’m kind of sad that I already blew that hard-earned youth on school and video games. So while I’m in Costa Rica and still relatively young, I’ve decided to travel. Nicaragua? Panama? Nice resorts? Who knows where I’ll be? (Well, I surely not the nice resorts. Those are for Americanos.)

As you might have heard, I did research for the prestigious University of Iowa this summer. Yep, the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, on the banks of the Iowa River. I did chemistry work in the building called Chemistry Building. Iowa nomenclature is fascinating and exciting. To summarize the work I did in a single sentence, imagine coating plant leaves with supertiny strips of paper-mache made of cobalt, and then removing the leaf structure while leaving the cobalt paper-mache structure behind. I would love to send you my poster (pdf, 1 MB), which has a lot more information on it and even some coolio pictures. I got home last Sunday, the 16th. It was nice to be home for my birthday and to eat something besides Ramen Noodles.

So, have you ever tried to get a temporary student Visa? Not only is it a student Visa, but it is also temporary. Sounds like a fake Visa, right? Sounds like it would be pretty easy to get, right?

Hell no. I spent the first and middle part of my summer verifying, authenticating, notarizing, reverifying, and giving dirty looks to a number of silly documents. I am not a crook. I am not going to be a crook. I have never been a crook (federally). Thank you, 101 official signatures and a postal trip to Washington D.C.. Now I just have to get everything professionally translated in San José, then get them verified, authenticated, notarized, reverified, etc..

The other superfun thing I did this summer was called vaccination. Due to my aversion to hypodermic needles, I nearly fainted after shot #1. For shots #2 and #3, I loosened my drawers, bent over the examination table, and the two nurses gave me a shot in each cheek. Then they left and I had the battle-of-my-life trying to stay conscious. But now I can eat Yellow Fever, Typhoid, or Hepatitis for breakfast and only have to worry about the traveler’s diarrhea. I guess I don’t even have to worry about traveler’s diarrhea, because I’m guaranteed to get it. G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll try to keep this blog updated regularly, or at least as regularly as I have internet tubes.

Going to go finish packing now. As they say in Spanish: Hola!

P.S. That girl I’ve been seeing? She’s going to Nairobi, Kenya. Say, “Hi,” here.