Bailar

Written on Oct. 29th

Hello to all! On the spur of the moment, a few of us muchachas, decided to go to San Jose (the capital and largest city) to go dancing and shopping. I hadn't really seen SJ outside of the bus stations, so I was excited. We got here in the afternoon and had a crazy time trying to find the bus to the mall. We (Stephanie, Kristin, and I) ended up running across a crazy busy street. The mall was cool, really big, with some American stores but mostly different stuff. The food court, however, was almost all familiar fast food. We were overwhelmed by all the choices, but had Quiznos. Yummy! I found some cute heels to go dancing in and we all bought a skirt or dress. We had checked in at cool hostel, our room had 8 beds, but we were the only ones there when we arrived. I had forgotten it was a coed room, so we were suprised to meet our cute Tico roommate, Jonathan! We spoke Spanish with him, learned he's from Tamarindo (a surfing town on the northern pacific coast) and later asked him if he wanted to go dancing with us. We were giddy from shopping, so kept giggling and having a grand time, speaking English when we didn't want him to understand what we were saying. He also knew the receptionist, so he went dancing too. The receptionist is from here, San Jose, so he knew a good place with salsa and merengue. We got all dolled up, in our new clothes and shoes and left with our two new friends. The club we went to was called Castros and we when arrived they were playing reggaetone, yuck! But latin music was promised later, so we stayed. We discovered that our non-english speaking roommate spoke English perfectly and was just messing with us earlier. It was really funny. It was hard because there were only 2 guys but 3 girls, however there were plenty of other men willing to dance with us. Finally there was merengue, salsa, and cumbia so it was good practice, because everyone dances a little differently, knows different moves too, so the guys were being patient with us, and I learned so much. There was another dance floor downstairs which was nice so we spent the rest of the night down there. Jonathan and I danced for almost 2 hours without taking a break once! Now that's how I like to do it! We left the club after 3. It was a great evening. The hostel offers free pancakes breakfast so we got up at a decent time. Then we shopped a little more and met up with some USAC kids that were here on a class field trip. We all promised to meet for dancing. A big group wanted to go to an expensive club that was having a Halloween costume party, but I didn’t want to buy a costume or pay so much. I went to dinner with Tony and we saw a salsa club downtown within walking distance of our hostel, so we decided to go there Saturday night. Tony, Aaron, Stephanie and I went out about 11:30 to find the BEST dancers that I have ever seen. These people were seriously professionals and competitors. It was amazing just to watch. They played salsa, merengue, cumbia, cha cha cha, bolero, and a couple other styles that I don’t know. We were a little scared to dance (since everyone was so amazing), but Tony and I made it to the floor and we ended up dancing all night. It was fun to try to keep up with the buenos salseros. We slept in a little, had an amazing pancake breakfast and then headed home after Wendy’s for lunch. Hey- we gotta have fast food when we are in the city, it’s the only time we get something different!

Ok, it’s now Nov. 6th!

Oh my- there is so much to say! Sorry it has been so long!
In cooking class we made a really interesting dished called pastel de papas, with is made with a mashed potato crust and filled with meat, topped with more mashed potatoes and covered with a white wine cream sauce. It was interesting, but not my favorite. We made brushetta too. It was nice because we didn’t have Spanish class on Monday, so I got to sleep in a little. Then Tuesday night our teacher, Arturo asked us to meet with his class of Ticos who were learning English. He bought some snacks and we all practiced. We spoke Spanish to them and they spoke English to us. It was fun. The house/B&B that Josh, Agata and Erik live in has a new cleaning lady and her daughter is 19 and will work there a little too, speaking to the Tico customers etc. Her name is Maureen and her English is really good and she seems like a cool girl. I asked her to lunch and hopefully I will practice more Spanish and get to know more locals. It’s a little late, but I still want to get over the speaking hurdle. So that is exciting. Oh!! In dance class we learned dips this week- SO FUN! My teacher, Carlitos, used me as an example and I kept having to hold my position while I’m bent all the way back while he explained it. It was a workout, but so awesome. We learned 3 dips total. After class Carlitos asked Tony and I if we wanted to dance in the talent show on Thanksgiving. Side note: We are going short classes on Thanksgiving, a big dinner with the Heredia kids, a soccer game (us versus them!) and a talent show + dancing. Anyway, Carlitos said he usually works with a few couples to do something in the show. So Tony and I are going to do it! We were debating whether we wanted to do salsa or merengue when we heard a bolero song come on. We knew we would be learning bolero at the end of the course, but we asked Carlitos if we could dance it in the show since no one else would know it. He said yes and we are going to practice Tuesday nights. It’s going to be like having private lessons! Tony is a really good partner too, because he took salsa classes in Chicago and his parents are Puerto Rican so he knows ALL the music. This was major news for me. I will make sure to video the performance and (if it’s good!) you guys can see it. I will tape some salsa and merengue too, since it is so awesome.
We had another test on Thursday and I think it went well, I had a little trouble with the reading comprehension part. We are reading an actual book now, Pantalones Cortos, and it’s been really hard for all of us. I have to look up so many words! I think it’s 4th grade reading level, sad huh? It was Josh’s 22nd birthday, so the people he rents the room from, Robb and Kathy wanted to throw him a surprise party. I did some planning and invited a bunch of people. While he was at class, we made guacamole and brushetta. Then, Agata, Erik and I took him to dinner at an awesome Chinese place here in town. Josh we all ordered a dish and then Josh and I ordered pineapple fried rice- it came in a WHOLE dug out pineapple. So yummy. I also had awesome chow mein- very different. Then we brought him back to the house, but I had found out he already knew about the party so no surprise. We had a great time and went to an open mike night to watch some USAC kids sing and play guitar. No one had class on Friday because we had a planned group trip. We had to split the group again, so half left Friday and half on Saturday. I relaxed on Friday and did some homework, then went with the 2nd group to the Monteverde cloud forest. It’s a very popular tourist destination, and we went on a hike on Saturday. It was pretty, but not the best hike I have done. We stayed at a nice place and had some meals there. Later that night we went into town and had an awesome meal at a restaurant with a huge tree in the middle. It was very tasty. The next day was awesome- we went to a zip line tour- flying through the air on cables, so high up. Check out the SkyTrek link to the right. I was so happy to have a free weekend of fun. I didn’t take my digital camera, so there are no pics, but I will post some of cooking class tomorrow. Overall having a great time. Love you all very much. Thank you for the e-mails.
Oh- and here’s a threat, if no one posts a comment, I’m going to assume no one is reading and stop writing! Say hello! ;)
Much love!!