Musings By Melody

First days in Costa Rica June 2011

2011-06-08T23:18:00.003-04:00

I arrived safe and sound with my luggage on Saturday, June 4. Got to my "mama tica's" house just fine after finding the taxi driver with my name on his paper. (The nickname for a Costa Rican is "Tico" - or "Tica" if it is a woman, hence I have a "mama tica" in Costa Rica.) On Sunday, it was Maria's birthday (the name of my mama tica). It was also Brandon's birthday. I called Brandon using my Skype account and my iphone - worked beautifully!!! Lots of Maria's family was here - her mother, 2 sisters, one sister-in-law, and 2 nieces. Lots of good food and had fun singing happy birthday in Spanish.
Monday I started classes. My class in the morning was with Francisco and two other students. It went pretty well, although I was a bit frustrated because I couldn't speak very well compared to the others. One of the student's name is Thomas, the other is Karen. Karen and I went to lunch together. She is 46, lives in Massachussets, and is getting ready to get a degree in ESOL to teach adult learners English. We went to lunch together, then I went to my afternoon class. My teacher in the afternoons is named Tatiana. She is very nice and we went over lots of grammer.
Tuesday my morning class was frustrating for me, so the teacher suggested that it might be good for me to have a class without other students so I could progress without stress. It turned out to be a good idea, I think. Today (Wednesday) I had my class in the morning with the new professor and had lots of time to talk and review grammar. I feel a bit more confident after my classes today! Karen and I went to lunch together yesterday and today as well. Today we found a place for a respectable lunch (egg, rice, beans, salad, and a drink) for only about $3.00! After classes I went with a couple of the staff members and two students to a little shop where they sold pastries and coffee and had a great time.
Every day I have homework, so with both the morning class and afternoon class plus the homework, it makes my day pretty long! I'm looking forward to next week when I won't have the afternoon class and will have a little more time to sightsee or whatever. Not sure what I will be doing this weekend - perhaps go see Taylor Brooks (a friend and fellow teacher) who will be arriving Friday and staying here for a year as a missionary!!
So... goodbye for now. More updates later!
Melody

Monteverde (continued)

2009-07-08T11:11:00.008-04:00

So - we went on a night walk in Monteverde. There wasn't a whole lot to see, however, it was still fun. We saw a tree that had been taken over by a strangler Fig and the whole inside was hollow - pretty cool-looking when the guide shone his flashlight up the middle of the tree! Probably the most spectacular thing was this Orange-kneed tarantula we saw.

The next morning, we took a bird-watching tour. It was supposed to start at 6:30, but we managed to have the hotel owner get in touch with our guide and change the time to 5:30. Really early, but that's the best time to see the birds! It turned out to be a really good thing that we changed the time because we saw a ton of birds the first hour and then it started to rain. After spending 30 or 40 minutes in a nearby bread shop, we continued on to the Monteverde Cloud Forest park to see more birds. To get there, we hitched a ride with a friend of the guide's in back of his truck over a VERY bumpy road. Wow - what a trip! My knees were about shot by the end of the ride.

Despite the light rain, we enjoyed our time and were able to see quite a few more birds, although the first hour was definitely the best. I was really hoping to see the Quetzal bird, but since I didn't, I'll just have to come back to Costa Rica again! :-)

This is an Orange-bellied Trogan

- really quite beautiful, though my photo doesn't do it justice

Necklace and earrings in the form of the Mot-Mot bird made by a local artist

After walking through the village of Santa Elena, we returned to our hotel and got packed up to head back to San Jose. We waited and waited, but our bus never came. After the hotel owner did some calling, come to find out the bus company had made our reservations for the 22 of JULY, rather than June. Oh dear! We ran through some possibilities, including staying another night at the hotel (but we would miss our classes at the Spanish school), paying a good deal of money for a taxi, or trying to get to the place where the public bus would be going to San Jose in about 15 minutes. Just as we were thinking we'd try the public bus route, a taxi driver pulled up. The travel company that had made our reservations had sent the taxi for us. It made for an anxious hour or so, but we did make it back safe and sound.

Our adventures in Monteverde

2009-06-23T18:31:00.011-04:00

Well, a friend(Sue) and I visited Monteverde this last weekend. We left Saturday morning and went by bus for about 3 1/2 hours. The last 45 minutes or so is over a VERY bumpy road - we were glad to arrive!

We had a little under 2 hours to kill before our tour, so we walked down to a very pretty restaurant named Flor de Vida (Flower of Life). I was pretty excited because the waitress pointed out a beautiful bird that was right outside in the garden. It was a blue-crowned Mot-Mot. What a beautiful bird!!

Then we went on a tour of a sugar-cane plantation. It was very interesting! I started out by taking the tour in Spanish, and really understood the vast majority, however, there were some new words, so I decided to change to the English group so I could really understand the process and everything. They also had coffee plants, bananas, and pineapple on the plantation. They showed the system for processing coffee and then for the sugar. We ate pieces of sugar cane (well, not really ATE - more like sucked on...), rode in an oxcart, and made a candy from the cooked sugar cane juice. We also had a snack including juice from a fruit grown on the plantation, coffee, and a picadillo (a little like a stew) from another plant. A very good tour!!

More to follow!

Riding on a traditional oxcart

Sunday, June 14

2009-06-15T18:45:00.005-04:00

Sunday we got up about 7 so that we could go to the National Gym in Sabana Park in San Jose. The daughter of my mama tica, Caro (short for Carolina) was in a competition. She competed in the floor exercise, the bars, balance beam, and the vault. She won quite a few medals, including best overall in her age group and level.

Here is a picture of my Costa Rican (Tica) family

Gaby, the 17 year-old is on the left, Caro (14) in the middle, and

my "mama tica" on the right.

To celebrate, I took the family out to eat. Since Caro was the guest of honor, she got to choose and chose Pizza Hut. Either I just haven't been to Pizza Hut in a very long time, or it's different here in Costa Rica, because they actually had quite an extensive menu, with salads, pastas, lasagna, and other dishes besides pizzas. It was quite good. We even had Cas juice instead of Coke, which was wonderful. They make a lot of fresh juices here, in all the restaurants and homes. Cas is a fruit that is green and the juice might remind one a bit of lemonade or limeade, but I think it's bettter. Muy Rico, as they say here! Oh - and here´s something I thought was very interesting - they were using motorcycles to deliver pizzas!! I forgot my camera, but one of the girls took a picture, s0 hopefully I can get it from her and put it on my blog at some point.

After lunch, we went back to the house to drop off the girls and Laura (my mama tica) and her friend Marco took me for a drive up one of the nearby mountains to see the view of the city. It was quite spectacular, although this picture doesn´t do it justice.

Below is a picture of the typical Costa Rican dish called casado. It consists of rice, beans (sometimes black, sometimes red), usually chicken (although this one was fish), salad, and fried plantains. This one also had a tortilla and was served on a banana leaf. Delicious!

Saturday, June 13

2009-06-15T16:44:00.005-04:00

Well, this weekend certainly didn't go as planned!! You know what they say about the best-laid plans... I was supposed to go on a tour on Saturday, hopefully to see the somewhat illusive Quetzal bird. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit Friday and there was a landslide in the area, so it was impossible to go. Bummer!! Instead, I called Jessica and we met with the other female student here, Sara, to go to San Jose. We went to the Agrigultural Fair which is basicallly a farmers market, but it was HUGE! We saw lots of fruits and vegetables that we didn't know.

This fruit is called guanabana, is sweet and is used to make juice.

This one is "manzana de agua" - water apple. It is sweet and a little like a pear.

This fruit is called "guayaba" and is a little tart, maybe a little like an orange,

but you eat the skin too.

After that we went to the Central Market. It's a huge enclosed market with all kinds of little stores that sell souvenirs, fruits and vegetables, chicken (and all the parts...), fresh fish, beef, flowers, herbs, coffee, and has places to sit down and eat. Basically, you can buy anything you want there!

Then we went to the movies at the mall in San Pedro (a suburb of San Jose, the same city in which the school resides). We saw Night in the Museum II in Spanish. It was rather hard to understand, but fortunately, there was a lot of action that didn't need all the words... Then we went to the house where Jessica is staying to watch a movie on her computer: Mall Cop. Funny! Afterwards I had all kinds of trouble trying to figure out how to get home. Couldn't reach the taxi company because the line was constantly busy. Couldn't reach my "mama tica". Couldn't reach anyone from the school. And Jessica's "mama tica" was out. Finally, after about 2 hours, I was able to reach my mama tica and she woke up to come get me. It was about 11 or a little after. I felt bad, but here it's just downright dangerous to be walking around on the streets at that hour of the night. Anyway, all's well that ends well, right?

And I think I'll leave Sunday's news for tomorrow.

Weekend at Cafe Britt and Irazu

2009-06-09T18:15:00.009-04:00

Well, I've been learning a lot and remembering a lot of my Spanish. I think it's going pretty well. I've been writing my diary every day in Spanish and it's really great practice. Now I just need practice speaking.

I had a good time this weekend. On Friday, my new friend Jessica and I went to the movies. We were hoping to see Night at the Museum in English with Spanish subtitles, but since they didn't have that one, we ended up watching Angels and Demons. I thought it was good, but pretty intense!

Saturday I went with Jessica on a tour of Cafe Britt. On the way I practiced my Spanish with the driver quite a bit. Cafe Britt is the most well-known brand of coffee here in Costa Rica. They buy coffee beans from over 1,000 local growers. It takes about 3 years for a coffee plant to start producing, but once it does, it typically produces for 40 years! The coffee beans (called cherries when they are on the bush) are harvested over a period of several months by hand because they don't all ripen at the same time. The cherries actually have several layers that are taken off before the coffee bean is ready to be roasted. It was a very interesting tour with great demonstrations and visuals. Below is a picture of the basket that they tie around their waist to put the cherries in (thereby keeping both hands free for picking).

Then Jessica and I returned to San Jose where we took a tour of the National Theater. It's a beautiful building and the tour was very interesting as well. I think the most interesting thing is the picture that is painted on the ceiling. It represents the economy of Costa Rica and was on the back of one of their bills (that is no longer in use), but since the painting was done by a European, it is wrong in several places. For instance, the way the man is carrying the bananas is incorrect. In addition, coffee beans do not grow near the beach, only in the mountains. The faces of the women are also much more European than Costa Rican. After the tour of the Theater, we went to a small artisian marketplace where Jessica bought an Ox Cart very typical of Costa Rica. I think George will be happy that I didn't buy one! Here's a photo of the picture on the bill:
Sunday I went on a tour of Irazu Volcano. It was a beautiful day and we could see the crater very clearly. The water is a pretty green color because of the sulpher in it.

In addition, I went to the Lancaster Gardens where they have some incredibly beautiful orchids. The picture below shows the orchid that is the National Flower of Costa Rica.

It's taken me all week to write this blog because I've been so busy with classes and homework and other activities. This week I've had one class in the morning and then another in the afternoon. In the afternoon class I've been translating some of the notices that I've written for my job. A lot of work, but very rewarding and I think I've learned a lot. We also had a small cooking class, went to the big Central Market in San Jose, and last week I visited the family I stayed with last time. Hopefully I'll have time to write a bit more next week.
This picture shows us making tortillas and Picadillo de Chayote. Chayote is a vegetable that grows in abundance here. It is green and shaped a little like a pear and tastes a little like zucchini. I like it a lot. Picadillo is (as they say here in Costa Rica) "Muy Rico! This weekend I have plans to go on a nature tour and then Sunday I'm going to go to a Gymnastics competion in which the daughter of the family I'm staying with will be competing. Busy, busy, busy!

Costa Rica 2009!

2009-06-01T18:02:00.002-04:00

Well, here I am in Costa Rica once again! I am attending the same Spanish-Language immersion school as I attended last year. This year I will take classes for 4 weeks and then the 5th week, George will join me and we'll celebrate our 50th birthdays this summer by traveling for a week. The tentative plan is to see San Jose and Arenal Volcano (both of which I've seen, but George hasn't) and then go down to the town of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side of the country to explore. This will be a new experience for both of us and should be lots of fun!
There are only 2 other students at the school right now. Thomas is a gentleman in his 60s or so who is from Palm Springs, CA and has been to Costa Rica 8 times now! Jessica is a college student from Alabama. This is her first time and she's only been here a week now. She hasn't explored much because she was afraid to go by herself, so we'll probably be doing some trips together.

Jessica in one of the classrooms at ILISA

I'm hoping this time to go to Monteverde Cloud Forest, see Volcano Irazu, and go on a bird-watching expedition, hopefully to see the beautiful Quetzal bird. I have my handy Birds of Costa Rica guide, so I'm ready! Thank you to Aunt Susan who got me started bird-watching with a hummingbird feeder many years ago!
This time I'm staying with a different family: a mother and two teenage daughters. After I arrived yesterday, I went with the family to a birthday celebration for the oldest who had just turned 17. I live a little further out than I did last year. I'll probably try walking, but after having my bunion surgery in April, we'll see if my foot does alright.
So - bye for now and I'll try to update when interesting things happen!

ANOTHER four month later...

2009-03-14T22:12:00.003-04:00

Well, I haven't done very well keeping up with my blog, have I? Let's see - what has happened since I last wrote in November?? George and I flew out to California for Christmas. We spent a wonderful day relaxing in Palm Springs, then spent Christmas with Aunt Susan in her beach cottage. Brandon flew down from Washington and joined us. Here are the pictures of the Gingerbread cookies we created while we were there:

The bottom left is the one I did. It is a likeness of a traditional Ox Cart from Costa Rica. The upper left is a snow scene that Susan's artist friend made. The dolphin was made by Aunt Susan, the fireplace was George's creation, and Brandon made the cool guitar. Lots of fun!

Then we went to George's mom's house to spend Christmas with that side of the family. Renee and Devon and the girls drove down to be with us. George's sister Brenda and her husband and 6 mo. old son flew in from Columbia (where they had spent Christmas) before returning to Seattle. We all had a great time together. Here is a picture of the 3 babies.

From left to right: Lorna, Shanna, and Adrian.

Shanna and Lorna got to visit the beach for the first time while we were in CA. It was fun watching Shanna look at the ocean and experience the sand. Here she is seeing what sand tastes like!

While in CA I was also able to visit my mom, who moved back there after having a stroke. Fortunately, she has pretty much fully recovered. She is in a very nice assisted living place in Riverside and seems to like it OK. Her apartment has a great little deck with a view and she can keep her cute little dog, Barkley, there too.

Let's see - January and February were fairly quiet here. I was busy at work in February with a Book Fair and then Inventory. Then at the end of the month I got sick. When I went to the doctor, he said I had pneumonia in both lungs! That was a big surprise! He said I needed to take the whole week off work the following week. My co-workers were great about arranging substitute teachers for me. Fortunately, the antibiotic shot I got in the office along with the antibiotics I took over the next 5 days seem to have wiped it out pretty well. I'm sure glad I live in this day and age of modern medicine! I worked 1/2 days Monday and Tuesday, then regular days the rest of this past week. I think I'm pretty well healed now, but I'm going in for another appointment next week and we'll see what the Dr. says.

In just two weeks I'm flying over to CA again for a foot (bunion) surgery. I'll recover for a week, then spend the rest of spring break visiting Renee and family in Portland. I can hardly wait to see the girls. Shanna is saying all kinds of things now and I hope she'll come up with a name for me - that will be fun. AND my Aunt Susan is coming with me too. Her excuse is that I need to have a "nurse" to travel with me since I'll still be healing from the surgery, but the truth is we're both really looking forward to the trip. Lorna will be dedicated on the Saturday just before Easter, so that will really be special to be there. I'll fly home on Easter Sunday, just in time to prepare for work the next day...

4 Months later...

2008-11-26T09:41:00.006-05:00

Well, a friend pointed out that I have not posted a blog for 4 months now, so I thought I better update! :-) It definitely was easier to make myself blog regularly when 1. so many interesting things were happening, and 2. I wasn't working! Now that I'm back at work, I tend to have the same schedule most of the time and what I'm doing probably isn't all that interesting to most people. Not like visiting Costa Rica, anyway! Plus I never seem to have time. But today I have a day off for Thanksgiving, so let me get caught up...

I guess the most exciting thing that has happened to me since my last post is that I have a new granddaughter! Lorna Violet was born on July 31st, a healthy, happy baby, weighing 6 pounds, 14 ounces. We didn't go out for the birth, but in September George and I flew to Portland to see her and the rest of the family. She's a cutie! And Shanna was a hoot! She LOVES to dance - every time we heard music she would start dancing! We also enjoyed seeing Shanna in her pirate Halloween costume.

I've enjoyed buying the girls matching outfits. It's fun being a grandma, even though I really wish we lived closer. Oh well, it's fun making packages up to send. I keep in touch with Renee often by phone and sometimes Shanna even "talks" to me. I can hardly wait until she can really talk and maybe even come visit Grandma Melody.

Our next exciting thing was to take a small road trip to St. Louis to attend a memorial for my Uncle Bob. We enjoyed seeing the St. Louis Arch and meeting Bob's family. We also enjoyed going to Land Between the Lakes on the way home. But the best part was afterwards when my aunt Susan came to visit. We always have such good times together and this visit was no exception. One highlight was going to get our nails done, including hand and foot massages.

School has been pretty good too. There have been some ups and downs - it is still hard sometimes for me to be working in the public school setting with all the emphasis on testing, testing, testing. But I have some awesome colleagues to work with and hopefully I am doing some good both for students and teachers. One highlight was going to a conference where I met Carmen Deedy (author of The Library Dragon and Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach). She is Cuban and it was great to hear her stories with Spanish sprinkled in after my Costa Rica summer.

Thanksgiving is going to be very quiet at our house this year - just George and me. But it will be nice to have some quiet time before the holiday "rush" season before us. (Like 2 holiday parties coming up next week already...) We've got a turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberry relish and logs for the fireplace. What more do we need?

Español

2008-07-16T13:08:00.005-04:00

Un foto de mi familia de ILISA, en graduación miyo
(a photo of my ILISA family, at my graduation)

Hace algunas semanas, Brandon me preguntó <¿Como le va con el español?> Una buena pregunta, porque esa fue la razón de este viaje. Mi repuesto fue: ¡Muy bien! Aprendí mucho, entendí mas, y puedo hacerla una conversación, mas o menos. El único temor es sin suficiente practica, voy a perder todo que aprendí. De ser posible, me gustaría vivir en Costa Rica por 6 meses o un año, pero eso no es posible ahorita, voy a practicar en los estados. Espero practicar con algunas personas de mi trabajo y asistir a una iglesia de español. También, compré libros en español y lado-a-lado español y ingles. Estoy segura que si yo los leo en voz alta, voy a entender y hablar mejor. ¡Muchisimas gracias a todos mis profesores y amigos en Costa Rica!

A few weeks ago, Brandon asked me how my Spanish was coming along. A good question, since that was the reason for this trip. My answer was: Very well! I learned a lot, understand even more, and can carry on a conversation, more or less. My only fear is that without enough practice, I'm going to forget all that I learned. If it were posible, I would love to live in Costa Rica for 6 months or a year, but since that isn't possible right now, I'm going to practice in the States. I hope to practice with some people at my work and attend a Spanish-speaking church. I also bought books in Spanish and side-by-side Spanish and English. I'm sure that if I read them aloud, I will understand and speak better. Many thanks to all my profesors and friends in Costa Rica!

Francisco, a wonderful teacher!

The director, Ana Lorena, on the left,
and one of my other GREAT teachers, Maribel

My last weekend in Costa Rica

2008-07-07T14:54:00.007-04:00

Well, this was my final "fin de semana" in Costa Rica. I went to Tortuguero, which is on the Caribbean side of the country to the north. It was another GREAT trip! First we went to a banana plantation, which was quite interesting. The "recinas" are really big - 80-82 pounds of bananas (110-120) on one cluster. With machetes, the workers cut bunches off and put them in water to clean them. The plant I went to also shipped some to a factory that makes baby food (Gerber, I believe, but here the company is called Frutas). After cleaning and inspecting them, they get put in the boxes that you see in the stores and get shipped primarily to the U.S. and Europe.

How do you like this Rhinosaurus beetle? That's one BIG BUG!!

Next we went on a boat ride in Tortuguero. The canals of Tortuguero are REALLY long! We saw Roseate Spoonbills (the only pink bird in C.R.), and a beautiful bird called a Northern Jacana that has big "toes" so it can walk on the water plants on the river . Our hotel was called Evergreen and had beautiful cabañas (cabins). I just loved this place!

After lunch, we went to an area for shopping (always!) and then went back to the hotel to wait until the turtle walk that night. Tortuguero is known for the turtles that come back to nest. This is the beginning of the high season for the green turtle (tortuga). Our tour didn't start until around 10 and then we walked for what seemed to be hours and hours. The good thing was that we were rewarded with being able to see two! You walk behind the beach on a trail with only a few flashlights. Once you get on the beach, only the guide is permited to carry a flashlight and it is red so as not to disturb the turtles. The first turtle we saw was busy covering her nest with sand. Then we walked another good distance and were able to see a turtle actually laying her eggs. She makes a deep hole, lays the eggs, covers it up, then often makes another hole so as to confuse any predators. They lay about 100 eggs at a time and the turtles are really big. I couldn't take any pictures, because they don't want to do anything to disturb them, but it was really interesting. We didn't get back until 12:30 or 1:00 and then after a shower, Katherine and I went out to do some stargazing for a few minutes. What a great day!

Baby crocodiles

We met a nice man from Bogotá, Columbia on this tour. We were able to speak with him in Spanish and most of the time we understood each other just fine, which was pretty cool. On Sunday, we took another boat ride on the canals of Tortuguero and saw more monkeys, birds, iguanas, and some baby crocodiles. On the walk afterwards, we saw snakes, lizards, birds, and other animals and on the beach we saw the tracks of the giant turtles and also of a jaguar! What a great last weekend!

Our weekend in the rain forest

2008-06-30T17:33:00.007-04:00

A view of the rain forest from the aerial tram.

Our tour in the rain forest didn't leave San Pedro until 10:30, which was very nice for a relaxing morning. Our guide in the bus told us all kinds of interesting information about the history of Costa Rica. After stopping for lunch, we got to the Arial Tram in the rain forest. Katherine and I left our bags in the cabin and then saw a video about the rainforest and how it is being endangered and then took the arial tram. Our guide was very interesting and pointed out lots of plants, trees, and flowers. Afterwards. we had a private walking tour with our guide, Leo. He was one of the most knowledgable people I've met. He seemed to know the names of every plant we saw! We saw a sloth, toucans, and a bird somewhat similar to a wild turkey, as well as wicker growing down from the trees, and tons of ferns and other plants. Below is the "hot lips" flower.

The picture below is of a tree with giant buttresses. Because the trees don't put down deep roots, this is one way for the tree to anchor itself. There are many types of trees that do this - very interesting to see!

After dinner we also went on a night walk, which was nice for seeing the stars, listening to the cicadas and owls, and even seeing a whole line of army ants making their way back home. One very interesting thing was that the night was pitch black! You couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. And at 9:00, the generator shut down and all the lights went out! The next day Leo took us on the tram again and we got off halfway through for a short hike. We saw a great view of the area, more toucans and a beautiful blue trogon, which is not spotted very often in that area. We also heard a macaw, but didn't see it. After the arial tram, Katherine and I got brave and did the canopy zip line!! Yes, we really did zip through the canopy strapped to a cable! It was a lot of fun, once I got over my initial fear. What a fantastic weekend!

Symphony in San Jose

2008-06-30T17:09:00.003-04:00

First the rain. Yikes! Friday afternoon it POURED down rain! My friend Katherine and I had planned to go the the National Theater of Costa Rica for a performance, but first we went home after school to drop off our books. By the time we got to our homes we were both drenched. I changed, but I couldn't leave the house again because there was about a foot of water coming up into the open garage area (it is a fenced-in area in front of the house where they park the cars) as well as pouring down the street like a river. Finally the rain let up and our comedy of errors continued. Katherine called a cab and they came to pick me up. Unfortunately, in Costa Rica there are no house numbers. So my address is: "from the Supermercado Si-Mart, go one block east, then one block north - it's the house with the brick columns". Well, Katherine didn't know exactly where my house was and the poor "taxista" couldn't find it. They just kept driving around in circles until finally she just had him take her back home. Fortunately, about that time, the son of my family said he was going into San Jose and would be glad to take us there. We got directions to Katherine's house and the same thing happened! Jose couldn't find the house! But we were in luck because he had a cell phone and called. Finally, about 5:00 we made it to San Jose. We bought tickets to the National Symphony performance and then walked to the Parque Central and to the National Cathedral. We then had a very nice, relaxing dinner in the cafe of the National Theater. The performance was first-class, with the Symphony as well as several guest singers. At one point, there was even a dancer with the beautiful native dress - white with brightly colored flowers. I enjoyed it tremendously!

Another "vaca" named "Cafe con Leche"

- it is totally covered with coffee beans!

4-in-1 tour

2008-06-24T10:02:00.006-04:00

Pretty interesting, huh?? This is one of MANY vacas (cows) in the middle of San Jose! There is an exposition going on right now and they are all over the downtown area. Katherine and I spent the day Saturday in San Jose. Apparently the cows will be there for 3 months total and then there will be an auction and probably some of the hotels, etc. will buy them. The artists have donated them to the city, if I understand correctly. The thing I enjoyed most about visiting San Jose was simply the hustle and bustle of all the people. There is an "Avenido Central" that is closed to traffic where there are lots of people, and as you can see from the picture below, plenty of street vendors selling various articles. There were also people singing, preaching, playing musical instruments, etc. We went to the Gold museum and also to a small museum of Costa Rican money. We had lunch at a fabulous restaurant in the Grand Hotel, which has an outside patio which is great for watching the people. We also went inside the National Theater, which is very beautiful. The other main activity was shopping at the Mercado Central. It was quite amazing! There were LOTS of different kinds of shops selling souvenirs, meat, chicken, fish, leather goods, herbs, spices, etc. You name it - you could probably find it there! We got lost a couple times, it is so big!

Sunday we went on a "4 in 1 tour" which included a coffee plantation, Poas Volcano, La Paz waterfalls, and a trip on the Sarapiqui river. I really enjoyed the coffee plantation. It was so interesting seeing the "cherries" and the whole process by which they produce coffee. Below is a picture of the cherries. They pick them by hand when red and then wash them and process them. If I remember correctly, they go through about 4 different times and pick them because they ripen at different times. Different types (European roast, French roast, etc.) are roasted for different amounts of time. All of the coffee produced in Costa Rica is Arabic, which is the highest quality. They don't have as much land as many other countries, so they make it up by having the best instead of the most!

The next stop was Poas Volcano. It is up in the mountains and was freezing cold! Unfortunately, we couldn't see anything because of all the clouds that rolled in. Oh well - such is life. Next we visited La Paz. There were areas with exotic birds and monkeys, a butterfly garden, and a hummingbird sanctuary. I really enjoyed sitting and watching the hummingbirds (colibris) and could have spent a lot more time there. After a good buffet lunch, we walked to the spectacular waterfalls. They really were quite beautiful. Finally, we drove to the River Sarapiqui where we got on a boat to view the wildlife. We didn't see a lot, but we did see a large black iguana, a caiman, some howler monkeys, and an anhinga. I've now seen (in the wild) two of the three kinds of monkeys Costa Rica has.

Templo Waterfall - 85 feet

I apparently have some kind of stomach virus, which is not much fun, but fortunately it doesn't seem to be too bad. It could be from some food we ate, but there are a couple others at the school who seem to have something as well, so we are surmising that it is a virus. Hopefully it will run it's course and I will be well very soon! Classes this week are good, with just two of us with one teacher and then in the afternoon I have private tutoring. In the afternoon we've been going over my diary. I've been writing it in Spanish - very good practice, but it sure takes a lot of time. It has provided some very good examples for my professor to correct me and help me understand the grammar!

Manuel Antonio National Park

2008-06-18T14:47:00.003-04:00

This last weekend (el fin de semana pasada), I visited Manuel Antonio Park with a new friend I met at ILISA. Her name is Sandy and she is 23. We had a great time and got to see many animals! Manuel Antonio is on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, a little more than halfway down the coast. We took the public bus from San Jose about 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday and I got to see all the pictures Sandy took. She was in Costa Rica and Panama before coming to the school and she will also be visiting Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru afterwards! The ride was mostly uneventful, but there were a couple of VERY narrow bridges we went across and we tried not to look! We stayed in a hostel in Quepos, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Manuel Antonio. In the morning we hired a guide for the park, which was well worth it, since he was able to find and point out WAY more animals than we would have seen on our own. We saw lots and lots of sloths:
I even got a GREAT video of one climbing up the tree! The black iguanas were all over, including on the beach. We had to shoo them away by throwing sand! Once, when we were laying on the beach, one went between our towels and then scampered across my foot - boy, was I surprised!! We also saw white-faced monkeys, very colorful insects, honeymoon bats (so-named because they are always found in couples), Jesus Christ lizards (because they can walk on water), and a red-eyed tree frog. Very interesting!
After the tour of the park, we visited the beach and swam in the ocean. We had GREAT weather the whole weekend, with lots of sun, which is a little uncommon at this time of year. The view was beautiful. And there were many venders outside the park selling beautiful sarongs and towels of every color and tropical animal imaginable. Beautiful! The next day we went back to the public beach and bought some fresh coconuts, which was fun and delicious besides. We took a bus back in the afternoon and then took a taxi back to our homes. All in all, a very good weekend!

My second week at ILISA

2008-06-12T23:48:00.005-04:00

Above is a picture taken from the cafeteria area at ILISA. It's a beautiful view of the mountains and area around San Pedro. I just love sitting here and looking out. It's a great place to have classes. We have the opportunity of taking optional classes and excursions in the afternoons. Mondays are "reunion" days - Happy Hour at a nearby restaurant and the school pays for the first "cerveza" and some appetizers. It's a great way to get to know the students a little better and practice Spanish as well. On Tuesdays it's a dance class. I went the first time, but not this week. I just didn't seem to have the knack for it - maybe I'll go again next week, we'll see. On Wednesdays there is some kind of class at the school. The first week it was a cooking class - this week it was a lecture on Latin American body language and gestures. It was all in Spanish and the amazing thing was that I understood nearly all of it! It was very, very interesting. Did you know that in Latin America if you touch one hand to the other elbow (while nodding your head a little toward another person), you are saying that the other person is a cheapskate?? On Thursdays there is usually an outing. Last week it was to a "mercado" where there are a bunch of shops, mostly full of things tourists like to buy. I bought a gift for my "mama tica", since it was her birthday that day. This week was to the famous church "La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles", which is the second picture. The story goes that there was a young girl who went to the river to get water (or forest to get firewood, depending on the version) and found a statuette. She took it home and put it in a container. The next day she went again to the river and found another statuette. When she got home, the first one was gone, so this time she locked it up. The third day, it happened again, so she took it to the priest. The next day it was missing from his home, so he went to the original spot and it was there. Then they decided to build a church at that spot. Very interesting, don't you think? Anyway, on August 1, people from all over the country walk to the church to pay their respects. My host family walks for about 3 1/2 or 4 hours to get there, but many walk much further. Often they pray for healing, etc. at their homes and then come on August 1 to say thank you and there is a place they can put a symbol of their thanks (a small metal symbol of an arm, leg, or other part of the body, etc.). On August 2, there is a huge day of celebrations. I think it would be great to see it all, but I'll be back home by then.

This weekend I'll be going to the beach (playa) Manuel Antonio, which is said to be very beautiful. I'm praying for nice weather and will post pictures sometime after I get back!

My first weekend - Arenal Volcano

2008-06-09T15:48:00.005-04:00

Arenal Volcano

Well, my first weekend adventure was a complete success!!! Katherine, Toby and I booked a trip to Arenal Volcano. We rode a very nice tour bus, which stopped in a town known for it's shopping (really just a souvenir stop) where of course I had to buy something. I bought an oxcart, which is very famous here in Costa Rica. Don't worry, George - it's just a little one! Then we went up to the volcano area where we went to Tabacon Hot Springs. Ahhhhh. It was so relaxing. We sat under the hot waterfalls, walked through the grounds admiring the beautiful plants and flowers, and just relaxed. Then in the evening, we went to a place to view the volcano. Even though there were lots of clouds, we were able to see the lava coming down the mountain. It was awesome! I felt so lucky to see it, because I know lots of times people can't see it at all. After viewing the volcano, we went to eat at an incredible buffet. Then we went to our hotel, which was very nice. I woke up early (we're talking 4:30 in the morning) because of the birds. So Katherine and I got up and took a walk behind our room around 6. She is a birdwatcher also. We saw lots of birds, including several very colorful ones that I was able to identify. Then we saw the volcano, which was right in front of the hotel. First thing in the morning it was clouded over, but then it cleared and was magnificent! We could even see the smoke coming out of the top. Afterwards we met Toby and took a tour of the rainforest using hanging bridges. That was cool!!! We saw white-faced monkeys, lizards, birds, ants, etc. One of my favorites was the leaf-cutting ant. It was quite amazing to watch them in a line carrying leaves which were many times their size and seeing their huge mound. At Tabacon I bought a sloth necklace and earrings, figuring that by the end of my six weeks I would have a chance to see one. On the way back to the hotel from the rainforest tour, the bus driver spied one (in Spanish, an 'oso perezoso') and we got to stop to take pictures. Unlike the image I had in my mind, the sloth was really quite ugly - dirty and gray. Oh well. I still like my necklace and I feel very lucky to have seen a real sloth! All in all, if I don't get to see anything else during my trip to Costa Rica, I will be content - it was just amazing.

Tabacon Hot Springs

Leaf-cutting ants

2008-06-06T12:14:00.004-04:00

Here is the family that I'm staying with in Costa Rica. In the back is my 'papa tico': Fernando, then my 'mama tica': Maria, then the oldest daughter: Jackeline, the youngest child: Laura, and the son, Jose, is in the front.

First days at school

2008-06-04T09:50:00.003-04:00

Well, the morning of my first day didn't go all so well. I didn't sleep well (new bed, etc) and I hadn't slept well Saturday night either, just because I kept thinking of other things I had to pack. :-) So by Monday morning I was rather tired. My "mama tica" (tico/tica is the name they use here for native Costa Ricans) took me on the bus the first day to show me how to get to school. She was showing me the way I would need to get back and I just lost it - started crying, of all things! She was so nice! She said she would come back and get me in the afternoon. I guess I was tired and overwhelmed with everything. I trust that I am now over the worst of things to happen to me! :-) The rest of the day was good. My teachers are wonderful. They speak only in Spanish, but it is nice and slow and I am surprised at how much I understand. I haven't had much homework yet, but it's only been two days. I expect I'll have more as the weeks go by. Yesterday I was planning to go to lunch with two friends I have made here, but they went somewhere with their teacher, so I went "sola" to the nearby restaurant. It was a little nervewracking, since I couldn't understand the menu, but I did it and it was great food and I made it back in time for my afternoon class. Yesterday we had a free optional class for salsa dancing. I went and it was fun, but I must say I wasn't very good at it! Oh well. Then I took the bus home, also "sola" and did just fine. (Fortunately the other woman staying at the house had shown me exactly what landmarks to look for, or I probably would have gotten lost!) Last night my "papa tico" showed us some things about the money and our mama tica gave us a $5 colones bill that is no longer in use, but it's beautiful. I've seen parakeets flying around here - they are so beautiful - bright green. The bell just rang for my third day of classes. Adios for now!

I've arrived in Costa Rica!

2008-06-02T17:47:00.005-04:00

I don't have time to write a lot, but wanted to let everyone know I did actually arrive here safe and sound! After getting here, I met another lady who was going to the same language school. It was amazing to find out how much we had in common! She is married, but came here by herself, like me, we both homeschooled our children and now that the kids are gone have time to do an adventure such as this, both know some Spanish, etc. She lives in Greenville, South Carolina - I have a feeling we will get to be good friends and pen pals. Anyway, the day we got here the "home team" had just won a futbol (soccer) game and there were cars all over the place waving flags.

My host family is wonderful. My "mama tica"s name is Luisa. She speaks very slowly and re-words things so I can understand and helps me with words. The three children live at home - the two oldest work at Hewlett Packard and go to school at night, while the youngest goes to the University during the day. The father is an accountant for the Social Security department. I had arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and frijoles (beans) for dinner that were very good. There are two other students staying at the home right now. One is a 19 year old young man from Missouri who has been here about 10 days and will be leaving in 4 days. The other is another woman who, amazingly enough ALSO homeschooled her children and is from Arkansas.

Well, I need to stop because I am going to a "Happy Hour" with the school to meet people. More manana!

Shanna's First Birthday

2008-05-29T12:51:00.000-04:00

I know - I'm going back in time. But I just wanted to see if I could post a picture to my blog. It may not be a true test, since I'm using a Mac and when I'm at ILISA in CR, I'll probably have a PC. I flew up to Portland, OR for Shanna's first birthday on May 10. "Grandma Toby", George's mother, came too and we surprised Renee. We had a great time. Here's a picture of Shanna with her birthday donut. Renee actually gave it to her the next day, since her birthday was such a busy day with church, eating out at the Spaghetti Factory, having company, and opening presents. The birthday donut was a tradition we started with our kids. We got a jelly donut, dressed the kids in nothing but a diaper, and let them have at it on their first birthday. Quite fun!

First Musings

2008-05-29T09:02:00.002-04:00

Why this blog, you ask? My primary reason is to have a place to share my life, but my current impetus to actually get it set up is to prepare for my trip to Costa Rica this Sunday. I hope to document some of my experiences so that my friends and family can share them with me. Will I actually post while I'm in CR? I don't really know. I know I will be swamped with school and homework. But I'm hoping I'll have some time left over to blog at least a little. If not, I'll be doing the good old-fashioned pencil and paper journaling and be able to post once I get back.

About the title of my blog... I thought about it for a while (OK - I admit, it was only a couple hours). I recently read through my brother-in-law's blog called Ken's Footnotes. It was a great read. I loved the title and the thought that went behind it, as well as the thoughts presented. And I love my son's blog "Nocturnal Serenity". It's a great way to see what he has been doing and has inspired me on many occasions. One other inspiration has been my friend Georg Turner's writings. When I started thinking about this blog I had to think about my purpose. While I have enjoyed other people's "deep thoughts", I have to admit that usually I don't do a lot of deep thinking or philosophizing. It's just not my nature. I'm more of an "off-the-top-of-my-head" thinker. :-) And I expect to use this blog to tell about fun or interesting things that happen to me: my CR trip, trips to see my granddaughter, possibly things going on at work (which is a school for me - do I call it school or work??). So, when I looked up the definition of musings (thoughts, especially when aimless and unsystematic) I knew that word was perfect. My first choice was Melody's Musings, but since that name was taken, Musings by Melody seemed like a good second choice. Most postings to my blog will be random musings, although occasionally there might be some deep thoughts, totally by mistake!

So... about my trip. I'm going to a language school in a suburb (San Pedro) of the capital city of San Jose. The school name is ILISA and I will be learning Spanish for 4 hours every weekday morning with no more than 4 students in the class and then have another 2 hours of tutoring in the afternoons. I was bemoaning this 6 hours of classes plus homework with George, who promptly said that I should go tell my students and see if they felt sorry for me! Yeah, but I'm 40-something! Can I still cram that much information into my brain??? I guess I'll find out. I have been interested in learning Spanish ever since I took it in high school many long years ago. I helped teach my children while I was home-schooling them and now I work in a school that has a very high Hispanic demographic. I was going to go during the summer of 2006, but looking and preparing for a new job took priority for the last two summers. Now, knowing I will be going back to the same school next year, plus the additional motivation of knowing I will actually use my Spanish a lot with the students and parents of this school, it's time. I will be staying with a host family. The parents are just a couple years younger than me and they have 3 children. The oldest, a girl, is a physical therapist, the son is in computers (perhaps computer programming), and the youngest daughter is in high school. Already I feel some ties to them and I hope it will be a wonderful experience. As for my weekends, ILISA has a travel desk and can help me arrange some trips for the weekends. I definitely want to see the volcano Mt. Arenal and the rain-forest. Other than that, I am just going to be open to what comes up. I have a birding guide and hope to see many of the incredible birds found in Costa Rica, maybe, if I get lucky, even see the illusive Quetzal! I'm very excited and a little nervous, but what is life without some adventure?!