Gaby presented a Powerpoint that gave us an overview of the history, culture, and traditions of Costa Rica. It was fascinating to see the different words that only Costa Ricans use. Afterwards we went on a tour of the city!
In Costa Rica, they do not have street addresses, so they use landmarks to describe the location. I am terrible with directions, usually I just put everything into my GPS, so this will be interesting trying to find my way around.
On the tour we went to the Farmer’s Market where we saw a lot of vegetables and tasted a lot of different fruits. I really liked the dragonfruit, and we also tried tortillas con queso which were a little salty to me but still good. We went in the Parroquia de San Ramon in the middle of the city.
[gallery link="file" size="medium" display="masonry" ids="9840,9847,9846,9837,9838,9835"]
It was beautiful church with lots of stain glass windows. Gaby told me that they call church services “celebraciones” which I thought was cool because when we go to church we should be celebrating God!
We also went to lunch, and I tried the flavored water called fresca de maracuya. I had tried just the fruit by itself in the farmers market, and it was too sour, but in the water it tasted really good. When we returned home, Nicole and I had our first Spanish class. Gaby, the teacher, just wanted to see what level of Spanish we had, and I actually know more Spanish than I thought! (I am still by no means bilingual.) I have just always been so scared to speak it. We also went over the alphabet, which I definitely needed a refresher on.
After class, I wanted to go to la celebracion (church service) at the church of San Ramon, but I got lost in the neighborhood! So, as I was walking trying to find my way back home, I passed by an open garage where I saw a young boy singing about Jesus, so I looked in. There was a sign outside that said Jesus, Rey de Reyes and there were maybe ten people inside. I was nervous, but a woman turned around to great me, gave me a hug, and kissed my cheek (this is how most women great each other in Costa Rica) then I felt comfortable. I easily understood the worship songs, but luckily I already knew the story of the leaper that the preacher talked about tonight because I had only caught every other word.
Everybody talks so fast here, and my brain cannot keep up trying to translate every word! This will take some getting used to.