As I headed to spanish class today, I could tell I was taking in more and more vocabulary. Slowly but surely, I was learning. Now the trick was memorizing. I'm now able to communicate what I do in a day and I'm picking up on what people say to me. It's nice to know I'm getting the hang of it! I've always been so bad at learning languages and I can tell that being in the country helps a lot.
After spanish, I quickly ate my lunch and then Arielle and I headed to Rayito de Luz. On our way to work, we stopped at a little fruit stand and picked up grapes, an avocado, and mamo chino, which is kind of like a lychee. We waited at the bus stop for a while and I noticed a guy attempt to pick pocket a woman! She noticed however and he was unsuccessful.
We arrived at our site and was greeted by screaming children that automatically grabbed my hand and dragged me over to a table. We sat down and colored together, the girls constantly telling me which colors were okay and which weren't. Eventually, a group of kids decided to play what I thought was tag. After a while, I figured out we were playing freeze tag. The kids were so quick! Every time I would get unfrozen, I would get tagged again. It was a lot of fun. Once I got tired, I sat down and one of the girls buttoned up my cardigan. Another girl braided my hair into pigtails, and a boy sat close and held my hand tight. I loved hanging out with the kids and doing whatever they wanted. Later that day we played Go Fish and Slap Jack card games with them. They kept cheating but we didn't care. Every time you go and see how little they have at this daycare, it makes you want to help. All they have are tables, chairs, mats, a few cribs, and markers. I would love to see them be able to have a few more options of toys and games. They deserve it more than anyone.
After we finished work, Arielle and I headed downtown to do a bit of shopping. We took a detour and got Arielle some McDonalds because she had barely eaten anything all day. She ordered chicken, which made me think of chicken strips. What did she find? Actual chicken, legitimate quality chicken that would be like what I would eat for dinner at home. I tried it, it was awesome. All the food in Costa Rica is so much better than in the states, I can't even get over it. The only thing about this McDonalds that I don't like is that there are just pidgeons walking around inside since there is no door. I love animals, but not birds who are so pushy that they walk on your feet to get what they want. Let's just say Arielle and I dipped out of there pretty quick.
We stopped at street venders and got handmade bracelets and headbands. Everything in Costa Rica is so colorful. I love how everything has rainbows on it. We also eventually found ourselves at the Artisan Market, which is a place that looks like a small store, but when you walk inside, it's a block long with all these small shops piled in. All these people sell their work to tourists. It's beautiful and energetic, colorful and friendly. It's my favorite place so far. People are so nice and it's a good place to practice bargaining skills. "You want this scarf? $5.00." "Maybe! I'll come back!" "...$4.00!" "Done." I can't wait to go back there and just spend the afternoon hanging out.
We were able to meet up with Shawanda and Kendria and the four of us started to head back home. We successfully crossed the street without dying and caught the bus back to the Outlet Mall (which is where Maximo is). I got some of my stuff that I was storing there and we waited to catch our other bus, which would take us to Santa Marta (where our host family lives). We waited a while and evetually got a bus that had our town on it. We rode the bus for probably 45 minutes to an hour until it got to the end of the line and realized we had no idea where we were. We had gotten far up a mountain and didn't know what to do. We told the driver we had to get to Santa Marta and he said it was maybe twenty stops back. He drove us to the bus station and we met a guy who worked for the company. After struggling to communicate, he told us we should wait here and a bus would come for us. We were in a pretty bad neighborhood, but at least we were all together and there were a few guys around us helping to flag down the bus. After a lot of worrying and a lot of waiting, we caught the bus to Santa Marta and made it back home. We were extremely relieved to be back at Ivannia's house and we scarfed down our food and went in our room.
I'm so exhausted from the day... This city has so much energy wherever you go. I love it, but I have never appreciated sleep more.
Also, happy birthday to my favorite mom in the whole world, Kathy Romey! I've been thinking of you awesome and hope you had a wonderful day. I love you so much.
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