Mi Amigo Tico

This is Oscar (one of my few Tico friends)

He invited me yesterday to eat lunch with him and his tica friend. I was pretty excited since obviously I want to meet more Costa Rican people. When Oscar met up with me before lunch he told me that instead of just one Tica....there would be three. This made me a little nervous. I was worried that with that many Spanish speaking girls I would just be left there to catch snip-its of whatever they were talking about. Well, it was kind of the opposite. After it took Oscar 6 minutes to warm up his food in the microwave we went to meet his three tica friends (Oscar has a lot of friends that are girls since his major changed from aviation to preschool education...long story). We get there and only two girls have arrived, Gabby and Alanna. I spoke right away so they would know that I wasn't completely incompetent in Spanish...I told them some funny story about me embarrassing myself. They laughed and said a couple of things but then it was just complete silence....no one spoke....for a good 5 minutes...One girl started painting her nails. I actually got to watch paint dry...

Thankfully a little later the last girl, Ellie?, showed up and she was SO much better. She asked me the typical questions about where I was from, where I've visited...and then she talked to Oscar about teaching preschoolers. However, she constantly made eye contact with me and she actually included me in the conversation. I was so grateful. That concludes my awkward lunch story.  I'm supposed to hang out with more of his friends Sunday. I really hope the results are better, he told me I can invite some of my American friends. It would be nice to have some gringa sidekicks (they make the best security blanket...which is kind of bad.)

I'm feeling better today. I had my drawing class and dance class today. Just writing that sentence just now makes me think, yet again, that I should be doing something more. I think I'm going to talk to my Spanish professor tomorrow about somehow volunteering at the hospital or a nursing home in Heredia. My Spanish needs the practice, I would love the person-to-person interaction, and if it's medical related it'll help with my major. I would love to job shadow too. Anything... We'll see what my profe says.

I'm excited for this weekend! I'll keep everyone posted on the events. For awhile I was starting to think that every weekend something bad was going to happen. After last weekend, I feel like things will be just fine. Hopefully I'll have some good photos too!

Buenas Noches,
Your Gringa in CR,
Sara