Food... Of course

To my avocado loving friends and family: Proof of how cheap avocados are in CR! In this photo they're 66 cents each! 1000 colones= 2$

Also last night Alannah, Jonathan, and I made dinner for Jonathan's grandma! We made squash stuffed with a moroccan quinoa mixture. I'll post the the recipe later! We also made homemade pita chips, and hummus! And then had fresh carrots, celery, and green beans for the hummus. It was all good.

Here's a photo of the smallest apple ever. Apples in CR are pretty bad. Only the imported Washington apples are good. Go Washington!

Fruit

 

I saw this Banana display at the Auto Mercado a couple of days ago. It's so cute! It tells you a little tid bit about each type of banana and their benefits!  

Another tid bit about fruit. When I first came to Costa Rica my Mama Tica asked me if there's anything I don't specifically like. I told her I like just about anything, but emphasized that I love eating lots of fruit and vegetables, especially fruit for breakfast. Ever since that day I receive a big plate of strawberry, banana, pineapple, and sometimes kiwi every day with other food. Within the last couple of weeks my Papa Tico has been eating a plate of fruit too, but I didn't think anything about it. A couple days ago he was like Sara, look! I'm eating the same fruit plate as you. I said something along the lines of oh wow that's great...I didn't really know what he was getting at. Then yesterday he explained it a little more. He told me that he has NEVER eaten fruit for breakfast before and the majority of Ticos don't either. He had never even thought to eat it for breakfast apparently until I came. I was SO shocked! Costa Rica has so much fruit it's almost ridiculous and the majority of people aren't eating it for breakfast?? Anyways, later into breakfast I mentioned that he looked so much healthier and that his personality/well being seems so much happier as well. (My Papa Tico hasn't been the same since he got back from the hospital but within the last week and a half he has completely changed into his usual self). He told me his daily fruit in the morning is making him well! Haha now I understood why he brought it up. I'm really glad he's reaping the benefits of those extra fruit vitamins in the morning, I wish the rest of Costa Rica was!  

Today he went to the hospital for some sort of thing...He described it to me but I'm not sure what it is. He made it sound like they were going to separate his lungs or rib cage? I'm not sure why. I hope it goes well, part of me didn't want him to go because he really seems like he has recovered in full. I hope this thing doesn't set him back. 

 

I found this book at the hostel we stayed at this weekend! Naturally I picked it up and brought it to the beach. Unfortunately I didn't really read very much of it. But I liked the title =)

Race!

Haha here's a photo from the race I did in early September. My papa tico found it for me. I'm running in a 5k for Mcdonalds next weekend! I'm excited. Hopefully I will run one for breast cancer research the following weekend too!

 

I look pretty happy actually haha. This must have been after all of the hills! 

Roughing it

Thank God I went to camp when I was younger. I've spent many a summer at camps either being a camper, or a volunteer, and this weekend made me realize how much I appreciate that.

This weekend a lot of people from my group and I went to Puerto Viejo to enjoy the beaches, and attend the Carnivals that were an hour away. However, some people had some problems with the conditions of the hostel. Here's a quick description of the hostel: 

-It was HUGE. It housed hundreds of people. It's hard to imagine that being true, but literally this place had three different huge outdoor hammock rooms with at least 50 hammocks that a person could rent for 5 dollars. Also there two floors of tents that people could rent, and 6 different cabin like rooms varying in number of occupancy. Along with all of that, the hostel had a campground for people to bring their own tent with them. This weekend, the hostel was completely booked.  

- The hostel is entirely decorated with paints, mosaics, random artifacts, and more.  

-The weather in this area was super hot and humid, and the place in general was sandy 

-The kitchen was less than sub par 

-The bathrooms weren't the cleanest 

-Last but not least, the water wasn't potable, so forget about quenching your thirst on a whim. 

So that being said, I managed just fine. Sand in the bed? No worries, brush it off. The waters not potable? No worries, we'll just cook everything. The showers filthy? Wear shoes. There's mosquitos and bugs in the room? Eh, wear bug spray if you want. Okay, so that sounds a little cocky. I really do have my limits, but I like to think I can handle enough. It was actually really fun cooking in the kitchen with hardly any "usual" items. Also, the water wasn't potable, but I still rinsed my carrots in it and just shaved off the outer skin with a knife.  

The hostel was really cool though, take a look: 

 

The hostel was called "Rockin' Jays"...so I guess the owner wanted some "J' shaped shrubbery.

 

We received a band for every night we stayed

  

and a locker for our things! 

 

Joe and I attempted a sand castle... 

But I gave up, and it ended up being just a giant hole 

This weekend was pretty cool. It definitely had its ups and downs. I won't mention the downs. =) 

Pura Vida!

The Arts

Received some great compliments from my drawing professor today!! He told me I've improved so much and that he wishes he could have had me as a student earlier on. He told me he sees a lot of potential haha. Woo! We ended our segment of 3D drawing/perspective this week and I handed in my midterm portfolio. I've struggled through many boxes and chairs, I'm glad it paid off a little bit.

My dance class has been interesting these past few weeks too. Last week one of the students danced around in his navy briefs the entire class period. White cut-off shirt, navy briefs....apparently is all you need for dance class. The ticos in my class are really open people to say the least; it makes things entertaining. We've been rehearsing this dance that encompasses all of the main folkloric dances of Costa Rica. Today they changed the choreography and I'm now carried off the stage by a short tico guy. He's like half my size...I feel kind of bad. Anyways, the last time we meet for class in November is actually for our presentation of this choreographed dance. It should be pretty entertaining. I'm just trying to blend in, but that is so much harder than it sounds.

Speaking of November, the Costa Rican mail system is a little unpredictable. As much as it kills me to say this, people probably shouldn't send me mail past November 1. It doesn't usually take a full month for me to get mail from people, but I would hate to have an unread letter sitting in Costa Rica for me while I'm back in the states. So, keep sending me love until November 1. =) Gracias!!

 

A photo of my chair from my portfolio 

That's my bed underneath it haha 

It's been Awhile!

Hola everyone!

I haven't had a good post in a long time, so I'll do my best to make this one grand.

To begin, here's a list of facts about Costa Rica that I've learned the past couple of weeks:

-If you're running in Costa Rica you might encounter two adorable baby cows munching the grass growing between the cracks in the street. This happened last week!

-Feeling hungry? Mcdonalds has there own gallo pinto (the typical Costa Rican dish of beans and rice) called McPinto. I think my mama tica would murder me if I ever got it haha.

-The babies in Costa Rica begin to drink coffee as early as two months out of the womb! This might be why everyone seems so short...

-Preservatives and "Los preservativos" are not the same thing in Spanish..."Los preservativos" means condoms....I will never make that mistake again!

-Produce is SO cheap here. The poorest of the poor are probably healthier than most Americans.

-My tico parents told me this morning that I'm understanding Spanish so much better. =)

-Costa Rica is home of the most centenarians (people with 100+ years) in the world! Specifically in Nosara. I believe it too. The people don't age here it seems. I've met countless of people over 50 and 60 that easily look in there 30s or early 40s. It's insane. I don't know if it's the relaxed tico lifestyle, the nutrition, good genes, or what. But the people are lookin' pretty good here.  

-It's very common for resteraunt managers to literally buy their produce from the random man driving a pick-up truck filled with produce, like pineapples. It's so cool! I ordered a smoothie at this juice place and turn around to see the manager bargaining with this man in a truck for some good produce. It's not an uncommon sight.



That's all I can remember for now! But I know there's a lot more things that I've learned that are so cool.

What else has happened....

Oh! My friend Jonathan got a new puppy! Her name is Lluvia (rain in Spanish).

 

Look at that tongue!! So Cute!! 

Last weekend I went to Monteverde again. I'm so in love with this part of Costa Rica. It's amazing. We went so Alannah and Eduardo coule bungee jump. I didn't participate haha. However I took some great photos =)  Alannah was so brave!! She literally just walked out to the edge, and dove off. Eduardo took over 8minutes to jump...we all put our cameras away after the fifth time the people had counted to 3....

P.S

(I'd rather fo white water rafting or something....free falling is not for me!) 

 

Some food that I cooked this weekend: 

Black bean + Quinoa burgers! 

Pumpkin pancakes with craisins (My friends requested them again haha) 

Burritos! Filled with: Mexican redpepper and quinoa stir fry, guacamole, black beans, cilantro, chopped lettuce/cabbage, cheese, and lizano sauce!! I loove Lizano.  

Still excited to cook when I come home! I'm hoping to cook some Costa Rican squash sometime soon. My host mom made me some and I loved it. It's so good... 

That's all for now! My drawing portfolio is due tomorrow. It's for our midterm. We'll see how it goes.... 

Ciao! 

Sara 

Art class

These little clay figures were on display in my art class. It's nice to see that some students recognize a lot of the Ticos obsession and love of fast food... During lunch hour during the week places like taco bell and McDonald's are packed and on the weekend it's the same. Unfortunately a lot of people are moving out of the typical Tico culture of food.... My host mom told me that all of the parents are instructed to cook meals for their students in the Tico way... But the old custom of rice and beans is becoming just a haze of the old ways and special K is making its move into costa rican breakfasts.

Also in art class yesterday I finally did something right! We had to draw this picasso picture while it was upside down just paying attention to the lines and not the figure as a whole. Mine didnt turn out a complete mess!