Feliz dia de Indepedencia! Yes, today is the day of Costa Rican independence. This is great news for me because it means that this morning we got to spend the entire morning in town at the parade instead of in class. This parade was great because there were a lot of really adorable children dressed up in fancy Costa Rican clothing. There was also authentic dancing and music. It was really adorable.
Last night, after 3293874 hours of class, we went to town also to watch the lantern parade. Also adorable. Everyone in Atenas gathered around the city center (Atenas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atenas is a small town of 17,000 people living in the surrounding area. I live in a neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown called La Presa, which means the dam. Our center is located on the edge of a canyon which goes down to the Rio Grade River, directly above a large hydroelectric dam. In case you were wondering!). All the children had little homemade lanterns that they lit and walked around with on the street. Cultural experience for sure. The streets were packed; it was awesome.
This week I am on kitchen set-up duty, so I have to wake up at 545 every morning to be at breakfast by 6. To help cook. It sucks because that’s the time I usually go running, and our only other real free time before bedtime is in the middle of the day when it’s ridiculously hot. So, sorry cholesterol, but I’m taking the week off. We work in pandillas, which means “gangs” in Espanol. Each week we cycle through different duties. It’s a nice system, if people actually do their jobs. Which sometimes doesn’t happen.
Everyone had a fun midday swim after lunch and then class all afternoon. Today was the first day we’ve had real homework. Studying is weird. I am off to bed now though with my millions of bug bites.
No comments:
Post a Comment