Family and School Life

Pura Vida. These are the two best words to describe life here, including mine. Literally translated "pure life", it has a deep cultural meaning. If someone asks how you are, "pura vida" is one way of answering. In this case it can mean "all is well", or "things are great with me". Other times, after ordering something at a restaurant, the waiter will reply, "pura vida", as if to say "sounds great", or "good choice". After hanging up the phone, the last thing people normally say is "pura vida". Once, while walking in my neighborhood, a boy riding his bike dropped his sleeve of french bread when he hopped a curb. I picked it up for him and all he said was "pura vida". Such a simple phrase, yet so powerful.

Classes at the UCR

Well, school has begun. I had the longest winter break of my life, haha. The semester at the University of Costa Rica began March 7th. So from mid-December till 3 weeks ago, I've been free from school, per say. Being back in class is nice though. I love walking to school, too. You really never realize how much Americans depend on their cars (or even bikes) until you live somewhere where you walk pretty much everywhere you want to go. Of course, the public transportation system here is phenomenal! Buses can pick you up anywhere for 40 cents or less and take you anywhere in the city. However nice that is, I prefer the walk. I'm 1.5 miles from the UCR and I like to think I stay in better shape walking 3+ miles to class and back.
Anyways, I love my classes. Here's a look at my schedule:

lunes
11:00 - 12:50 pm: Actividad Deportiva - Balonmano Principiamente Hombres

martes
10:00 - 12:50 pm: Apreciación Música
1:00 - 3:50 pm: Literatura y Cine

miércoles
10:00 - 12:50 pm: Introducción a la Lingüística
5:00 - 7:50 pm: Español de America y Costa Rica

jueves y viernes
¡No clase!

Balonmano is handball. It's a sport a bit like soccer except you use your hands and play on a gymnasium floor. The goals are smaller and it's played 7 vs. 7. It's my favorite class! Haha. It's a fairly physical sport, too. Being the only non-tico in the class doesn't mean I get special treatment. I get pushed and shoved just as much as everyone else. Maybe a little more so, as I have more experience throwing. True, most of the guys my age are more adept with their feet, but my baseball and basketball background puts me at a slightly higher skill level. We've gone over basic ball-handling technique and ran some passing drills, but when we scrimmage, it's a free for all! We haven't learned strategy yet - let alone the rules! I think that part is coming next class.

Apreciación Música is also great. Each class we've talked about the fundamentals to music, ej. what is a melody, what is rhythm, how music makes us feel...that kind of stuff. It will get a little more involved later on, but besides learning these things we've watched an opera and listened to a variety of music. What's kind of funny is one of the class requirements: bring in one of your favorite pieces of music and present it to the class. Of the 4 presentations so far, we've had 1 Celine Dion and 3 heavy metal bands...or death metal, or whatever you wanna call it. I remember one group was called Opeth. Strange, yes, but it is surprisingly popular here. Any thoughts on what song, band, or type of music I should present? Just want your thoughts :)

Literatura y Cine is fun. Every other class we watch a movie, and the following week we have class discussions over the themes, its relation to literature, and we compare it to reality. So far we've watched "Monster" and "Dolores Claiborne". Did I mention these films are in English? Haha. Didn't care too much for Monster...Dolores Claiborne was shockingly good. We have to write five 3-4 page papers about a theme from each movie. Furthermore, we each chose one of the movies in which we have to lead a class discussion. I chose "Fire". Never seen it.

Introducción a la Lingüística is fantastic. It mostly covers the things I've learned in my major at U of A, so hearing it in Spanish is not only a great academic reinforcement, but I get to focus more on learning Spanish than learning the material. For that reason, I've been chiming in to class discussions more often in this class than my others. Plus, I love my professor. She's very nice and energetic (although the farthest thing from looking like a tica, haha).

Español de America y Costa is all right. It has started off fairly boring...lectures about the history of Spanish dialects and how they originated in different areas in Spain. I'm sure it'll get more interesting as time goes on. I'm a little scared because we have to read a lot for this class and it's no easy read. Plus, the lectures are power-point slides crammed with info, and he never stays on one slide long enough to copy everything down. Then, you're forced to half-listen and half-write and pick out the main idea from each slide...pretty tough for a foreign kid, haha. First test is next class...wish me luck!

The FIA

Costa Rica holds an arts festival every year known as FIA: Fesitval Internacional de las Artes. Basically, for two weeks multiple events are held that showcase art, dance, theatre, and music from over 50 countries (mostly Latina countries). One of the two major locations is at La Sabana, a big park on the outskirts of San José. That's where I went. There is one main stage on the park's lake and I listened to the National Symphonic Orchestra play "The Music of Star Wars". It was great! They sounded terrific - just like the movie soundtrack. They even played the Century Fox intro theme, haha! Along with the music, there were projections of scenes from the movie as well as a Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi, and 7 Storm Troopers performing occasional small battle scenes on stage. I went with my Gringo friend Andrew, who's from Seattle, and luckily we had an umbrella because it rained that night. A lot of people didn't have umbrellas, so vendors came out of nowhere yelling "abrigoabrigoabrigo!" They were selling ponchos for 2 dollars that practically looked like super thin trash bags with 3 holes.

Another night I returned to La Sabana with my tico friend Ariel, from my music appreciation class. We had a great time listening to the National Youth Symphony (his friend plays tuba). It wasn't so much about the orchestra as it was Néstor Torres, the star flutist of the evening. He came off extremely cocky, strutting around on stage in a bright white tuxedo like he owned the place. He was as good as he was cocky, though. He did things with a flute I didn't think were possible. If anyone out there reading this has seen Anchorman and remembers the scene with the "Yazz Flute", now you know what I'm talking about.

Lastly, my host mom and I went to see the El Ballet Nacional de España perform at El Teatro Nacional. This theater is absolutely gorgeous:


Everyone says it's the best piece of architecture in the country. Furthermore, the performance was stunning!! I'm honestly not very fond of dance and ballet, but this was something else. The performance was presented in two parts, each was basically a really long, complicated and exciting dance that always kept your attention. There were about 20 dancers...half men, half women, who danced Flamenco and other variations of Spanish dance. Their dancing talent was insane. They tapped their feet to wickedly fast beats and moved around gracefully at the same time, all keeping stoic composure. A band (3 guitars, 2 singers, a drummer, and 3 hand clappers) came out on stage, too, for the second half and man could those guitarists play. On top of the amazing music and dancing the thing I will remember most was the star dancer's elegant white dress. She walked out painfully slow onto the stage and her dress seemed to never end. I kid you not it was 15 feet long! My host mom knew a lot of people there because her daughter dances Flamenco. One of her friends, a dance instructor, went to the dress rehearsal and told us before the concert to watch for the 5 meter-long dress. Couldn't miss it, haha!

Well, that about does it for my post. I'm going backpacking through the Osa Peninsula tomorrow morning in Parque Nacional Corcovado!! I've been excited to go ever since I read about it back in September. National Geographic calls it "the most biologically diverse place on Earth". Until next time, pura vida everyone!