This is part of 8 posts where I will, with minor edits and omissions, put my journal from days in Costa Rica online. There is no real grammar structure, but hopefully it makes sense...10/28/2010 Thursday
I slept pretty well but the room was really hot. Or humid. Both. I'll probably use the fan tonight. Shortly after waking up the power went out for several hours. Marta was quite upset in a joking way. She cracks me up. I went to the bank and they had power. I got really upset at myself for the bank teller having to use English to tell me where the pharmacy was. Our entire conversation had been in Spanish until I could not understand her saying, "frente de la calle" through the glass. She didn't speak English so she had to ask somebody how to say it in English. I was mad my mental ear didn't pick up on what she was saying. At any rate, the pharmacy did not have power, but I picked up some after-bite aloe stuff but actually now think my right hand has some kind of poison ivy. I was careful not to touch plants I didn't recognize on this trip so I don't know what happened. That and the bug bites seem to be improving. I read for a bit and decided to take the road north instead of the beach... walked almost to Manzanillo without rain. I walked the beach back to Casa Zen and walked up to check on surf lessons / rentals. I decided to do the lesson right then. The guy who I setup the lesson from was Israeli and thought I was too, so I had no idea what in the world he was saying until he switched to English. After about 90 minutes I had caught several waves, and I was exhausted. My instructor was from Santiago, Chile and was funny. We kept swapping back and forth between Spanish and English in the conversation, but his instructions were always in Spanish. ¡Eso, eso! I have the board for 24 hours so I should be able to surf again in the morning for a few hours.
A few people showed up to stay here today, to the staff are happy about that. Speaking of the staff, they're hilarious, probably the most animated talkers and story tellers I've ever seen. I think Aracely takes the cake... she's tiny (about 5'2" and thin) but works tirelessly. Even if you put her on mute her stories would still make you laugh. She has a huge smile and talks with her whole body. Her voice sounds very young. I've heard she has 3 kids, 2 of them in Nicaragua. They must have been 3 lbs coming out... I'm not sure how she did it otherwise. Somebody keeps calling here and she's dealing with that... wrong number over and over.
-----
Tonight's movie was "Invasion" and the power went out. Afterwards I checked my email over the wifi at the cafe on the corner. The girl I ordered my chai from was Argentine... holy crap. Jaw meet floor. She had dark skin and dark hair, but very contrasting hazel eyes, skinny legs in designer jeans. Mi. a. freaking. mor. Did I mention that an Argentine accent with English is my favorite version of English? I only talked to her and her friend (an Israeli girl with some of the longest hair I've ever seen) for a minute but she used "vos" instead of "tú" with me and I was able to follow despite being a thrown off momentarily. My Spanish listening is definitely improving, despite the bank incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment