Rainy Day

Strange but true. It's raining today, which is strange for January. Here's the view from my room. The mountains and clouds almost blend in.

And here I am :). Thought you might need a reminder of what I look like, ha!
I love weekends now living with ticos. Ha, I don't have any chores to do! No grocery shopping, no cleaning... it's almost like I'm in high school again in terms of responsibility on the weekends... but then it's back to work on Monday. Ha, oh yeah, I'm an adult, working full time now.

It's been a good weekend. Trish, Kim L, and I went to the pool yesterday (yes, it's warm enough to go to the pool in January!!) and then Kim V joined us to go see "Seven Pounds," the new Will Smith movie. Oof, that was a heavy movie... we were all half crying, half laughing as we left the theater, desperately needing some comic relief, but not really sure what to say or do. The title "Seven Pounds" translates to Spanish as "Siete Almas" which when translated back into English means "Seven Souls." I thought that was interesting with the message of the movie... but I won't give any more of the plot away :).

Today I hung out with the family all day. I'm learning Spanish! Ha, and constantly being humbled in my so-called English intelligence. Knowing one language well does make a difference in learning another language... but when it comes down to it, you're going to screw up so many times that you just want to quit. "Persevere!!" I keep telling myself. My tica sister Judit tells me "Paciencia, mi amiga!!" (Patience, my friend)

Ha, Trish had a funny thought that I want to share. So the showers here are quite different... Instead of a hot water heater that heats water for the whole house, the shower head itself is the actual heater of the water for showering. I'm pretty sure it's electric... which kind of freaks me out if I think about it too hard. It doesn't help that the shower heads are called "Widowmakers"... . not sure why they chose that as a logo. It's better not to think about it, I suppose. Ignorance is bliss, right?

Oh, and I saw my first enormous cockroach the other night... I got home around 10:30pm from a game night, and of course had a late night snack. I opened the dishwasher to put my plate in, and a cockroach skittered out from the handle. Needless to say, I was screaming silently, not wanting to wake my family but a pounding heart and gag reflex are hard to ignore. Ha, I survived. I still like Costa Rica :).

My tica sister Judit has friends in high places. I told her this and she laughed, but I really mean it. Remember the ballet we went to see in November? Well, one of Judit's friends is a ballerina that performed in that ballet. And then tonight, she introduced me to another friend whose parents own a really expensive clothing store here in Costa Rica... like a shirt from the store is $100 and pants are $160. What tico can afford that??? But anyway, I told Judit she has friends in important places, and she eventually agreed when I explained my thoughts and then she laughed at me again, saying "pero no estoy importante!!" (but I am not important!!)

My students will be ready for Monday... the question is, will I be ready also? Better go to bed soon :)