The New National Stadium!!

So a friend from work, Mariel, got tickets for another co-worker (Daniela) and I to go to the International Marathon event happening during the inauguration events surrounding the new Costa Rican stadium. Exciting? Yes!

The entrance into a very modern stadium!

A football field! A track! High-definition screens!

An interesting fact is that this stadium is actually a gift from China. You know, kind of like when the Statue of Liberty was gifted to the U.S. from France.

Here's a good video/photo slide show/article about the making of the stadium: http://www.canchallena.com/1361008-un-escenario-de-lujo

Mariel, me, Daniela with an inauguration painting

The marathon runners

The sun goes down... and the lights come on!

Now while all of this was very exciting to see the ''progress'' Costa Rica has with this stadium, I also have some critiques...

1. There´s no parking lot, so surrounding neighborhoods are crowded with cars parked for events.

2. What about all the noise and bright lights for the surrounding neighborhoods at night? I mean, I live a good 20 kilometers from the stadium (at least) and I can hear fireworks at night from the stadium!!!

3. The stadium is a gift, yes, but who is funding the yearly maintenance costs of 1.8 million dollars? Hmm...

A Surprise Bouquet!

A bouquet of... baby pineapples (!!)... waited for me by the classroom door when I arrived last Thursday. Mom requested to see pictures, so here they are :). Notice how pineapples have thorns on their leaves, kind of like roses have them on their stems. The pineapples are about 2 inches tall and 1 inch wide and super cute! I don't think there's any chance of eating them, haha!

Oxymorons

Recently, I have noticed many things about my life that just simply do not go together. For example:

1. Spaghetti and rice.
I know it's pretty normal for Italians to eat spaghetti and bread together, but for some reason, the combo of spaghetti and rice just seem strange to me. I ate this combo as a meal several times this past week because it was served to me, not because it was a deliberate choice. Rice and spaghetti sauce are an unusual combination as well.

2. March and heat.
In my 22 years of living stateside, March and heat just didn´t go together. In fact, it was the opposite: March and cold. But here in Costa Rica, I am provided with many opportunities to be thankful for all the 90 degree weather during what is Costa Rica's summer.

3. 5th Graders and ''hot''.
Along with the heat, many students (and teachers!) are complaining about how sweaty, how thirsty, or how tired they are. Warning: If you say ''I am hot'' around 5th Graders, they will automatically burst into giggles. Oh dear.

4. Pineapples and bushes.
I'm not sure what I pictured pineapples growing on, but they actually grow as part of a bush. That's right. Bush. It's the kind of bush that has long, straight leaves and the pineapples grow up like flowers. Click on this blog post to see a photo of pineapple bushes.

5. Dead bodies and speedbumps.
The word ''muerto'' in Spanish means two things: a dead body and a speedbump. Oxymoron? I think yes.

6. Sleeping in and living with dogs and babies.
The past few weekends, I have fully intended to sleep in on Saturday and Sunday. I wake up at 7am to the dogs barking and the baby crying.

7. Baby showers and beer.
I (randomly) was part of a baby shower yesterday and we toasted the mother-to-be with beer. I couldn't help wondering about alcohol fetal syndrome.

8. Buses and sidewalks.
Sometimes there are sidewalks here... but not often. I was 4 inches from being hit by a bus today as I was walking on a sidewalk-less road. Yikes!

Calling All Judson Alumni

http://blog.judsonu.edu/play/504/

Check out this link for my guest post as a Judson University alumni.  I give a testimony as to how Judson gave me the opportunity to travel that later sparked my interest in living overseas. Enjoy! :)

Latest Painting Series

My latest 5 paintings are all already claimed by my good friend Meredith, who is also teaching here in Costa Rica at another private school, Metodista. She bought the canvases and hired me to paint all 5 for her 4th grade classroom. She gave me the verses she wanted but other than that, I could do whatever I wanted! :)

I painted a dribble design first, then decided it was too busy, so I painted over that with yellow. You can still see the first design under the yellow layer in real life.

This is the only one that turned out iconic.

This one started out as a drip painting but quickly morphed into a splatter painting, haha.

I added blue sequin fabric in the corners to add texture.

Nothing like some bubble letters :).

I'll be delivering the paintings this next weekend! I'm excited for Meredith to be able to use them in her classroom.

First Year Mini-Reunion

Tricia and I shared our six months here in Costa Rica as we were both new to Spanish and to the culture. She was working with a mission team last week and I was able to see her last Saturday!

Don't Jump to Conclusions

A part of the Costa Rican culture I have become increasingly aware of is this: It is okay to lie, as long as it helps you maintain your own personal comfort.

I've struggled with this concept since realizing the depth that it is ''sunk'' into the thinking of ticos here. Not all are comfortable with lying, but the majority are.

For example: You're waiting at a coffee shop for a friend to arrive. You arrived five minutes early and your friend told you she would be there right at 2pm... You wait... and wait... and wait. It's 2:15. You call her. She answers, exclaiming, ''Yes, I'm almost there!!'' You ask, ''How long will you be?'' She says, ''I just left my house, but I'm almost there!'' You know that her house is actually 40 minutes away from the coffee shop... so if she just left, that means she will arrive at about 3. But yet she says ''I'm almost there!'' so does that mean she's arriving in the next 5 minutes??

Time is probably the most common lie. ''I'm almost there!'' is a common cover-up for ''I'll be an hour late!''

Or when you call for a taxi and the phone attendant says, ''The taxi has already arrived,'' before he hangs up. Does that mean the taxi is already waiting outside your door? No...

So I came to a situation over the last few days where I thought a tico was lying. I have become so skeptical, so hardened to the possibility that there might be an honest tico.

My prepaid cell phone informed me I had 4 more days of service. I went to the store that afternoon and re-charged it by putting $20 on it. I thought that amount would last me for quite a while. Well, four days later, my phone was inactivated... and I was ticked. I had just put $20 on it! So I dug in the garbage for my receipt... only to discover that I had put $20 on someone else´s prepaid cell phone number... I had mixed up two of the numbers in mine, and paid someone elses. Oops.

I went back to the store and explained the situation. I put $5 more on my phone so I could re-activate it and have access to texting/calling/etc. So I called the other number that I had paid to ask if they could pay money on my phone. A far shot, I was thinking, but it was worth a try.

Well, a lady answered the phone and said, ''You'll have to make an agreement with my dad. Here's his number.'' So I called the number. Lady #2 that answered that phone had no idea what I was talking about. So I called lady #1 back to ask her dad's number again, and I had heard incorrectly the first time. So now I called this number and reached lady #3. She also had no idea what I was talking about...

So I immediately thought that lady #1 had lied to me to get herself out of paying me back the $20. I decided I would not pursue it anymore, but I was frustrated and discouraged by these lying ticos...

The next day after school, I had 4 missed calls, all from the same number. I called the number back and reached lady #1's dad. He told me that my money was in good hands, that he lived in Cartago (a poorer district of the city than where I live), that he was going to pay $10 on my phone this week and then $10 on my phone next week so that I had the $20 back.

I jumped to conclusions, and this time, I was proved wrong. There are honest people here.

Now I just feel convicted because $20 is a lot for a stranger to put on a phone... especially when people here earn $400ish dollars a month as the average salary...