Our Beach trip to Limon

On February 26th, we went to a beach in Limon. Before we get to far ahead of ourselves, this is how we got there. First of all we rode a bus. It took about an hour to wait for the bus. We fell asleep in the back, it was so tiring. Lucky us we didn't have to grab the first seat, we had reserved seats in the back. After the hour-and-a-half bus ride, we were in Siquirres. Then we had to wait for the train. When we finally got on it, it took three hours to get to our bus stop. There were vendors selling Jamaican style food on the train and a silly parade the train workers did. The workers had costumes on that were really freaky and they had a cow bell and megaphone. We didn't really understand what was going on but everybody else was laughing! When we finally got to our bus stop in Limon, we got onto another bus and we rode that for just a few minutes and then we were at the beach.

The first thing we did was we set up out picinic/camping spot and we went to the ocean to swim. Imagine a sea of endless waves just coming towards you. Now imagine jumping over the waves like a dolphin. Sometimes the waves were huge and we got swept away with water up our nose. When we were resting from wave jumping we saw...sand dollars up on the beach. We dug them up and brought them to our resting area. We found a lot, but most of them broke because they are so fragile. Did you know that sand dollars are actually living creatures? The part we found was just the skeleton.






Here are some of our observations we made during this trip. The houses we passed when we were on the train were different from ours here in Costa Rica. Most of the houses were small with lots of people inside. It looked crowded to me. We also observed the port city of Limon. One thing we saw was a big barge at sea probably waiting to be loaded with fruits and vegetables. We think that because we saw saw a lot of shipping containers on shore with a lot of Dole fruits and vegetables waiting to be shipped all over the world.




That was our beach trip. We returned late, Maggie was zonked and we were tired too.

Respectfully submitted

Los Gemelos de Muth (Grace and James)

Cresta de Iguana

At school, one of the different things that we have here in Costa Rica is swimming class.  We have it once a week on Thursday.  We ride a bus to the pool on the CATIE campus.  We swim for about half an hour, practicing the front stroke and the back stroke. We swim with kick boards and we sometimes have free time for five minutes.  The water is normally cold, but the pool is outside in the tropical air so it's better than winter in Minnesota!

When we finish swimming, the boys go to the locker room to get dressed.  We like to do crazy hairstyles and make our locker room time into an extravaganza.  The most popular hairstyle is "La Cresta de Iguana" aka mohawk/fauxhawk in English.  The best way to get a really good cresta de iguana is using Moco de Gorila gel (Gorilla Snot).

Because my hair had gotten long and I wanted to fit in, I got my hair cut. I got it cut almost like a mohawk.  The good thing is, without the gel I can look pretty normal. But with the gel...  I look pretty crazy!

my cresta de iguana

a real iguana

Grace's opinion of my style

Respectfully submitted,
James Muth

Fiesta de Cumpleanos de Manuel

On Sunday, February 20^th, James and I went to the Fiesta de Manuel to celebrate his birthday.  Manuel is a classmate of mine who was in second grade, but bumped up in the middle of February because he wanted to be with Zenith and Judith (also classmates).  He is an only child and he lives with his Mom and Dad in a mansion-house about 10 minutes outside of Turrialba on a gravel road.  To me, he is pretty cool.  Back in the States he would be known as a special ed. kid because he has trouble talking, but here he is just Manu!

There weren’t really organized activities at the party, but there was a jumpy castle that we started out playing in.  Then we got gifts from Manu – things like an archery set, nerf guns, sling shots, jump ropes, stuff like that.  And then we had a toy battle with them (not planned!).  After playing around for a while we were called to go sing to Manu.  We had lemon cake with blue frosting and an iced soccer ball in the middle (which you couldn’t eat).  Here’s the healthy part: we had grilled meat in a tortilla. Yum yum.

Since our family doesn’t have a car, getting to and from a birthday party 10 minutes out of town was a bit complex.  To get there, James, Mom and I took a bus almost to La Suiza, but we walked back about ½ a kilometer down the gravel road to Manu’s.  Mom found her own way home.  Then in a couple hours she came back to pick us up by taxi.  We took the taxi back because we thought it might rain and we didn’t want to get drenched waiting for the bus. On the way home James and I were talking and playing with our prizes the whole way.  That was an awesome party!!

Respectfully submitted,

Grace

Dia del Amor y la Amistad

 Yesterday was Valentine's Day, but we didn't go to school because there was no water (or something like that).

Today we had a Valentine's party and we celebrated by having a special snack instead of having to bring our own snack.  We ate cupcakes and other sorts of candy.  And we also gave out Valentine's cards and candy.  I love chocolate even when everybody is speaking Spanish!

In the picture, the tree is different colors and the arms on the bugs are not gray. They are silver! Coloring this picture was my homework for today. The bug with the orange face is named Orange. And the bug with the yellow face is named Yellow. And the bug with the red face is named Red. All the bugs are the same colors except for their faces.  If you can see it up close, the brown things are rocks.

Maggie's bug homework

I love school. My teacher speaks English and Spanish, but mostly Spanish. I'm learning a little bit of Spanish, but it is hard to understand.  I will just keep trying the Spanish! And I'll try to make new friends every day.

Respectfully submitted,
Maggie Muth

El Circo de la Gran Imaginacion

The other night we went to the theater down by the plaza.  We went to see a show called, "El Circo de la Gran Imaginacion".  The show was about a person who created a circus in his imagination.  He imagined a lot of different creatures, which were the acts in the circus.  In the audience, we saw puppets moving by themselves, and I think how they did it was they had a person in all black clothing come out and they were a puppeteer.  The puppets were glow-in-the-dark so we could see them but not the puppeteer - because they had turned off the lights and turned on a black light.   The puppets glowed purple, and greenish, and yellow and orange.

Here are some of the puppets as we remember them:

Springs Benedict

Mister Interrupting

Storyteller

Talking Sandwich and his girlfriend, Lettuce

Yawns

Patito Bonito

 

 

Mr. Squeaks

We really enjoyed the show!

Respectfully submitted,
Jaime y Graciela

Date Night

Last night, Greg and I got a babysitter so we could go out. We attended the first parents' meeting of the year at the Escuela Interamericana.  It was a gathering of all the parents to discuss - or rather, listen to - the mission, vision and teaching philosophy of the school.  It went about as expected... Don Alfredo (the Director) started with a simple power point with inspirational slides and then went into a typical, mind-numbing presentation of the rationale behind all the decisions of the administration, teachers, etc.  He spoke, without taking questions, for over an hour.  I am very happy with our decision to put the kids in this school, but I was bored (and I understood most of what he was saying...)! I can only imagine how Greg felt trying to understand his educational jargon.

Following this meeting, we separated into grade level groups and met in our children's classrooms to discuss with the homeroom teacher aspects specific to the third grade.  It was in this meeting that I had my first real experience with culture shock here in Costa Rica.  On the one hand, it felt so familiar it was almost scary.  There was one mom who labeled herself as the "annoying parent", always checking in on her child, complaining to the administration, reads every communication sent home, etc. Every classroom has one, right? She is now the president of the parent group, and I have no doubt that she will be great. Then there was the new couple (not us), asking questions to clarify what was being talked about.  They have moved to Turrialba so the father can pursue his Master's Degree at CATIE, but they are from Costa Rica - so while they are new to this school, they are not new to the Costa Rican educational system.  The mom will now be the treasurer for the parent group. Then there was the dad who had a suggestion for each point made by the homeroom teacher, a suggestion he then repeated when Don Alfredo came to visit our classroom.  He's the secretary - taking copious notes of every item discussed.  And then there was the rest of us. I particularly appreciated the woman sitting next to me who chuckled at the same points I did, obviously seeing the humor in the scene unfolding before us.  The meeting went on for 90 minutes - discussing everything from the punctuality of the teachers at 7:30 in the morning to the way the teachers use the space in our kids' "message notebooks" (clearly it isn't being done efficiently enough, and this is quite upsetting to some people).

So on the other hand, the part that was so unfamiliar, was feeling like while I understood the words being said, I just didn't quite understand what was going on.  We were talking about removing a wall in the classroom to make more space for the kids (to be fair, it is a small classroom for 20 kids. But moving a wall? really?). Then we were talking about a letter writing campaign to boost the self-esteem of our kids. I think.  And then there was the part about putting ceramic tiles on all the floors. Oh, and don't forget that if you sign your kid out of school you'll have to have proof of identity and get a seal from the director before you can leave the school grounds (even if they just called you to come pick up your sick child).  And there was something about not bringing toys to school that turned into a heated discussion about whether or not a soccer ball is a toy.

It gave me pause... the not understanding even though I was understanding. I was so overwhelmed I couldn't even ask a clarifying question. Or maybe I was too embarrassed to admit that I didn't really get why we were talking about what we were talking about.  How often do we misunderstand each other for just that reason?  Why is it so hard to ask another person to explain what they mean?  And why did it feel so humiliating to not understand everything immediately?

The third grade parent group decided that we have so much to talk about we need to meet on a monthly basis.  I plan to go back again and maybe even ask a question or two.  But I think I'll find a different activity for our date night.  At least if we go to the theater I won't feel bad for not asking any questions...

Oh, I'm sorry, your eating...

A neighbor stopped by during dinner the other night and apologized for interrupting our evening repast. What she did not know was that since we've been here we seem to always be involved in some food related endeavor. If we're not eating, we are cleaning up. If we're not cleaning up, we're cooking. And of course if we're not cooking we are either planning to cook, on the way to the market or learning to cook something new and wonderful. And what's up with the appetites? James seems to have a hollow leg that can only be filled with gallo pinto and huevos fritos. Grace loves all the rice and beans and Mags continues to scarf mangoes like they grow on trees or something.

We still haven't quite figured out why we are constantly in food mode. I'm sure part of it is we are all burning more calories due to the stress of navigating a new culture and part of it is access to all of the wonderful new foods and flavors. We routinely go to the store once a day. This is different from being in the US where we go once a week. This is due partially to a culture of fairly casual food storage practices. Nothing dangerous just casual. For instance, eggs are not refrigerated - ever! So perhaps purchasing things and using them on the same day is far more normal than we expected.

In addition to numerous little corner stores, there are about five large grocery stores similar to the ones we would find in the US. Some may say that there isn't the same variety of foods here but I would argue that being able to buy fifteen different types of rice is plenty of variety for anyone. But keep in mind that something labeled "Cafe Economico" is really just "cheap coffee". Even the large stores may not have everything you need. It often require several stops to get everything on your list. Given that you are on foot and the weather is nice, this becomes a very pleasant part of the adventure. You just need to remember to check your bags at the door. Because certain items can only be found at certain stores, people keep a mental inventory of where you can find the items on your shopping list. Need black olives? Go to Diboyco. Need extra gentle laundry soap? Gotta go to Turibasico. Peanut butter? The best deal is at La Gloria. And on it goes. Shop, cook, eat, clean. I don't see this pattern changing anytime soon, but it is all good.