well, i’m a little behind on updating this… i’ll start with colorado. it was a great, but pretty intense week of orientation, training, and team-building. not too much sleep but a lot of good info. i think there were about 25 new interns. the america latina office consists of me (emilia), michael (miguel), jim (jaime), and amos (ah-mOs), as shown below on a hike. there is also one returning intern, ben, who wasn´t at orientation.
we’re all engineers except michael, who is an architect. during orientation we decided as an intern class that we’re going to do our own version of where’s waldo this term (crowded marketplaces, etc was the vision). we were thinking it would be cool and a little funny to have a collage of interns as waldo in places all over the world. being perhaps a little overzealous, the AL (america latina) office decided to start early and take a few in the airport on our way out, as seen below. hopefully there will be some better ones to come- i hear waldo likes to surf :)
so I’ve been in costa rica for 9 days now. kinda feels like longer… my host family is incredible. they are so nice and so very patient with the language barrier. i became another daughter on day 1. and thanks so much for the prayers, they’ve definitely been answered. although i can’t communicate with them yet as well as i’d like to, we’ve definitely begun to form a great relationship. my host dad is a pastor, and works nights as well to support the family. my host mom is an amazing lady, so hospitable and we have many laughs while attempting to hold conversations. my siblings are 3 and 4 (almost 5) and so cute. we play quite a bit when i’m home. fortunately, i don’t have any major language slip-ups to share yet (that i know of), but i can share one from another intern. long story short, he accidently called his host brother “idiot”, thinking it was slang for dude. awesome. thankfully all of our tico (costa rican) families are super patient with us and it turned out to be really pretty hilarious.
more on atenas (the city i’m living in)… it’s considered rural, though it feels more like a small town. the weather is fairly similar to houston. very very hot and pretty humid. except no one has air conditioning. ticos go to bed around 9 or a little later and get up around 5, mainly because it’s light out from 5:30ish am to just before 6 pm. even if you wanted to sleep later, it’s difficult with the chickens and dogs. there are quite a few street dogs, many of which i’ve wanted to take home with me. i just haven’t figured out how to ok that with my fam yet… you can drink the water here, when it’s running, which is great. it’s a little sporadic sometimes. men greet each other with a handshake and women with a besito (go to the left, touch cheeks, and kiss the air) and possibly a hug. all of the ticos are so warm and so friendly. also, there are no street names and no house numbers. an address example would be “200 m north of the park, house with the round windows” or something. or possibly just the family name would be better. it’s amusing. and i’ve also discovered the line in the middle of the road (when there is one) is more of a suggestion. and finally, my experience with food so far... well to explain, everything here uses superlatives. like the grocery store is the ¨mega super¨, and then there are ¨mini supers¨ and ¨big mega grande colas¨ also. anyway, when i went to order my ¨supertaco con pollo¨ for lunch yesterday, i had in mind a light meal. i was trying to avoid the greasiness of the hamburgers the others were ordering, since i haven´t quite adjusted to meal sizes here yet. naturally i imagined a traditional soft taco with some grilled chicken. turns out tacos are different here :)
more on atenas (the city i’m living in)… it’s considered rural, though it feels more like a small town. the weather is fairly similar to houston. very very hot and pretty humid. except no one has air conditioning. ticos go to bed around 9 or a little later and get up around 5, mainly because it’s light out from 5:30ish am to just before 6 pm. even if you wanted to sleep later, it’s difficult with the chickens and dogs. there are quite a few street dogs, many of which i’ve wanted to take home with me. i just haven’t figured out how to ok that with my fam yet… you can drink the water here, when it’s running, which is great. it’s a little sporadic sometimes. men greet each other with a handshake and women with a besito (go to the left, touch cheeks, and kiss the air) and possibly a hug. all of the ticos are so warm and so friendly. also, there are no street names and no house numbers. an address example would be “200 m north of the park, house with the round windows” or something. or possibly just the family name would be better. it’s amusing. and i’ve also discovered the line in the middle of the road (when there is one) is more of a suggestion. and finally, my experience with food so far... well to explain, everything here uses superlatives. like the grocery store is the ¨mega super¨, and then there are ¨mini supers¨ and ¨big mega grande colas¨ also. anyway, when i went to order my ¨supertaco con pollo¨ for lunch yesterday, i had in mind a light meal. i was trying to avoid the greasiness of the hamburgers the others were ordering, since i haven´t quite adjusted to meal sizes here yet. naturally i imagined a traditional soft taco with some grilled chicken. turns out tacos are different here :)
and that´s a mound of cabbage with ketchup, mustard, and mayo across the top. ¨ensalada¨. amazing. and i managed to pay just over 5 bucks for it :). resulted in a good laugh for us that are new to CR! and my other experience consisted of beans, rice, and pork with the pig hair included - i decided to spare you the picture on that one... just a few observations so far, and i’m sure there will be more to come. i love it!
this past week we’ve been doing more orientation here. we’ve learned some very useful latin culture-specific info and then office info like CAD standards, etc. i have language school this week and next, which should help quite a bit with living here and with ministry on our project trips. so i know all of this sounds like a lot of training. it feels like it. i’m ready to get to work but after being here just a few days i’m realizing how important and necessary it is. the first team leaves for their project trip in guatemala the week after language school ends, and my team leaves for peru on february 20th. below are pictures of miguel doing a victory jump outside our language school hut (outdoor classroom), and one of a couple of the guys with an awesome tree there.
this past week we’ve been doing more orientation here. we’ve learned some very useful latin culture-specific info and then office info like CAD standards, etc. i have language school this week and next, which should help quite a bit with living here and with ministry on our project trips. so i know all of this sounds like a lot of training. it feels like it. i’m ready to get to work but after being here just a few days i’m realizing how important and necessary it is. the first team leaves for their project trip in guatemala the week after language school ends, and my team leaves for peru on february 20th. below are pictures of miguel doing a victory jump outside our language school hut (outdoor classroom), and one of a couple of the guys with an awesome tree there.
hopefully i´ll have more pictures to share soon. hasta luego!
you decided to post the taco picture afterall! ...looks yummy haha
ReplyDeletesooo good to hear an update, emmie!!! we miss you, but your stories are great and very detailed so i think we'll feel close still. love ya!
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