Running of the Bulls (27/1/2007)

We had a very Spanish experience on Saturday night, in our town (San Isidro) there was another fiesta (very little seems to warrant a party around these parts, and we think they were celebrating another Saint, although you can never be to sure.)

They had a carnival and some bombetas and also the 'running with the bulls'. We went into a round audatorium type building which was specially made for the evening, making construction a little dubious. We sat around for a time, watching a load of lads play football in the middle of the arena, until they announced that a 'toro blanco' was coming, a white bull. At this the football was put away and they paid some attention to the big door which was being opened. Straight away the bull flew out charging at anyone around. The men all climbed the side of the arena when it came their way. There seemed to be about 5 people who knew what they we're doing with this animal, the rest we're just local people who wanted a go at trying to get charged. It turned out that most just skirted around the edge whilst there was a few crazy men who kept grabbing the tale and getting swung around. Good fun to watch, unfortunatly it was quite dark so the photos didn't come out that well.

Another very amusing thing that kept happening inbetween each bull coming out (there was around 5 or 6). Was someone would get a peice of newspaper and put in the back pocket of a persons jeans without them knowing. They would then proceed to light it and the person would only realise when there was a burning sensation or the screams from the crowd were loud enough. You can see from the first picture (click on left) a guy lighting someone in a red T-shirt and then the other photo (on right) him realising. It's a definite must for next years bonfire night back home.

A little less wisdom (23/1/2007)

Well in case you we're wondering, thats my wisdom tooth sitting there on the table. That bad boy had been causing me a few issues for about a week and so I decided to have it out. After hearing a few stories about dentists in these parts, I was pleasantly surprised when he whipped my tooth out in under 30 seconds (after a local anesthetic of course). No pain now which is all good.

The Spanish word for a wisdom tooth is 'muela del juicio', which is slightly different and quite amusing. Translated, I've lost my tooth of 'justice, judgement and discernment'. And so I've asked Helen if I start making rash decisions or strange accusations about people, could she please let me know.

Waterfall gardens (19/1/2007)

We visited a waterfall garden called La Paz, which we think means 'peace'. On the campus there are often 'work teams' which come mainly from America. They help with the building and development of the campus and also sometimes come as part of something called 'Fusion'. Fusion is where a youth group from one Church here in Costa Rica joins up with a youth group abroad and they visit each other. There is a group leaving here for Chicago (USA) next week.

When these teams come they spend a day visiting places around here so we went with them to 'La Paz' and also a Coffee plantation.

This team (photo) wasn't part of the Fusion programme, they were a group of men from a Church in America who have come before. I managed to help a bit with breaking up and removing some concrete pavements (or 'sidewalks' as they call them). They did so much work considering they were only here for a week. Helen and I ate quite often with them and also we spent some evenings doing Bible study with them which is part of their time here. They we're a real nice group and Helen and I, if possible, would like to visit them in America on our way home. (They live around 5 hrs from the Shirleys, near Chicago).

The waterfall gardens were quality. Alot to see and so we've tryed to chose a few from our collection of photos. There was a butterfly farm in the gardens and you could watch as butterflies emerge from their cacoons ready to fly. Pictured here with us is Brian and Stef who have become really good friends. They stay on the campus and are returning to America in June for Stef to finish her medical training.

(In case you don't know, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Graduation day! (12/1/2007)

Well apparently we are now no longer beginners in Spanish, we are starting intermediate level on Monday. I'll be quick to add here that this is all according to Ana. According to us, lets just say we don't entirely agree on what you would safely say is an intermediate level. If it's walking into a fast food shop, ordering something your really looking forward too, only to find you get two of the vegetarian option, then we've reached intermediate status.

Ana said we must have a graduation ceremony for this acheivement. At first we thought it was a joke, but she was deadly serious. And so we we're to invite everyone on the campus to come, obviously not by just asking them, that would be far too easy. We had to make invitations in a language I can only describe as the Spanish equivalent of the New King James version of the Bible. So after we'd made cards asking people to 'grace us with their presence', she also insisted we made a speech. As in a speech.



In the end it wasn't that bad, in fact the graduation ceremony was a good time. We cooked 'arroz con pollo' (rice with chicken) and had some nice cookies made by Karen and her family here on the campus, also Ana let us read our speech instead of recite it. Helen and I received a nice certificate and we thanked everyone for making us feel so welcome and how nice Costa Rica is. I also thanked Ana for introducing us to 'verbos iregulares' (irregular verbs). If you've ever studied a language then you'll know just how unneccesary these things are.















Actually Helen and I are starting to understand conversations a bit better now, but are still struggling to speak ourselves.
Everyone here says there's no short cut to learning a language, it just takes time, and we can certainly see why. We're still enjoying life here on the campus and have made some great friends.

National Museum trip (11/1/2007)

Went to San Jose today to meet our Spanish teacher Ana who wanted to take us around the National Museum (photo left: view of San Jose from the Museum). Quite interesting, all about the Spanish conquerers and how Costa Rica became what it is today. At the back of the Museum there's a garden which has all sorts of butterflys in . Ana thought it was a 'Lindissimo' opportunity for a photo of us both. All good, except we found that Anas photographic skills weren't quite up to scratch. (see below)Afterwards we had lunch at KFC in the city centre and chatted for along time about how she would like to visit England one day.

Happy new year ! (1-10/1/2007)

We hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. This picture was taken from the balcony of the new house we're staying in for the month of January. The family who live here (McQuereys) have gone back to America so we're house sitting.

Over Christmas and New Year we had a very relaxing time. We we're hoping to go away on the 26th for a 3-4days to the coast but it's high high season at that time. It would have been very busy and expensive so we're hoping to go at the beginning of Febuary. So we went out on a few days to the nearby towns but alot of it we stayed on the campus, did alot of reading, going through the Spanish we'd done and spending time with the people on the campus. We had a nice meal with Donald and Erika, it was called Casada, which translated means 'marriage'. The reason they call it that is because you have a variety of things on the plate, so it's a marriage of different flavours, something like that. Very nice. We spent alot of time talking (trying too) about England. We find most people here would love to visit England but it's just so expensive. They couldn't believe that to rent an apartment would cost minimum of around $800 a month. Here it's nearer $200-300. In a few years, Donald and Erika are hoping to spend some time in Africa working with a Church there so at the moment they're learning English. Their little daughter, Nasaret, contiunes to make us laugh. She hasn't really grasped the concept that we dont' speak her language very well, and moreso that we haven't got a hope of understanding her if she keeps her current level of 'words per second' up. By the way , for those of you who don't know, you can click on the photos to make them bigger.