Sunday, November 14, 2010

What I've been up to

Hey everyone, I am so so so sorry for the time in between my last blog post. This month was a pretty crazy one for me, but at the same time really tranquil and relaxed.

This month marked the half-way point in my time here in Costa Rica. While this is both exiting and saddening, it also meant mid terms for me. I had my midterm last week in my Translation class, which consisted of translating a Costa Rican myth, which was really difficult to translate. Also, we have begun to switch from easy in class worksheets to full stories and children's books which are a lot harder and more time consuming. I do not enjoy my translation class, it seems pointless and is almost completely busy work. But I only have a few more weeks of it.

For the last 3 weeks I have been in Advanced 2, which is more conversational than Advanced 1. The major thing we have learned are Pronouns to use for That, Who, Which, etc. The class overall has been a  bit of a disappointment. The teacher did not seems to be very prepared for teaching the class, and thus we just read through our book, which isn't as exciting as it sounds. We aren't working on grammar enough for it to make a big change in our speaking and we aren't conversing enough to really make good improvements. The class is right in the middle, which frustrates a lot of us in the class. 2 weeks ago I had my first presentation, and I talked about Oregon and a lot of the students were really impressed with the State and had not known much about it. I got a 94 on that presentation. However, that was averaged out by my worst test in the history of school the next day. The teacher decided to assign us homework the night before (which is unusual for here) but that's not what was frustrating, what was frustrating was that we went over the homework before the test, and we all didn't quite grasp what the homework was over, so the teacher spent 2 hours trying to help us better understand, which only hurt our brains. No one got above and 80 on the test and most were in the 55-65 range. The next day I had a pretty good grasp of the homework/test but my head was just too worked to function well on the test, which is frustrating that it went down that way. This last week I had another presentation. This one was a tourist presentation on a Hispanic Country. I chose Argentina because Kelsey lived there for a year. Now I know everything fun to do in Argentina and really want to go there. The teacher really likes my style of public speaking, and thinks I am a great public speaker. but also says I need to practice my concordance, means when thinks are feminine and masculine and plural and singular.

As far as Advanced 1 goes, the class finished up well. I got a 95 in the class as a whole and I definitely felt like I improved my Spanish and I gained a lot of confidence. I can converse with my family very well now, and often find myself staying at the dinner table for longer and longer just enjoying the company and talking with my family. The biggest indication that my Spanish is improving is that I can now understand and talk to my younger brother Luis who is 5. For some reason he has been the most difficult to understand, probably becasue he doesn't know to slow down and enunciate for me.

Since Tamarindo, I have only been to 2 places here. Last weekend 5 of my friends and I took the public bus to Arenal, the most active volcano here in Costa Rica. The buses were terrible and the seats were small, but Arenal was worth it. Unfortunately it was cloudy and we couldn't see the top of the volcano. If it wasn't cloudy we might have been able t see lava at night, glowing on top of the mountain. But we were able to hike up on a lave flow from 1968. The eruption from 1968 was the last major eruption from the volcano. When the tour guide was describing it to us, he referenced Mt. St. Helens several times. I thought it was cool that something from Oregon is mentioned all the way down in Costa Rica. After the hike, we got to enjoy a few hours at the hot springs that the tour guide company owns. They also provided us with dinner, which was like a 5 Star restaurant. The fanciest place I've ever eaten.

Also, Friday my class went on a field tip to a rich area of Costa Rica. We saw a giant Cathedral and a park that had iguanas, sloths and squirrels running around it. We could even walk up and feed the animals bread and they would eat it out of our hands. We then went to a natural preserve and hiked up a mountain and got a view of the whole city. It was a very pretty location, but a pointless field trip. We couldn't hear the guide, and we had nothing to take notes on. But it was a lot better than class. 

I have definitely settled into my life here in Costa Rica and I feel like this is home (probably why I haven't written in a while, it feels too normal to have to inform you guys :P ). I feel like I am a part of the culture here and I love it. I miss all you guys at home, but I also love it here. I'm gonna be sad when I leave in only 5 weeks (!!!!) but I am also gonna be excited to be home. I now have 2 homes, and I want to be with both.

Anyways, I feel like this is getting long. I will try to write sooner next time :)

Vayan con Dios
Nick

4 comments:

  1. Well.... not a lot of good news.... too bad. Sounds like there is some good stuff though!

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  2. Bahaha, it posted as Mr. Perkins form my fake blog!

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  3. Actually is mostly good news. I love it here, just not too thrilled with my current class :P

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  4. Thanks for sharing your highs and lows. I'm glad you have the family to live with and practice speaking and listening to Spanish.

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