Saturday, December 18, 2010

Final post

Hey everyone! This is it for me, I am on my last post of My Costa Rican Adventure. I am currently sitting in Phoenix Airport right now as I wait for my flight home. And the trip is finally starting to feel over. I am excited to go home and see my family and my girlfriend and all my great friends. on my flight home I had a lot of people from veritas with me, including two of my good friends. After we landed 4 of us went and had lunch and hung out and went through security together, then about 20 minutes ago we said goodbye. It was a great relaxed way to end my adventure, with a few friends to help me ease back into the States.

This last week was very busy for me and a lot happened, so I am going to try to hit the highlights without dragging on too much.

Last weekend my friend Sho and I went to Tortuguero, the marshlands/rain forest of Costa Rica. We spent almost all day Saturday and Sunday zipping around the canals there (no roads, only canals) and we got to see a wide variety of wildlife. From crazy cool plants, to alligators, crocodiles, exotic birds from all over North America (they had migrated here) and, the highlight, BABY SEA TURTLES! It was towards the end of hatching season and we found two turtles who couldn't get out of their hole, and we helped them out, washed them off, and took pics with them. Then watched them run to the ocean. for all the pics of out trip you can go here: Tortuguero

The last week of class was fairly easy. We went to the courthouse on Tuesday and sat in on a few court sessions, i only understood about half of what happened, and that was WITH the help of my teacher. Wednesday we had a potluck breakfast, which was a really fun end of class celebration. And then we played a game that helped us identify body parts and actions. And Thursday was the last day of classes. For our final we played a board game where each space was something you had to talk about. My final grade in Advanced Conversation was a 96. Pretty good huh?

Thursday night Mamá Tica made us a traditional Christmas dinner. Complete with Tamales and Champagne. We spent like 2 hours together hanging out, talking and taking some pictures. It was a really great final thing to do with my family. At the bottom will be pics of my family.

Friday was spent packing (sorta). At least I did pack that day, but I mostly just kinda hung around my room, saying I was packing. And this morning I woke up at 4 am (2 am in Portland) and was at the airport by 6 am. Like I said above, the flight was actually pretty good cuz of how many Veritas people were also on the flight with me.

Here are some pics of my family and roommate so that you all know what they looked like. I really feel like they are all my family, and they told me that they feel the same way. I now have family in both the States and Costa Rica. As well as friends all around the country and even Japan. My experience in Costa Rica stretches beyond my new Spanish abilities, I met so many amazing people here who totally blessed my life. I may never see 95% of them again in my life, but I will always remember the 3 months we spent together in Costa Rica. I experience, and became assimilated into, a completely new culture, and I loved it. My friend Jeff told me on Thursday night that "everyone you meet affects you in some way or another and each experience in life teaches you something new about yourself." This experience has been life changing for me and I learned a lot about myself, and I hope I had some good affects on other people, I know they did for me.


My little brother Luis, we called him Luigi.

The whole family. from left: Maria Jose (Majo), Aflredo, Luis, Alfredo, Eugenia.

My roommate Matt from Boone, North Carolina
Thank you all for following my posts and caring for me and praying. I couldn't have survived without all your love.

Vayan con Dios
Nick Culbertson

now get me home!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Getting to the End

hey guys! It's almost my last week here in Costa Rica. And I'm back with some random details about my life.

Not a lot has been happening since my last post. I've just been going to school and hanging out. Last Sunday I went to see the new Harry Potter movie (in English :P) it cost only about $3 to get in, and it was a NICER theater than in America. There are definitely some perks to being in Costa Rica :D

Conversation class has slowed down a lot since I last posted. We've moved away from games and movies and onto lectures. This week's classes have been going SOOOOOO slow. 4 hours feels like all day, and I'm not the only one who feels this way. A friend of mine told me today that she felt like yesterday morning was one day, and yesterday afternoon was another day, that's how long it felt to her. Basically all this week we have been getting lectured to in Spanish, which sucks. We're learning how to say "he said to her," or "I asked him," or "they spoke with her." But we don't have a book to follow along in, so it's boring.

Classes are starting to come to an end though, I am currently working on translating an Alice in Wonderland book for my Translation final and tomorrow we have our last presentation for Spanish. You can definitely feel the end coming near. You can see it in people as they go about their day. Not just hear them talking about it or watch them get ready to go back. It's like in WHO they are. 10 more days here in Costa Rica. It's leading to some grumpy people and disinterested students.

But I am still enjoying my time here in Costa Rica. This Saturday and Sunday me and my friend Sho are going to Tortuguero, a rain forest and beach that is supposed to have some amazing plant and animal life. I'm excited for it, we might even go out at night to see some turtles nesting on the beach. :D Hopefully I'll have pics next week :)

As my time is winding down here in Costa Rica, I wanted to share with you what my daily schedule has looked like over the last 3 months and also teach you some Costa Rican Spanish.

Daily Routine
7:00 am My alarm goes off, I don't wanna wake up, but I get up and take a shower

7:30 Breakfast time! My host mom makes us breakfast, usually bread, butter and coffee, but lately we've also been having hot dishes like eggs, gallo pinto, and quesadillas.

7:50 Leave for school with my rommate, it's about a 7 minute walk to school.

8:00 class starts

10:00 Break time in class. We all get a half hour break. I usually spend it in the cafeteria with mis amigos

10:30 back to class

12:00 Class ends and I head home and eat lunch. Lately it's been hot dogs followed by peanut butter on bread.

1:00-7:00 Homework/naptime. I usually try to accomplish all my homework in this time, maybe get a nap in and often times mess around on Facebook and talk to friends

(Tues & Wed) 1:00 Translation class starts.. it's boring

(Tues & Wed) 2:30 Translation class ends... finally!

7:00 Dinner time! My host mom is a wonderful cook! Almost every night we have Rice and Beans (cheap and delicious) and some form of meat, but almost never the same thing twice. Often times though, its some kind of chicken, sausage or beef recipe.

7:00-10:00 finish homework time, if I finish early I usually reward myself with a movie or TV episode.

10:00ish My girlfriend is now on line and we have our nightly Skype date. It's the perfect way to end the day :D

10:30 or 11:00 Bed time! time to do it all over again tomorrow!

Costa Rican Slang
Here are some words/phrases that you NEED to know if you ever plan to talk to someone from COsta Rica (or even me now) :)

Tico(a) (tee-co) - A term that means "Costa Rican." You rarely ever hear someone say "costarricense" it's almost always Tico(a)(-s). All the Study Abroad students call their host mom Mamá Tica.

Pura Vida (poo-rah vee-da) - The country's saying. It's almost like "God Bless America" it can be a greeting, it can mean "good" "thank you" or "goodbye." The two most common uses are as a Greeting "Hola Como estas?" "Bien, Pura Vida" or as thank you like at a store. It also describes the lifestyle here. Laid back, take it easy, don't worry, whatever happens will happen. (AKA my lifestyle) *This is probably the most important one*

Tuanis (twa-nees) - basically means Cool or Good. "Como estas?" "Bien" "Tuanis" It's used almost exaclty like Cool in conversations, but it doesn't refer to items, only like feelings and events etc. which leads to...

Chiva (chee-va) - This means Cool, but like items/people. That person is cool or "chiva"

Mae (my) - This means Dude. And is used in all the same ways that Dude is used in English. It is now a regular part of my language, and be prepared to hear it, even in English when I get home.

Well, I hope this gave you a good insight into my life here. I gotta go, it's 7:00, which means dinner :D

Vayan con Dios!
Nick Culbertson

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Thanksgiving

So, as you probably all know, last week was Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a wonderful time with family and/or friends. For any family reading this, I really wish that I was able to join you guys for Thanksgiving, but we'll just have to wait till next year I guess :)

What did I do? Well let me tell you..

It started off just like any day. My alarm went off at 7 am and I did NOT want to get up. But alas, I had to, for you see I had class to go to (ON THANKSGIVING!!) Thanksgiving is very much an United States Holiday, and seeing as how I'm not currently in the States, we had class all the same. So, for most of the day, Thanksgiving felt like any other day, I even went to the mall and saw football on tv and it was very weird to think that my family would probably be watching it in Grandma's tv room, not having to think about anything except when they are going to eat.

However, that night Veritas University had planned a special night for all us independent students (AKA those of us who did not come through a special program like ICA or CPA or something like that). We all met at school and were loaded onto a bus to an unknown destination. When we arrived, we realized that we were at th fanciest restaurant that any of us had probably ever been to. They had prepared a Thanksgiving dinner for all 150+ of us plus our teachers. We all got to hang out at a restaurant over looking San Jose and Heredia (Basically the same city, but different areas). A meal at this place would normally have cost in the area of $50 per plate, so we were very excited to be there for "free." As far as Thanksgiving dinners go, it was only ok. But it very much was an American dinner. Turkey, potatoes and pumpkin pie (all of which you almost never see in Costa Rica). Plus some other salads and green beans.

This did not feel at all like Thanksgiving at this point. It felt like a celebration of what we had all accomplished to this point. We all had left our family and friends in the States and traveled to a different country with a different language and way of life. But through it all we all grew, learned a new language and made new friends from all over the States and Costa Rica. In 3 weeks from that time, we would all be leaving, probably never to see many of our friends here again. But we will always have the 3 months that we all spent together in Costa Rica to connect us all. This Thanksgiving was the best Thanksgiving that I can remember, if only for the celebration of our accomplishments. It is definitely the highlight of my time here, and I will never ever forget Thanksgiving in Costa Rica.



Other than that, I have started a new class and we are in our second week of it. It is Advanced Conversation and I LOVE it. It is a very fun class, but also a very helpful class. My goal when I came here was to learn how to speak Spanish. Not to learn how to write essays in Spanish, or how to practice business in Spanish, or deeply and intensely study the culture here like other classes I have (Advanced 1 & 2 = Grammar) or could have (Spanish for business, Cultura Herencia). I love that all we do in class is talk, play games, read books then talk about them etc etc. It is my favorite Spanish class I have ever taken. Monday we played the game where someone writes the name of a famous person on a sticky note then sticks it to someone else's forehead and the person has to ask yes or no questions to figure out who they are. It was a fun class for sure. But the next day, the teacher compiled a list of all the names that we used and we were split into 3 groups and had to choose 10 of the 29 people who we wanted to invite to our dinner party and then have assign table placements for the 10 famous people and the 3 in our group. When we presented to the class we had to explain our reasoning behind inviting or not inviting people and why they are sitting where they are. (FYI: I am seated next to George Lopez and Nelson Mandela and across from Anne Frank at this party, I plan on asking Anne Frank how she died). Some groups had invited the same people to their parties, when this happened the class got really fun. We "debated" (Read: argued vigorously) over who got to have that person at our party.  It's been fun to see how easily I am able to express my opinions and understand full books in Spanish.

The class has been really fun. A perfect class for my last month here when I am feeling a little burnt out and starting to really miss people back home. I actually enjoy going to class each morning.

It's Christmas time here in San Jose, which means I walk to school in shorts and a t-shirt and see Christmas Trees and Decorations in windows and doorways. It's just too weird for me. I keep trying to get in the Christmas mood, but without family, friends and cold weather I doubt it will happen. Every time I try to listen to Christmas music I end up missing home a lot, so I have to switch back to regular music (Except Family Force 5 and Relient K. So I'll probably listen to them a lot).

Next Saturday the 11th, a group of friends and I will be going to Tortuguero, a beach where we should be able to see Sea Turtles and some other cool animals and plants. It will be my last Saturday in Costa Rica, and I think it will be a beautiful farewell to this country that I have fallen in love with.

As you probably can tell, I'm starting to get nostalgic already about Costa Rica, but I also am starting to miss people back home more than I ever have the whole time I am here. in 17 days I'll be home in Portland again.

I am going to end with a few pictures from Thanksgiving, as always you can see all of my pictures as I steal them from friends here: My Costa Rican Adventure 



Vayan con Dios
Nick

Our view of San Jose. Gorgeous

Savanna and I after dinner

All the Independent Students
I'm in the middle



Bus seats in Costa Rica :P

Thanksgiving dinner for us

Sho (from Japan) and Savanna
I had so much fun with them