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

Children's Museum and Surfing

So this week has been a fairly busy one, so this may end up being a little long ish. In the last week I have been on a field trip to the Children's Museum here in San Jose, and I have been to the Pacific Ocean and gone surfing and I have made it through 3 of the 4 weeks of my first class.

First class. I am in my final week of Advanced 1 Spanish. Which of course means that this week is going to be really busy. I have a group presentation on Thursday that needs to be close to 45 minutes and a quiz over comprehension of a story that same day. Then the following day I have my final for Advanced 1. It;s going to be a busy week of studying. But I really feel like I am gaining more confidence in my Spanish skills and I am able to speak more fluently and for longer at one time. Last night I even had a conversation with my Tica Mamá over the differences between Oregon and here, especially at the beaches. It was nice to be able to hold an everyday conversation in Spanish (something I have been missing since I've been here). My teacher also says that she has seen a lot of improvements in my Spanish. It feels good to both see and hear from others the growth of my skills that I am here to develop (although with a growth in Spanish comes a shrinking of English skills, my English Grammar is taking more and more thought the longer I am here).

Friday my class went to the Children's Museum here, which was an amazing field trip. It was fun to be able to act like a kid but be old enough to truly enjoy it. First we had to run through the museum in our groups trying to find specific answers to questions and get signatures from the employees. Which was crazy and fun (my group placed second by the way, no big deal really ;) ). Then We split up and thoroughly examined one exhibit per group. This is going to be what my 45 minute presentation will be on Thursday, my group is studying Costa Rica and their culture. We finished with about an hour to spare and then explored the museum more. There was lots of exhibits about many different things (Space, the body, Costa Rica to name a few). I have posted some photos below highlighting the best of the activities there. If you wanna see more you can go here Museo de Niños


(Keep reading below the pictures for my description of Tamarindo)

Yeah, I'm in Star Trek. Be jealous

And here I'm being eaten

Zen master

  OK, I told you this was going to be a longer one. Next comes Tamarindo.

After my trip the the museum, I went on my second excursion in Costa Rica, this time to the West Coast at Tamarindo. The beach actually looked pretty similar to Oregon, just imagine slightly more sun and palm trees and 20 degrees warmer, and you have Tamarindo. However, this also mean that there wasn't much of a wow factor in Tamarindo. It was basically just a warm Cannon Beach to me, but I still enjoyed my time there.

On Saturday My friend David and I went surfing. It was my first time surfing ever, and I was really excited to try it. We rented the board and got lessons for only $20 total. The instructor was very helpful (and the lessons were in Spanish, I was proud that I understood them). After about 10 minutes on the beach practicing laying on the board and standing up, we hit the water. During the lesson, which lasted about an hour and a half, I never attempted to catch a wave without the instructors help, but that's OK because it was helpful. On my first wave that I tried to ride, I was able to stand up and ride the wave for a little while, and on the third wave I tried I rode all the way to the shore, which is a fairly big deal for first time surfers (granted I was being pushed into the wave by my instructor, but I still had to be the one staying balanced and standing up). After the morning of lessons, we broke for lunch and souvenir shopping, then we were back in the water to finish the day on a surf board, this time with a few friends to take pictures. In the afternoon I was all by myself, and I still rode many waves. It was seriously so much fun. Now I want a surf board back in America really bad (*wink wink* mom, dad, family, Kelsey *cough* Christmas Present *cough*) I already am feeling the surfing itch and it's only been 3 days since I was there.

After we had to return the boards I was feeling a little sick, probably from dehydration, sore muscles and all the salt I swallowed, so I went to bed early and then hung around the hotel until we left on Sunday. We had Monday off due to a National Holiday (I think something to do with Columbus) so I was able to fully recover and relax after my excursion, which I didn't get to do last week. 

here are some more pictures from Tamarindo, also you can go here My Costa Rican Adventure to view all my photos from Costa Rica.

(If you can't see either of the albums I linked here, email me at nculbertson07@georgefox.edu and I will find a way so that you can see them)

Thanks guys
Vayan con Dios
Nick Culbertson

The day is officially done for me

Tamarindo at dusk

Puerto Viejo

Hey hey all!

Sorry it took so long in between posts, but I kinda forgot about this with all the work I had last week. But now I'm back to tell you all about last week, and especially Puerto Viejo

Last week was the hard part of my 4 week class. We focused a lot on grammar, so there was lots of lectures and tedious homework that was over the lectures in class. We learned the subjunctive form, which is how to express your hopes, wants, and desires. Like "I hope that you have a good time tomorrow = Espero que tengas un buen tiempo mañana." We also had a group presentation on Thursday. I had to present on the Death Penalty... in Spanish. That was really hard to do, and pretty boring as well, but I got it done and got a really good grade on it. Finally, on Friday was our midterm test. I know, 2 weeks in and I already have a midterm! Well, the class is only 4 weeks long. We got our tests back today, and I got an 85 on it, so a solid B.

But, getting to the good stuff; this weekend I went to Puerto Viejo!!! It was a paradise, right on the Caribbean Sea. It was seriously a dream come true to be there for me.

Banana Trees

We left Friday afternoon, and drove the 5 hour road to Puerto Viejo. Along the way, we started in the Costa Rican mountains and traveled through thick forest and cliffs. It was the thickest jungle I had ever seen in my life. After we got through the mountains, we drove past miles and miles and miles of banana orchards. As far as I could see on either side, there were banana tress. All the major fruit distributors were down there, Dole, Chiquita, etc. All of them there simply to harvest bananas. It was not something one sees every day.

Pretty soon, we arrived in the Port of Límon. Once there, we turned and traveled parallel to the ocean for about an hour. Just off the cost was a small island, and the bus driver told me that the island is where Christopher Columbus landed when he came to America... I'm not so sure I believe him. But anyway, as we drove, the sun began to set and we got some cool views of the sun setting.

Once we arrived in Puerto Viejo, we went out to eat at a local bar/restaurant and had rice and beans and played pool and hung out. That night, we went out and explored Puerto Viejo, but there wasn't much to do since it was night time.

It was a late night for me and an early morning. I was up till about 12:30 hanging out, and then had to wake up at 6:30 am for breakfast. We had rice and beans and eggs for breakfast at a panería (bread shop) and then headed out to Snorkel!!! Except when we got there, we discovered that we were unable to snorkel cuz the water was too dirty and the waves were choppy, which could have made it dangerous. I was really upset about this, but it definitely didn't ruin the trip for me as a whole. Instead of snorkeling, we went on like a 1 mile hike next to the Caribbean. On this hike we had the Ocean on our left and the Jungle on our right. We were able to see iguanas up at the top of trees and some really crazy looking bugs. But the two highlight animals were definitely the sloth and the monkeys. The sloth was kinda boring, but still really cool to see. The monkeys however, were really cool. My friend David and I were able to watch the monkeys crawl across the branches and jump from one tree to a palm tree right in front of us and climb the palm leaves, if they had missed on their jump they would have landed 2 feet from us. It was very cool.

At the end of this hike we were able to get in the sea, but it wasn't much fun to swim in because of all the coral that was on the ground. The coral felt like rocks, but looked much cooler. I was able to snag some of them and took them home as souvenirs. We soon moved farther down the beach to play in a more sandy area of the beach. I wish i had brought some boogie-boards.

When we returned to Puerto Viejo, my friends Jeff and Sho and I went out to lunch at a restaurant that was located right on the beach. We sat at a counter facing the ocean, which was only about 10-20 yards away from us, with palm trees along the side of the water. It was seriously like living a commercial. After lunch, the three of us walked along the beach and forest just to see what was there. We found some really cool secluded beach spots and some cool trees and plants. I found a coconut and plenty of coconut trees with coconuts still on them. We also found a very very large tree that had vines growing all over it and swung around on the vines. After that, I was ready for a nap.

A couple of us then went to dinner at a little stand just outside the main town. It looked a lot like the Taco Stands in Mexico, but served us Rice and Beans. After that, we went to a bar/restaurant that was situated right in the beach. The atmosphere was really chill there. They had some music playing in the background and the lights down to a level where it seemed like candle light. We all ordered just something to drink and went and sat on the beach (which was only like 10 yards away) and watched the waves role in at night. There was candles in paper bags all over the beach (set out by the restaurant) and one palm tree. It was the nicest, most relaxing thing I have ever seen or experienced.

The next day, we spent the morning in Puerto Viejo playing in the ocean. We got to sit in the waves and use some goggles to look in the rocks at some small fish and plant life. Also, I got to lay on the beach, right where the waves would sometimes make it to me. It was amazing, I can't stress that enough!!

Anyways, that was my first Caribbean Sea excursion. It made me want to go back already. I was very tired and exhausted, and I think I'm still trying to recover from it. I'm going to include some photos from Puerto Viejo, but I only have a few because I have to steal them off of friends' Facebook page since I don't have a camera here. So in a few days I will post some more pics here, so check back in the next day or so. Also, you can go to this link (¡Pura Vida Mae!). It's my Facebook album about Costa Rica, so i'll be putting pics from Puerto Viejo, San Jose and other activities I do while I'm here on that page.

Thank you all for reading, now I have homework to do
Vayan con Dios
Nick

 

The first week

Hey guys!

I'm back for my second post to tell you all about my classes and what my routine is starting to look like. 

I am taking only 2 classes right now. I am taking an excellerated Spanish class. This means that for 4 hours every day, from 8am to Noon, I am in a Spanish class. The class is Advanced Spanish 1, which is the third highest class that I can be in here. We focus on reading, speaking and grammar mostly. My other class is Introduction to Translation. The class is only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and is from 1pm to 3pm. In this class we simply translate stuff from English to Spanish. It's fairly easy, but has a lot of busy work. It will last for the whole 12 weeks that I am here.

My classes are very intense, it seems to be much more so than in America. This is because my classes are all in Spanish, and my Spanish Language class is only 4 weeks long, so we're already almost a quarter of the way through the class. Next week is Mid-Terms already. After the 4 weeks, I will move up a Spanish class and will be taking Advanced Spanish 2 for 4 weeks. After those 4 weeks I will take Advanced Conversation, which is the highest class they offer.

So far we have mainly been focusing on Costa Rican phrases and trying to learn aspects of the dialect here that doesn't translate to English or other Latin American countries. For example, the people here are called Ticos, not Costa Ricans, and when you ask someone to pass you something at the dinner table you say "Regalame" which literally translates to "Gift me." It is a very Tico phrase. Today we had a quiz over comprehension of a reading assignment. At first understanding the story was very difficult, but once I looked up the vocab it became fairly simple. Overall the class will be challenging, but as long as I put in the work (4 hours in class, 2 outside ever day) I should do fine in it.

With these two classes, I find myself in class for 24 hours a week and doing 12 hours of homework, which is more than I've had to do since high school. So, I mostly find myself doing homework or relaxing from all he work. Because of this, I haven't had too much time to go out and explore San José. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get out and see the city.

Right now I am sitting in my room, listening to a Thunder Storm roll through outside. It rains here a lot. The other day it rained for almost 6 straight hours, and that was a downpour for all 6 hours. I feel like the weather here is very similar to Portland. It's usually not raining in the morning, then about noon or 1 ish it starts to rain, then it rains for the rest of the day. But here, it's to the extreme. It's hot when it's not raining, and it pours when it rains. But, we will be through the rainy season in about a month to a month and a half. Then, it'll rain...

I am currently attempting to make friends here, it just has been hard to be very social while trying to adjust to a new schedule and routine AND do all the school work I have to do. But, tonight is the "Crash Party" at school. I don't know what that means, but it's basically a Back to School of Welcome to School party. I also met someone who invited me to an evangelical church down here, so I will be going to that on Sunday probably. Also, next weekend I am going to PUERTO VIEJO!! :D :D :D I am soooooooo stoked for this!! We are going to be on a Caribbean beach and go snorkeling and play in the water. Ahh! So excited! The school offers excursions to international students, we just have t pay for them. Some students paid for this through the program that they came with, but I didn't come through a program so I have to pay for any I want to go on. Because of this, I think I will go on maybe 2 or 3 while I am here. Especially when it's PUERTO VIEJO!! Plus, it'll only cost me about $100 for everything (food, transportation, activities, hotel), which is good compared to this weekends trip to Monteverde, which costs $200 (and doesn't even involve snorkeling :P).

Anyways, hopefully I will be able to meet people through these events and really settle in here. I feel like I am not quite settled yet.

But, this is getting long, so I'll wrap it up now. Hopefully pictures of my family next time

Nick Culbertson
Vayan con Dios

First Day

Hey everyone,

thanks for viewing my blog, if you want updates as to what's happening here in Costa Rica this is the place to go as I will not send out emails cuz that is too much to remember.  For those of you who don't know, for the next 3 months I will be studying Spanish at Veritas University in San José, Costa Rica. This will fulfill my Spanish Minor back at Fox.

I arrived yesterday at 1:30 pm here, which is 12:30 back in Oregon. The 1 hour time difference is nice since its not too bad of an adjustment. When I arrived at the airport there was a representative from Veritas University was there waiting for me as well as a group of about 8-10 other students from Veritas who had come in on my flight. Soon a transport van arrived to take us to our host families. My host family is a family of 5, a papí named Alfredo and a mamá who's name is Eugenia. Alfredo is a plant doctor, or a botanist and Eugenia is a veterinarian, her shop is located here at the front of the house. I have a host sister named María who is 16 and 2 host brothers. One brother is also named Alfredo and he is 14 and the youngest is named Luis José and he is 5 and super cute.

There is also 2 other exchange students staying here with me named Matt and David. Matt is a Senior at a school in North Carolina. David probably about 2-3 years older than me and has been to Costa Rica before and has stayed with our family before. He has been coming back as much as possible and this time hopes to find work and be able to stay here. We basically have our own apartment here located above the veterinarian clinic. We each have our own room and share a common room and bathroom. My room is small, but it has everything I need. I have a small desk and a bookshelf that I use in place of a dresser and a bed. It is very cozy and is perfect for what I need. The common room has some chairs, a table, a fridge, microwave and a TV with cable. I was able to watch some Football today, which made me feel like I was home a little bit. Unfortunately no Seahawks game on :(

The family's house is right next to our apartment, about 10 feet away. The house is very nice and comfortable.

Today Alfredo the younger took Matt and I around the neighborhood and showed us around. We are about a 5 minute walk from Veritas and also from a small shopping mall, supermarket, and cheap clothing store which everyone says has very good clothes. For the most part today I have been settling in to my new home and relaxing before the big plunge coming tomorrow. Tomorrow is my orientation at Veritas and the day that I sign up for classes. Hopefully I can get all the classes I want.

As I am forced to use Spanish I am realizing how good my skills are. I am able to understand most of what is said, to the point where I get the gist of what is said. For some reason though, I struggle at understanding what people are saying when they ask me questions directly, which I find strange. Speaking is quite different, I am sure I have bad grammar and vocab, but for the most part I can express what I need to express. Luckily for us, Alfredo the younger attends a bilingual school and has studied English for 6 years and David is fluent in both Spanish and English. Alfredo has been a bit of translator for us. I now know exactly how exchange students from Noe or the Chinese students at Fox feel. It is very hard to have meaningful conversations in a language that you do not speak. Hopefully hearing all this Spanish will help me be able to communicate better with them so that we can hang out more. 

I apologize if this post seemed long, hopefully future posts won't be as long. I am going to post some pictures of my room and apartment with this blog. Hopefully soon I will have pictures of my family too.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this, ask me on facebook, or email me at nculbertson07@georgefox.edu since I get Wifi here at my house.

Thanks for reading guys
Vayan con dios.

My room from the door to the outside

My room from the door to the common room

Our common room, the door to the outside is to the left of the couch, by the fridge 

My room shares a wall with the fridge and sink

Our common room from the other end.

The room that you can see part of is David's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The view from right outside our apartmen.

The exit to the street is to the left, the house is to the right

The view of our apartment from the bottom of the stairs

 

My family's house and car from the entrance to the house

 

My only decoration

Gotta rep my Blazers!