Translations are dumb. Whoever decided that translations are a good idea is going to the circle of hell as the person who decided that scooters are a better design than mopeds – that is, the level reserved for the most idiotic of idiots.
“But translations” – you say – “they’re so important!” BZZZZZT. Wrong. Equivalencies are where it’s at. Let me provide evidence of this fact in the form of examples.
In the U.S, when I want to greet someone (say when I walk into a store), I generally say, “Hello.” In Spanish, “Hello” is generally translated as “Hola.” However, nobody really says, “Hola” to greet me (say when I walk into a store.) Instead, they say “Buenos/as dias/tardes/noches” or simply “Buenas.” Translated, that’s “Good morning/afternoon/night.” Occasionally we United-Statesians will use this greeting, but I feel like others are much more common. I mean, you know when people are all “Good morning!” in your face at 7am, and you’re like, “Who is this freak! There’s nothing good about it!” ? Yeah, that’s what I mean when I say that we don’t use those greetings as much, and when people do, they kind of stand out. If I use “Hola,” I stand out. See why the translation is stupid? It’s much better to exchange my common English greeting of “Hello” for the equivalent common Spanish greeting of “Buenas” and just ignore what the exact translation tells me I should say.
For my second example, I can’t give a specific example, but you’ll see why in about two seconds. In, let’s say, my Geography of Costa Rica class, the professor gives a long string of instructions about how we should construct our maps and the features they should have. Now let’s say that a miracle happens and I actually understand her. Would I be able to repeat what she just said? Absolutely not. Would I be able to follow the directions? Definitely yes. It’s not the words I understand so much as the ideas. Not all words are translatable, but ideas are universal. I can take the ideas I have and turn them into an English equivalent that I can follow (and repeat). If you translated my English equivalent back into the original Spanish, it would bear very little resemblance to the original directions. Once again, it’s much better to understand what someone meant (the equivalent) rather know what they said (the translation) because the idea is the same in any language, whereas the words will differ from person to person.
Finally, let's take the example of a sign I saw from the bus. I think I put a picture of this sign on Photobucket, but for simplicity, I'll repeat it here:
Servicios Sanitarios
Bathrooms
Se guarda el equipaje
We keep your luggage
We keep your luggage?! Do you give it back?! "Guardar can be translated into "to keep" or "to save." In this case, they used the literal translation. However, I really don't think they meant it like that. They obviously meant "to guard" or "to keep safe." They would have been much better using an equivalency than the direct translation.
And other:
Um, let's see here. Last Friday we went to Mercado Central, which is this giant, disorganized market in downtown San José where you can buy just about anything. This is the market the Ticos go to when they need to buy stuff, whether it be a new backpack, cooking pans, chicken feet, or a pound of paprika. Honestly, I don't really like Mercado Central. It's not considered extremely safe (lots of pickpockets). I don't have any use for 90% of the stuff they sell there, and it's not worth smelling all the meat, seafood, and other "interesting" foods just to get a look at the 10% of stuff I might be interested in.
After that, we walked around downtown and checked out a few of the smaller independent shops. September is the big month for sales down here, so a lot of places had either % discounts, buy one get one free, or just "Camisas -- 2000 colones" ($4) or whatever. I ended up getting a headband and a few pairs of earrings ($4), a new pair of sunglasses ($1.25 -- no, they're not exactly "quality"), and an Ann Taylor shirt at what is apparently the Costa Rican equivalent of Goodwill ($4). I didn't try it on, but if it doesn't fit me, I'm sure I can find someone who might be able to use it. *coughdearestsistercough*
On Saturday, we went to Parque Nacional Volcán Poás, which is the most visited national park in Costa Rica. As our guidebook says, "It's not often you can look into the steaming crater of a volcano without having to go to the trouble of actually hiking up it." We took a bus from Curridabat to downtown San José. Then we took a taxi to the bus stop for the park. We paid the driver for our tickets ($5-6 round trip) and got a wonderfully short 2-hour bus ride to the volano. For foreign visitors, the park costs 6000 colones ($12) to get in. For people with local IDs, such as our student ID cards, it's 1000 colones ($2). We had fun snickering at all the sad little tourists whipping out the cinco mil bills to pay to get in.
So basically, there was an ititial trail that was really wide and nicely paved and not too steep that led to the first crater, which has a hot lagoon in it. The view was beautiful, but the blowing wind was not helping keep our already cold selves from further freezing. Then there was a second trail that led to the cold lake that had formed in an old crater. This trail was narrower, steeper, longer, and cut through undergrowth straight out of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale. I was quite happy when we finally made it to the top and could rest. After that, we had the choice of going back the way we came or taking a slightly longer loop back to the beginning. We chose the loop, which had the same characteristics as the way up, only this time going down.
It only took us about an hour and half to do all this walking and viewing, so we had another 2 hours to kill before the bus came back. I was starving and cold, so I went to the "cafeteria" to get some food. Unfortunately, "cafeteria" was a kind of generous description. The only hot foods they had were ramen and coffee. They had doughnuts, muffins, a few sad-looking sandwiches, some Tico junk food, and a whole glorious case of Snickers, M&Ms, 3 Musketeers, and Milky Ways. After I finished basking in the glow of the candy, I got some ramen and a doughnut. The doughnut was a major disappointment; it tasted like it was 3 days old. The ramen was overpriced ($2 ... yeah, I know) but relatively satisfiying, although perhaps the fact that it was the only option made it somewhat more satisfactory that it would otherwise have been. When lunch was eaten, we checked out the overpriced gift shop and the informational video they had running. Just before we got back on the bus, we got some candy for the ride home. Overall, it was a pretty neat little trip, if cold and lacking food options.
Classes this week... well, it was more of the same, pretty much. In my Geography of Costa Rica class, my teacher FINALLY asked me what I wanted to do my project on (instead of asking me if I was enrolled in the class). I wanted to do climate change, but apparently how this works is that you turn in the paper when we cover the topic in class, and then the presentation is in November. Somehow I had just assumed that the paper was due in November too. So of course, we're doing climate change right now, and she was like, "But you would have to turn that in today..." Great. Thanks for making me feel like an idiot. I wonder why I didn't know about this before? Does anyone know why I didn't know about this before?
OOO! OOO! PICK ME! PICK ME! I KNOW! Because you spent the first two weeks of class asking me if I was enrolled rather than asking me what project I wanted to do!! (/end rant)
I also found out that I have another project in Cartography that I'm supposed to do. She kept saying it was just a small little project, but when you've got as many other projects, tests, and papers as I do, there is no such thing as a small project. Well, I guess that's what I get for thinking to myself "Gee, it's great I have at least one class without any projects...."
This week, I had my first test. It was in World Geography. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. I don't even think I'm going to get a score on it. I'm just going to get it back, and it's going to have "NO" written on the top. It didn't help that I was super tired and feeling sick, but I don't think I could have come up with good answers to his questions even if I was on the top of my game. While I was writing the first one, I was like, "Well, the second one will be better" because I thought I had a good answer for it. Then I started writing the second one, and I was like, "Well, maybe that first one wasn't so bad." I'm particularly worried about the second one because it was asking about like trade and the president's vision of the country. Since we'd read a thing about the TLC (Tradado de Libre Comercio, or Free Trade Agreement), I figured that would be a good thing to talk about. Only thing is, that's the ONLY thing I've read about the TLC. Being some sort of government publication, our reading naturally protrayed the agreement in a glowing light. However, it would appear that 90% of the country is against it, and I have no idea why; "NO TLC" and variations on that theme are the most popular graffiti I've seen. So I had no choice but to make something up about how free trade is good and it helps people, even though I'm almost positive that our professor is opposed to the treaty. I remember writing something along the lines of "If it would work, I can't say, but the treaty..." It's a good thing I've gotten two A's on my reflexions for this class, because I think those are going to be the only points I get.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Some catching up to do
So, I haven't written in a while. 8 days, to be exact. I would have written a summary of last week's classes last Wednesday, but the one-two knockout punch of a storm and a misguided truck took out the electricity, phone, and internet. Well, the electricity was only out for about two hours, but the internet was out for two days. I left to go to the beach very very early the same morning they fixed the internet, and then I spent only a few precious minutes during the weekend on the internet. When I got back on Sunday, I was still having internet problems, so I didn't really get on until Monday. Yes, I went a whole 5+ days without internet (barring those few moments on Friday night). I know ... I'm surprised I survived too.
Let's see here. I'll brush off my "being concise" skills and try to summarize.
Last week's classes: I don't remember much. They were last week, after all. I did get a 9/10 on that paper that I turned in earlier (the one that I couldn't decide if it was horrible or brilliant.) I wouldn't call a 9/10 brilliant, but I thought that was pretty good all things considered. He said I had "good synthesis" -- I sure hope so! You guys have no idea how many random and seemingly unrelated readings I tied together in that thing. He also said I could disagree with the author, more like a critique. So this week, I wrote my second reflexion for that class, and I disagreed with one of the authors. I felt bad, because I don't think it was as good as the first one, and it was really repetitive even though he knocked 500 words off the minimum word limit because he said all of our 1500-2000 word papers were really repetitive. Oh well... it's turned in, and I don't really care right now.
Last weekend: Just about everyone in the grupo went to Panama last weekend - some of them needed to do their 3-day stint outside the country to be legal again, and others just wanted to tag along. Three of us didn't feel like dropping $200+ on the trip and getting drunk all weekend, so we chose to go somewhere closer, cheaper, and more conducive to getting work done (since we were gone for less time ... yeah right, like we'd do work at the beach). Sooooo, instead of heading to Panama, we went to Sámara, a sleepy little town on the Nicoyan Peninsula (aka Pacific Ocean).
On where we stayed: The guidebook gave a glowing recommendation to the Posada Matilori, so we called them ahead of time and made reservations. They gave us directions, but (not so) unfortunately, the directions got left behind. We took the 5:30 am bus (yes, 5:30 in the morning, that's not a typo) to Nicoya/the Sámara gas station, and then we caught a different bus into town. We got about 100 feet up the street with the directions we remembered, so we stopped into this laundry place to ask directions. Turns out we found the best possible place in town to ask for directions. We told the woman where we were staying, and she asked if we had reservations. We said we did, but then she asked if we got the number from the Lonely Planet guidebook. Well, yes... we did. Turns out the people who owned the hotel moved to a new location, but the phone number stayed attached to the building. The new owners of the building like to pretend they're the hotel and then trick people into staying there. Armed with the correct information and directions from some incredibly nice people, we walked over to the true location of the hotel. It was more expensive than we'd been planning at $50/night for the three of us, but it was such a nice place that we decided we wanted to stay there anyway. They had AC, cable TV, the nicest kitchen we'd seen yet, free internet (kinda slow), free use of boogie boards, and really nice owners. Let me tell you, compared to the places we've been staying, this was the lap of luxury. We spent the second half of Friday relaxing on the beach (that's why we dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30, so we'd have time to relax during the afternoon), and we had a nacho and guacamole feast for dinner.
On Saturday morning, we attempted to walk to Playa Buena Vista (another nearby beach) which supposedly had turtles at some point. We probably walked like 2 miles, and we couldn't find the beach. We gave up, but we saw monkeys and a lot of pretty flowers on the way, so it wasn't a total loss. After that, we rented some surfboards and hit the waves. People make surfing look really easy, but I assure you, it is not. Just battling the waves to get the bulky heavy surfboard out into the ocean is a chore by itself. Then you have to wait there, either "floating" (trying not to fall off) the board until a wave comes, or you have to stand there with the board and jump on at the last second before a wave comes (requires coordination). Then, when the wave comes, you have to be in exactly the right spot on the board. If you're too far back, the wave just goes under you. If you're too far forward, you get a face full of ocean. If you're lucky, you'll also lose control of your board and have the ocean smack it into some unprotected part of your body. Needless to say, I was a complete failure at surfing. I was told I had a spectacular wipe out though ... well, at least I did something spectacularly, right?
For dinner that night, we had another chip and guacamole feast, but I also made a pan of homemade mac and cheese -- no recipe, no measuring utensils. I was determined to take advantage of the cleanest, best-equipped kitchen we'd seen yet, and mac and cheese seemed like a good plan. It actually turned out pretty well too. Not the best mac and cheese I've ever eaten, but tasty nonetheless. Overall, Sámara was a really nice place to go. The town was small, felt really safe, everyone was super nice, and it wasn't as touristy as all the other places we've gone. Admittedly, we weren't sure that anyone actually spoke Spanish there since just about everyone we interacted with spoke English, but it was just a sleepy, relaxed atmosphere instead of a tourist-infested atmosphere. The beaches weren't as pretty as some of the other ones we've seen, but the fun factor definitely made up for that.
Since we wanted to get back relatively early on Sunday, we took the 8:30am bus from Sámara back to San José. When it pulled up, all the windows were up. I took one look at it and said, "I bet there is nobody on that bus yet. If there was anyone on there, the windows would be open." One of my friends commented, "Yeah, unless there's AC." We had a good laugh about that... AC on a bus in Costa Rica ... haha. After the bus driver chats with people for a bit, he finally gets back on the bus and lets us passengers on. Guess what? The bus had AC. It was a clean, relatively quiet, comfortable, AIR CONDITIONED bus. Let me put this in perspective: Say you're renting a car, and you've reserved the cheapest economy car you can. No, wait, not even that. Let's say that they've somehow decided to let you rent the ratty junker that their 15-year-old window washer drives to work. Then you get there, and the rental car people are all like, "Oh, our bad. We fired that window washer kid. Do you mind if we upgrade you to this Lexus free of charge?" Yeah, we were pretty stoked about that bus ride.
And finally, classes this week... Well, Monday was independence day here, so I didn't have my Monday class. I thought that was pretty sweet. Tuesday was Cartography and digitalizing maps. My shoulder hurt for at least an hour after that class; that computer lab is NOT designed for ergonomics. Then I had Geography of Costa Rica, where we learned in another power point/flip book about the climate of Costa Rica. I thought it was more interesting than tectonic plates, so that's good, I guess. We spent a lot of time talking about things I learned in either 7th grade, my intro to Environmental Studies class, Physical Geography, or from the previous week's Cartography class, though. Then today in Cartography, we went over a lot of the same earth-sciece/physical geography topics AGAIN. I mean, I think that stuff is interesting, but only to a certain point. World Geography was the usual giant mumble of unintelligible words. For some reason, I still like that class, and I still don't understand why. I don't understand the readings, I don't understand the lectures, I don't know what the professor wants (and I think he's the hard-to-please type), I have 4x more work in that class than in any other class, I can't say awake or pay attention... Believe me, I'm baffled by this "liking this class" phenomenon as well.
I got together with my group in that class to discuss our project on "Petroleo." I would translate that, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what we're talking about. I mean, are we talking about petroleum? Gas? Fuel? I'm supposed to research what it is and how it's used, so I guess I better figure out what we're talking about pretty soon, eh? The way we decided how this was all going to work was completely strange to me. They seemed to know this format to follow, and I did not understand why this precious format was so great. They started out with a "General Objective." Now, I would approach this step as a thesis statement, but that's not how it works. Basically, we just made it into a sentence explaining our ideas: "To make known the basic concepts and applications of petroleo, its uses in Latin America - specifically Costa Rica - and alternative sources of energy." I didn't really see how that helped us any, since it was just melding our four original idea sentences into one, but I decided that the nod-and-smile technique was the best plan at that point. Then we went on to the "Specific Objectives." This was basically re-using the same four sentences, only putting an infinitive verb at the front of each. Personally, I think we're writing a research paper, not a resume, but again, I chose nod-and-smile. "1) Define the basic concepts of petroleo. 2) Show some uses of petroleo. 3) Analyze the role that petroleo plays in Latin America/Costa Rica. 4) Emphasize the use of other sources of energy." We also have something about a "Conceptual Framework," but for some reason, we never got around to figuring out what that meant/filling it in. Whatevs. If it were me, I would have addressed the whole thing as like, problem-solution, or tried to prove the point that it's a multi-dimensional problem with economic, social, technological, geographical, (and etc) facets, or some other thesis-y sounding topic, but my group looked at me like I was crazy when I started to say that, so I gave up.
Let's see here. I'll brush off my "being concise" skills and try to summarize.
Last week's classes: I don't remember much. They were last week, after all. I did get a 9/10 on that paper that I turned in earlier (the one that I couldn't decide if it was horrible or brilliant.) I wouldn't call a 9/10 brilliant, but I thought that was pretty good all things considered. He said I had "good synthesis" -- I sure hope so! You guys have no idea how many random and seemingly unrelated readings I tied together in that thing. He also said I could disagree with the author, more like a critique. So this week, I wrote my second reflexion for that class, and I disagreed with one of the authors. I felt bad, because I don't think it was as good as the first one, and it was really repetitive even though he knocked 500 words off the minimum word limit because he said all of our 1500-2000 word papers were really repetitive. Oh well... it's turned in, and I don't really care right now.
Last weekend: Just about everyone in the grupo went to Panama last weekend - some of them needed to do their 3-day stint outside the country to be legal again, and others just wanted to tag along. Three of us didn't feel like dropping $200+ on the trip and getting drunk all weekend, so we chose to go somewhere closer, cheaper, and more conducive to getting work done (since we were gone for less time ... yeah right, like we'd do work at the beach). Sooooo, instead of heading to Panama, we went to Sámara, a sleepy little town on the Nicoyan Peninsula (aka Pacific Ocean).
On where we stayed: The guidebook gave a glowing recommendation to the Posada Matilori, so we called them ahead of time and made reservations. They gave us directions, but (not so) unfortunately, the directions got left behind. We took the 5:30 am bus (yes, 5:30 in the morning, that's not a typo) to Nicoya/the Sámara gas station, and then we caught a different bus into town. We got about 100 feet up the street with the directions we remembered, so we stopped into this laundry place to ask directions. Turns out we found the best possible place in town to ask for directions. We told the woman where we were staying, and she asked if we had reservations. We said we did, but then she asked if we got the number from the Lonely Planet guidebook. Well, yes... we did. Turns out the people who owned the hotel moved to a new location, but the phone number stayed attached to the building. The new owners of the building like to pretend they're the hotel and then trick people into staying there. Armed with the correct information and directions from some incredibly nice people, we walked over to the true location of the hotel. It was more expensive than we'd been planning at $50/night for the three of us, but it was such a nice place that we decided we wanted to stay there anyway. They had AC, cable TV, the nicest kitchen we'd seen yet, free internet (kinda slow), free use of boogie boards, and really nice owners. Let me tell you, compared to the places we've been staying, this was the lap of luxury. We spent the second half of Friday relaxing on the beach (that's why we dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30, so we'd have time to relax during the afternoon), and we had a nacho and guacamole feast for dinner.
On Saturday morning, we attempted to walk to Playa Buena Vista (another nearby beach) which supposedly had turtles at some point. We probably walked like 2 miles, and we couldn't find the beach. We gave up, but we saw monkeys and a lot of pretty flowers on the way, so it wasn't a total loss. After that, we rented some surfboards and hit the waves. People make surfing look really easy, but I assure you, it is not. Just battling the waves to get the bulky heavy surfboard out into the ocean is a chore by itself. Then you have to wait there, either "floating" (trying not to fall off) the board until a wave comes, or you have to stand there with the board and jump on at the last second before a wave comes (requires coordination). Then, when the wave comes, you have to be in exactly the right spot on the board. If you're too far back, the wave just goes under you. If you're too far forward, you get a face full of ocean. If you're lucky, you'll also lose control of your board and have the ocean smack it into some unprotected part of your body. Needless to say, I was a complete failure at surfing. I was told I had a spectacular wipe out though ... well, at least I did something spectacularly, right?
For dinner that night, we had another chip and guacamole feast, but I also made a pan of homemade mac and cheese -- no recipe, no measuring utensils. I was determined to take advantage of the cleanest, best-equipped kitchen we'd seen yet, and mac and cheese seemed like a good plan. It actually turned out pretty well too. Not the best mac and cheese I've ever eaten, but tasty nonetheless. Overall, Sámara was a really nice place to go. The town was small, felt really safe, everyone was super nice, and it wasn't as touristy as all the other places we've gone. Admittedly, we weren't sure that anyone actually spoke Spanish there since just about everyone we interacted with spoke English, but it was just a sleepy, relaxed atmosphere instead of a tourist-infested atmosphere. The beaches weren't as pretty as some of the other ones we've seen, but the fun factor definitely made up for that.
Since we wanted to get back relatively early on Sunday, we took the 8:30am bus from Sámara back to San José. When it pulled up, all the windows were up. I took one look at it and said, "I bet there is nobody on that bus yet. If there was anyone on there, the windows would be open." One of my friends commented, "Yeah, unless there's AC." We had a good laugh about that... AC on a bus in Costa Rica ... haha. After the bus driver chats with people for a bit, he finally gets back on the bus and lets us passengers on. Guess what? The bus had AC. It was a clean, relatively quiet, comfortable, AIR CONDITIONED bus. Let me put this in perspective: Say you're renting a car, and you've reserved the cheapest economy car you can. No, wait, not even that. Let's say that they've somehow decided to let you rent the ratty junker that their 15-year-old window washer drives to work. Then you get there, and the rental car people are all like, "Oh, our bad. We fired that window washer kid. Do you mind if we upgrade you to this Lexus free of charge?" Yeah, we were pretty stoked about that bus ride.
And finally, classes this week... Well, Monday was independence day here, so I didn't have my Monday class. I thought that was pretty sweet. Tuesday was Cartography and digitalizing maps. My shoulder hurt for at least an hour after that class; that computer lab is NOT designed for ergonomics. Then I had Geography of Costa Rica, where we learned in another power point/flip book about the climate of Costa Rica. I thought it was more interesting than tectonic plates, so that's good, I guess. We spent a lot of time talking about things I learned in either 7th grade, my intro to Environmental Studies class, Physical Geography, or from the previous week's Cartography class, though. Then today in Cartography, we went over a lot of the same earth-sciece/physical geography topics AGAIN. I mean, I think that stuff is interesting, but only to a certain point. World Geography was the usual giant mumble of unintelligible words. For some reason, I still like that class, and I still don't understand why. I don't understand the readings, I don't understand the lectures, I don't know what the professor wants (and I think he's the hard-to-please type), I have 4x more work in that class than in any other class, I can't say awake or pay attention... Believe me, I'm baffled by this "liking this class" phenomenon as well.
I got together with my group in that class to discuss our project on "Petroleo." I would translate that, but to be honest, I'm not entirely sure what we're talking about. I mean, are we talking about petroleum? Gas? Fuel? I'm supposed to research what it is and how it's used, so I guess I better figure out what we're talking about pretty soon, eh? The way we decided how this was all going to work was completely strange to me. They seemed to know this format to follow, and I did not understand why this precious format was so great. They started out with a "General Objective." Now, I would approach this step as a thesis statement, but that's not how it works. Basically, we just made it into a sentence explaining our ideas: "To make known the basic concepts and applications of petroleo, its uses in Latin America - specifically Costa Rica - and alternative sources of energy." I didn't really see how that helped us any, since it was just melding our four original idea sentences into one, but I decided that the nod-and-smile technique was the best plan at that point. Then we went on to the "Specific Objectives." This was basically re-using the same four sentences, only putting an infinitive verb at the front of each. Personally, I think we're writing a research paper, not a resume, but again, I chose nod-and-smile. "1) Define the basic concepts of petroleo. 2) Show some uses of petroleo. 3) Analyze the role that petroleo plays in Latin America/Costa Rica. 4) Emphasize the use of other sources of energy." We also have something about a "Conceptual Framework," but for some reason, we never got around to figuring out what that meant/filling it in. Whatevs. If it were me, I would have addressed the whole thing as like, problem-solution, or tried to prove the point that it's a multi-dimensional problem with economic, social, technological, geographical, (and etc) facets, or some other thesis-y sounding topic, but my group looked at me like I was crazy when I started to say that, so I gave up.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Dear Cilantro
Dear Cilantro,
I hate you. I hate you passionately. I despise you with the deepest loathing I can muster. You disgust me in every way imaginable.
Every food you touch, you infect with your rancid soapy-earwax taste. You attach your nastiness to every molecule of food in a 2-foot radius, and your smell cannot be covered with other foods nor smothered by a plastic bag in a refrigerator.
In what is apparently an villainous attempt to take over the world, you have somehow brainwashed the good people of Costa Rica into believing that you are a tasty food. How could you?! They put you in every dish, ruining what would otherwise be a delicious meal. This black magic shows that you have stepped into the realms of the deepest evil, turning good food into bad with your noxious fumes and flavor.
To end, oh dear enemy cilantro, I wish a thousand curses upon you. I wish for hordes of bugs to eat every last trace of you off this earth. I wish for fungi to crowd your foul leaves and choke out all chances of light or air. I wish acid rain to fall on all of your kind and burn your roots into nonexistence.
Cilantro, I hate you.
--Linda
Today's Spanish lesson: ¿Hay comida sin cilantro? (I ko-mee-dah seen cee-lahn-tro): Is there food without cilantro?
'NUFF SAID.
I hate you. I hate you passionately. I despise you with the deepest loathing I can muster. You disgust me in every way imaginable.
Every food you touch, you infect with your rancid soapy-earwax taste. You attach your nastiness to every molecule of food in a 2-foot radius, and your smell cannot be covered with other foods nor smothered by a plastic bag in a refrigerator.
In what is apparently an villainous attempt to take over the world, you have somehow brainwashed the good people of Costa Rica into believing that you are a tasty food. How could you?! They put you in every dish, ruining what would otherwise be a delicious meal. This black magic shows that you have stepped into the realms of the deepest evil, turning good food into bad with your noxious fumes and flavor.
To end, oh dear enemy cilantro, I wish a thousand curses upon you. I wish for hordes of bugs to eat every last trace of you off this earth. I wish for fungi to crowd your foul leaves and choke out all chances of light or air. I wish acid rain to fall on all of your kind and burn your roots into nonexistence.
Cilantro, I hate you.
--Linda
Today's Spanish lesson: ¿Hay comida sin cilantro? (I ko-mee-dah seen cee-lahn-tro): Is there food without cilantro?
'NUFF SAID.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
In AMERICA, we have a word for that
This weekend, we went to Monteverde -- well, to be technically correct, we went to Santa Elena, but it's all essentially the same thing. Monteverde and the surrounding area is home to one of the last areas of virgin "bosque nuboso" (cloud forest) in the world. There are several protected areas/national parks around the cities of Santa Elena, Cerro Plano, and Monteverde, namely the Santa Elena and Monteverde reserves. This area is the best place in Costa Rica (arugably in the world) to go on a canopy tour -- aka fly on cables strung throughout the rainforest canopies. Our main goal for our trip was to partake of this activity.
We left at 6:30 on Friday morning. In order to get to the bus stop on time, I had to be up at 4:30.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: TIME TO GO BACK TO BED. (So that's a phrase, not a word. Sue me.)
I thought the bus ride was supposed to be like, 4.5 hours. I was sorely disappointed. This bus ride was particularly bad, though, for several reasons. We had all bought tickets with seat numbers, so when the bus left at 6:30, we were all in our seats. However, we drove around to a lot of other stops to pick up other people -- people who didn't have tickets with seat numbers. What, you ask, did these people do? They stood. In the aisle. All like, 50 of them.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: ILLEGAL.
Just when you'd think the aisle was completely packed full, more people would appear at the roadside, the bus would stop, the driver would ask everyone to move back some more, and the people would squeeze on. First, I had some guy text messaging on his cell phone like, 3 inches away from my head. Later, I had one guy leaning all over the back of my chair. His body was 3 inches to the left of my left ear, and then his hand was hanging about 3 inches to the right of my right ear. And let me assure you, his hand was not a clean and beautiful thing. Then I had a woman and her kid right next to me, and her kid kept hanging on to me. I didn't really mind that because the kid was really cute and I felt bad for her having to stand and keep track of the kid, but it was still kind of annoying. (I was going to ask if she wanted my seat, but we squeezed more people on before I could, and she moved back). After that, I just had miscellaneous front ends, back ends, and limbs all jammed up in my personal space.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: BUBBLE SPACE. As in, GET OUT OF MY BUBBLE SPACE!
After like, 5.5 hours, we were still going, although we were reasonably close to getting there. The view from the roads we were on was gorgeous. Mountains, a lake in the distance, beautiful blue sky -- it was incredible. However, when we were about 15km away from Santa Elena (which you'd think would be like a 10 minute ride, but if you're thinking that, you are (a) using U.S. highway times, and (b) mistaken), someone on the bus got really sick. Apparently he'd hurt his head at work the other day, and he'd been in the hospital. They had released him, but he was getting worse and worse on the bus. So we stopped and waited until an ambulance came to get him. It took the ambulance 40 minutes to get there.
We FINALLY got back on the road to Santa Elena, and within the next 45 minutes or so, we arrived. Why did it take that long to go 15km? Here's the thing: A lot of the roads, especially the mountain roads near Santa Elena and Monteverde, aren't paved. Way back during one of the world wars, a few Quakers were jailed because their religion requires them to be pacifist but they were called for the draft. The were eventually released, but a group of Quakers left the country for Costa Rica in protest. (Convenient that Costa Rica has no army, eh?) These Quakers settled in Monteverde. To preserve their lifestyle and the incredibly rare and fragile ecosystem and watershed area around Monteverde, they fought to keep the roads unpaved for ages. I guess some roads have been paved recently, but many are still essentially one-lane dirt roads, winding around mountains, with no guard rails. Dad, Jenny, do you remember that one road we almost took in Arizona? I think I've been on that road's sibling. On a bus. A bus packed with 100 people. Actually, I think it might be safer packed to the gills like it was -- then, if we fell off the edge of the mountain, we would padded with our 99 fellow passengers rather than being thrown all around.
Okay, so anyway, we FINALLY got to Santa Elena, where our hostel was. For $6/person/night, we got clean beds, hot water showers, clean bathrooms, access to a kitchen, and a lot of helpful advice and suggestions from the super nice people who worked at/ran the hostel.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: UNHEARD OF.
We hung out for the rest of Friday -- going to the grocery store, checking out some shops, cooking dinner, etc. I bought some rubber rain boots for hiking (less than $10!) and that made me very happy. We did the spaghetti again, and I got fried chicken to go with it again. This time, though, I made garlic bread too, and it was a delicious addition. We also booked our canopy tour for 8:30 the next morning, meaning we had to get up at like, 6:30. Everything is so early because that's when the weather is most likely to be nice. Being in a rainforest, it, you know ... rains ... a lot. In the morning, it's generally not raining. This changes after noon. We were exceptionally lucky with the weather when we were there -- it held off raining until 2 or 3, and even then, it only rained on and off. This morning (Sunday), it was actually bright and sunny outside when we woke up.
So, canopy tour. It was pretty freakin' awesome. We picked one of the newer companies which had more lines, was highly recommended, and was the only tour that actually went through the real "virgin" cloud forest just outside the Santa Elena reserve (not sure how "virgin" it was since it had cables all strung through it, but whatever). We got there, got strapped into gear, got a quick introduction on how to not die, hiked up a hill, climbed onto the platform, got hooked onto the line, and went zipping through the canopy. They had told us that on most lines, we only needed to brake with one hand by pulling down on the cable (we had on some intense leather gloves), however some cables required braking with two hands. On the second cable, they were like, "Brake with two hands on this one." I started the line, and I was going REALLY fast. As I got closer and closer to the end platform, I started to panic that I would not be able stop, and I had been braking with one hand the whole time. I applied the second hand brake with little to no effect, and then I really started to panic. Thankfully, they had a secondary braking mechanism for like the last 20 feet -- not that they could have told us that beforehand, NOOOO. After that I had a little more trust in them, but I still braked on the 650 meter cable when they told us "don't brake." After the canopy tour, we went on the system of hanging bridges and trails they had running through the forest. It was nice to see the canopy at a slower speed, and the weather and scenery was breathtaking.
Here's my deep thought of the day regarding the cloud forests. From what I have been told (which was not from a scientist, but I still think it's from a credible source), there are only a few true cloud forests left in the world. Most of them are inaccessible or small. The best place to go in terms of accessibility and size is the Monteverde area in Costa Rica. Because these ecosystems are so fragile, global warming will probably wipe them out in the near future. I'm sure they'll still be foresty, but the things that make them specifically "cloud forests" will be gone. (Don't ask me what those things are; I'm not an ecologist). After seeing these forests, I think one of the greatest shames that has ever existed is that human actions are causing this destruction. (I will not digress into the global warming debate right now.) Even if we mended our ways TODAY, I still think that the damage we have done would probably irreversibly damage these forests. (That statement is personal opinion only and is not backed by anything scientific in any way, shape, or form). When you're standing there in one of the last outposts of a unique ecosystem, and you know that ecosystem is being destroyed by the actions of people in the rest of the world, it kind of feels like the entire world has declared war on this one beautiful and innocent speck of existence, and it feels ... terrible and infuriating and unfair all at the same time . Like the World Trade Center, I am glad that I got to see this while it's still around.
In AMERICA, we have a reaction to that kind of unprovoked act of destruction: DECLARE WAR. (Unfortunately, the forest can't declare war on the rest of the world. Too bad ... I think the forest would be better at it than the U.S is.)
Since we spent so long at the canopy tour place, we didn't have time to hike through the reserve before it closed for the day. That was sad, but we were all hungry and exhausted, so going back to the hostel to relax was pretty nice too. Besides, now we have an excuse to come back to Monteverde. We also were able to get in bed early so we could wake up at 5:30 to catch our 6:30 bus back to San José.
Ahh, the bus back to San José... Our tickets had seat numbers on them, just like the ones we had coming. We thought this meant that we were guaranteed seats. We were mistaken. 90% of the seats on the 6:30 bus were already taken when it pulled up. We were very confused. We asked at least 5 separate people if it was the right bus, and they said it was. But people were in our seats... So I asked if the seat numbers meant anything. Yes, I was told. They do. But not on THIS bus. They sold us tickets on the Puntarrenas bus so that we could stand on that bus for two hours until it met up with the San José bus. Our seat numbers were valid on the San José bus. So they basically sold three sets of tickets for the same seats, and the people who got on last had to stand.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: UNACCEPTABLE.
The bus was not the height of new technology. There was a rusty hole in the floor by the driver (I ended up sitting about three inches behind him on this little platform thing right over what I assume was the engine given the heat it was giving off) where wires came out of. The bus rattled and vibrated. Part of the insulation over the bump where I was sitting had chipped off, and it was even hotter than the rest of the bump. The driver's door kept flying open, and it took him nearly five minutes to get it to shut.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: JANKY.
Thankfully, after 30 minutes, two people in the seats right next to the four of us at the front of the bus had gotten off, so 3 of us had seats. From that vantage point, I could finally get a good glimpse of the view. It was rugged mountains, bathed in bright morning light, with a perfect blue sky and perfect green trees and undergrowth.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that:
(Meaning that there is no word to describe it.) Of course, the trade off for this view was a -- if this is possible -- even less paved road than the ones we'd been on earlier. If we had thought we were on poorly paved, one-lane roads winding around treacherous mountain cliffs earlier, we got a new definition of all of these characteristics. On a particularly steep and muddy curve, the bus got stuck. Everyone had to get off the bus and hike up the road a few hundred meters, but even with the lightened load, the bus just kept spinning out in the deep muddy trenches. A few guys went down to throw rocks under the wheels and try to push, but 8 men and a few rocks couldn't do much to help the bus. The driver finally came up the road and called all the guys down to help push.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: LAWSUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN.
The one guy in our group went to help while we stood around further up the hill and took pictures. 30 minutes of rocks, pushing, and attempts at gathering momentum failed. Finally, a car came to help tow. The car (4-wheel drive, obviously) plus the rocks plus the 20+ men pushing were able to dislodge the bus from the mud. Then the 100 passengers crowded back on to the bus. (I have lots of pictures of this little adventure, so you should check photobucket). A while after that, we switched over to the San José bus, and we claimed our rightful seats. From then on, it was pretty uneventful, other than a few taxi drivers trying to rip us off at the bus stop and then trying to explain to another (rather unintelligent) taxi driver where we wanted to go. Now I'm back home, not getting any work done (what's new?) even though I have a lot to do. Bah... I should get to work.
We left at 6:30 on Friday morning. In order to get to the bus stop on time, I had to be up at 4:30.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: TIME TO GO BACK TO BED. (So that's a phrase, not a word. Sue me.)
I thought the bus ride was supposed to be like, 4.5 hours. I was sorely disappointed. This bus ride was particularly bad, though, for several reasons. We had all bought tickets with seat numbers, so when the bus left at 6:30, we were all in our seats. However, we drove around to a lot of other stops to pick up other people -- people who didn't have tickets with seat numbers. What, you ask, did these people do? They stood. In the aisle. All like, 50 of them.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: ILLEGAL.
Just when you'd think the aisle was completely packed full, more people would appear at the roadside, the bus would stop, the driver would ask everyone to move back some more, and the people would squeeze on. First, I had some guy text messaging on his cell phone like, 3 inches away from my head. Later, I had one guy leaning all over the back of my chair. His body was 3 inches to the left of my left ear, and then his hand was hanging about 3 inches to the right of my right ear. And let me assure you, his hand was not a clean and beautiful thing. Then I had a woman and her kid right next to me, and her kid kept hanging on to me. I didn't really mind that because the kid was really cute and I felt bad for her having to stand and keep track of the kid, but it was still kind of annoying. (I was going to ask if she wanted my seat, but we squeezed more people on before I could, and she moved back). After that, I just had miscellaneous front ends, back ends, and limbs all jammed up in my personal space.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: BUBBLE SPACE. As in, GET OUT OF MY BUBBLE SPACE!
After like, 5.5 hours, we were still going, although we were reasonably close to getting there. The view from the roads we were on was gorgeous. Mountains, a lake in the distance, beautiful blue sky -- it was incredible. However, when we were about 15km away from Santa Elena (which you'd think would be like a 10 minute ride, but if you're thinking that, you are (a) using U.S. highway times, and (b) mistaken), someone on the bus got really sick. Apparently he'd hurt his head at work the other day, and he'd been in the hospital. They had released him, but he was getting worse and worse on the bus. So we stopped and waited until an ambulance came to get him. It took the ambulance 40 minutes to get there.
We FINALLY got back on the road to Santa Elena, and within the next 45 minutes or so, we arrived. Why did it take that long to go 15km? Here's the thing: A lot of the roads, especially the mountain roads near Santa Elena and Monteverde, aren't paved. Way back during one of the world wars, a few Quakers were jailed because their religion requires them to be pacifist but they were called for the draft. The were eventually released, but a group of Quakers left the country for Costa Rica in protest. (Convenient that Costa Rica has no army, eh?) These Quakers settled in Monteverde. To preserve their lifestyle and the incredibly rare and fragile ecosystem and watershed area around Monteverde, they fought to keep the roads unpaved for ages. I guess some roads have been paved recently, but many are still essentially one-lane dirt roads, winding around mountains, with no guard rails. Dad, Jenny, do you remember that one road we almost took in Arizona? I think I've been on that road's sibling. On a bus. A bus packed with 100 people. Actually, I think it might be safer packed to the gills like it was -- then, if we fell off the edge of the mountain, we would padded with our 99 fellow passengers rather than being thrown all around.
Okay, so anyway, we FINALLY got to Santa Elena, where our hostel was. For $6/person/night, we got clean beds, hot water showers, clean bathrooms, access to a kitchen, and a lot of helpful advice and suggestions from the super nice people who worked at/ran the hostel.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: UNHEARD OF.
We hung out for the rest of Friday -- going to the grocery store, checking out some shops, cooking dinner, etc. I bought some rubber rain boots for hiking (less than $10!) and that made me very happy. We did the spaghetti again, and I got fried chicken to go with it again. This time, though, I made garlic bread too, and it was a delicious addition. We also booked our canopy tour for 8:30 the next morning, meaning we had to get up at like, 6:30. Everything is so early because that's when the weather is most likely to be nice. Being in a rainforest, it, you know ... rains ... a lot. In the morning, it's generally not raining. This changes after noon. We were exceptionally lucky with the weather when we were there -- it held off raining until 2 or 3, and even then, it only rained on and off. This morning (Sunday), it was actually bright and sunny outside when we woke up.
So, canopy tour. It was pretty freakin' awesome. We picked one of the newer companies which had more lines, was highly recommended, and was the only tour that actually went through the real "virgin" cloud forest just outside the Santa Elena reserve (not sure how "virgin" it was since it had cables all strung through it, but whatever). We got there, got strapped into gear, got a quick introduction on how to not die, hiked up a hill, climbed onto the platform, got hooked onto the line, and went zipping through the canopy. They had told us that on most lines, we only needed to brake with one hand by pulling down on the cable (we had on some intense leather gloves), however some cables required braking with two hands. On the second cable, they were like, "Brake with two hands on this one." I started the line, and I was going REALLY fast. As I got closer and closer to the end platform, I started to panic that I would not be able stop, and I had been braking with one hand the whole time. I applied the second hand brake with little to no effect, and then I really started to panic. Thankfully, they had a secondary braking mechanism for like the last 20 feet -- not that they could have told us that beforehand, NOOOO. After that I had a little more trust in them, but I still braked on the 650 meter cable when they told us "don't brake." After the canopy tour, we went on the system of hanging bridges and trails they had running through the forest. It was nice to see the canopy at a slower speed, and the weather and scenery was breathtaking.
Here's my deep thought of the day regarding the cloud forests. From what I have been told (which was not from a scientist, but I still think it's from a credible source), there are only a few true cloud forests left in the world. Most of them are inaccessible or small. The best place to go in terms of accessibility and size is the Monteverde area in Costa Rica. Because these ecosystems are so fragile, global warming will probably wipe them out in the near future. I'm sure they'll still be foresty, but the things that make them specifically "cloud forests" will be gone. (Don't ask me what those things are; I'm not an ecologist). After seeing these forests, I think one of the greatest shames that has ever existed is that human actions are causing this destruction. (I will not digress into the global warming debate right now.) Even if we mended our ways TODAY, I still think that the damage we have done would probably irreversibly damage these forests. (That statement is personal opinion only and is not backed by anything scientific in any way, shape, or form). When you're standing there in one of the last outposts of a unique ecosystem, and you know that ecosystem is being destroyed by the actions of people in the rest of the world, it kind of feels like the entire world has declared war on this one beautiful and innocent speck of existence, and it feels ... terrible and infuriating and unfair all at the same time . Like the World Trade Center, I am glad that I got to see this while it's still around.
In AMERICA, we have a reaction to that kind of unprovoked act of destruction: DECLARE WAR. (Unfortunately, the forest can't declare war on the rest of the world. Too bad ... I think the forest would be better at it than the U.S is.)
Since we spent so long at the canopy tour place, we didn't have time to hike through the reserve before it closed for the day. That was sad, but we were all hungry and exhausted, so going back to the hostel to relax was pretty nice too. Besides, now we have an excuse to come back to Monteverde. We also were able to get in bed early so we could wake up at 5:30 to catch our 6:30 bus back to San José.
Ahh, the bus back to San José... Our tickets had seat numbers on them, just like the ones we had coming. We thought this meant that we were guaranteed seats. We were mistaken. 90% of the seats on the 6:30 bus were already taken when it pulled up. We were very confused. We asked at least 5 separate people if it was the right bus, and they said it was. But people were in our seats... So I asked if the seat numbers meant anything. Yes, I was told. They do. But not on THIS bus. They sold us tickets on the Puntarrenas bus so that we could stand on that bus for two hours until it met up with the San José bus. Our seat numbers were valid on the San José bus. So they basically sold three sets of tickets for the same seats, and the people who got on last had to stand.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: UNACCEPTABLE.
The bus was not the height of new technology. There was a rusty hole in the floor by the driver (I ended up sitting about three inches behind him on this little platform thing right over what I assume was the engine given the heat it was giving off) where wires came out of. The bus rattled and vibrated. Part of the insulation over the bump where I was sitting had chipped off, and it was even hotter than the rest of the bump. The driver's door kept flying open, and it took him nearly five minutes to get it to shut.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: JANKY.
Thankfully, after 30 minutes, two people in the seats right next to the four of us at the front of the bus had gotten off, so 3 of us had seats. From that vantage point, I could finally get a good glimpse of the view. It was rugged mountains, bathed in bright morning light, with a perfect blue sky and perfect green trees and undergrowth.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that:
(Meaning that there is no word to describe it.) Of course, the trade off for this view was a -- if this is possible -- even less paved road than the ones we'd been on earlier. If we had thought we were on poorly paved, one-lane roads winding around treacherous mountain cliffs earlier, we got a new definition of all of these characteristics. On a particularly steep and muddy curve, the bus got stuck. Everyone had to get off the bus and hike up the road a few hundred meters, but even with the lightened load, the bus just kept spinning out in the deep muddy trenches. A few guys went down to throw rocks under the wheels and try to push, but 8 men and a few rocks couldn't do much to help the bus. The driver finally came up the road and called all the guys down to help push.
In AMERICA, we have a word for that: LAWSUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN.
The one guy in our group went to help while we stood around further up the hill and took pictures. 30 minutes of rocks, pushing, and attempts at gathering momentum failed. Finally, a car came to help tow. The car (4-wheel drive, obviously) plus the rocks plus the 20+ men pushing were able to dislodge the bus from the mud. Then the 100 passengers crowded back on to the bus. (I have lots of pictures of this little adventure, so you should check photobucket). A while after that, we switched over to the San José bus, and we claimed our rightful seats. From then on, it was pretty uneventful, other than a few taxi drivers trying to rip us off at the bus stop and then trying to explain to another (rather unintelligent) taxi driver where we wanted to go. Now I'm back home, not getting any work done (what's new?) even though I have a lot to do. Bah... I should get to work.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
On environmentalism. And food. And other stuff.
On Environmentalism:
Before I came to Costa Rica, I thought it was a "green" country. Well, obviously it's green because of all the trees and rain and lack of a greenery-destroying winter, but I mean "green" like "environmentally-conscious." Perhaps this is a gross generalization, but when Americans think "Costa Rica" they think "eco-tourism" and "canopy tours." (Well, actually most people think "Isn't that an island somewhere...?' if you're thinking this, please refer to my map linked at the right.) I hate to break this news to the world like this, but this whole "environmentally friendly" thing is kind of a sham. Okay, okay, "sham" is harsh. But I also think "environmentally friendly" is far too generous. First of all, Costa Rica has a trash problem. There is trash in the streets (not a TON, but enough to make the streets look, well, trashy). From what I learned in my culture class, many people just don't have a little angel on their shoulder telling them to deposit their trash in a bin. (That was another gross generalization, but it's still a valid point, I think.) Second, a lot of the "eco-tourism" stuff is actually hurting the environment. Canopy tours can be disruptive to the environment. ATV tours spew harmful emissions into the "unspoiled wilderness" that they take you through. There are wooden souvenirs everywhere that are made of beautiful tropical hardwood, but the production of many of these souvenirs is actually destroying the forests that people come here to see.
So if all of that is true, where did Costa Rica get this "eco-friendly" image? You can thank the Costa Rican government. Tourism is the new coffee, and it would be ridiculous to turn down such and incredible source of income. Thus, the government is the body promoting the "eco-tourism" image, and they're doing a great job. In the U.S., I feel like environmentalism is more of a grassroots affair. Our government .... let's not go there, shall we? The people (some of us, anyway) are the ones who really care and make a big deal about coal-fired power plants and recycling and gas-efficiency and so forth. In Costa Rica, I feel like environmentalism is a government-constructed affair. They want to attract tourists because tourists are so good for the economy, so they do a lot of wild-area protection and national-park creation, and then they use these policies to promote an eco-friendly image to the tourists. Now, to be fair, all of this isn't to say that there aren't environmentally-friendly ticos, that the government only protects areas to lure tourists, nor that natural parks are not important to the people here. Costa Rica has done a lot of good things for their environment. They have designated a significant portion of their total square mileage with some form of protection, and they use (to the best of my knowledge) all or almost all renewable resources to supply electricity. People are much better about using public transportation than we are in the U.S., and they're much more conservative with their electricity usage than we are. The U.S. is still by far the biggest nation of wasters and mass consumption, but my point still stands that environmentalism is not always a grassroots movement.
On food:
There is a lot of good food in Costa Rica. And no, not all of it is Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Wendy's. There's a place near the University called Monster Pizza that is excellent. It is so excellent it will some day have a blog entry devoted to it. There is also a casado place (we'll translate that into like, a lunch counter/cafeteria kinda thing) that has really good fish and chicken lunch plates. There is a Chinese restaurant right around the corner from me that has the best chicken fried rice I've ever had. There is also Fresas, home of giant slices of wonderful chocolate cake and some really good french fries. (It's a good combo, I promise.) This is a mere sampling of all the wonderful food available to me in Costa Rica.
However, you might notice that all of these places are eating establishments -- as in, not the food I get at home. This might mislead you to think that the food I get at home is not good. That would be a very false statement. I get excellent food at home, and the desserts my host mom makes more than make up for the insane quantities of rice and beans I eat.
Despite all this delicious food, I still miss the food of home. Or, to put it more precisely, I miss my food independence. If I decide that I want chicken satay at 10:30 in the morning, I am out of luck. If I see potatoes at the market and think they'd be really good baked in the oven, I am out of luck. If I don't want chicken and a cup of rice for dinner, I am out of luck. I can't just run to the store and buy ingredients to make whatever I fancy whenever I fancy, and I can't decide to whip up a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner if I don't feel like eating what's been served. When I eat at home here, I am at the mercy of whatever has already been cooked, and I don't like that. To be sure, I'll have at least two weeks worth of menus planned out for when I come home (Mom and Dad, I'll be sure to give you lists ahead of time so you can be properly prepared) but what I miss the most is the opportunity to make fried catfish for breakfast or waffles for dinner or a whole pan of lasagna for lunch or whatever else I feel like eating.
And other stuff:
Hmm, well, classes. Another week of classes is over. I am one week closer to home, but one week closer to my 800 papers, tests, and projects, so I can't say I'm overly thrilled.
I'll start with last week's Cartography class. We had a quiz. I DID the reading for the quiz. This wasn't some weeny little skimming I did, oh no, I like highlighted and looked up all the words I didn't know and everything. I DID the reading. So the first question I understand and feel like I can answer. Then the second question was (as far as I was concerned) something like this: "What was the ntycsasytbj of Hispanic cartography?" HOW are you supposed to answer something like that?! I sat there for about ten minutes trying to figure out what that word could possibly be, but I couldn't figure it out. I eventually asked to use my dictionary, and the teacher said that was fine, but I still didn't know the answer even after I knew what the word was. I wrote down some really lame and vague sentence, and now my teacher probably thinks I'm retarded.
In regional geography of Costa Rica, my teacher has now gone two whole weeks without asking me if I'm enrolled in her class. This makes me very happy. Actually, it is the only thing about her class that makes me happy. This week, she had a power point presentation for us about ... wow, that's bad, I don't even remember ... it was like, tectonic plates and volcanoes and stuff. Well, let's be honest. It was supposed to be a power point. In reality, it was a giant flip book. Unfortunately, the pictures and text in this giant flip book did not make a fun moving image like they do in real flip books. No, this giant flip book was just one big fast-moving blob of confusion. I definitely need to go read the textbook, because I do not understand what was going on in that class. She also had us do our first in-class assignment. This consisted of handing out a blank map of Costa Rica and a small sheet of paper with approximately 3 bays, 4 peninsulas, 8 islands, 7 volcanoes, 5 mountain ranges, 4 plains, and various other attributes of physical geography. We were supposed to label all these things on the map -- without using a real map as a reference. This assignment is what I like to call "unfair to foreigners," although I doubt I could label that many things in the U.S either. I got a couple of things in the right places (mostly because those were the places we'd visited -- three cheers for traveling!), but I had no idea on 3/4 of the things. I really hope that was one of those "If you try, you get full credit" kinds of assignments.
My last class today was world geography. We had our first assignment due today. This was a 1500-2200 word "reflexion" based on the readings and class discussions, and it will be graded on our ability to "synthesize" and "analyze." In my attempt to write this paper, I decided that a good translation of "analizar" is "to attempt to relate completely un-related things with a fabricated thesis statement, and then babble about it for an additional 1400 words." Seriously, I almost never have problems meeting minimum length requirements, but this paper nearly killed me. I had to find some way to tie together the most random topics, and it was horrible. Absolutely horrible. It was so horrible, it was almost brilliant. I'm still kind of on the fence about whether it was more horrible or brilliant. I will reserve judgment until I get my grade back. Discussion in class today was just as bad as ever. I don't know why I like this class, because I have no idea what's going on. Let me give an example of how this class sounds to me:
Resultamásdifícildarcuentadela distribución de estesubgrupodelaespeciehumana decualquierotro. La localización delosgruposrestantesobedeceaun obvio sentidológico. Exceptouno porción relativamentepequeña, todaslasvariantesaisáticasviven en Asia.
That was an excerpt from our reading, translated into how it would sound to me if the teacher was saying it. I would have caught "distribución," "localización," "porción," and "Asia." This perhaps explains why my notes read, (and I quoteth) "The Vikings depended a lot on milk," "Europeans utilized el araba" (whatever THAT is), "Feudalism vs. mercantilism," and "Sugar and coffee." Yes, I sat through a three-hour long class, and I managed to preserve exactly those four tidbits of wisdom. I have a feeling that it is very important I do the reading for this class, because I will certainly fail if I depend on my ability to understand the discussion.
Today's Spanish lesson: Fracaso estrepitoso (frah-kah-so es-tree-pee-toe-so). This means "spectacular failure." Not only is this fun to say, it's just a good phrase to know.
Before I came to Costa Rica, I thought it was a "green" country. Well, obviously it's green because of all the trees and rain and lack of a greenery-destroying winter, but I mean "green" like "environmentally-conscious." Perhaps this is a gross generalization, but when Americans think "Costa Rica" they think "eco-tourism" and "canopy tours." (Well, actually most people think "Isn't that an island somewhere...?' if you're thinking this, please refer to my map linked at the right.) I hate to break this news to the world like this, but this whole "environmentally friendly" thing is kind of a sham. Okay, okay, "sham" is harsh. But I also think "environmentally friendly" is far too generous. First of all, Costa Rica has a trash problem. There is trash in the streets (not a TON, but enough to make the streets look, well, trashy). From what I learned in my culture class, many people just don't have a little angel on their shoulder telling them to deposit their trash in a bin. (That was another gross generalization, but it's still a valid point, I think.) Second, a lot of the "eco-tourism" stuff is actually hurting the environment. Canopy tours can be disruptive to the environment. ATV tours spew harmful emissions into the "unspoiled wilderness" that they take you through. There are wooden souvenirs everywhere that are made of beautiful tropical hardwood, but the production of many of these souvenirs is actually destroying the forests that people come here to see.
So if all of that is true, where did Costa Rica get this "eco-friendly" image? You can thank the Costa Rican government. Tourism is the new coffee, and it would be ridiculous to turn down such and incredible source of income. Thus, the government is the body promoting the "eco-tourism" image, and they're doing a great job. In the U.S., I feel like environmentalism is more of a grassroots affair. Our government .... let's not go there, shall we? The people (some of us, anyway) are the ones who really care and make a big deal about coal-fired power plants and recycling and gas-efficiency and so forth. In Costa Rica, I feel like environmentalism is a government-constructed affair. They want to attract tourists because tourists are so good for the economy, so they do a lot of wild-area protection and national-park creation, and then they use these policies to promote an eco-friendly image to the tourists. Now, to be fair, all of this isn't to say that there aren't environmentally-friendly ticos, that the government only protects areas to lure tourists, nor that natural parks are not important to the people here. Costa Rica has done a lot of good things for their environment. They have designated a significant portion of their total square mileage with some form of protection, and they use (to the best of my knowledge) all or almost all renewable resources to supply electricity. People are much better about using public transportation than we are in the U.S., and they're much more conservative with their electricity usage than we are. The U.S. is still by far the biggest nation of wasters and mass consumption, but my point still stands that environmentalism is not always a grassroots movement.
On food:
There is a lot of good food in Costa Rica. And no, not all of it is Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Wendy's. There's a place near the University called Monster Pizza that is excellent. It is so excellent it will some day have a blog entry devoted to it. There is also a casado place (we'll translate that into like, a lunch counter/cafeteria kinda thing) that has really good fish and chicken lunch plates. There is a Chinese restaurant right around the corner from me that has the best chicken fried rice I've ever had. There is also Fresas, home of giant slices of wonderful chocolate cake and some really good french fries. (It's a good combo, I promise.) This is a mere sampling of all the wonderful food available to me in Costa Rica.
However, you might notice that all of these places are eating establishments -- as in, not the food I get at home. This might mislead you to think that the food I get at home is not good. That would be a very false statement. I get excellent food at home, and the desserts my host mom makes more than make up for the insane quantities of rice and beans I eat.
Despite all this delicious food, I still miss the food of home. Or, to put it more precisely, I miss my food independence. If I decide that I want chicken satay at 10:30 in the morning, I am out of luck. If I see potatoes at the market and think they'd be really good baked in the oven, I am out of luck. If I don't want chicken and a cup of rice for dinner, I am out of luck. I can't just run to the store and buy ingredients to make whatever I fancy whenever I fancy, and I can't decide to whip up a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner if I don't feel like eating what's been served. When I eat at home here, I am at the mercy of whatever has already been cooked, and I don't like that. To be sure, I'll have at least two weeks worth of menus planned out for when I come home (Mom and Dad, I'll be sure to give you lists ahead of time so you can be properly prepared) but what I miss the most is the opportunity to make fried catfish for breakfast or waffles for dinner or a whole pan of lasagna for lunch or whatever else I feel like eating.
And other stuff:
Hmm, well, classes. Another week of classes is over. I am one week closer to home, but one week closer to my 800 papers, tests, and projects, so I can't say I'm overly thrilled.
I'll start with last week's Cartography class. We had a quiz. I DID the reading for the quiz. This wasn't some weeny little skimming I did, oh no, I like highlighted and looked up all the words I didn't know and everything. I DID the reading. So the first question I understand and feel like I can answer. Then the second question was (as far as I was concerned) something like this: "What was the ntycsasytbj of Hispanic cartography?" HOW are you supposed to answer something like that?! I sat there for about ten minutes trying to figure out what that word could possibly be, but I couldn't figure it out. I eventually asked to use my dictionary, and the teacher said that was fine, but I still didn't know the answer even after I knew what the word was. I wrote down some really lame and vague sentence, and now my teacher probably thinks I'm retarded.
In regional geography of Costa Rica, my teacher has now gone two whole weeks without asking me if I'm enrolled in her class. This makes me very happy. Actually, it is the only thing about her class that makes me happy. This week, she had a power point presentation for us about ... wow, that's bad, I don't even remember ... it was like, tectonic plates and volcanoes and stuff. Well, let's be honest. It was supposed to be a power point. In reality, it was a giant flip book. Unfortunately, the pictures and text in this giant flip book did not make a fun moving image like they do in real flip books. No, this giant flip book was just one big fast-moving blob of confusion. I definitely need to go read the textbook, because I do not understand what was going on in that class. She also had us do our first in-class assignment. This consisted of handing out a blank map of Costa Rica and a small sheet of paper with approximately 3 bays, 4 peninsulas, 8 islands, 7 volcanoes, 5 mountain ranges, 4 plains, and various other attributes of physical geography. We were supposed to label all these things on the map -- without using a real map as a reference. This assignment is what I like to call "unfair to foreigners," although I doubt I could label that many things in the U.S either. I got a couple of things in the right places (mostly because those were the places we'd visited -- three cheers for traveling!), but I had no idea on 3/4 of the things. I really hope that was one of those "If you try, you get full credit" kinds of assignments.
My last class today was world geography. We had our first assignment due today. This was a 1500-2200 word "reflexion" based on the readings and class discussions, and it will be graded on our ability to "synthesize" and "analyze." In my attempt to write this paper, I decided that a good translation of "analizar" is "to attempt to relate completely un-related things with a fabricated thesis statement, and then babble about it for an additional 1400 words." Seriously, I almost never have problems meeting minimum length requirements, but this paper nearly killed me. I had to find some way to tie together the most random topics, and it was horrible. Absolutely horrible. It was so horrible, it was almost brilliant. I'm still kind of on the fence about whether it was more horrible or brilliant. I will reserve judgment until I get my grade back. Discussion in class today was just as bad as ever. I don't know why I like this class, because I have no idea what's going on. Let me give an example of how this class sounds to me:
Resultamásdifícildarcuentadela distribución de estesubgrupodelaespeciehumana decualquierotro. La localización delosgruposrestantesobedeceaun obvio sentidológico. Exceptouno porción relativamentepequeña, todaslasvariantesaisáticasviven en Asia.
That was an excerpt from our reading, translated into how it would sound to me if the teacher was saying it. I would have caught "distribución," "localización," "porción," and "Asia." This perhaps explains why my notes read, (and I quoteth) "The Vikings depended a lot on milk," "Europeans utilized el araba" (whatever THAT is), "Feudalism vs. mercantilism," and "Sugar and coffee." Yes, I sat through a three-hour long class, and I managed to preserve exactly those four tidbits of wisdom. I have a feeling that it is very important I do the reading for this class, because I will certainly fail if I depend on my ability to understand the discussion.
Today's Spanish lesson: Fracaso estrepitoso (frah-kah-so es-tree-pee-toe-so). This means "spectacular failure." Not only is this fun to say, it's just a good phrase to know.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Isn't it odd... (miscellaneous)
In the U.S., when I see a penny on the ground, I generally ignore it. Why bother taking all that effort to pick up a mere penny? It's worth less than the space it takes up. I usually don't bother picking up nickels either, but that's more of an internal debate. However, in Costa Rica, if I see a 5 colon coin on the ground, I'm all over that. Do you know how much 5 colones is in USD? $.009. Less than a penny. Yet I'm still all over that. If I get 10, 25, 0r 50 colones (2, 5, and 9 cents respectively), that's like hitting the jackpot. I am obviously not yet properly conditioned to the exchange rate.
Pets and foreign languages ... this is strange to me. My host family keeps talking to their dog in Spanish, and it messes with me. Like, DUH, the dog isn't going to understand you; you're talking to it in Spanish. Maybe if you tried "Sit!" instead of "¡Sientase! (that probably has an accent, but I have no idea where) the dog would do what you're asking. Sheesh.
Yesterday, I ate like a pig. For first breakfast, I had pineapple, a banana, and orange juice. For second breakfast, I had an apple costilla (tasty pastry). For first lunch, I had nachos at Taco Bell. For second lunch, I had a slice of pizza from Pizza Hut. For first dessert, I had an ice cream cone from McDonald's. For first dinner, I had ... it was like a piece of beef and rice. For a post-dinner snack, I had french fries. For second dessert, me and two friends shared a piece of chocolate cake and a chocolate/strawberry cake between the three of us. It was a bad day ... but a very good day too.
Today, we went to the market at the end of the street, and we loaded up on fruit. Two of my friends got pineapples, and we split momotes chinos (probably not spelling that right) which, to the best of my knowledge, are some sort of lychee. They're really good, although some are better than others. You get bag of them, peel each one, and then eat the white part around the seed. Some are really sweet, some are sour, some come off the seed easily, some do not, and so on. They're all different. We also tried an annona, which to the best of my knowledge, is called a sugar-apple in English. It looks really gross -- the outside is brown, and the inside is white and kind of squishy and brainy-looking. I'm not a huge fan of the texture because it's kind of grainy, but it has a really great flavor. It tastes familiar, kind of like fruit punch or candy, but I can't describe it any more than that. I also got a couple mandarins. We went and sat on a bench at my friend's house and pigged out on fruit. It was good fun.
Lastly,
A note to all current and future parental units:
It is not a good plan to name your child something that means something in another language. Well, if you want to name your child something that means something in like, ancient Greek, or Latin or some other language that nobody speaks, that's fine. However, try to stay away from words with meaning in a language that is still spoken. In the states, my name is fine. It actually works out well, because not too many people my age have my name, and that's less confusing for me. Unfortunately, EVERYONE SOUTH OF THE TEXAS/MEXICO BORDER (excluding Brazil) KNOWS MY NAME. Not only do they know it, they say it several times a day. Do you have any idea how annoying this is?! I hear people saying my name all the time, and they're rarely talking to me. Even worse, people use "linda" in piropos (catcalls) fairly regularly. It's like, how do all these dirty men on the street know my name!!? GAHHH!! Mom and Dad, if when I get back I have successfully conditioned myself to not pay attention when people say my name, 1) I apologize for ignoring you, and 2) it's all your fault that I'm ignoring you.
Pets and foreign languages ... this is strange to me. My host family keeps talking to their dog in Spanish, and it messes with me. Like, DUH, the dog isn't going to understand you; you're talking to it in Spanish. Maybe if you tried "Sit!" instead of "¡Sientase! (that probably has an accent, but I have no idea where) the dog would do what you're asking. Sheesh.
Yesterday, I ate like a pig. For first breakfast, I had pineapple, a banana, and orange juice. For second breakfast, I had an apple costilla (tasty pastry). For first lunch, I had nachos at Taco Bell. For second lunch, I had a slice of pizza from Pizza Hut. For first dessert, I had an ice cream cone from McDonald's. For first dinner, I had ... it was like a piece of beef and rice. For a post-dinner snack, I had french fries. For second dessert, me and two friends shared a piece of chocolate cake and a chocolate/strawberry cake between the three of us. It was a bad day ... but a very good day too.
Today, we went to the market at the end of the street, and we loaded up on fruit. Two of my friends got pineapples, and we split momotes chinos (probably not spelling that right) which, to the best of my knowledge, are some sort of lychee. They're really good, although some are better than others. You get bag of them, peel each one, and then eat the white part around the seed. Some are really sweet, some are sour, some come off the seed easily, some do not, and so on. They're all different. We also tried an annona, which to the best of my knowledge, is called a sugar-apple in English. It looks really gross -- the outside is brown, and the inside is white and kind of squishy and brainy-looking. I'm not a huge fan of the texture because it's kind of grainy, but it has a really great flavor. It tastes familiar, kind of like fruit punch or candy, but I can't describe it any more than that. I also got a couple mandarins. We went and sat on a bench at my friend's house and pigged out on fruit. It was good fun.
Lastly,
A note to all current and future parental units:
It is not a good plan to name your child something that means something in another language. Well, if you want to name your child something that means something in like, ancient Greek, or Latin or some other language that nobody speaks, that's fine. However, try to stay away from words with meaning in a language that is still spoken. In the states, my name is fine. It actually works out well, because not too many people my age have my name, and that's less confusing for me. Unfortunately, EVERYONE SOUTH OF THE TEXAS/MEXICO BORDER (excluding Brazil) KNOWS MY NAME. Not only do they know it, they say it several times a day. Do you have any idea how annoying this is?! I hear people saying my name all the time, and they're rarely talking to me. Even worse, people use "linda" in piropos (catcalls) fairly regularly. It's like, how do all these dirty men on the street know my name!!? GAHHH!! Mom and Dad, if when I get back I have successfully conditioned myself to not pay attention when people say my name, 1) I apologize for ignoring you, and 2) it's all your fault that I'm ignoring you.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Progress
So far, this week has been much better than last week. This makes me glad.
First, in Gestión Ambiental, we learned that we don't have class next week. Score! 5-day weekend! (That's sick, isn't it?)
Side note: After the first session of this class, I was complaining about how the professor was talking about the difference between "gestión" and "manejo" because foreigners shouldn't have to deal with ridiculous semantics questions like that. Well, I forgot to post back with the results. On the second week, the professor spent an hour and a half leading up to his answer. He had us volunteer what we thought the difference was, and he talked in circles around the answer for, as I said, about an hour and a half. Finally, he says, "But for me, here's the difference between "gestión" and "manejo"..." (You could literally hear everyone somultaneously pick up their pencils and fall out of the universal stupor.) "It doesn't exist." (Universal sigh as everyone slumps back down in their chairs, puts their pencils down, and reverts to stupor.) He went on to explain that "manejo" is a Spanishified version of the English word "management," and "management" translated properly into Spanish is "gestión." Come on... really now?
In Cartography, I think I have possibly discovered the secret to getting up at 5:30am so I can be at the bus at 6 and in class at 7. It's called going to bed at 10pm. Strange how that works, isn't it? Last night I went to bed at 10, and I had no problems getting up at 5:30 this morning. Bonus points: I showered! Wohoo! It's always a good day when I can work a shower in.
In Regional Geography of Costa Rica today, the professor didn't ask me if I was enrolled in her class. I still think she wonders why I'm showing up because I'm not actually enrolled, but at least she didn't ask again. This is progress. Also, either I'm understanding her better or caring less that I don't understand her, because I'm feeling better about that class. It's still my least favorite class, but progress is progress.
After class, I went to the mall. I bought a McDonald's ice cream cone for 250 colones (50 cents) and it was delicious. I found the markers and the graph paper I needed for my Cartography class. After wandering around for a while, I went to Wendy's. My Wendy's meal more than lived up to the image of it that I had built up in my head. I got a cheeseburger (I need to learn how to say mustard in Spanish), chicken nuggets, fries, a drink, and a mini frosty all for like, $4.50
Then I went to find the transparency sheets (like for overheads) that I needed for Cartography. I found some in a bookstore, but I didn't feel like paying $10 for 100 of them. The second copy shop I asked at had them -- 440 colones (less than $1) is a lot better than $10.
When I went to take the bus home, I only had to wait like, 3 minutes for it. Usually it's at least a 15 or 20 minute wait, but today I got lucky. I was hoping to beat the rain home, but it started raining about 7 minute before the bus got to my stop. And by raining, I mean pouring. When I got off the bus, I stepped into a 4-inch deep river (formerly the street). Usually the 1.5-foot deep 2-feet wide gutters that are on every street are sufficient to contain the rain, but today, that was full, and the rushing water extended 2 feet out into the street, and it was running 4 inches deep. Unfortunately, my little rubber booties were not sufficiently tall enough to cope with this torrent, and my shoes got a bath. Since I only had a 45-second walk home, I didn't really care. My shoes probably needed to be washed anyway. In that 45-second walk home, my backpack and pants got completely soaked. Yes, I did have my umbrella out. (I did mention that it was pouring.) That all kind of stunk, but the rest of the day was good enough to make up for it.
Today's Spanish lesson: salsa agridulce (ah-gree-dool-say): sweet and sour sauce. This is an important addition to any meal from Wendy's, so I feel like you should know how to say it in Spanish, just in case you ever want to eat at Wendy's in a Spanish-speaking country.
First, in Gestión Ambiental, we learned that we don't have class next week. Score! 5-day weekend! (That's sick, isn't it?)
Side note: After the first session of this class, I was complaining about how the professor was talking about the difference between "gestión" and "manejo" because foreigners shouldn't have to deal with ridiculous semantics questions like that. Well, I forgot to post back with the results. On the second week, the professor spent an hour and a half leading up to his answer. He had us volunteer what we thought the difference was, and he talked in circles around the answer for, as I said, about an hour and a half. Finally, he says, "But for me, here's the difference between "gestión" and "manejo"..." (You could literally hear everyone somultaneously pick up their pencils and fall out of the universal stupor.) "It doesn't exist." (Universal sigh as everyone slumps back down in their chairs, puts their pencils down, and reverts to stupor.) He went on to explain that "manejo" is a Spanishified version of the English word "management," and "management" translated properly into Spanish is "gestión." Come on... really now?
In Cartography, I think I have possibly discovered the secret to getting up at 5:30am so I can be at the bus at 6 and in class at 7. It's called going to bed at 10pm. Strange how that works, isn't it? Last night I went to bed at 10, and I had no problems getting up at 5:30 this morning. Bonus points: I showered! Wohoo! It's always a good day when I can work a shower in.
In Regional Geography of Costa Rica today, the professor didn't ask me if I was enrolled in her class. I still think she wonders why I'm showing up because I'm not actually enrolled, but at least she didn't ask again. This is progress. Also, either I'm understanding her better or caring less that I don't understand her, because I'm feeling better about that class. It's still my least favorite class, but progress is progress.
After class, I went to the mall. I bought a McDonald's ice cream cone for 250 colones (50 cents) and it was delicious. I found the markers and the graph paper I needed for my Cartography class. After wandering around for a while, I went to Wendy's. My Wendy's meal more than lived up to the image of it that I had built up in my head. I got a cheeseburger (I need to learn how to say mustard in Spanish), chicken nuggets, fries, a drink, and a mini frosty all for like, $4.50
Then I went to find the transparency sheets (like for overheads) that I needed for Cartography. I found some in a bookstore, but I didn't feel like paying $10 for 100 of them. The second copy shop I asked at had them -- 440 colones (less than $1) is a lot better than $10.
When I went to take the bus home, I only had to wait like, 3 minutes for it. Usually it's at least a 15 or 20 minute wait, but today I got lucky. I was hoping to beat the rain home, but it started raining about 7 minute before the bus got to my stop. And by raining, I mean pouring. When I got off the bus, I stepped into a 4-inch deep river (formerly the street). Usually the 1.5-foot deep 2-feet wide gutters that are on every street are sufficient to contain the rain, but today, that was full, and the rushing water extended 2 feet out into the street, and it was running 4 inches deep. Unfortunately, my little rubber booties were not sufficiently tall enough to cope with this torrent, and my shoes got a bath. Since I only had a 45-second walk home, I didn't really care. My shoes probably needed to be washed anyway. In that 45-second walk home, my backpack and pants got completely soaked. Yes, I did have my umbrella out. (I did mention that it was pouring.) That all kind of stunk, but the rest of the day was good enough to make up for it.
Today's Spanish lesson: salsa agridulce (ah-gree-dool-say): sweet and sour sauce. This is an important addition to any meal from Wendy's, so I feel like you should know how to say it in Spanish, just in case you ever want to eat at Wendy's in a Spanish-speaking country.
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