Ecstasy: a solitary night of sleep uninterrupted by traffic, the noisy trucks that go "BRRRRRRRRRRR [slows down for speed bump] BA-BUNK [wait for it...] BA-BUNK, BRRRRRRRRRRR," the noise of metal being cut at 7:00 am, the light pouring in my window, the noises of peole talking, and many other obtrusive and obnoxous noises. This little slice of heven was mine on our grupo trip to Puntarrenas. Well, actually the housecleaning guy woke me up at 9 trying to clean the room (why would you do that when our check out time is at 1? Why don't you clean them AFTER 1?), but it was still amazing.
My second favorite part was the buffet. 3 buffets/day, all you can eat, snack bars, free alcohol -- everything was included. Needless to say, we got our money's worth out of that food and alcohol, although I've decided that life has designated me the designated driver. Even the ridiculously sweet mixed drinks they were serving did not provide sufficient incentive for me to drink enough to get drunk.
The whole "beach" thing was a let-down. The water looked like dirt, and the sand ... I suppose you could euphemistically call it "black sand," but ... yeah, that's generous. The pool was nice, although why you go to the coast to swim in a pool is beyond me. Thankfully the sunset did a nice job obscuring those ... minor defects.
So, we got home at like 5 on Sunday. I still had 1/3 of my paper to write, so I got to work... okay, I goofed off a lot, but I worked on it a lot today. I busted rear-end to get this thing done. Except at like, 2 (class is at 5) I started feeling sick. I was cold and shivery and weak... and I still had 3 paragraphs to write. Alternating between curling up in a shivering ball and working got it done at about 4:15. Then I had to find somewhere to print my paper. Then I had to catch a taxi to San Pedro to get to class in time (if you're in a hurry, it's guaranteed 10 minutes till you find a taxi). Then I dragged my sorry self over to the building, up 4 flights of stairs, and more or less collapsed outside the door. I just sat there with my head in my hands, praying that someone I knew would show up so I could foist my paper off on them and leave. About 5 minutes later, a girl comes up to me and asks me why I'm waiting. I have class in this room, I kind of mumble back. Then she points to the sign: Gestion Ambiental is cancelled tonight because the professor is sick.
Fury: Knowing you worked so hard all day, even when you felt so horrible, and then making a huge special effort to get to class (it took over an hour to get there and back) only for nothing. NOTHING.
I know I should be happy because now I have time to improve my paper (it's pretty bad) and sleep more, but still. Blegh. I feel horrible. Linda no in good mood right now. Linda go sleep. Linda hopefully feel better before test on Wednesday morning.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hey now!!
In our culture class, we were told that "gringo" means foreigner. Or well, we were told that to some people it means "foreigner" and to some people it means "American." I didn't think much about it after that, because I didn't hear it particularly often. Until this week, that is.
In my Geography of Costa Rica class, we were talking about immigration. My teacher had maps showing the distribution of immigrants from different countries -- Nicaragua, El Salvador, Japan, China, France, Germany ... and a few more I'm forgetting. Then she goes off on some sentence. I don't even remember what it was about, but this is how it ended: "los Nicaraguenses, los Guatamaltecos, los Salvadoreños, los Japonesas, los Chinos, los Franceses, los Canadienses, los Italianos, los gringos, los Alemanes...."
Hey now!! Rewind that. The French, the Canadians, the Italians, and the WHAT?? "Gringo" is not a country, punk. We have a name. We're called "ESTADOUNIDENSES." I invent many words, but this is not one of them. As you can probably tell, this teacher belongs to the group of people for whom "gringo" and "American" are one and the same.
Then my World Geography teacher did pretty much the same thing. I quoted him in my notes as saying, "Los europeos y los gringos." At least that could be interpreted as "gringo = north American," but still. Costa Ricans are not anywhere near as concerned with being politically correct as we "gringos" are.
Is it getting old listening to me rant about classes? I imagine it is. I assure you, though, that it is also boring being stuck in this city because the only thing more impressive than the flood rains is your flood of homework.
So, since I have done nothing interesting and have nothing else to write about, I will (once again) commence the weekly class sum-up.
Environmental Management: Boring. As usual. We didn't get our tests back. Our long papers are due this coming Monday. I have 3.5 pages written (of 10), but last night I found a source online that basically IS my paper. I am using my other sources when I can, but writing the rest of the paper is a lot less daunting when I know I have one really really good source to fall back on.
Cartography: On Tuesday, we were in the computer lab trying to finish our conceptual maps and databases and such for our second practica. I was making some progress, although I had to go back and fix a lot of lines that didn't match up, and that took quite a while. I finished that in time to get "help" on the final step of the thing. Only thing was, the professor couldn't make the program do what we wanted. Then she wandered off to help someone else, and then she left. 50 minutes early. So then I was sitting there, lost and confused, and under the impression that I had to finish this during the rest of the class period. I almost gave up, figuring I could argue that she can't expect us to finish stuff if she isn't there to explain it, but I did eventually figure out how to make it do what I wanted. It probably wasn't the best way or most efficient way, but it worked. Thank goodness that map program is in English, because I never would have known where to even begin playing the trial and error game if it was in Spanish. I JUST finished in time, and my final layout looked pretty bad. I didn't really care, though, because at least I got it done.
Then today, I had to give my presentation. We were supposed to talk about how GIS is used in our field or major. Since I'd already written a critique of the Sierra Club's position of the South Lawrence Trafficway for Environmental Management, I figured that this (the SLT) would be a good concrete example for my presentation. I wrote a bunch of pretty repetitive stuff (following everyone else's example) about how GIS is used to visualize and represent and stuff, and how you use hardware and software... blah, blah, blah. I did manage to throw in some stuff about teaching the public, since it's important that the public knows what they're voting on when they vote on environmental issues. Then I had a bunch of slides with maps that I didn't completely fail to explain. Overall, I felt pretty good about it. Even without the language barrier, I was probably the worst public speaker in the class, but I also thought my presentation was more interesting than many of the other ones because I actually had a concrete example and pretty pictures to look at.
As a side note, they were asking how far it was between Lawrence and Kansas city and how bad the traffic really was. I pulled up my map and said, "From west Lawrence to where K10 starts can be 20 or 30 minutes when traffic is bad. From west Lawrence to KC is another 30-ish minutes." Since Lawrence is much smaller across than the distance between Lawrence and KC, I figured this would have an effect. Then they asked about distances in km rather than minutes. They looked at the scale (pats self on back for making sure to copy in scale). When they figured out how many km it was, they were amazed at how fast that was. I've observed before (and their reaction only further proves) that time-distances in Costa Rica are very different from time-distances in the U.S. From Lawrence to St. Louis (as the bird flies) is about 275 miles. From San José to Puerto Viejo (as the bird flies) is approximately 95 miles. Both trips take somewhere around 5 hours. Inner city speed limits are 40kph, or about 25mph (I can't tell how closely those are followed, although traffic does a pretty good job keeping people moving slowly). Interstate speed limits seem to range, although I don't think I've seen anything over 80kph, or about 50mph. It no longer surprises me that Ticos have problems being on time, seeing as how everything seems to take longer down here.
Geography of Costa Rica: Nothing too interesting except what I said earlier. We turned in our tests. I handed mine to her, and I didn't catch her whole sentence, but I definitely heard the word "pequeño." Small?! Something I wrote!!?? I have never been told this in my life. I guess all the Ticos were turning in like, 10-page tests or something (some of them definitely looked thicker than mine, although perhaps some of them were double-spaced). It's a TEST, for crying out loud!! Now I'm worried that I'm not going to do well on it because she was looking for more than I wrote or for something more analytical than what I basically summarized out of the book. I felt somewhat justified, though, looking at the 4-inch stack of tests she had to grade. That's what you get for letting us vote. Won't do that again, will we?
World Geography: Again, not much interesting except what I already said. We turned in our paper drafts. I didn't get to see (nor do I really want to see) how much my group mates had to edit my part of the paper. I really feel bad for them that they got stuck with me.
This weekend, we're going on our final grupo trip to some fancy schmancy hotel on the pacific. Yay! You'll have something interesting to read besides me ranting about school! Can I have a hallelujah?!
In my Geography of Costa Rica class, we were talking about immigration. My teacher had maps showing the distribution of immigrants from different countries -- Nicaragua, El Salvador, Japan, China, France, Germany ... and a few more I'm forgetting. Then she goes off on some sentence. I don't even remember what it was about, but this is how it ended: "los Nicaraguenses, los Guatamaltecos, los Salvadoreños, los Japonesas, los Chinos, los Franceses, los Canadienses, los Italianos, los gringos, los Alemanes...."
Hey now!! Rewind that. The French, the Canadians, the Italians, and the WHAT?? "Gringo" is not a country, punk. We have a name. We're called "ESTADOUNIDENSES." I invent many words, but this is not one of them. As you can probably tell, this teacher belongs to the group of people for whom "gringo" and "American" are one and the same.
Then my World Geography teacher did pretty much the same thing. I quoted him in my notes as saying, "Los europeos y los gringos." At least that could be interpreted as "gringo = north American," but still. Costa Ricans are not anywhere near as concerned with being politically correct as we "gringos" are.
Is it getting old listening to me rant about classes? I imagine it is. I assure you, though, that it is also boring being stuck in this city because the only thing more impressive than the flood rains is your flood of homework.
So, since I have done nothing interesting and have nothing else to write about, I will (once again) commence the weekly class sum-up.
Environmental Management: Boring. As usual. We didn't get our tests back. Our long papers are due this coming Monday. I have 3.5 pages written (of 10), but last night I found a source online that basically IS my paper. I am using my other sources when I can, but writing the rest of the paper is a lot less daunting when I know I have one really really good source to fall back on.
Cartography: On Tuesday, we were in the computer lab trying to finish our conceptual maps and databases and such for our second practica. I was making some progress, although I had to go back and fix a lot of lines that didn't match up, and that took quite a while. I finished that in time to get "help" on the final step of the thing. Only thing was, the professor couldn't make the program do what we wanted. Then she wandered off to help someone else, and then she left. 50 minutes early. So then I was sitting there, lost and confused, and under the impression that I had to finish this during the rest of the class period. I almost gave up, figuring I could argue that she can't expect us to finish stuff if she isn't there to explain it, but I did eventually figure out how to make it do what I wanted. It probably wasn't the best way or most efficient way, but it worked. Thank goodness that map program is in English, because I never would have known where to even begin playing the trial and error game if it was in Spanish. I JUST finished in time, and my final layout looked pretty bad. I didn't really care, though, because at least I got it done.
Then today, I had to give my presentation. We were supposed to talk about how GIS is used in our field or major. Since I'd already written a critique of the Sierra Club's position of the South Lawrence Trafficway for Environmental Management, I figured that this (the SLT) would be a good concrete example for my presentation. I wrote a bunch of pretty repetitive stuff (following everyone else's example) about how GIS is used to visualize and represent and stuff, and how you use hardware and software... blah, blah, blah. I did manage to throw in some stuff about teaching the public, since it's important that the public knows what they're voting on when they vote on environmental issues. Then I had a bunch of slides with maps that I didn't completely fail to explain. Overall, I felt pretty good about it. Even without the language barrier, I was probably the worst public speaker in the class, but I also thought my presentation was more interesting than many of the other ones because I actually had a concrete example and pretty pictures to look at.
As a side note, they were asking how far it was between Lawrence and Kansas city and how bad the traffic really was. I pulled up my map and said, "From west Lawrence to where K10 starts can be 20 or 30 minutes when traffic is bad. From west Lawrence to KC is another 30-ish minutes." Since Lawrence is much smaller across than the distance between Lawrence and KC, I figured this would have an effect. Then they asked about distances in km rather than minutes. They looked at the scale (pats self on back for making sure to copy in scale). When they figured out how many km it was, they were amazed at how fast that was. I've observed before (and their reaction only further proves) that time-distances in Costa Rica are very different from time-distances in the U.S. From Lawrence to St. Louis (as the bird flies) is about 275 miles. From San José to Puerto Viejo (as the bird flies) is approximately 95 miles. Both trips take somewhere around 5 hours. Inner city speed limits are 40kph, or about 25mph (I can't tell how closely those are followed, although traffic does a pretty good job keeping people moving slowly). Interstate speed limits seem to range, although I don't think I've seen anything over 80kph, or about 50mph. It no longer surprises me that Ticos have problems being on time, seeing as how everything seems to take longer down here.
Geography of Costa Rica: Nothing too interesting except what I said earlier. We turned in our tests. I handed mine to her, and I didn't catch her whole sentence, but I definitely heard the word "pequeño." Small?! Something I wrote!!?? I have never been told this in my life. I guess all the Ticos were turning in like, 10-page tests or something (some of them definitely looked thicker than mine, although perhaps some of them were double-spaced). It's a TEST, for crying out loud!! Now I'm worried that I'm not going to do well on it because she was looking for more than I wrote or for something more analytical than what I basically summarized out of the book. I felt somewhat justified, though, looking at the 4-inch stack of tests she had to grade. That's what you get for letting us vote. Won't do that again, will we?
World Geography: Again, not much interesting except what I already said. We turned in our paper drafts. I didn't get to see (nor do I really want to see) how much my group mates had to edit my part of the paper. I really feel bad for them that they got stuck with me.
This weekend, we're going on our final grupo trip to some fancy schmancy hotel on the pacific. Yay! You'll have something interesting to read besides me ranting about school! Can I have a hallelujah?!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Retraction
I would like to formally retract the following statement.
"I also think the test looks pretty doable, so I'm not quite as perturbed at all the jerks who hadn't studied last week."
I have spent two wretched days working on this test. It is 3.5 pages long, typed, SINGLE SPACE. I also have not yet finished the hand drawn map for it. I am probably going to get like, a C on it, but honestly, I couldn't care less right now. I have finished it (except for the map), and that makes me happy enough to override any pain I will feel once I see my grade.
I now have one day left this weekend to work on my 10-ish page research paper... you know, the one that's due a week from Monday, that I have written a 1-page outline (in English) for, and that I will not be working on next Saturday or Sunday because of the grupo trip.
So yes, I AM still perturbed at all the jerks in my class who hadn't studied and who voted for a take-home test, because if I had just taken the test in class like I wanted, I would have had two extra days to work on my stupid 10-page paper.
This is all.
"I also think the test looks pretty doable, so I'm not quite as perturbed at all the jerks who hadn't studied last week."
I have spent two wretched days working on this test. It is 3.5 pages long, typed, SINGLE SPACE. I also have not yet finished the hand drawn map for it. I am probably going to get like, a C on it, but honestly, I couldn't care less right now. I have finished it (except for the map), and that makes me happy enough to override any pain I will feel once I see my grade.
I now have one day left this weekend to work on my 10-ish page research paper... you know, the one that's due a week from Monday, that I have written a 1-page outline (in English) for, and that I will not be working on next Saturday or Sunday because of the grupo trip.
So yes, I AM still perturbed at all the jerks in my class who hadn't studied and who voted for a take-home test, because if I had just taken the test in class like I wanted, I would have had two extra days to work on my stupid 10-page paper.
This is all.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
*rips hair out*
You know those kids in a class who answer all the teacher's questions, who have always (apparently) done the reading, who always have an opinion about everything, and (most importantly) ask too many questions? Yeah, there are a few of these people in my World Geography class, and they are, to put it mildly, not my favorite people.
I will spare you all the boring details of my class (mostly because I don't remember what we talked about) and skip straight to about 3:20. 3:20 is two hours and twenty minutes after class started. Discussion is winding down. The professor seems like he has nothing else to say. I'm pretty sure he even said, "Well, if that's it..." like we could all pack up and leave. But NOOOOOO. One of those kids jumps in with some stupid question. Like, seriously? We've been sitting here for well over TWO HOURS. The professor is letting us leave early, and you want to stop that process?!! What is wrong with you?!! So of course, this question manages to distract the professor for another 15 minutes, meanwhile, all of us are still sitting there, pretending to care, when all we want to do is get out of class.
Finally, the professor finishes. Glory be!! We're done!! I can go ho.... "Knock knock." Oh, look. How joyful. There are two girls standing in the doorway. They want to talk to us about some sort of student political thing.
(not how the conversation actually went)
Two girls: Professor, can we talk to your class about our student political thing?
Professor: Of course. Here is my class. Take your time. They don't want to go home; it's not like they've been sitting here for 2 1/2 hours already.
So, naturally:
Two girls: [pass out shiny pamphlets] Blah blah blah... vote for us ... blah blah blah ... we're better than everyone else ... blah blah blah .... representation ... blah blah ... students .... [insert name of whatever they were talking about] ... blah blah .... important ..... So, if that's all
That kid: Wait, ... blah blah blah obnoxious and unnecessary question ... ?
Linda: [mentally strangles that kid]
Two girls: Blah blah blah .... vote ... blah blah ... better representation .... blah blah student important ... blah blah ... [10 more minutes]
Linda: *begins ripping hair out*
Okay, no, I didn't actually start ripping my hair out. I seriously considered it though. There were several things that really bothered me about this. 1) I was DONE with class. I wanted to go home, and they were keeping me from that. 2) They did not understand the concept that they were taking OUR time. At KU, students running for stuff talk to us all the time, but they're always careful to be quick about it if they're doing it during class time, or they make sure that they aren't taking away time we could be doing something else. These girls did not understand that concept. 3) The girls took long enough that the professor actually walked out. I had wanted to turn my paper in (yes, short paper #4 of 5 would have been turned in today), but I couldn't turn it in if he wasn't around. Now I feel obligated to go back and edit it and make it less horrible, although where I'm going to find time to do that between working on my presentation, my research paper, and my take-home test, I have no idea.
In better news, my Geography of Costa Rica class on Tuesday consisted of the teacher passing out the take home test. We got to leave after that, which I appreciated. I also think the test looks pretty doable, so I'm not quite as perturbed at all the jerks who hadn't studied last week.
In Cartography, my professor passed out some (reallly short, simple, easy) readings, and then we got in a circle and discussed (summarized) them. I managed to summarize mine without sounding like a complete idiot/failure. I was rather proud. Of course, of the 12-15 people in the class, only 4 showed up today. Two of us were on time. It was kind of cloudy and pretty rainy this morning, and it would appear that these two atmospherical phenomenon have the same effect on Ticos that blowing snow, two inches of ice, or sub-zero temperatures have on Americans. Dear Ticos: *rubs thumb and finger together* Do you know what this is? It's the world's smallest violin....
Also, everyone but me (all three of them) had to do their presentations today. I got to see what they did, and I got to hear her critiques of what they did. I feel like this gives me a slight advantage for next week, although I have a feeling that my rather weak Spanish skills are not going to help my grade on this.
I will spare you all the boring details of my class (mostly because I don't remember what we talked about) and skip straight to about 3:20. 3:20 is two hours and twenty minutes after class started. Discussion is winding down. The professor seems like he has nothing else to say. I'm pretty sure he even said, "Well, if that's it..." like we could all pack up and leave. But NOOOOOO. One of those kids jumps in with some stupid question. Like, seriously? We've been sitting here for well over TWO HOURS. The professor is letting us leave early, and you want to stop that process?!! What is wrong with you?!! So of course, this question manages to distract the professor for another 15 minutes, meanwhile, all of us are still sitting there, pretending to care, when all we want to do is get out of class.
Finally, the professor finishes. Glory be!! We're done!! I can go ho.... "Knock knock." Oh, look. How joyful. There are two girls standing in the doorway. They want to talk to us about some sort of student political thing.
(not how the conversation actually went)
Two girls: Professor, can we talk to your class about our student political thing?
Professor: Of course. Here is my class. Take your time. They don't want to go home; it's not like they've been sitting here for 2 1/2 hours already.
So, naturally:
Two girls: [pass out shiny pamphlets] Blah blah blah... vote for us ... blah blah blah ... we're better than everyone else ... blah blah blah .... representation ... blah blah ... students .... [insert name of whatever they were talking about] ... blah blah .... important ..... So, if that's all
That kid: Wait, ... blah blah blah obnoxious and unnecessary question ... ?
Linda: [mentally strangles that kid]
Two girls: Blah blah blah .... vote ... blah blah ... better representation .... blah blah student important ... blah blah ... [10 more minutes]
Linda: *begins ripping hair out*
Okay, no, I didn't actually start ripping my hair out. I seriously considered it though. There were several things that really bothered me about this. 1) I was DONE with class. I wanted to go home, and they were keeping me from that. 2) They did not understand the concept that they were taking OUR time. At KU, students running for stuff talk to us all the time, but they're always careful to be quick about it if they're doing it during class time, or they make sure that they aren't taking away time we could be doing something else. These girls did not understand that concept. 3) The girls took long enough that the professor actually walked out. I had wanted to turn my paper in (yes, short paper #4 of 5 would have been turned in today), but I couldn't turn it in if he wasn't around. Now I feel obligated to go back and edit it and make it less horrible, although where I'm going to find time to do that between working on my presentation, my research paper, and my take-home test, I have no idea.
In better news, my Geography of Costa Rica class on Tuesday consisted of the teacher passing out the take home test. We got to leave after that, which I appreciated. I also think the test looks pretty doable, so I'm not quite as perturbed at all the jerks who hadn't studied last week.
In Cartography, my professor passed out some (reallly short, simple, easy) readings, and then we got in a circle and discussed (summarized) them. I managed to summarize mine without sounding like a complete idiot/failure. I was rather proud. Of course, of the 12-15 people in the class, only 4 showed up today. Two of us were on time. It was kind of cloudy and pretty rainy this morning, and it would appear that these two atmospherical phenomenon have the same effect on Ticos that blowing snow, two inches of ice, or sub-zero temperatures have on Americans. Dear Ticos: *rubs thumb and finger together* Do you know what this is? It's the world's smallest violin....
Also, everyone but me (all three of them) had to do their presentations today. I got to see what they did, and I got to hear her critiques of what they did. I feel like this gives me a slight advantage for next week, although I have a feeling that my rather weak Spanish skills are not going to help my grade on this.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Jerks.
Please allow me a moment to rant about my Geography of Costa Rica class.
I dislike this class. I always have. I never know what's going on, or when anything is due, or what we're even doing half the time. Well, today I had an epiphany. I am not failing to understand the organizational structure of the class; THERE IS NO ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE TO THE CLASS.
See, I was under the assumption that we turned in our homework the week after she handed it out. That's a reasonable assumption, right? Well, that's what I did. However, apparently, it's kind of due whenever we feel like turning it in. This explains why she's been handing back our first homework assignment for weeks -- people keep turning it in way "late." Today she went around the room and took inventory of all the homework assignments she was still owed, and I was one of like, two people who had turned everything in.
Today we were supposed to have a test in this class. Well, that's what the syllabus said, anyway. I had studied. I could tell you where the Cordilleras de Guanacaste, Tilaran, Talamanca, and Volcanica Central were. I could tel you that the three highest peaks in Costa Rica are Chirripo, Kamuk, and Buena Vista. I could name the three highest volcanoes (Irazu, Turrialba, Poas... I think... I might have forgotten since 10am this morning). I had studied climates, I could ramble off bad defintions of gegoraphy of cartography, I knew where the most polluted rivers were on a map, I could tell you that the Cocos placa was in the process of subduccion under the placa Caribe, and this was responsible for much of the topography and geothermal activity in Costa Rica. Can we guess what happened?...
She decides to take a vote: Do we want to have a "concrete" test right here and now in class, or do we want to take a more abstract test home next week as a take-home test? I'm going to guess that 3/4 of the class either hadn't studied or had otherwise forgotten, so you can guess which option won. One more test/paper was EXACTLY what I needed right now. Way to ruin it for those of us who studied, jerks.
In other news, me and a couple grupo/international student buddies decided we wanted to "buffearnos" (to make oneself buff -- not a real word) in the gym at the UCR. We figured it'd be like, pay our monthly dues, go over there, take a few classes, lift some weights, whatever. We were very wrong.
First, they make you have "citas" (appointments) with one of the trainers at the gym. They ask you what your goals are, and then they design a program that you're supposed to follow. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that this probably would have gone better if it were in English. My program consists of a lot of using weight machines. Actually, it consists ONLY of using weight machines (except for like, one thing, I think). I don't particularly like weight machines. They make you dependent on a gym, and that's not conducive to exercise (not like knowing gym-free exercises convinced me to exercise all summer, but we're going to ignore that detail right now). All of my exercises are also like, isolated arm and leg exercises. Booorrrring. Perhaps it sounds good to some of you that they make an exercise plan for you, but it doesn't sound so good when you don't like your exercise plan.
So far, we've been to a spinning class and a "general" class (kind of like dance aerobics). Spinning was good. The general class, though .... I was pretty bad at that. It wasn't even hard physically until like the last 5 minutes, but trying to follow what the instructor was doing was really hard, because I didn't understand what any of the moves were called and I couldn't hear her over the blaring music. I think I'll be sticking to spinning from now on. Dance aerobics in a foreign language = bad.
I got back from "general" just in time for dinner. Unfortunately, my host mom made the green bean/carrot/hamburger thing again. Ugggg. I also thought I had trained her into letting me serve my own rice and beans, but she's slipping. Before I go on a "I hate that nasty green bean/carrot/hamburger thing" rant, I should begin my "I'm not 5; I can serve myself" rant.
I'm not 5. I can serve myself.
I can't say for sure if this is the way it is in every family, but in my family, my host mom put food on plates. These servings get heated in the microwave, and then placed on the table. Once all of the plates are on the table, we are called to eat. I do not like being served food. There are times when I don't want 5 cups of rice for dinner. There are times, like tonight, when I would definitely have put some different portion sizes on my plate than what ended up on my plate. And of course, because it's on my plate, I feel obligated to eat as much as I can, even if I don't want to. I end up eating a lot of stuff that I would, given my druthers, not be eating. This does not make me a happy camper. I am not 5. I can serve myself.
(If you're wondering why it all gets microwaved before dinner, here's why: She makes all the food for the day at like, 6am. Then it sits on the stove/in the rice cooker/in the toaster oven all day -- these appliances are, of course, off. So when lunchtime rolls around, she heaps out some servings, heats them up in the microwave, and lunch is served. The same routine happens for dinner. FYI, I also don't like having to eat the same thing for lunch and dinner).
"I hate that nasty green bean/carrot/hamburger thing"
This food is apparently called "picadillo," but you'll see that in a second, as I feel like my internal thought process is the best way to explain this. Text in italics was not voiced aloud.
Linda: [comes downstairs and sees nasty vegetable food served on her plate] UGGG! BLECKY!! EWWW! GAG! Not this again!! Well, at least I can pretend I'm not hungry because I was just at that gym class. [sits down] I don't know why you decided this was an acceptable food choice, because it's most definitely not.
Host mother: [in the kitchen] "Linda, le gusta la comida?" (Do you like the food?)
Linda: Si. No you don't, you liar! Stop lying! She's gonna keep feeding you this stuff if you don't speak up!! Bad Linda, BAD!! [Begins picking at vegetables, trying to determine the best way to eat as few of them as possible]. Thank god for beans and rice. At least I can use that to drown out the vegetable flavor. [Slowly begins eating forkfulls of nasty vegetable dish washed down with beans and rice.]
Host father: "No le gusta el picadallo?"
Linda: Well, I guess picking at it was kind of obvious. Um, no es mi favorito. Es bueno! Pero solo no es mi favorito. (It's not my favorite. It's good, just not my favorite.) That was the understatement of a lifetime.
Host mother: (says something I don't remember) Quiere algo diferente? (do you want something else?)
Linda: No, no. Me gusta el picadillo. Esta bien. Great... now I'm gonna have to eat it. Way to go, self, way to go.
So I ate as much of it as I could, although in all honesty, I really wasn't that hungry. All I'm gonna say is that if I could just serve myself, this wouldn't happen. Sigh.
I dislike this class. I always have. I never know what's going on, or when anything is due, or what we're even doing half the time. Well, today I had an epiphany. I am not failing to understand the organizational structure of the class; THERE IS NO ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE TO THE CLASS.
See, I was under the assumption that we turned in our homework the week after she handed it out. That's a reasonable assumption, right? Well, that's what I did. However, apparently, it's kind of due whenever we feel like turning it in. This explains why she's been handing back our first homework assignment for weeks -- people keep turning it in way "late." Today she went around the room and took inventory of all the homework assignments she was still owed, and I was one of like, two people who had turned everything in.
Today we were supposed to have a test in this class. Well, that's what the syllabus said, anyway. I had studied. I could tell you where the Cordilleras de Guanacaste, Tilaran, Talamanca, and Volcanica Central were. I could tel you that the three highest peaks in Costa Rica are Chirripo, Kamuk, and Buena Vista. I could name the three highest volcanoes (Irazu, Turrialba, Poas... I think... I might have forgotten since 10am this morning). I had studied climates, I could ramble off bad defintions of gegoraphy of cartography, I knew where the most polluted rivers were on a map, I could tell you that the Cocos placa was in the process of subduccion under the placa Caribe, and this was responsible for much of the topography and geothermal activity in Costa Rica. Can we guess what happened?...
She decides to take a vote: Do we want to have a "concrete" test right here and now in class, or do we want to take a more abstract test home next week as a take-home test? I'm going to guess that 3/4 of the class either hadn't studied or had otherwise forgotten, so you can guess which option won. One more test/paper was EXACTLY what I needed right now. Way to ruin it for those of us who studied, jerks.
In other news, me and a couple grupo/international student buddies decided we wanted to "buffearnos" (to make oneself buff -- not a real word) in the gym at the UCR. We figured it'd be like, pay our monthly dues, go over there, take a few classes, lift some weights, whatever. We were very wrong.
First, they make you have "citas" (appointments) with one of the trainers at the gym. They ask you what your goals are, and then they design a program that you're supposed to follow. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that this probably would have gone better if it were in English. My program consists of a lot of using weight machines. Actually, it consists ONLY of using weight machines (except for like, one thing, I think). I don't particularly like weight machines. They make you dependent on a gym, and that's not conducive to exercise (not like knowing gym-free exercises convinced me to exercise all summer, but we're going to ignore that detail right now). All of my exercises are also like, isolated arm and leg exercises. Booorrrring. Perhaps it sounds good to some of you that they make an exercise plan for you, but it doesn't sound so good when you don't like your exercise plan.
So far, we've been to a spinning class and a "general" class (kind of like dance aerobics). Spinning was good. The general class, though .... I was pretty bad at that. It wasn't even hard physically until like the last 5 minutes, but trying to follow what the instructor was doing was really hard, because I didn't understand what any of the moves were called and I couldn't hear her over the blaring music. I think I'll be sticking to spinning from now on. Dance aerobics in a foreign language = bad.
I got back from "general" just in time for dinner. Unfortunately, my host mom made the green bean/carrot/hamburger thing again. Ugggg. I also thought I had trained her into letting me serve my own rice and beans, but she's slipping. Before I go on a "I hate that nasty green bean/carrot/hamburger thing" rant, I should begin my "I'm not 5; I can serve myself" rant.
I'm not 5. I can serve myself.
I can't say for sure if this is the way it is in every family, but in my family, my host mom put food on plates. These servings get heated in the microwave, and then placed on the table. Once all of the plates are on the table, we are called to eat. I do not like being served food. There are times when I don't want 5 cups of rice for dinner. There are times, like tonight, when I would definitely have put some different portion sizes on my plate than what ended up on my plate. And of course, because it's on my plate, I feel obligated to eat as much as I can, even if I don't want to. I end up eating a lot of stuff that I would, given my druthers, not be eating. This does not make me a happy camper. I am not 5. I can serve myself.
(If you're wondering why it all gets microwaved before dinner, here's why: She makes all the food for the day at like, 6am. Then it sits on the stove/in the rice cooker/in the toaster oven all day -- these appliances are, of course, off. So when lunchtime rolls around, she heaps out some servings, heats them up in the microwave, and lunch is served. The same routine happens for dinner. FYI, I also don't like having to eat the same thing for lunch and dinner).
"I hate that nasty green bean/carrot/hamburger thing"
This food is apparently called "picadillo," but you'll see that in a second, as I feel like my internal thought process is the best way to explain this. Text in italics was not voiced aloud.
Linda: [comes downstairs and sees nasty vegetable food served on her plate] UGGG! BLECKY!! EWWW! GAG! Not this again!! Well, at least I can pretend I'm not hungry because I was just at that gym class. [sits down] I don't know why you decided this was an acceptable food choice, because it's most definitely not.
Host mother: [in the kitchen] "Linda, le gusta la comida?" (Do you like the food?)
Linda: Si. No you don't, you liar! Stop lying! She's gonna keep feeding you this stuff if you don't speak up!! Bad Linda, BAD!! [Begins picking at vegetables, trying to determine the best way to eat as few of them as possible]. Thank god for beans and rice. At least I can use that to drown out the vegetable flavor. [Slowly begins eating forkfulls of nasty vegetable dish washed down with beans and rice.]
Host father: "No le gusta el picadallo?"
Linda: Well, I guess picking at it was kind of obvious. Um, no es mi favorito. Es bueno! Pero solo no es mi favorito. (It's not my favorite. It's good, just not my favorite.) That was the understatement of a lifetime.
Host mother: (says something I don't remember) Quiere algo diferente? (do you want something else?)
Linda: No, no. Me gusta el picadillo. Esta bien. Great... now I'm gonna have to eat it. Way to go, self, way to go.
So I ate as much of it as I could, although in all honesty, I really wasn't that hungry. All I'm gonna say is that if I could just serve myself, this wouldn't happen. Sigh.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
I apologize/It's worse when...
My dear blog readers, I apologize for not having updated you with my clever insights and entertaining rants for so many days. I sincerely apologize for any pain or withdrawal symptoms you may have encountered from this break in my typical blogging habits, and I promise to try to improve in the near future.
No, really, I've been crazy busy. Between getting work done and goofing off/not getting work done, I've hardly had any time to do things that fall somewhere in the middle of those two areas -- like, for instance, this blog. What is probably going to be the most horrible month of my life has arrived, and trust me, there aren't many things right now that look less appealing than schoolwork.
Let me attempt to summarize the month+ from hell:
Tuesday (10/7) - Test in Geography of Costa Rica. I haven't studied for this, although the plan is to do so on Monday before my class. Unfortunately, one day will not be sufficient to read all the parts of the textbook that I haven't read yet.
Monday (10/13) - Test in Environmental Management. Honestly, I'm scared about this test. We have done NOTHING in this class. Like, seriously. We show up. We "listen." We "take notes." No homework, no reading, no nothing. I have no idea what he's going to test us over, and that scares me. He also is having us turn in our critique this day. In an act of incredible foresight, I have already finished this critique.
Wednesday (10/15) - Presentation in Cartography about how GIS can be used in my field of study. I need to ask whether there is a paper associated with this... I didn't understand when she was telling us about it in class. Right now the plan is to re-purpose my critique from Environmental Management into this presentation.
Wednesday (10/22) - Draft of group paper/project is due in World Geography. I've got an outline, sources, research, and about one page written so far. It's taken me three or four days to accomplish this meager progress, which does not bode well for the remainder of my time here.
Monday (10/27) - 10-page research paper in Environmental Management due. I have an idea for a topic and one source.
Wednesday (10/29) - Test in Cartography.
Sometime in November -- Paper and presentation in Geography of Costa Rica. I finally talked to the teacher and settled on the topic of "Urban Planning" -- mostly because that's one of the last topics we cover, and I don't have time to write anything before then. However, I don't have an exact date on this (which kind of scares me) and I'm still not sure I completely understand the requirements for the project. I know I need a paper. How long it is -- this is what I think she said -- depends on how much source material there is. When it's due, I'm not really sure. I would have guessed the week shown for my topic on the syllabus, but we aren't following the syllabus too closely, so I have no idea. She has given us ZERO guidance or guidelines on this project (or, well, zero that I understood).
Also sometime before the end of November -- Turn in two more reflections for World Geography.
And after that, I think I have a presentation in Environmental Management sometime in November, plus finals. I don't think anything in my life is going to be hard after this.
In other news, I got my test back in World Geography. I got an 86 on it. I have never been so happy to see a B in my life. However, all this does is confirm the suspicion I've been building that my teacher does not recognize made up nonsense -- although some of the readings he's been giving us should have confirmed that long ago.
I still have a million places I want to go to. I want go go back to Monteverde. I want to go to Golfito. I want to go to Cahuita. I want to go to Tortugero. I want to go white water rafting somewhere. I want to go back to La Fortuna and Arenal. I also haven't cracked the guidebook in weeks because I know I don't have time to go anywhere until the end of the semester.
It's bad when schoolwork means you can't hang out with your friends at home.
It's worse when schoolwork means you can't go snorkeling in coral reefs, or trekking through virgin cloud forest, or white water rafting, or on a trip to see lava.
It's bad when you don't understand the homework assignment.
It's worse when you don't understand IF YOU HAVE homework.
It's bad when you can't answer the test question.
It's worse when you don't understand the test question.
It's bad you have to correct the grammar of all the idiots you got stuck doing group work with.
It's worse when you're that idiot.
It's bad when a teacher doesn't give you guidelines for a project.
It's worse when you don't know if your teacher gave you guidelines for a project.
Cilantro is yukky. (Sorry, I think my host mom is cooking something, and I just got a HUGE whiff of cilantro. GAG! )
It's bad when you haven't done the reading for a class.
It's worse when you've done the reading and still don't understand it.
It's bad when the professor is boring.
It's worse when the professor is boring AND hard to understand.
As much as I would love to continue this, it's now 11am. I need to go work. My goal for this weekend was to finish a draft of my World Geography paper, and I still have a lot of work to do.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
On translations (and other)
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.
“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.
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