Tuesday 9/23/08

I woke up, ran and was out the door by 7. For class today we had an amazing speaker discuss historical implications for today’s society. She is a famous professor here in Costa Rica and although she is originally from the U.S. she has spent the last 50 years of her life living and working here in Costa Rica. After the lecture and process groups (a break-off of class to discuss and “process” the lecture verbally with one another) we had a break for lunch and some extra study time before our 1 o’clock exam. The exam was very thorough, but manageable and hopefully all my studying paid off…we’ll see. After class had a quick meeting with my advisor, Trevor, concerning setting up interviews for a research paper and then headed into San Jose with some classmates to get started on a different project. We had to interview Nicaraguans who are currently living here in Costa Rica. It was very interesting, as the issues of Nicaraguan immigration is extremely similar here as the issues with Mexicans immigrating to the U.S. It was extremely interesting to compare how similar both situations are and here firsthand from Nicaraguans who have migrated here for work and the “Costa Rican dream”. On the walk back to my bus stop it poured harder than I have ever seen in my entire life. The streets were literally flooding and even with the help of an umbrella, I was absolutely soaked. I came home, dried off and started a little bit of homework when I was kindly interrupted by Mami asking if I wanted to go to the roller rink with our aunt and cousins. I, of course said, yes and we fit 8 people in our tiny little Nissan Sentra and headed off to San Pedro to skate the night away…oh yeah! Although I didn’t have the sweet orange carpet like Skate World it still provided quite the atmosphere. It was so fun to watch everyone in my family. Mami and Papi were talented and were so cute skating around the rink holding hands. My youngest cousin Roy (4) was hilarious as he couldn’t skate on his own. His mom (my aunt) was so patient and basically pushed him around the rink all night (we might as well have brought a wagon. He would have never noticed the difference) Then there was my sweet little cousin Maria (7). She was the most determined of the bunch and although she spent most the night holding onto the bar along the wall, she never once asked for help and slowly but surely improved as the night went on. Then there were the inspereable 10 year olds, Pamela and Dayana who held hands all night slowly making their way around the rink (they smiled for 3 hours straight, as they were the two that were most excited about the excursion) And then there was me…oh boy. I’m convinced I spent 3 hours of my life making a fool of myself, as skating is not my best sport (but I was the only one in the whole building who could rock out and sing along to all the cheesy 80’s songs played all night) We made our way home, ate a quick dinner (still laughing about the evenings events) and went to bed way later than usual (12 am). Mami gave me extra kisses because I offered to stay up later and tackle the mound of dishes that had piled up from the day. It was also a good excuse for some alone time (something I don’t get that often) just to reflect, think, pray, etc. Goodnight!