Schoolwork?

Just an update on what my academic life entails right now. Wouldn't want you to think that all I do here is lay in the sun or eat weird fruit.

Right now I am in Latin American Women Writers. Its wonderful, since it is so similar to the familiar and much loved literature classes for my English major, but I also practice my Spanish. Perfect! Don't get me wrong, sometimes all the reading is a tough, but overall the class is good. And much easier than the last mini-term when I took two classes at once.

The class isn't like any other class I've ever taken before. All of the material comes from student presentations, usually four or so a day. So we all read all the assignments every night, but only one person is responsible for presenting information about the author and knowing the text super well. Sometimes we end up confusing ourselves more, because no one actually understands exactly what the author was getting at. Blind leading the blind...

The Blind Leading the Blind (Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1568)

 Overall, though, good class. One of my favorites so far was a short (by short, I mean tiny) story by Luisa Valenzuela called "Los Censores."   If you'd care to read it, the full translated text is here. Good story.

Luisa herself

We also just finished up reading "Como agua para chocolate" (Like Water for Chocolate). Also fantastic. It has absolutely nothing to do with chocolate really, but I like it none the less. For part of class discussion about "Como agua para chocolate" today, I showed this video. Raphael sings a fantastically dramatic 1980's love song, complete with microphone dancing. If you want a good laugh, I highly recommend it (but with the strong warning that it may get stuck in your head for quite some time).

Yum

Next up is "La casa en Mango Street", actually first written in English as "The House on Mango Street." When I came home I picked up an English copy in addition to the Spanish one that I had left in Costa Rica, and I read it on the plane. Very fun, quick read. Now I just have to go back and read it in Spanish. 

This book makes me want magos. Sweet and delicious, like I had for breakfast this morning.

And last but not least, my final project novel is by a Puerta Rican author named Rosario Ferre, "Vuelo del Cisne" (Flight of the Swan) about a Russian ballerina and her company that get stranded in Puerta Rica because of the Bolshevik revolution.

My copy doesn't look like this, but the picture was appropriately dramatic.

Side Note: Speaking of laying around in the sun, this morning I decided I would read for class outside. Two hours later, hello awkward sunburn lines. Apparently I didn't move at all in my whole time outside, because I have perfect lines indicating the length of my sleeves, the placement of my watch, and the angle at which my elbow was bent. Wonderful.

Monday

Today I was in the fifth grade classroom again, and all went very well. The majority of my responsibility is helping two of the boys in the class who are working in lower level books than the other students. Ironically enough, I was told to help them with their Spanish grammar, and math. Yes, that's right. Two of my worst subjects. But I have access to the teacher addition of the book, so its all good. Today we also had an assembly and every class got to have their own little part to present. It was very fun, especially watching the row full of boys who were very torn between their desire to inflict pain on each other in any way possible, and their desire to avoid the teachers notice so that they wouldn't get in trouble and have to move away from their friends. Oh, the dilemmas of fifth grade.


In other news, Lula and I just had a lovely dinner of tuna, rice, and avocado. Although my plate looked like a bad Jackson Pollock painting, it was quite a lovely combination all smashed together. I highly recommend it!

Someone paid $140 million for one of these paintings. Little did he know he could have smashed tuna, rice, and avocado together and gotten roughly the same effect.

My Weekend

Just a quick update on what I've been doing with my time:
Saturday Hollie, Lauren, and Hollie's host brother Tom and I all went to San Jose. We found two markets to bum around in, and also went to the central square that has the National Theater and the museums.

Sunday we went to San Rafael's farmers market to buy tons of fruit, vegetables, and some pupusas for breakfast. If you don't know what those are, look at the end of this entry.

In the afternoon we had a birthday party for one of Lula's sisters, which meant tons of food, two very popular babies, and lots of funny stories.

After the party, Lula and Natty and I ran to the mall (because not a week can go by without a mall visit for them).

And then on the way back we looked at new housing developments, because Natty is contemplating buying a house. That was actually really interesting for me. For example, the two houses that we visited first had very open kitchens, and the last one had a kitchen much more closed off from the rest of the house. While it seems that everyone in the states doesn't want to be trapped in the kitchen but want a kitchen very open to the house, Lula and Natty both said they hated the kitchens where everyone could see in, because that meant that when you cook dinner for someone, they see what a mess you've made in your kitchen.

To each his own, I suppose.

Strange Fruit

 

This is the fruit that the cashew comes from. I don't really have a good description of the flavor for you, but it was kind of a strange mix of strawberry, rhubarb, and a hint of tomato or bell pepper texture thrown in. I know that sounds gross, but they are actually quite good!

 

Really this is just a banana, but it is notable because there are two stuck together. Siamese bananas. 

Lately Juan, our cook, has included passion fruit in our morning fruit snack (which is also were we encountered the double banana) It has definitely been a favorite with many of the students. To eat it, you just rip it in half and do your best to keep the slimy goopy seed globs on your spoon while you bring it to your mouth. The mucus-like stuff is really sweet, and the seeds add a nice tart little sing. Again, I'm making it sound gross, but it really is good. It has the loving nickname "Alien egg" from some of the students that couldn't remember what it was.

Gotta love alien-eggs

Nicaragua

 

Because all of us here at Whitworth South are actually on tourist visas and not student visas, it was necessary for us to leave the country within 90 days of our arrive. What a good reason to go to Nicaragua! The original plan (and what all the other students did) was to leave San Jose on Saturday March 5th, take a very long bus ride to Managua, do many very educational and informative things (including an overnight trip to Matagalpa) and then return by bus on the follow Saturday, the 12th. I have included a map for those of you like me who are in love with atlases, maps, globes, and every other such thing.

 

If you have read my previous post, you know that I took a slight detour across the entirety of the United States before ending up back in Managua. Good times. But back to Nicaragua. This is a view of the city of Managua, including the giant lake.

Our group had two very full days on Sunday and Monday, visiting churches, playing with kids, going to the dump city, and listening to lectures. I can't tell you about these thought, since I wasn't there. I got in late Monday night, and our wonderful coordinator Raquel and her husband picked me up at the airport.

This is Raquel

The next morning we all went to El Volcan Masaya. Since this volcano is still active, we were inundated with fantastic sulfuric smoke. Nothing like sulfur to clear burn the nose. Despite the smell, it was actually really interesting to see.

All the girls in our group (the vast majority) got together to take a picture in this lovely, romantic setting.

This is the crater. Ugly, right? Fun fact: Actually it is not fun or funny in any way, sorry. Raquel told us that during the dictatorship of the Samoza family, political protesters were thrown into this crater from helicopters. 

 

After the volcano, we went to a nice touristy little market, lunch, and then to the US embassy. It was really interesting to hear both how the US is trying to help the Nicaraguan people, and how much it hates the Nicaraguan government. "Communism" was a very popular word that afternoon.

The next morning was our trip to Matagalpa. The main event for the day was a visit to some farms way out in the mountains. First we went to a coffee farm were we met a co-op of growers who explained the process of growing and selling their coffee.

These are the farmers, and the one in the gray polo with a leaf in his hand is an agronomist explaining the disease on the leaves and how to solve it. 

This is a raw coffee bean, squeezed out of its red berry. It looks just like your everyday black bean, but is a little fatter, iridescent, and kind of slimy. The call it the "oro" or gold.

This is the son of one of the farmers. He is demonstrating how they harvest taro, first pulling the large root out of the dirt, hacking of the tall leaves, and then cleaning all the little roots and dirt off the main root. This boy had very impressive machete skills. Taro plants beware!

This is Jenny, Alexandria, and Taro. Jenny on the left, Alexandria on the right, and taro in the yellow bowl. It was very starchy, slightly salty, and quite delicious.

This is at the hostel where we spent the night. The beds were comfortable (or I was super tired, or both), our breakfast was great, and there were two motorbikes and a rabbit on the breakfast patio.

 While we were still in Matagalpa, we toured a taro processing plant. There actually wasn't any taro being processed that day, and we learned that their production of taro has declined dramatically since Mexico taken over the US market. It is much more expensive for Nicaragua to export taro to the states. Obviously, it has to travel further, so they have to process the taro more, they can't just send it straight from the field after washing it in the river, like they can in Mexico. Our guide was quick to tell us that the Nicaraguan taro, however, is far superior in quality.

When we returned to Managua on Thursday night, we all got to go to a concert. The man in the green shirt and accordion started the band that includes his sons and now grandsons. In between the wonderful Nicaraguan music, he would tell jokes and stories. We always laughed, sometimes because we understood the punchline and sometimes just because  he was using such crazy voices and facial expressions to tell the story. Good times!

This coming November Nicaragua will have an election, so we were very aware of the political propaganda around. One figure that all Nicaraguans identify with and call their hero is Augusto Cesar Sandino, a revolutionary who fought against the US military occupation of Nicaragua in the 1920's and 30's. He was killed in 1934, but the revolutionaries who fought Samoza in the 70's took up his name and are to this day the "Sandinistas". Although the support of the Sandanista party is far from unanimous, Sandino himself is a sort of Robin Hood figure for Nicaraguans, and his silhouette is visible throughout the country.

A mural on a wall in Managua, Sandino's silhouette on the right

A giant silhouette on a hilltop in Managua. Just below this is Samoza's bunker where he had his last stand before he fell to the Sandinistas, which has been turned into a Sandino museum. Ironic, no?

We did several other things during our time in Nicaragua, mostly various lectures and we also saw an interesting park, called "The Park of Peace" where all the weapons from both sides of the revolution were buried in cement. Our last night in Nicaragua, we went to a pupusa restaurant, which was so delicious! Pupusas are from El Salvador, basically consist of a fatty corn tortilla with stuff hiding inside. And by "stuff" I mean cheese, beans, pork-paste (tastes much better than it sounds) or a combination of the three. In the words of Tony the Tiger, They're Grrrrrreat!

Well, after a lovely almost-week in Nicaragua, we got up super early and took the bus back to good ol' Costa Rica. Back to my lovely host family, a regular school-like schedule, and what strangely strangely enough felt almost like coming home. Even the one-eyed dog at the street corner was still there waiting to welcome me back.

Travels

An update on what I have been doing (actually more about where I have been going...)

On Tuesday, March 1st I left San Jose for a grand journey back to the states. After a very long struggle with dementia, my grandmother passed away and I am very happy to know that she is once again completely herself in heaven. Our whole family was able to be home for the funeral, including Claire from Whitworth north in Spokane and Katie from med school in Loma Linda. We really enjoyed our time together, sledding, shopping, celebrating Claire and Katie's twin birthdays, and remembering Grandma. It was a very sweet time and I am incredible thankful that I was able to go home to be with my family. 

This is a pictoral representation of where I was, all in the span of one week. 

(No I didn't take the pictures, and no, I don't really call an layover in the airport actually visiting)

 

First Leg of the journey: New York

 

On to Dallas

 

Then to the lovely Portland, Oregon

  

Finally, my destination! Unfortunately I was just a little too early for the cherry blossoms and daffodils.

 

Miami! (Of course this was after I was in Dallas for the second time in a week)

 

Finally, I ended up in Managua, Nicaragua. Post about this soon to come...

Saturday at the Country Club

This was actually quite some time ago, but the Saturday before I left for all my travels, Lula and I went to a Spanish country club with Alexandria and Sarah (two of my fellow students) and Jenny, Adam, Ravi and Justin (our sociology professor, her husband, and two boys). We spent a lovely day in the sunshine. There was a very nice pool, minigolfing, lots of trees, and playgrounds. Very relaxing day!

 

Picnic Lunch!

 

Adam and the boys

 

Mini-golf, Central American style (it was a little dangerous, with rust nails and everything.)

 

Lula saw that the mango trees at the country club had green mangos. She loves green mangos, so she found a worker and asked him to knock down some mangos. So he got a ladder, climbed up in the tree, and used  a huge hook/stick thing to knock down some mangos.

 

Somehow Lula always convinces people to do what she wants them to.

Some nice days...

This post is primarily for my parents, since it has been stormy, cold, and rainy here on the campus every time I have skyped with them. We do have very nice days here sometimes, really....we do! And it is beautiful. But don't take my word for it....