la vaca negra

First of all: Thanks everybody for voting for me in the blogger competition! I reached 12th place, it's not the first, but hey! I beat 244 blogs so I am very happy!

XOXO and keep enjoying my blog

Dia 220, el Martes 19 de Febrero 17:56

Spontanous ice cream

Last Sunday was an easy day which felt like a ‘Costa Rican’ Sunday. In the morning I joined my hostdad to a mango farm to see his cows and to pick up some mangos. My hostdad new every mango type by seeing it just hanging there, mango knowledge is pretty normal in Orotina. The ‘Feria de las frutas’ has announced by the way: 14 to 25 of March will be the biggest fruit event of the year! I’m still not very sure what will happen since people always give vague answers when I ask them, but I’ll see.

Later in the evening I went spontaneous to Puntarenas with Sarah to get some ice cream, our first ice cream was way too expensive but nice and we couldn’t resist a second one which was way better and way cheaper; I found my favorite ice cream spot in  Puntarenas. It was nice to be with an exchange student again, I hadn’t been with one for a long time. It was nice to let all your complaints out and talk about how annoying or hard some things are, and then always ending the conversation with: ‘I love Costa Rica’.

Yesterday and today were two normal and nice days in school, I ate a lot of mangos and we now always have to go to a bakery outside the school since the school soda was closed. I was in a good mood yesterday so I invited on ‘bolies’ basically frozen syrup in a plastic bag. Something else: it is the very normal to drink from a small plastic back in Costa Rica, something which isn’t that weird actually and pretty practical.

Today was extra nice because I spotted two big groups of white-faced monkeys in the school forest where we were working. These things always make me so happy for choosing Costa Rica.

Day 223, el viernes 22 de febrero 2013 18:10

Vaca Negra

School is pretty exhausting but I’m getting used to waking up early, but sleeping early still has its difficulties, because of this I totally lost the ‘write-my-blog-everyday-mentality’ but to be honest I lost that a long time ago. This isn’t bad at all, because it mostly I’m having a wonderful time!

Last Wednesday was just a half school since my classmates had to take a test to see if they can be official tour guides, something I really want to be but can’t be because it takes 10 months to take the course, too bad. Yesterday I was free the whole because the teacher had a free day. Because I left early the day before I didn’t make any plans and my phone being crappy doesn’t help either. But it was a nice day and I spent most time chilling with my host brother which also has to be done. We made a ‘vaca negra’ which means black cow, some traditional food which is well, uhmm interesting. It is vanilla ice cream with Coca-Cola; yes, ice cream with Coca Cola; Ticos love Coca Cola. It got 1 layer of foam which tasted like Coca Cola vanilla and later it was vanilla ice cream with a little bit of Coca Cola taste and gas, ice cream with gas, that was interesting. Now the weirdest thing is that for this local tradition dish they ask about $5 dollars in the ice cream store, so we just bought ice and Coca Cola. In the night we went to a roller skating track in another village, there were just 3 other people and us but we had a good time, even with this black cow in my stomach.

Today was ‘basics’ day in school which means normal classes and no specialty, I don’t mind it at all, switching classes prevent it from getting boring and these classes we have with the other half of our class which are my friends as well, so that’s always nice as well. We kinda missed Spanish classes because we searched through all of San Mateo for food since the soda of the school hasn’t opened yet. In the afternoon we went again the San Mateo centro; well San Mateo ‘centro’ her we bought a lot of bread and Coca-Cola and we made sandwiches in class to ‘keep the concentration up’ but we spent all time shopping the stuff and making the sandwiches.

Now the weekend is ready to start, tomorrow I have to river on the schedule and on Sunday I am going to Vulcano Póas; finally I’m going to see thé biggest crater in the world!

First week of school: survived!

Day 212, Monday 11 February 2013 20:40

Back to school!

I must honestly say that I didn’t sleep very well yesterday, I didn’t feel any nervousness; maybe it was the mosquitos. But going back to school was pretty cool. In the morning there was a lil’ speech from the director; who according to me needs to practice a lot on giving speeches.  Only 7 of my classmates came today, just because not everybody signed up for school yet, yes the classes already started but why sign up? Gladly 5 of the 7 were really good friends of mine so it was nice chilling with them. We first had geography for 2 hours which was simple earthquake stuff and Costa Rican’s geographic history.

After that the biology teacher didn’t show up so we went to chill in the park. I saw a lot of people again after the holidays and it was nice to see them again, these holidays really changed me, not so much the view of the world and shit but more how I am living my Costa Rican life, I am living it way more Costa Rican now with more Costa Rican friends. After lunch we had Tourism class but everybody went home because, well just because. I stayed  because I am of course the perfect student and I still had to sign up as well. I met an Australian exchange student who is in my school now as well, I spent some time with her and my tourism teacher in a classroom learning her Spanish. It was lovely to talk with her, she answered me a lot of questions and I was nice to be ‘that dude who is here so long already’.

I thought it was a nice idea to show her the school farm and camping because I was stunned when I saw it for the first time and that was when I was in the school for 1 month or something, so I thought it would be nice for her to see on the first day. On the way we found a lot of mangos which fell and the trees where well filled, too bad the mangos were too high and the ones on the ground half-eaten by iguanas. And the way back I found a star fruit tree and I picked some, they turned out not to taste so good; so it was dog food.

So it was really nice to go back to school, I feel that it is very different from the times before the holidays, I know a lot more people, I have more friends, and they became better friends. I once said to somebody: ‘it is impossible to have a normal and good conversation with a tico’; I was wrong.

Dia 216, El Viernes 15 de Febrero 2013 21:35

First school week: survived.

I have a nice cliché moment of: ‘oh-no-I-didn’t write-my-blog-for-days’; but yeah it is true, but with a good reason; I was and still am pretty damn tired! Getting back to the rhythm of waking up at 5:30, 9 hours of school and sleep at 10 was hard, so hard that I didn’t find the energy to write.

But the school week was very nice! I caught up with everybody and as I wrote in my last post, school is just different. I feel more comfortable, and I just like everything more. On Wednesday it was my hostmom’s birthday so I woke up at 4:45 to clean the kitchen (my hostmom can’t stand dirty things, so cleaning the kitchen is a huge gesture. After school I bought cake and 2 bottles of Coca-Cola, the thing my hostmom loves must after a clean house. I called an uncle and a cousin and we had a nice little barbeque in the evening, I think it was my first ‘carne asada party’ of 2013 and it was a nice one.

Furthermore we had mostly introducing classes about you are now the last year you have to be strong blah blah blah.. That made me think about the start of my last high school year, but hey that’s long-gone.

I also got a few new classmates which is always fun, our class now it Tourism with Cooking class people instead of agriculture. Always nice to get to know more people. I also made a lot of plans for the weekends coming up, so those’ll be ‘tuanis’

Dia 218, el Domingo 17 de febrero 2013 14:31

Close secrets

Waking up early got awarded again; never ever stay in bed when there’s cool stuff to do. Yesterday I went with my hostmom and a walking group for a walk over the famous Orotinian train tracks. It is a walk I’ve always wanted to do, just because walking train tracks has something special. After about 1 hour we arrived at the first station, there was a ruin of the old rock smasher and a big hole in a mountain where they mined rocks for Costa Rican industry. Half an hour later we arrived at a small abandoned train stations with a few houses in it. Mine workers lived here but when the train was cut off they lost their jobs and had to move out, now there are creepy houses full of bats. We descended a few hundred meters to get to the pool which was our final destination. It was a beautiful pool with a nice waterfall coming from a tunnel. The water was very cold but nice on such a hot day. After swimming and lunching it was time to walk back, on the way back I had a nice conversation with a women who also had an exchange student a while back. When we were back at the first station my hostmom, some guy , some women and me decided to take another route back over the mountain, we had a very nice view and it was a better road as the train tracks where you walked on rocks all the time. After 1 hour we were back at our starting point which was pretty close to the house of my friend Chino. So I decided to pop by them and there I spent a nice while chilling with Chino and his brother watching a movie and playing playstation. I always have nice conversations there over the always delicious dinner. People always told me that I am so rich and blah blah blah and I aways responded with: ‘no no we are just normal people’ but over the last months I realized that I ám rich, but I just didn’t know it myself.

I sometimes forgot that Orotina is in the mountains, and in the mountains there are always nice trails to walk, I should go for a walk more often and get the mountain bike fixed. It also made me realize that living in the mountains is pretty damn cool, we don’t have mountains in the Netherlands so that makes the change bigger, and mountains come with a lot of cool things like rivers and mountain biking! 

Vote for me!

I normally don't update like this but I have little time cuz the school bus is leaving!

but there are 3 days left to vote and I would really appreciate if you vote for my blog! ( My life in Costa Rica)

It gives me motivation to finish this blog for the last 3,5 months!

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XOXO,

Gossip-boy

( I actually did got a bit if an gossip-addiction here, but hey! I just adjust to da culture!)

:*

Food talk, monkeys and CARNIVAL!

Day 209, el Jueves 7 de Febrero 2013 8:16

Tico’s fav food.

Last Tuesday I went to school to sign up for this year, it’s funny that I can do this this late even though classes start next Monday. It was nice to be back in school, a few people thought I already left and it was nice to see them happily surprised. I met 3 classmates and we chatted a bit while filling in papers. It felt like Dutch summer that day, being in school with just a few peeps on a sunny day made me remind the old days. I also spoke with one of my best friends from my Dutch highschool and I kind of missed these times.

Yesterday there was another arrozarium a.k.a. singing to baby Jesus. This time we got Rompepe and Nachos. Rompepe is a typical drink which tastes like ‘leche dulce’ but with a bit alcohol. Leche dulce is sweetened syrop like milk and Ticos love it, they put in and on everything, another Costa Rican favorite is Pollo Frito, fried chicken. They sell the greasy but o-so-good fried chicken everywhere and the greasy smell fills the streets. The worst what can happen is sitting next to somebody eating his pollo frito next to you in the bus, it has happened. The nachos were better as the rompepe, way better. You have some ‘nice’ nachos in The Netherlands if you put them in a bowl with plastic cheddar cheese and put it in the microwave, here, here nachos is a whole meal. You’ll get a mountain of nachos, meat, tomato, natilla, salad and cheese on a plate so small that everything will be all over the place when you’re finished.

But I was extremely happy with the nachos besides for the fact that they were very tasty they also helped my kill the hunger I had all day. I woke up early in the morning with just a bit of bread for breakfast to go with my uncle to the school where he works. It is in the village of Guayllipi or something like that, it lies on top of a mountain and it a 12 kilometer gravel road takes you there. There is almost nothing: 1 church, 1 soccer field, 1 supermarket and the 60-student school. It was nice to visit such a small village like this, it made me think if the small village in France, it just suck that Costa Rica doesn’t have any nice architecture at all. While my uncle was in a meeting a laid outside in the sun and took a nice nap, just me and my thoughts. My nap got disturbed by rain which is weird because it didn’t rain for over a month and it isn’t supposed the rain at all. But Costa Rica is a country of surprises and I actually liked it, I miss the crazy rain. And the way back we went to a viewing point and I could see all over my region, I didn’t see Orotina itself but the sea was beautiful and the mountains far away filled with woods were beautiful.

22:13

Monkeys!

Today was an epic day at the river! While we were swimming from the rope as always we heard some loud noises which my dear friends indicated as howler monkeys. Me and 2 friends were up for a little adventure so we took off towards the sounds. We went bare feet jumping from stone to stone through the river until we found an entry in the forest. We continued; still on bare feet towards the still howling howler monkeys. After a few hundred meters we climbed a little hill and looked up: 4 meters above there were around 8 howler monkeys just chilling. Luckily the howler monkeys stopped howling so we could watch them in peace. After 2 minutes we decided to go because the not howling howler monkeys looked kinda mad and ready to throw shit at us. On the way back we got a bit lost and I was sure the monkeys were following us so after we started running we heard something we suddenly were back at the river; it was a cool small adventure.

Dia 210, el Sabado 9 de Febrero 2013 21:15

CARNIVAL!

Yesterday was nice, and today, today was EPIC. So let’s talk about yesterday first!

It was an easy day; I started with sweeping the floor which is my daily chore. I did some preparations for the holiday of my parents for when they come here; it’s going to be amazing! In the afternoon my hostmom came home with and aunt and a cousin. We talked during a lovely lunch with ‘chimi churri’ a mix of tomato, lemon, salt and union; delicious! I’m going to eat that so much in The Netherlands. The lunch changed into coffee time and we just kept on talking about the regular Costa Rican stuff. Later when the women wanted to gossip on their own I went to the center to pick up my new school uniform pants, brown pants specially made for me in some store. Because I am a last year’s student I get to wear a different uniform and I must say I feel damn good in it.

This morning my alarm clock went off and it took my time to figure out which day it was, when I realized it was Saturday I almost went back to sleep, but I am so so so sooo glad I didn’t! I swept the house, ate my breakfast ate a second breakfast, showered and for ready for carnival! I took a bus with 2 friends from school to Puntarenas, normally the ride takes 1 hour and 15 minutes, today it took 2 and a half hours. But the bus ride was funny, a few friends more entered the bus and we were joking all the time about everything and nothing. I must honestly say that I was surprised when I arrived in Puntarenas. Puntarenas wasn’t the dirty harbor city anymore, it changed completely. Okey, it was still dirty but the vibe was way better. There were a lot of fast food trailers on the boulevard alongside the beach and a lot a lot a lot of people and at the far end: a huge stage. I didn’t believe my eyes, it was like I was back in the Netherlands on Queens day but now with beach and palm trees! We walked the boulevard until the crowd started and searched for a spot between all the half-naked beer-drinking and marihuana smoking Costa Rican students. The concert was mostly live Reggae music but with a nice beat to dance to. The party was getting started and then I suddenly got a big hug, it were Ruth and Bea who saw me standing, which must not have been that hard since I was about 15 centimeters taller as everybody else with some blond hair on top. They came all the way from Nicoya to this festival and it was a very nice surprise that I saw them. We danced a bit together, me, my friends and them. Later we split up again and I moved with my friends the some shadow since the sun was burning like crazy and the temperature had raised to 34 degrees Celsius. After 6 hours of dancing and jumping I lost my friends in the crowd, I walked a bit out of the crowd to find get some reception and there I found Ruth and Bea again! after walking back with them I got found by my friends who probably saw me coming from the other side; being tall is awesome (except for bus rides).

After this concert there was going to be the real carnival with nice carts and dancers and everything but we were pretty tired and we didn’t have any money either so we took the bus back to Orotina. During the bus ride I called with the Dutch radio program ‘De wereld van Filemon’  which is used to do every day but quit due to the holidays, but now I’m back! So tune in on Saturday night between 1 and 3!

Today was an epic day in Costa Rica; I didn’t expect it all and almost didn’t go. I heard of this festival just 2 days ago and happened to meet some people yesterday in the center who were going, fate has been on my side I guess. It was awesome, now I’m tired and going for a nice sleep.

Yellow belt in TKD and more ''rice' parties

Dia 207 el 5 de Febrero 2013 22:23

Yellow Belt!

Today I reached something, something I can never lose; my yellow belt in Taekwondo! The exam wasn’t that hard but I was pretty nervous though. So after waiting on some people who were to late we could start the exam. Everybody stood at the side watching us and my host dad and little brother came to see, that was very nice of them and I am very glad since I have been asking all week of they could make it, and with Ticos you are never sure if they can. The Taekwondo master held a very nice speech about that we have become at special moment in Taekwondo and how much we have grown. He always talks very good pep talks, morality talks, discipline, all sorts of talks, he does it. Taekwondo isn’t just a sport, it’s a martial art and that means that it comes with a philosophy, in which I grew a bit today. Then the exam really started; the master asked a few questions about kicks, strikes and stances in Korean, I knew most of them but to be honest not all. He gave commands in Korean and we had to do the exercises he described. After that part at was time for the forms, patterns of 20 steps in which you fight imaginable opponents; its cooler as it sounds. Then we made it! We did well enough to pass to the next belt; yellow! It is the first belt but after black to most important, it means the end of the beginning and a long but welcoming road ahead. The master gave a nice ending speech I got my belt, everybody applauded and it was done, from there on the training went on as normal.

I would recommend Taekwondo to everybody, especially exchange-students. It is a very nice sport, in which everybody can participate, it’s a way to make friends and it boosts your already changing mind. And don’t forget, everybody puts on some foreign kilos.

I felt like buying my host family ice cream to celebrate my belt but it was already too late, I’ll save that for later.

Day 209, el Jueves 7 de Febrero 2013 8:16

Tico’s fav food.

Last Tuesday I went to school to sign up for this, it’s funny that I can do this this late even though classes start next Monday. It was nice to be back in school, a few people thought I already left and it was nice to see them happily surprised. I met 3 classmates and we chatted a bit while filling in papers. It felt like Dutch summer that day, being in school with just a few peeps on a sunny day made me remind the old days. I also spoke with one of my best friends from my Dutch highschool and I kind of missed these times.

Yesterday there was another arrozarium a.k.a. singing to baby Jesus. This time we got Rompepe and Nachos. Rompepe is a typical drink which tastes like ‘leche dulce’ but with a bit alcohol. Leche dulce is sweetened syrop like milk and Ticos love it, they put in and on everything, another Costa Rican favorite is Pollo Frito, fried chicken. They sell the greasy but o-so-good fried chicken everywhere and the greasy smell fills the streets. The worst what can happen is sitting next to somebody eating his pollo frito next to you in the bus, it has happened. The nachos were better as the rompepe, way better. You have some ‘nice’ nachos in The Netherlands if you put them in a bowl with plastic cheddar cheese and put it in the microwave, here, here nachos is a whole meal. You’ll get a mountain of nachos, meat, tomato, natilla, salad and cheese on a plate so small that everything will be all over the place when you’re finished. 

Las Minas

Day 203, el Viernes 1 de Febrero 2013 17:43

This will never change about me.

Something what didn’t change about me yet, and something I think will never change about me is me being clumsy and me losing everything. 3 weeks ago I bought a new very cheap crappy phone. Last Saturday I already lost, which is not so bad because it was so crappy and already broken. But the thing is my SIM-chip was still in the phone so I lost all my numbers and nobody could reach me. So this gave me a few boring days, which I really hate.

That’s why going to school isn’t that bad all next week since I will be around people and doing more stuff. And there will be a lot of trips with school I hope. I did meet up with Lea in the park yesterday which was nice, just to old school complain and get some things of your chest. Even though I live in Costa Rica for 7 months now (!!) some things will always be annoying, annoying but bearable and it is always nice to just share it.

Another thing I didn’t write about yet is the ‘baja-mundo’ (Underworld); the black market of San José. I went there with my host family 2 weeks ago. It is in some creepy neighborhood in San José. The streets are full with people on blankets selling phones, chargers and cameras; it kind of looks like a creepy flee market we know on Queens’ day (soon Kings’ day) in The Netherlands.  The headquarters of this ‘baja mundo’ was in some kind of mini-mall in a basement full of electronic shops with games, PlayStations, laptops, smartphones, iPad’s and more. Everything was stolen, and everything was very cheap. My family didn’t seem to have a problem with that but didn’t buy anything for today.

Another thing: in The Netherlands you can be as honest as you want about most things. Here in Costa Rica, not. I say, for example: ‘well this is expensive’ people are like: ‘nooooh’ you can’t say that. Or when I think I product is fake and I say it, (not to the salesman but to my host brother) they are like: ‘noooh you can’t say that’. Like these people in the store care, they are people as well just doing their jobs. Sometimes I feel like people don’t release that other people are just people as well. 

Day 205, el Domingo 3 de Febrero 2013 22:03

Las Minas

You could almost say that it is unfair how many beauty one country has, and another not. But of course as unfair as the fact how much money some countries have and other not; just to stay real. But really Costa Rica has so much beauty!

This weekend I got to know ‘Las Minas’ or in English: The Mines. Time for a little history lesson: Costa Rica’s economy existed for a part of gold mining, because gold is pretty valuable Costa Rica got money money cash cash baby. There still is gold in some place but mostly underneath very old rainforest, so it’s protect, but illegally it still happens. Anyways, close to my village there was one of these mines, and on Saturday I went there with my friends: Chino, Hernan, Abram and a cousin of Chino, and his dad. We took a cool road over a mountain where you had an AMAZING view. I could so all the way to the Gulf of Nicoya and all the way to the mountain behind, which is around 70 kilometers away. There was also a nice view of Orotina and San Mateo lying next to each other.

So after this nice ride we arrived at a point where we could enter a river. We actually didn’t go to the mines itself, just to a river close to it. And this river, just: WOW! After climbing a bit by jumping rock to rock we arrived at a part where there were 5 waterfalls with each its own little pool with it. These pools where pretty deep and because it is summer the river isn’t that full so we could jump from the sides into the pools, which was epic epic epic! The highest jump was at the last pool and a small 7 meter drop into the river, delischous. Another cool thing was that there was a small waterfall going over a flat big rock which created an actual real-life-nature-made waterslide! Costa Rican nature strikes again.

After a few hours of jumping, swimming and climbing we got tired and chilled a bit at the main pool diving from a 4 meter rock into the main pool. There were some other people whom I overheard speaking Dutch! They turned out to be from Belgium and they live close to Orotina. I went for a little small talk and now I am invited to their house for dinner some time, that’ll be cool.

Today I went to the normal pools again with some friends just to chill out and relax. I really got to start working on that epic suntan I need when I go back to the Netherlands.

After dinner we ate the first mangos of the mango season and they were so damn good! Very sweet and just so much taste! There are always mangos in the stores but they are not from Orotina and sprayed with chemicals. These were the first mangos from Orotina and came from a farm from an uncle. I got the whole mango story which I love to share with you here on my blog. Orotina and San Mateo are famous for their fruits and especially the mangos. I can see mango trees as you can see bikes in The Netherlands are Starbucks in Manhattan. Really they are everywhere! Now there are mangos hanging from every tree ready to be eaten by me! There are about 50 different mangos in Costa Rica, with the biggest difference being male or female mangos. You can also eat the mangos ripe or not ‘green’; not ripe, I personally prefer the ripe ones; they are way sweeter. Some other mango species are: Mango Banana, Mango Piña, Mango Fillipano or Mango Papa. Gotta love mangos!

Nature made waterslide!