The biggest news, which most have already read in Facebook, is that I made the decision on Saturday that I´m going to live in Costa Rica for a while. I´ve been thinking for two months that I want to, but I couldn´t figure out how I could swing the cost. For whatever reason, it suddenly hit me on Saturday that money isn´t really an issue. I had already decided last week to dump the timeshare as it is costing me too much money, but I knew I couldn´t rely on that money any time soon. It could take a while to sell. But then I realized if I want to live in Costa Rica, keeping a car in the States doesn´t make any sense, so I sent an email to my parents asking them to sell it. My father is still trying to ascertain a selling price for me. But if you´re interested in a 1998 Toyota RAV4 with reasonable miles on it and in really good shape, let me know.
With that decision made, I´m feeling more relieved and more anxious at the same time. It´s good to have plans, but I´m also anxious to return to Costa Rica. I´m trying to enjoy my time here in Ecuador, but thoughts of my friends in Costa Rica and plans for the future are filling my head on a daily, and nightly, basis.
I studied all of last week, mostly conversation without much grammar. I also spend the last hour of every lesson reading in Spanish and then discussing what I´ve read with my teacher. I´m consistently surprised at how much I´m able to comprehend. I plan to find a large bookstore in Quito next week where I can buy a Spanish version of The Time Traveler´s Wife. Since it´s my favorite book and since I´ve read it several times, I feel like I´ll be able to wade through it slowly, probably only a few pages a day, but it will be more interesting than the small Spanish reader that I currently have. A recent article I read was about Groundhog Day in the States--not exactly the kind of articles that excite me!
Saturday morning I rose early and went to the market with Viviana, her mother, and Romina at 6:30. We first went to the animal market, which doesn´t occur every week, because they thought it would be interesting for me to see. To say the least! Pigs and cows on the side of the road. I saw a woman carrying a lamb clutched to her chest with a child riding on her back. There were chickens, cows, turkeys, kittens, puppies, goats, sheep, pigs, etc.--all for sale and all for the bargaining.
After, we headed back into town to buy vegetables and fruits for the week, oh, and fresh fish of course. There are plenty of vegetables and fruits that I can´t identify because they are native here, and there are even some that have one name in Costa Rica and another name here. She also showed me ¨catzos,¨ a type of bug that can be fried and eaten. I was happy to hear she doesn´t like them and wouldn´t be buying them for our lunch. Her sister, however, does eat them. I almost (that´s almost) want to try one. Maybe when Wendy comes for a visit. Two hours later with probably 20 sacks of food that Viviana and her mother bought, we loaded into a taxi for the short ride home. Since then, I´ve enjoyed fresh fish, freshly squeezed orange juice, homemade blackberry jam, fresh strawberries for breakfast, homemade milkshakes with the fruits, and innumerable dishes made with the vegetables. This might be the healthiest I´ve ever eaten.
On Sunday another student arrived, Suse from Germany. Her Spanish is what mine was when I first arrived in Costa Rica on day one (or perhaps less), and I´ve done quite a bit of translating in the house, which still feels very strange for me. But it´s nice to have another face at the dinner table, and it has made for more and interesting conversations. And then of course I have someone with whom to hang out after class.
I´ve enjoyed studying this week. My teacher and I usually converse for the first two hours about any number of topics. At times, we start on one subject and drift into many others, just as I would do with friends in English. Then we spend some time on grammar as I learn the final few verb tenses (tomorrow I will have ¨learned,¨ or at least reviewed, all of the verb tenses). Yesterday about did my head in as I tried to learn more of the subjunctive tense. And then we end the lessons with reading. I´ve learned quite a bit about customs and holidays in Ecuador, including about Carnaval, a time when throwing water balloons is common. And one day I read about shrunken heads. I never really know what to expect with the readings.
On Wednesday, Suse and I went to the Peguche waterfall, about a 50-minute walk. I guess one never gets tired of seeing waterfalls, hey? I´ve seen my fair share. Afterwards, we began to follow a somewhat overgrown trail and considered turning back. We were persuaded otherwise by a local guy named Pedro, who was 35 and looked 50, who we let lead the way. It was a good choice as the scenery was a bit different returning.
We returned to Otavalo to use the Internet AGAIN (it´s a good way to pass the time here), and I began to write this blog. At 7:00 we lost electricity in the entire town, though we still don´t know why, so it´s now Thursday as I finish this. We remained without electricity until about 10 p.m. last night and ate our dinner by candlelight. Oh, that was after I took a cold shower in 50-degree weather (15 Celsius). After that dousing of cold water, I´m now positive that I could have a future as an opera singer.
Today I´m feeling, not under the weather necessarily, but less than stellar and without a real reason. Studying was difficult today. It was more difficult to understand the conversation, the writings were slightly more difficult (though I´m proud to say I did better with the verb tenses than I thought I would when I started writing), and the reading was virtually impossible. When studying another language, there are times when you feel like you´re on a roll and things are starting to come so much easier, and you think to yourself, Wow, I can really do this. And then you have days like today. It´s just part of it, but I definitely intend to crawl back into bed after lunch.
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