canine chaos

       I know I keep complaining about the dog packs that roam all night, but sleep deprivation makes you  a little crazy and a little obsessed with that which deprives you.  Once again, I am awakened by shrill barking.  Lots and lots of never ending barking. This time, thrown onto the mix are roosters before dawn.  If I were in New York City and taxis were honking, sirens were blaring, and neighbors partying all night, I would be sleeping like a baby.  I'm a city girl.  But the dogs and roosters...  I'm not the only one to notice.  Everyone who lives with a host family has dark circles under their eyes, and have decided that Quepos dogs are not man's best friend.
       At school we have new students that have arrived. Justin, a skater, surfer dude from New Mexico who is going into his senior year of high school.  He's super smart and knows more spanish than anyone could imagine, but he's here because he needs to practice his fluency, and look for hot tica girls on the beach. Wesley, another brilliant student who in his 15 short years on this planet has already traveled most of it himself. Then there's Brianne.  She introduced herself and Charlie asked her what she does back in the states.  She said she was a "Dog and Cat Food Scientist" for Iams, and her husband with her, Joe, was a surgeon.  I immediately spoke up, "Really. Do you have a food that will make dogs silent at night? Or anytime during the day would be fine too, for naps."  She looked at me with a bewildered deer-in-the-headlights look.  "Um, noooo." A student chimed in, "Do you think it's possible to create one quickly?"  "Um, no."  Another added, "What about your husband?  Is there a possible surgery?"  She looked towards Charlie wide eyed.  "Am I in the wrong class?" Charlie said, "Children, children back down.  Brianne is here to learn spanish, not solve your REM problems." "Oh sorry Brianne, welcome to class."  We laughed that nervous distant laugh that said we were still pondering a solution.
       Next around the table was Nicole.  She is from Switzerland.  In broken english, she said she had been on a jungle survival trip in Venezuela for the last 8 weeks to learn spanish.  A silence fell cross the room as our sleep deprived brains processed what she had just said. We all turned at once and stared until finally I spoke up, "Then what are you doing here?"  She started to laugh and said, "Oh I guess that no make sense.  I go Venezuela to learn spanish but my guide only spek english, so I learn english in front of. Now I'm learn spanish."  We asked her numerous questions about survival in the jungle.  She talked about sleeping in a hammock for 8 weeks, about being in rain for days on end, and about having to catch and kill what you eat, or you don't eat.  Suddenly our silly problem with barking dogs seemed trivial.  We voted her class "badass", and vowed to quit whining.
       That afternoon we had Salsa and Merengue dance lessons at school.  Gabrielle blasted the boombox and taught us step by step how to move around the dance floor. We managed the steps, but we gringos have a problem with the hip action. We can't seem to let go and let the hips roll around freely the way the latino's can. Is it genetic?  We became determined to master it, but all the lessons in the world couldn't prevent the eye rolling we got from Gabrielle.  Finally we couldn't take the pressure any longer and began to break dance and do the sprinkler.  It got ugly and Gabrielle shooed us out of class until the next day.
       In the evening I was looking forward to getting to bed early to beat the canines at their own game, but I had promised another student I would go out with her for latin music to practice our dancing.  Catie, is an aspiring spanish teacher trying to get her final certification before the fall semester begins.  She and her husband Jason are staying with Bileida's parents, a block away.  Our plans were to go to a local club, but when Bileida heard we were going out dancing that night she said. "I thought you would want to go with us.  The place we are going is outside of town, and has the most beautiful music. The music is so much better than the other club, it's fantastic."   I asked Bileida if she would call her parents' house and see if Catie and Jason  wanted to go with them.  Again Bileida went on and on with Catie about how much more beautiful the music was at the place they were going to. When we arrived, I found out why.  It was karaoke night and the beautiful music was my tico parents! They sang their hearts out.  Evidently the ticos love karaoke. Even Catie got up and joined in.  She courageously sang Shakira's, "She Wolf"  in spanish. Then, we thought the Ticos would be tired of it,  but she brought the house down when she belted out, "La Bamba".
       The next morning at school, a friend of mine showed up during our break.  She introduced me to her sister who had just flown in from the states for a visit.  "I came by this morning because I had my sister bring you the magic cure." she said.  I wondered what she meant.  She grinned as she pulled out a small bag, turned it over and dropped the contents.  Little white things rained down all over the desk like manna from heaven...  earplugs!!!!

Quepos marauders

trying to get a table at a restaurant

legitimate Quepos dog

spanish class

dance lessons

that's my toe...

this music IS so much more beautiful

Anibal sings a love song to Bileida

Shakira

gachos! bringing down the house

ok now this is just how the problem perpetuates

almuerzo

        The ticos are unbelievably polite and respectful to everyone. As I've mentioned before they stand to let the elderly sit, they say hello to every single person they see, they kiss on the cheek as a greeting, they stop traffic to talk to one another, they play with children, and so on.  In the spanish language, if you are saying the word "you", one has two choices:  "tu" which is informal and one would use it with someone they know or a friend, or "usted" which is formal.  One would use this word with someone they don't know well, or out of respect for that person.  Here in Costa Rica they are so polite they don't even use the "tu" form at all!  It is always "usted" that is used.   They are also so nice that when you go out to a restaurant and have a meal, they will not bring you the check in the end.  You could sit there for hours and they will not bring you the check until you ask for it, because to them, if they came to bring you the check it would be like asking you to leave which would not be polite at all.  Also, in most spanish speaking countries when you say "thank you " you get the response, "de nada" which means, "it's nothing".  To the Costa Ricans it would be a negative to say it was nothing.  It would discount the act that was being thanked.  Instead they say, "Mucho gusto." It is my pleasure.  Or, "Con mucho gusto" It is with much pleasure (that I do this for you).  And if they really want to make their point they will say, "El gusto es mio." The pleasure is mine. To me, these are just added reasons to love the Costa Ricans.
       Ticos are happy for you to learn their language too and they will help you if you ask, but they are far too polite to correct you.  At times, this can be a problem because many words are similar, and we gringos get mixed up.  The ticos will just try to figure out what you said, and respond. Sometimes though, their playful spirit gets the best of them.  I was at a restaurant one evening and at the end of the meal I waved to the waiter and said, "La cuenta por favor."  The check please.  Some gringos at the table next to me overheard, so one of the men waved to his waiter and said, "Lo cuento por favor."  The waiter stopped, turned and said, "Muy bien." Very well. He bowed, put his pencil behind his ear, his check pad in his back pocket and somberly said, "Un dia  un hombre comino en una barra..." One day a man walked into a bar...  My table burst into laughter.  The gringo, instead of asking for the check, had asked for a story. We grinned with the men from Texas as we explained the difference between la cuenta, and lo cuento. Sometimes though, the faux pas can be a little more intrepid...
        At the Academia we were going to learn about cooking terms and all types foods in spanish.  Our professor decided we should each bring ingredients with us the next day and we would prepare a meal for the school as we learned the words.  We prepped for an hour as we went over terms for utensils, foods, spices, and recipes.  When all was ready, we called the other students to the dining area to break bread with us. As David, the owner of our school, approached I motioned him to the front of the line.  "No, why should I go first?" he humbly asked. I summoned up all of my spanish speaking courage and practiced a new word I had learned. "Porque disgraciado!" David's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open in disbelief. "What?!  What did you say?! Who is your professor??!!"  The room fell into a stunned silence. I back pedaled, not knowing what went wrong. "What?" I said in english, "because we are grateful!" The other teachers then doubled over in laughter speaking spanish amongst themselves rapidly while pointing at me and trying to catch their breath.  Instead of saying, "agradecido"  which means grateful, I had said, "disgraciado" which means disgrace, and even worse, it is a slang term in Costa Rica.  I had unwittingly told my head master he should go to the front of the line because "he was a son of a bitch."   My face went beet red as I apologized profusely.  David laughed and laughed as I begged him not to fire Charlie, my teacher.

Mauricio, our groundskeeper, shows us how it's done

Helen in the kitchen, doing what a mom does

Charlie's chef friends would be proud

Charlie and David moments before I dropped the SOB bomb

yum yum

Tico love, now that's what I'm talking about