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12/14/04 That's about all for now. We will be thinking of you all on Christmas and hope it is a wonderful day for all. . . Love, Cheryl, John Mark, Nathan, & Christine 12/29/04 Love, 8:30am - 9:30am Lenguaje (conversation) 9:30am - 10:15am Either culture classes, chapel, or free time depending on the day of the week 10:15am - 12:00am Gramatica, with a 5 minute break after the first hour The clase de Phonetica is all about producing the correct sounds for Spanish. We have been working on all of the sounds of the alphabet & in different combinations. We play fun games like hangman & bingo (the cards have letters of the alphabet on them) for practice. We also repeat after our teacher alot. The clase de Lenguaje gives us a chance to talk in bigger pieces. We don't have tons of verbs yet so our sentences are pretty simple. We have been practicing numbers & now adjectives. We have dozens of adjectives that we are trying to get familiar with. Some are very similar to the English equivalent & some are not. The least fun & most tedious class is Gramatica. We are learning the nuts & bolts of gender & number, and different articles. All of our classes are conducted in Spanish. At first, its a little overwhelming because you can't understand alot of it. Slowly, you begin to pick up pieces. You just have to accept the fact that you're not going to get everything & go for the main point! We've been listening to alot of Spanish radio & TV at home, which slowly is helping with our listening comprehension. I am also slowly slugging my way through a Reader's Digest in Spanish. I have four other students with me en las clases de Phoneticas y Lenguaje. En la clase de Gramatica, there are nine other students. I think I can safely say that I am the oldest student in any of my classes! John Mark & I are not in any of the same classes. Nathan had a pretty uneventful trip back to Nebraska. John Mark's parents & sister met him at the airport & drove him out to Kearney. He missed the first day of classes (he had e-mailed his teachers ahead of time about it) but says it was no big deal. He is taking three art classes (Drawing II, Intro to Graphic Design, & Ceramics I), Phil. (Ethics), and an English class (expository writing). Surprisingly, he is liking his philosopy class. The local Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) tell us that the weather has been uncharacteristically cool but it hasn't been cool enough yet for us to shut any of our windows! The weather changes throughout the day from rainy (some days), to overcast, to sunny & back again so it is always a trick to know how to dress & whether or not you'll need a light jacket. I surely wouldn't change this for Nebraska's winter weather though. Our lives are less interesting now as we are sticking pretty close to home. Christine also starts school at 7:30am & we return to the school at 2:30pm to walk her home. One afternoon we had a local foods seminar where we learned about unfamiliar foods & what to do with them. Many of the vegetables that are unfamiliar to us are tubular starches, to which they add lots of butter, cream, sour cream, or cream cheese to make tasty. Unfortunately, John Mark & I are trying to watch our fat intake so fixing these starches in that manner is not a good idea for us. As the lady was showing us different citrus fruits, she often remarked how sour they are, so they are best made into fruit juices. That sounds good but its a bit time consuming & there are lots of juices available at the grocery store. Otherwise, I enjoyed sampling the different fresh products, as well as some processed foods and noting the different dry goods available for baking. On Thursday evening we were invited to a home fellowship group connected with our Chinese Baptist Church. It began with a meal prepared by our hostess for all twenty people, followed by a time of sharing and group singing. We had some specialized food there that we hadn't seen since Taiwan ( & really hadn't missed!). Most was quite tasty & I really enjoyed the sticky rice dessert. Their home is just huge, especially by local standards. It is three stories and has a large yard area that is beautifully landscaped. It was a real treat just to be there! We tried to see a movie on Wednesday evening, with another family, since Wednesday is 1/2 price day at the theaters here. Unfortunately the website for the local theaters is not updated regularly so we did not find the movie that we wanted to see. However, John Mark & I tried a different theater on Friday night & enjoyed seeing a movie with another couple while Christine & their daughter did some joint babysitting with another family from the language institute. After babysitting, Christine had the girl spend the night with her. That's about all of the news from here. The Instituto de Lengua Espanolahas added some new sections of classes so all of my classes will be changing on Monday. I will have all different teachers than the ones that I started with last week. I'm a little nervous because I was just beginning to get used to the last teachers but I'm sure that my new teachers will all be nice people too. All for now. . . Cheryl & all 1/30/05 I had an interesting experience Friday. My neighbor, a Tica who heads a volunteer organization called "Recycling Hopes", asked if I would like to make a visit with her to one of her "girls". Her "girls" are anywhere from age 9 to about 22, are unwed & pregnant (about 20% of the time as victims of incest), are extremely poor & pregnant, or are from an abusive situation, or homeless. She told me that this girl was married but extremely poor and had recently given birth to triplets, one of whom had just died. We were visiting the home to see what supplies she needed most. "Recycling Hopes" is operated on a shoestring budget, everyone unpaid & totally dependent on gifts & donated supplies. That being said, she had been promised a ride from a well-known model, who is a believer & anonymously gives generously to this organization. The model also has a weekly television program & seems to be quite famous locally. It was a bit intimidating to ride in her car & try to make conversation in my poor Spanish! Driving during rush hour is a work of art here & she has it down to a fine art. We arrived at the home of the "girl" & joined a room full of milling people, all there to comfort & help the family. The household included "the girl", her husband, four siblings of the "girl", the "girl's" mother & father, and one of the surviving triplets (one triplet is still in the hospital ). The family live in a corrugated metal addition on the roof of a one story home. The addition is about 800 sq. ft. & is divided into several rooms with wallboard. The ceiling is the metal roof of the addition & there is about 6" of daylight between the walls & roof. When we arrived, the "girl" & her husband were at the hospital reclaiming the body of the baby, preparing it for placement in the casket ( which was donated by "Recycling Hopes"), and bringing the baby home until the funeral the next day. Within about 30 minutes they arrived at home and the open casket was placed on a small table surrounded with flowers so that relatives & friends could come by & offer their condolences. The custom is for people to come & STAY as long as they are able, preferably all night. My neighbor explained that most people will bring either coffee, sugar, or bread to the family during this time. Many teenagers and grade school children came and spent much time viewing the body - they didn't appear shocked or traumatized in any way by the experience. In fact, they seemed much more comfortable with the situation than most would in the States. As the room grew more crowded, one young neighbor woman fainted. I learned that she had lost a 6 month old baby recently & had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. As they attempted to revive her, my friend asked if I would take the woman's 4 yr. old girl outside & entertain her. I spent about an hour with the child, who was wonderfully talkative (not that I understood but about a fourth of what she said), showing me around the neighborhood, introducing me to her friends, and roller blading. I was glad that I could be of some help & I was especially grateful that she was such a friendly child! This has been a tumultuous two weeks in language school. The school reshuffled students & decided to bump me upwards by two sections. I struggled in my new grammar class for several days before telling the director that I thought I was in over my head. She was very encouraging & suggested that I give it another week. I suffered through another week before returning to her office & pleading to be returned to my previous class. I appreciated the compliment but it was just too stressful. She allowed me to change back & I have been soooooo much happier these last couple of days! I feel like someone who has been dog paddling as hard as they can for hours & then returns to water where they can get their feet on solid ground. Christine had a break from school on Friday so she lobbied for a trip to the beach with the families of two of her friends last weekend so we found ourselves at Junquillal Beach on the Pacific coast in northwest Costa Rica. Not being much of a beach bunny myself, I spent most of the time in a hammock in the shade with either my homework or a book. The view was beautiful though, the weather mild, and the food great. John Mark & I had our "beach time" at about 6 am, before the sun was so intense, and enjoyed looking for shells & investigating the area beaches. That's about all of the excitement in our lives right now. Thanks for your e-mails and letters. . . Cheryl & all Here's how you can reach us: E-mail: john.hansen@macregion.org Website: www.latinchinese.blogspot.com |
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with a Chinese couple who offered to take we four along to Quepos, a
beach area on the west coast. They rented a small home about 1/8 mile
from the beach. All around us were coconut groves, which we walked through
to get to the beach. Despite it being peak tourist season here, we were
the only ones on our section of beach most of the time. It was wonderful
& the kids had a great time playing in the surf. Our hosts did most
of the cooking, which was tasty but definitely Chinese, i.e., we had
scrambled eggs on white bread with lettuce & potato chips to form
a sandwich for breakfast! If I had it my way, I'd have given the place
a good scrubbing before we arrived & would have brought my own bedding
but we did okay. It wasn't the best night of sleep I've ever had but
everything else was great! Tomorrow is Nathan's birthday so we're trying
to think of something fun to do for it.
with
some trick riding by a father & son duo. Afterward, we watched three
different "matadors" in the ring with bulls for awhile. None
of them carry any kind of a weapon so no harm comes to the bull. One
of the professional matadors got trampled on a bit but we didn't see
any blood and he limped out of the ring. After that we had a ring full
of regular guys, like about 150 people, all of whom are hoping for their
moment of fame in the ring with the bull. They release a bull into the
ring & all of this mob of people run around trying to attract the
bull's attention & then make a mad run for the wall & jump over
it if the bull actually comes after them. Three people actually got
trampled on a bit or thrown around by the bull - it's hard to tell how
seriously anyone gets hurt because they get carried off to the medical
room immediately. One of those three lost his pants to the bull's horns
- I couldn't see it myself. Its a strange form of entertainment but
they never lack for willing participants. We went through a series of
seven bulls before we tired of it & left. Definitely unique!