I am still awkward in other countries.

I had a big long post about all my unstable emotions and what has been going on in my head. But I decided that was boring and I thought I might give you a top 11 list of things that have made me laugh recently. Things can get really frustration and awkward and sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh at yourself and move on. So here they are:

1. Once at breakfast I was really excited and told my mom there was a really big bird on the patio. She looked outside and gave me a weird look...but I kept telling her the big bird was out there. About 10 minutes later I realized I was telling her there was a huge airplane on the patio.

2. Sometimes I fake my showers. It is disrespectful and rude not to shower every day. So sometimes I turn on the shower...wash my face and do my hair and stuff...but dont really shower.

3. Sometimes I fake putting sugar in my coffee. They like their coffee REALLY sweet, and I like it black. I am sure if I told them it would be fine....but I sometimes stir my spoon around in my coffee to pretend.

4. Some friends and I went to Pizza Hut on Friday night. We try so hard not to stand out and be abnoxious Americans...but for some reason we all had a hard time ordering...then my friend dropped her entire try and food went flying.

5. Jenny, my best friend from home, made me notes to open throughout the semester. They are just so stinkin funny.

6. Sometimes when I am with natives, they tell jokes, and can tell by the look on my face that I didnt understand, so they will retell it and explain it. By that time it is not funny anymore and its just awkward.

7. I had frosted flakes one morning for breakfast. It was great.

8. A friend and I traveled all over San Jose (for about an hour) to find this chocolate farm and factory. We found it but a guy inside (with a gun) told us they arnt open weekends.

9. The groups of tourists age 65 and up. They walk around with their cameras and fanny packs and tropical shirts. They look rediculous.

10. We eat at a Chinese restaurant every Sunday after church. The food I get tastes similar to a dish I get at a Mexican restaurant at home.

11. I dont love watching TV, I dont shop, and I am not a touchy person. Every night we watch TV for like 2 hours, weve been to the same stores at the same mall 3 nights in a row...just to look, and Im becoming a touchy person. Everyone hugs, kisses, and holds eachother during all types of conversation.

Cafecito

“Cafecito” is translated literally into “little coffee” however in this house, where coffee is equal to water, “cafecito” can mean any meal with coffee. The other day my host mom asked if I wanted “un cafecito” which I realized meant....”are you ready for lunch”.

It's been almost a week and I can't believe how quickly I am starting to feel at home. The host family I live with is perfect for me. Everyone is always in and out of the house so we eat when we can and it is usually pretty good stuff. There is always that random something on the plate that I just have somehow swallow but a majority of the food is so good...everything is so fresh here.

I got to take a walk around the town by myself the other day and had time to just walk and think (in English lol). It was so great. Everything is just so simple. I don't have facebook or a cell phone that I have to check every five minutes, I don't have a car to worry about, and I feel completely safe.

I start Spanish class on Monday (which I have every day at 1) at a Language Institute in the central part of San Jose. Tuesday and Thursday mornings I have my other classes at the LASP school. There is so much I wish I could write here, I am still overwhelmed with a lot. As I look around I realize that if I were to drive through the city on a short mission trip of something, I would have thought things like “this is so sad....and everything is so dirty” and things like that. But I don't think those things. I just think...”This is where I live.”

Yesterday I wrote in my journal:
“...you really learn a lot about yourself when everything familiar is taken away. I think the nervousness, humbleness, and sometimes humiliation at my incompetence to fit in will always be present. I have been welcomed and loved but I don't know if I will never be a Tica. I stand out here and sometimes I just want to fit in but I will always have attention. It is not always the good kind of attention either, it gets really old.
It is the “I am going to stare at you because you are different” attention.
It is the attention SO many people go through every single day. My friends made an incredible journal for me and today it had a quote from C.S. Lewis that said “To love at all is to be vulnerable.”
If I want to love the people I say I want to love-
I must first be vulnerable enough to go through what they go through.”

I also am starting to grasp how quickly this semester will go by. I have classes for about a month then I go to Nicaragua for about 2 weeks. I then return for a week, only to leave for about a month to work in a school somewhere outside San Jose. After that I will come back for a couple days and my last two weeks will be spent it Cuba (unless the U.S. Treasury decides to not let us go). Crazy!

Chao!

sonrisa = smile

Im here! sorry if this is a little dry...culture shock has kind of taken a toll on my brain!
My flights all went really well (I sat next to three dogs on the way to Miami...for real)
It is beautiful and today i am with three other people on a scavenger hunt around San Jose.
I live with a single mom and her two daughters (18 and 22). The 18 year old has a 4 month year old baby but the house is very nice.
This morning I woke up and took a shower. There is a window above my head (pretty much every window here is kept open) so I got to shower and feel the Costa Rican air and watch the sunrise! I then had a breakfast of rice, beans, spongy cheese stuff, and an egg. Aaaand coffee. Always coffee.
My ability to communicate is a lot better than I expected. My host mother and I had two coffee breaks (within 3 hours) and I was able to talk to her pretty well. I think there were times that she forgot I dont really speak her language and she went of telling stores really fast. I just smiled.
I promise I will write more and be more interesting...there is an internet cafe close to my house which I will be able to use. Right now I am at the top of a supermarket and onle have 5 minutes left.
Love you all! Miss you!
God is really taking care of me and I know it is because of all the people praying for me at home. So thank you!

Molly