"Noche Tipica Costariccence", a Typical Night in Costa Rica

The Intercultura sponsored a bus trip to a “Noche Tipica Costariccense,” a typical Costa Rican Night. This was held in a restaurant on top of a mountain in the big city San Jose, and for a fee of $38, we had access to all we could eat and drink (in addition to a show) all night. The food was okay, but after the great food at La Paz, it was a little disappointing for all the money we paid.

Since we had to change into our dressy clothes directly after class after the waterfalls, we all had had a long day, but still had fun dressing up!

Dana, Jenni, Jen and me in front of the beautiful view of San Jose

The view from outside of the restaurant was breathtaking. In the dark, one could see all the lights of the city of San Jose.

the view was even more impressive in person!

The show after dinner was very interesting. The Ticos dressed up in traditional Costa Rican dress and performed some intricate dances to a live band. Later in the show, people were brought up to dance, and I got to go up there twice!

You can see me in action dancing here.

Dana and me with the dancers!

Then, outside, we were told there would be fireworks. Their concept of fireworks was a little different from ours; there was a little contraption with pipes jutting out from its sides that spun around and shot sparks from the pipes. Not quite the pyrotechnics we are used to, but it was still neat to see how Costa Ricans do things.

Costa Rican fireworks

We all drank drinks called “leche” (which, directly translated, means “milk”... I’m not sure how this drink got that nickname, because it does not taste nor look anything like milk). This included guaro, the popular sugarcane liquor of Costa Rica, orange juice, and sprite. It was a little strong for my taste.

The food at the Noche Tipica was a good representative for me of what Costa Rican cuisine is like. Many would expect the food there to be like Mexican food; however, the similarities end at the tortillas, which are a lot smaller than Mexican tortillas and served cold. Costa Rican food is either extremely bland (usually). When you are actually given hot sauce to add to your food, it is so spicy it is almost inedible. Surprisingly, because of the tease of Costa Rica cuisine, after a month there, all I wanted was Mexican food!

Tours in San Jose

Our first Wednesday tour (which took place before classes) takes place in San Jose, where we had originally landed in Costa Rica.

San Jose is one of those cities with a little bit of everything. We saw the historical sights, the tourist traps, the local shopping, the Americanized restaurants (McDonalds, Quiznos, KFC, and Wendys), and the really cool markets with great shopping and fun bargaining.

We meet Jose that day, our guide for the duration of our stay in Costa Rica. Jose is a little peanut of a Tico... we loved him!

We begin our tour at the town center at the Museo Nacional (National Museum). Jose guides us through the museum, pointing out the beautiful hand-painted ceilings, Sistine Chapel-style. Jose shows us some beautiful hand-made furniture throughout the rooms before takes us into the National Theatre. In there, a sixteen-year-old world-renowned pianist was practicing for a big performance. She let us watch as she performed two pieces... it was amazing! A few of us stayed behind after her performance to get autographs.

Outside of the Museo Nacional, we found a little old man selling hand-crafted ceramic animal whistles. They were really interesting - they all had different holes all over the animal which whistled in different pitches. A few of my friends bought a few at a discounted price before we headed on to the Parque Nacional, a little tourist park that overlooks the city and includes cultural displays and a butterfly garden.

On our way to lunch, we found a town square with a TON of pigeons. I had way too much fun chasing them around!

the simple pleasures of chasing pigeons in San Jose

The butterfly garden was so cool. The butterflies didn't really like me, so I didn't get to hold any of them, but they flocked to our friends, Colby and Chris.

Chris found a new friend in the butterfly garden

We then stopped for lunch at el Restaurante (The Restaurant). In my opinion, we had to pay a lot of money for so-so quality food, but I still enjoyed learning about the typical Tico cuisine. We again saw the cas and guanabana, and decided to get a fresa con leche, which was like a strawberry milkshake. It was good, but I prefer guanabana!

strawberry smoothies... not bad!

The marketplace was my favorite place in San Jose. We were able to haggle with the stall owners, and I got some great deals on gifts for family members as well as some turquoise jewelry for myself. My favorite purchase was the handmade photo album I got, made of palm leaves, for all of my Costa Rica pictures!

Our Arrival in Heredia, Costa Rica

Our group flew into San Jose, Costa Rica on June 1st, 2008. The flight was only around 4 and a half hours, and after a quick detour into the duty-free store ("WHOA - A DRINKING AGE OF 18?"), we were greeted by our bus drivers from the school, Roberto and Felix.

As we would learn later on, Roberto and Felix would be driving us on all of our weekend excursions. Throughout the trip, these two Ticos (again, "Tico" is the term for a local Costa Rican) showed off some pretty impressive navigational skills on the narrow (and I mean NARROW) roads around the mountains and volcanoes of Costa Rica. I can still hear one of my fellow students, Chris Haney, yelling in his southern drawl from the back of the bus, "Hey Ro-ber-to, why dont'cha slap a number on

the side'a this thang and git it on the race track?" I think Roberto got his taste of some real North Carolina living during our time with him! We had a lot of fun getting to know Roberto, whether it was on our bus rides, during our tours, or out in the clubs with him! He would even drive us home from the club in his car so we wouldn't have to pay for a taxi.

On our first drive through San Jose and Heredia, we got a small taste of Costa Rican life. We saw many shops lining the streets in the town center as we approached the residential areas. In the housing areas, the houses are all surrounded by high walls and wrought-iron gates. When I questioned the presence of such high security, Dr. Girelli, our trip advisor, reminded me that we were in a third-world country. Apparently, there is a lot of petty crime in Heredia. It was then that I was happy I remembered to bring my pepper spray.

From the airport, we were taken to our host families' houses. Dana and I were dropped off in front of a big wall with a garden-like entrance. A stout woman of 67, Lilianna, our "mother", greeted us in Costa Rican Spanish. I was sleepy, but still coherent enough to introduce Dana and myself. It was a good thing I had been exposed to so much Spanish in high school, because Lilianna spoke no English at all. Lilianna showed us into a small room which we would share. It connected to the tiled porch and included a twin and a double bed, a dresser, and a huge closet for all of our belongings. We even had a little TV in our room!

Dana and I were later introduced to the pets of the house. First, there was Angie ("named after Angelina Jolie, of course" Lilianna explained), a black and white house cat. Also accompanying us throughout our stay (and waking us up with her shrill barking all hours of the morning) was Molly, the white poodle. I found it very interesting that Lilianna chose such English names for her pets. She agreed with this sentiment, saying that she likes American names.

Our first meal with Lilianna was dinner. She was a great traditional Costa Rican cook; many of her ingredients came from her small garden in front of the house. She cooked us spaghetti and corn in tomato sauce for dinner with a side salad. She cooked us many different types of pastas, but always included a simple side salad with a tomato, an avocado, and sometimes, corn. Basically, the "fresh vegetable of the day" was on our salad every night for dinner - yum! The only dressing for our salad was olive oil. I generally doused my salad with plenty of salt, as well.

The house in which we lived for our month in Costa Rica was pretty small, as are most Costa Rican hou

ses. Lilianna was a very religious Catholic, so the house was very traditionally decorated with Christian antiques and old photos. Dana and I enjoyed discovering different little trinkets and strange decorations throughout the living room on our way into the small kitchen.

We all shared a small bathroom, which was right across the hall from our room, and right next door to Lilianna's room. This meant sharing a toilet, shower, and small sink. The tiny shower was heated electrically from the showerhead, so I had to train myself time and time again to be careful not to touch it while washing my hair. I did, however, get shocked quite a few times.

We also had to wash our underwear in the shower. We learned from a sign on our door that Lilianna would clean our laundry for us, but our underwear was to be washed in the shower. Evidently, this is the norm for Ticos.

It was very different from what we were used to, but we quickly adapted and had the time of our lives doing so!

Adventures in Costa Rica

Last summer, I took a trip to Costa Rica with my roommate and a group of students from my college, and I can confidently say it was one of the best experiences of my life.

I chose to take this trip to better my Spanish-speaking skills, as I am working towards a minor in Spanish. In order to get the most I could out of the local dialect, I chose to live with a non-English speaking Tico (Costa Rican) family for the duration of the 28-day trip.

This made for very interesting dinner-table conversations!

Once in Heredia, Costa Rica (we flew into San Jose), our trip entailed 5 hour classes Monday through Friday and trips to the coast each weekend. We loved living the life around the city, but those trips were definitely the highlight of our entire Costa Rican adventure.

In this blog, I will highlight each memorable experience I had along the way.

From my class (taught by a non-English speaking professor) experiences, conversations with my traditional Tico family, adventures with my ignorant classmates, and braving the nightlife of Heredia, I have many notable memories from my month in Costa Rica.