I met the other 7 students in my program. Adam, Carly, and Mateo are students at St. Olaf, Jessy and Armando go to Grinnell, Emily F goes to Colorado College, and Emily C attends Knox. Everyone seems really nice but we were all pretty shy because we either didn't know what to say to each other or we didn't know how to say it effectively in Spanish. The staff at ACM seems wonderful. They are all so nice and helpful. I can't wait to have class with them.
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| Adam, Emily C, Emily F, Jessy, Me, Carly, Armando, Mateo |
Most of the stuff we did today were run-throughs of the expectations the staff and families have of us and what we should expect from them. We got a tour of the ACM building and we discussed the class schedule. We will be going on several field trips and I am really excited about that! We also had a short grammar/comprehension/oral exam so the professors can measure our level of Spanish and separate us into classes accordingly.
After lunch, the students took a walk to the bank for anybody who needed to exchange dollars for colones. I went to the ATM with Marta yesterday but I wasn't able to exchange the cash that I had so I did that today. I didn't think we looked too much like foreigners until we were leaving the bank and we couldn't figure out how to open the doors. Evidently you are supposed to: Push the button on the side of the inside door. Push the door, don't pull. The inside door has to be closed before you can pass through the outside door. Fortunately there was a security guard there to help us out. Unfortunately the security guard was probably judging our stupidity. It will probably not be the last time we are judged here.
Marta came to ACM to pick me up today and we went to the mall with the other families to buy cell phones. It was a little bit of a fiasco because the mom's were trying to figure out which place was least expensive and the students had no idea what type of plan they were buying. My phone works (yay!) but I still have no idea how many minutes I paid for or how to check the number of minutes that I have.
When we got home, I did my homework and took a nap. Dinner. TV time. Today Marta and I watched Combate. It is a game show in which two teams of 6 compete in different physical activities/obstacle courses and whichever team does it the fastest wins. It sort of reminded me of Wipeout because the things they had to do were so random: Swing on 8 ropes hanging above a pool without touching the water, carry as many bags of rice as possible to the finish line while riding a scooter (without touching the ground), hop across the stage with 8 inner tubes stacked up around your whole body, etc. Evidently the show is on Mon-Fri from 7-9 each week with different teams competing. This week is the international competition. Costa Rica is competing against Ecuador. Usually, the teams that compete are just from Costa Rica. I can't wait to watch more! It was actually a nice bonding experience to have with Marta as we talked about the activities and who we thought would win.
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| Combate |
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| Combate |
Below is the link to a video clip summarizing two different episodes.
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXQezZEOtHI
They only show 3 games, but you get an idea. At the beginning of every episode, the participants do a choreographed dance to current music hits.
For the first game the players have to jump in and out of the innertubes and collect a coin from the bottom of the pool and drop it in the bucket on the other side of the pool.
Chocofono is a game in which the first player is given a word to tell their teammate. All teammates are wearing headphones so they cannot hear their teammate. They have to tell a third teammate what the word is by only reading Player 1's lips. It continues to the 4th player who has to write down what they think the correct word is. Word 1: universo (Universe), Word 2: vino (wine), Word 3: caligrafia (calligraphy), Word 4: taller (workshop), Word 4: gol (goal), Word 5: fuerte (strong), Word 6: reina (queen).
Naufragos: Each team uses four of its players to swim across the pool on an inflatable mattress. The must bring the flags to the other side without touching the sides of the pool with their bodies.
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl0jJXgqeRw
Vaiven: Players try to knock the opponent from the swaying beam. Whoever hits the ground first loses. The team with the most wins wins 300 points. The losing team only gets 100.
Escalera: Players cross the pool using the ladder. They must come up through the end of the ladder and leave the pool without touching the border of the pool.
Rally: Race through an obstacle course.
The episodes are always filled with drama. One team believes the other cheated. They argue about the rules. There might be drama between team members. The hosts talk about one team's failure to complete an activity or problems with the team's communication. Anything you can think of.
Nuematicos: Players must fun across the stage as they get covered in innertubes. The team who has the fastest time wins.
Don Pedro: Players scooter around the obstacle course picking up as many Don Pedro rice bundles they can carry. They must drop the rice into the bucket without touching the ground. The team with the most bags at the end wins. At the end, someone from the public calls in and guesses how many rice bundles are in the buckets. If they are right, they win money.
I figured out how to work the shower. Never take for granted a warm shower!!
Funny story of the day: Watching Mateo's mom Anya run around the mall trying to find her umbrella which Mateo left somewhere while Marta is laughing and laughing. I could hardly stand up because I was laughing so hard when Anya hit Mateo's arm (I'm not sure what she said but probably something like, "why did I let you carry the umbrella?")
Breakfast: Fried egg with ham, coffee, toast with jalea de guayaba (guava jelly)
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| Soursop/Chirimoya |
Dinner: Rice, meat, sopa de frijol (bean soup with egg), avocado, peach refresco
Palabras Nuevas
escúter - scooter
mamón chino - rambutan (a type of small, red and white, prickly fruit)
olla - cooking pot
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| Rhambutan |
sombrilla - umbrella
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