Gallo Pinto

4:00am - wake up with birds chattering out my window and a rooster going crazy

4:10am -  go back to sleep

6:30am - wake up and out of bed, shower and dress

7:10am - Come to the kitchen for breakfast which always consists of fresh bread and coffee.

               Some days my tican mom serves a huge plate of fruit, others cereal, but when I’m           

               lucky I get a huge plate of gallo pinto

7:35am - head to the bus stop for Conversa about 7 blocks away.

7:50am - catch the bus in the town center

8:00am - Arrive at school and shoot the breeze with the professores

8:30am - Class begins:  first set of class usually consists of conversation of what you did in

               the past day, new grammar

10:30am - coffee break and snack

11:00am - Grammar exercises and trying to apply new grammar to conversation

1:00pm - lunch

2:00pm - “Super-Intensive” students stay at school.  I have enrolled in this course in hopes

               to acquire the language a little more quickly.  Usually consists of applying past

               grammar that I’ve had trouble with. Asking questions about Costa Rican culture etc…

3:30pm - Class ends

4:00pm - Get back to Santa Ana center.  Either run a few errands at the bank, grab a happy

               hour beer, hang out with the other students.

5:00pm - Am usually back at my house to help Laura prepare dinner.  Gustavo usually arrives

               around 6 and we eat dinner with the news on in the background.  We finish dinner

               and I usually do dishes and help with clean up.

7-9pm - I usually spend studying or review my notes from the day.  Since the days begin

               so early here, I’m usually do not stay up past 10 or 11pm.

This is the school that I have been assigned to by Rotary International.  Currently I am enrolled in the ‘Super-Intensive’ Spanish course.  This requires 5.5 hours of in-classroom time, most of which is conversational.  So far, I have definitely been impressed by the quality of the teachers and the organization of the school and administrative staff.

This will be my home for the next several months.  I live in a small compound, or vicindario, surrounded by a stone walls and a huge iron gate.  The compound contains four other single-story homes each with their own families.  Usually when I come home, there are about 5-8 kids running around the vicindario.  It makes for an interesting welcome.

When visiting my other classmates, I have noticed that the homes they live in are also part of a community of 3-5 homes in close vicinity of each other guarded by an iron gate that is usually locked after a certain time in the evening. This type of housing pattern seems to be prominent at least here in the town of Santa Ana (I can’t comment on the rest of Costa Rica)

On hot and humid days, when the ventilation within the homes are not optimal, you’ll usually find everyone sitting outside their fronts doors chatting with each other.  It’s social and friendly.  Having the iron gate at the front allows everyone to feel secure in keeping their doors wide open during the day.  It’s not unusual for a neighbor to drop by unannounced to eat breakfast at our table or meander in during the evening to chat about the what’s been said on the news.