Ok, Michael doesn't really have a Doppelganger, in the truest sense of the word. Still, the connections one makes while traveling can be incredible. At Arenal, we met a student from the CPI Heredia campus named Rich. While we were hiking, Michael and Rich started chatting. They discovered they are both from Chicago, and they are both actors/improv comedians!! They are also about the same age, with similar relationship histories, and similar (I think) head shapes. :) Michael has assured me they also have many differences, but the similarities are truly striking.
I am now in Monteverde, up in the mountains of Costa Rica. It is beautiful here, cooler (highs in the mid-70s), and more naturalist heaven than party beach town. Our teacher for this week's class is truly excellent; I'm really glad to finish up my CPI experience with her...I think we will learn a lot. I'm staying with a family this week, and they are great. There's a LOT of conversation among family members that I can't understand - especially from the teenage girl- but I am trying not to feel frustrated, but rather just absorb and try to practice as much as I can. They are happy to talk to me. The house is very comfortable. And tonight the 2nd grade boy in the family helped me make flash cards with animal names. :) (I can speak 8 yr old Spanish decently well!) Spanish is definitely getting more natural for me...it's hard to write blog posts and emails in English without slipping in some familiar Spanish words accidentally!
So Monteverde is a good place to be. But GETTING HERE was another story. When we left Arenal, we were only told: your bus leaves for Monteverde at 2:40. In CR, what that usually means is, we'll aim for sometime before 3. :) But this time they were uncharacteristically stressed out about being on time. (The word "stress", by the way, is a cognate in Spanish: "estrés". We think this is because Central America had no such concept until English speakers came along!) We quickly discovered the reason for the promptness: we had to catch a ferry. Basically, we had no information or idea what was going on the whole journey! In a weird small world moment, a guide who was one of our neighbors in Flamingo was on our boat, leading a small private tour, so I had to ask him what was going on. When I saw the boat, I quickly downed some Dramamine, which ended up being quite a good decision...though the boat ride (across Lake Arenal) was smooth, the subsequent bus ride to Monteverde was very bumpy!! The road is entirely gravel, for over 20km, and at points I thought for sure that either luggage would fall on our heads, or that we ourselves would fall on our heads, over a cliff. But, the scenery was truly spectacular.
So, safe and sound now, I am going to return to studying my irregular verbs in past tense...lest I throw some of these stem-changing verbs off one of those cliffs! :)
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