Pratt in Costa Rica 2018

I know very little Spanish, only what I can decipher from my years of taking Latin. The first night we arrived in Costa Rica, my roommate and I sat on the couch and talked with our host family. I soon discovered that while our papa tico spoke a good amount of English, our mama tica spoke almost none. However, this did not stop me from discovering her charming personality.

Within the first conversation, I discovered how much the family liked joking around. The next few days, after dinner, she would talk to us in Spanish and we would end up having a conversation for an hour or two about food, music, and our families with the use of patience, pictures, and a little help from Google Translate. Whenever I gave her a blank stare because I didn’t know what she said or if she asked a question, she would try her best to try to explain it to me and really help me improve my limited Spanish. We also help her learn a little English every now and then. She said the word popcorn incorrectly so we taught her the proper pronunciation.

My favorite thing about her is how happy she always seems to be.  Over the weekend, she listened to EDM music,  singing as she worked around the house. I feel like I got pretty lucky with my mama tica.

 

De todo lo que hicimos esta semana, me parecía apropiado que mi primer post fuera de mi primera perdida en Costa Rica (y esperemos que la última). No importa a donde haya ido, siempre me perdí por lo menos una vez. Me ha pasado trotando sola a las seis de la mañana y me ha pasado con amigas en una isla donde aprendimos que las instrucciones, sigan el mar, no son las mejores. Esta historia incluye un autobús de Salitrillo y dos rutas. Pero que no cunda el pánico, mi mamá tica estaba conmigo.

Al terminar el primer día, Marta, mi mamá tica, me recogió en la escuela y fuimos a la estación. Al llegar a la parada vimos que el autobús de Salitrillos se acercaba y lo llamamos. Nos montamos tranquilamente y nos pusimos a hablar. Luego de un rato, Marta comenzó a darse cuenta de que no estábamos yendo en la dirección correcta. Al preguntar, nos explicaron que, específicamente este autobús de Salitrillos no pasaba por Cedros. Una vez que bajamos del autobús, Marta me pregunto si me provocaba caminar y yo le conteste que sí. Esta perdida termino siendo algo positivo, ya que en nuestra caminata de cuarenta minutos hablamos de miles de cosas y pude conocer a Marta mucho mejor.

Mariana Alvarez

So much has happened in my first week here in Costa Rica that I don’t know where to start. My life here is so different from my life back at home.

Every day, I have been waking up before 7 and going to sleep before 11. My mama tica (host mom) prepares breakfast in the morning, which usually consists of fruits and bread, and dinner in the evening, which is always something with rice and beans. There are a lot of family members coming in and out of the house, and it’s been fun to talk to so many different people. I have to say, though, sharing one bathroom with everyone in the house has taken some getting used to.

The locals here actually speak in Spanish to me, so I have been able to practice my Spanish quite a bit. I feel like I’ve learned more Spanish in my 1 week here than in my 1 year of AP Spanish.

More to come about my bus rides, classes, food experiences, and whatever else I am going to do!

-Nathan Parikh

Hola!

Me llamo Venezia y esto es mi primera entrada de mi blog! Llegué en Costa Rica el 2 de julio y encontré mi Mama Tica y sus perros! Cada dia, como desayuno y cena con ella y la otra chica que esta viviendo es la casa conmigo, Emilia. Me gusta mi clase de español y mi maestra esta muy simpática y gracioso. Mi clase de ingeniería biomédica es muy difícil pero las maestras y los otros estudiantes estan muy amable. La comida aquí es INCREÍBLE! Pienso que he comido arroz con cada comida.

Esta fin de semana fuimos al tour de la ciudad San Jose en un bus! Visitamos el museo nacional de costa rica, un teatro y un catedral! Despues, comí una empanada y algunos de los otros estudiantes y yo vimos el Copa Mundial. Estoy emocionada por el próximo fin de semana y siempre, para aprender mas 🙂

Hasta luego!!

Well, the students have arrived and the first week of our program is off to a great start! Sorry to be slow to post, but it’s been a very busy week.

A large group of us arrived around lunch time on Monday and were quickly transported to our homestays. Everyone arrived bright and early Tuesday morning to start the first official day of the program. Students were oriented to Costa Rica and were placed in the Spanish class that best suited their Spanish speaking level. Then in the afternoon they started their first day of technical classes and then were able to choose between dance and yoga. A lot of students chose dance and they all seem to be quite adept dancers!

The next day they had their first full day of Spanish class with engineering class as well. I think everyone was tired but seemed to survive. Yuhao, our fabulous math professor, was concerned that his voice wasn’t going to hold out for 3 hours of class 4 days a week! Here is his class hard at work.

Though it has been a tiring week, we all made it through the first week in one piece and have the pictures to prove it! Here is Aliza instructing the whole BME 271 class on the wonders of linear, time invariant, causal, and memoryless systems in our interestingly arranged classroom.

Today, on Saturday morning, the students arrived at CRLA and we were taken around San Jose in a bus where we got out and going to go to the National Museum where we saw butterflies, and Costa Rican symbols of a big handmade spherical ball in the picture that no one is entirely sure why they were created as seen in the picture below.

 

We also toured the fortress and saw bullet holes from when Costa Rica had its last civil war before it destroyed its army, and more. We then walked to the National Theater and on to the Cathedral where one student thought their wallet was missing. Thankfully the wallet was found later on the bus – crisis averted!

 

We had cafe with leche and empandas at a local restaurant, saw the American Embassy and then headed back for the students to spend their afternoon anyway they so desired. Here’s hoping for a great week ahead of us and lots of enjoyable adventures!

 

 

 

Pura vida, until next post! Hoping the students will start posting their adventures to the site too! Here is a picture of the whole group of Pratt in Costa Rica 2018 standing next to a famous Costa Rican monument that describes William Walker, the guy who tried to conquer all of Central America during Manifest Destiny. Sadly the monument itself didn’t make it into the picture. Until next time!

 

Today I am furiously packing to make sure we have everything we need for a successful trip to Costa Rica! Carefully packing all laboratory equipment, computers, audio recorders, and more. It’s going to be a busy day shopping for last minute items and making sure everything is ready to go for our flight tomorrow. Can’t wait to see everyone in Costa Rica!