A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Today was a better day in language school - probably the best yet, in fact. The quality of the day was definitely associated with the amount of time we spent in the classroom with barred windows (aka la cárcel). We spent two hours over at the Universidad de Costa Rica, practicing our interviewing skills in Spanish. This exercise brought me back to the work I did at DMU this summer - feeling like I'm preying on unsuspecting victim, but the Ticos at the Universidad are so cooperative and happy to help, even when I stumble over my words in Spanish. Its nice to be outside during the day and to be interacting with Ticos and absorbing the environment at UCR.

After trying to coordinate evening activities among our class as a whole, trying to keep a group of 19 classmates together, happy and safe at San Jose bars and venues is more work than its worth. I think people are starting to realize that going out in smaller groups is a little less obnoxious. In smaller groups, we don't become the gringo majority in any given bar. Last night, I went with a friend to the Jazz Cafe in San Pedro. The walls of the place are lined with grisly busts of famous jazz artists, but the live music last night, although good, was not actually jazz. We chatted with another English speaker who was volunteering in a San Jose orphanage, and we were all thoroughly amused when the band busted out the Beatles' Come Together.

We have yet to find a good place for Latin dancing. All of the bars we've seen either don't play music for dancing or play reggaeton, which is not my style. My host sister told me that none of the jovenes (young people) dance salsa or merengue, but I don't care. My classmate, Rachel, who has been doing research at La Selva all summer and is basically ready to become a naturalized Tica has a little bit of conocimiento (knowledge) of the Latin dancing scene in San Jose, and a couple of us are meeting tonight to check it out.

Random fact: The guy that teaches dancing at the language academy is a contestant on the Tico equivalent of Dancing with the Stars, which is less surprising when you consider how small of a country Costa Rica is, but still.

This video is one I took when we visited the Ngobe village in Coto Brus a while back. I was sitting in the sala of the medicine man's casa, trying to listening to what he was telling a group of my classmates. While I was doing this, one of the many chickens that wander the village, walked into the sala, poked around for a minute and then left. At the time, I was amused by the wandering chicken and decided to record a video. The cool thing about the video is you can hear the medicine man talking in Spanish in the background. The image of the wandering chicken and the sage advice of the local medicine man are an interesting juxtaposition.

*Note* Video upload took too long before they kicked us out of language school. I will upload it to this post another day.