Tico Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving! We, the community, went to Marta's house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, which was an excellent "taste" of home, (pun intended.) Her husband is from the United States, so that was the reason of the traditional dinner and football (americano) being watched. It was a great substitute to the Thanksgivings at the Smith Household, but it was still a substitute. I missed being awoken by the smell of cooking turkey, watching the Macy's Parade and having my mother have fresh muffins and coffee ready. It just makes one appreciate more the familiar amenities.
The weekend was enjoyable; relaxing and reflective. Today was the beginning of Advent, and so we celebrated with a turkey lunch with the friars and the community after mass. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon; much enjoyed.
For prayer this evening, I found this excerpt and thought it appropriate for the beginning of Advent:
We prepare lists of things to do; We prepare lists of things to buy; We prepare lists of names for sending greeting cards; We prepare to decorate our homes, trim a tree, plan a Christmas dinner We spend hours of time in preparation Preparation is also a time for anticipation: We anticipate having a great holiday celebration; We anticipate reunions with family and friends; We anticipate the excitement in giving and receiving gifts. Within the preparation and the anticipation, do we make time for waiting? Waiting in quietness to hear God speak Waiting in wonder to know Christ being re-born in us; Waiting in silence to experience the Holy Spirit enfolding us. Let us prepare, anticipate, and wait during this season of Advent. God of my quiet times, you know how difficult it is to be still when I am busy preparing to celebrate Your birth. Give me the will to create quiet spaces in the everyday, as my life gets busier.
Amen.

Karaoke Bond

The Internet gods decide that Sunday is an appropriate day to work, usually gods rest on the seventh day...any who, all is well down here in Costa Rica. The Internet was down all week, but not too much had occurred this week. I did not have work on Friday, so I took that day as a day of relaxation and cleaning. In the evening, a friend of ours, Katherine invited us to go out near the University down here, so we had some good times and enjoyed the night time. We went to a karaoke bar and did some dancing. All the songs were familiar to the Spanish speaking natives, but foreign to me; it would be the equivalent Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" being sung at a karaoke bar in the US...everyone knows it. It was an interesting and fun night.
Last night, Liz, Erin and I went to see the new James Bond movie; entertaining as usual. It was drastically cheaper than the US theaters...entrance was roughly 2200 colones (4 US dollars) and a large popcorn and pop was 2600 colones (5 US dollars). You can't even get a small coke at Crocker Park for 5 dollars, so this proved to be an awesome find for me.
Today, we had the standard awesome lunch with the friars, and soon i am heading to mass with Fr. Jorge. Other than that, things are going well...
I'll leave you with Padre Pio's daily thought on courage

“It is always necessary to have courage, and if some heaviness of soul or weakness of spirit comes upon you, fly to the foot of the Cross, place yourself amidst the heavenly perfumes and you will be unduly comforted and refreshed.”

Jaco Rhymes with Taco

This weekend, Mike and I went to Jaco Beach and it was awesome. The people who live here said that the beach was dangerous and not a "typical" beach of Costa Rica. I did not find it too dangerous, and the beach, although was not pristine, was still breath-taking. It is surrounded by mountains and palm trees, and the water was luke warm.
We left Saturday morning after we had some breakfast in downtown San Jose, then headed off to the beach for the 2 and a half hour bus ride. This distance is more or less equivalent of Cleveland to Columbus; however, here in Costa Rica, the bus cost roughly 1,980 colones, or a little less than 4 dollars; pretty amazing contrast. Bus rides are about the only thing down here that are inexpensive, that and rice and beans.
It was an enjoyable weekend of good conversation and relaxation. As for now I am prepping for the long Monday which is coming soon. Hope all is well on your ends!

Communication is Key

Today, was another manic Wednesday. All went well actually, standard day at the school and an enjoyable English tutoring session in Escazu. The 3 and 1/2 hour tutoring after work can drain me a bit; however, I cam home to some birthday cards and a package with Erin's famous cookies in it, so that made it all worth while! I am blessed to have great family and friends.
In other news, on Monday during my sign language course I met an interesting person. He had audiophones in his ears, and during the class did not speak; surely he was deaf. He was, but suprisingly he said "hey, how's it going?" To my complete surprise, because he had darker skin and hair and appeared to be of Costa Rican decent. We got to talking, and he was in fact costa rican, but had lived in the US for 10 years where he learned english. Here I was talking to a deaf man, one who happened to be bilingual and learning the sign language of Costa Rica. It is difficult enough to be hearing and be bilingual; I cannot imagine how you learn to speak several languages without the ability to hear. The conversation was awesome, and cool because he did not hear my English words, he read my English-speaking lips...mind blowing.
We got to talking about our future goals and why we are where we are. He said while living in the US, the education for deaf is focused on speaking and to communicate in society, and in Costa Rica the focus is lacking and accepting of only signing rather than speaking. I am not saying he is wrong or right, it was just interesting to see his persepctive; I am sure there are people of the deaf community who are against learning voiced language because it detours from the deaf identity. Like all things, there are pros and cons, I look forward to learning more about the issue...

P.S. This picture is of Liz and I at Volcano Poas...not relevant to the entry above.

Hot Off The Press

I apologize for the delay in this post; it is a combination of laziness, occupied time, and faulty Internet. The past week has been similar to that of others; however, the past weekend was Halloween and a visit to Volcano Poas. Both were fun times! We had a Halloween party here at the house; it was an eclectic group of people from all of our ministry sites, the gym, and a friar or two. There were simply two rules to the party: 1. enjoy yourself and 2. must be in a costume. It was a great success. I was dressed as "Mr. Musculo" something of a Mr. Clean equivalent here in Costa Rica. The picture indicates what it looks like next to Fray Reto.
Saturday, Liz and I went to Poas to see the volcano; it was a bit foggy, but the experience was cool. You could smell the sulfur; but not see too much until the wind blew the fog and mist away. A friend of Liz's named Alfredo drove us there, and after we did lunch in San Jose at a cheap but awesome "diner-ish" place. I think I might frequent it today.
As for my birthday evening on Wednesday, November 5th, we had a good time. The community gifted me a chorreador which is a costa rica's version of the french press more or less. We had some wine and preprandials before we went to a sweet mexican restaurant called "La Antojita." The meal and conversation was enjoyable. Upon our arrival home, Lara frosted the cake she baked and a good ol fashioned "Happy Birthday" was sung. All in all it was an awesome birthday in Costa Rica. Thank you for all your birthday wishes, and I look forward to seeing you all at Christmas.
P.S. I will be more diligent in the entries from here on out.