FINAL CHAPTER OF COSTA RICA ADVENTURE 2013

Hens and Chicks in the school garden...

Well it's hard to believe that my month in Costa Rica has already been and gone, but this last week at home went by in a flurry of the usual delightful distractions, hence no time to write my final post of this series.

I am missing the school a lot, and the deep immersion in  Spanish, and although I have been watching Spanish TV, and reading a couple of Spanish books, it is not quite the same thing.   I read my first complete book in Spanish before I came home, a truly delightful children's book called "COCOR´I", which has been translated into many languages, written by a Tico author, and very well written .   Now I am reading a book by another Tico author by the name of Carmen Lyra, and I was drawn into it right from the first page.   In fact, my time in Costa Rica opened my eyes to the wealth of Latin American literature, and to the history of that region, and both my professors gave me some excellent reading lists.

I am not missing my noisy lodgings, nor the ants running over the kitchen table where we ate, nor my "bidet in a bottle", nor am I missing the "anarquía automovilistica", but I am missing the immersion in another culture.   When I crept into my own clean, big bed last Saturday night though,  I was literally moaning with pleasure and gratitude, and on Sunday morning  I was able to wash my hair with plenty of hot water AND plenty of water pressure, and not take for ever doing so.   Such simple pleasures, but so important to our daily well-being.   I think I have come away from my month-long experience having learned a lot of Spanish, and also having brushed up on my gratitude and appreciation for all the blessings in my life, not least of which is my good health and high energy, for without good health everything else is pretty meaningless.   Mind you, I think the exhaustion has been catching up with me this past week because I have taken a siesta every afternoon!

You will recall the various incidences of crime I mentioned in one of my blogs?   Well, I received a posting from my neighborhood association informing me of a very similar assault which took place in Bellaire.   It was 10 p.m. and a man was jumped by two guys on the corner of Newcastle and Oleander, knocked to the ground and beaten up pretty badly.   The amazing thing is that there were other people around walking their dogs no more than 50 to 100 yards away.   He had a pretty lively reaction to being attacked from behind, so the end result was that his cell phone was shattered and he had to have a few stitches at the ER, but it could have been a lot worse.   I'm telling you all this just to illustrate that "tout le monde est un pays", and these things happen everywhere.   We are fortunate that we do not have to live behind bars as most people do in San Jose.

My last week at school went very well, despite the fact that Eduardo was no longer my teacher.   I had another professor, Irán, also a wonderful teacher, and here follows his photograph.

We had some wonderful, philosophical conversations, and enjoyed each other's company.   Both my class-mates had left, so I ended up with what amounted to private lessons for the last week, which was a terrific bonus.   So now I have to consolidate all I learned, and expose myself to Spanish daily so that I do not lose what I learned.

My last week was also made really enjoyable by the arrival of my darling friend Chetana, also living in Houston.

Chetana

Last Tuesday I went out with Chetana and her new friends Andrea and Jenna, to a bar/cafe near the school and we drank wine.   What a pleasant change!  My one and only social event during the whole month!    I still arrived back home by 7 p.m. though, as I did not like being out on the streets after dark, and I needed my daily dose of carbs!

 Susan and Chetana in the school garden area

Jenna (from Washington DC), Susan, Andrea (from Switzerland) and Chetana (from Nepal and Houston) in the school garden having lunch

And here are photos of the two pets in Mamma Rita's house, Nino the dog, and the pajarito in a cage, both of whom became my friends.

 Nino

 Pajarito

I close with a close-up of the bark of a tree.   The colors are amazing, like an abstract painting.

Thank you all for sticking with me on my Costa Rican adventure.   I appreciated all comments and emails I received from you, and they certainly helped me get through the inevitable moments of loneliness.   I would do it again in a heart-beat, and in fact hope to return very soon, on two conditions, which I made clear to the school:  I want Eduardo as my teacher, and I have to live in different accommodation!   I would like to return to CR to have a vacation there and see the incredible nature, go zip-lining, and see the beautiful coastline, and our winter is the time to go:  anytime between December and May, when there is little to no rain and warm but not hot temperatures.   So that is my plan, unless I end up going to Myanmar instead, the possibility of which has just come to my attention!   The adventures "out there" are endless, and it is up to US to go out and enjoy them!   I encourage all of you to venture outside your comfort zone, even in a small way, and experience the thrill of being truly alive.   Try painting your toes purple or cobalt blue instead of pink or coral, and you'll be surprised at the frisson that gives you.

And on this note, I end with one of my all-time favorite quotations, sending you all love, blessings and many adventures.

Thank you.

Susan

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived.   I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.   I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”

Walden - Henry David Thoreau