ad astra

Bueno, taking a break from translations, songs, and frightening pictures, I thought it might be time for another update about my life here.  It seems like forever ago since I was describing my first week here, but it’s been less then 2 weeks.  Time is a weird thing.  I often feel like I’ve been here forever, and at the same time feel like I just got here.  Peculiar.

My second week of work was more preparing for the arrival of the students.  Work is from 8-4, but I usually get up at 6:00 to have time to have breakfast and drink the first of the day’s many cups of coffee.  Also for the past two weeks my host mother and I have gotten in the habit of watching “The Border” every morning.  Has anyone ever heard of the show?  It’s another police show in the same vein as CSI, NCIS, etc., except it takes place in Canada.  I have no idea if it’s a Canadian show now that I think about it, but it is filled with just as many corny punch lines as CSI, so it could pass for a US show even if it’s not.  It is wonderful, and there is something extremely satisfying about tag-team solving a triple-homicide-drug-bust over a plate of gallo pinto and natilla.

This reminds me of something else I wanted to mention - TV in general.  I have gotten out of the habit of watching very much TV in the past few years, but I fear that that habit will quickly return, since my family, and I dare say many Costa Rican families who live in San José, watch a lot of TV.  In my house we watch a lot of news, and also the occasional dubbed sitcom from the US, but my favorite are the truly Latin shows.  If you don’t know what I mean, please take the time to tune into your local Spanish language channel for a few moments and see if you can catch one of the many treasures which Spanish programming has to offer.  And don’t worry, the beauty of Telemundo or Univision is that you can enjoy it even if you have no idea what they’re saying.  Actually, not understanding it might make it even more enjoyable.  You might catch a telenovela, similar to a soap opera but shockingly more dramatic.  Or, if you’re really lucky, you might get to see something like “El gran Show de los Peques”: a Mexican children’s show which is literally the most deranged and wonderful thing I have ever seen.  Last week the show featured an obstacle course in which a grown man dressed as a clown had to stuff a child inside a rat costume, catch 3 screaming pigs and pass them to the horrified niño, cross a balance beam with a spoon in his mouth balancing an egg, and then cram the still-horrified-rat-dressed child up a twisty slide before ringing a bell and stopping the clock.  Please, please, please, if you ever see this show on as you are channel surfing through your several hundred digital cable channels, most of which you never watch, don’t change the channel and watch it.  You won’t regret it.

So, returning to what I’ve been doing, last week the students arrived and we had our week of orientation.  So far the group seems really great.  Everyone is very tranquilo and as far as I know we haven’t had any problems to speak of.  This morning is our first charla: Neocolonialism in Latin America.  This will be the first real taste for the students of what LASP is all about, and I’m excited to see and hear their reactions.  Then this afternoon I get to lead the Gringo Parade through the streets of San José so that the muchachos can find their way to Spanish school.  Let the craziness begin!