I haven't worked in Xanga since Costa Rica Trip....

How does it look?

Do I want to write in it anymore?

Hola from Los Estados Unidos!

Yo he regresado este fin de semana pasada (I have returned this past weekend)...

...and now begins the re-entry process, the "How-do-I-use-my-Spanish-in-MN" process, the "How-do-I-go-back-to-work" process...

That is in the works...but I must digress to the story of my literal re-entry into the United States:

I need to first make a statement: for those of you flying internationally---let me suggest that you NOT have your flight routed through Miami International...unless you have many hours of layover between your domestic/international flights.  OR unless you just want to see an airport and passenger circus.

My flight from San Jose to Miami went without a hitch.  We were even on-time into Miami!  But the English-speaking flight attendant failed to remind her English-speaking passengers that, after clearing Immigration, they had to REclaim their luggage, clear Customs and then REcheck their luggage onto their domestic flight.  I, like many other passengers, had only an hour between flights to make this all happen.

As I exited my plane to head toward Immigration, I  noticed something different about the air and energy inside the Miami terminal.  People immediately began walking with a purpose, began training for their Olympic speed-walking trials, began sprinting down the hallway toward Immigration.  We were like cows, mooing, walking, running, dodging one another...like a herd, a pack of lemmings running toward a cliff...the Cliff of Immigration.

Where we presently were stopped and funneled through in little lines.

It was no matter, the cows and lemmings took off--shoving one another, dangling their paperwork of approval at the uniformed guard to prove they passed their Immigration "exam" and barrelled off toward the baggage claim area.  Where, once again, the herd was funneled into a circular formation to stare dully at the revolving track.  Hoping in vain that their luggage would be the first spit out by the luggage monster.

Some planes were having trouble opening their luggage hatch, cows and lemmings were waiting for 10, 20, 30 minutes...Even after they retreived their luggage, the crowd was herded once again, into lines to get through their Customs exam.  Coughed out on the other side of Customs, we were like "survivor lemmings" who did not fall over the cliff and die. 

"What do we do now?  We're not dead?"

As it turns out some were funneled into more lines to recheck their luggage (like I was), only to be told...."well YOU could make your flight, but your luggage cannot."

Bottom line:  I followed the herd with the Costa Rican motto of "tranquila, Pura Vida!" playing in my mind, was re-booked on a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth (anything to get out of the putrid energy in Miami!), stayed overnight and flew to Minneapolis the next day.

All is well, it is thundering and raining, I am happy and sad to be back in the States all at the same time. I hope to return to Costa Rica again...but until then I will live Pura Vida here.

Until next time,

Abrazos y paz,
Emilia

Buenas dias from sunny Samara! 

The rain has stopped being in our lives for the entire day and we have had some sun and blue skies peaking through today and yesterday!  I have been in class for 2 days with a friend from my Nicaragua trip, (Stephanie from Alberta, Canada) and mi nuevo professor, Victor.  We are studying el Preterito del Subjuntivo, Plusquamperfecto del Subjuntivo y estamos repasando el Presente del Subjuntivo y el Imperfecto del Subjutivo.   These forms of speaking are used every day in so many ways....for example:
    If we were having lunch together, and then parting ways for the rest of the day, we may say--"I hope you have a great day!"--"Ojala que tenga un buen dia!" OR  "If I had the rest of the day off, we'd go to the beach. It's so beautiful today!"--"Si no necesite trabajar hoy, nosotros iriamos a la playa. Es un dia tan marvilloso!"  It is working with subtle verb changes when you express doubt, hopes, disbelief, thoughts about events that may or may not happen.  It is very hard for me to put into practice right now.  I think I'm reaching my threshold, and either would need to quit taking more lessons and just live here and continue speaking spanish in order to get that practice....

OR I need to come back to the US and try to regain my English speaking capabilities--which is muddled at the current moment, as well.  The other night I was speaking English with a Dutch man, Michael, and I was only coming up with Spanish words--and he is only in beginning Spanish, so could not understand what I was trying to say.  I DID, by the way, have a dream in half Spanish and half English!  It was a strange dream and I was both the omnicient narrator, and a character in the dream...and I was flip-flopping languages to try to understand myself and to understand all the characters in the dream--whew!

Also, yesterday I went for over a 4 hour horseback ride with 6 other women from school and a Tico guide.  It was amazing!  As a group we chose to go to "la cascada" (the cascade--waterfall). We walked along the roads and clogged up traffic on the way to la cascada.   We had a foal from one of our horses tagging along, as well as 2 farm dogs that belonged to our guide, Choun.  After the road, we went down on the beach, and then headed north up into the mountains and up to a beautiful blue-green river in the rainforest.  

I really felt like we were characters in a movie--the naturaleza took my breath away!  A tree had fallen over the trail, so Choun rode up and used his machete to hack off enough branches for our horses to pass.  None of these horses had bits, save Stephanie's horse, and none had horse shoes, save my horse.  We were to steer them with our rope-reigns, pushing our heels into their flanks, making a kissing noise (not the movie-like clucking noise) and whapping their hind-ends with a little tree branch.  Sometimes they would not move if they did not see that you had your little whapper...they'd rather eat, or NOT go into the river, or NOT go down the huge rocky hill. 

They were ultra-tranquilo--so sweet and calm, and so strong and sure of how they wanted to do the river navigation.  We were walking UP the river--that 5 days prior was only a little creek, said Choun.  With all the rain, the ambiente of the river was completely different!  Once at la cascada, we got to take photos, climb up the rocks and go swimming in the pool by the catarrata.  The rocks were completely free of smooshy lichen or moss or anything slippery.  It was just clean beautiful water.  The horses just stood at the bottom, tranquilo--pura vida, just waiting to go back home!

What took us almost 3 hours to navigate on our way UP to la cascada, only took us just over an hour to come back.  Everyone was way more comfortable with their horses (my horse was named Cinturona), their whappers, squeezing their legs.  We even trotted along some of the rural streets, and walked the majority of the way back to the ranch along the beaach as the sun was setting!  It was heaven--absolutely amazing!  (and Cinturona cheated and broke into a little run with me for a while--even thought Choun only wanted us to trot...    Gracias, Cinturona!  Me encanta mucho!)

Last night my host mum here told me, that she and her husband are going to San Jose to get their car fixed on Friday, and therefore are going to drive me back to Heredia...this presents problems in my mind because I will miss my test Friday morning , and my morning with the students here....on the other hand, she wasn't asking if I wanted to come along with them, she told me, "We are going to drive you home on Friday, and also we want to come to the Airport on Saturday morning to say goodbye."  Wow!  This family has become attached to me, and I feel that culturally, I cannot decline this offer to drive me.  Ligia--mum here is only a few years older than me...with 3 kids and this husband. (that, to me, is fairly difficult and spoiled.  The culture here on the Pacific beach is very different and takes machismo to an extreme...even though the women are the heads of the houses, they seem to hold no power in anything.  We had a big discussion in class yesterday...  give me a call if you really want to hear more stories about this man in action or talk more about what I observed...)

And so, I signed up for a surf lesson for Thursday afternoon, there is beach volibol  today, yoga tomorrow as well, and I'm leaving Friday at 6am with Ligia y Denis!  Aye!  More posting to come...

Pura Vida y Tranquila a todos de ustedes!
Emilia