Well as of today I have been in Turrialba for 1 week, and I've been away from my home for 10 days. It has been definitely quite an adjustment. There are a lot of things that I miss from home, but for each thing I miss there are dozens more things that I have discovered that fill me with amazement each day. Costa Rica is so different than anything I have ever experienced in my life. There are some things that I don't like so much and things that I love, and I try to to tell myself that nothing is right or wrong, just different. I know, I am probably the most original person on the planet.
First of all, never let anyone tell you that culture shock is not a thing, because it most certainly is a thing. A lot of people will tell you that they didn't experience it because culture shock itself is hard to define. Culture shock to me is more a feeling than anything. It's when you finally realize that for a year of your life you will be in this new culture which is completely foreign to you. This concept took awhile to hit me. It wasn't in Miami at the orientation, or in the airport to San Jose, or even at the orientation in San Jose. It was when I was sitting in my host family's car and I had no idea where we were going, they were all speaking in Spanish, Spanish music blasting on the radio, I had no idea what they were saying, and it hit me that this was my reality now, and that I did this to myself.
Please don't take away from this post that I am unhappy or that I regret this in anyway. I enjoy each day, I really do. Costa Rica is so rich and deep, and no amount of time, certainly not a year, will even begin to cover the complexity that is found here, not only culturally, but in each person that I meet. I get so much joy for exploring this new world. It astounds me that the USA and Costa Rica are so different.
People always told me that the beginning is exciting, and then the homesickness hits you. I never thought I would feel homesick, but we are all human, and we all yearn for that which we can't have. So far I have discovered that a my year abroad will be a time of tremendous highs and spectacular lows. My first day of school was really, really rough. I didn't really understand or even know how to interpret my surroundings. I had no friends, I couldn't communicate, and I was mentally exhausted. I came home and I just wanted to talk to my mother in the USA and cry and shut myself up in my room but then I forced myself to be around other people and it got better. My family is very communal and that is helping me a lot. The next day of school was great, I made friends and actually began to understand what was going on and although I am far from an expert I am actually beginning to grasp how things work here.
I've been being bad about cutting off from my friends and family at home. I have talked to them a lot, but I'm told that is normal at the beginning, and it will slowly stop needing to talk to them as the next few months go by.
My host family is great. Very patient with my Spanish, which I appreciate. My mother is sweetheart and my siblings are so adorable when they try to speak English to me. My father is giggly and endearing and I love them very much. Today we played a game which the called "spray the gringa" which was just that, them spraying me with a hose.
I have made friends in school and went to a party on Friday with them which was really fun. It's so great to get to know people like this, and most of them can speak at least a little English so I am not completely lost. Speaking Spanish all day is so mentally exhausting, and I often come home with a headache and crash at bout 8:30. It's pathetic.
Upon my first week, which is not much time at all, I have already noticed a lot of differences. To begin with:
The showers. Here's the deal, it's called a suicide shower (yes, of course I looked it up) and basically it has the heating element for the water built into the shower head (yay, electronics near water that is falling on my head, get why it's called a suicide shower?) and in order to get the water warm you have to turn the knob to juuuuuuuuust the right place, which, for mine, is when there's not a lot of water pressure at all. So cold showers are the name of the game here, but that's ok because it's SO HUMID. I would say it is hot, but at this time of year the rain cools the air down before it's too hot.
The rain. So much rain. A typical day goes like this: I wake up in the morning and it is sunny and nice out side, and it stays that way until 2pm, when it pours rain for about 20 mins, and the rest of the day it is on and off rain and drizzle until the sun goes down and it clears out (usually).
The sun sets at 6 here all year long because we are so close to the equator. It gets dark so early compared to New Mexico, but I actually really like that.
No flushing toilet paper, that's what the trash can next to the toilet is for.
Beans beans beans and rice. It's wonderful, if this is what heaven is like sign me up because frijoles are my life. They sell refried beans in bags and you squeeze it out, and it is spectacular.
Fruit. Everywhere.
This is a much poorer society in general than what I came from in the USA. A typical person here would not be considered very wealthy in the USA.
Spanish
School here is very different. My school is private so it starts at 7 and goes until 3:30. It's a long day. You stay in your classroom and your teachers move to you throughout the day. You have about 1 hour of classes and then a break of about 15 minutes. Lunch is at noon and is about an hour long and then more classes. Here, you don't choose your classes, you just move up grades and take the next level of a certain subject, much like elementary school in the USA.
People here go to bed early and wake up early. That has been very hard for me because I am used to going to bed at 12 and waking up at 7:20 on school days, and in the summer and on weekends I go to bed at 3 and wake up at noon. But here you go to bed at 9 and wake up at 5:30 ish
Bugs bugs bugs, and big ones too.
At 5am each morning birds decide to yodel everyone in Costa Rica awake.
People here wear their shoes in the house because apparently "the cold comes up through the floor and makes you sick." ...ok
People here are very much hygiene oriented. They don't want to smell bad, so they wear a lot of perfume and cologne which can be a but overwhelming.
If you are easily road sick, do not, I repeat DO NOT come to Costa Rica. Road signs are not a thing here, and if they are there they might as well not be because people just ignore them.
What is a seat belt? There might as well not be seat belts in the cars here because people don't wear them.
This is a very family oriented culture, and staying shut up in your room is not what people do.
Lots of TV watching here, and it's great because I can watch tv all day and I don't have to feel guilty about it.
Soccer soccer soccer.
Lots of coca cola, but with real sugar so it's great.
Alright readers thank you for keeping up with me. I am happy, exhausted, and looking forward to what is to come.
Much love, the wander-lustful Emma.