Peace, Love & Blog

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

Not only was this year my first Thanksgiving ever away from home, I was also living in a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving. I was determined to have as authentic of a celebration as possible, and I couldn’t bear the thought of working that day, so (in a stroke of genius) I decided to invite all my students over for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.

What started out as a simple idea ended up turning into a huge party. I invited both of my Thursday classes, a fellow teacher invited her classes, and we also invited two teachers from another school. There ended up being about 25 people at the dinner. I had only planned for 15, so we were short lots of things, including chairs, but everyone had a great time. One of the highlights of the dinner was before we ate – we made everyone in attendance say something they were thankful for. It was really cute to see the students taking part in an American tradition, they seemed to really embrace the idea of giving thanks.

I had plenty to be thankful for myself – I successfully made my first turkey! Finding the turkey was in and of itself an adventure. I looked at a million places before I finally went to the grocery store in Escazu – a ritzy part of town where a lot of ex-patriates live. I ended up paying so much for the turkey, and lugging it home on the long bus ride, but it was worth it. The turkey was great, and I only ended up calling my mom two or three times, mostly when I realized there wasn’t a pop up timer and I had no idea when it was done. The rest of the cuisine was equally delicious/curious. While we had our tradtional stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce, a lot of the students turned up with some interesting plates. Aside from the beer and potato chips, one student improvised a pumpkin pie that, although it looked nothing like the standard pie, was absolutely delicious. We were also treated to two apple pies, a sweet potato-ish concoction that had fritos on top, and a more traditional yucca dish.

Overall, I had a great time. I felt accomplished, and I was glad to share the day with my friends and students. Still, it didn’t feel very much like Thanksgiving without the chilly weather, the parade on TV, my mom burning something, and my brother refusing to eat. I’ll definitely be glad to go home in a few weeks and see everyone.

My delicious turkey!

Group Shot

Some of my students!

Although I feel like I’m mostly used to the way things work in Costa Rica, I’m occaisionally surprised by the way different things work here. Christmas is one of those things.

Too be honest, Christmas season in Costa Rica isn’t that different from the United States. The main thing I’ve noticed so far is that because there’s no holiday between Halloween and Christmas (the US has Thanksgiving) most everyone already has their decorations up. I walked into my office on Monday, November 2nd to find the place decked out in holiday garb. A fake Christmas tree, wreaths on every door, and even little snowmen and sleds sitting on shelves.

I guess the strangest thing about spending the holiday season in Costa Rica is that I’m used to it being cold! I find it so ironic that there are snowmen and sleds when there’s never been snow in Costa Rica, ever! I’ve also noticed that time here passes much faster without me knowing. I know everyone in the world always says “Oh summer went by so quickly this year” and “Wow Christmas is coming so fast” but when there’s no stark changes in the weather – no leaves changing, no below freezing temperatures, no frost in the morning, no snow fall – it’s harder to imagine that Christmas is fast approaching. In fact, I almost forgot to start planning the Thanksgiving dinner I’m organizing for my students because it just doesn’t seem like the end of November.

To be fair, there have been some changes in the weather. Most of October was marked by hot morning and torrential downpours in the afternoon, and the past few weeks have been cold – by Costa Rican standards. But still, everything “looks the same”. Anyways, I’m wondering if I’ll eventually get into the holiday spirit, or if I’ll just get progressively more excited to go home and see my family and friends.

Don’t let the headline mislead you, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
However, Costa Rica is pretty well known for being subject to frequent earthquakes – some serious, other’s not so much. Last year around this time there was a pretty big earthquake – somewhere around 7 on the Richter scale – that did a lot of damage and ended up killing quite a few people. The last time I was in Costa Rica I never felt any tremors, and was admittedly jealous when other people reported feeling the ground beneath them move slightly. Growing up in the Northeast United States, I don’t have much experience with natural disasters. I’m not exactly asking to be present for a hurricane or a tsunami, but it seems that a mild earthquake would be pretty cool to experience.

And it was. I was sitting at home at my desk, when all of a sudden it started to shake. It felt like the science class demonstrations make it look – two pieces of paper moving back and forth. It just felt like the ground was moving back and forth. It only lasted about five seconds, and strangely enough, the only other person at home said she didn’t feel it. Apparently if you are walking or in a car its a lot harder to notice. Apparently this earthquake was a 5.1 on the Richter scale, with the epicenter about two hours from where I live.

Luckily, my first earthquake experience was pretty harmless – no major damage, no deaths. But still, it was cool.