Karen's journey into the unknown

Can't really believe that I'm managing to have conversations completely in Spanish. It really is quite amazing. Especially as I only know the present tense, and obviously not all of it. But all the classes here in the school are completely in Spanish, and then at night I sit with Felicia and we actually have conversations in Spanish. Although she speaks very slowly for me and chooses her words carefully so that I will understand. My teacher Paoulo, does too, and it leads me into a false world of believing that I can actually speak Spanish. Then Felicia's family come round and they all speak as they would normally, and of course I realise that I can only follow tiny sections! But it's all progress....

One of the days in the class there was just me and Paoulo because Petter, the Norweigan man, went somewhere else. We spent the whole afternoon talking about our lives, relationships with los hombres, feelings about having children, our families....I even managed to tell her about the completely naked man I saw on Sunday in the bushes playing with his man parts, calling out buenas dias to me. It was okay though I was too busy carrying heavy bags in the boiling hot to be too concerned about that. Although I was really pleased not to be on the same side of the road as him. I'll just keep away from those bushes....So anyway, that was quite an achievement to explain all that to Paoulo. Much further on than my first night with Felicia when I just didn't have the words to desrcibe it, or to describe anything really....

Felicia is so kind and makes me all this amazing food with no animal products in, it is so lovely of her. Especially as vegetarianism is not something which she's ever given any thought to. Although she makes me feel terrible that she won't let me help, although I've fought a good battle in Spanish and managed to get an arrangement where I do the washing up. Some students though stay with huge families and the mother does everything, so I'm quite glad to have the one on one contact with Felicia. It's definitely helped my Spanish lots more as I don't think I'd be speaking as much if I was with a huge family.

Oh dear think the college is closing, better go. I'll write more soon. Hope everybody's well. I'm not getting too much chance to write emails so sorry for that.

Here I am, staying with an amazing, lovely Costa Rican lady called Felicia, and her funny little dog, Jack and 2 cats, Pepe and Luca. I can say with complete honesty that this is by far the craziest thing I have ever done in my whole life. I never ever thought it would be possible for me to do something like this.

The first night I got here, Felicia had all her family come over. They are lovely people, and I felt quite frustrated that I couldn't communicate with them through language only with smiles and gestures. Her daughter works at the mini golf, so we all went to play mini golf. That was a wonderful way of communicating without language. Bit nerve wracking at first because I was so nervous I was taking 7 and 8 shots to pot the ball, but my mini golf skills improved and i even got a huyo in uno! They are such a loving family and welcome me so whole heartedly, it is quite amazing, to witness. Especially for my reserved British self. There was no winner or loser in the mini golf too, I was interested to note, something which I think sums something up about the Costa Rican people and their attitude to the world.

I'm only getting odd little snatches on computers at the minute, as things are so busy and it's quite hard to get to computers as I don't want to be rude to Felicia, and not really to keen to go out in the dark by myself in San Jose. Have absolutely no bearings at all yet. Although I did get to the school alone on the bus this morning so that feels like another small achievement.

The Spanish school is really well organised, they are very patient and kind, and constantly making sure we are fine and have no problems. The entire class is in Spanish and I learnt so much on the first day, they have pitched it at the perfect level for me. I'm quite plesed because I am a little bit higher than the very first level so my spanish classes must have paid off! Met some really nice people here too, so nice to have interesting chats, although they are in english! My class consists of me and a really fun Norweigan man called Peter who likes sailing and has been to Newcastle lots of times on the ferry! Oh there's the bell for the start of class the bells are funny, like being back at school! Better go, I'll try and write more later, still so much to tell you all......

Just a really quick one to say I made it to San JOse. The bus ride was fine, amazing views and passed all these brilliant little places with people selling hammocks and dried fruit, and other things that I´ve never seen before. The Coca Cola bus terminal is supposed to be the dodgiest part of San Jose, but it looked like nothing compared to LA! So now I´m just waiting for Leonel to pick me up to take me to Felicia´s house, my ama de casa. I have a few phrases ready, about my barrio and my likes and dislikes...but will probably get nervous and say all the wrong words! oh well, at least I´ve done the thing I was most worried about and that was the bus journey. Can´t believe I found an internet cafe just round the corner from the Spanish School! So I´m sure it´s going to be hand gestures and facial expressions a plenty for the next 3 weeks!

Yesterday I went on a guided walk on these suspension bridges through the forest canopy. It's a completely different ecosystem up there to the ground and so is really interesting. I felt completely and utterly overwhelmed by it actually. I had to go to the back to hide my emotion, it was all a bit much for me. So amazing to be up there just like the birds and all the sloths and other creatures. The guide was brilliant, he was from the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and told us lots of lovely stories about the plants and their uses. The forest is just full of medicines and foods and amazing uses. So the photo is of the tallest fern in the world (very likely anyway). The ferns here are massive trees, I didn't even know that ferns grow so high.
Last night I couldn't sleep thinking there was a hurricane. Huge gusts of wind all around. But it was okay, just a bit windy and me being paranoid.....
So taking it easy today, no guided walks today. I need to have a rest and learn some spanish because i go to San Jose on the bus tomorrow, to start the Spanish school. Really nervous about the journey and experiencing Central American buslife....I've bought my ticket though so don't have to worry about that part. Then have to make a phonecall in Spanish today to Spanish school driver and that is also making me very nervous. So in general today I'm feeling nervous and tired and have a stomach in knots. But still feeling good, and enjoying the challenges and wondering what tomorrow will bring. You never quite know here.

I went on the most amazing guided walk last night. Monteverde is not a cloud forest for nothing, the rain can be torrential and it is every day at least once, normally more than that. So I went through the forest in the dark, with a guide called Sergio, he has lived in MOnteverde all his life and seemed to know every little nook and cranny of the forest and made it all seem perfectly safe. Even when he was joking to the man from LA in our group that the jaguars always eat the last person in the line! So the rain was pounding all around us, but I was okay because I had my waterproof poncho and my hiking boots. There was lightning striking all around us it was so dramatic! There was a wonderful moment when he made us all turn off our torches and we stood there for ages in the dark listening to the sounds and he said "this is how it is being an animal in the forest". So we saw nectar eating bats, a hole made by a tarantuala (he said it was there last night but must have been eaten), walking sticks (big green stick insects), loads of crickets. Then the most exciting part.....a snake eating a lizard!!!!! my first ever view of a snake in the wild! in the costa rican rainforest at night eating a lizard! how exciting is that???!! this is what i came all this way for! and it was particularly exciting because these snakes live in trees and rarely come to the ground so we were very lucky to see it. We stood for ages watching this snake eating a lizard. No photos, I didn't even bother trying in the dark and with all the rain.
Looks like the bird project has folded....my big reason for coming to Costa Rica! maybe just the catalyst though....all the emails are bouncing back and the website has gone down. So I was wondering about that...then today, i visited a wonderful butterfly garden. I chatted to these two english girls who are volunteering, they leave next week and said that they are looking for volunteers! so it is free and they provide all food and lodging. I stayed there about 5 hours chatting with them and met the biologist, Zac, a really nice man from Utah and he said they'd love to have me there! So you give guided walks and look after the plants and he is an insect specialist so imagine how much i will learn about insects from him. There are two tica girls too so i'll get to speak spanish too! so that all feels like a very exciting possibility. I have the email and he said they will expect me in 3 weeks after my spanish school otherwise contact him to let him know I can't do it. So maybe I shouldn't feel so bad about the birds.....after birds my big love is butterflies, so maybe it happened like that for a reason? well let's see what happens.....