Saturday, March 22, 2008

From left to right in both pictures: Raffa(my sisters boyfriend), Cintia(my sister), Natalia(my brothers girlfriend), and Mauricio (my brother). There should be an awesome view behind us but there is too much fog.





Hola amigos,

Right now I’m in my usually internet cafĂ© in Desamparados, and figured I’d write a quick update. The last few days I haven’t had any training because of Semana Santa (Easter) so I have just been hanging out with my family. Yesterday I went with my brother and sister and their boyfriend/girlfriend to a volcano in the province of Cartago, a little less than 2 hours from where we live (not too far from where that concert was). We were super high up in the mountains and there was so much fog we really couldn’t see anything. It was probably about 38 degrees and really windy... it felt like wintertime in NY. It was funny seeing American tourists there, in their shorts and sandals freezing their butts off. Basically there is a huge, deep crater with a bright green lake at the bottom of it, and from the pictures I saw it’s a really amazing view from the top of the crater (we probably had only about 100 meters of visibility, but it was still pretty cool).

On the way home we stopped at this really creepy abandoned health complex way up in the mountains. There was a hospital, dormitories, a church, offices, etc…pretty much a whole little village all fenced in and abandoned. I guess a long time ago it used to be an isolation facility for people with leprosy and then there was a tuberculosis outbreak and they contained the infected people there and later on it was converted into a camp for juvenile delinquents and now nobody uses it but they won’t tear it down b/c it’s considered a historical monument or something like that. Apparently there are all kinds of ghosts that live in there, including a headless security guard, a crazy nurse and a little girl with bloody hands, and its really scary to go inside at night.

Well not too much else is new, I still have a long way to go with my Spanish. I can’t really understand what people are saying to me unless they talk to me like a 4 year old child and use hand gestures (most people just talk super fast though and expect me to understand them)…I have gotten pretty good at just nodding my head and smiling and trying to pick up on a key word here and there. My life is really awkward most of the time…but I’m trying to get better. Hopefully in a few months I will be able to look back on this whole experience and laugh.




2 comments:

Sheri and Lance said...

We enjoy the weekly updates. Enjoy everything you do right now. It will all be a memory some day. We got snow today! Hope those socks haven't been washed yet! love ya! sheri and lance

Manda-NY said...

Heathy!!!!
Everything sounds so exciting I am so glad your enjoying yourself and what and amazing experience. So tell me what foods your eating... any thing in particular you like. I'm not sure if you know but I am studying in Italy for the month of June with a good friend of mine from school. I am sure when I get back I will be able to relate to your verbal barriers lol. I am just glad your safe and having a great time. I miss you and hope to hear from you. If you feel compelled to write my address is:
Amanda Altieri
Daemen College
MB 266
4380 Main Street
Amherst, NY 14226