Now that I’ve started my field research period, I’ve gotten to experience two very different lifestyles here in Costa Rica. I thought I’d share a typical day in my life in San José and in Pueblo Nuevo to show how different they really are!
San José:
5:30 am: wake up to my traveler’s alarm clock
6:00 am: eat breakfast with my host mom Vicky. Gallo pinto, omelette or oatmeal… always with
fresh fruit and a homemade glass of fruit juice
6:25 am: say goodbye to Vicky and head out walking two
blocks down the street to catch the bus to school
7:00 am: arrive in San Pedro at the University of Costa
Rica, and walk five minutes to the ACM building. The San Pedro neighborhood is a typical
college-student hangout, with lots of cheap cafes and bars. Every day, I (along with a bustling crowd of
other people… it’s always incredibly busy here in the mornings) pass the
university, the Catholic church, the park, fruit vendors selling three pints of
strawberries for $2, and an elementary school before arriving at the ACM
building
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| the ACM building |
7:30 am-8:30 am: Spanish grammar class. The seventeen of us in the ACM program are
divided into two groups for this class, and my instructor Mario Morera is so
energetic that the hour passes by quickly.
8:45 am-11:00 am: Spanish conversation groups. We are split into four conversation groups
that rotate among four different instructors every two weeks. During this time, we revise our homework and
do various other activities to improve our Spanish speaking as well as our
knowledge of Costa Rican culture. Some
activities include sharing summaries of articles from local newspapers, asking
our host parents for information about Costa Rican institutions, one day during
which each person had to cook a Costa Rican recipe (my favorite day by far),
and presenting skits.
11:00 am-12:00 pm: Run with Lauren and Tim around the UCR
campus. The college campus is absolutely
beautiful, with many trees and colorful murals, and we’ve found a favorite
running route that takes us around the trails in the “Centro Deportivo”
(athletic fields). We often stop at our
favorite “panadería” (bakery) on our way back from our run to pick up something
for lunch. My favorite item is the
“cangrejo de frijoles y queso,” a warm croissant filled with refried beans and
melted cheese (funny thing: cangrejo can mean either crab or croissant). It costs 375 colones, which is about 75
cents.
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| The selection at La Canela, our favorite panaderia |
12:00 pm-1:00 pm: Shower at the ACM building and eat
lunch. The other ACM students and I are
all pretty cheap, so we’ll either make our own sandwiches or supplement bakery
purchases with fruits and vegetables we’ve bought at the grocery store. One time Lauren and I asked Ivette, the
building manager and an excellent cook, to help us prepare lunch. We made a delicious picadillo (basically just
cooked chopped vegetables) of chayote and carrots, to serve with brown rice.
1:00 pm-4:00 pm: Often we have another class in the
afternoon, about research methods, safety in the field, dance class, etc. If we don’t have another class, we usually
stick around to work on our research proposals anyway because we’re on a tight
schedule to revise our rough drafts and come up with a polished proposal by the
end of the month.
4:00 pm: Catch the bus home to my neighborhood, Moravia.
4:30 pm: “Cafecito.”
This is a great Costa Rican tradition that involves drinking a cup of
coffee or tea in the afternoon and eating a snack, usually bread or
pastries. I love the idea of cafecito as
a time to catch up with your family after a day of work or school. Vicky is self-employed as an interior
decorator and often has to see clients in the afternoon, but when she’s free we
always partake in cafecito.
4:45 pm-7 pm: Work on homework, or hang out with Vicky and
my host-niece and nephew, María Inés and Julián Andrés. María and Julián’s mom, Laura, is a single
working mom and often doesn’t get home from work until 6 or 7 pm. Vicky picks the kids up from school and
brings them back to her house to watch them until she can bring them home after
Laura gets back from work.
7 pm: Eat dinner.
Sometimes it is just Vicky and me eating, but usually María and Julián
join us, and often other aunts, uncles or cousins as well. Vicky is known as a good and generous cook,
and she knows well enough to always have extra food prepared in case of the
inevitable unexpected guest.
7pm – 9:30 pm: Shower, continue to work on homework or talk
to family on Skype (if it’s working), and get ready for bed.
9:45 pm: If all goes well with my homework, sleep!
Life in San José was exciting, and I’ve absolutely fallen in
love with my host family. It was,
however, very crowded and there were endless traffic jams, so I felt like a
huge chunk of my day was occupied by waiting for or riding on a bus. It was also surprisingly stressful: spending
ten hours of my day either traveling to or in school meant that there was very
little time to finish all of the homework I had to do.
Pueblo Nuevo:
5:15-5:30 am: Wake up to the sound of my host mom, Ester,
cooking breakfast; and to bird calls, rooster crows and howler monkey shouts. If I’m feeling ambitious, go out for a quick
run while the temperature is still bearable.
I don’t feel quite as comfortable running here, not because it’s not
safe (I actually feel much safer here in the country than in the big city of
San José), but because the concept of running for exercise isn’t really present
here. People get their exercise by
working in the field, or by walking to and from the pulpería(a small grocery and convenience store where you ask at the
counter for the item you want, instead of locating it yourself).
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| My house in Pueblo Nuevo |
5:45 am: Get dressed and eat breakfast, usually bread or
fried plantains with natilla (similar to sour cream)
6:45 am: Bike to the cacao farm where I do my research.
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| Geovanny, the biologist who works on the farm, has a pet toucan named Pascual. He hangs out with us while we're sitting waiting for the rain to pass, and sometimes rides on the handlebars of Geovanny's motorcycle! |
7:00 am-11:00 am: Walk amongst the cacao trees to my
different sampling sites, and either take soil samples or do other analysis
like counting earthworms.
11:30 am-12:30 pm: Return home to eat lunch: chicken, cheese
or eggs with rice and beans and the occasional salad, all washed down with a fresco (drink), usually made of oatmeal
and sugar dissolved in water.
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| This was one pretty lunch: rice, beans, and "ensalada rusa" - beets and potatoes mixed with mayonnaise. |
12:30 pm-3:30 pm: Either return to the field or work at home
on the computer.
3:45 pm: Marcos, my host father, returns home from work at
the cacao farm. Liliana, my host mom,
prepares cafecito: coffee with
cookies, or crackers with guava jam, or bread and cheese.
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| Sometimes, instead of the traditional crackers for cafecito, my host dad chops down pipas (unripe coconuts) from the tree in my grandparents' yard. He cuts a hole in the top for us to drink the coconut water, then chops them open for us to eat out the meat after we're done. This is one of my favorite treats here! |
4:00 pm-7:00 pm: Hang out with my host family. Life here is simple and very tranquila. I draw pictures with my host sisters, Yeimy
(10) and Anyel (6), sit on the porch with other women from the town who come to
have Liliana paint their nails or cut their hair (Liliana studied in beauty
school for five months before quitting to take care of her daughters), or we
all head next door to Marcos’ parents’ house to hear stories of their youth
from Abuela Miriam and Abuelo Manuel.
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| My host grandma Carmen, host mom Liliana, host sister Anyell and host sister Yeimy |
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| Me and Anyell, 6 |
7:00 pm: Liliana serves dinner. Dinner is a very relaxed affair, usually
eaten in front of the tv, with everyone eating what and when they feel
like. It usually consists of leftovers
from lunch (always rice and beans) filled out with some extra cheese or meat.
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| Combate participants |
9:30 pm: I tuck in my mosquito net, write in my journal for
a few minutes, and fall asleep.
It has taken some time to adjust to the very different
lifestyle here. There are of course some
inconveniences of living in a tiny pueblo,
and I miss my ACM friends, but overall the experience is very positive. I continue to be impressed and inspired by
the closeness of family here, and by the ability to pass a lazy afternoon
simply sitting with family members, chatting and laughing at the antics of the
kids running around. I think it’s really
good for me to slow down and experience a simpler life even if only for two
short months.
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