San Pedro

On Wednesday, I took a break from writing essays to go on a field trip with my Tica grandmother Cecilia. My Tica sister Sophia calls her "Tita" and my Tica grandpa Herbert "Tito." Tita was going to show Melissa and I how to get to Melissa's internship in San Pedro. I was surprised that she crossed such a busy highway on the next street over from my street her entire life. It was nuts!

The bus to San Pedro comes every half hour and only costs 200 colones or a little less than 50 cents. The place where Melissa is going to work during March and April is called Fundación Mujer or Women's Foundation. I am also hoping to spend some time volunteering there during the month of March. The Fundación has set up a recycling program in the neighborhood to collect materials for single mother's and poor women in the community to set up their own businesses making crafts. They hold daily classes in setting up business and how to make the crafts. We saw baskets, waste cans, bookmarks, purses, backpacks, vases, and a whole bunch of other things made 100% out of recycled materials from the community. I am really excited to spend some time there, and it will be a wonderful place to practice my Spanish in a different way.

It is always fun hanging out at my grandparent's house because they do not speak a word of English. If I come across a word that I do not know during conversation, I cannot just resort to saying ?Comó se dice...?  or How do you say...? Instead I have to try to describe the word I am thinking of in other Spanish words. Tita has also made lunch and dinner for me a couple of times. She is a wonderful cook. Herbert likes to talk  to me about anything and everything. He's been telling me since I got here that it would get really hot, dry, and the wind would go away after the first of February. Well, it is March 1, and it poured all last night. I was freezing today! Oh well, maybe Herbert did not take global climate change into account...