Catching up

Between Spanish school and having my parents here it’s been a busy few days, which haven’t left much time for blogging.

On the Spanish school front, Jill and I finally received Libro Dos (Book 2). The joy of receiving our intermediate books was quickly put into check as Profesora Ana quized us on past-tense of the Big 5 verbs. It was ugly, almost like we’d never seen those verbs before. We’ve since redoubled our efforts on the Big 5 verbos and have done better on subsequent reviews.

Jill re-swizzled her schedule on Monday so that she only had one client in the evening, giving us a bonus afternoon together. For lunch on Monday we took Non and D to La Fiesta de las Pupusas. We can add two more pupusa fans to the growing list.

Monday’s dinner was our inaugural InstantPot meal in Costa Rica. I made Chicken Adobo. A funny thing happened at La Coope when we went to buy the chicken thighs for the Chicken Adobo. We went to the butcher counter and asked for a kilo of chicken thighs (we forgot to look up the word for thigh so Jill said “pollo” and pointed to her thigh and said “uno kilo”) and the nice man pulled out a kilo worth of chicken thighs with drumsticks still attached. We told him we just wanted the thighs with no drumsticks and he was not amused. Apparently one does not buy stand-alone chicken thighs in Costa Rica. Properly chastened, we took our kilo of thighs and drumsticks to the checkout.

My parents had not experienced the singularity of joy that is the InstantPot before. I used the preparation of the meal as an infomercial. I think they are sold.

The Chicken Adobo was well received by Non and D. According to Non, she had never had Chicken Adobo before. Mia Mosher, I’m not sure how that’s possible.

On Tuesday morning we got to Spanish class ready to dive into book number two in earnest. But when Profesora Maria arrived she was clearly not her normal self. We asked her what was wrong and she told us that her Abuelita was “muriendo”. I wasn’t sure whether that meant her grandmother was dying or had just died. Fortunately, Jill understood that it meant she was dying, saving me from asking a blundering question and making a bad situation worse. Instead of tackling Spanish, the three of us spend the time talking about family and the emotions that go along with loss. It was a proud moment for me to watch Jill put her therapy skills to work in Spanish.

Jill had a busy afternoon of seeing clients yesterday and I took Non and D to the El Toledo coffee plantation tour. I’d already done that tour with Jill’s parents and have met and chatted with Gabriel, the gentleman who runs the operation, at the Atenas farmer’s market. I was looking forward to going back with my parents.

Gabriel did not disappoint. Unfortunately Jill has yet to be able to go with me to the tour, but we will pick a time to go because she will love it. The tour costs $20 per person and you pay at the end. When we went to pay for the three of us, Gabriel said there was no need to pay for me because I’d already paid for the tour the last time and I can come back as many times as I want for free. I think I’ve made this point a couple of times previously, but it bears repeating that we have found Costa Rica to be a place where people joyfully share their talents and time and it’s not necessarily transactional even in a commercial endeavor. I find this extremely refreshing.

Last night was an event that is well outside of my comfort zone. We had SALSA DANCING LESSONS! Our landlord Magda pinged us a couple of weeks ago and asked if we would be interested in Salsa dancing lessons. We relayed to my parents and they said they were in, so we signed up. We had no idea what to expect other than we were to show up at 5PM last night at Magda’s restaurant. We learned some very basic steps from an extremely talented young couple. It’s good that the steps were very basic because I was at the limit of my abilities.

Following the lesson we had a nice evening with Magda and her sister who is also visiting from California. I think everyone had fun.

This morning we got up as normal and headed off to Spanish school. Profesora Ana relayed the sad news that Profesora Maria’s grandmother passed away overnight. We had a bit of conversation with Profesora Ana about Maria and about how death is handled in the Costa Rican culture. We asked about the funeral arrangements and were surprised to learn that the funeral was at 10AM today. Profesora Ana told us that unless death occurs in the evening or family is coming from a long distance, the funeral is always held on the day of death.

We came home from Spanish class and loaded Non and D into the car to take them for a special lunch. Kay’s here in Atenas is run by a lady from Poland (by way of Canada) and she serves Polish comfort food. I had cabbage rolls and my dad had pierogi. Anya, the owner, came over and chatted with D and he trotted out his best Polish greeting. While D was chatting with Anya, an expat gentleman at the next table over literally pulled his chair over between me and Jill uninvited and proceeded to talk our ears off until our food arrived, whereupon he returned to his own table. Once we finished our food, the expat gentleman was right back between me and Jill. We have found that some expats are exceptionally forward to the point of being pushy and nosy. Following lunch we took Non and D on a tour of El Mercado and finished up a Pops for some ice cream!

Non and D fly out in the morning. Jill and I took the day off of Spanish to take them to the airport. We’ve got one more dinner before they go. Debating Pizzeria la Finca vs. La Trocha (our friend Frank’s restaurant).

Today’s bonus photo: