Only three Spanish classes left

Yesterday we took the Instant Pot to Spanish school to give to Profesora Ana. She was SOOOO excited! We took it into the kitchen area of the school and I showed her how everything works. We will see her in the morning and I will be surprised if she hasn’t taken it out for a test drive by then. Thanks again to my parents for acquiring it on short notice and getting it through security! Jill and I got a lot of use out of it and hopefully it will bring Profesora Ana joy for a long time to come 🙂

We spent today in class practicing preterito imperfecto (imperfect past-tense), which, we’ve been told is useful for narratives. Think “So, what have you been doing since I saw you last?” It’s the simplests of all. There are only THREE irregular verbos in preterito imperfecto:

• Ser – to be
• Ir – to go
• Ver – to see

I think they made us spend two months on preterito (standard past tense) because they knew if they taught us preterito imperfecto first we’d just use that forever 🙂

Counting tomorrow we only have three more days of classes before we pack up our traveling circus and head home to Austin. It’s hard to believe.

At the end of class today, we learned something fascinating about Profesora Maria. She lives for coffee, but has NEVER had coffee ice cream. Jill and I are going to pick up a pint of coffee ice cream from Pop’s and take it to class on our last day with Profesora Maria. I plan to have my camera ready when her head explodes.

Tomorrow is Dia de Juan Santamaria! It’s a national holiday to celebrate the 17 year old who drove the hated banditos yanquis from Costa Rica in the late 1800’s. We really have no idea what to expect, but it should be interesting. We have class with Profesora Ana and then we will set out for La Fortuna.

We’ve gone two and a half months in a country full of volcanoes without getting up close and personal with a volcano. All that changes tomorrow. La Fortuna is about 2 1/2 hours north of Atenas. We don’t have any firm engagements, but there are three things we hope to do:

• Hanging bridges! – Jill loves hanging bridges and there is an entire park where the trail is full of hanging bridges
• Hot springs! – The La Fortuna is full of volcano-fueled hot springs. We plan to soak in them
• Volcanoes! – Arenal is the grandaddy of all of Costa Rica’s volcanoes and La Fortuna is at the foot of Arenal.

I will report back on how we did…

Adventure is out there!