Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Starting language school


We are in Orosi! We are going to be in Orosi for 3 weeks. Orosi is a smaller town in the mountains. My school is good! Our teacher’s name is Isabel. She is cool. We play games and we learn a lot of Spanish. Sometimes we go for walks over the suspension bridge across the river and pick flowers.
When we wake up every morning, the mountains look like a painting. They are all green, with forests and small houses and towns here and there. Usually, there are clouds really low in the sky, although I think it might be hard to touch them. If you look to the north, there are lots of mountains too, but they are a little different. They are not so green and one is Vulcan Irazu, the highest active volcano in Costa Rica!!! If the weather is clear, it looks like a big peak puffing out smoke. We have met a dog, we call Blackberry (or Mora in Spanish). She loves us and whenever she sees us she’ll follow us everywhere, even into stores and shops and buses. We thought of taking her home, but that would be too hard. There is a swimming pool right around the corner from our house. Some of the pools have warm water—it comes from a natural spring. The other day we met a couple of nice girls with their family. Their names were Michelle and Alexa. We played volleyball in the pool, even it started raining. It was really fun because we were in water and water was falling on our heads. The water in the pool was really warm, so we didn’t want to leave the pool when it was raining. We hope to meet some more friends over the next few weeks.
We found a great pizza place—it makes a great pizza and it reminds me of the United States. The food we have been eating is really good. The ketchup, mayo, and mustard is sold in little plastic bags. When you go into a supermarket it’s a little different. Everything is in Spanish and everyone speaks Spanish so it is difficult to communicate sometimes. But luckily we know some things, like all our foods and Dad knows how to communicate the most and we know how to get around town. There are lots of different foods, not just rice and beans. There are no Targets or Walmarts, just a lot of local stores. They do have Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut in the bigger cities. And once, I even saw a Burger King. We went to a big house on a hill over the town for a hike. We thought it was haunted cause the owner said there were a lot of spooky noises heard in the house and the house was bad luck they thought. But they moved out of it, so now it’s deserted. Then we made up a mystery about it, I’ve started reading it so maybe you can read it when we get home. I’m excited to get home to see my family and friends and tell them about my adventure. Of course we have another one and a half months to travel. I think you would have fun being here with us. I miss you all. Sometimes new places are fun and kinda lonely without my family and my friends.
Happy Fathers’ Day to all the daddies out there
Some New Poetry by Aislinn:
Small face
Climbs on trees
Monkeys in Costa Rica

Sunset beautiful
Volcano puffing smoke clouds
Green forest blanket

There are lots of cute dogs
One’s name is Blackberry
There are also lots of cute frogs
The color of raspberries

Sloths silently slumber
Singing sweet songs

Turtles try the triathlons
Talk to turtles trekking
Touch turtles’ tails

Snakes slide silently
Singing slick songs

Umbrellas under unicorns
Us under umbrellas
Everyone under umbrellas

Poetry from Ceallan

Bananas are green
Bananas are red
They turn yellow
Right by your head

The water is clear
The water is blue
It is cool
Just like you

Lemons are orange
The grass grows sweet and green
The dogs play tag
When the water flows

The green trees are growing
The butterflies fly
Birds sing a lovely song and a cool rain falls down
As the sun rises

Blinking stars above the moon
The moon shines big light

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Here we are!

The airport in Detroit was really great! It was super big and it had a tram that we could ride. And the plane was awesome too. We had little tables that slide out from the seat in front and the hostess would come around with drinks and food.

 We got in to Costa Rica at night and Ronny was waiting for us. Ronny's and Yvonne's hotel was beautiful. The airplane lost dad's bag and so did Ella's. Kim, who helps run the hotel, was hung up on the phone three times trying to find Ella's bag.

We went to the zoo in Alujuela. At the zoo we saw monkeys and one tried to pee on us. But it didn't. There were pumas and lots of birds, even peacocks and ostriches. The peacocks walked around freely. That night we had a cookout. The food was great! 2 days later we rented a car with four rows of seats. It was surprising and we all fit. We drove to the Caribbean to a town called Cahuita. The chickens and dogs and monkeys roam the streets. The streets are gravel roads and some are nicer than others. The howler monkeys wake us up every morning. The sound really aggressive but they weren't. They have really cute faces, but the cappuchin monkeys are even cuter and they didn't even try to pee on us.

We are sitting on our front porch and some guy just rode up on his bike selling delicious fresh loaves of bread. We have mosquito nets over our beds and thatch roofs and it is hot! Yesterday we went to a sloth sanctuary where they help injured and orphaned sloths. They were so cute. There was one named spider man. When he would go to sleep he would suck his two fingers like a baby. There was a sloth named Skye and one named Lydia--my middle name and my sister's middle name. We also went on a canoe trip and it was about an hour. It was really fun. We saw a caiman, lizards, crabs, butterflies, monkeys, sloths, and even more all out in the jungle. We went to Playa Negra yesterday afternoon and swam in the waves. Playa Negra means black beach and it was dark black sand. Some of the waves knocked us over.

Today we are going to a cocao farm to learn about the history and how to make....CHOCOLATE!! We get to make it ourselves and then eat it. We get to learn all the steps first. We are leaving tomorrow to drive back to San Jose and then go to Orosi where we will go to school for Spanish.

Here's a poem about Costa Rica:

Chocolate, chocolate
so good and great
I eat it everyday
Costa Rica is the best
I take a siesta almost every day
it is like a rest

monkeys, monkeys
so silly
so beautiful
can climb about on any tree
wake us up
and try to pee
all because of me


We are having a great time. Check out my new picture at the bottom of the blog. Talk to you soon!