Thursday, January 29, 2009

10 Things New to Me, From Today.

1. In place of remembering if "dias" is masculine or feminine, and "tardes" and "noches", people just say, "Buenas!" in greeting. It is much easier.

2. Listening to native Spanish speakers is very challenging. But what is more challenging is listening to deaf, native Spanish speakers. (Yes. Today. At a meeting to rent a new office for the non-profit. It was cray!)

3. When watching "Gossip Girl" in English with Spanish subtitles, you quickly learn the word embarrassing: verguenza, because it shows up a lot in the translation.

4. Just when I was feeling good about understanding the gist of a conversation, I was introduced today to a woman who speaks seven languages. English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Japanese were five of them. (She is a real estate agent, natch.)

5. The avocado and tangerine-clementiney thing from yesterday were both amazing. Peeling said thingy was a religious experience. Fresh, unrefrigerated fruit? Apparently the peel is meant to just pull off, away from the pith, and it is ripe and juicy. Ahh.

6. San Jose, Costa Rica is at 4,500 feet above sea level. This is why the weather is perfect here (to me) - breezy, warm, sunny but not too hot. When I go to Uvita tomorrow, I am apparently in for humidity and heat. (But also the beach, so this girl ain't complaining.)

7. The office we are renting is a house, and it is gorgeous. I'll post pics once it has been painted. It was rented by a Colombian family previously and it is, right now, electric orange, jungle green, lemon yellow and more. My room in this house is the maid's quarters, and they're adorable and nice and private.

8. I am starting to wonder how, when and where I will do laundry. It is currently neatly folded in a laundry bag. It's weird to fold dirty laundry.

9. The men in Costa Rica are well-dressed. From the clothes to the hairstyles to the facial hair, the cologne, the manners... it's very gentlemanly. I like it. I also get a sense, as has been well documented, that these sorts of men aren't big on feminism or homosexuality or any other green, hippie, Portland type of thing. However, for the gazing, it's nice. Plus I am quickly scanned for the ring, and treated like a married woman.

10. The most glamorous woman in the room at the breakfast buffet the last two days: cafe au lait skin, long wavy thick hair, probably 5'10'' and 115 pounds, but it wasn't that... she was confident. She was sexy. Her hair was mussed and awesome. She had grace and attitude. She was a little pissy and I liked it. She had a young daughter who looked just like her. She was no nonsense and she glided through the room like it was dinner at Jean-Georges. And when she opened her mouth... ladies and gentlemen, she was French. Of course!

6 comments:

  1. Alright, somebody needs to explain cologne to me. Ya'll know the dude doesn't really smell like that right? Anybody can smell like that...heck spray the cologne on a dog, the dog will smell like cologne. I just don't get it. What's the attraction? Says nothing about the guy except that he can afford cologne. I suppose it says that he wants to be attractive for you, which is nice and all, but still...wtf?

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  2. Arthur...if the way guys naturally smelled was a good thing they would bottle that instead, and we would spray our dogs with that.

    Meggie will love point 10! I fully understand how frustrating being unable to speak just one foreign language is. The entire med school (60 countries now represented) speak 100's of languages ranging from the major ones to mini-dialects of the village they're from. The really belittling thing I had happen last week, was when a med student (who spoke PERFECT english...no accent what so ever) was saying how embarrassed (verguenza) she was because she could only speak THREE languages. I started rolling my feet to the sides of my shoes at that point and staring holes into the ground.

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  3. Hey, good thing you learned the word for embarrased 'cause a lot of people, while trying to wing it in Spanish will say they are "embarrasada", which actually means you've got a little chillin growin' in your belly.

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  4. Well...what can I say? The French are indeed glamorous,confident, and pissy:)Oh Em, I love this blog and being able to check it everyday and find something interesting or funny to read. I just think you being there is so fabulous and yes...I am anxiously waiting for the pics. Unlike you, I like looking at other people's pictures as it really paints a picture of the life they are living. Costa Rican men...yummy
    Well...what can I say? The French are indeed glamorous,confident, and pissy:)Oh Em, I love this blog and being able to check it everyday and find something interesting or funny to read. I just think you being there is so fabulous and yes...I am anxiously waiting for the pics. Unlike you, I like looking at other people's pictures as it really paints a picture of the life they are living. Costa Rican men...yummy
    ~Meggie

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  5. Well...what can I say? The French are indeed glamorous,confident, and pissy:)Oh Em, I love this blog and being able to check it everyday and find something interesting or funny to read. I just think you being there is so fabulous and yes...I am anxiously waiting for the pics. Unlike you, I like looking at other people's pictures as it really paints a picture of the life they are living. Costa Rican men...yummy

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  6. For some reason my post showed up three times?I'll get the hang of this blog commenting thing one day:)Sorry!
    Meggie

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