Surf City, Here We Come!

Greetings all from Tamarindo!

We arrived here on Sunday and moved in with our new family in the neighboring town of Villareal. We immediately met our host parents, Lucia and Roni, and their son, Micha. They live right on the square in the small town of Villareal, so we got to enjoy watching an afternoon soccer game with what seemed to be everyone in town.

Our family is very nice, and certainly interesting! They don't speak any English, which is good for practice. Lucia cooks us two meals a day, cleans our room, does our laundry, and basically spoils us rotten. Roni is a construction worker, or so we think. A lot of things seem to be getting lost in translation during our conversations (we think that Lucia said that Roni doesn't ever get to eat dinner because his belly is too big, but we might have misunderstood) . One funny thing about Roni is that he never, ever has a shirt on. Ever. When we asked them to take a picture with us, Lucia told him forcefully to go put a shirt on. He went to the bedroom and returned shirtless, like he didn't own any! We have also had a few sightings of Roni in "whitey-tighties," seemingly with no shame whatsoever. Anyway, here we are with our Costa Rican parents:




On Monday morning we took the shuttle to the Wayra school and started our Spanish classes. The school is located about 100 yards from the Tamarindo beach, and has students from lots of different countries (mostly Europeans who smoke unfiltered cigarettes while they badmouth the French). Hanging around them, we feel a bit inadequate because we are only working on our second language. Most of them are on their fourth, fifth or sixth!

Wayra actually looks more like a tropical paradise than it does a school. The inner courtyard is filled with palm trees, ivy, hanging vines, flowers, and colorful birds. Many of the classes are held in open air shelters so that we can enjoy the perfect climate while we talk. The weather is warming up every day here, while I can only assume it's getting colder and colder in the states (we're going to start losing readership if I keep that stuff up!)

Upon arrival at the school, we took a diagnostic test and immediately jumped into our classes. I am in a higher level than Nina, but only slightly higher. This is actually a bit sad on my part since I took many years of Spanish in school, and Nina took zero. Anyway, we both really like our classes and our teachers. There is some formal instruction over vocabulary and grammar, but the bulk of class is spent practicing the language through guided conversations. We both find this extremely helpful, and we both feel that we were placed in the perfect level for us. Here are a few pictures from around school:


Our walk to the bus stop:

Our bus ride to school:

The sign in front:
The inner courtyard:
A classroom visitor:
Paul's class:
Nina's class (without Nina):
The cafeteria:


This is school like we have never experienced it before. We have homework, but there are no grades, no tests, no pressure of any kind! The best part of all is that when classes end at around noon, we all eat a quick lunch and then head to the beach! Nina and I have taken up surfing in the afternoons, which I must say is a bit harder than Brian Wilson might have you believe. Not only is it extremely tiring, but you also end the day with horrible chafing over all exposed skin. Much like Spanish, surfing seems to be something that comes naturally to Nina and not to me. Of course, I was super pumped about it the first day, singing the beach boys greatest hits in my head, absolutely sure that I would be riding giants within a few short minutes. The reality was very different, and I lost function in my biceps pretty fast. Nina, on the other hand, was standing up on one of the first waves that came by. She makes it look way, way easier than it is. Over the three days of surfing I improved very slightly, but I'm a long way off from making it onto a Tamarindo postcard.

That's all the news that's fit to print now! Awesome classes in the morning, catchin' waves in the afternoon, sleeping like rocks at night. Not a bad life, I must say.

We will update in a few days with more pictures, more adventures, etc. Thanks for following our awesome travels!

Sincerely,

Paul and Nina