observations

I don't understand why, but since yesterday my internet service has slowed down to a crawl. Ah, but I can still access the internet and thus, it seems, the world, from home, and that's such a nice sense of connection. And then it's back to studying Spanish, something I have not done and which may account for some of my struggles!

I thought to write today about some of the things I've seen here in Costa Rica that were surprising to me.

Mayonaise is flavored with lime here. It comes in squeezable plastic bags with a little spout on the top. While at first I found this off-putting, the sensibility of it has won me over. No knife. No heavy glass jar. I find the lime flavor interesting too.

Yesterday I bought lemon-flavored peanuts. They tasted most like salt-and-vinegar potato chips. I think I liked them.

Salsa just means tomato sauce (I was indeed surprised) but upon searching I found a little plastic bag of what I mean by salsa--tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilanto.

In lots of tortilla chips you will find BBQ flavoring. This I do not like.

In the square in barrio San Jose, Emily pointed out to me what she calls the screaming tree. It is full of (invisible) birds who make so much noise the tree seems to be shrieking.

In most places here, one cannot flush toilet paper. This takes some adjusting to.

Bananas as we know them in the US are nothing. Here, they taste entirely different and unbelievably delicious. The the farmer's market, I can buy a bunch of about 25 small bananas for 250 colones--about 5o cents. They are beyond description. The same can be said for the mangoes and the pinapples.

In general, the many, many dogs here are smaller than in the US. They bark a lot in the night, protecting us from something or other. Or frightening us? I haven't decided which.

That's about it from here. Back to the verbs. Ser. Estar. Vivir. Bailar.
Oh dear me. In the taxi last night, after Emily and I went out to dinner, I said to the driver:
two places please. first barrio La Trinidad and Apartamentos Palme Real.
(I had no idea how to say second or next.)
Emily leaned over and said, "You could use a verb."
And then demonstrated by asking the driver to go to La Trinidad.
Show off.

That's all from here today, where the sun is out and the temp is about 88.