McCanns in Honduras

Above: Lucy and Sean on the small stretch of beach between the Caribbean ocean and the jungle.

This weekend we went on a trip with other missionaries at our language school to a beach on the Caribbean coast, Punta Uva. Punta Uva is a small beach town on the northern coast of Costa Rica, near the Panama border (to the west). The school set up the trip and the bus travel (6 hours each way) and we had a great time on a much needed break.

Lucy especially loved the water. It took her a little while to get used to the ocean, but soon she was swimming and squealing with joy. She also enjoyed the pool and the bathtub, only her second “real” bath since we’ve moved here.

Although the beach was small, and the water was filled with coral, we had a great swimming spot. We also got to do some snorkeling, played on the beach, and enjoy some fun time with friends.

All in all a great trip, and a beautiful place for Lucy to have her first ocean swim.

Above: Lucy enjoying some TCBY at the July 4th party.

(The picture has nothing to do with the post, just a fun picture.)

Amazingly, we have already passed the halfway point of our first full trimester here at the Spanish Language Institute. Though at times it feels like we still don’t know a word of Spanish, when we look at where we were when we started, we see how far we’ve come.

Here is a glimpse at some of the things we’ve studied.

Language Class: Vocabulary of jobs, clothes, animals, weather, seasons, food, transportation, outdoor recreation, the classroom, the house, numbers, the family, and the body parts.

Phonetics Class: Alphabet, inflections, unions, vowels, consonants, combinations, accents, diphthongs, lines, and syllables (all to help our horrible gringo accents).

Grammar Class: Nouns, articles, adjectives, present indicative tense, different “to be” verbs, paraphrases, direct and indirect objects, reflexive verbs, intransitive verbs, preterite perfect (one past tense), preterite imperfect (the other past tense), and the different uses between the two past tenses.

It is amazing that though that list is as long as it is, we still speak Spanish like young children. Learning a language is both humbling and encouraging, and we need both of those things!

Above: A patriotic Lucy.

What are Americans living in Costa Rica to do on the 4th of July? Go to the American Embassy’s Independence Day party of course.

We had a great time eating hot dogs, ice cream, and popcorn, waving flags, and hanging out with hundreds of our other fellow American citizens.

Hope you have a great day.

Above: Lucy and Sean at the park on Saturday.

Translation: Free Time.

Throughout Lucy’s whole life, she always been with either her mom, her dad, or both. When she was born, Lindsey had a long maternity leave. When Lindsey went back to work part-time, Sean stayed at home for half the week. When we both quit our jobs and starting raising support, we were all together all the time, either at home or on the road. So here in Costa Rica, with Lucy in “school” 30 hours a week, it has been a bit of an adjustment.

How does this tie in? We now we value our tiempo libre as a family more than ever. Usually most of our shopping outings are together, we love to go out to eat as a family, and we absolutely love a nice Saturday morning with no one but the three (four!) of us.

This Saturday, a children’s home in our neighborhood was throwing a fund raising festival at our local park, so we stopped by for some food, games, shows, and music. The festival was fun, but being all together was even better!

Above: A taxi line in Central San Jose

Another first for us this week was chatting up various taxi drivers. Of course we’ve taken dozens of taxis since we’ve been here, and we’ve talked with most of the drivers, but this week was different as we actually conversed and held long conversations without the driver kicking us out for butchering his language. For some that might not seem like such a big deal, but for us it was an assurance that we might in fact learn Spanish after all.

Above: Lucy, Sean, and Lindsey in front of Volcano Poas.

Sorry for the lack of posting early this week, we’ve just returned from a family vacation to the mountains and volcanoes above San Jose. Sean’s parents, Gannie and Mac, flew down Thursday for a quick vacation and some much needed time with grandparents. We rented a car, escaped the San Jose traffic and rain, and made it out of the city and into the hills.

One of the stops on our trip was Volcano Poas, a volcano with a huge crater, aqua blue lake, and constant steam rising from the depths. Despite the constant sulfur smell, we had a great time hiking around the Volcano.

Above: The family huddled together under one of many waterfalls at La Paz.

Another morning, we headed to La Paz, a park full of gardens, animals, and trails along many waterfalls. Lucy loved especially enjoyed the bird and butterfly houses, the monkeys, and the soothing sounds of the waterfalls, which put her right to sleep. The park is filled with all the nature and wildlife Costa Rica has to offer, and we throughly enjoyed hiking around and exploring all morning.

Above: Mac, Gannie, Sean, and Lucy in front of the toucan cage in the bird house at La Paz.

Despite all the beautiful sights and fun walks, the best part of the weekend by far has been time with family. Lucy has truly loved being around her Gannie and Mac, and we cherish the time we can all spend together as family.

Translation: It’s cold!

Above: Lu in her warm, short-sleeve sweater.

Well it appears that the rainy season has also brought in a cold front. Who would ever have imagined that we would report back that it is cold here in Costa Rica, but that day has arrived.  Now cold is all relative here, I think the low today was around 15 C (60 F) and breezy.  We always thought it was funny how the local Tico’s would dress their kids in jackets, hats, and gloves whenever the weather dipped below 70 F, and now we are the ones running for our jackets and long-sleeve shirts!  I told Lindsey today that we know we’ve adjusted to the weather when 65 degrees and a slight breeze makes us want to go inside!

Above: Lu and Lins after a bath.

One of the amazing things we have witnessed since we’ve been here is Lucy’s Spanish development. For most adults learning a new language is a laboring process, and one of the most difficult parts is translating from your first language to your second. For Lucy, this is not a problem. She is just learning new words and phrases daily. It may look like she is learning English and Spanish, but to her it is just one big language with a lot of words and different words for the same thing.

For example, she knows how to count to three in both languages, but if we ask her to count in English or count in Spanish she just gives us a blank stare. On the other hand, if we start with “one” or with “uno” she can easily finish the counting in the proper language.

One reason she is learning so fast is that she is in day care for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, and her teacher, Gloria, only speaks Spanish. So her little growing mind is hearing 30 hours of Spanish a week. Just the other day we decided to test her and started asking her where her body parts were in Spanish. Though she didn’t get them all, she surprised us with what she did understand.

Her Spanish vocabulary includes mas (more), pato (duck), agua, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, pan (bread), vamos (let’s go), aqui (here), pina (pineapple), boca (mouth), adios, gracias, chao (bye). Some of these words she say exclusively, as in she never says water, more, or thank you. And those are just the words she can say, they don’t include the dozens more that she hears and understands.

There is a good chance that by the time we leave Costa Rica, she will understand more than us!

Above: Lucy playing on the playground.