McCanns in Honduras

Part 5 in a series on our apartment in San Jose.

Above: The kitchen.

Our most frequented part of the house is also our biggest reminder that we no longer live in the United States.

First the good. Our kitchen has been great, it is much bigger than many of the other kitchens in Costa Rica. It has lots of cabinets, good counter space, and a big, hot stove. Our microwave works great, our fridge is always cold, and the freezer never frosts over like some others.

Now what is interesting about out kitchen is how much time we have to spend in it because of a lack of appliances. The most glaring omissions are the dishwasher and clothes dryer, while others include a garbage disposal and an ice maker. We never quite realized how much time and energy these things save until now.

Some things of note:
- You can see a small blue stickie note on one of the cabinets, it has the Spanish word for “cabinet” on it. We’ve tried this throughout our house to learn the Spanish words, though by now most of the stickies have blown off.

- On the corner of one of the counters is all of our sweets. Interestingly, almost all the foods here go bad very quickly, so we have to keep all perishables sealed in Ziploc bags.

- Lastly, you’ll notice the blender on the left, with which we love to make fresh pineapple smoothies!

The above picture is from our kitchen looking out on our laundry room/patio. The first thing that jumps out from the picture is that there is no door. Our kitchen leads straight out onto our patio area with nothing between inside and outside but a few iron bars. When we moved in we were assured that this was normal, though we have yet to meet anyone else with such an arrangement, or meet a Tico who thinks it is infact normal. And yet despite the apparent oddity, we have come to enjoy our “open” kitchen. We always have a great breeze, our house stays cool, and our clothes dry quick while staying dryer.

All in all we have really come to enjoy our kitchen, especially our open windows!

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.

Part 4 in a series on our apartment in San Jose.

Above: A picture of our route to school every day. The blue house on the left is our home, and the green school on the right side is the Instituto de Lengua Espanola. The purple trail is our walk to school, and the purple camera icons are the places were we took some pictures.

Photo 1: One minute into the walk we pass our favorite neighborhood park, Parque Los Sauces. You can see all the grass and trees of the park on the other side of the road.

Photo 2: Two minutes later we come to the longest straightaway of our journey. This road has two little tiendas, a local bus stop, and a menacing street guard we’ve become friendly with.

Photo 3: At the end of the street in the previous photo is this park, La Copa. La Copa has a basketball court we’ve played in some, a few run-down swings for Lucy, and a couple soccer fields. Once we reach La Copa, we’re over half-way there!

Photo 4: 8-10 minutes after we leave home, we’ve arrived here, the back gate of the language school. The big blue building is the gym at the school, and the gate is right in front of it.

Thanks for walking with us, hope you enjoyed seeing a little more of our daily life.

Above: Lucy, cool shades, and half a nana.

Every morning around 7 am we take about a 10 minute walk to school. It is a weird feeling to be up and walking around that early, but the sun has been up for a few hours, so it feels like late morning. We usually give Lucy a snack to keep her happy on the walk, but lately she has just held onto her banana the whole way. Yesterday a dog came up and started licking her nana, so if she wants to eat she better learn to eat quick!

Above: All the books it takes for one beginner Spanish student.

Well we’ve finally started our first full trimester at the Spanish Language Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica. We’ve been here for a while studying Spanish, but that was all child’s play compared to the next four months. Lindsey and I have taken our placement test and been placed in good classes, we both have people on our level or a little higher who will push us to learn even faster. Here is a glimpse of our day at ILE (Instituto de Lengua Espanola):

First Hour: Conversation/Language. In this class we simple talk Spanish, a lot! We talk about ourselves, our family, our life, and anything else the teacher wants to ask us. We even pray in Spanish! Talk, talk, talk, and at 7:30 in the morning no less.

Second Hour: Phonetics. Here is where we take the words we’ve learned and try to say them so that actual Spanish-speakers can understand us. It is amazing the difference between knowing the words you want to say and actually saying them correctly.

Third Hour: Grammar. Nouns. Adjectives. Verbs. Remember those English classes you had as a kid? Like that, but in Spanish.

Fourth Hour: Grammar. More nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

By the end of the day, we are beat. But it is amazing to see what we can learn in just one day, and then to multiply that by 4 months truly is encouraging. We may actually learn Spanish after all!

Above: Lins ready for school.

This picture encapsulates the transitions we’re going through in life right now (look closely and you just may see a pooch). Just last week, Lindsey and Baby Tico (our baby) transitioned from the first trimester to the second. Our first trimester coincided with our first few months here, and it was not easy. New foods and smells did not mix well with Lindsey’s pregnant stomach, but we’re hoping things get better in the second trimester.

Also in the picture is Lindsey’s book bag, the one she will be taking to our first day of school tomorrow. We’ve finished up our intensive courses and tutoring, and now we are starting a four month trimester. We will be in class 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, all in Spanish. We’ll be studying language, pronunciation, and grammar.

We’re excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this next trimester.