In exactly one week, we will have lived in Costa Rica for 4 months. I don't think anything has made me feel more Costa Rican than sitting in the passenger side of an 83 Landrover on a test run to the airport in prep for my family's visit. Fickle power steering, a 4 speed manual and a two way road with no divider markings really does test a good driver. Matt passed. Though, I feel like we lost some days off of our lives from gas pollution.
Today was my final day of classes. Surreal. The last 2 weeks I have been in private lessons 4 hours a day, 8-12. My teacher, Marianella, was a God send. She is not a Christian, but she had lesson plans from a missionary group she taught once. The first hour of our lessons were focused on bible vocab, phrases and dissecting the use of future and subjunctive in bible commands. We had some interesting discussions. She is one of 29 real, tried and true vegans in Costa Rica. She said that stat is concrete, and they are a community, that 29. She has strong convictions around the preservation of life, and has had time to put that into perspective as she has struggled with a severe and rare lung/asthmatic disease putting her in and out of hospitals for long periods of time through out Latin America. Nela is super tiny, quiet and she has this sorprano type voice with just enough scratch to it to keep me from saying it is high pitched. She is very sensible, punctual and wouldn't let me move onto the next part of the lesson until I could consistently use it correctly for an hour. Which, left me studying the use of "se" for about 3 days straight.
She told me in all her 8 years of teaching, she has taught many missionaries and Christians, but never once has she had a discussion about Gods view on animals and Vegan life until me. She said she was going to read more to see what the bible says about God's view on animals, souls and what is acceptable and not. (When she told me, I started praising God in my heart that I never told her I do not care too much for animals at all) She would often pause class for about 5 seconds to point out the National bird that would visit our window sill. At least 3 times she reminded me that even though it is ugly, it has a sweet singing voice. I pulled up a photo of the bird on google and drew it. I gave it to her this afternoon right before I left with a thank you note. I felt like I was 6 when I handed it to her, I don't know why.
My sister and brother and law come in at 1 this morning. Its 10:30pm. Matt and I are drinking coffee in prep. We have reservations for zipling a good 5 hours from then in San Luis CR. Around 10 tomorrow my parents fly in. I printed out our schedule for the next 4 days. Ziplining, Waterfalls, Rainforest hiking, Dinner reservations...
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