Spanglish

Well, as it seems to happen every so often, the last couple evenings have been a bit busy and unorganized here at the police station, so classes have also been unorganized and consisted more of random conversations in Spanglish and more interesting comparisons for our two cultures. Monday night was the last night of the week for that group of officers, so they were all pretty tired and completing any last minute tasks before heading home for a week. Somehow we got on the topic of singing, karaoke, and music. I got out my laptop to play some of the artists that they expressed were their favorite English singers including Michael Jackson, Elton John, John Lennon, as well as Celine Dion and Madonna. They were surprised at just how much music I could have on my computer and super excited when they asked if I could share some of the music through their USB thumb drives. It was fun listening to music with them, singing along with some, and explaining the meaning of others. I was brought back to the late 90’s listening to Celine Dion when that was the only CD I would listen to. I think the officers felt a little old when I explained that in 1997, when I was 7 years old, “My Heart Will Go On” was my favorite song. The officers always like to tell me how pretty I am, and of course, jumped on the chance of telling me how well I can sing, even though I was hardly singing along. They are now insisting that we go sing karaoke sometime, which I do enjoy participating in every so often. Our deal is that when we do go, they must sing only English songs, and I only Spanish songs. I’ve got some Selena songs in mind already.

Yesterday morning while using the office internet to get in my morning updates, I had to try to hold back some laughs as one of the officers played Celine Dion real loud from his car while packing it up to go home. He was also very disappointed I did not have some music from his favorite artist Whitney Houston, so I am going to work on getting some of that brought my way before I leave.  

Tuesday was one of the rainiest days I have experienced here, so I spent the day at the gym biking and at the station talking with the officers, friends on skype, and reading. I was spoiled by a great afternoon snack of a friend egg and plantains and some warm coffee by the officer and cook Victor. He is such a big, old flirt. At times I think I should be almost bothered by how much he likes to tease me, but he is so cute I have to just laugh. The afternoon cleared up enough for a walk around town and some more reading by the fountain in the park. The cool weather after all the rain was very refreshing. Although, to my fellow officers, they coolness was “cold” and required jackets. They didn’t understand why I was still walking around in a tank top and enjoying the nice weather. I tried to explain what real cold is, but I don’t think they can understand having never experienced anything like snow or ice.

Yesterday evening was another busy evening as many officers were getting back from daylong meetings late and other jobs, so we once again had random Spanglish conversations. We got on the topic of marriage. One of the officers who is also studying law wrote his thesis on divorce, as divorces in Costa Rica are even more common with 2 of 3 marriages ending in divorce. This officer looked at the idea of changing the current marriage law of allowing 15-year olds to marry with parental permission and 18-year olds to marry and making the legal age 25 years old. He also wants to recommend that all couples take some sort of course, whether religious or not, before getting married. Both sound like pretty good ideas considering how big of a problem it is. Also related, I discovered the difference in last names between the U.S. and Costa Rica. I’ve been wondering about this for a while as here everyone has two last names and are surprised that I do not. The reason this is the case is because here, a person has a last name from their father and mother. For example, here, my last name would be Kisa Clark Billings- meaning I would have the first last name of my both my father and mother. Furthermore, if I were to get married here, my last name would not change at all. Women do not take the name of their husband here. The officers found the idea very strange as I explained that the majority of the time, in the U.S., when a woman marries, she completely loses her last name to take her husband’s name. One officer said, “If I was your father, I would be very upset when you get married.” Although I don’t really like when we have these unorganized nights and not able to have classes, I truly enjoy getting to visit and learn more from my officers.

After class, I went back into town to meet up my friend Sanne from Holland who I met at the hostel in Jaco doing an internship in Fortuna. We wanted to check out the festivities for the evening at the festival. We were disappointed to find only really bad karaoke and some scary Carnival stands, so we went to a local bar to chat and enjoy some smoothies. As we entered the bar, every single head turned and stared until we reached our table and then watched for a bit more. I thought I had gotten used to the extra attention here, but sometimes it still just fascinates me at how acceptable it is to check someone out here. Nonetheless, it was so nice to catch up with Sanne and hear about some of her recent adventures, share experiences, talk about culture and philosophies, and enjoy the nice evening with a friend. By 10pm we were both ready to pass out so we called it a night.

Last night, I was disturbed by a sound of some plastic sacks nearby my bead making a soft rustling sound like some sort of small rodent or large insect was moving around it. Whatever it was, it must have been smart because every time I heard it and turned on the reading light of my kindle to see what was making the sound, the sound stopped. Hopefully, whatever it was, it has left today and I will never have to find out what was the source of the sound.

I’m getting excited for the new volunteer coming to work at the project as he leaves today and gets to Fortuna on Friday. I was upset to hear that he is running into some of the same troubles I had when I first came 5 weeks ago with the organization here in Costa Rica not being ready for his arrival, but hopefully he will get here without too much stress.

Now off to enjoy a pretty sunny day with some walking, reading, and prepping for class!