I am living with two other student teachers: Samantha, who is from my same university and Bethany, who is from Ohio. My first night here, before Bethany got home, I was filled in on what was going to happen this weekend. Her boyfriend was flying here as a surprise on Friday night. He told her he got her a massage at this super nice hotel. The massage was supposed to be at 5:00pm that evening and was just a ploy to get her to the hotel. Oky, Sam, and I told her that afterwards we would go out for supper, so she should dress up a little bit. This was all put forth so that her boyfriend would be able to surprise her when she showed up at the hotel. Oky and I drove her there and sat in the car watching him surprise her! Oh what fun! Later that night, he proposed and she accepted! It was a fantastic surprise and one that she will remember forever, I'm sure!
On Sunday, we had the extreme pleasure of witnessing one of Escazu's most anticipated festivals: El Dia de los Boyeros (The day of the Oxcarts). Yes, Oxcarts, as in a cart pulled by oxen. Sam, Bethany and her boyfriend, Oky, and I all plied in the car and drove up to San Antonio, the town just up the mountain from us in Escazu. A parade of oxcarts began in Escazu and walked up the mountain to end at San Antonio. There were so many people there! We walked through an open air food market selling local cuisine and then a hand-crafted/souvenir market where we each bought some beautiful ceramic pieces.
The pictures above are, obviously, from the Oxcart Festival. The carts are very ornate and decorated and the drivers were all wearing authentic garb. The final picture is a view of the city of San Jose from San Antonio. It was beautiful.
Oky said that she doesn't like the sun, so she wanted to stay in the car. For that reason, we didn't stay too long in San Antonio, but what we saw of it was a lot of fun. Afterwards, she dropped the four of us off at the Country Club, where she is a member. We were able to use their pool and relax with some swimming in the hot afternoon sun. I did get a little sunburnt, even with my 70 SPF sunscreen, but only in the places I didn't reapply it after the market. For that reason, I'm proud that it worked so well even when the sun is so direct and brutal!
For supper that night, Oky made us personal pizzas (with pineapple, Mom!)...yum. For breakfast, before we went to the festival, she made her personal style French toast. She takes what we would call French bread (here it's just regular Costa Rican bread) and hollows out a small area in the middle. She fills it with cream cheese and a sort of marmelade or jam. This time it was guava (which tasted just like a berry jam would). Then she coats it in milk/egg/cinnamon and cooks it like we would fry up some French toast. It was delicious!! No syrup needed! This morning for breakfast, we had bananas cut up and covered in a thick oatmeal/milk mixture. Grandma, I told her how you used to make this for us all the time!
All in all, I have enjoyed the food. The water is safe to drink, which is amazing because the heat requries that you drink constantly. At the Country Club, I had a salad with my meal that did NOT agree with me. Thankfully that's the only experience I have had of that sort.
Love you all and miss you a lot!
in God's peace,
Molly
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