Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Today was our first day of class. I woke up to an absolutely beautiful morning! It was dark in the room, and I opened the bathroom door to blinding light. Once I recovered, we opened the curtains and doors and enjoyed a lovely morning. We eat breakfast at the hotel, under a straw covered patio near the pool. I was definitely loving that setup. After eating, we met up with Jay, the international student coordinator(or something like that) for the school we are staying at. We are at the United World Colleges campus in Costa Rica. Jay took us the long way to school so that we could see the different ways we could get there and a little bit of what is around us. On the way, I saw a cat sitting on a roof. A tin roof. And I instantly thought of the play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." :)

Once we got to the campus we had to be let in by a guard and then we also had to sign in. The campus is fairly small (nothing like OU). It has a soccer field, and the buildings are connected by a covered walkway that stair-steps downward. At the end is the Library, where we have class. Beyond the library is a field and a stage.

The first part of class was an orientation from Jay about Santa Ana and United World Colleges (UWC). UWC was created in a response to World War II, to prevent it from happening again by inspiring young adults to have better awareness of other cultures. UWC is actually a high school that is intended to prepare students for University. The campus was also originally an orphanage, which I think is cool. Something I found interesting is their mindset on the environment. Jay told us that Costa Ricans share the idea that nature was here first and will be here long after us, and so to let the insects be- even giant spiders that are inside. He said if we were till go around on a killing insects than the Costa Ricans wouldn't be very fond of us. Americans tend to just kill anything because they are simply annoying. They are better at co-existing than we are. During orientation some students from the college were with us. There were 3 from Haiti, one from Thailand, one from Hong Kong, one from South America, and one from Kenya. We split up with them and talked about cultural differences based off of some questions that Jay gave us. It was really neat to get to interact with them. I am truly amazed by them also. One of the boys from Haiti came here knowing no Spanish or English, and now he knows both very well (after 1.5 years). It is always good to see people who accomplish so much. I feel sometimes we take for granted what we are capable of, and it is really inspiring to see.

After orientation we had snacks that the college provided for us. They had Cinnamon rolls, sandwiches, and two pastry things (one sweet and one with cheese and ham). They were really good and now we wish we could have snacks every day. Following snacks we had class for a little bit, reviewing what we had learned in America before Finals week. Then we headed to the cafeteria for lunch, right across the way. It is interesting how it works- you can have one entree and one starch. They had Chicken, Pork, Mashed Potatoes, and Rice. You cannot get both rice and potatoes. Also another idea I never considered. In American cafeterias growing up, I could get whatever I wanted. Here they only want you to take enough that you can eat. While we were eating the gave us a cooler of popsicles to pass around. The flavor was something unfamiliar to us, but fruity. You also put your trash separate from the food you didn't eat. The food leftover goes to feed a pig. They remind me of Native Americans in the way they make use out of everything they can.

After lunch we convinced Cindy to have class out on the stage. It was nice, but got interesting when we saw all the spiders living above us and things started falling from the trees. We moved class back inside when some women came to have their dance class on the stage. After class three of us went with Jay as he showed us around the "city center" of Santa Ana. Apparently in Costa Rica, the city centers are all around the main Catholic church. The Santa Ana church is called the 100 year old church- though they aren't quite sure how old it actually is. We found some new supermarkets and some places to get food, which came in handy later. Oh, and as we were leaving the school, some kids outside the "cat on a hot tin roof" house were roasting marshmallows over a makeshift fire on their driveway. I loved it. Also during our tour we tried Chicarrones (chaccaron? anyone?), which are some pork things that are really tasty. The shopkeeper was very nice and simply asked if we wanted to try them, even though we weren't buying any. They have fried ones that are kind of like chunks that remind me of really crunchy bacon, and non fried ones which you cut up that remind me of the texture of turkey legs. We decided we really liked these.

After the tour we had to get back to work. We had a ton of things to do. We did some group case studies, which took a little longer than I expected. We breaked for dinner, where I led a lot of us to a nearby Mexican restaurant that Jay pointed out during the tour. The dinner was very interesting, and the food was amazing. It is an actual Mexican family that owns the restaurant, and they were really nice. Then we went by an ice cream place we saw on the tour, but it was closed. So then the search was on. We ended up going to a bakery that had some interesting flavors. I passed since I am lactose-intolerant and none of the flavors were all that appealing.

And then it was 9 o'clock when we got back. My group finished our assignment, and then it was reading time. We had many articles to read, and I finally crawled into bed at 12:30. A very busy day, but I still love it here!