¡Baila conmigo!

(Dance with me!)

Yesterday at night my roommate (who lives in the room next door to me) and I went to Dance Class. It was an hour and a half long and we learned Merengue and Salsa. The school is indoor/outdoor, and it had just rained, so it was really humid and because we were dancing so much, we were all pretty sweaty. =P It is really hard to dance for that long! But it was definitely super fun. We learned a couple of different spins with Merengue, and we learned three different steps with salsa, as well as a spin. I like salsa a little bit better because it has more rhythm, but it is fun to learn both of them. We switch partners after every song, so you have the opportunity (I almost just wrote out oportunidad, the Spanish word) to dance with a lot of different people. It was a ton of fun!

Today was another day of classes. Typically, here's how my schedule goes:
Wake up at 6:30, get ready for school, have breakfast
7:45, walk to school (it's about five minutes from where I live)
8:00-10:00 Class
10:30-12:00 Class (It's the same class, we just get a break)
12:00 Eat at the burrito stand next to school. I'm going to try something new everyday.
1:00 On Wednesdays, Cooking Class
3:00 On Wednesday, Conversation in Spanish
8:00-9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Dance Class

Since classes get out at 12:00, I have time to do homework, talk with my host family and explore Costa Rica. Or even watch television in Spanish. (My goal is to understand it by the time I leave Costa Rica, which is a challenge!) This Friday we are leaving at 1:00pm to go to Puerto Viajo. We will be there all weekend, and when we are there we are going snorkeling!

Today, I had cooking class. We learned how to  make a typical Costa Rican dessert (postre) called Cajetitas de Coco, literally little soft candies of coconut, or basically Sweet Coconut Balls. They are so good and so easy to make. They are similar to macaroons, but they are gooier on the inside. I will post the recipe over the weekend while I am Puerto Viajo.

My friends with their Cajititas de Coco



What I ate:
Cena de Ayer: Hamburger meat (carne) with some kind of white beans, I believe Garbanzo beans (garbanzos), refresca, rice and beans. We also had salad (ensalada) with another new vegetable (verdura) in it called chayote. Slices of it looks like a pear, and it has a similar texture and taste, but with more flavor and less mushiness. It is also less sweet than a typical pear, since it is a vegetable. After googling and asking around, I discovered that chayote is a type of squash that is usually found in Costa Rica.

Desayuno: Cereal, Coffee

Almuerzo: A burrito with beef (carne) and Costa Rican sour cream (natilla) and tomato sauce (basically ketchup - salsa de tomate). The burrito was good, but I didn't like the ketchup on it, it was super sweet. The burrito stand guy offered to put ensalada or salad on it, but I declined. The ensalada at the burrito stand is basically sauerkraut - sweetened cabbage. It seems weird to me that they would put that on their burritos and empanadas and stuff, but it is unique.

Bocaditas (Snack, or literally "little bites")- Cajititas de Coco

Cena: Baked Fish (Pescado) - I don't like fish, but this was delicious! It tasted less "fishy" than fish we eat in Arizona, and the breading had a nice flavor. We also had mashed potatoes. When I asked if they were potatoes or yuca (it's hard to tell the difference without tasting them), they called them "potatoes" and not the Spanish word "papas". And of course, we had rice.

A Costa Rican stop sign