INBio Parque... National Institute of Biodiversity Park

This morning, I headed out to the INBio Parque or National Institute of Biodiversity Park in St. Domingo (a 20 min bus ride out of Heredia). The park showcases much of Costa Rica's rich and diverse landscapes and environments, including wet and dry forests. At a cost of only about USD $4 for students (yes, still making use of my Berkeley ID card!), it was well worth the price of entrance and guided tour in English. Below are some pics... to see more, just go to my flickr site at www.flickr.com/photos/shingwong.

Also, today, I confirmed that I will be going to Puerto Viejo for the weekend, leaving tomorrow afternoon from San Jose... it will be a long 4 hr. bus ride but based on everything that I hear about the place, it's one of the most amazing places in the country - great beaches, a tropical rain forest that runs out to the sand, and the town is next to the country's largest coral reefs. This will be my 1st big trip outside the city so I'm really looking forward to it... should come back with some pretty amazing pictures. I'll also be looking up my roommate's parents and family who are currently living there. Should be a blast! Stay tune...

Tico life - family, food, fun

As is probably true in other parts of Latin America, Costa Ricans (they call themselves Ticos and Ticas) have very close families... From what I can tell of my host family, the parents are quite involved with their 2 sons lives, so much so that the mom was helping the eldest (who's 20!) with his homework/studying the last two evenings for his geography and history exams. It is end of the school season right now. So far, I've been really impressed with how warm the family is with each other... it may partly be due to having the sons' German friend ('Micha') living with them now. He is quite a character - gregarious, talktative and has a decked-out Toyota 4x4 that cries out for attention. The family definitely laughs easily... always telling each other stories and making jokes. In the evenings, I've seen them just hanging out and watching whatever is on television - usually a TV movie. Also, it is typical in this country that kids will live with their parents well into their mid-20's even when they are going to university (as is the case with my host brother). Most only leave the house after they get married.

As for today, not a whole lot has happened - just more lessons. I do find that I am starting to pick up a bit more listening comprehension. I had a somewhat long and fairly excruciating "conversation" with my host mom this morning in Spanish (since she speaks no English) as she was preparing breakfast - I was quite pleased that I could understand and ask questions about the real estate market in the country, including finding out that beach front property in the Playa Tamarindo area, a heavily resorted area on the Pacific side, can have property values of USD $4,000/sq. meter or something like USD $800K for a 2000 sq. ft. parcel of LAND only... but building costs are about USD $40K for basic 3 bdrm. Still, that's incredibly expensive and is privied only to the wealthiest (in most cases, foreigners).

The only other thing of note today is that the lunch I had at a Caribbean restaurant. The school's owner took another student and me there today (we usually go with him for lunch). The restaurant is run by this 85 yr. old Carribean former chef at the San Jose Marriott and his family. I had the best Beans and Rice with Chicken ever! Just amazing... it was made with a characteristic Carribean combination of beans, rice, and coconut milk.

San Jose

Visited San Jose this morning... had only about 2 hrs at the capital since I had to get back by noon for my 2nd day of classes. Saw the Teatro Nacional - Costa Rica´s beautiful National Theater. The interior reminds me of the Paris Opera House - just as ornate but much smaller.

I also visited the Museo d´Oro or the Museum of Gold... this was a really good museum - it gave a detailed history of the indigenous people, history, and their arts with lots of examples of gold pieces. Unfortunately, I was allowed to bring a camera into the museum.

Below is a short video of the Teatro Nacional:

First Day of Spanish School in Heredia

Hola!

Today´s my first day at IPED and it´s been really good so far, definitely meeting my expectations given the high praise I read about the school before. Classes are 9am-1pm every MWF and noon-4pm. I began the day with an excruciating hour of verbal test to assess my conversational skill level by the school´s founder, Zaida. Needless to say, I found it incredibly difficult to recall much of what I learned over 2 semesters of UCLA extension Spanish at the beginnning of this year. Although I still remember some of the vocabulary and grammar, it was difficult creating sentences and grasping listening comprehension. At the end, Zaida set the goal of me being able to ´fluently´converse in 3 basic tenses: present, past, and future on basic verbs by the time I leave end of next week. Hopefully, I´ll make enough progress by then... my first 2 hrs or so of lessons with my teacher, Tatiana was also painful... but I seem to be recalling a bit more as the lesson went on. So far, I am the only student with Tatiana which is great. There are only 4 other students in the whole school and they are all at different levels. It´s currently the low season so it´s perfect since I get 1-on-1 instruction.

After class, David, the owner

(who´s American) took me around Heredia with a walking tour... visiting the town square, church, and indoor market. After the tour, I had my first salsa lesson - it was awesome... only 1 other student, Sam (18 yr old) so we each took turns with our teacher and had about 3 short lessons each for a total of 1 hr. Forgot the teacher´s name but she was very good - within the hour, I learned 4 different movements. Sam´s been here since the summer so he was way advanced.

Tomorrow is Tuesday so my Spanish lesson won´t start till noon. David recommended I go into San Jose, which is only about a 30 mins ride in from Heredia to visit the Theatro Nacional, Museo d´Oro, and Museo de Nacional before class. Will write more tomorrow.

For pictures from last couple of days:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shingwong/

For videos from last couple of days:
http://youtube.com/profile?user=shingwong

Great Los Angeles and San Francisco time-lapse movies

See this website for some great evening/night time-lapse photography movies... Many different shots of Los Angeles downtown as well as a few of San Francisco Golden Gate.

Enjoy. http://599productions.com/TimelapseLarge.html