Alright, well gosh...a lot´s happened since Samara.
AMBULANCIA---
I start by saying that I´ve been working at the private ambulance center in Atenas (Linea Vital), where I assist two other peramedics and a full-time doctor. Jorge is the one peramedic that speaks some English. And Jorge is my guy. He is 33 years old, but him and I seem to have a lot in common...like surfing, sports, beer, girls, etc. I work at Linea Vital after my Spanish classes, which end at 10am. So from then until 12, I´m at LV, take a lunch from 12-1, and then back at LV from 1-4.
So for 5 hours out of the day, I´m helping out the Ambulance Service in town...unfortunately, that´s a lot less true than I´d hoped it would be. Their system is based on memberships, which are either $20 a month or $50 a month, depending on the packages....I would guess there are MAYBE 200 members...many of which are English speaking (those that retire and come down to CR for this time of the year) members. These are the only people, basically, that we attend to. At any time there is an emergency in the community, for non-members (mass majority of Atenas) the dispatchers contact the Red Cross De Costa Rica. Only if the Red Cross is occupied, or the those in need request Linea Vital, do the dispatchers contact us for the issue at hand. So long story short...I do a lot of nothing at the Ambulance Center (by nothing I mean read the magazines or a book or work on my Espanol). Every now and then Jorge asks me to help him speak with a member about retreiving an overdue membership payment. So with that said...I´m looking into getting into Environmental Conservation stuff, which is a whooole other story.
This past week though, I taught swimming lessons at a local school, on both WED & THU which was pretty cool. Suprisingly, Costa Rican seem to not really work on their swimming at young ages, which is reflected by much of the country being scared of the ocean.
But yea...I really think that the volunteer program down here is pretty lacking. And I hate to say it, but it really just seems like the organization hasn´t put much thought into what all these volunteers could actually be doing. The girls and I (that´s what I´m calling the other volunteers I´m with, basically because they´re all girls...not A guy) have talked about starting some sort of our own program, still going through IFRE, but pinpointing something we´re all good at and something that the town needs...I´ll keep it posted how the grassrooting goes.
MI FAMILIA---
So I have a Mom (Alia), 2 sisters (Mele 19, Aryianna 17), and a brother (Ariel 17) who are living in the house. Now, I guess I also have 2 other sisters and 3 other brothers that no longer live at home. And I thought I had a big family in the States, but apparently the grandma to this family just had her 100th grandchild.
And speaking of children...Mele, my older sister, recently found out that she is pregnant. She´s only around 3-4 months pregnant, so unfortunatly I won´t be here in CR to be an uncle (or will I Nick...??)
My younger sister, Aryiana, is going to a school that requires them to stay a 12th year (most just go for 11), but when they get out, the school does a great job getting them jobs (she has the best English in the family as well). I guess she wants to be a pathologist later on as well...she "wants to work with dead bodies". The family is really awesome though...they got all excited yesterday because they were gonna have a Pizza night. And I´m not gonna lie...I got excited too!!! PIZZA!!!!!!!!! I have a confession too...last friday I went with Aryiana to a nearby town with a mall and theatre. We were gonna go to a movie, and before hand...I had...TACO BELL! I´ll just say that I really enjoyed it, and leave it at that. We actually didn´t get to watch a movie either...they didn´t start until late.
Alia is an awesome cook, and does anything and everything to help me out...I think I´ve mentioned this, but for example...I came home one day to find a new wall in my room!! Who does that?
ATENAS---
This town of maybe 20,000 people seems to have put together all the friendly people in the country and said ok, now be especially nice to the Gringos. I have not had a rude encounter yet. Today I was on the phone trying to communicate with a hotel receptionist (planning this weekend). He didn´t speak English, I don´t really speak Spanish...so we spent like 2 minutes trying to talk to each other, and then all of a sudden, we both just start LAUGHING at each other. He didn´t seem at all frustrated, just felt like laughing cause we weren´t making any sense.
Something I thing is awesome that they do around here has to do with their driving. In the States, we honk and then give the finger. Here, they´ll both be driving at each other...slow down, of course honk, but then wave and laugh at each other as they drive by each other. (That´s a true story by the way...I see how absurd that reads, but it actually happened.)
It hasn´t rained yet, and I guess it has been in the 80´s during the day since I´ve been here. (It actually feels a lot hotter though...pretty humid). But it´s crazy to look at the roads because they have HUGE ditches on the sides, entirely different roofing, and creek/rivers that are now fairly low, but clearly are capable of holding a mass amount of water. And apparently, (I hope I´m not repeating myself in previous blogs) according to National Geographic (´94 maybe), Atenas is considered the city with the best climate in the world. Who´da thunk.
The food is awesome...still eating a lot of rice and beans, which is alright with me. I´ve gotten to experience some of the traditional plates as well(one is a thin broth soup with chuncks of random Costa Rican vegetables- not bad). Something else that is awesome...they have milkshakes here that are amazing, BUT, without ice cream. They actually have their own name, but I´m blanking on it right now. It has a little cinammon and rum, among milk and some other things. Delicioso for sure!!!
TICO TIEMPO---
In Costa Rica they have a phrase, "Pura Vida" which actually translates to Pure Life. But they use this phrase as an expression for a no-rush, easy-going, whatever-whenever-however kind of mentality. And you really get a feeling of this when you´re down here! No one ever seems to be in a rush (and as a result, things usually start later then scheduled...such as our spanish classes that are 15-30 minutes late, an environmental meeting that was 15 minutes late, bull-riding at the fair that was an HOUR late, etc). I´m enjoying it too!!
They actually use this phrase daily, by the way. It is definitely something all the Ticos buy into. I hear it about once a day probably, from anyone and everyone.
LA SCHOOLS---
Primary school is 1st-6th, then high school from 7th-11th. However, like my sister, you can choose to go to other schools (perhaps the one that makes you stay another year than hooks you up with a job). Then private schools, which seem fairly inexpensive because there are a lot of them around here. In the private schools, they make sure to have English classes. The public schools- maybe not so lucky. But what´s also weird is that often, they get out around noon, or even earlier. And then sometimes they have a 2-3 hr break, and then go back. And sometimes (like Leslie and Susan´s sister) they go to school until 7pm. So I dont really understand the scheduling, but needless to say, it´s far different from the States.
LA DUCHARSE---
Well the showers...I´ve actually had 4-5 warm (mind you, this is a relative term...where in the states, probably would say cold) showers. The way the water temperature works is this...there´s a water heater in the shower-head, which actually heats up the water as it´s passing through the shower-head. However, it requires a decent amount of water pressure in order to "jump-start" this waterheater-mi-gig. And water pressure drops to a dismel ZERO (that is, no water) by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. So in order to get a warm shower, between 6-7 is prime. And yes, during the day...often, the hole house does not have water. Which actually doesn´t seem to be a big deal. Everyone seems to shower in the mornings, Alia (my mom) fills a couple 2-liters full of water in the morning to get us through the day. And then by 7-8 in the evening, some water returns (never enough to have a warm shower, but to do the dishes or a light load of laundry).
The only interesting part about the showers is this...the waterheater/showerhead is powered electrically. That is, there are exposed electical cables going from the showerhead into the wall. This is of particular interest to me being that my head is RIGHT NEXT to both the showerhead and these cables. Our coordinator for this organization I´m going through says that the people in Costa Rica use to call them Suicidal Showers. But really, I AM fully use to waking up and playing a friendly game of Russian-Rolet to start my day!! :)

Well I still didn´t get a chance to post the fun things I´ve been doing...the next town´s fiesta, the river we visited that had 20-30 rocks we jumped off of, and valentines in Atenas. I´m out-of-here for the weekend though, so I´ll try to get it all back together next week. ADIOS!!!