This is Pura Vida

Yo me llamo David. Yo tengo veintidos años y soy de dinamarca (mis pasres son de dinamarca y las filipinas). Yo soy afortunado – hoy, yo vivo en Costa Rica.

Yo soy un estudiante de ingenería ambiental de la Universidad Aalborg de dinamarca, y yo soy estoy en Costa Rica para escribo escribir me tesis de maestra. Es muy interesante – la tema de la tesis mia es la conducta de las compañias multinacionales (como Intel y Glaxo Smith Kline) en cuanto a el al desarollo sostenible. Es acerca de los factores economicas económicos, sociales y ambientales.

Dinamarca es un país muy desarollo desarollado dónde estos problemas son están balanzas balanzados. Es por que por eso yo soy estoy fuera.

Dinamarca es un país bueno. Los servicios de educación y salud son gratuitos – pero los impuestas son muy alto altos ! A veces sesenta por ciento !

Freetranslate this!

Overall not too bad, I think, for my very first mini-essay in Spanish. I’ve come down here with absolutely nada knowledge about the language, so I’m spending the first five weeks following a language course in the heart of San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital. It’s kind of a funny feeling going back to school again like this, but it’s great – we have fun in class and I consider this a sound investment in my future which will look great on my CV, hopefully even expand my job options just that much more. Still, it’s a steep learning curve, and no one said this was going to be easy. I do make mistakes.

For instance, Ella pregunta la hora does NOT mean She impregnates the whore.

En generál, I’m doing juuust fine, thanks for asking. I just spent my weekend bathing in hot springs in luxurious sunny surroundings, listening to latin music with a Corona in hand while colíbri hummingbirds flitted in and out of bushes and trees nearby. How was your weekend?

The bathing springs in question were near the town of La Fortuna, some five hours by bus from San Jose. There’s an active volcano here that erupts 24/7 and is impressive to watch at night, as well as a national park where I saw a wild snake for the very first time (about damn time too, if you ask me, after about nine years living in the tropics). Also, there were spider monkeys, a wild squirrel, a type of racoon and lots and lots of fancy birds of all colors. Cool stuff. Really.

I went with Sabrina (Swiss), a housemate of mine, Tiffany (American), Cyrial (sp? – French), Julie (French) and Avdyl (Kosovo-Albanian German dude) which meant that, well, we had the most fucking funny, insane and confusing conversations sometimes, but the trip was absolutely pura vida. I think I’ll do this every weekend from now on, you know, just find some new destination and see as much of this beautiful country as possible. Meeting new people isn’t too hard at all – the place is crawling with all sorts of travellers and I swear I’ve spoken with more Europeans and Americans than the local Ticos (and the Ticas – ay caramba).

It helps, too, that I’m not the only foreigner boarding with my host family who are accommodating me for the duration of my Spanish course (homestay w/ breakfast and dinner included in the package). Besides Sabrina, Sussie (German) and Jürgen (German) and I are staying with the Soto family, who are extremely nice people. They’ve all been very helpful and my ‘mamá’, Mary Anne, cooks up the BEST dinners… sorry Ma, but I think when I get back, I’ll need to teach a thing or two ;)

My week in brief: started Spanish, started going back to the gym again after a long break, stopped smoking, tried some of the nightlife (ugh, don’t care much for the reggaetron music but the classy salsa dance place has convinced me to try dance lessons this week), introduced myself to my local supervisor at Universidad Nacional (more about that later) and, well, couldn’t wipe the grin off my face the whole time. This is all so surreal and it kicks ass.

Adios, muchachos. I’ll have some pics up soon. Tonight I’m going out with Øygunn (Norwegian – that’s a girl’s name btw) and Johanne (Costa Rican/German) who I share Spanish lessons with, plus almost all the other people I mentioned previously. Should be fun!