On Living the Pura Vida

I'm at the end of my second week of Spanish class and my ability to communicate comes and goes. Two nights ago, I had a great conversation with my host and one of her daughters and they kept remarking at how good I've gotten. Then last night when my host's other daughter visited, I could barely manage to say anything at all. Ugh. One day, it's all just going to click right?

Yesterday afternoon after class, I took the bus once again into San Jose, this time with my camera so that I could get pictures of the things that I have seen so far. I also checked out the Museo de Jade. It was a great little museum, although the three museums I have visited so far have all had pretty similar exhibits with the same narrative - 'Pre-colombian tools and jewelry were made out of stone, wood, gold, jade, etc. They were used for everyday tasks, but if you were an important person, you wore them. Then the Spanish came and ruined everything' This museum, of course, had a lot of beautiful jade pieces.

Today, for the first time since I arrived, it was a perfectly clear day, and I can see the tops of all of the vulcanoes (how DO you spell that word?) around San Jose. The weather here has been unusually cold and very windy. Of course, cold for this country is 60s at night and 70s during the day so it is still very nice.

Tomorrow I am off to see Vulcan Irazu, the volcano directly east of San Jose - the highest volcano in Costa Rica. Here's hoping for a clear day for lots of good pictures. I'll post a few when I get back, provided I am able to figure out which bus to catch, from where, and when...