After a week of grey, soggy shoes, smelly socks, and never ending showers Heredia has finally brightened up. It is the rainy season here in Central America (Costa Rica has two seasons: rainy from June-November and dry from December-May) and the effects of Tropical Storm Matthew have been raining on Costa Rica´s parade.
The lack of sun on the back of my kneecaps this week has left me with a severe serotonin deficit and increased awareness of the usage of "mae".
- quick cultural note -
Mae ("myy"): abbreviation of "maje" which means dude, man, bloke, sucker. This term is used by roughly 98% of all tican "maes" (and occasionally chica ticas) in every situation, in every sentence, whenever, wherever, however, etc. etc. etc.
here's an example of a conversation between two dudes:
Edguardo: mae, como le va mae, pura vida mae ?
Fabio: mae, todo bien, mae quiere monchar en un toque ?
Edguardo: mae, no puedo, tengo que encontrar con la güila mae...
Fabio: hijuepucha mae, tendré que monchar solo ? mierda mae...
- English -
Edguardo: dude, how´s it going dude? how´s everything dude?
Fabio: dude, it's all good. dude wanna get some munchies in a bit ?
Edguardo: dude, i can´t, dude i´ve got to meet up with my girl dude...
Fabio: dangit dude, i have to munch alone ? crap dude...
It's an interesting little dynamic that at times can sound cool and at others completely ridiculous (I've found that when a couple of guys are spouting 'mae' like tommy guns they bare a striking resemblance to the seagulls from Finding Nemo... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4BNbHBcnDI
Back to the sunshine...
As I was getting cooked on the back padio, enthralled in the technological advancement in livestock care of 18th century Costa Rica (check out "Costa Rica: the colonial arrival and genesis of capitalism" for some light fall reading), my mamatica came out with a homemade fudgesicle. NICE!
It had a nice creamy chocolate taste with hints of banana, and instantly sent me into a nostalgic throwback to the days of fudgesicles and saturday night nickelodean at Grandma's (Snick, otherwise known as the greatest television lineup of all time - are you afraid of the dark, Keenan & Kel, and of course All That). However, as is the case during the rainy season, the sun only stayed for the morning...
On Wednesday following our dance class (popular dance) our instructor invited us all to tear it up on friday. So last night our group of fearless gringos hit up the club to find a huge dancefloor illuminated by discoballs and laser lights.... completely void of people. In a little bit people started to trickle in (including more of our friends) until the club was comfortably full. After some reggaeton numbed everyone's ears and loosened up any inhibitions, the DJ threw on some salsa and that's the point things got crazy. From there on out the night consisted of hours of salsa, merengue, cumbia, and ridiculous amounts of hip gyrations.
Here's a vid of us dancing last night (not sure why they labeled me 'Dennis' though, crazy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p67fxLgD8IM&feature=related
As far as the rest of la pura vida goes...
Classes are interesting but it's 10x harder to concentrate/study here... especially with distractions such as a new snouser puppy, making empanadas with ana, spitting slang, eating, eating, and eating more delicious food
check out this pup! Name's "yara" and like any puppy she loves to bite, chew, play, and pounce on anything that moves
We've got some field trips coming in the near future:
Trip to some coffee plantations with our spanish class - which is perfectly placed on saturday to inhibit any further travel... as well as a trip to Bocas del Toro in Panamà (which I hope to go on as it's time to get back to Panamà !!). And a roundup of random pics !
Hasta Luego Mmmaaaaeee
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