Gringo Christmas

Well, I think the United States is special in its Christmas traditions….and other countries have take bits and pieces of the Christmas glamour, but….at least in Costa Rica, never really got the whole Christmas thing.

I had people telling me that Christmas was December 24th (WHAT!) and being confused about the whole when to give presents thing. In Costa Rica, it is a law that all employees must receive an EXTRA paycheck in December. Therefore, the grand majority of Costa Ricans have A LOT of extra cash in December! They obviously spend in buying clothes, shoes, and Christmas presents, but they didn’t do a very good job of then HIDING all those presents, wrapping them, and putting them under the tree -- which is clearly the ONLY right thing to do with ANY presents bought after November 25th, right?

Anyways, I was determined to have a REAL Christmas this year. Luckily, my oldest sister really gets in the spirit and we decorated the whole house with lights and and trees and all sorts of Christmas things on November 15th! Hahahaha. Then I asked my mom to send Christmas stockings, which I faithfully painted with glitter glue the names of my family (and Derlis and Davis, because they practically live in our house anyways) and we hung them on the main wall. We then exchanged names for big gifts (with a price limit of $12) and decided to fill the stockings with little, inexpensive gifts. We ALL obviously purchased gifts for the kids…

We even made a Christmas chain so that Sharon (niece) could count down the days until Santa Clause. She loved it and everyday woke up asking to tear off a day of the chain...

We had a huge Christmas dinner with the whole church on Christmas Eve

and then we had a pajama party beside the tree to wait for Santa Clause.

It was so fun putting all the gifts under the tree and filling up the stockings.

I’ve never been up that late to watch the tree be filled with gifts.

And at 6:00 on the dot the kids woke up and came running to see all the presents! We let them open everything…..there were Barbie’s, Barbie dream castles, Princess dress-up kits, Barbie make-up, stickers, coloring books, clothes, cars, trains, drums, trumpets….seriously, it was so happy. The kids just didn’t know what to do with themselves!

Then we, the adults, exchanged gifts and opened our stockings…and we ate coffee cake….and played with the kids….and then we wanted to go back to sleep……but basically we just a calm day watching movies and hanging out. It really was a Merry Christmas!
Even though, I had to insist many times that gifts had to be wrapped, had to be under the tree, and that we HAD to wait until Christmas morning…..I think everyone really enjoyed gringo Christmas!

I hope you all really enjoyed your gringo Christmases as well and Happy New Year!!

P.S. Costa Ricans do have one Christmas tradition that I love! They love to have fireworks during Christmas...and we might be talking homemade fireworks.

Thanksgiving

In case you were worried about what I ate on Thanksgiving, Laura and I decided to participate in a Peace Corps activity where families that work for the American Embassy invite Peace Corps Volunteers to enjoy Thanksgiving with them! So we went! A wonderful family welcomed us into their home, let us use their computer and telephone, let us watch tv and just rest. We enjoyed good American conversation. For appetizers, we had chips & salsa, chez mix, celery and carrots and ranch dressing. For the main dish we had turkey, stuffing, gravey, rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, carrots, pistachio salad, corn pudding….and probably more…I can’t remember. For dessert we had apple pie, pumpkin pie, lemon meringue pie, chocolate chip cookies, and three kids of homemade ice cream! So no worries, we enjoyed an American Thanksgiving!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays....

Then came November… November was the month of birthday parties. I think that everyone I love in Costa Rica had a birthday in the month of November:

Gaudy (my sister and closest friend) – October 30
Derlis (my cousin and close friend) — October 30
Kim (me) -- November 1
Sharon (my niece) -- November 4
Ivannia (friend) -- November 5
Cristian (my brother) -- November 10
Davis (my first friend and basically part of the family) – November 10
Loreina (friend) -- November 15

Please read about all of the following birthday parties:

MY JOINT BIRTHDAY PARTY!
SO, we began the festivities with a three way joint birthday party for my sister Gaudy, my cousin Derlis and me!

When: On November 1st, we invited all of our family and all of our friends to have a huge party.

Where: My cousin cleaned out his “rancho” – it was basically just a shelter in his backyard – and we made benches and hung Christmas lights and balloons and set up tables and chairs and…..

Food: Grandma made Chicken Rice – because it is the cheapest food you can make for a large group of people and therefore the STAPLE of every birthday party. Derlis’ mom made Picadillo de Papaya – there is no name to describe it, but you chop up papaya and other vegetables and then mix them all together with ground beef and then eat it on tortillas. I made the BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE with CARAMEL ICING ever! We also had fruit salad, ice cream, jello, chips, salad, marshmellows, coca-cola…basically a TON of food.

Games: Our amazing friend Davis lead PARTY games, because here the people LOVE party games. It’s a great way to get the people to interact. Whereas in the United States, we’re more free for all, let the people mingle….here the people just kind of SIT. Probably because we all live so close and see each other every day, mingling isn’t really necessary….so Davis planned a whole evening of ice breakers that really got the party people laughing, playing and interacting. It seriously made the night to fun!

We really didn’t want the night to end, BUT because we did invite the whole family, the parents and grandparents were ready to go early so……we obviously had to end the party with a PIŇATA!!!!

Our oldest sister made us a homemade piñata which said “Friens.” (without the "d") And you know how in the US all the adults are too mature to dive on the ground to try to steal candy? Well in Costa Rica, NOT THE CASE. As soon as that piñata splits open, people of all ages dive to the ground. Babies Beware! It was hilarious and the BEST way to start my 25th year of life!

I also need to give a HUGE shout-out to my amazing friends and parents who remembered my birthday SO MUCH in advance that I had packages to open that included new clothes, silver earrings for my silver birthday, perfume, make-up, country cd’s, dvd’s, homemade decorations, and so much more….

Oh! And to Virginia who remembered to not only send a birthday gift for me, but for all of my family and friends who had birthdays in the same period…she even remembered to send stickers (pegatinas) for my niece!

Sharon’s Birthday
Just a few days later….my niece turned 5! It was a princess/Barbie birthday party to remember! I was in charge of the cakes, so PLEASE take note of how AMAZING they are! Obviously, there was Grandma’s Chicken Rice amongst other goodies, pin the nose on the man, and a Piñata! She was a pretty pretty princess and I think she was pretty amazingly happy after her birthday party!

Davis, Cristian, Ivannia and Loreina
We also had a joint birthday party for Davis, Cristian, Ivannia and Loreina at one of our normal reunions. Obviously, I yet again made the birthday cake and we had a great time!

Later, we had another birthday party for Cristian because he is the pastor of the church…so there was a huge party at the house and his grandfather came and brought a whole band with him. Yet again, there was a lot of really good food and party games.

About one week later, we had the last and final of birthday parties to celebrate Loreina. At this party, we were all looking pretty good in party hats.

And all the birthday parties finished JUST IN TIME…..for Christmas!!!!!!!

Laura and All Volunteer Conference

In October, I am sure many more things happened, but the most interesting for me is that I made a new Peace Corps friend. Peace Corps Bolivia got officially evacuated in September and asked that other Peace Corps countries make room for some of the experienced volunteers to finish out their service. In Costa Rica, we got three volunteers. One couple who now live a little closer to me than most other volunteers….and Laura! She has an interesting story and interesting connection to Costa Rica and now she will be a Peace Corps Volunteer here until October 2009. She is an honorary member of our Peace Corps group.

I had the GREAT pleasure of hosting her and “teaching” her all about how to be a volunteer in Costa Rica and mainly it was just really fun having another American here to see my life and laugh at the ridiculousness of life, and to be SUPER hot & sweaty, and see why I love my Costa Rican family SO MUCH!

Also, about one week later, we went to the All Volunteer Conference which, for me, was SIGNIFICANTLY better than last year. It was in the mountains and beautiful. The camp grounds had wireless internet and a computer lab, as well as nice places to eat, hang out, and most importantly sleep. J So here are two pictures of me and Laura at All Volunteer Conference, Peace Corps Costa Rica 2008.

September 15th

The truth is that although I haven’t written on my blog for quite a while now, I have really wanted to….and I have been saving pictures to put on this blog – SO we will now backtrack to September 15th.

September 15th is Costa Rica’s Independence Day. On the night before September 15th, everyone in the town makes their own homemade sort of “lamp on a stick.” I am sure it has an official name, but the really creative people use cardboard boxes which they transform into the shapes of cars, Barbies, flags, dragons, or whatever their heart desires. They obviously cut off the TOP of the box and with hot glue stick a candle in the middle of the box. On the other side, they connect a broom stick….and there you have it….Lamp on a stick. Then the whole town meets at the school, lights the candles and they march around the neighborhood with their lamps. It’s pretty hilarious. I had a great time.

Then the next morning, the whole country has mini-PARADES! Everywhere that there is a SCHOOL, the school kids create a band of ONLY percussion instruments. I would say every kid who has ever been in any sort of band in Costa Rica learn the same three songs. Then they add in some baton twirlers and Latin dancers, a little bit of traditional dress and traditional dancing AND POOF! the VERY SAME parade in every single neighborhood that has a school. It’s pretty amazing how they do the EXACT same parade all over the country! And the kids and the neighborhoods LOVE it.

Happy Costa Rican Independence Day! (a little late)