la chiquita Tica...

Yesterday my group went on a canopy tour--my favorite one here in Monteverde, Extremo. I must have done this tour eight or more times by now...

At the end of the tour a young man approached me and began speaking in Spanish, asking me about CPI. He studied at CPI Heredia for six months some years ago and is now doing a Peace Corps program here teaching English in San Rafael de Abangares. What a small world! He asked about coming to observe English and Spanish classes at CPI Monteverde, who he should contact, etc. I was impressed with his Spanish, and at first glance he looks Tico! He must have thought the same thing about me, because he asked where I was from and when I told him Ohio he was very taken aback... "De verdad??" he asked. "For real??" It made me smile.

During lunch time I was talking with co-workers about the chaperones we have working in Groups this summer, and joking about funny situations and the different personalities we have. Almost all of the chaps have studied at CPI, and have taken Spanish classes at some point. All of us have improved over time, all of us have differing levels and make different mistakes, have different areas to work on. I know I am still missing subjunctive and need to work on vocabulary building. On the whole, I have been told that out of all the chaps I am the one who has made the most improvements on my Spanish...and I think it has to do with my immersion and how much time I have spent here. With my co-workers too, it is really hard for me to speak in English. I have it all so programmed in my mind that when I speak with them I automatically, without thinking about it, speak in Spanish. I have also spent a lot of time with Ticos here in general, having a Tica room-mate and always, almost ALWAYS speaking to Elliott in Spanish. My level of Spanish and their level of English makes it much easier to communicate in Spanish versus English... I know that I still have a long way to go to achieve complete fluency. Learning a language is a life long process and I will never be able to say that I know everything.

But I am proud that at least, I can be mistaken for Tica with the Spanish I have now. Also that my Spanish is distinctly Costa Rican, in my intonation, vocabulary, sayings. Casi, casi, casi Tica...Almost Tica.

Pura vida.