Sickness

Last week I finally felt the cold hand of reality . . .

That´s right, 12 hours of hugging the toilet and throwing up everything I ever ate in my whole life. My host mother is not the warmest of women. The most she usually says to me is ´Food´s ready´ or some dirivitive of it. But she mustered up all the motherly insticts she could and got me Tico remedies for my stomach and tried to find some foods that I could possibly hold down. The next two days consisted of lots and LOTS of sleeping. I would wake up, eat a tiny bit of food, and then collapse back into bed. I went to the doctor here and they said it was just a case of ´gastrointestinitis´ so I´ve been eating lots of boring foods and drinking lots of water. And don´t be alarmed - I am feeling MUCH better now and have resumed my regular schedule.


One little thing about Costa Rica that I´ve noticed so far is this little quirk in their dialect. Usually when i say the spanish word ´ahora´ it means right now. However, in Costa Rica it means ´later´ or ´in a little bit´ this can get really confusing! Here´s a sample dialougue (real life example translated for your benefit).

Tico: Raul would like to see you
American: When? Ahora ("now")?
Tico: No. Ja (which is the Tico word for "now")

Well that´s my language lesson for the day!
-Kari