Cooking Like a Tican & Visiting a Farm

"You and me and rain on the roof..."  Rain continues providing a soothing background sound--some early morning feng shui.  Much of the roof on the house is corrugated fiberglass and a big part of the dining room serves as a large skylight for Lili's indoor garden, complete with mood lighting and a small circulating water fountain for a continuing sound that adds pura vida to the atmosphere of the house.

We don't need the sound of the fountain this morning, probably couldn't hear it if it was turned on (it only runs in the daytime).  What started out a couple of hours ago as a gentle shower is now a continuing downpour.  It's not a big deal, I brought a folding umbrella and I've been driving the rental car to class instead of walking.


I had a really enjoyable class with Alice yesterday (Weds.)  She's very good at weaving things I need to know--grammar and vocabulary--into our 3-hour conversation.  We take a 15-minute break in mid-morning.
Past tense forms are more difficult so the natural thing to do is to talk about my excursions the previous day with Lili and Alphonso.  Something that was strange to me during my stroll through Guayabo National Monument with Rosita was her answer to a routine question, "Do you have children?"  She said yes, two daughters.  Brilliant conversationalist that I am, I asked their ages.  "Twenty-four and 14".  Hmmmm, I thought, "She doesn't look like she's 24!"  Well, at the time I let it go, thinking it would be rude to ask her age.  In our culture you just don't ask an adult woman her age.


This is background to a discussion with Alice in class about the guide, her children and whether or not it was considered rude in CR to ask someone's age.  Alice told me that it's not rude for sure with children and many times it's ok with adults, though some might take offense.  This opened the topic of our ages.  She asked me to guess her age.  It's always best to underestimate a woman's age, I've found so I said "28".  She told me she's actually 35.  In turn, I asked her to guess my age. She guessed 52 or 53 (woo hoo!) and was kind enough to tell me there was no way she could believe I'm 62.  Certainly one of the high points of yesterday's class!  She's always very encouraging and complimentary on my progress, a sign of an experienced teacher.  Judge for yourself, does this woman look 35?

When class ended at 11:15 it was time for a bonus class, this one in cooking Costa Rican style. The school brings in a Tican who's not a Spanish teacher to do the class.  She doesn't speak a word of English so the lesson is great practice in listening to instructions and in learning the names of the ingredients and the cooking utensils.


We prepared (hands-on) a typical Costa Rican breakfast that's served at other times of the day, also.  The menu:  a mixture of rice and beans, scrambled eggs, lightly fried plantains and tortillas.


Here's a picture of our instructor and the ingredients in the kitchen at the school.

We had a lot of fun preparing the meal.  My jobs included chopping celery, adding cilantro to the rice and beans dish and frying some plantain.

Then we were able to eat the finished product--everything turned out great!  Now I feel very confident that if called upon to fix a hearty breakfast for farm workers I'll be able to rise to the occasion.

The afternoon's activity was simple but we had to wait until 3 PM (time for a siesta!) to meet friends of Lili and Alphonso (Marie and Pibe) for a visit to a small farm near town, their second home.  They own a bakery that he manages; she's a professor who teaches computer programming.  


The road to the farm was very rugged and rocky and it ran almost straight uphill.  Fortunately my Rav4 4 x 4 was up to the task.  The farm has a beautiful view of a mountain on one side and the Turrialba Volcano on the other.  Couldn't see much of the volcano due to clouds.  


The place was very impressive--a tilapia farm, chickens, a cow, swimming pool, stilt house with rec room underneath.  We had a great time walking around (we men) and Lili visited with her amiga and fixed some tea with sliced bread.  Lili had made a loaf here and naturally there was another loaf from the bakery.  It all tasted great.  I was able to follow the conversations pretty well and we even talked about my  Peace Corps experience in Kenya and learning Swahili.


The visit was slightly lubricated with a traditional drink that Lili fixed here and brought along called "ronpopo". It's rice based and has cinnamon and rum in it.  It's served in small glasses and there was an interesting discussion about drinking and alcoholism among the men while we were enjoying the brew.


Then things got really interesting talking to Lili and Marie about fishing on the coast--turns out that the couple are avid sportfisher-people. He even has a boat under rehab in a shed.  It got the old wheels turning about coming back next year for more Spanish and a fishing trip in the Gulf, about 2 hours from here.


Speaking of fish... here are some tilapia hanging out in one of the four ponds.

Today after language class we have another bonus class...we dance!  Pura vida!