Villa Lakshmi

Well. I live here now. I work. I put a deposit down on an apartment. I did yoga, finally. And, I have some pals and we're going to the beach this weekend.

So, yes, I live here. This fact completely freaked me out yesterday.... today, I'm ok. The yoga and the apartment help.

So, the apartment: Owned by hindu couple, gorgeous garden, pic of Nelson Mandela in the office. Check it out: http://www.villalakshmi.com/

The view from my bedroom is ok, but the view from just outside my door is spectacular, and it's safe and pretty and close to work, and close to 2 vegetarian restaurants, and it's $425 a month, everything included: internet, cable (not that I have nor desire a tv), a phone in the courtyard where I can make free international calls (no limit), water, power, etc.

So, that's cool.

It's also the only apartment that I looked at. Yesterday two of my work mates (Alejandra and Melissa) decided that they were going to help me find an a place to live. (Everyone here is so so nice. It's kind of nuts.) The way you do that here is that you walk around neighborhood where you want to reside and ask people if there is anything to rent. We walked around for about 2 hours, this was the only building that had anything for rent... and it's the only one I needed.

So, that's done.

Yoga, by the way, for those who are interested, was absolutely anusara, and absolutely challenging and great and thank god, it's right near work, and, really, i mean, thank god that it's here. Yes, this is me, thanking god for Yoga. I also profusely thanked the instructor afterwards, and she said, "You're really good at Yoga, huh? Are you an instructor?" THAT was pretty neat.


I'm pooped. I have more to write, but I'm pooped. Starting the work day at 8am, and then processing Spanish all day is totally exhausting. (I'm reading all those pages in Spanish, and I'm pretty sure I'm reading at a rate of 17 pages per hour or something loco like that. )

love love,
write me emails please.

Kabira

Ps. Below are pix of Alejandra, Melissa, and above is the approximate view from my apt. Enjoy.

My office.

These are pix of the view from my desk, my desk (complete with homemade Obama mug and Spanish vocab words), and me, at my desk (where I drink from said mug, and learn said Spanish vocab words).

This is the scene...

The Costa Rican Workday

It ends at 5pm. Not in the way that a day, say, in Council Member Garcetti's office "ends at 5"- I mean that at 4:55, one of the higher ups in the office came by my desk and said, "you know we all leave at 5 right?" And she meant it. She meant that at 5, they turn off the lights, turn on the alarm, and kick you out.

My Gringa self barely knows how to process this.

But, in a way, it makes sense. Because it gets dark at 6 here. All year long. So, the sun, even, is on a Tica work schedule. That's cool. I think this journey will be an early to bed, early to rise one... Pappa Hochberg will be so proud.

Work was good. The day began with me meeting Ana Yancy and Lizeth ( I think that's her name... good lord I'm bad with names), and they proceeded, for an hour, in incredibly quick Spanish, to explain the Safe School/Safe Community program, and some of the successes and challenges, and I can't quite believe it, but I actually understood about 95% of what they were saying. I was VERY happy to learn that I will be doing field work. They have the Safe School/Safe Community program in 4 districts, and around 30 schools all together, and I'm gonna get to visit a good portion of them.

They sent me out of their office with around 200 pages of more detailed aspects of the program, which meant that I spent the rest of the day reading, slowly, and looking up words in the dictionary, and then reading some more. At lunch, I went out with some new colleagues to a traditional Costa Rican lunch spot (they call them "sodas") and had some rice and beans and really delicious fish. Then, back to the reading.

It's interesting: like Garcetti's, this office is mainly made up of women. Probably 15 women and 5 men. Ahhh, how the ladies like the social justice.



Right now I'm in my hotel room, which I've grown quite fond of, jesus and mary candles blazing, resting, watching "so you think you can dance" on You Tube (thank god for Claudia, who I met today and showed me where I can find it). (The internet, by the way, is really a very incredible thing. I've never been so appreciative.)

Buenas Noches,
I miss you people,
K

Weekend in San Jose

Well, San Jose is not what I would call "the prettiest city," nor the "most quaint." Nor would I use the phrase "especially easy to navigate," seeing as how streets don't really have street signs and most places have addresses such as "on the road off of Main Street, next to the white house." However, everyone is very nice and helpful, and, in the end, I had an exploratory and lovely little weekend.

Saturday I went off exploring a neighborhood called Barrio Escalante, where, perhaps, I might find an apartment. My goal here is a view, as I like to be perched, to be able to, at the beginning and end of every day, view the city where I work. It gives me perspective. And a feeling of being able get out of the urban mess, to some quiet. So, I wandered about a neighborhood looking for something that looked safe and pretty and high up. (I have yet to find anything.) (I will.)

My new friend Niamh (remember, that is pronounced Neive, those wacky Irish) is really rather a god send (thanks God)- I was on my way into town after my apt. hunting and she was at a local spot called "Bagelmans" (they, um, have bagels there, and wireless internet) and she called me name as I passed. THAT is a nice feeling in a foreign city.

We made plans to meet up later, and then I went off to explore downtown San Jose. I found a map in a bookstore (I have to say, I've been in 2 bookstores now, and it's pretty hilarious, but most of the books that they have in English are classics, particularly Shakespeare. Like most English speaking travelers want to unwind on their vacation by kicking back with a one of the Shakespeare's histories or something) and tried really hard to find this one modern art museum, but the whole streets having no names thing foiled me, and I got tired of walking and went home.

Niamh met me at the hotel that night, and we went to her Brazilian friend Mariana's apt, and we were picked up by Mariana's two friends, older women, one Brazilian and on Tica (Costa Rican) and we drove out to the western part of the city to go to this Brazilian party. I am SO sad I left my camera at home for this one). It was some celebration of Brazilian country folk, or farmers I guess, and it was in a tennis club community room/dance hall and everyone was dressed in sombreros and farm wear- the girls had fake freckles and braids, and the dudes all had jeans with strange patches sewn on- and it was a strange scene. Food, and traditional drinks and these massive group dances, like line dances, but I guess Brazilian too, and then came out the traditional dancer, all in loin cloth and this amazing feather headdress, and he worked it out on the dance floor.

And then we danced. It only took me 3 days to go dancing in San Jose, and that makes me HAPPY. It was fun, me trying my best to find the beat (hip hop this was not) with my new friend and these Latin Amerian ladies, with strobe lights and smoke (oh, yes) and latinas doing things with their hips that us gringas may never ever master. But we will try. We certainly will try.


Today I relaxed, and then had the most lovely afternoon- I went to see a Flamenco show at one of the theaters downtown. It turned out to be a dance school, so some of the dancers were, um, really bad, and some were really young, which was just weird, and a few of them were so so good that they got me to yelp a couple of "Olé!"s. I then successfully found one of San Jose's asian restaurants, which was gorgeous inside, and had a full vegetarian menu, and I had hot and sour soup, and green curry and it was so peaceful in there and I finished, finally, reading "Jitterbug Perfume" which is just, lordy, such an amazing book. I mean... yes.

My waiter kept calling me princess, and then offered to help me find an apartment. That's how the Ticos are: nice and helpful. Even the men, when they give you attention in the street- it's more of a helpful attention, if that makes any sense. Like, they're not being lecherous, they're just trying to brighten your day. Ecuador, this is not. Gracias a Dios.

Tomorrow I start work. I am READY. Have been for years.


xo,
Kabira

Me. Today.

The Global South. Day 2.

Day 2.

Fresh fruit, supermarket shopping (found Soba Noodles!!), internet exploring, San Jose exploring. Getting terrifically lost trying to find my office. Turns out its 2 blocks from my hotel.
But it was a fun lost. Man sitting in a park just singing Flamenco. Great people watching. Weather-ful skies. Great graffiti. So much to get shots of (There is MLK scrawled on walls that I have yet to capture), here are just a few.















"Father, you need to make the money of the earth disappear, just like in heaven"






"Democracy of twisted arms"






"Not for sale, and not buying it."









Met Luis Alberto at the Foundation. He introduced me around, and then he had to run off to Guatemala (that's just how he rolls) and I got to bonding with the other Interns. (That's right. I'm an Intern. ) A girl from Ireland named Niamh (which is pronounced Neive, I thought people had trouble saying my name), a guy from Jersey named Chad who's never going back to the US if McCain is elected (good thing he won't be), & the cutest 19 year old from Queens. There are others, they weren't around.

It was so so good to get to the Foundation- a sense of grounding and purpose and people who know my name and will hang out with me this weekend. SO ready to get to work on Monday. It should be noted that extended vacations are highly overrated. At least for me. :)

Niamh then took me on a tour of the neighborhood where I am staying, showed me where the closest yoga studio is, bless her heart, and ate some Mexican food while we talked. We got right into it: the meaning of Human Security, politics, what's better language than "First World/Third World"? This, by the way, is a question I have long asked. I love her answer, which, apparently, is the new thing in academic circles : "The Global North/The Global South". (Australia and New Zealand throw this off, but I think it generally really fits.) Can't tell you how pleased I am for this new language. Wonder if Lakoff knows?

It should also be noted that we talked about Sex and the City.

Tomorrow: apartment hunting.

San Jose, Day 1

Ok, I created a blog. For me, for you... all the kids are doing it.

The flight from Philly to Charlotte was uneventful. I spent most of it marveling at how amazing and supportive and lovely my mom is. On the Charlotte-San Jose leg, I sat next to a lovely woman from Maryland, on her way to some timeshare something something with her husband, and we had one of those "we're sitting next to each other for 3.5 hours, let's tell each other everything" plane rides. She couldn't get over how many places I've been in the world, and then let me know that she's never been overseas. They were going to go to Spain a couple years ago, but they didn't, because of, you know, terrorism. (yikes.) By the time we were landing in San Jose, and we got to the part of my story where I was raised a Muslim, she just about fell out of her seat. Safe to say, I think I was the first "muslim" that she had ever met.

I think I confused her pretty good. And to that I say, "Gobama."



So, a cab from my hotel picked me up at the airport, the song on the radio was "Last night a DJ saved my life." We drove to Los Yoses, where my hotel is (that's right, I'm staying in the land of my boyfriend) and this place is GREEN. There are mountains, and they are GREEN, and great plants everywhere, and it has a smell that reminds me of Ecuador: green rich earth and unregulated car exhaust pipes. mmmmm.

The ride to the hotel was fascinating, mostly because of the graffiti. I can't wait to get into it. Some choice ones I saw as I rolled by, "vegan" and "no se vende, no se compre" (which I think translates into "not for sale and not buying it.")

Anyhoo- I got into my room, slept for an hour, took a warm shower (which might be as good as it gets for my time here- not so much with the hot water here) and set out to find dinner. I remember that the first night I got to Ecuador, when I was abroad for college, our only mission was to procure dinner. I remember too that in Quito, I tried twice to tell the waiter that I was vegetarian and first got a plate of beef, and then a fettuchini alfredo with ham all over it, and then I just ate the rolls and drank coke. I faired better this time: I asked where the best place to get a vegetarian meal would be, and I was definitely sent to and Italian "restaurant" at the food court of a mall where I ate spaghetti with tomato sauce and read Jitterbug Perfume. And was pretty satisfied. I've navigated an entire afternoon solamente en español, and I'm feeling very good about that.

Back to my room now, trying not to allow myself to go to bed before 10pm, but we'll see if I make it.

Buenas Noches,

Kabira