transportación pública

Mi clase de español fue divertido esta mañana.  With four hours, we did plenty.  Lots of practice with the subjunctive.  For oral practice, the two boys were given a story called Momo, and I was given the Spanish version of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes."  We then had to summarize the stories and we discussed major themes.  After that my professor asked me to read a newspaper article called "Madre Tigre o Madre Elephant" (Mother Tiger or Mother Elephant).  http://www.nacion.com/2011-02-12/Opinion/Foro/Opinion2681329.aspx  This article discussed different cultures, but focused on comparing the Chinese mothers to American mothers.  In China, the mother will put the child in every class possible: music lessons, language study.  Amy Chua, a Chinese mother, doesn't let her children watch any tv at all, spend the night at friends' houses, or participate in theatre.  They instead must focus on their studies.  It is the Chinese mother's expectation that her children be the best at everything, except for sports and theatre.  Obviously, it's a bit different in the United States.  At least for me, I know I was allowed to make my own decisions.  I took flute lessons, but my parents didn't force me to do this, this was something that I wanted to do.  I spent the night at friends' houses beginning in Kindergarten, and I often had lead roles in the school plays.  I am also very focused on my studies, but this is not because my parents pressure me to excel in school, because they certainly do not pressure me.  It is my own intrinsic motivation.

This article led to a discussion about television, especially with children of young ages.  We were each asked to write 5 questions and then went around the school to interview the Ticos.  I ended up interviewing 4 people, 2 adults, and 2 college-aged people.  The responses were interesting.  One of my questions was "Could you live without tv?"  Both of the adults said absolutely yes.  Also, both preferred to read because it challenged the mind, whereas the students that I interviewed said they were unable to live without tv, and preferred to watch tv instead of read, because it is much easier.

After classes today, the chicas wanted to go to the mall.  It is not within walking distance, so we had our first experiences with public transportation.  We got directions to the bus station and knew we needed to be on the bus from Heredia to San Jose.  I don't have much experience using public transportation, but taking the bus was much easier than I expected, and it was quite inexpensive too (about 80 cents).  We took a taxi back to Heredia, so that we would not be dropped off at some random bus stop and get lost in the city...I've already done that once, and I don't want to do it again.  Since there were several of us, we didn't all live in the same houses.  We asked to go towards el Colegio Samuel San Suez (or something like that) because they don't really use addresses here.  The taxi driver stopped at one of the girl's houses first, and my roommate and I were planning to have him take us back to the Colegio since we knew how to walk from there, but then as he made a turn to get back to the Colegio, I took a long shot and began to give the driver directions to our house.  Success!  For the girl who has no sense of directions, I was able to direct a taxi driver, and I am quite proud of myself!

"Paseo de las flores," the mall that we went to

Only a "gringa" would take a picture of a mall in Costa Rica!