Dia de Independance... aka Day 15

Ok so the actual Independence day here is was on Monday September 15, but it was the friday before and preparations were under way.

So for Spanish class Olma (my professor), Anna (another student from Germany), Ruth (Anna´s teacher) and I headed into San Jose to practice doing directions in Spanish and imperative tenses, etc...

Thankfully, the Spanish part went really well.

Interesting moments though, we went first to the Holiday Inn here, lol and were told they were fixing some things out front so we were directed to go and talk to the guy in the parking lot to answer questions. Find this very odd, and Olma did too, we decided he wasn´t the accomodating time.

Also interesting is the central market in San Jose, you have to be really careful with your things here, as Olma and Ruth kept reminding us, because pickpockets love the narrow spaces betweent he stands. But it is an awesome place to find things cheap and get a sensory overload of sounds, smells, and colours. I really wished I could have taken a picture, but given the pickpocketting it was recommended not.

We had lunch there, I had Cias juice for the first time...Highly recommend it...but not sure it exists in Canada. Will research more.

The best part of the day though were the little touches of preparation around the city for Independance day. Apparently all historic buildings in the city set up a stand or presentation of their connection with the history of Costa Rica and there is a competition to see who has the best.

There is also dancing and traditional music played in these places. And of course a lot of shows put on in celebration the day of. Everyone was rehearsing it seemed Monday morning. Not just in San Jose too, my supervisor´s daughter was goign to dance with a group on Monday, and I could hear the band practicing the anthem as I passed the local high school on my way home.

It was a kind of not shoving it in your face kind of pride that I enjoyed immensely.



Ok so I am trying something different with the photos, since I have too many to post one by one and they are too large. I hope this turns out alright.

The background is a central park in San Jose and the kids int he white shirts were a marching band practicing for Monday. The maniquins were part of the display at the post office, they represent the cattle and coffee history and also have old mailbags. The kids were preforming in the National Bank...they were pretty good. And the building with the green roof is the Teatro Nacionale...it is just pretty.

Impressions of the day...

• Ok, so there is really only one post office, so what it is 4 stories and huge.
• Wow they put more into Independance day here than we do into Canada day...
• Oooo...postcards for $0.25 yes please.