Varios pensamientos para Lunes

Hello from vacation. Just thought I'd drop in with a few random thoughts from our trip, so far.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Getting in, I was drenched. Sweat caused from carrying bags and baby were not helped by a choking amount of humidity as we touched down in San Jose. Welcome to life near the equator.
Then comes the fun of driving in this country. The highways are in pretty good shape, but everyone drives like a maniac, diving to and fro to get to their destination.
After our arrival, we went to get some food (read about it on Gina's blog), and got our first surprise: Denny's is here now. Of course, it's up near the airport and the tourist areas, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise.
We made our way into the town where Gina's family lives, and make sure you buckle up (though no one seems to care if you do) because you're going on a bumpy ride. The streets here are so filled with potholes that it would be enough to cost someone an election in the US. Deep and wide. People swerve back and forth across lanes to get around them. Seriously, some are big enough that they'd swallow your car.
The middle class here live in nice houses that are fortified by security. Apparently crime here is growing, so many have taken serious steps to protect themselves. Gina's uncle alone has locked gates, with razor wire across the top of the 10-foot wall. From the garage, you have a locked gate before you can go up the steps to the house, where you'll find a locked door with alarm. That describes most of the houses in this part of town.
Other parts of town, however, are what you would expect from a country that is still considered by many second world. Houses with old, gathered pieces of wood with rusted tin roofs and garbage. But it's there spot in the world, and they protect it any way they can.
The weather's been a mixed bag. From the humidity when we arrived, we were treated to rain on Friday evening. For the most part, however, it's been mild. Though being at all the family gatherings has made for some overheating.
As for me, I'm a bit of a giant here. There are certain things that remind me that the average person here is a bit smaller. The bed we're staying on is nice, but a bit short (my feet hang off the end).
Gina's grandmother's house (where she's lived 80 of her 100 years) is only 5 yards wide in the main living area. They also added on to the home, and they didn't quite get the doors to a standard height, so you have to duck to get into the back part. The house was bursting at the seems Friday during a celebration. Getting 60 people into there made for some cramped quarters.
All in all, it's been a nice trip so far. It's nice to know we're done with the celebrations and we'll be able to see some other sights now, before we have to come home.

EN ESPAÑOL: One thing about being down here, immersed in the culture, has put my three years of Spanish education to the test.
Most of Gina's family has a pretty good grasp on English (they are a well-educated bunch), but they're all pushing me to communicate in Spanish. I'm giving it a good go, but a lot of times I feel like I'm just smiling and saying gracías or sí or no or ¿que?
And the confusion doesn't end there.
First, there's the whole monetary system. We exchanged some of our money, and every dollar is worth about 750 colones. But you get down to the smaller parts of the denomination, and the stores pretty much round it off. We made a purchase of 2410 colones ($4.13), and I gave them 2500 in bills. Rather than give me 90 (very small change), I got 100 back. Easier to deal with for the stores.
Then there's the keyboard I'm pounding this column out on. It's sorta the normal QWERTY keyboard. Except for that key dedicated to Ñ. Or the accent mark in the place of an apostrophe. And the dedicated key for the upside down question mark. And typing Web addresses is slower when you have to look for the back slash up with the numbers.

SECOND IMPRESSIONS: Gina's family has been abosultely lovely to me and Luc from the start. It's been an amazing time surrounded by all these family members whom I've never met and, in some cases, may never meet again.
Luc has been the absolute facination of the parties. The active 2-year-old with the light blond hair. And as you can imagine, there aren't a lot of blond's around here (OK, he's the ONLY one). One member of the family lovingly described him as a little candle, since he's tall, thin and very bright on top.
But one of the things that sticks out from the weekend's events was how much everyone in Gina's family wanted to know how I was doing and what my opinion of everything.
What do you think of the family? Are we crazy? Are you doing OK? Are you hot? Are you tired? And what do you think of the family? No, really, what do you think? Are we all a little bit loco? What do you think of the party? Isn't it beautiful? Are you having a good time? Really? And what do you think of all this and the family?
If only I was exaggerating.
But I smile and compliment everyone. Because, truly, they have been gracious hosts, putting up with a gringo who understands maybe half of what they're saying on the first try, and can't respond to them with enough gratitude for an amazing weekend of fiestas in amazing locales.
But more on those later.
For now, I need some more rest. I'm making some of my salsa later.