blast from the past: Nov. 4, 2001

I was going through some old emails today and came across this one I sent from Costa Rica when I was an exchange student during college. Hard to believe that was almost 10 years ago!! It made me laugh, so I figured I'd share it for your reading pleasure :)



Hello all,

 

Have you ever had the joy of sharing your name with a disaterous weather phenomenon?  It is quite an experience, I tell you.  For those of you who haven't been following your Central American forecast, Hurricane Michelle spent most of last week flooding northern Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras.  I suppose it's hit Florida by now, since I heard it was passing over Cuba.  San Jose escaped the worst of the storm; it was just cold and rainy here.  And by "cold," I mean it was probably in the 60s, but you'd never know it.  Everyone dragged out the winter sweaters and sweatshirts and sat around shivering, including all of the gringos!

 

My host family thinks it's rather humorous that the hurricane is named Michelle.  I especially appreciate the TV captions that say "Michelle attacks!"  Then my family starts laughing at me and saying, "Oh no, Michelle is here in the house!  Ahhhh!"  Then I make threatening hurricane noises at them, and they cower in fear.  And FYI, a hurricane sounds like this: Whoosh whooosh swhooshwooosh.  But to make it authentic, you have to flail your arms around like hurricane winds...

 

This week we went to visit a mine/fossil place where we were supposed to learn something about faith and practice.  What we really learned about was climbing up muddy hillsides in sandals and skirts!  Our leaders had never been to this place before, so they couldn't warn us to dress appropriately.  We had a conference with a priest in the morning, so we dressed nicely.  Then we showed up at this nature place and all the people there were wearing camoflauge pants and hiking boots.  We also seemed to have angered the fire ants, as they were more vicious than usual.  Fortunately, I was wearing tennis shoes.  But, to take the "shortcut" to the fossils, we had to climb this rocky, muddy hillside, and I was wearing a skirt.  Quite an adventure, yes indeed. 

 

The redeeming point was that when we finally got to the top of this small mountain, the view was incredible.  All the other mountains were covered in green, and there were no signs of civilization anywhere.  It was like we were back in the day before, uh, anyone lived there.  (My English skills are failing me at the moment...)

 

This Thursday we are off to Cuba, the 18 of us who are in the Latin American Studies concentration.  I don't really know what cities we'll be in or what we're doing, but I do know we're going to live with families for at least part of the time.  And I've got a nice book to read called "Cuba: Neither Heaven nor Hell."  Good thing I'm reading it, because the other day I realized I don't know anything about Cuba.  And I'd hate to appear like an ignorant North American, you know?

 

We'll be returning on the 19th, which I believe is a Monday, so the next chapter of Michelle's adventures should be premiering soon after that.  And no, I am *not* bringing back Cuban cigars for anyone!  I don't want to cause any problems at customs...

 

Hasta luego,

Hurricane Michelle (whoosh whoosh)