The whole family was due to be at Carmen’s neighborhood by 8 am. Carmen is one of Maritza’s daughters. I know I’m throwing a lot of names around, and it’s a big family, so let’s pause for a minute and break it down. When Cristina’s parents divorced, Maritza became Ramon’s new wife. She has four children from a previous marriage:
Oldest: Fernando…married to Miranda, the Gringa (a person from the US)...children: Sophia (1)
Middle: Irene…married to Edward (a Gringo)
Youngest (twins): Richard…married to Carolina…children: Ricardito (8), Santiago (7),
Maria Belen (4), and Maria Eva (2)
Carmen…married to Fabian…children: Mariana (10) and Andres (8)
We’ve never met Irene, who lives in New York. And we’ve never met Miranda face-to-face, since she traveled to the States the day before we arrived.
We got to Carmen’s neighborhood, a beautiful gated community, around 9. The event was a community service day. It kicked off with a fundraiser breakfast: gallo pinto (rice and beans mixed together), eggs, sausage, tortillas, watermelon, pico de gallo, fresh lemonade, and coffee. After breakfast, some of the neighborhood residents planted trees and others cleaned a little creek that runs through the area. The kids had a great time splashing around in the water and even picked up a bunch of trash. I helped a little with the trees. Cristina mostly took pictures and watched the kids.
Afterwards, the family congregated at Carmen’s house, just up the hill form the creek. The kids played with bubbles until the rains came. Then Cristina helped the older kids learn how to play Qwirkle. The adults sat around, having a few drinks, talking and telling jokes and stories.
They ordered Chinese take-out for lunch. The afternoon thunderstorm arrived full-force. After the lightning strikes, I counted the seconds until we heard thunder, to gauge the distance of the lightning for Bella. She got a kick out of that.
While we hung out, Fabian cooked and served “bocas,” little appetizers. Cheese tacos, fried pork and tortillas, tuna pasta, etc.
The hours drifted by and soon it was getting dark. We left around 6:30.
At home, Bella and Alex got in the shower, and Cristina and I headed to Plaza Rohrmoser for new eyeglasses. We’ve needed new glasses for a while, and we knew we could get a better deal in Costa Rica. We both got new exams (3000 colones each…about 6 bucks!). Our last exam was in late 2005. In the 4 years since, my eyes have gotten slightly worse (but they’re still not bad…I can do okay without glasses. I just get tired of squinting). And Cristina’s eyesight has gotten slightly better, which is amazing. Total cost for exams, 2 new pairs of glasses with transition lenses (the kind that darken when you go in the sun), and new lenses in our old frames: 202,000 colones, or about $350. That’s a much better deal than we would have gotten in Arizona. They’ll be ready Thursday or Friday.
We ducked into Mas por Menos for a few groceries and discovered with dismay that it’s now owned by Wal-Mart. So sad. Wal-Mart has bought many of the grocery store chains here in Costa Rica.
Back home, Wito and I needed to secure Miranda's car for the night. Wito has a porch area that he can park his car in and lock it up, but it's not big enough for two cars. The homeowners on the adjacent street pay for a security guard to patrol the street all night. We drove the car up to his little guard station and asked if we could park the car there. We gave him 3000 colones. He said it'd be fine. So we locked the car and walked home.
I checked my email and went to bed.
3 comments:
I've been waiting for these! :}
you "hanged out?"
Past tense of hang is hanged. Past participle is hung. So We hanged out is technically more correct than We hung out. If I had said We had hung out, that would have been correct.
All that said, in terms of common usage, We hung out is more frequently used, enough so to make it acceptable and no longer a grammar mistake. I debated whether to use hanged or hung, and went with the textbook rule. I have some people who, because I'm an English teacher, find great fault with any usage "errors" I make because they think I should know better. So the moral of the story is: you can never please everyone!
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