Jueves

Thursdays are my favorite day of the week in San Jose.  I wake up ridiculously early, in order to get downtown in mucho trafico and completely random bus schedules for my 9am Latin American Cinema class.   The whole process, from making my own breakfast while everyone else still sleeps, to the routine of  a regular commute, gives me a feeling of regularity and independence that living in a foreign country and with a host family regularly strips of you.  I could walk, but instead I buy La Nacion, and read on the bus, brushing elbows with businessmen and housewives, all completely absorbed in their own activities, and the bus ride which will begin their day.

Our cinema class is held in Sala Garbo, a fanstastic little alternative theater (which for some reason always smells like turpentine). Our professor is just what you would imagine of the kind of woman who runs an indie theater, and is wise and dramatic and a little spacey =P.  The class is taught in Spanish, and we normally discuss the film and build context for an hour or so before watching her selected choice for the week, and then again reflect afterwards.  The combination of the turpentine, her soothing voice, and the hour of the day  lead to total tranquility (if not dangerous flirtation with the brink of sleep).  So far, we’ve watched La Mission, la Violin, Havana Blues, Estacion Central, and Cocalero, all of which are unique in their own right, and I’m learning a great deal.

Next we trek as a class all the way up Avenida Central to catch the bus back to Ulatina.  For lunch, we go to the Cupcake Café, which, next to McDonalds, is just about as American and Non-Tico you can get in San Pedro.  Its owned by one of our professors, and sells all sorts of food which we occasionally crave, from humus to paninis  to fantastic cupcakes in every delicious flavor combination. My favorite is the maracuya – passionfruit!

Then I go to Environmental Issues class, in which we always bring articles about environmental news we’ve heard over the week.  What could be a short exercise normally turns into an hour long discussion, but is fascinating nonetheless, and I think a very realistic way to supplement the knowledge of students who pretty much already have background in environmental type things. Ive had a lot of different types of enviro professors, from completely boring, read from the textbook type, to the doomsday, stand on the soap box type,  to the over optimistic, burnt out activist type, but Yanina is wonderful mix between that. She's knowledgeable, excellent at conveying issues in a serious, but not impending doom kind of way, and still has a reserved hopefulness for the future and the ability of our generation to do something successful. Its refreshing, even at 5 o clock in the afternoon.