By all appearances, Navidad is right around the corner.

 

The tiendas are filling with Navidad treasures.  Calle Esteban Salas vecinas (neighbors)  and even the native foliage are getting into the spirit of the season:

 

 

And my landlady Cat has a few remaining handmade Navidad items that are still up for grabs.

Here is a picture of what’s left.

(The image doesn’t do them justice. In 3D they’re gorgeous!!!)

 

Naturally this weather doesn’t reflect what I’m used to when it comes to the Christmas season.  And it’s already getting “too damned cold” where I used to live. I was miserable the last two winters I spent there. I had lost enough weight that I didn’t have enough bulk to keep me from feeling frozen clear down through my bones whenever I ventured out.

 

MORNING WALK

 

This morning I spotted Luz and Noelia again, so we walked together for about 15 minutes. I held Noelia’s hand during most of the time.  Usually she lags a little behind, and I wondered if she might be feeling left out or excluded, so I offered my hand to her.  She took it and smiled, so I brought her forward to walk with us as best we could on a narrow road.

 

I felt better about including her and she seemed to enjoy it.  She smiled when I embraced her at both ends of the walk.

 

Noelia truly inhabits her walks; walking isn’t solely exercise for her.  I discerned this because looking back on her when Luz and I would walk ahead, I could see that Noelia was actively enjoying taking in the warmth of the sun and her surroundings.

 

If you’ve ever walked with a small child who is just discovering nature, you know what I mean. Although Noelia is fully grown, I think her condition (Down Syndrome) offers her a perspective that remains open to real-time experiences, so her walks never get old or become routine, I don’t think. At least, they don’t appear, to me, to look as if they’re undertaken by rote.

 

We could learn something from Noelia!  Every walk is brand new.  Foliage colors change. Bird sounds change.

 

In fact, I heard  a bird today that not even Luz could identify for me.  I wasn’t able to see the creature, either, but its call was an insistent vocalization in two parts separated by a brief pause and it sounded quite urgent. I should have recorded it.  If I hear it again, I certainly will!

 

Another Class in Sarchi’ Today

 

This afternoon Jon and I will attend our second (and final) English language class with Ticos in Sarchi’ for 2025. I’m gonna wear shorts this time with knee high stockings because I got a little too warm last week  when I wore long pants. Sarchi’ is at a pretty high altitude, too, but — unless the wind is blowing — these elevations can feel warmer than I prefer. Not miserable by any stretch of the imagination, but still warmer than I like.  The big fan I bought last week (which Jon has in his vehicle now) will come in handy on the warmest days up here (or if I ever move lower in altitude).

I’m going to hop the bus at around noon so I can get to pulperia de virgencita in plenty of time to connect with Jon when he reaches there at about 1:15. I don’t know when the bus passes my bus stop on Calle Los Angeles, so I want to be sure to allow enough time for it to transport me there. I’d rather wait for him than have him wait for me, because the class starts around 2 and it’s about a 20 minute trip from the pulperia to Sarchi’ and I do want to get a photo of the magnificent welcome sign there if there is enough extra time to stop and do that.

 

Update:

 

The Sarchi class was wonderful.  I had even more fun this time than last week. The class size was small — just seven students — so there was a lot more one-on-one interaction during the time we were there.

 

Jon, Mark and I sat at a table while each of the students (from age 18 to 64) asked us personal questions. The questions included (paraphrasing here), “What has been the most memorable event in your life?” (asked of all three of us), “What do you like best about Costa Rica?” “How tall are you?” “What do you usually eat for breakfast/lunch?” “Do you have pets?” “What is your favorite Costa Rica animal/food?” “Do you have children/a spouse/siblings?” Mauricio told the students beforehand that I’m a writer, so they asked how many books I’ve written, what kind of books I like to read, will I write another book, and stuff like that.

 

After that, Mauricio gave Jon, Mark and me the chance to ask questions of the students in English, so we did a couple rounds of that, and then Mauricio had each of the students give us a word in Spanish and we were supposed to say what we thought it meant.  I got one or two of those right of the three or four I was asked.  Jon, of course, got them all right because he’s fluent in both languages.  Mark did about as well as I did.

 

Jon and I had to leave at 4:30 but before that, we were offered (and ate) some pastries and small meals consisting of rice, meat and seasonings on tortillas. YUMMY!  Mauricio also made me a cup of hot cocoa. Very kind of him! He remembered from last week!

Here are some photos from the event:

 

This is a cake!

 

Far left: Mark and Jon 

Far right: Me (in shorts) and Mauricio

Because we got there a little bit early, Jon stopped at the park

so I could get pictures of some of Sarchi’s most colorful sights:

World’s Largest Oxcart — Two stories tall!

Same oxcart — photo taken from the front

Sarchi’s Welcome Sign

 

I had a truly wonderful time again.

 

Jon drove me home and then I put the big new fan together while I cooked rice for dinner.

 

After eating, I sat down and completed this post. And NOW I’m going to bed!!!