COUNTRY ROADS

Friday, October 2, 2009


It's probably a bad idea, seeing as I just sampled some of the local dried herbs, but I thought I'd write a little so my reader, that unidentified person in Kingsfolksshire, wouldn't worry the cocodrilos finally got me.

This is the end of Lula's third week at the Samara Pacific School. The school was begun two years ago by a Costa Rican/German woman named Nicole, and although it's a small school (twelve students), it truly seems quality: the kids do "work" (letter and number practice, mostly) every day and there's art everywhere--a stained glass window, a mural, ceramic bugs the students shaped and painted, and color, color, color. Lula goes in the morning from 7:30 to 11:30 and then in the afternoon from 2 to 4, and already she's fallen in love with her teachers (Hillary, Nicole's assistant, is from Maine) and her classmates. Instruction is in Spanish and English, and when Lula comes home she "speaks" in Spanish incessantly. It's clear she's happy and excited about learning another language, and it's amazing to see how quickly she's taking to it.

The other day something cool happened: I got a bike. It's an "altered" (it can't have bicyclebabies) beach cruiser, blood red, with a basket and child seat. The basket and child seat diminish the bike's overall toughocity a little, but when I ride it I remind myself that I have a five-inch, two-time scar to dispell any (self-inflicted) accusations of fragile femininity. The bike--I call it Rojo--is actually pretty groovy, and thanks to the added gears and hand brakes I've been enjoying riding around town, picking up Lula and getting groceries. Yesterday Joedy, Malko, and I went for a morning ride on one of the many country roads around here, and I think it will go down as one of the best bike rides of my life. I feel like a 5-year-old saying this, but there's something about a winding dirt road and a bike! A beautiful red bike! that's just, like, pure heaven. Pedaling along, the sun flickering through the trees and the warm smell of greenery all around you, you're so happy you can't stop taking pictures of everything: your husband in front of you, that yellow bridge, that blue house.



You want your reader in Kingsporknham to know it's not all bad here--it's actually kind of nice--and if he/she is still thinking about visiting then he/she should hurry up and look at tickets. Costa Rica's country roads are beautiful, it's true, and you want to share them, but rattling along on Rojo you realized that part of their appeal is their uncertainty: you don't know where they lead to, you don't know when you'll find out. The grass is green here, greener than lots of places, but grass, after all, isn't everything.

2 comments:

uncleremus said...

you're so right!!!!
there really IS something special about a bike & a country road!!!!!
muy bueno baby!!!

kmika said...

I said, bikes make grass greener even in the asphalt city. A photo of the bike, please?

Post a Comment