Of orejas and caballos

Buenos Dias! I have about 20 minutes before I have to leave to walk to Spanish class so I figure it's a good time to highlight a little of my week. I have a quiz today on the use of "vos" (different from vosotros) in conversation. Since I first took a spanish class in 7th grade, I have yet to learn about this vos and when/where/how it is used; that is, until last Wednesday when we found out that it is used all over Central America. Interesting.

Anyway, things have settled nicely into a schedule of long spanish lectures and even longer leisurely down time. Fortunately for my taste buds (and unfortunately for my thighs and hips), I have been using my excess downtime to sniff out every single pasteleria in the region - they average about 1 every 50 meters or so - and have become obsessed with trying the Orejas (literally, "ears", dinnerplate-sized sugary pasteries) in each one I visit. The things are AMAZING. And I've developed a fondness for dulce de leche, the caramelly stuff made from condensed milk and sugar, which is stuffed in a lot of fresh baked breads here. But enough about food, it's making me hungry.

I've been going across the street to a house with horses a couple of mornings a week, and its been gratifying to have some really good conversations with the owner, Juan Sanchez, about life here and in the U.S. It's also nice to learn all the horse lingo in Spanish. Last Thursday after I'd groomed his horses he saddled one up for me and let me ride around his property for an hour or so. He has about 25 other horses up in Guanacaste on a ranch that he uses for herding cattle and practicing roping bulls, but he only keeps a couple of horses here in Heredia since we are in the city and he doesn't have a lot of space. His horses are amazingly agile and sturdy, it took a little while to get used to their sensitivity and responsiveness (which they rely on so as to keep from getting gored by a bull when they're in that kind of situation). Well, I gotta run to class, I have more to update about the weekend and will hopefully get that done soon. Pura vida.