Lately

So, lately. 

As in this week, or the moments building up to, the culmination of everything until right now; things have been getting better and busier. From yoga and swimming classes, to making more friends, to making more art and music, things are coming together.

In my Indigenous Ecology class, I am researching Swami Sri Yukteswar, who wrote The Sacred Science, relating yoga, Hindu teachings, and Christianity through scripture, astronomy, and astrology. He also disputed the length of the Great Year in the cycle of human spirituality and suggested that our Sun had a twin star that it rotated around. Such an interesting class!

I built my own screen from boards, fabric and a staple gun in my Screen Printing workshop.

I'm learning to use Adobe Premiere to edit the documentary I''m working on while I'm here in my Artistic Audiovisual Production class.

I learned that a Costa Rican, or Tica wedding is almost identical to those from the U.S. in my Spanish class In the past, they were more similar to Spain due to history, but overtime due to tourism and trade from the U.S., our weddings are very similar.  Apparently a tradition that still goes on is that of the groom and men serenading the bride and women during a party the night before the wedding. The men will be forced to leave the house, the women turn off all of the lights, then the men come and knock on the door and serenade the wife. I think that is only something a guy would do for his wife in the U.S. if he cheated and was desperate to get her back. haha.

In reading for my Latin American Art History class, I have learned about Neoclassical and Baroque architecture in every single Latin American country during the XIX century. I've read all about doric columns, gothic arches, eclectic mixing with Baroque, Neogothic, and Classic architecture. I've read about the heavy influence from France and Italy in the architecture at the time. I am currently reading about the Modern Art movement in Mexico in the XX century. It's all very interesting, but I am so behind in the reading. It is so difficult.

  

In my Textiles class, I have learned how to do Batik, and am learning how to make a pattern from a pencil and paper. Below, I am sporting one of the patterns i put together out of paper. 

I don't think I will be using this one.

Additionally, I have been frequenting a 

ropa americana store here called Tienda Sinai. 

If you read my earlier post about ropa americana, 

I talked about the pools of clothing. This is one. 

                                       

You really have to work for a lower price when 

digging through this small ocean of mixed apparel.

An example of the random clothing

 one might find while searching:

Finding comic relief while searching profusely 

for something of value is a great metaphor for life. 

When situations happen that you don't expect or want, 

you can just laugh at them, take a picture, 

and keep searching. 

I've bought some cheap clothing with cool print on it 

to recycle into something new in my textiles class. 

I am getting so excited about it. 

Here is the Batik from earlier:

Also, I've been learning how to tie new types of knots 

online and making new necklaces from old tee shirts. 

This is my friend Tatiana. She is sitting with a "Granizado," a mixture of ice cream, condensed milk, powdered milk, diced fruit and slushie. It is delicious. 

It's been really great to make a good, solid friend while I've been here. I had trouble making friends upon arrival, but this seems like a very real, deep friendship that is rare to find. I am so lucky!

Life will always keep coming, bringing new opportunities and challenges. 

We are standing in a sea of experiences that we can either get carried away by or sail on top of. 

Ropa Americana

When I first came here, one of the first things I wanted to know is where the thrift stores were. I didn't pack much when I came, for this very purpose. When I was eventually taken to a "thrift store" here, I was surprised and a bit disappointed at first glance.
I had expected to see a vast, endless sea of colors and patterns, begging me to dive in and be carried away into some secret, hidden world filled with prismatic gems of forgotten attire. However, this was not the case. The stores here are called "Ropa Americana," which simply means American Clothing. They are basically thrift stores filled with old clothing from the U.S. How it gets here and why they sell it instead of Costa Rican clothing, I have no idea- but are priced fairly well. Generally, you can buy a camiseta, or t-shirt for around 500 or 1000 mil (One or Two Dollars) depending in which section you shop. As they are still thrift stores, there are lots of gems available. I think a misconception on my part was thinking that all Latin American countries contain patterns like you would find in Guatemalan Textiles or in Mexican Serapes. I absolutely love both of those, but it is certainly a stereotype I had crushed as soon as I saw many locals not in poverty, not barefoot, and not dressed in traditional folk-wear. People here dress very much like people in the U.S., and I would say better in most cases. No PINK sweatpants, UGG boots, messy buns, gym shorts, socks and sandals, school t-shirts, etc.... Gracias a Dios. As for Ropa Americana, even though there is clothing from the U.S., I haven't seen much of the above listed trash in these stores. Lots of cool 80's and 90's tourist wear, blazers, sweaters, shorts, jeans, etc. . .but no jewelry :( . oh well.
As for the surprising bit of the ropa americana experience, there is a certain one that I love named SINAÍ or something of that nature. It was the first one I entered.

Picture this: you walk in. there is a security guard in the doorway (which you see everywhere here.) a sudden explosion of sound broadcasting from speakers throughout the two-story thrift store. An announcer screams sales, prices, brands, special deals in the style of a sports announcer, like you are there with everyone for one purpose: to conquer the fuck out of the other team by finding great looks for less. Behind the announcer's voice is an army of house music playing, occasionally sprinkled with Christian songs proclaiming "Hallelujiah! whilst a choir sings in the background. Various male employees carry garbage bags stuffed full, larger than the men carrying them, while they shout out all of the deals to yearning ears. Things seem fairly normal for a second. Okay, this looks like a thrift store from home: aisles of racks of used clothing organized in some manner, yeah. But then you discover that the back half of the store downstairs is cheaper than the front half, and you have to pay in the back half for the cheaper clothing before you can shop more in the front. And then upon coming out from the back half, you are presented with a set of stairs to your left. And are told that there are even cheaper prices upstairs, so hell yeah you go!

Upon arriving at the top of the stairs, the loft above the front half of the store, you come across something you have never seen before. Except maybe in the movie the Labyrinth, which my friend Andrea told me about and I watched with my boyfriend Dakota. If you have seen it, you are walking directly into an actual manifestation of the scene with the old junk lady. There are different "piscinas" or pools of clothing. Hills of clothing constantly being added to by the men carrying gargantuan bags of more clothing. People sitting in the middle of the pools constantly digging through constant additions for cheaper prices. I guess they are cheaper because they aren't on hangers or something?

Anyway, it's crazy, it's awesome, my wrist hurts from typing so much, and here are the clothes I've gotten so far from Ropa Americana.