between the week

The longer I stay here, the more "spanglish" my "english" becomes.

Having interacted mostly with Spanish-native speakers everyday for 14 months have morphed my English to something more spanish-like.

In my English class yesterday...I was telling my class: " i understand you guys are busy, because it's between the week"

After some moments, I apologized to my class and corrected myself using "during" the week. My class just laughed at me, as I was being "ticolized"...and was thinking in spanish:
"during the week" translates to "entre la semana"
which literally means "between the week".

oh boy... I'm already "assisting to reunions" (attending meetings), and canceling bills (paying bills), oh mae, how more ticolized can I get?

a simple experience.

I recently had an experience. an aiesec experience.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at the latest Big Picture (info-session) of AIESEC at the UCR local committee recruitment.

Just to be there, being in the presence of around 15 new potential members, speaking and interacting with them for a mere 10 mins have given me an uplifting feeling. And it reminds me exactly why I was in aiesec the first place. I love times like this when these members first hear about aiesec...and some of them may continue on for application, interviews, conferences, then apply for a leadership role as EB, or go on exchange or decide to become a leader of the region, of Costa Rica and Panama and beyond. It always brings joy to my heart on what that important step they are taking to sit down for 30 mins for an info-session. to have a little taste of such a wonderful world that exists within our organization. by the end of the big picture, the excitement i sense in their eyes, the sincere interest in aiesec in their faces (even 2 nursing students) wasindescribable for me.... it gives me a sense of fulfillment...that we are lighting the tiny candles in their young aiesec lives...an initial step to the torch they may be carrying withing our organization or society...

It's something simple, routine if you may call it, in an everyday event of an aiesecer. but it was a very meaningful experience i wanted to share. it is especially times like this that i feel proud to be an aiesecer, and more specifically in aiesec CAS...that we are making a difference in the world, no matter how grand or insignificant it may seem at the time.

A thought keeps occuring to me is how those exact 15 individuals will be in a few years time...

A new career in the making?

As I was getting creative on ways to survive financially here, a student of mine introduced me to the modeling industry. Me? Modeling? Costa Rica's next Top Model? hahaha...I thought it was an outrageous idea, and did little to entertain it.

After doing some simple calculations of my financial situation, it didn't take long until my student, who is a model herself, brought me to a casting at a modeling agency.

That was back in November, and I thought it was just one of those crazy "once-in-a-lifetime" things that I should do to stretch my comfort zone. Weeks and months pass without any call from the agency, and well, at least I tried.

Just 2 weeks ago, I got a surprising call from them. They were interested in having me do a "prueba" or casting for a client of theirs. After various castings, and interviews...I was finally selected to film a TV commerical!

It was just filmed during the past weekend in a local house in Costa Rica. The cool thing was that I got a speaking role in the commerical - in Spanish! I was even able to say "pura vida"! which is the defining saying in Costa Rica.

It all felt surreal, with the Argentine director, the whole production crew, all the equipments and makeup artists..etc especially when they were saying "lights, camera, action" in Spanish!!!

The product?
The ever-ubiquitous national beer of Costa Rica: "Imperial"

Choque: Birra bien fria

choque - ice
Originally uploaded by martinwhchung.

Beer is drunk chilled, right?

Not in Costa Rica. In a bar, it is very common to be served chilled beer with a glass of ice. Just like you would for a refreshment such as coke for example.

Here is a picture of Juraj experiencing his extra-chilled "Imperial" (the ubiquitous national beer of Costa Rica).

He refused to try it in the end, and opted for the traditional temperature for his Imperial.

A linguistics study: "mae"

Languages has always facinated me, and even more so when it applies to my years of studying linguistics in university.

Recently, I had an experience in which I must share.

As mentioned previously, there are various tiquismos, or Tico "slangs". One of the most evident, and overused is the word "mae" - literally meaning "dude" or "man". It is also used as a filler word, when it doesn't necessarily mean they are in fact talking about a human being, but rather like "man, it's hot in here" in English.

On a recent bus ride towards the Pacific coast of around 2 hours. I had the pleasure to eavesdrop on a conversation of two male locals, aged around 20-22.

I decided to do an on-the-spot linguistics study:

I had a timer, listened for the word "mae" in their conversation, and stopped the clock once I was able to hear "mae" 100 times used between them.

Results: I was able to reach 100 maes in 9 minutes.
That's an average of 11.1 maes per minute.
Or 1 mae per 5.6 seconds.

This strongly reflects on the usage of "mae" in the Costa Rican Spanish language, especially among men teenage and above. I honestly can't think of an equivalent word in English...can you?

A Canadian memory

Haven't written here for a while. Got tons to talk about, but in the meantime...here is a video of the Member Development track cheer we did at the National Congress over new years in Canada. I truly miss you guys in Canada a lot. Enjoy!