"Yo pienso que si."

“Yo pienso que si.” Somewhere between eight and fifteen times a day, Katie speaks these words in response to inquiries. Yo pienso que si (I think so)”, and “Yo pienso que no (I don’t think so)” are sentences that will get you surprisingly far when trying to communicate in a language you’re years away from mastering. Additionally, Katie and I, as well as many other volunteers at Maximo, have begun inadvertently using these expressions even when speaking English amongst ourselves. Though I am very focused on improving my Spanish skills, so many volunteers at Maximo are English speaking, and therefore its impossible to avoid speaking in English with one another when we’re not working with the kids or at our home stays. It’s an interesting development, however, that we’ve come to intersperse certain phrases or words in Spanish with our conversations in English. This is something as well that is probably quite amusing to Costa Ricans who overhear our exchanges on bus rides or when walking around on the street. Some examples of such phrases and words are “Y a mi tambien (Me too),” “Y a mi tampoco (Me neither),” “Si, entiendo (Yeah, I understand),” “Es verdad (that’s true),” and finally, “Chiste (joke),” a personal favorite of Katie and mine. What’s even more hilarious and slightly embarrassing is when Lina, Deanna and I decide we will not speak in English for an entire bus ride to our project, and I then begin to notice the expressions on faces of locals sitting near us who are obviously aware, due to our accents and our frequent usage of “ummm” and “como se dice (how do you say…)” that we could much more easily be communicating with each other in English, but for whatever reason, have chosen not to.
Katie doesn’t give herself enough credit for the amount of Spanish she understands, and could probably speak were she to stop making fun of herself all the time and just concede to sounding like a fool when speaking Spanish, like the rest of us. My stepdad asked me on the phone the other day if Katie speaks Spanish well and she responded, with a laugh, “Yo pienso que no!” Then he asked me how she’s gotten by in Costa Rica without such skills and she responded, “Hand gestures, my electronic translator, and my good looks!” The two of us thought this was quite funny. I swear one of these days we’re going to be asked to leave our house because the laughing that goes on between the two of us deep into the night has, I’m sure, begun to become irritating to our host family, but we simply cannot help it. We basically are just constantly making fun of ourselves and each other. Oftentimes we fall into reminiscing about the olden days (AKA middle school), when we were brace-faced, awkward, and our senses of style left MUCH to be desired. The following is a transcript of a verbal trip down memory lane that occurred the other night:

Katie: “Do you remember when you used to always wear an orange handkerchief in your hair?”
Me: “It was a bandana!”
Katie: “Do you also remember when you convinced your mom to let you get cornrows and you went to Jordan’s Bar Mitzvah with cornrows looking like Snoop Dogg?”
Me: “They weren’t cornrows!”
Katie: “Oh I’m sorry…” (making quotation marks with her fingers) “BRAIDS.”
Me: “Well, do you remember when you wore very dark eye shadow with sparkles…like, to school? When we were in 8th grade? Every day?”
Katie: “Do you remember how we wore solely sweatpants, even when going out?”

In case anyone out there is wondering, yes, it’s true, for about a year of my life I wore an orange bandana in a triangle over my hair. At all times. And yes, I got my hair braided a few times. It allowed me not to brush it. No, I did not look like Snoop Dogg. Yes, it was awkward. Yes, Katie wore really ugly eye shadow every day for approximately two years. The shade of the eyeshadow was entitled “Midnight Cowboy.” No, it wasn’t cute. And yes, drawstring sweatpants were our standard uniform, but only black ones when “going out.”

Another topic of conversation that is often brought up between the two of us is my blogging, and how the fact that I blog makes me a gigantic loser. Exhibit A:

Me: “Perhaps I can blog this weekend.”
Katie: “You act like you need to keep your fans updated! Perhaps you need to hire a PR agent.”
Me: “Hey, I just received a text message requesting a new blog!”
Katie: “Yeah, from your uncle.”

Two minutes ago:

Me: “I am now blogging.”
Katie: “No one’s going to believe my stories about you, because you’re a giant chiste.”

No but seriously, you guys ARE waiting on bated breath for each of my new blog posts…aren’t you? Yo pienso que si. Thank you Uncle Dave for your request! I’d like to think of all of you as my fans, and I will continue to keep you updated, despite the fact that in social terms, having a blog does cost me a few points ☺ But I will not let you down. Love from Costa Rica!

Xtine.