*All names have been changed to protect the dignity of those involved.
Francesca: I can't believe they're making us do that. That's ricockulous!
Mollie Sue: Francesca, you WOULD be the one to use a 50-cent SAT word while we're on vacation in Costa Rica.
Francesca: Mollie Sue, I made that word up. It's "ridiculous" mixed with "cock."
(Carmen and San Diego decided that today was That's a Bit Gay Day. Thus, they came up with various things that are a Bit Gay, announcing them in a British accent)
Carmen: I got a manicure. That's a Bit Gay.
San Diego: I bought a man purse. That's a Bit Gay.
Professor, mimicking his son in falsetto: I borrowed money from my dad! That's a Bit Gay!
Mollie Sue: I can't hold a grudge. I just can't! I'm incapable.
Professora: What if I punched you in the face?
In class we played a game where we named our three favorite animals, in order of preference. mine were:
1. sparrow
2. octopus
3. elephant
Then we did something special with them, but I won't tell you what until you comment with your favorite animals, in order of favoriteness. What are they?
On a tangent, today's interesting Website du Jour is this: If Abraham Lincoln had an iPod.
As a footnote, happy birthday to me and my sister deer.
1.6.09
Drug Deals, Old Port, Rogue Waves--Does It Ever End?
This weekend we took our exams at 8 a.m. on Friday, then jetted out for Puerto Viejo :) The drive was rather uneventful--no one vommed, we didn't hit anything, and there wsasn't a naked dane party going on in the back of the bus (all of these things happened but one--guess which :P) We drove through the mountain jungle and our tour guide extraordinaire told us all the movies that were filmed in Costa Rica--Jurassic Park, Spy kids 1, 2, and 3, Caribe, Angels, 1492, plus others. Also, Mel Gibson just bought a big ass piece of land there with waterfalls and animals all over the place, so there are bound to be more movies. Coool :)
We got to our hotel, which was...interesting, to say the least. We were paired 9 girls to 1 room with 7 beds, so some people were displaced--I avoided the girl politics by sleeping in a hammock in the backyard :) The beach right outside our hotel was black sand--it was gorgeous, with flecks of gold, but the sand fleas were terrible. We walked past a giant barge parked in the surf to the inlet where we played guitar, sang, interpretive danced, played in the surf, and drank guaro right out of the bottle--pura vida :)
That night we found a bar right next to the hotel that used to serve food, but a new guy took over ownership 5 days before and hadn't opened the kitchen yet. He was still really nice--he served us free chips and mango salsa, plus gave me free drinks because it was my birthday weekend :) Well, it was close enough ;) A friend and I went out for sushi at Chile Rojo, which was awesome. We went to a beach bonfire and then went skinny dipping at the hotel pool--until a security guard with a giant gun caught us :P Slept in a hammock under the stars until the rooster woke me up at 4 a.m.--roosters don't seem to belong here, especially in such an Old McDonald way :P
We woke up early on Saturday morning to eat breakfast and leave for our snorkeling trip at Cahuita. We all got outfitted in our snorkel gear (though I and one other girl had to opt for children's flippers because our feet were so small :P) and headed out! We took the boats first to a shallow area with a bunch of different coral communities. A bunch of people saw a nurse shark and a school of barracudas; I saw parrot fish, sea urchins, and those darling little black and iridescent blue spotted fish. We took the boats to another place, a dropoff barrier reef, where some people saw turtles :) We stopped at an island for watermelon and organic pineapple and saw tons of white-face monkeys! I had taken the legs off my glasses so i could tape them to my face and see inside my snorkel mask (resourceful!) but that means I couldn't see anything on land, so all the monkeys looked like worried infants tacked onto furry primate bodies. We also saw a giant gold eyelash viper that, if it bites you, will kill you in an hour. Insane :P I stayed a safe distance away because, without my glasses, I have incredibly poor depth perception...so who knows, I may have been right next to it :P
We ate lunch at a Bob-Marley obsessed cafe with borderline good food, then traipsed to Manzanilla beach for a quick look at the national park. We went back to the hotel and I packed up my little hobo bag--a towel tied to a piece of driftwood--and set out for the beach! I put all my stuff behind a log, but that didn't help--after about a half hour, a rogue wave came and stole all my belongings--wallet. camera, towel, shirt, skirt, shoes, water bottle, towel, wrap, everything! I got it all back (I have no clue HOW) but the camera is done for--sorry mum ;(
There was a rave on the beach on Saturday night, but I fell asleep in a hammock at, like, 10 p.m. and woke up in time to watch the sun rise :) Well, attempt to--it was overcast, so I didn't really see much, but it was cool being almost alone on the beach and watching everything light up :) I spent the day with friends, trekking around the beach, poking in and out of places we'd never visited :) We had a good time, but there were some weird aspects--like, I witnessed a crack deal on the beach; you're not supposed to shake hands with a local because it tells them you want to sleep with them; the guys in our group got a lecture about how they needed to protect us by walking with us wherever we wanted to go, because men hide in the bushes along the road and attack women who walk by themselves; and apparently the rape count last month alone was 7 :l Oh well, we survived :) Pura Vida!
On the way back to school we watched Quantum of Solace, my very first Bond movie! It was good :) We stopped at the same crappy restaurant for lunch, then everyone slept the whole way bck to reggae beats. I swear, our bus driver has the best taste in music in the world. Fun times.
Now we're back in Heredia and starting on our last week of school, and I just know it's going to pass SUPER slowly because I just want to get home! I've loved my time here, and I've had some great adventures and made some awesome friends, BUT I've got a lot waiting on me back home--like an honors thesis :P Oh well, I'll keep you posted this week, then might see some of you back in the states :) Pura Vida!
We got to our hotel, which was...interesting, to say the least. We were paired 9 girls to 1 room with 7 beds, so some people were displaced--I avoided the girl politics by sleeping in a hammock in the backyard :) The beach right outside our hotel was black sand--it was gorgeous, with flecks of gold, but the sand fleas were terrible. We walked past a giant barge parked in the surf to the inlet where we played guitar, sang, interpretive danced, played in the surf, and drank guaro right out of the bottle--pura vida :)
That night we found a bar right next to the hotel that used to serve food, but a new guy took over ownership 5 days before and hadn't opened the kitchen yet. He was still really nice--he served us free chips and mango salsa, plus gave me free drinks because it was my birthday weekend :) Well, it was close enough ;) A friend and I went out for sushi at Chile Rojo, which was awesome. We went to a beach bonfire and then went skinny dipping at the hotel pool--until a security guard with a giant gun caught us :P Slept in a hammock under the stars until the rooster woke me up at 4 a.m.--roosters don't seem to belong here, especially in such an Old McDonald way :P
We woke up early on Saturday morning to eat breakfast and leave for our snorkeling trip at Cahuita. We all got outfitted in our snorkel gear (though I and one other girl had to opt for children's flippers because our feet were so small :P) and headed out! We took the boats first to a shallow area with a bunch of different coral communities. A bunch of people saw a nurse shark and a school of barracudas; I saw parrot fish, sea urchins, and those darling little black and iridescent blue spotted fish. We took the boats to another place, a dropoff barrier reef, where some people saw turtles :) We stopped at an island for watermelon and organic pineapple and saw tons of white-face monkeys! I had taken the legs off my glasses so i could tape them to my face and see inside my snorkel mask (resourceful!) but that means I couldn't see anything on land, so all the monkeys looked like worried infants tacked onto furry primate bodies. We also saw a giant gold eyelash viper that, if it bites you, will kill you in an hour. Insane :P I stayed a safe distance away because, without my glasses, I have incredibly poor depth perception...so who knows, I may have been right next to it :P
We ate lunch at a Bob-Marley obsessed cafe with borderline good food, then traipsed to Manzanilla beach for a quick look at the national park. We went back to the hotel and I packed up my little hobo bag--a towel tied to a piece of driftwood--and set out for the beach! I put all my stuff behind a log, but that didn't help--after about a half hour, a rogue wave came and stole all my belongings--wallet. camera, towel, shirt, skirt, shoes, water bottle, towel, wrap, everything! I got it all back (I have no clue HOW) but the camera is done for--sorry mum ;(
There was a rave on the beach on Saturday night, but I fell asleep in a hammock at, like, 10 p.m. and woke up in time to watch the sun rise :) Well, attempt to--it was overcast, so I didn't really see much, but it was cool being almost alone on the beach and watching everything light up :) I spent the day with friends, trekking around the beach, poking in and out of places we'd never visited :) We had a good time, but there were some weird aspects--like, I witnessed a crack deal on the beach; you're not supposed to shake hands with a local because it tells them you want to sleep with them; the guys in our group got a lecture about how they needed to protect us by walking with us wherever we wanted to go, because men hide in the bushes along the road and attack women who walk by themselves; and apparently the rape count last month alone was 7 :l Oh well, we survived :) Pura Vida!
On the way back to school we watched Quantum of Solace, my very first Bond movie! It was good :) We stopped at the same crappy restaurant for lunch, then everyone slept the whole way bck to reggae beats. I swear, our bus driver has the best taste in music in the world. Fun times.
Now we're back in Heredia and starting on our last week of school, and I just know it's going to pass SUPER slowly because I just want to get home! I've loved my time here, and I've had some great adventures and made some awesome friends, BUT I've got a lot waiting on me back home--like an honors thesis :P Oh well, I'll keep you posted this week, then might see some of you back in the states :) Pura Vida!
28.5.09
las Maras, los Cadillacs, y los Chicos Cansados
This morning was the first morning I have woken up in Costa Rica without a headache. It's gonna be a good day :)
On Monday I started a new class. Technically, since we're supposed to be receiving 6 credits from our studies down here, we're supposed to "change classes" by "starting a new semester" after the second week. On Friday I finished Advanced Conversation, and on Monday I started Advanced Composition. Fortunately, la Professora wants us to concentrate on our final project on Argentina, so she's not yet asigned any major compositions. Gracias a Dios :)
Tuesday night I stayed home and got drunk with my host mum off 40s of Imperial while watching the Heredia v Liberia national finals. She told me I was offcially "Herediana" now; we ate Doritos, popcorn, and peanuts that tasted like lime. Heredia lost in the second half by poorly-placed penalty shots, but we had a great time anyway :) Apparently there was a HUGE concert in San Jose for los Cadillacs, a super-famous band...and no one went because they all wanted to go to the game :P It was incredible: fans stormed the field, people got arrested and left on stretchers. One fan punched a player. We could hear the sirens all night, not to mention the screams of protest coming from the stadium, which is a mile at best from our apartment.
On Wednesday we usually do our group day trips, so we went to Poas Volcano after meeting at the school at 7 a.m. :/ We saw the giant crater with sulfur smoke pouring out of it (which stunk :P) and hiked up to the lagoon, which was gorgeous! Apparently the water there has an acidty comparable to hydrochloric acid. Scary times :/Needless to say, we did NOT go for a skinny dip at Poas Volcano :P
Afterwards we bought strawberries, which are incredible because they're grown in the volcanic soil. I bought some for my host mum because she's such a sweetheart, but I have not yet been home to give them to her :P
We ate lunch at Freddo Fresa's, which had incredible strawberry juice. You could either have it mixed with water or milk, which made it like a smoothie or a milkshake--goood stuff :) I ordered steak, por supuesto, and it didn't disappoint :) Afterwards I found a gift for The Boy--finally. That means my souvenir shopping is DONE and I can use the rest of my money for food! Yesssss :)
After lunch we went back to school--it was so hard to concentrate after having woken up so early and gotten so little sleep (I slept for 2 hours because I had some coffee in the afternoon on Tuesday in an attempt to dilate my blood vessels a little and make my perma-headache go away). In class we talked about gangs, las Maras. The name is especially interesting, because maras are a type of El Salvadorian ant that eat absolutely everything in their path--other ants, larger animals...I think they can even eat people. How quaint, then, to name your gang after them--that's exactly what gangs do, consume everything.
We mentioned, too, the economic crisis, and talked about how it's more of an existential crisis than anything--people are still hell-bent on buying what they want to make themselves appear more well-off, to establish their bodies as entities and make themselves immortal by way of material possessions. Very interesting indeed.
We also talked about dancing (we have 4 hours to fill--we go off on a lot of tangents :P). I said I liked salsa, meringue, and borracha. Unfortunately, the name of the dance I like is "bachata"--borracha means drunk :P On the bright side, the dance teacher is going to make a video with me of all the dance moves, so I can take them home and spread the Good Word of Latin Dance :)
After class (which took FOREVER) we left immediately to go to Miradona Ram Luna, a classy restaurant in the mountains. It had an incredible view of the city lights, and had an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink buffet and open bar, plus traditional dancing and handmade crafts. It was pretty awesome :) One of my friends said he'd tell the vejay it was my birthday (It almost is! And THIS birthday of all birthdays deserves to be celebrated for a week :P), but he got sidetracked talking to a girl and forgot. Thus, I was not included in the birthday song, dance, or cake. I keep having this recurring nightmare that everyone forgets it's my birthday, or doesn't care, and it's really stressing me out. It doesn't help that I don't have many really close friends here, and those who ARE close friends have their own close friends. Oh well, pura vida, I'll just celebrate when I get home :)
Today, another day of class--tomorrow, an exam at 8 a.m., then leaving for the Carribbean for the weekend :) we're cansados, felizes, y listos!
On Monday I started a new class. Technically, since we're supposed to be receiving 6 credits from our studies down here, we're supposed to "change classes" by "starting a new semester" after the second week. On Friday I finished Advanced Conversation, and on Monday I started Advanced Composition. Fortunately, la Professora wants us to concentrate on our final project on Argentina, so she's not yet asigned any major compositions. Gracias a Dios :)
Tuesday night I stayed home and got drunk with my host mum off 40s of Imperial while watching the Heredia v Liberia national finals. She told me I was offcially "Herediana" now; we ate Doritos, popcorn, and peanuts that tasted like lime. Heredia lost in the second half by poorly-placed penalty shots, but we had a great time anyway :) Apparently there was a HUGE concert in San Jose for los Cadillacs, a super-famous band...and no one went because they all wanted to go to the game :P It was incredible: fans stormed the field, people got arrested and left on stretchers. One fan punched a player. We could hear the sirens all night, not to mention the screams of protest coming from the stadium, which is a mile at best from our apartment.
On Wednesday we usually do our group day trips, so we went to Poas Volcano after meeting at the school at 7 a.m. :/ We saw the giant crater with sulfur smoke pouring out of it (which stunk :P) and hiked up to the lagoon, which was gorgeous! Apparently the water there has an acidty comparable to hydrochloric acid. Scary times :/Needless to say, we did NOT go for a skinny dip at Poas Volcano :P
Afterwards we bought strawberries, which are incredible because they're grown in the volcanic soil. I bought some for my host mum because she's such a sweetheart, but I have not yet been home to give them to her :P
We ate lunch at Freddo Fresa's, which had incredible strawberry juice. You could either have it mixed with water or milk, which made it like a smoothie or a milkshake--goood stuff :) I ordered steak, por supuesto, and it didn't disappoint :) Afterwards I found a gift for The Boy--finally. That means my souvenir shopping is DONE and I can use the rest of my money for food! Yesssss :)
After lunch we went back to school--it was so hard to concentrate after having woken up so early and gotten so little sleep (I slept for 2 hours because I had some coffee in the afternoon on Tuesday in an attempt to dilate my blood vessels a little and make my perma-headache go away). In class we talked about gangs, las Maras. The name is especially interesting, because maras are a type of El Salvadorian ant that eat absolutely everything in their path--other ants, larger animals...I think they can even eat people. How quaint, then, to name your gang after them--that's exactly what gangs do, consume everything.
We mentioned, too, the economic crisis, and talked about how it's more of an existential crisis than anything--people are still hell-bent on buying what they want to make themselves appear more well-off, to establish their bodies as entities and make themselves immortal by way of material possessions. Very interesting indeed.
We also talked about dancing (we have 4 hours to fill--we go off on a lot of tangents :P). I said I liked salsa, meringue, and borracha. Unfortunately, the name of the dance I like is "bachata"--borracha means drunk :P On the bright side, the dance teacher is going to make a video with me of all the dance moves, so I can take them home and spread the Good Word of Latin Dance :)
After class (which took FOREVER) we left immediately to go to Miradona Ram Luna, a classy restaurant in the mountains. It had an incredible view of the city lights, and had an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink buffet and open bar, plus traditional dancing and handmade crafts. It was pretty awesome :) One of my friends said he'd tell the vejay it was my birthday (It almost is! And THIS birthday of all birthdays deserves to be celebrated for a week :P), but he got sidetracked talking to a girl and forgot. Thus, I was not included in the birthday song, dance, or cake. I keep having this recurring nightmare that everyone forgets it's my birthday, or doesn't care, and it's really stressing me out. It doesn't help that I don't have many really close friends here, and those who ARE close friends have their own close friends. Oh well, pura vida, I'll just celebrate when I get home :)
Today, another day of class--tomorrow, an exam at 8 a.m., then leaving for the Carribbean for the weekend :) we're cansados, felizes, y listos!
25.5.09
Manuel Antonio, Booze Cruise--you've all been so patient!
I have so much to say.
Opera: We went to Teatro Nacional to see Mil y Una Noches (1001 Arabian Nights) with Sheherazad; it was ok--definitely a cultural experience--but there was a lot of belly dancing, which made me happy :)
Castro's--on Wednesday night we took a bus to San Jose to Castro's, this really classy bar (wit ultra cheap beer!) where we showed off our dancing skillz. Only 3 or 4 guys showed up, all of them blackout drunk, so I found a Tico to dance with--Angelo. He was super good! He kept asking ,"Do you have a boyfriend?" and I kept saying, " Yes," to which he would respond, "Why?" And I'd say in French, "Becuase he's far less annoying than you." Ahh, the magic of multilingualism :P Still, he was a great dancer.
We also had cooking class, where we made this pasty delicious thing with platanos and peppers, cilantro, onions, celery, and other things. We made jewelry, too, and it was hilarious watching all these LAX players stringingh pink beads onto elastic thread for their mums and girlfriends. Yes, dear reader, in fact I DID get pictures of that :)
We've discovered a restaurant here, Chico's, that makes kickass Hawaiian pizza--and the man who runs it grew up in NYC, so he speaks flawless English. Whenever we go there he talks the entire time, going on and on about "the best flag in the world--the stars and stripes!" and how much he misses the States. He's more of an obnoxious American than some of us!
On Thursday when I came home to study for my exam on Friday, my host mum had a friend over. This friend has been there before--and she pointedly ignores me. I'm not sure why I can never understand anything she says...but on Thursday, I determined that it's because she has no teeth. She and my host mum and her three daughters were all pregaming with 40s of Imperial--they all go out together, which is so cute! As a side note, all of my host sisters look like variations of Princess Jasmine. I feel like a pale frump toad in their presence :P
The last time I wrote it had rained really hard; apparently, people actually die when it rains here :l One man was walking across the road and he fell in a manhole (the rain had carried away the cover) and drowned almost instantly with all the crap that was flowing into the sewer below him. Urgh. I will never cross the street in the rain again.
On Friday morning we had our exam at 8 a.m. (shoot me in the face). It was pretty self explanatory. Then we piled on the bus and headed to Manuel Antonio :) We watched a ridiculously bootleg copy of Wolverine; all the really good special effects bits were distilled into grey screens. I'm SO GLAD I didn't pay for it!
We ate lunch beside a river full of crocodiles. I ate one of them. My friends got videos of them eating a turkey--their reflexes are soooo fast, especially for them weighing, like, a million pounds. Scary-awesome. We got to the beach, turned the bus around in an impossibly narrow road, checked into the hotel, and ran to the beach--I almost lost my glasses twice, which would have been ultra bad--I brought nothing else to keep me from being blind down here! We ate dinner at a restaurant called El Avion--it's built around the wreckage of a C-123 Fairchild that went down in Manuel Antonio. Now it's a bar :P We decided to splurge a little; I had peppered ginger mahi mahi and tiramisu. Yessssss.
Later we went skinny dipping. In the ocean. Also in the pool. Too much fun :)
The next morning we went to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio--we saw monkeys, sloths (in Spanish, osos parasosos--lazy bears :P), snakes, and giant iguanas! I tore myself up on some rocks that we were climbing on, but we had a great time playing in the rip current :) I saw a 3-foot iguana disappear into the pipes below a row of portapotties--you couldn't pay me to choose one of those and lower my naked butt onto a hole that may or may not have a giant iguana face in it!
Saturday afternoon at 1 we went on the booze cruise :) It was an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink, dolphin-and-whale watching sunset cruise. Fun times :) We saw dolphins, though I got no good pictures of them. We got to go snorkeling, and I saw a huge blue puffer fish! Though I couldn't fit the mask on over my goggles, so I may have just imagined the puffer fish :P They fed us really tasty mahi mahi with carrots, potatoes, rice, and chayote, but mostly what mattered to us were the rum punches (lovingly dubbed Happy Juice by the boat crew :P).
That night was ultra fun--we hurried to get ready to go to a bar where ladies drank free from 9 to 11...then looked at the clock and saw that it was only 6:46. Instead we went to the beach, played at the pool (where someone stole my shorts, 2 pairs of my shoes, and my watch), some people went to a bonfire at the beach, and I passed out before midnight watching Fear (starring way-young Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg).
Sunday, we packed up and headed out--everyone was asleep on the bus in a matter of minutes. Now I'm back home and everything reeks of sand and saltwater--but I've got a nice tan, and an excuse to buy new shoes :)
Opera: We went to Teatro Nacional to see Mil y Una Noches (1001 Arabian Nights) with Sheherazad; it was ok--definitely a cultural experience--but there was a lot of belly dancing, which made me happy :)
Castro's--on Wednesday night we took a bus to San Jose to Castro's, this really classy bar (wit ultra cheap beer!) where we showed off our dancing skillz. Only 3 or 4 guys showed up, all of them blackout drunk, so I found a Tico to dance with--Angelo. He was super good! He kept asking ,"Do you have a boyfriend?" and I kept saying, " Yes," to which he would respond, "Why?" And I'd say in French, "Becuase he's far less annoying than you." Ahh, the magic of multilingualism :P Still, he was a great dancer.
We also had cooking class, where we made this pasty delicious thing with platanos and peppers, cilantro, onions, celery, and other things. We made jewelry, too, and it was hilarious watching all these LAX players stringingh pink beads onto elastic thread for their mums and girlfriends. Yes, dear reader, in fact I DID get pictures of that :)
We've discovered a restaurant here, Chico's, that makes kickass Hawaiian pizza--and the man who runs it grew up in NYC, so he speaks flawless English. Whenever we go there he talks the entire time, going on and on about "the best flag in the world--the stars and stripes!" and how much he misses the States. He's more of an obnoxious American than some of us!
On Thursday when I came home to study for my exam on Friday, my host mum had a friend over. This friend has been there before--and she pointedly ignores me. I'm not sure why I can never understand anything she says...but on Thursday, I determined that it's because she has no teeth. She and my host mum and her three daughters were all pregaming with 40s of Imperial--they all go out together, which is so cute! As a side note, all of my host sisters look like variations of Princess Jasmine. I feel like a pale frump toad in their presence :P
The last time I wrote it had rained really hard; apparently, people actually die when it rains here :l One man was walking across the road and he fell in a manhole (the rain had carried away the cover) and drowned almost instantly with all the crap that was flowing into the sewer below him. Urgh. I will never cross the street in the rain again.
On Friday morning we had our exam at 8 a.m. (shoot me in the face). It was pretty self explanatory. Then we piled on the bus and headed to Manuel Antonio :) We watched a ridiculously bootleg copy of Wolverine; all the really good special effects bits were distilled into grey screens. I'm SO GLAD I didn't pay for it!
We ate lunch beside a river full of crocodiles. I ate one of them. My friends got videos of them eating a turkey--their reflexes are soooo fast, especially for them weighing, like, a million pounds. Scary-awesome. We got to the beach, turned the bus around in an impossibly narrow road, checked into the hotel, and ran to the beach--I almost lost my glasses twice, which would have been ultra bad--I brought nothing else to keep me from being blind down here! We ate dinner at a restaurant called El Avion--it's built around the wreckage of a C-123 Fairchild that went down in Manuel Antonio. Now it's a bar :P We decided to splurge a little; I had peppered ginger mahi mahi and tiramisu. Yessssss.
Later we went skinny dipping. In the ocean. Also in the pool. Too much fun :)
The next morning we went to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio--we saw monkeys, sloths (in Spanish, osos parasosos--lazy bears :P), snakes, and giant iguanas! I tore myself up on some rocks that we were climbing on, but we had a great time playing in the rip current :) I saw a 3-foot iguana disappear into the pipes below a row of portapotties--you couldn't pay me to choose one of those and lower my naked butt onto a hole that may or may not have a giant iguana face in it!
Saturday afternoon at 1 we went on the booze cruise :) It was an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink, dolphin-and-whale watching sunset cruise. Fun times :) We saw dolphins, though I got no good pictures of them. We got to go snorkeling, and I saw a huge blue puffer fish! Though I couldn't fit the mask on over my goggles, so I may have just imagined the puffer fish :P They fed us really tasty mahi mahi with carrots, potatoes, rice, and chayote, but mostly what mattered to us were the rum punches (lovingly dubbed Happy Juice by the boat crew :P).
That night was ultra fun--we hurried to get ready to go to a bar where ladies drank free from 9 to 11...then looked at the clock and saw that it was only 6:46. Instead we went to the beach, played at the pool (where someone stole my shorts, 2 pairs of my shoes, and my watch), some people went to a bonfire at the beach, and I passed out before midnight watching Fear (starring way-young Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg).
Sunday, we packed up and headed out--everyone was asleep on the bus in a matter of minutes. Now I'm back home and everything reeks of sand and saltwater--but I've got a nice tan, and an excuse to buy new shoes :)
19.5.09
Perfunctory Passing Pucker
I have sent out postcards, but I have MANY extras--if you want one, email me your address (kali.mccullough@gmail.com) and I will be sure you get one. Let me know when you get it, too, so I can feel that glow of accomplishment :)
Last Friday we hd our first exam, as we are slated to have every Friday...and i got an A! I got a 97%, to be exact, which always comes as a surprise to me--now, I've gotten in the habit of translating from English to French to Spanish, so I'm continually shocked that none of what I'm thinking is getting lost in translation.
I've noticed something since being here which I think is hilarious. It's closely related to the insane honking (cab drivers, men in dump trucks, motorcycles, even bikes). This phenomenon I have lovingly dubbed the Perfunctory Passing Pucker. It happens frequently--you walk past a guy and he just puckers his lips in your direction--but yesterday's PPP really stood out to me. I was walking out of the school to get lunch and I passed a man outside a shoe store. He was up on a ladder, repainting the trim, and he PPPd me--then almost fell of his ladder and caught himself only by sticking his foot in the paint can. In your face, chauvinist pig.
A couple of days ago I went to Mami for lunch, which is this incredible Caribbean (<---I always misspell this--is it 2 r's or 2 b's?) restaurant that ALWAYS has a line. It opens at 11, and by 11:05 there are no tables and you have to take a number and wait. After dance class I walked there by myself (a lot of my friends thought there wouldn't be anything they'd like--but who doesn't like chicken and rice and beans?!). It was about noon, and I got a table all to myself. My Professora had recommended "rice and beans con pescado," which is a completely different thing from "arroz y frijoles con pescado" and, to drink, agua de sapo, or hiel --a ginger-and-honey drink that rocked my world--and everything was awesome. About halfway through the meal I swore i heard someone calling my name, but I brushed it off'--who in Costa Rica knows my name? Turns out it was Dr. G. his son, and his brother , who joined me for lunch. Yessssss, I no longer feel like such a loser!
We passed a park a few days ago with my Professora and she told us it used to have a lot of trees, which is funny because now there's nothing--a couple of poorly-placed park benches and some shrubs. Apparently, in its heyday, it was known as Parque de las Embarazadas--Pregnancy Park--and they cut down all the trees because too many people were having sex under them. Hilarious :)
It rained--HARD--yesterday for the first time; we're talking sounds-like-hail, thunder-and-lightning, car-alarms-screeching, six-inches-of-water-in-the-road rain. It was really refreshing. Of course it happened while I was in class, but I'd much rather it be beautiful weather in the morning (when I'm out of class) and rainy in the afternoons when I'm attempting to be productive.
Yesterday in class we were using the simple future tense and we had to create some futuristic object and describe it using the simple future. I designed a robot named Sakura that has a toaster for a face. It's pretty novel :)
Yesterday a girl in our group got "robbed." Normailly, I wouldn't air-quote it, but this girl totally asked for it. She was texting on her iTouch in the middle of the sidewalk of Heredia, not looking where she was going, and someone took the iTouch right out of her hands. She started yelling at people in the Internet cafe as if it were their fault, screaming for the police. Simple solution: leave it at home. Now she's talking about leaving, which means she's going to go back to the states and tarnish the name of the program because of this one tiny glitch that could SO EASILY have been avoided. Americans.
Today, cooking class at 10, dance class at 11, regular class at 1:30, and tonight we're going to San Jose to see an Opera at the Teatro Nacional. I'll be sure to tell you all about it :)
Last Friday we hd our first exam, as we are slated to have every Friday...and i got an A! I got a 97%, to be exact, which always comes as a surprise to me--now, I've gotten in the habit of translating from English to French to Spanish, so I'm continually shocked that none of what I'm thinking is getting lost in translation.
I've noticed something since being here which I think is hilarious. It's closely related to the insane honking (cab drivers, men in dump trucks, motorcycles, even bikes). This phenomenon I have lovingly dubbed the Perfunctory Passing Pucker. It happens frequently--you walk past a guy and he just puckers his lips in your direction--but yesterday's PPP really stood out to me. I was walking out of the school to get lunch and I passed a man outside a shoe store. He was up on a ladder, repainting the trim, and he PPPd me--then almost fell of his ladder and caught himself only by sticking his foot in the paint can. In your face, chauvinist pig.
A couple of days ago I went to Mami for lunch, which is this incredible Caribbean (<---I always misspell this--is it 2 r's or 2 b's?) restaurant that ALWAYS has a line. It opens at 11, and by 11:05 there are no tables and you have to take a number and wait. After dance class I walked there by myself (a lot of my friends thought there wouldn't be anything they'd like--but who doesn't like chicken and rice and beans?!). It was about noon, and I got a table all to myself. My Professora had recommended "rice and beans con pescado," which is a completely different thing from "arroz y frijoles con pescado" and, to drink, agua de sapo, or hiel --a ginger-and-honey drink that rocked my world--and everything was awesome. About halfway through the meal I swore i heard someone calling my name, but I brushed it off'--who in Costa Rica knows my name? Turns out it was Dr. G. his son, and his brother , who joined me for lunch. Yessssss, I no longer feel like such a loser!
We passed a park a few days ago with my Professora and she told us it used to have a lot of trees, which is funny because now there's nothing--a couple of poorly-placed park benches and some shrubs. Apparently, in its heyday, it was known as Parque de las Embarazadas--Pregnancy Park--and they cut down all the trees because too many people were having sex under them. Hilarious :)
It rained--HARD--yesterday for the first time; we're talking sounds-like-hail, thunder-and-lightning, car-alarms-screeching, six-inches-of-water-in-the-road rain. It was really refreshing. Of course it happened while I was in class, but I'd much rather it be beautiful weather in the morning (when I'm out of class) and rainy in the afternoons when I'm attempting to be productive.
Yesterday in class we were using the simple future tense and we had to create some futuristic object and describe it using the simple future. I designed a robot named Sakura that has a toaster for a face. It's pretty novel :)
Yesterday a girl in our group got "robbed." Normailly, I wouldn't air-quote it, but this girl totally asked for it. She was texting on her iTouch in the middle of the sidewalk of Heredia, not looking where she was going, and someone took the iTouch right out of her hands. She started yelling at people in the Internet cafe as if it were their fault, screaming for the police. Simple solution: leave it at home. Now she's talking about leaving, which means she's going to go back to the states and tarnish the name of the program because of this one tiny glitch that could SO EASILY have been avoided. Americans.
Today, cooking class at 10, dance class at 11, regular class at 1:30, and tonight we're going to San Jose to see an Opera at the Teatro Nacional. I'll be sure to tell you all about it :)
18.5.09
Arenal. Baldi. La Fortuna. Allergies.
This weekend, we packed up early on Saturday morning and headed north to Arenal in the Alajuela district. Some of the girls brough backpacks and duffel bags--even though this was only a 2-day, 1-night excursion. Honestly, ladies?! Really. The bus ride over was pretty uneventful. Oh, except one guy took a dump in the bus. And one girl threw up a lot. But aside from that... :
We stopped first at a giant red church that was made entirely out of metal in Grecia, Costa Rica--there were birds nbesting in all the chandeliers on the inside, and a really cool park out front. Our next stop was the Sarchi Artists' Cooperative (mum! dad! we DID go there!) where we took our pictures next to the largest ox cart in the world. It strikes me as really funny that, of all the Guinness World Records to break, they would choose the biggest ox cart. Do what you know, man.
For lunch we stopped at a steakhouse...right at the foot of Arenal Volcano. I got my picture taken on the back of a giant cement bull with a ladder up one side of it. Tourism is everywhere! We ate lunch in the glorious humidity and watched the point of Arenal emerge (which is apparently a pretty rare occurence because of the rain, clouds, and smoke that usually surround it).
After lunch we went ziplining. I don't believe I have ever had such exhilarating fun in my life. My parents and sister did it when they were here last semester, but it's such a different experience doing it than just hearing about it. We harnessed up (and I got a double pulley to go even faster!), then trekked at a literally 60 degree angle up the side of the mountain to get to the first platform. I never really realized how out of shape I am until that moment. Here are some statistics: there were 12 ziplines. Some of them are 300 meters high. 10 guys got stuck in the middle. 4 girls cried. I saw 1 turkey (?). It rained 0 times...which sucks because I wore my fleece-ish lined raincoat the. Entire. Time. Better safe than sorry? More like, better faint from heat exhaustion at 300 meters above a raging waterfall of death.
After ziplining we got on horses. This felt like a random turn of events; in fact, I'm fairly certain that the horses were just pulled from the rainforest. They definitely weren't trained AT ALL. No one died, though, which is a good outcome.
Baldi Hot Springs was our next stop, which was awesome. We had dinner there, a buffet, then swam (the logic of "all you can eat, then swim" escapes me). The springs were gorgeous--it's kinda a resort, with 3 wet bars (though drinks are $10 each!) and pools ranging from coldish to comfy to boiling. Then we found the waterslides :) One was really fast, one was really slow, and one was really painful. I will only say that it ended badly.
On the way back from Baldi we stopped to see the volcano at night! I saw one sliver of lava snake out of one corner of the crater's mouth, and that's it....but they sell postcards that illustrate buckets and buckets o' liquid hot magma pouring of it, so it MUST be true!
On Sunday morning I woke up more sore than I have ever been in my life! The hiking, the ab crunching, the holding on for dear life when a strap on my harness broke (yes, indeed, it did), the neck cramps from falling asleep in a position I thought unassumable to mankind, and the near-concussing action of that damned waterslide all used their forces against me to make me rue the day I was born...or at least yesterday. We had breakfast at the hotel, then bussed to La Fortuna waterfall where we hiked 600 m down to the falls, swam in the foam underneath it (SO COLD compared to the hot springs!), fed frogs to piranhas (I did not partake in this, but attempted to feed them my fingertips instead, which in retrospect was a disaster waiting to happen), then hiked back up. I wish i could say the hike back up was a breeze and that I did the whole thing while carrying on a conversation with my neighbor. In reality, I'm just going to leave it at this: it was the exact opposite.
I bought one of those cool wrap tapestry things, partially because it had birds on it, and partially because I only brought one outit that had already seen me sweat bullets in a ski jacket in a rainforest canopy AND ride horses AND sleep for hours in a bus...so I was starting to stink. Obviously. Literally, people would not sit next to me on the bus. Haha, more room for me :)
We stopped at a rope swing on the way back from La Fortuna where we made fools of ourselves in deep water. One guy, who can't swim, swung from the rope and landed almost on top of the goggled guy who was there to help push him to shore. Fun times :P
We got back to the hotel and laid in the sun for an hour while our lunch was being prepared. I saw 4 separate landslides down the sides of Arenal--it was so bizarre because you could hear them before you could see them, then all you saw was layers of dust and concentric cirlces where boulders were falling and leaving pockmarks on Arenal's skin. It was awesome. Lunch was (brace yourself) heart of palm salad, grilled sea bass, coconut flan, and strawberry juice. :) Everyone popped a dramamine so we could sleep on the bus, then headed back south. On the way back we stopped for guava, which comes in a seedpod the size of my arm. You suck the white meat off the seed, and Percy compares it to "putting a white mouse in your mouth." Thanks, Percy. We also tried yucca bread, which is awesome, and pariña (i think), which is like a giant hard crusty pancake that you eat with molasses. Yum.
The change of climate from Heredia to Alajuela really messed with my head--I haven't felt this lethargic since November. I need to perk up, though, because we have 3 dance lessons, a cooking class, a jewelry class, an opera, a trip to Cafe Britt, and a 3-day, 2-night beach trip planned for this week...not to mention 5 classes and an exam. Ugh! Wish me luck.
Also, a shoutout.
We stopped first at a giant red church that was made entirely out of metal in Grecia, Costa Rica--there were birds nbesting in all the chandeliers on the inside, and a really cool park out front. Our next stop was the Sarchi Artists' Cooperative (mum! dad! we DID go there!) where we took our pictures next to the largest ox cart in the world. It strikes me as really funny that, of all the Guinness World Records to break, they would choose the biggest ox cart. Do what you know, man.
For lunch we stopped at a steakhouse...right at the foot of Arenal Volcano. I got my picture taken on the back of a giant cement bull with a ladder up one side of it. Tourism is everywhere! We ate lunch in the glorious humidity and watched the point of Arenal emerge (which is apparently a pretty rare occurence because of the rain, clouds, and smoke that usually surround it).
After lunch we went ziplining. I don't believe I have ever had such exhilarating fun in my life. My parents and sister did it when they were here last semester, but it's such a different experience doing it than just hearing about it. We harnessed up (and I got a double pulley to go even faster!), then trekked at a literally 60 degree angle up the side of the mountain to get to the first platform. I never really realized how out of shape I am until that moment. Here are some statistics: there were 12 ziplines. Some of them are 300 meters high. 10 guys got stuck in the middle. 4 girls cried. I saw 1 turkey (?). It rained 0 times...which sucks because I wore my fleece-ish lined raincoat the. Entire. Time. Better safe than sorry? More like, better faint from heat exhaustion at 300 meters above a raging waterfall of death.
After ziplining we got on horses. This felt like a random turn of events; in fact, I'm fairly certain that the horses were just pulled from the rainforest. They definitely weren't trained AT ALL. No one died, though, which is a good outcome.
Baldi Hot Springs was our next stop, which was awesome. We had dinner there, a buffet, then swam (the logic of "all you can eat, then swim" escapes me). The springs were gorgeous--it's kinda a resort, with 3 wet bars (though drinks are $10 each!) and pools ranging from coldish to comfy to boiling. Then we found the waterslides :) One was really fast, one was really slow, and one was really painful. I will only say that it ended badly.
On the way back from Baldi we stopped to see the volcano at night! I saw one sliver of lava snake out of one corner of the crater's mouth, and that's it....but they sell postcards that illustrate buckets and buckets o' liquid hot magma pouring of it, so it MUST be true!
On Sunday morning I woke up more sore than I have ever been in my life! The hiking, the ab crunching, the holding on for dear life when a strap on my harness broke (yes, indeed, it did), the neck cramps from falling asleep in a position I thought unassumable to mankind, and the near-concussing action of that damned waterslide all used their forces against me to make me rue the day I was born...or at least yesterday. We had breakfast at the hotel, then bussed to La Fortuna waterfall where we hiked 600 m down to the falls, swam in the foam underneath it (SO COLD compared to the hot springs!), fed frogs to piranhas (I did not partake in this, but attempted to feed them my fingertips instead, which in retrospect was a disaster waiting to happen), then hiked back up. I wish i could say the hike back up was a breeze and that I did the whole thing while carrying on a conversation with my neighbor. In reality, I'm just going to leave it at this: it was the exact opposite.
I bought one of those cool wrap tapestry things, partially because it had birds on it, and partially because I only brought one outit that had already seen me sweat bullets in a ski jacket in a rainforest canopy AND ride horses AND sleep for hours in a bus...so I was starting to stink. Obviously. Literally, people would not sit next to me on the bus. Haha, more room for me :)
We stopped at a rope swing on the way back from La Fortuna where we made fools of ourselves in deep water. One guy, who can't swim, swung from the rope and landed almost on top of the goggled guy who was there to help push him to shore. Fun times :P
We got back to the hotel and laid in the sun for an hour while our lunch was being prepared. I saw 4 separate landslides down the sides of Arenal--it was so bizarre because you could hear them before you could see them, then all you saw was layers of dust and concentric cirlces where boulders were falling and leaving pockmarks on Arenal's skin. It was awesome. Lunch was (brace yourself) heart of palm salad, grilled sea bass, coconut flan, and strawberry juice. :) Everyone popped a dramamine so we could sleep on the bus, then headed back south. On the way back we stopped for guava, which comes in a seedpod the size of my arm. You suck the white meat off the seed, and Percy compares it to "putting a white mouse in your mouth." Thanks, Percy. We also tried yucca bread, which is awesome, and pariña (i think), which is like a giant hard crusty pancake that you eat with molasses. Yum.
The change of climate from Heredia to Alajuela really messed with my head--I haven't felt this lethargic since November. I need to perk up, though, because we have 3 dance lessons, a cooking class, a jewelry class, an opera, a trip to Cafe Britt, and a 3-day, 2-night beach trip planned for this week...not to mention 5 classes and an exam. Ugh! Wish me luck.
Also, a shoutout.
15.5.09
Marqua! Marqua! Puta Negra!
Last night we went to a soccer game. No--it wasn't JUST a game; it was the semifinals. Our whole group bought tickets for $8 each, then trooped over to the stadium in the smallest bus I've ever seen. We had to sit in each other's laps. It was hilarious :)
The game was a ton of fun--it's been a long time since I've watched a sports game willingly, and an even longer time since I've watched someone else play soccer, not just my team from the bench. We got frisked before we walked in because we were forbidden from bringing coins in to the stadium for fear we'd throw them at players. When we got inside, though, vendors were selling chips and drinks for 300 colonnes, so if you paid with the smallest bill you had---1000--you got at least 700 colonnes in change....which was then thrown onto the field. Smart people.
The ticos behind us spent the whole time yelling things like "Puta negra!" (black bitch) and "Come mierda!" (eat shit). Two men were arrested. Four people left on stretchers. It was a great time :)
A couple days ago I bought batteries (I told you guys about them--the void-of-power ones) and yesterday I decided to return them to the store (named El Amigo Merveilloso--the marvelous friend) where I bought them for less than $.50. I didn't know the return policy, so I just walked in with them in hand and said, "These don't work. Money please?" The woman looked at me incredulously, then kept doing what she was doing for a good 5 minutes. Seeing that I wasn't going away, she "humph"ed audibly, then snatched the batteries and handed them to a young guy employee, who stuffed them in this lightbulb contraption they use to test batteries. Nothing happened. I think it's hilarious that they probably had so many batteries not work that they had to get a contraption to test them. She opened the cash register and gave me my 325 colonnes ultra-grudgingly, then I went on my merry way. Had I been able to bring coins into the stadium, I would have bought a drink and thought of that frumpy sourpuss Amiga Merveillosa.
In class my professor asked us to say things we'd never done using the preterito perfecto sense, which basically says, "This has never happened and is not happening now, but there's a possibility that it will happen in the future." I said I'd never given money to a homeless person. It's basically true--I've given them food, and I've given money to the legless ones, but I consider them veterans...but I'd run out of "I've never been an only child" and "I've never lived in Antarctica." Anyway, Professora told me that, when you park on the side of the road, if there is a homeless person there wearing an orange reflective vest, you are required to give him money. Well, you're not required, but it's in your best interest--he's known as the Watchman, and he's in cahoots with the gangs who steal cars, so if you give him money, he'll protect your car. If you don't pay him, he'll smile and say, "Gracias," but when you come back out from work, you will not have a car.
My host mum watches this really interesting recurring documentary thing called "Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso"--Without Breasts, There Is No Paradise. Last night's installment was about a young woman who wanted to go to college, but none of the administrators would give her the time of day because she was--not homely, but not necessarily well-endowed. She had plastic surgery, breast enchancement, and it closed doors all around her because now, everyone in the college administration thinks she's a prostitute. Pretty sad, and, incredibly, true.
Today we have our first exam. It's going to be oral, and basically what B and I are doing is presenting our research for our final project on Argentina. Speaking of which--I need to do that research :l Hasta mañana!
The game was a ton of fun--it's been a long time since I've watched a sports game willingly, and an even longer time since I've watched someone else play soccer, not just my team from the bench. We got frisked before we walked in because we were forbidden from bringing coins in to the stadium for fear we'd throw them at players. When we got inside, though, vendors were selling chips and drinks for 300 colonnes, so if you paid with the smallest bill you had---1000--you got at least 700 colonnes in change....which was then thrown onto the field. Smart people.
The ticos behind us spent the whole time yelling things like "Puta negra!" (black bitch) and "Come mierda!" (eat shit). Two men were arrested. Four people left on stretchers. It was a great time :)
A couple days ago I bought batteries (I told you guys about them--the void-of-power ones) and yesterday I decided to return them to the store (named El Amigo Merveilloso--the marvelous friend) where I bought them for less than $.50. I didn't know the return policy, so I just walked in with them in hand and said, "These don't work. Money please?" The woman looked at me incredulously, then kept doing what she was doing for a good 5 minutes. Seeing that I wasn't going away, she "humph"ed audibly, then snatched the batteries and handed them to a young guy employee, who stuffed them in this lightbulb contraption they use to test batteries. Nothing happened. I think it's hilarious that they probably had so many batteries not work that they had to get a contraption to test them. She opened the cash register and gave me my 325 colonnes ultra-grudgingly, then I went on my merry way. Had I been able to bring coins into the stadium, I would have bought a drink and thought of that frumpy sourpuss Amiga Merveillosa.
In class my professor asked us to say things we'd never done using the preterito perfecto sense, which basically says, "This has never happened and is not happening now, but there's a possibility that it will happen in the future." I said I'd never given money to a homeless person. It's basically true--I've given them food, and I've given money to the legless ones, but I consider them veterans...but I'd run out of "I've never been an only child" and "I've never lived in Antarctica." Anyway, Professora told me that, when you park on the side of the road, if there is a homeless person there wearing an orange reflective vest, you are required to give him money. Well, you're not required, but it's in your best interest--he's known as the Watchman, and he's in cahoots with the gangs who steal cars, so if you give him money, he'll protect your car. If you don't pay him, he'll smile and say, "Gracias," but when you come back out from work, you will not have a car.
My host mum watches this really interesting recurring documentary thing called "Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso"--Without Breasts, There Is No Paradise. Last night's installment was about a young woman who wanted to go to college, but none of the administrators would give her the time of day because she was--not homely, but not necessarily well-endowed. She had plastic surgery, breast enchancement, and it closed doors all around her because now, everyone in the college administration thinks she's a prostitute. Pretty sad, and, incredibly, true.
Today we have our first exam. It's going to be oral, and basically what B and I are doing is presenting our research for our final project on Argentina. Speaking of which--I need to do that research :l Hasta mañana!
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