day 33: paseo de flores

after class, steve, the 3 europeans (sara, sabastian, and moritz) and i headed to paseo de flroes, the mall in heredia. before we caught the bus to town we stopped at the plaza and played futbol with a group of 10 or so students. it was pretty intense and i was lucky enough to have one kid kick the ball at my head numerous times. when we got to the mall, we ate at the food court there which was a mecca for american eateries, they had subway, quiznos, pizza hut, burger king, and taco bell. after that we looked at the shops which sold a bunch of overpriced clothes. we all decided to buy costa rican soccer jerseys to show our pride in the country. after the mall i headed home to read and work out. we met up at alex´s at 9pm and decided to head to bulevar, a bigger and nicer bar in the city. we had the same group of 5 go out and it was cool to get the europeans perspective on lots of different events like the war in iraq, stereotypes, soccer etc. all 4 of us we wearing our jerseys we bought earlier in the day and taking a ton of pictures. we were probably the most obnoxious groups there but ít was one of the best nights i´ve had in costa rica.

day 32: esoj nas

water rappelling got cancelled AGAIN. this time it´s rescheduled for friday morning at 8:30. class is cancelled that day and i was looking forward to sleeping in but i guess that won´t happen because the company already has my $45. since my plans for the afternoon i tried to make the most of my day. everyone else was out late the night before so they all headed home to take naps. i figured it´d be a good idea to head to san jose and check it out seeing as it is the nation´s capital. the student coordinator tried to convince me it was too dangerous to go alone but i didn´t want to just sit around all day doing nothing, especially since i only have 2 more afternoons left. i grabbed a city map with a few spots circled and hopped on the bus which takes about 30 minutes. the next 2 hours i walked around the city looking at some of the cultural things like the teatro nacional and various plazas. nothing too great but oh well. then, an ''american'' named ricky approached me and gave me some sob story about how he got robbed and if i could spare a few dollars. being the sucked i am i ended up buying him a medium pizza for $8. after that he tried to con me out of more money but i said no and left. i wasn´t sure when the next busy came so i flagged a taxi back to town. met a nice guy who then proceeded to take the longest way possible back to san joaquin. i knew he was running up the meter but there´s really nothing i could´ve done. it ended up being about 5,500 ($11) colones when last time it only cost 4,000 ($8). it could´ve been worse but i guess you have to expect that being a tourist. i have so much homework tonight but at least there´s only 1 more day of class left. the key will be to continue practicing when i get back, but who knows. i would kind´ve like to so i didnt waste the past 5 weeks. anyone know if they offer spanish lessons cheap anywhere in houston, if so let me know. tonight is noche de vaquero and i´m expecting big things and hopefully denny´s ha

day 31: school is getting old

all i know is that school is getting really boring right now. i think i´m about burned out on learning spanish for 4 hours a day...ever day. i didn´t do too much tuesday, just your typical day. we did get pizza at a local place, loncho´s, which was really good. after that checked all my flight info, made sure i had a ride from the airport and headed home to study. before dinner i headed to the gym because i had signed up for a spinning class at 7pm. this was probably the funniest thing i´ve experienced in a long while. first off, the guy teaching the class was dressed like he was competing in the tour de france and he played the worst music i´ve ever heard. his idea of a song to pump up the class was that spice girls song ''if you want to be my lover''. it was an hour long so it was a good workout, maybe even tougher than hester´s class but i dont know. after that, i headed up, took a shower, ate dinner and was too tired to go out. that´s probably a good thing because steve didn´t get home until his mom was going on her morning run. i don´t think i could´ve done class if that happened to me.

day 30: change of perspectives

my first night in costa rica was spent at a b&b in san joaquin and when i got here all i could think of was how small the town was, how few restauraunts there were and how different it was than texas. now, a month later and having spent 3 weeks in monteverde, a town of 8,000 or so people, i feel like im in a huge city with all the amenities i could possibly want. i guess thats what happens when you spend time in another country, you start to appreciate the little things more. the first week or so all i could think about was how i would be without dr. pepper, air conditioning, tv etc. forever but now im starting to realize that i can do just fine without those things (i think at least). the school shrunk by a good number of people this week. 4 of the 5 people we typically hung out with left for other places but we did get 3 new people from across europe that are pretty cool. after today i only have 4 days left here, which is really weird to think about. my time here has been incredible but that doesnt mean im not ready to get back home.

day 29: manuel antonio part 2

slept in until 10am and made a deal with the manager of our hotel. we were suppose to checkout at 11am but our bus didnt leave until 5pm. the problem: where do we put our bags for those six hours. he said we could leave them in his office and get them around 3 or so. we figured since we only had one more day at the beach we ought to enjoy the sun as much as possible while we can. the day was spent mainly the same as before except steve took surf lessons for a few hours and i rented a boogie board because its easier and cheaper. we had lunch at the marlin yet again and relaxed as much as we could. we caught the 3 oclock bus back to our hotel, took a shower in the pool, changed clothes and headed in to catch our bus in quepos. it came to be 5:30 and our bus still hadnt shown so we started to get a little worried. come to find out it would never show and we were forced to combine the 5 and 5:30 buses. what does this mean, it means that several people didnt have seats. for instance i had a ticket for seat 30 but so did a lady for the 5:30 bus. this gave steve and i the wonderful opportunity to stand up for the entire trip back to san jose. the normal person would complain but we decided to make the best of the situation by talking to everyone else standing and annoying those with seats. while standing we got a great view of the driver and his lack of ability in operating a huge vehicle. we witness him blow past motorocycles, and perform his infamous move: the 5 car pass while going around a curve uphill. we did not complain though because it allowed us to make it back in the world record time of 3 hours with 1 stop. a few 45 minutes faster than it took us to get there. once in san jose we had to get connected with our return bus to san joaquin and we didnt have a bus schedule on us. regardless we waited at the stop for 15 to 20 minutes at 9:30 at night with our bags. we were basically bullseyes and shouldve been wearing a shirt that said rob me, please. after 2 locals came up to us and told us that the area was muy peligroso (dangerous) we decided to take a taxi home which only cost us $8. i made it home by 10pm, took a shower and layed down for at least 2 hours before i finally went to sleep. i was so exhausted but this weekend was probably the best ive had here, even though our transportation cancelled, the hotel lost our reservation, and we had to stand up for 3 hours in a public bus. good times, cant believe i dont have another weekend left in this country.

day 28: quepos and manuel antonio

we woke up at 8:30 and hopped on the bus to manuel antonio. our first stop was the parque nacional which is known as the most popular tourist location in the country. they have a ton of hiking trails, private beaches, waterfalls, and animals liek iguana, white face monkeys etc. before we even got in we saw tons of iguanas around and a few exotic birds. we didnt get a guide so we followed behind groups that had guides and tried to listen to any good info they shared. finally we got behind a group we thought was heading to the catarata (waterfall) and followed them out a gate. come to find out they werent going to the waterfall but were exiting the park. now in order to get back in we had to walk all the way around to the entrance which we thought wasnt worth it so we werent able to see any white faced monkeys. we grabbed lunch at a place on the water called marlin which had incredible chicken fingers with wing sauce. we would return to this restauraunt 3 more times over the course of 2 days. we rented some chairs on the beach for the day and relaxed, listened to music and just hung out for a while. later on we got in the water and watched a few of the surfers. for the night we headed back to mar y sombra where i rain into chloe a girl that studied with me in monteverde. steve and i hung out with her and her sister. around 1am we were lucky enough (note: sarcasm) to witness 4 or 5 ticos get in a fight. in college station they would immediately stop it and kick out the people but in central america apparently they allow people to settle their differences with a few punches. night ended around 2am after some salchichon and tortillas.

day 27: bus to manuel antonio

friday started with us finding out that we didnt have the transportation coming that we had scheduled the day before. this meant steve and had to leave class at 10pm, run home and grab our bags, catch a bus to san jose and buy our tickets for the 12pm bus to manuel antonio. the 12pm was full so we ended up getting on the 1:15. ill admit i was a little wary of riding a public costa rican bus for 3.5 hours but it ended up being alright. other than the fact that the 3 year old next to me threw up 3 times and there was a 45'50 year old couple who insisted on taking pulls of cocique and making out for 20 or so minutes. we stopped once and ended up making incredible time, getting there a little before 5:00. we were feeling a little parched so we stopped by a local bar and hung out and talked to locals for an hour or so before catching a bus to our hotel, the infamous hotel california. insert disappointment #2: they had our reservation set for monday to wednesday even we though we talked to them twice to confirm everything. we then walked to down the road about 2km to another hotel that had a vacancy. it ended up being a nice place and about $20 cheaper per night so we couldnt complain. it had AC, hot showers, lots of english channels etc. we hopped in the pool and decided to head into town eat and then go to the local hangout mar y sombra. we ate at a local soda (small restauraunt) and practiced our spanish with some of the locals. this was when a local doctor invited us to his house for dinner the next night. mar y sombra is an outdoor bar, dancehall place on the beach that has been around 30 plus years and was recommended to us by lots of guides. it wasnt too much fun and we were tired from the bus ride so we headed home around 11pm.

days 25 and 26: wednesday/thursday

wednesday
today was suppose to be the day we went waterfall repelling but that didn't end up happening because there was a 3 hour long downpour that afternoon. after boarding the bus, driving 45 minutes and walking 1/2 a mile our guide told us that we wouldn't be able to cross the 2 rivers to get to the waterfall. he told us the river is normally 10 cm deep and it was now 3 meters due to all the rain. instead we got to hike around for an hour and then head back home. i think we're going to reschedule for next friday morning because it doesn't usually rain until after 2. after we got back steve and i worked out at the gimnasio again. for the night, 15 or so students headed to fiesta because it is "cowboy night" every wednesday. they had a mechanical bull and everyone was wearing boots and trying to two step, it was hilarious. sure i don't know how to salsa but at least i can two step...sortve. after we hung out there for a while and watched the bull riding contest we decided to get a taste of america and eat at the denny's which is conveniently located nextdoor. the funny thing is in costa rica denny's is a really nice restauraunt, everything costs $10 or more. the only people that typically eat at denny's in college station are senior citizens and drunk college students at around 3am, but i decided not to tell them that. for some reason my credit card didn't work there and i had already ordered my food so i had to get someone to cover me, this was really frustrating.

thursday
i decided to sleep in today and not go to school until after break at 10am. this was probably one of the best decisions of my time here, it was awesome to get to sleep in until 9 and i didn't really miss anything at school. after showing up late the rest of my day flew by. after school we headed to heredia which is the closest big city to san joaquin de flores. it's about a 15 minute bus ride and one of the most polluted cities i've ever seen. i think it's because 80% of the cars on the road are buses and they probably don't have tough emissions standards here. we heard they had lots of american fast food places in town so we decided to eat at pizza hut which tasted exactly like back home. it was really good to eat at two normal places in 2 days. the girls in my class told me that they even had dr. pepper at one of the supermarkets in town so we went on a 45 minute adventure to find it, only to come up empty handed. we asked at least 10 locals but none of them had a clue where automercado was. disappointed, we headed back to san joaquin, but i figured ive gone 4 weeks without my favorite beverage what's 10 more days. i decided to catch up on my reading and homework tonight because i've kind've been slacking off lately. i got home talked to my family for an hour or so and was asleep by 10pm.

day 24: whats up with these showers

after classes we went and ate with a group of students at super snack´s again. same good food, but we need to switch it up some. then we headed back to cpi where i got on the internet, did my homework, and tried to figure out our plans for manuel antonio this weekend. we booked a room at the infamous hotel california, i don´t think it has anything to do with the song but it does have hot water, air conditioning, and 20 plus english channels. then scuba and i hit up the gimnasio, it was good to get some exercise besides walking. i got home and took a shower which is always an experience here. they have 2 separate rooms at my house, one for the toilet and one for the shower which is pretty convenient. however, the shower room doesn´t have a curtain or anything so i ended up flooding the bathroom again. there are also 2 hoses connected to the shower head that disperse water but i haven´t figured out how to turn those off either. after that i hung out, did some homework and got my hermana tica to help me with my homework. she´s studying english but she can only talk about as good as i can in espanol, which is no good. tonight we also discovered that steve has over 20 channels in english, including hbo and every news station imagineable. we spent our night watching fox news trying to figure out what has been going on in the world the past 4 weeks which was cool. i didn´t get to see everything but i know bombs are flying in lebanon and bush dropped a curse word i believe. other than that i´m clueless so please inform me. also found out that i dont have school next friday (the day before i fly home) due to a holiday, i think the annexation of guanacasta. that is neat. also the internet is really slow here so i can´t upload pics daily but i´ll try to in a few days. see you tomorrow.

day 23: back to junior high

new school, new class. i'm one of 4 students in my class ages ranging from 12-15, i'm a year older than the profesor. i feel old and im only 22. there's definitely a different level of maturity in this class, and by a different level i mean no maturity. for 20 minutes they drew faces on their hands and talked like hand puppets. i didn't mind having classes with the 50-60 year olds but this is going to be way different. two of the girls are from the bahamas and all they can talk about is dancing and reggae music but to each her own. i think what makes me most upset is that these little kids know more spanish than me ha. the majority of class time was spent reviewing to make sure everyone was on the same page. after class steve and i walked throughout the town, hit up the supermarket, got a membership to a gym here for $5/week. then the rain hit, steve's family said it rains here everyday at 230pm and as i'm typing this it's 2:21 and just begun to rain. i headed back to my place to do my homework, talked with the family and ate dinner. they're such a nice family and i'm happy to be living with them, even if steve's family is more outgoing. for the night we met up with 5 or so students at alex's and they told us they were going to the casino for the night. we figured what the heck and took a taxi there, which cost $4. it's pretty much like a normal casino except when you walk in they don't id anyone, which was weird because there was a high school student in our group. i think i gambled about $1 and we mainly just sat around, talked, and watched people which was pretty entertaining. they had a house band with some of the most interesting instruments i've ever seen, one guy just beat a stick on a metal can for a while. for me the highlight was definitely when a man proposed to a lady on the stage. i thought it was an interesting place to propose but then again, i've never proposed so what do i know. taylor said maybe it had some special meaning to them, but yet again, i dont know. after that some locals taught steve and i two of the basic salsa steps, which everyone knows how much i love to dance (note: sarcasm). we took a cab home around 1am, good first night i guess.