Today was a very very long day. Bear with me.
This morning we woke up super early for our 6:45 am breakfast. I put on some bumpin tunes to get Abs and I moving. Apparently, our fellow Bungalow D residents had not woken up before Rihanna came blaring through the paper-thin walls. Oops.
Super delicious breakfast, but what's new. El cafe, las frutas, los huevos, el pan, el gallo pinto, y la marmalada. After breakfast, we got into our taxis that read "TOURISTAS" across their backs. Nice. We [slowly] made our way over to the Quaker colegio on the tico roads made of rocks and potholes. The school is way cute. It's a private school for pre-K through 12th grade, and there are 95 students total. The assistant director of the school, Risa, took us on a tour. First we went and saw the pre-Ks and kindergartners. Freaking precious. The woman who teaches them does Montessori-style teaching and alternates weeks speaking in English and Spanish. I want her job. Can't you see me doing that? So anyways we sat in on the high school "town meeting," which is where the students discuss various topics pertaining to school policies, after-school activities, etc. There were two "clerks" who led the meeting, and it was like pulling nails when they tried to get any feedback whatsoever. Everyone was just too cool to care. This one clerk was so adorable. I felt bad for him. Oh and also there was a Jesse Pisor look-alike taking minutes. I wanted to give him a hug because Jesse is my favorite person to get hugs from, but I resisted. After the town meeting we went into the Quaker meeting room, and Risa gave us the lowdown on Quakers. Would someone please tell me what the catch is? Why do we think Quakers are weirdos in the US? She explained it as being a way of life as opposed to a religion, with a focus on peace, pacifism, honesty, truth, etc. They have these "meetings" where they spend an hour in silence, and if you feel so inclined you may stand and preach a message. This message is not pre-planned, and may or may not include references to Jesus or even to God. Quakers can be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever. They have these meetings every Wednesday morning from 9-10 and every Sunday morning from 10-12. We are going to one. Tomorrow night, they are having a pizza dinner and a talent show so we will most definitely be hitting that up.
After the Quaker school we had like a half hour before our taxis came to get us so we ran over to the cheese factory for a mid-morning snack. Oh yes, at 9:30 in the morning we were all stuffing our faces with ice cream. I had mint chocolate chip. Oh my gosh it was so good. I really want to go back and try the "fried cheese." Apparently it's delicious. As are their milkshakes and cheesecake and just about everything else they have.. Yikes. There was one question mark, though. They sell "choco cheese." What. It's packaged like American cheese, but it's brown and makes me want to vomit. Apparently they just started producing it last year in hopes of appealing to tourists. Lo siento makers of delicious dairy products, but this tourista thinks that shiz is loco.
Insert more off-roading in old school taxi bus here.
We had one more esquela to stop at before lunch. It was a public professional and technical colegio. Unfortunately for us, we arrived just as the entire student body was getting on buses to leave for a band performance they had this afternoon. We didn't let that rain on our parade, though. We had a tour with the cutest little man named Heraldo. He was great and got so pumped whenever he said anything in English right. We got the history of the school and a basic run-down on the Costa Rican public school system. In Costa Rica, most public schools go from February to December and most schools only have half-days. You are only required to go to school through the 6th grade, and public schools only offer up through 11th grade. You know how I love fun facts. So we went on this nice little hike on a trail they have on campus. I very intelligently donned my rainbows this morning as we were getting ready, so hiking was good for me. We saw the most ginormous tree on the trail. It's this monster tree that actually starts out as an innocent-looking vine, then finds a tree to latch onto, and then conquers. Badass.
For lunch we went to Lucia's. For our appetizer, we had tortillas with beans, veggies, and the freshest guacamole and salsa ever. Then I had the eggplant con queso. It was so incredible, except thinking about it now really makes me nauseated. It was rich like you would not believe. And I just went to town. I was apparently really having cheese withdrawals. Jenny J, I think only you can appreciate this. So yeah I ate my weight in cheesy goodness, felt like I couldn't eat another bite, and then had cake. And not just any cake. Tres leches cake. I was kind of freaked out when they brought me a cake that was leaking slash forming a puddle on my plate, but then I took a bite and did not look back. Sometimes I wish I had self-control.
After lunch we went to the butterfly garden. It was pouring rain, but the whole first half of our tour was inside with all of the gross bugs and insects (two different things, remember?). Tarantulas, beetles, and cochroaches--oh my. Not to mention the praying mantus that ate a pregnant fly. As the praying mantus was going to town on the mama fly, all of these maggots were just pouring out of its mouth. Sick nasty. Then our guide Zack goes, "Oh man. Check out the babies playing with their dead mom's wing. That would be like if you were born and your mom was being eaten by a lion." Really, Zack? Really? Zack was crazy passionate about all of the different bugs and insects, and it made me want to find what the heck it is that I could be so passionate about. At one point, he grabbed a moth off of the wall and put it on the web of this huge spider in one ridiculously fluid movement so that we could watch the spider eat. And eat she did. She raced over to the panicked moth and wrapped that baby up in silk, but not before injecting it with her venom to kill it. It was pretty sweet. After that we went through the actual butterfly gardens, where we got to release the butterflies that were ready to be released. Very cool.
Then we went to this weird conservation talk. I think it was a conservation talk anyways. Something about the children's rainforest? I wish I could tell you what happened, but I'm pretty sure we all nodded off at one point or another. Yikes. I felt bad for the very strange man who was doing the power point. But I mean he seemed to be having a good time. He laughed a lot--at himself. Plus he had on this great hat. It was like a houndstooth newsboy cap. How can you not be having a good time in a hat like that? What mostly freaked me out about him though was his really disgustingly long pinky nails. All other nails were normal lengths, and then there were those pinkies. Ew. I don't want to talk about it. They had snacks, so I guess that was nice. He also had a semi-cool story about how he came to be in Costa Rica. It sounded to me like he was a fat hippie back in the day. Unfortunately, 43 years later, he is giving power points to sleeping audiences. And doing cocaine--question mark?
After the thrilling power point, we all decided that Bar Amigo was probably not going to happen tonight. Well, Tia and new Sarah went to town in hopes of watching the debate on tv, but the rest of us came back for dinner and One Tree Hill. We started season one tonight, and I am loving it. It's about time I understand the incestuous relationships of Lucas, Nathan, Peyton, Brooke, and Haley. Quality stuff right thur.
There is a new fam on campus. The momma teaches at the University of Utah, and so Dean found it appropriate to jump up and give her a cheer-- arm movements and all. The man just gets better every day. I can't get enough of him. Dinner was good but I wasn't that hungry and I don't want to talk about what we ate because I feel sick. I know exactly why I am feeling sick, too. Last night, the hot chocolate made me SO sick-- to the point that it woke me up in the middle of the night. Then tonight, because I have no self-control, I talked myself into having half of what I had last night. Did I take the hint when I went to pour the hot chocolate and the spout was clogged with cow fat? Of course not. Did I take the hint when I went to take my first sip and had to stop and spoon out a piece of skin/ cow fat? Of course not. I went right on drinking until that last quarter inch that was chunky enough to make me stop. So gross. Tonight's dessert was rice pudding. I still am not sure if I liked it. I think I did. I mean I finished it. I just don't know how I feel about the texture..
Wow I just re-read that and I sound REALLY fat. I'm going to go drown my sorrows in cake or something.
Deuces.
peace love and choco cheese.
