tuanis.

This is the second morning in a row that Abby and I have been awakened by a stupid woodpecker slamming its stupid beak up against our window.

This morning was a huevo morning. Fried huevos, to be exact. I made a delicious breakfast burrito with a tortilla, gallo pinto, fried huevo, natilla, and the red sauce. It was incredible. Envy me. I also had three cups of coffee because I was so freaking tired this morning.

After breakfast I had an hour and a half to study before I took my Ecology midterm. After about a half an hour I realized that there was no more I could do in the way of studying so I asked Scott if I could go ahead and take it. He gave me my prompt and sent me off into the woods to go sit and meditate and write an essay. 2 hours and 4 pages later, I was done. I rewarded myself with treats from my box of goodies.

After a lunch of rice and beans and veggies and ensalada, Ann, Abby, Cayman, and I went outside to wait for our taxi to go into Santa Elena for the afternoon. The stupid taxi man was 20 minutes late and did not even apologize. He was also wearing these orange sunglasses that matched his orange shirt. Tool.

We made a stop at Rio Shanti on the way over to Santa Elena so we could buy more awesome quaker/ hippie goodies. We exercised a bit more self control this time, but then ended up complaining for the rest of the day about how we should have bought more stuff from Rio Shanti. There were these pants that were absolutely made for Cayman and they were so flippin cute, but they were also flippin overpriced so she didn't buy them. I bet she wishes she'd bought them now--Abby and I whined all day about how she should have gotten them and how awesome they were. Ha. Sorry, Cayms. (But seriously they were SO cute I wish you had gotten them)

In Santa Elena, we picked through all of the tourist crap and managed to unearth some pretty good stuff. I can't go into detail because some of you will be receiving presents, but what I can tell you is that I will be returning to the US with twenty dollars worth of Chikys, Yippys, and Salsa Lizano, my favorite tico treats. I might share with you if you are really nice to me. But don't hold your breath because this stuff is like plastic-wrapped gold.

At 3:30, we headed over to the Ranario (frog zoo) to meet up with Scott and the K/Carlas and the teacher of the new group on campus and one of his estudiantes, Heidi. The frog zoo was pretty cool. Mostly because one of the guys who worked there had the biggest rattail we have seen yet. Oh my gosh I swear it was at least a foot long. Just a fatty dread right down his back. It was beyond disgusting. We were enthralled, but couldn't get a picture because he sat down before we could whip a camera out. Sad times! We also saw lots of frogs, which was cool. There were at least 2 that Scott freaked out over because they are rare and he'd never seen one before in person. Scott showed me the one that he does most of his research on, aka his favorite. Our guide was this girl with a crazy big vocabulary and an even bigger attitude. I felt like our very existence bugged the crap out of her.

After the Ranario we parked our taxi at the supermercado so Scott and teacher man could run inside for a minute. The K/Carlas jumped out too and told us adios. We have no idea where they went. While we were waiting, we talked to Heidi about our rat tail fetish and One Tree Hill obsession and other such vital aspects of our character. Then she told us about how she got pick pocketed in San Jose--someone stole her camera and her iPod. Sucks! She also told us about how the other two girls in her group got all of their stuff stolen because someone held a butcher's knife to their throats. And this went down in the little town they stayed in for homestays--one of those everyone knows everyone towns. Ah! If that happened to me I would probably book myself a plane ride home. I would freak out. Maybe that makes me lame, but it's just this thing I have about butcher's knives near my neck. I'm not so much a fan.

On the way home our taxi driver was playing some really great music. We had some Barbie Girl action and Smash Mouth and Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson. I dedicated Kelly Clarkson to Scott and he was really pumped. Slash could not have been unhappier with his life, but who's counting? After my ballad, the driver switched the playlist to Reggaeton so that I could not sing along. He accidentally turned on one of my most favorite songs, though--Fotografia, but when I yelled "I LOVE THIS SONG!" it was immediately switched to the next song. Someone was sipping on that hater-ade. Fo sho.

So we get back to campus and it is pitch black outside, but I have four bags of retail therapy in my hands so Cayman, Ann, and I make the hike back to the bungalows to drop everything off before we sit down for dinner. We make it back to Bungalow D easy enough, but then as I am stomping across our porch I step on something squishy and hear the most horrible SQUEEEEAK. I look down and see that I have stepped on a foot-long dead bird! I was traumatized. It was so horrible I wanted to cry and puke and kill myself all at once. But just for the record it was definitely dead before I got there. I just squeezed the air out of its lungs. Still I am a horrible person for it. Judge away.

For dinner we had rice and beans and cheese empanadas and veggies and ensalada. It was way good. For postre we had tres leches cake seeped in rum. Rather delicious in my very esteemed opinion.

Then there was this blur of chocolates and cookies and peppermint bark. I blame my father for any pounds gained at this point.

It's 9:30 and I am freaking exhausted. Pathetic. I have a Spanish composition to write tomorrow.. yay. And library work day in the morning. Double yay. As much as I want this week to drag on forever because my program ends at the end of it, I REALLY just want it to be over so I can be done with classes and tests and such. I am about to throw down on Friday night. I deserve a good throw down.

peace love and foot long rat tails