This morning mi madre made me an omelet to put on my tortillas. It was so delicious. It was just my parents and I for breakfast, and we sat there for at least an hour talking. Mi padre was telling me about how he can't work at all this week and maybe not even next week on a project that needs to be done by December 1 because he was running two power tools on their one teensy power box at the site and then it stopped working. The family car also stopped working this weekend while I was away. So we can't make a family trip to Bar Amigo til it's fixed. Sad times!

After breakfast came the hill. I made it to the school in 25 minutes. Go me. I had also packed a shirt to change into. Go me again. It's just a matter of time before I master this stupid hill.

In Dean's class we have been talking a lot about the atrocity that is bottled water (my love). I am going to have to give it up for the greater good, I'm afraid. Sad day for Sarah. Sad day indeed. But honestly, it takes 3 gallons of oil to produce one of those stupid bottles that are intentionally made thin and fragile so that you can't reuse them. Then we only recycle 20% of plastic bottles, leaving about 1.5 million tons of waste per year. Ridiculous.

Lunch was a grave disappointment today. It was some sort of beef stew with over-stewed veggies floating in beef fat. And beans and rice. So I ate beans and rice, and a couple of tomato pieces when the salad finally came out. Thank goodness for Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bars. And for snacks. They had the delicious jelly biscuit things and peanut butter cookies. The kitchen staff is amazing.

In English lessons today we played Pictionary (Melanie, this is another game for you and I to dominate at). We went over parts of the house, which had the potential to be a very boring lessons, but Tess and I are awesome so it wasn't. I initially thought of charades, but I think we will save that for Thursday when we go over animals.

I walked home with Tess a little after 5. It was dark and rainy by 5:20. Yay.

When I got home mi madre asked if I was ready to dance. I said of course I was! And I told her that I told all my friends about dance lessons and that they were really jealous. She thought that was funny. We chatted some about our days before the boys got home. When Kevin walked in, he did the kiss thing with me but then he was like "tuanes" (which he explained is like "pura vida") and did like a handshake/ pound thing with me. This obviously means that we are now bff. Mi madre and I were hopeful that Kaylor would be in a better mood today. Our hopes were in vain, I'm afraid. He got home all smiles and kiss-things, and then when mi madre asked if he was going to dance with us he got all fussy again. He went to bed right after dinner so that no one could harass him about dancing. Weak sauce, Kaylor! Kevin cooked us dinner. It was amazing. It was just spaghetti but he made this sauce with fresh tomatoes and cheese and a bunch of spices. It was way good. I actually finished the serving they gave me, and I was proud of myself and made sure everyone at the table knew. Then Kevin pointed out that I had left a few grains of rice (yes, beans and rice do function as a side dish to spaghetti here). Bia bia.

We were all really tired tonight for some reason. So everyone but Kaylor sat and watched the 7:00 news and I was already nodding off. Mi madre asked Kevin if he was up for dancing, but he had mentioned earlier that his back was really hurting him and so he said tomorrow night instead, which was fine by me. We kind of had dessert tonight. It was these kind of sweet pita strips with strawberry jelly. Kevin told me to eat without shame, so I had two. He is just on my case, that one.

Now I need to pass out. Homestays are exhausting.

peace love and crunchy peanut butter clif bars

hola muchachos.

I knew it was going to be a good day when they served pancakes for breakfast this morning.

Deany Weany scheduled a high tea today at 3:30. He and Kathy are fabulous hosts. We had teas, juices, cookies, cracker/ pretzel things, and cheeses. Oh yes. Today was the day to try Choco Cheese. Choco Cheese does not deserve to be called a cheese. Just try to imagine: reduced fat Kraft American cheese slices, with a hint of chocolate. And as if the texture and taste weren't enough, Choco Cheese is brown. Brown like mud. Or poop. Not like cheese. Not by any stretch of the imagination is this horrible violation of nature like cheese.

Not that I actually expected to like Choco Cheese, but I expected to be able to see how someone could possibly like it. Beyond sheer curiosity, I cannot imagine another reason why anyone in their right mind would purchase this heinous excuse for a cheese. I guess they keep in on the shelves for the crazies and the suckas in the TOURISTA taxis. And for our guide from the cheese factory. Questions? Questions?

After high tea, we went back to our homestays. Lindsay decided to be a rockstar today and give us rides home in the truck. Go Lindsay.

I got some quality one-on-one time with mi madre when I got home. She is like the cutest woman ever. I am obsessed. She showed me my babies' new home. It has two lights and much more space so no more babies will die. Yay. Then I sat in the kitchen and did some homework and chatted with mi madre while she cooked dinner. Dinner was some delicious tico version of chicken fried rice. It was delicious, but of course I failed to finish the gargantuan portion that was served to me. Kevin and Kaylor, on the other hand, did not leave a single grain of rice on their plates. And Kaylor is sick. What the heck.

After dinner, I had dancing lessons with mi madre and Kevin. Kaylor refused to dance with us like a little punk. I would have been mad at him, but he makes the cutest angry face. It's like a kissy face--he just sticks out his lips as far as they can go. Freaking adorable. He said he was too sick and tired to dance, even to a single song. I was disappointed because mi madre was going on and on about how great of a dancer Kaylor is. He ended up passing out on the couch. Hopefully he won't be so lame next time.

Mi madre has SO many dancing CDs. She loves to dance. Tonight we worked on my meringue and cumbia. First I would watch mi madre do the steps with Kevin, and then she'd pass Kevin off to me. Kevin gave me a hard time for looking at my feet too much and for forgetting to keep dancing when he was doing a turn or something, but he was nice about it. He's a good brother. I had worked up a sweat by the time we'd finished. It was so much fun. They got to experience my hyena laugh for the first time, so they are fully initiated now.

Lessons ended when Kevin couldn't dance anymore because his knee was hurting him too much. I think he messed it up playing soccer, but I could be making that up because I can't focus on my dancing and on my Spanish at the same time. So then the three of us watched the news. There was this one terrible story about how every 20 minutes, a tica gives herself an abortion. Abortions are illegal in Costa Rica because the government is still tied to the Catholic Church, but apparently that isn't stopping anyone. It was this super graphic segment with re-enactments of two girls' stories, and there were all these horrible scenes with bloody bathrooms and girls sobbing and all that. It was awful.

Okay I can't end on that note.

In happier news: today they had delicious cake and pancakes out for snacks. And in Spanish, Kathy brought me plastic spoons to eat my jar of peanut butter with. And I get to do the kiss thing every day with my brothers. And I haven't totally forgotten all my French yet. And I'm in Costa Rica. Pura vida.

ciao.

peace love and Kaylor's kissy face

hello world.

Today is my two week anniversary in Costa Rica. Craziness. It feels like I have been here so much longer than two weeks. Our halfway point for classes was on Thursday, so we only have 8 more classes with Deany Weany and Jeff. Then we have our week-long midterm break in Montezuma, and then we'll start up with Ecology. Our program is way too short.

This morning we had breakfast at 6:15. We had all the staples--coffee, eggs, fruit, gallo-pinto (beans and rice), toast, and then Geovanny busted out the peanut butter and jelly to go with our toast. He's my hero. I stole the half-eaten jar of peanut butter because I'm b.a. Also because I'm a fatty.

Then our TOURISTA taxis came and picked us up at 6:45 for our 2 hour drive to our "rafting" trip. The first hour of the ride was standard ridiculous tico roads, and then the second hour was on paved roads. It was so weird. Dean put it best when he said, "My hemorrhoids have never felt so good!" Jeff was cracking jokes today too. Mostly about our tour guide from the Monteverde Cheese Factory. Her name was Sarah and she was this awful woman with a lisp who demanded us to ask questions after every sentence she spoke. "This is where the trucks deliver milk. Questions? Questions?" "This is cheese. Questions? Questions?" "This is a room. Questions? Questions?"

So anyways, because it's the rainy season, Lindsay was worried about sending us on an actual hardcore rafting trip because the rain makes it too hardcore, and so we were sent on a class I/II river. Fat snoozefest. I mean it was fun and I laughed a lot. I was in the boat with Dean, so I was entertained. But it was really more of a pleasant sightseeing float than anything else. We saw a lot of really cool animals--about a million jesus christo lizards (the ones that run on water) and iguanas, about 5 white-faced monkeys (our guide called them "Michael Jackson monkeys"), 3 howler monkeys, a bunch of different birds, and 4 crocodiles. Yes, crocodiles. The first one we saw was just like 3 feet and our guide Jose was like shh, sometimes they swim up to the rafts. I was like you must be joking, but stayed quiet with everyone else. Then Jose saw a jesus christo lizard and tried to get it to move for us, and so he splashed his paddle when we were like 2 feet away from the frickin crocodile. I was freaking out, but the crocodile stayed put. Then the next one we saw was a fatty--like 5 feet. Again nothing happened. By the third and fourth ones I really wanted one to come swim at us, and then not eat us. Some freaking excitement would have been nice. We stopped for a fruit and water break halfway through. We really needed it after all that intensity.. but whatever the pineapple and watermelon was delicious. After an hour and a half we got out of the river and drove back to where we started to eat lunch.

Lunch was delicious. Not in the non-beans-and-rice sort of way, just in the normal delicious food sort of way. They fed me strawberry ice cream so they have a special place in my heart.

The rain held up for us all morning. This morning on the drive over Kathy said "oh it's so nice out hopefully it will hold up for us," and Dean was like, "in your dreams." Ha. He tried to freak Ann out again today in the boat using his paddle. He tried to freak me out too, but he needs to understand that my own father has made me immune to such "What's that thing crawling up your arm?!" jokes. Thanks, dad.

So 2 hour ride back was pretty horrible. I was tired, but not tired enough to pass out so I couldn't fall asleep and now my neck is sore. Cayman, Abby, and I were really looking forward to a delicious snack when we got back, but instead there was a fat basket of wet flan. Not a delicious snack. Not even close.

Now it's 4 and I need to do something productive with my life.

peace love and frijoles chivas

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my homestay family? This morning at breakfast I told my fam that I was going to Bar Amigo tonight, and mi padre was like I don't know how I feel about you going...Are you going to be a good girl? I told him of course I was, and so he gave me his permission. It's okay if you're jealous that I have the cutest tico dad ever. They made fun of me again this morning for not eating enough. Mi madre called me a little bird because I only had one [half-plate] serving of gallo-pinto and one tortilla [the size of my plate]. Then I went to leave the house and had my weekend bag with me and mi padre was like why aren't you staying here this weekend? I told him I had stuff planned all weekend with my program and he was bummed. Then mi madre and Kevin told me to have a good weekend and sent me on my way. Mi padre was working in the driveway when I left so I yelled at him, "Adios Papa!" Homestays are great.

I was looking a HOT mess when I got to campus this morning. We were supposed to be leaving campus at 9 to go to Gilbert's farm, and I left my house at 8:37. So I had 23 minutes for my 30-minute [uphill] walk and I had my weekend bag with me in addition to my backpack. So panting/ sweating was increased tenfold. I still can't figure out why I thought it was a good idea to shower this morning. I dropped off my stuff in Abs' and my new room (D1) and ran back to the comedor to fix my packed lunch. Geovanny came up and asked me how I was doing. I was still sweating and red in the face and gross, so I told him caliente but not in the way he was thinking because I couldn't remember the right way to say it. He laughed and told me 'con calor' and gave me a cookie for my lunch. Love him. Then we sat down with Lindsay and she told us she can tell we are all freaking exhausted, so she's going to ease up our schedule. So no more crazy-full days like yesterday. Woo woo!

We walked over to Gilbert's farm in Finca la Bella at like 9:45 with Lindsay and Lucas. We spent the morning listening to Gilbert tell us the history of Finca la Bella, and then he showed us his coffee plants and fed us delicious oranges. We ate our lunches there (more pb&j--so good) and then headed back to campus for a free (gasp!) afternoon. I wrote a paper for Deany and was hoping to spit out another before dinner, but that didn't happen. Oh and apparently there was a fat landslide on la trocha (the main road to Santa Elena) and so there will be no going to Bar Amigo tonight. Sad times! Cayman and I told Geovanny that we will just have to bring Bar Amigo to us. It's more likely that we will get some quality One Tree Hill time in, but who knows things could get crazy.

I was feeling sick to my stomach all afternoon so I was pretty nervous about eating dinner, but Geovanny talked me into it. We had pasta with alfredo and rice. Love me some starches. I just had some salad, beans, and pasta with the sauce. Then I went into the kitchen to get some more water and Geovanny was scooping ice cream for dessert. I knew I shouldn't have it, but I was like Geovanny, how good is the ice cream? Like even though I have been sick to my stomach all day, should I eat it? He just handed me a bowl. Then I ate it all. Crap.

Then Cayman and I ate the bread they had out. It's like a cornbread but with cranberries in it. So good.

Now I kind of feel sick again. Why do I have no self-control??

peace love and free afternoons

I slept horribly last night. I woke up like 10 times with cramps in my stomach. I think I OD'd on dairy products yesterday. Between cheese empenadas for breakfast, a latte after our hike through the reserve, cheese on my panini at lunch, cheese samples on the cheese factory tour, ice cream after the tour, and a chocolate spoon after the bat tour, I was in bad shape. Not to mention the fact that I ate virtually nothing of nutritional value before dinner. Let's not talk about it anymore.

Yesterday morning a taxi came and picked us all up for our ridiculously full day. We started with a guided hike at the Monteverde Reserve at 8:30. There were 12 of us with Dean, Kathy, Jeff, the K/Carlas, and Cheesecake (Sarah 2), so we divided into two groups. Jeff, Dean, Kathy, Tia, Ann, and I went with Oscar. Oscar is a rockstar. The man knew how to make calls for every bird and monkey in the reserve. Like good enough that they would talk back to him. So cool. We ended up seeing a yellow-bellied trogon, a male quetzal, a female quetzal, 6 spider monkeys, and like 100 hummingbirds in the hummingbird garden. The quetzals were really cool because they are super rare and you could tell it was a big deal because Oscar was freaking out making sure all the guides brought their groups to see them. Plus they are gorgeous and the national bird of Guatemala, my love. We followed the spider monkeys for a while. We spent a lot of our time right beneath them and I just knew that if someone got crapped on, it was going to be me. No one got crapped on, though, so I was graciously spared. After 3 hours of hiking in the reserve, we ended up at the hummingbird garden slash fancy coffeehouse. I figured why not indulge when I can and ordered a latte. Too bad it was straight up milk with like coffee-esque flavoring towards the bottom. You can imagine my disappointment. Then we walked across the way to a restaurant for lunch. I got a panini. I was really sketched out ordering it because the meat looked vile, but I figured turkey was a safe choice, even if the display made me want to vomit. The panini ended up being delicious. Considering I had been hungry since like 10, anything probably would have been delicious but the lacking-rice-and-beans factor didn't hurt either.

After lunch our taxis took us over to the Monteverde Women's Co-Op. Whoever scheduled our day allotted an hour and a half for a small grocery-like store, an even smaller coffee shop, and a couple of rooms full of knick-knacks. No one was less thrilled than Dean. He just sat outside the coffee shop and muttered about how dumb it was that we had so much time there. He makes me laugh. We saw the cutest dog ever at the grocery-like store. It was so teensy and clumsy. I wanted to steal it. I had a much more satisfying cup of coffee at the coffee shop. After we pissed away an hour and a half, we walked over to the Monteverde Cheese Factory. I was PUMPED for the cheese tour, because I figured there would be samples (fatty). I was not disappointed. We tried monterico (their signature cheese that's like a mozzarella), a swiss, a smoked something that I didn't particularly care for, a super mild cheddar, and caramel. I was pissed because they didn't give us samples of choco-cheese, but Dean and Kathy bought a block so we can all try it at our next high tea. They think of everything. After the tour we all got ice cream. I tried choco chip. Deliciousness. Tia got a mint chocolate chip milkshake, and then let me eat the chocolate chips from the bottom. Love her forever. Abby pointed out the fat rat-tail fest that was going on at the cheese factory. There were maybe 10 other people in the whole place and 3 guys were rocking rat-tails. Ew.

Once we'd sufficiently stuffed our faces, we walked over to the bat jungle. It had started raining at this point, but I was prepared with my rain jacket and my umbrella-ella-ella-ae-ae-ae (download Marie Digby's version of the song asap). The bat jungle was pretty cool, and the rat-tail fest continued. Our guide had a fatty that was all wrapped in string and everything. Barf-o. He also had a funny accent and I really wanted him to say toot de fruit. I can't figure out where that's from, though. Charlie? I feel like you should know. There was this one part of the tour where you sit on a stool and "experience a bat's sense of hearing." So Tia was one of the first ones to sit down and we were all whispering stuff to see if she could hear, and Cayman and I heard Dean say, "Tia, I want your body." We were dying laughing, especially after Abby informed us that we had heard wrong. So then we went into the actually bat exhibit, where they have like a hundred fruit bats. It's this really dark room to simulate the night so the bats will be active. At one point, I heard Ann say, "Dean, did you just bite me?" Bahaha I did not mishear this time. Dean loves trying to freak us out. He told Ann, "Oh my gosh did you see that giant escaped bat on your shoulder?! I just saved your life!" Haha the man provides endless hours of entertainment. I am dreading him not being here in a couple of weeks.

Other fun facts about bats: there are more bats in Costa Rica than there are birds. Bats eat and poop continuously when they are flying. A fruit bat eating a papaya poops out pinkish organge guano. Bats hang upside down because they drop to start flying, whereas birds have to jump up. Bats are most closely related to monkeys, not mice/ rodents. A colony of bats can eat up to two tons of insects in any given night. Bats can be as small as a bee or up to 6 feet in wingspan. Bah!

Upstairs from the bat museum there was a gift shop, a super nice chocolate shop/ restaurant, and the Quaker museum. I didn't even go into the Quaker museum. Apparently it's this super ghetto display of papers tacked to the walls, and the back room is all blank walls. Not really my thing. Instead I bought a chocolate spoon and enjoyed myself. Very much my thing.

Then I went to my homestay familia. I was freaking exhausted before we even sat down to eat dinner. And not hungry at all. But mi madre made me a plate of food, so I felt obligated to eat some. I ate the chicken and the potatoes, but I couldn't force-feed myself rice. I felt really bad leaving a half of plate of rice, but I would have felt worse puking all over the dinner table so yeah. After dinner we watched TV. I have noticed that the same handful of people is on every single show we watch. Patito Feo is like an actual show with story lines, but the characters are also in music videos during commercials and in competitions with each other in different time slots. Then there is this one woman who does the celeb news and also judges competitions and hosts other random things. It's bizarre. But we were watching TV and mi padre was like Sarah, are you okay? You look so sad. I told him I was just tired, and then a few minutes later he called me out because I was having a really hard time keeping my eyes open. I caved, and excused myself for bed. Mi madre was like but I was going to teach you to dance tonight!, but I was so tired, so I told her rain check for Monday night. It was like 8:30, but I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. Then came the aforementioned horrible sleep. Good times.

Life is so great.

peace love and guano.