hey

Last night we were all hoping for this fabulous homecoming meal. We were immensely disappointed. It was so weak. We had salad, boiled yuca (potato-like vegetable, but not really), beans, rice, and questionable-looking ribs. So I ate beans and rice and a little bit of yuca but felt nauseous afterwards. Ugh what the crap, kitchen staff? They kind of made up for dinner with dessert--banana bread. Mmm.

So surely we were going to have a fabulous homecoming breakfast, then. False. The main course was plantains, which I did not eat because I am trying to atone for the week of feasting in Montefuma. So I was left with fruit and gallo pinto. There was also farmer's cheese floating around, but farmer's cheese isn't like real cheese. It's this incredibly bland, leaking triangle of cheese-like texture. I'm more of an emmenthal or a brie girl. It's just this weird thing I have- I like my cheeses flavored.

We started round two of classes today. We are all taking Ecology this semester, so that's weird-- having all six of us in one class. I feel like I'm not able to get the attention I need in such a large class, but life goes on I suppose. So Ecology professor is Scott. He actually studied abroad in Costa Rica for his undergrad. The man is intense. He talks about a mile a minute and is ready to fit as much material as he possibly can into the limited time we have left. He kinda freaked out yesterday when he realized that he only has two lab days, but no worries- he is making them into four lab sessions and will find time for more during our field trip next week.

We had our field trip orientation yesterday afternoon. I am frightened. Our days are jam-packed with 6 am bird watchings, three-hour hikes during the day, and then night hikes and black light lectures in lieu of sleep. And we are doing all this without access to warm water, electricity, or much of anything for that matter. I am seriously going to die. I can only imagine the facial expression I was offering to poor Fabrisio, our TA for the week, as he went into immense detail about each day. Fabrisio works on campus, but we haven't really had any interaction with him before now. His English is rockin. Apparently he has an American wife, which would explain his effortless uses of "en route," "the idea is to..," etc. I obviously need a Spanish-speaking husband. Or French. Actually, both would be nice.. So yeah 7 days of getting my butt kicked all over northern Costa Rica. Sweet. We leave on Sunday- so I will be training until then. Pray for me.

I started Spanish lessons back up today. Rachel, a resident naturalist, has taken Kathy's place so I am not alone. She's super sweet. I hope she doesn't bail--yesterday she was getting pretty frustrated at not being able to find the words she needed. But I can tell she's a trooper. Lessons themselves went surprisingly well. Turns out all I needed was a good dose of Carla to get my Spanish back on track. We are starting with the subjunctive, though, which blows. And we have an oral presentation on Thursday. Ugh.

My schedule for this half is ridiculous. After breakfast, I have Ecology then Spanish back-to-back, and then I'm done with my day. It's so nice. Today I did my Spanish homework and then went back to the bungalows and curled up and read my book. My life rules.

Lunch was pretty good-- veggies, rice, garbanzo beans, salad--the usual. They had cookies out, but I resisted. A personal first. Go me.

We were really hyped for dinner because we could smell and hear something being fried. It was fried chicken. Good stuff. We also had rice and beans and salad and veggies. Then for dessert sweet Diana brought us ice cream. We had the choice (!!) of chocolate or macadamia. I went for the macadamia. So good.

After dinner the ecology crew had a movie night that we were invited to (gasp!). So Annie-poo, Abby, Tia, and I represented LLC and came and ate all their popcorn. We watched Amor/ Perros, which was so weird and so long. Ann and I dipped out early because we were falling asleep.

So now it's time for bed.

peace love and macadamia ice cream

Hey people.

My Spanish was shot to hell this past week. Montezuma isn't really a Spanish-speaking place. Like even when we tried speaking Spanish to the guy in the convenient store or our waiters or anyone else for that matter, they would respond in English. Even when we continued to speak in Spanish, they continued to speak in English. So we gave up after about two days and embraced our whiteness. I didn't realize what a problem this was until Geovanny came to talk to me in the biblioteca about an hour ago and I couldn't understand a freaking word he was saying without having him slow down and repeat it. It was beyond pathetic. Weak sauce provided today by yours truly.

Okay so when we last spoke I was contemplating calzones. Contemplation was made reality, and oh my gosh were they good. Tess and I split one stuffed with veggies and cheese and all sorts of goodness. These loser gringos at the table next to us made some comment about how the calzones were as big as their thighs. We should have told them what was up, but instead we busied ourselves with our thigh-size calzones and were just loving life.

Also at the restaurant they have a clown. A clown with full-on face paint and a red rubber nose and balloon animals. Beyond creepy, especially considering there were no children at the restaurant. Tia thought he was sexy.

After calzone fest, we went on a quest to find dessert. The supermercado and the convenient store were both closed, so our dreams of a dark chocolate bar were squashed. We went over to our dirt cheap haven only to be vastly disappointed by their lack of dessert options. I got a chocolate banana milkshake that was missing its shake. Sad times.

To lift our spirits, we decided to give Chicos a go. It was reggae night in the land of potheads, so that was interesting.. The entire back half of the bar was populated with sketchballs. Hardcore sketchballs that sketched off behind the building in groups of 3 or 4 frequently. They were FEELIN the music. I was entertained.

Also at Chicos we met one of the gringos that Tia went to the waterfall with. She called him "Country," but we later found out that his real name is "Slade." Seriously. Slade. The guy was a fat skeeze. He is 32 and is head-over-heels in love with himself. He was wearing one of those awful Abercrombie tee shirts that scream IM A TOOL, and his arms were shaved. A highly esteemed alum of LSU (Victoria please do not go to LSU), Slade drawled about his short-lived stint in the NFL in true narcissist fashion. There was also a string of 3 sentences that had the phrase "my exercise" thread through it about 7 times. I really thought I was going to barf. I had had more than enough of Slade after Thursday night, but every time we turned around homeboy was there. Seriously we saw him at least 10 more times before we left Montezuma, and every time he was in an increasingly more ridiculous outfit: flame bandana paired with a giant tooth necklace, under armor hat/ shirt/ wristband (all worn together of course), and my personal favorite: a blue and orange sarong skirt with a fringe. You can't make this stuff up.

Surfing in the morning was entertaining for Cayman and I. We met up with Christian, the instructor, in town at 8 and hiked over to Playa Grande. Playa Grande is the dirtiest beach I have even been to in my life. It was disgusting. I had a hard time finding a place to sit amongst all of the plastic and discarded tires, and ended up with a soaking wet towel from trying to sit within the tide's reach. Cayman and I lasted about an hour watching the rest of the girls' commendable attempts at surfing, then we headed back for a mid-morning pick-me-up. This pick-me-up came in the form of a "Mocha Chiller," a sign that God does indeed exist. Homemade frozen yogurt, a shot of espresso, and hot fudge. Words cannot express the immense satisfaction that is to be gained from this libation of the gods. So I'll stop trying now.

After the surfer girls got back, we sat down at Sano Banano for lunch. Abby and I split the most amazing vegetable quesadillas with guacamole, pico de gallo, and bean dip. We were super obnoxious and kept fawning over them, but we couldn't help it! They were that good. Tess got a veggie burger and Tia got the buddha burrito, but I could tell they had food envy. Rightfully so.

I spent the afternoon by the pool reading and listening to music and loving life. I think we squeezed in some One Tree Hill time as well. Then we all got cute and went out to dinner. Back to Sano Banano. Abs and I went for round two of veggie quesadillas. Tess and Ann split an order of them as well, and Tia got an order for herself. I'm telling you: they were that good. Sano Banano was having another movie night, but on this particular evening they were playing "Don't Mess with the Zohan." We asked to be seated as far away from the screen as possible.

After dinner we returned to our hotel for a OTH fix. Tess and Tia went back to Chicos, but the rest of us just weren't feelin it. Real life can wait. Give me Tree Hill or give me death.

Yesterday morning we decided to try out a new place for breakfast. We went to the bakery at the edge of town, and ordered lots of delicious-sounding things. Too bad the bakery BLOWS. Oh my gosh the server was garbage, a level of garbage only comparable to the food we were served. I ordered eggs with tomatoes and herbs and toast. I received herbs with 3 pieces of tomato with an egg-like texture and stale toast. Buzz kill. They did have resident monkeys, though. White-faced monkeys that had a whole playground set up right next to our table.

They also had the stupid Montezuma birds. When we first got to Montezuma, we thought these creatures were pretty. They are blue and black and white with long tail feathers and little tufts of black feathers on their heads. They are not afraid of humans, and have no problem sitting within a few feet of you. One morning, I was sitting on our porch in a rocking chair eating yogurt and granola just minding my own business and enjoying the ocean, and one of the birds came and perched itself on the porch railing. I paid it no mind, until all of a sudden it attacked. Like flew right at my face trying to get at my food. I screamed and woke everyone up and ran into my room. From that moment on, I have had an immense hatred for these nasty creatures.

In Montezuma, there are a lot of awesome hippie artists, and most all of them have dreds. So cool. I want dreds. We bought a bunch of stuff from them, funding their drug and alcohol needs for the week. Go us.

Most all of our lunches during the week consisted of extra crunchy peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Or Nutella and extra crunchy peanut butter sandwiches. Sheer bliss.

Last night we had hands-down the best dinner of the week. We went to Pizza Connection, which is this teensy little pizzeria with awkward little tables that wasn't open on weekdays. We all squeezed into a booth and ordered chips and guacamole and salsa (slash pizza sauce..), a grande "Margherita 2" and a grande "Vegetariano." Oh my gosh the pizza was incredible. We did work on those two grandes. You don't even know. Then we rolled ourselves back over to the hotel and watched One Tree Hill until the food coma took over and we all passed out.

This morning we woke up and went out for our final meal in Montezuma. We went to Sano Banano and were not disappointed. I got my eggs and toast and was completely satisfied, although I can't say I didn't have a bit of food envy for Cayman's french toast. It was way good. Then we had a mini-photo shoot on the beach before heading back to the hotel to pack our things up. Our taxi came and got us at 9, then ferry left at 11, and then the K/Carlas surprised us at the end of our ferry ride. Love them. The 8 of us piled in the TOURISTA taxi for the rest of the drive back to campus. We did stop for snacks, though. I had a fat bowl of frutas--pina, papaya, kiwi, and watermelon. Deliciousness.

And now we are home. I have finally stopped sweating. New teachers arrived today. We just had dinner with them, but we will have a meet and greet with them at 7. Question mark? Whatever. I'm glad to be back. I hope you didn't miss me too much!

peace love and chadios montefuma

hola.

I love Montezuma and all of its pothead hippies. It's a fat tourist fest, but I think this is just what we all needed. I have spent these past two days with my nose stuck in a book, sunning by the pool or at the beach, and not eating gallo pinto. Instead, we've all been eating our weight in Italian food. Incredible pizza the first night, a good pasta fix last night, and tonight we are thinking calzones. Oh baby. Last night's restaurant was weird, though. About 10 minutes after we sat down for our dinner, they switched off the lights and pulled down a big projector screen and started playing "National Treasure 2" with the director's commentary running across the screen in Spanish. So yeah that was weird. I hadn't seen the second National Treasure, though, and I really liked it once I got over how annoyed I was that I couldn't see my food and that I couldn't hear anything but the movie. For breakfast, we frequent this restaurant/ bar that has the most gorgeous view of the beach and is cheap as dirt. I have been on four different occasions already. Yikes. The waitress knows us well now.

I am all freckled out. Not so much on the burn front, though, so go me.

The pool at our hotel is beautiful. It's got a little jacuzzi that waterfalls into the pool that is always a perfect temperature. It's tiled with these pretty little blue tiles and has this gorgeous view of the ocean. And it's usually empty. Probably my most favorite part of the hotel.

Our hotel advertises yoga classes and retreats, but we were informed yesterday that those things don't start up til next month. Freaking off season.

Tia-ita has made lots of new friends. Ricardo works here at the hotel and told Tia that we should all go and hang out with him and his friends at Playa Grande on Saturday. He also mentioned to her that he will be at Chico (Montezuma's version of Bar Amigo) tonight... Oh Tia-ita just don't do anything too crazy. She also made friends with Diego, the starving artist slash bracelet-maker. He is grungy and has really long hair and wears rocker tees with the sleeves cut off. He wants to take her out as well. Then today Tia was just walking around on the beach when three guys on a four-wheeler pulled up and asked her if she wanted to go to the waterfall with them. She said yes, hopped on the four-wheeler, and turned down a helmet. Tia-ita! So then she hiked up the waterfall trails with these three randos and jumped off the highest waterfall. She managed to bust her bikini top and land awkwardly enough in the water to walk away with commendable war wounds. She is now sporting a fatty purple and red bruise that covers her entire right thigh. The girl is loca. Straight up. She makes me laugh, though. I guess we'll keep her around.

Annie-poo is the model of the group. She is always camera-ready. Always. The cameras are having a hard time trying to keep up with her, though. But Momma Cross, be proud--Ann has been bathing in sunscreen, hanging in the shade, and she even whipped out the umbrella today. She's about as hardcore as they come.

Today we took a public bus over to Cobano, probably the trashiest place ever. Abby and I went into a few shops in search of Bar Amigo wear, and came out empty-handed and in need of a shower. This one place was so sketchy. We took the stairs to get up to it, and found a barren room that had all of about 30 pieces of clothing hung on the walls. And a sandbox that served as a purse display. I sincerely had the feeling that everything in there had been stolen. It took me back to New York, after following the little Chinese people to the back rooms of abandoned apartments to barter over knock-off slash stolen goods. Good times. Love for NHSMUN.

After the Cobano versions of Dollar Tree, Good Will, and New York sketchiness, Abs and I threw in the towel and headed over to Cafe Azucar. She was craving a Diet Coke and I was craving an iced latte. So we got those, and a brownie a la mode. It was the special (not to be confused with a special brownie). We had to get it.

We stole Boggle from the Ecolodge like the good junkies we are. We have been indulging in all of our favorite addictions: Boggle, One Tree Hill, and peanut butter. Between the six of us, we have four and a half jars of peanut butter (the half jar is this "goober" business that is beyond me--peanut butter and jelly in the same jar? That just isn't right.). I got 16 words in a round of Boggle yesterday. I was feeling pretty great about my life.

Tomorrow morning Ann, Tia, Tess, and Abby are going to have surfing lessons at Playa Grande. After considering the amount of money I have already blown in two days in addition to the fact that I will be taking surfing lessons all week when the fam gets here, I decided to sit this one out. I am perfectly content just sunning and reading and listening to my iPod. Plus Cayman told me this horrible story about how a friend of hers got her front teeth knocked out on a surfboard when she first was trying to learn and her nerves were like dangling from her gums. And let's face it: if I get my teeth knocked out in Costa Rica, chances are I will be toothless til I get back to the states. And then how would I eat all this delicious food? Slash I would look like a goon. But more importantly the food factor.

On the ferry ride over to Montezuma we met this guy who doesn't wear shoes. Like it's his thing. He quit his job in Montana a few years back to move to Costa Rica, but still has a solar-powered house back in the states. He showed me his fatty calluses and said that he never much cared for shoes. The man lived in Illinois. As in the ground is frequently covered in snow and ice. And now in Costa Rica, where everything is hot all the time. Crazy hippie.

On the ferry, I ate a taquito (meaning little taco, Tess). It made me miss Dave.

I haven't stopped sweating since we got to Montezuma. It's a problem.

peace love and hippies

Well, people, this is it. The four week mark. I come to you a bit more poetic, a whole lot greener, much less fazed by rainfall, and with a stomach perpetually full of beans, rice, and salsa Lizano.

And for those who are keeping score, I finished off both Deany Weany's class and Jeff's class with an A.

Tomorrow morning we leave for the beach. I am so so ready. I probably will not have internet all week, though. I only hope my lack of posts doesn't ruin too many lives. Be strong.

Last night we had the smallest crew for dinner since we've been here. Even Deany Weany and Kathy went to the fiesta without us. Only Jeff was loyal to his LLC roots. Geovanny treated us to a feast, though. We had veggies, that Christmas plantain/ sweet potato business, cauliflower in white sauce, salad, tamales (ew), and refried beans with cheese. Then he brought us brownies with icing. And then round two of brownies with icing for Cayman, Tess, Ann, and I. But don't worry I burned off those second brownie calories with an impromptu salsa session with Geovanny. Love him forever.

After dinner we retreated to the low-lows (bungalows) for a One Tree Hill fix. We only watched 3 episodes so that Abby didn't fall too far behind--she went and played cards with Alonzo after dinner. Then I worked on my memorization until the power went out. Nice.

This morning we were all really pumped because we thought we smelled panqueques. False. Bean and cheese empanadas. They were okay but they were not panqueques. We also had coffee, frutas, and gallo pinto.

This afternoon after my 30 minute poetry final, we played soccer. By "we" I mean everyone else. I was the self-appointed photographer/ cheerleader. Unfortunately, the field is also home to a billion black flies. I have 40 new bug bites on my legs. Those great ones with the bright red speck in the middle of the pink rashy thing outlined in white. My legs have never looked better.

Tonight Jeff joined us for our One Tree Hill session. He's really great. He made everything so much funnier. We never realized how weird it was that we all sing along to the intro until Jeff was sitting there awkwardly. And then we tried to catch him up on the first 12 episodes of season 1, and realized just how ridiculous the story line may appear to outsiders. We are not outsiders. We are so unbelievably sucked in. Ann had a dream that she was Jake, and you know that we are all crying whenever it's even slightly appropriate. Poor Jeff.

Okay so don't go too crazy without me. Love you all.

peace love and panqueques

I have been deceived. Ecology "friends" were faking. We are not bffs. They are all at a partae right now that LLC was NOT invited to. Apparently they didn't want too many gringas hanging around. Racists! But yeah they were all talking about their fiesta in front of us and making their food for it in front of us and they frickin invited the entire staff. So it's pretty much the whole community minus LLC. Beeotches!

Whatever LLC had an awesome morning. After a breakfast of coffee, eggs, gallo pinto, frutas, and cinnamon bread, we went over to Santa Elena for the Friends Meeting. Deany, Kathy, Jeff, Abby, Tess, Cayman, Ann, and I piled into our TOURISTA taxi completely unknowing of the adventure that lay ahead. With all of the recent torrential downpours, the roads are pretty sketch. As in landslides may occur at any given time slash may have f-ed up the roads so that you really should not be driving on them. Not that this actually stops anyone from driving. So we are truckin along up the trocha when all of a sudden we get to a particularly muddy part of the road and we start getting slower slower slower until we are actually moving backwards. The driver then proceeds to tell us to all get out. I couldn't stop laughing. So we all pile out and Ann ends up completely immersing her foot in mud so she walks down the road to the nearest spring to rinse it off. Meanwhile, Diana and Michael have pulled up in their taxi on their way back to the ecolodge from the clinic (Michael does not have a tapeworm. I am so very disappointed.) and so they all get out to help. Our taxi driver has Jeff and Michael get into the back of our taxi for some sort of balancing act with the weight distribution of the taxi that is beyond me. Then, the driver backs the taxi up a ways down the road and comes barreling at the problematic mud area. Cayman, Abby, Tess, and I run screaming off to the side of the road, only to turn around and discover that the taxi did not make it and is backing up for a second try. Embarrassing. So the taxi backs up further and picks up more speed than the first time around and jets across the mud like nobody's business. We were all freaking out jumping up and down and screaming. It was the greatest thing ever. Abby got a video of it and the best part is that you can see Dean freaking out and jumping up and down cheering. Yay for Costa Rican Sunday morning adventures.

To celebrate our great feat, we went over to the cheese factory for ice cream at 10 am. Good thing they open at 7:30 am every day of the week. Strangely enough, there was this other guy there getting ice cream. He is involved with this thing that hooks you up with couches to sleep on across the world online. Pretty sweet. So he's sleeping on some tico's couch and was just walking around checking out Monteverde. Eating ice cream for breakfast. Whatever.

So then we hiked up to the Friends school for our meeting. We were still early. After all that. Are you kidding me? When we got there it was just us and about 6 other people singing songs. More and more people came in, and at 10:30 the meeting began. Meeting consists of one hour of pure unadulterated silence. Well you can adulterate it if you feel so inclined, but this morning no one did. So silence was cool. Except I never stop thinking. Ever. I can't just sit and be. It's a problem.

We told our loser over-charging taxi driver to meet us back at the school at 11:30. He came at 11:15 and left 10 minutes later. He sucks. So then we called the company and he came back. He didn't apologize or anything, he just kept sucking and being a loser.

We got back after lunch had already started, but Geovanny took good care of us. We had veggies and salad and beans and rice and questionable meat patties in red sauce. Um no gracias.

Since lunch I have been editing my portfolio for Jeff, and am finally done. Woo woo! Now I just have to memorize A Noiseless, Patient Spider before tomorrow morning. Ugh. Jeff came and gave Ann and I cookies because he's great. Then he threatened that if we were off by more than one word on our memorizations he would fail us. He thinks he's funny. He's not.

Tomorrow ecology leaves for Nicaragua. Good riddance, ecology. Good riddance.

We are going to have another fat OTH session tonight. I can't wait. I've got the shakes. It's been too long since my last fix.

peace love and taxi adventures