Today was pretty guam.

We had plantains, gallo pinto, natilla, frutas, and queso again for breakfast. Exactly what we had two mornings ago, except this morning it wasn't weak. It's an acquired taste, apparently. This morning I was just feelin it. So go me for acquiring tico taste-buds. I'm so pura vida.

Class started early this morning because Abby was giving her natural history presentation on these freaky caterpillar tumors she found. I hadn't yet filled my coffee quota for the day, though, so I attempted to bring my coffee with me to the indoor classroom. Unfortunately, I am remarkably uncoordinated and ended up spilling half of my cup of coffee all over myself in the short walk from the comedor to class. Go me.

We talked about amphibians today in Ecology. Scott loves amphibians. It's his thing. And I don't use the world "love" lightly. The man has 100 frogs living in his guest bedroom. Ah! We asked him if we could come over and name them all (only one has a name!). He said yes. I cannot wait. I have been thinking up the most perfect frog names. I think one should be Princess Consuela Bananahammock, but I need to meet the frogs before I name them.

Before Spanish I was in the comedor with Geovanny and he put on some music and was like do you want a latina music cd?? And so I said yeah! Then he goes "mil colones." I was like are you kidding me?? This is no way to treat your amor! And then he busted out in English with "I need money! I need money!" Apparently he is due to pay his last motocicleta payment, and he has stooped so low as to hit up his amor for dinero. He is supposed to be my sugar daddy. What the heck.

Rachel showed up for Espanol today. She did her presentation that was due Thursday. It was on nuclear energy. I did my presentation on alternative energy and the population crisis. So kind of really similar.. whatever I went first so I win. Carla told us about everything that will be on our final on Thursday. It's going to suck royally.

For lunch we had ensalada, rice, beans, and GREEN BEANS! Mmm the green beans were so wonderful. Mother dearest, I would like tilapia and green beans within the first week of my homecoming.

After lunch Abs and I returned to D2 to get our OTH on. Sadly, Sarah Cheesecake has stolen season 2 and is holding it captive in Bungalow B. Really not okay, but luckily I have the campus stash of contraband DVDs in my possession, so we watched The Shawshank Redemption. Such a good movie! I hadn't seen it before-- I know, I know I'm not American. Geez. Well I saw it and I loved it so I feel that I should be vindicated.

Abby left for Espanol before finishing the movie. Foolish girl. So I finished by myself, then got out of bed fully intending on going up to the comedor for snack time because Cayman brought me news of jelly bread in the pan basket. I stepped outside my door and stood there, taking in the miserable misty rain and tornado winds that have been hanging around campus all day. After about a minute, I decided against the pan run and returned to my bed. It just wasn't worth it. Too much effort. I read my book instead. Much better choice.

For dinner we had this ginormous feast. It was bizarre. First came this weird salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, relish, and cheese slices. I only ate the cheese from it. Then hard boiled egg halves, then this weird mushy goop that tasted vaguely of curry..question mark? There was also chicken and rice and beans and loads of veggies. I don't know what the occasion was, but I didn't ask questions. For postre we had rice pudding with a cherry on top. Scott observed our dessert-eating technique, and I believe he described it as stuffing it down our pie holes. He was worried that we wouldn't be hungry for movie snacks. Ha!

After dinner we had amphibian movie night. There was a huge crowd. It was the 6 of us, the 4 students from the new group, the 2 new naturalists, Rachel, Scott, and Chris the new teacher. Oh and my new diptera bff. Cayman and I found this fly that was completely unfazed by human proximity. We were fascinated with him and thought that perhaps he was blind. But then we started petting him and he wasn't much bothered by that either. So I got him to climb on my finger, and he was just loving me. He just hung out on my finger for a while, and then when I scooted him off so that I could eat my movie snacks he just chilled right next to me. Then he flew away when we got up to rearrange tables for our roundtable discussion and Cayman found him on my back 2 seconds later. Seriously. Bff.

I think Scott might like us. Tonight he popped us popcorn and brought us Chikys and Oreos and told us to get Cokes from the campus store and to put it on his tab. Yahtzee! I had a Diet Coke for the first time since I have been here I think. It was really great. The movie was "Leap of Faith," a 15 minute film about this project in Panama to save amphibians from the chytrid fungus disease. Then we had an hour-long roundtable discussion about the decline of amphibians in the world. I felt very Ecology.

When diptera bff peaced out, I found a plaster bagworm to keep me entertained. They are these crazy little worms that we have all over campus. They're weird because they have these flat, diamond-shaped, dull-colored shells and they poke out from both ends of their shell. I have like 8 hanging above my bed. I like them.

Cayman and I saved our Chikys for peanut butter after the roundtable. So good.

And now I guess I could do my Spanish homework. Or perhaps not.

peace love and princess consuela bananahammock

buenos.

Today was really really great.

First and foremost was the food served. Obviously. We had my most favorite breakfast this morning: coffee, scrambled huevos, toast con jam, gallo pinto con natilla, y frutas con bananas. I was so immensely satisfied afterwards. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. My emotions are heavily influenced by food.

In Ecology today we talked about conservation, which was cool. Scott ended class early, leaving me with 25 minutes to copy my composition by hand from my computer. It took me 30 minutes, so I ran from the indoor classroom to the comedor. We're talking maybe a block's worth of ground covered. I couldn't catch my breath for probably 10 minutes. Seriously. Carla was trying to talk to me and I was so freaking winded I could barely keep up. It was so great.

Rachel was MIA for class today. She didn't come on Thursday because she was pale and sickly, but over the weekend she asked both me and Carla about the homework that was due today so we assumed that she was coming, but she most definitely did not. Whatever. Carla and I had a great talk about having too high of standards for men and the disposability of friends and spouses. I love Carla. So much.

Lunch was the greatest lunch we have had in the history of LLC. Three words: MACARONI AND QUESO!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!! So good. It was so creamy and cheesy and perfect in every way. Since the cheese is so bland here, they added onions and peppers, which were delicious. Best lunch ever.

After lunch I curled up in my bed and watched the Tinkerbell DVD from my care package. The movie is made for children much, much younger than I am. So obviously I enjoyed it tremendously. It's about Tinkerbell's identity crisis at the beginning of her fairy career. Heavy stuff. Lucy Liu, Raven Symone, and Jesse McCartney were all in it. I smell an Oscar nomination coming on.. Is there a "Best Straight to DVD Picture" category?

Then Abs and I went through all of Anne's Costa Rica pictures on her computer and died laughing at the immense awkwardness we found there. Glorious.

Dinner was really funny. Cayman, Abby, and I sat with Katie, Scott, and Valerie. Scott was cracking jokes left and right, and Valerie was casually tossing out various juicy details about her personal life for all to hear. Katie perfected various usages of our new word: guam. I was talking to Scott and apparently was not enunciating my words because he heard "guam" when I said "cool." I told him I felt like they were interchangeable because guam sounds like a word that means cool in English. I had the hand motions for this elusive word and everything, and before long I had the whole table trying to figure it out too. We were cracking up, but could not for the life of us figure out what the stupid word we were thinking of was. After consulting urbandictionary.com, I still cannot find the word we were thinking of, but you can't leave urbandictionary.com empty-handed. Here are my finds:

guamming: To ostracize or exclude oneself. To move over into an area where nothing else is. To make oneself antisocial. ([Suppose a pillow is off on the other side of the room by no other pillows.] "Why is that pillow guamming? Can someone toss it over here?")

guamo: word for someone who records their farts and listens to them multiple times and thinks its funny

I really thought there were going to be fried yuca patties for dinner, but it ended up being country-fried steaks. Ew. Massive letdown after such a delicious breakfast and lunch. I ate the corn in the ensalada, rice, beans, and veggies. Just before postre came out Scott was talking about how he's going to make us brownies and milkshakes for a study break on Thursday night ( I can never tell if the man is joking or not--none of us can). We were fantasizing about chocolate chips in the brownies and chocolate peanut butter milkshakes and six jars of peanut butter with six spoons when Esmerelda brought out chocolate cake! It looked a lot better than it tasted amidst my dreams of chocolate chips and fudgy brownies, but it was still good. Valerie really wanted a candle in hers to celebrate her birthday that was two days ago. She was upset because no one sung to her on her birthday and wanted it to happen tonight. She asked Sylvia for a candle and Sylvia laughed at her and told her that her birthday was over. Sad times. Sylvia kind of sucks.

Oh and mi familia came to dinner tonight!! It's Michael's last night and he was their homestay baby before I got here so mi familia came to meet Michael's real fam. I was so happy when I saw them! They are the greatest people in the world. I didn't sit with them at dinner because I figured I could let Michael hog them on his last night, but then after postre I sat and talked with Marielos for a while. I asked her if I could come and stay with them this weekend after my program ends and before my real fam gets here. She said of course! I can't wait. She wants to have dance lessons every night, and we're killing the chickens on Saturday!! Woo!!! I pulled aside Kaylor and made sure he understood that he would be dancing with us this weekend. He agreed. Kevin was pretty pumped about it too. When he was leaving, he was like "we're dancing together this weekend, right?" and I told him of course! I got a double kiss goodbye. I am in love.

When I was talking to Marielos, Valerie came over to talk for a little bit and mi madre was so freaking cute. She was telling Valerie about how we are so the same because we both love to sleep and we love to dance and we don't need men. She kept hugging on me and talking about how pura vida I am. Best tica madre ever. Then Michael's parents wanted a picture of him with the fam so I got up to get out of the way. Mi madre was like where do you think you are going? You are my daughter! Sit down! So I cozied in between mi madre and Kevin for our family portrait. I need to get Michael to send that to me.

After dinner I discovered that Boggle has reappeared on campus! Apparently Sarah had an extra stashed in her office.. and Michael told her about how we lost the first one then didn't tell me that he had told her and watched me squirm under Sarah's inquisition about the whereabouts of the original Boggle. You're killin me, Michael.

Except I really love Michael. He is my brother now, after all. He had to go pack after dinner, but he wanted to come hang out with us afterwards so I told him to come find us in D2. I thought we were going to go play Boggle, but he ended up telling us this great story about the conflict of his tica crush and his girl back in the states that is now with a friend of his. He also gave us the scoop on his group's feelings towards LLC. Apparently Lauren legitimately hated us and would give Michael a hard time for talking to us and all that, but the rest were indifferent slash ended up liking us. So yay. We talked until Abby needed us to evacuate her bed for sleeping purposes. He's leaving in the morning for Arenal with his parents, but promised a road trip to UGA in the near future.

peace love and guam

hola gringos.

Today is LLC's last Sunday in Costa Rica. I expect the lasts will just start rolling in at this point: tomorrow it will be our last laundry day, then our last pan, then our last black fly bite, and so on and so forth. We are six girls. It's just what we do.

For breakfast we had mounds of toast with delicious jelly and  gallo pinto with natilla and plantains and queso and frutas and coffee. Delicious, even without huevos.

We had our final library work day today. Three hours of dewey decimaling and all-around life-loving later, we still hadn't quite finished everything we'd set out to do but whatever it's close enough. The children of San Luis will just have to deal. Haha kidding. I brought my iPod and speakers to the library today, so there was some love made in club biblioteca. Lil Wayne and the Spice Girls swung by too.

As per the LLC reward system, Sarah had cookies for us when we had completed our task. I can't remember how I was ever motivated before. I only function for treats now.

We headed back to campus for lunch. Ensalada, rice, beans, veggies--what a treat! Seriously we never have anything exciting for lunch. I need some zest in my afternoons.

After lunch I dabbled in Spanish homework I'm not really sure what else. Somehow I managed to piss away around 3 hours of my life with no recollection of what was done. I was, however, extremely successful in my procrastination efforts.

Today was the last day to take the Ecology midterm, which sucks because it rained today. And Scott was not about to let people play the rain card. No, no. Tia told me that she sat on a trash bag in the middle of the forest with her umbrella between her knees and her clipboard balanced just so on her thighs while she wrote her essay. The things we do for Ecology..

Annie-poo is sick. Way sick. She couldn't eat or drink anything at all today, poor thing. Scott and Tia escorted her to the clinic just before dinner to go get some shots. Apparently the clinic does not accept payments on weekends.. question mark? The teacher from the new group on campus has the bug too. As does one of his girls. They better keep their distance because I will hurt someone if I get it.

There is another new group of people on campus. It's a family vacay apparently. They're really cute. Definite upgrade from the prissies from last week. They are only staying here for two nights, though.

Michael from Ecology came back today! He brought his parents with him. They are decidedly very Mennonite. He's only staying for a couple of days, though, so he will miss out on our last night of Bar Amigo madness. Sad for him.

For dinner we had ensalada and rice and beans and veggies and this fat bowl of spicy sausage floating in its own grease. Mm.. Katie told us about how she discovered that she is a witch when playing Parcheesi last night, so we encouraged her to use her witching abilities to conjure up some hot chocolate. Unfortunately for us she has not yet harnessed her skills. In time, dear Katie. I have faith in you.

The lack of hot chocolate was tolerable only because postre was cheesecake. Cheesecake with non-crumbly crust that composed about 50% of the cheesecake's structure. Que rico.

My final Spanish composition is due tomorrow. So I should probably do that or something.

peace love and club biblioteca

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

It's Friday night. I should be at Bar Amigo. Scott is ruining my life.

This morning Abby, Ann, Cayman, and I went horseback riding. 6:45 am is not my friend, but it was still so much fun. It was such a beautiful day, too. When we got there, I asked Alan which horse was the best, so he told the other guide to saddle me up on Guicho. Alan must hate me. After about 2 minutes on Guicho, I decided that he was either drunk or hung over. He was struggling. Big time. Guicho was all over the road, most often teetering on the very edge tempting his fate and mine. Most of the time he would just take his sweet time and hang in the back of the line, then he would get into these random competitive kicks and try to get in front of Abby's bully horse. He lost every time. I still loved Guicho, though. I mean it would suck to have to carry someone around on your back when you're hung over. I get that.

The most wonderful thing happened during the horseback ride. I saw mi padre!! I didn't even see him until after Alan said hi to him, then I just freaked out. I was like "OLIVIER!! MI PAPA!!! AHHH!!!!" And he was just as surprised as I was. He was just like "HOLA! PURA VIDA!!" I could have cried. I miss my homestay fam so freaking much.

For breakfast this morning we had the fluffiest, most delicious bread I have ever had in my life. And strawberry jelly. Oh my goodness it was so wonderful. We also had coffee and gallo pinto and delicious frutas and queso. Mi amor brought me a fat plate of extra pina because we are in love.

Today was Ecology lab day. It didn't suck. Actually, it was really fun. This morning we all piled into the truck and headed over to a stream down by the Beneficio. Then Scott and Katie gave us nets and sent us to work finding insects in the stream. I found tadpoles. They were really cute. Then we took an inventory of all we'd found. I pretty much stopped paying attention after that point because there were these two predator insects in the same dish. Read: BATTLE ROYALE! Oh yes. Unfortunately, the bigger of the two had already injected venom into two other victims just beforehand, so he was not in a fighting mood. So I stole the dish from Scott and kept the two separate until the big one had regained its strength and could show the little one what was up. Scott told me it would be best to keep them in the shade and to keep the water still, so I sat my battle royale babies on a rock while we did a lab to figure out the velocity of the stream. The velocity lab was cool because we turned the stream water into lime Kool-Aid using a FDA-approved vegetable-based dye. Then Scott told me one of my babies was missing! I was so upset. I felt like the worst babysitter ever. I was checking all over the place for the stupid little milipedey looking one. Then I threw up my white flag and started poking at my awesome big beetle that breathes through its butt, and that's when I realized that the battle royale had already gone down. The butt-breathing beetle had a shriveled-up lifeless form of what had once been the milipedey punk tucked underneath his body. Hell yeah! Order had been reinstated. I was just so pissed that I had missed it. I told Scott to round me up another one of the milipedey ones, and he told me that I had had enough fun for the day. Seriously, Scott. Ruining my life.

So then we went to the Beneficio and loaded up on coffee to take back to the states with us. The Beneficio smells so incredibly wonderful. I could live there. I would sleep in a barrel of coffee beans and love my life.

Then we headed back for a lunch of ensalada, rice, beans, delicious potatoes, and these weird meat-ish patties. Good lunch. After lunch I busted out chocolates for everyone. I love playing Easter Bunny. After lunch we had our second lab of the day: butterfly hunting. It was so much fun. Scott gave us all nets, then let us run wild for 15 minutes catching as many butterflies as we could in the botanical gardens. Scott made fun of my technique. It's a very complex technique that only we master butterfly catchers use; I wouldn't expect someone like Scott to understand. You see, first you spot your target, then you sort of leap after it, all the while keeping your mouth open in a sort of smiling fashion, and then when you are within range, you swish your net around dreamily until you have netted your loot. Then you go over to Scott and puff out your chest with pride and tell him that you caught one. We did work and ended up with 20 in all. I caught three. My MVP moment was when I saw one flying towards me and I jumped up and snagged him mid-air. Go me.

We took our booty back to the lab to take inventory of all the different families we had caught and to mark them all with black marker (sad!). Then we went back over to the garden and released them back into the wild. Before recapturing, we had to give them a little bit of a head start. So we headed over to the palace for high tea with Scott and Katie. Though it was no Dean and Kathy, Scott and Katie did make a valiant attempt. Katie had laid out Nutri Grain bars, Special K bars, cashews, peanuts, corn nuts, crackers and sardines in tomato sauce, and a can of garbanzo beans. Then Scott put on some music for us to set the mood. We tried to play zoo with them, but Katie got super intimidated and Scott decided that he is above zoo. Note: no one is above zoo. Zoo is awesome.

So then Scott started getting really anxious to get us out of the palace and back into the garden. I didn't even get to finish my cup of tea. I was kind of pissed, but whatever. I had butterflies to catch. Sadly, the butterflies were hiding from us and we barely caught any. And we didn't catch any that were marked, so our whole lab was pretty much shot. Sad times.

I finally got my nap today. It was one of those that I woke up and was like gosh I don't think I ever fell asleep, but then I looked at my watch and realized that I'd been passed out for an hour. Ahh. I needed that. So badly.

Dinner was really good. We had chicken, which we haven't had in SO long. And this mushroom sauce to go with it and ensalada and yellow rice and brocolli and green beans. Yum. Then for dessert Geovanny came up to me and told me to guess what we were having. I said helado and he got this crazy big grin on his face and ran into the kitchen and came back with bowls of cake and ice cream. AHH! So good. Except Abby goes "OH MY GOSH THERE'S CHOCOLATE CHIPS IN THE BOTTOM! AHH!" and I got SO excited, and then she was like oh never mind they're raisins. ABBY! RUINER OF LIFE! It was still way good, though. I didn't have any raisins in mine either, and it was better for it. Then Geovanny came back over to me and said he had one last one left over for his love, aka me. Seriously this love between us is so great for me. He is like my sugar daddy. Except I don't have to do anything for all my goodies.

After dinner Cayman, Ann, and I opened up the peppermint bark. OH MY GOSH! It's so freaking good you would not even believe it. It trumps dark chocolate covered Altoids, even. Seriously. That good.

And now I have procrastinated for a sufficient amount of time on this eve of my Ecology midterm. I am going to force myself to study now.

peace love and my sugar daddy