I am a very long blog. Because very many exciting things happen to Mica.

• We had a killer 9 essay question exam on Monday in our Poverty & Human Development in Latin America class, an exam that took almost everyone the entire 3 hours of class to finish: ugh. Then Spanish class where we watched Pan's Labyrinth. Every time I watch Spanish movies or tv shows with English subtitles I always try to understand without looking at the subtitles, but it takes a lot of self-discipline. Usually I can understand the majority. Then Jacobo and I watched Bordertown, a Spanglish movie about the "unsolved" (or rather un-tried) murders of several women sweatshop workers in Juares, Mexico. It would have been a lot better--in my opinion-- if it hadn't starred J.Lo. One of my many pet peeves is celebrities who think that just because they're famous in one thing they need to go gain fame in another in which they have little to no talent, E.G. Britney Spears and J.Lo as actresses and Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff as singers. Really, people, you don't need to hog all the fame, leave some for the talented people. 
• Anywho, now that I'm off my wee tiny soapbox, more about the week. Tuesday's classes with Prof. Q. had their exams in McDonald's café, then a quick tour through the Jade Museum and our second museum in a Nicaraguan restaurant while it rained its daily amount.  The Jade Museum was really cool, with lots of jade jewelry, stone tables and (my favorite) ancient pottery. The most interesting thing is that there is no jade to be found naturally in Costa Rica--meaning it all arrived here via trade with surrounding Central American countries, most likely Guatemala and Colombia. Yay for interacting with your neighbors! Miguelito informed me that I pronounce the word "museum" funny, as if it is spelled "muzim." Hmm. There's a movie festival going on this week of Latin American films at a local theater, completely free, two times a day, one film a day until Halloween. I want to go!
• That night I got bitten by lots of bugs at Frodo's house after our night at the bar. It itched.
• Wednesday morning Kate and I headed to a pool at a San José ritzy gringo hotel, where we sunbathed and had a super great time swimming in the rain. Then T. McGee's class where we were both fairly hung over which made the class last even longer than it ever should have. 3 hours is a long time to begin with, but when you're nauseous and have a headache and no bread to sop up the extras in your stomach, the last thing you want to be "learning" about is pollution and gross things in the water you're drinking to clear your head.
• Thursday held Spanish class and not much else, as far as I recall... 
• Friday morning super bright and early the group met at ULatina to leave for our Program weekend field trip. We were supposed to be there at 6 to leave by 6:30 but definitely didn't even end up leaving until around 7:30. I sat with Prof Q. after we picked him up near the bus station, so I couldn't resist talking with him instead of listening to music, reading or sleeping on the bus ride. We drove through Braulio Carillo Park where Jake and I pointed out all the places we had interesting adventures; we drove over the Río Sucio again, and could see where it was joined by the "clean" branch of the Dirty River, a brown branch on the left and sparkly blue on the right. 
• We arrived at Dole banana plantation for a tour and information session guided by the Public Relations manager who was wearing the funniest shirt. The banana field was enormous, with all the banana clusters wrapped in blue plastic bags (we asked--they are recycled, thank goodness), hand-dug trenches to channel excess water away from the plants, and all the banana plants (not trees, technically herbs according to our guide) tied to one another with bright orange twine. The guide was very knowledgeable and informative, and had the knack for keeping a group of 20 American teenagers interested in what he was saying--- he was funny. He showed us how easy it is to cut through a banana plant with your machete (something I must buy before I return home! They look so fun!), and I got to climb up a rickety bamboo ladder to put a blue plastic bag around a banana cluster (funny how the shortest person in the group had to do the "tallest" job.) Then we watched as two of the workers harvested a cluster, one underneath to catch it as it fell from the tree, and one wielding the machete to cut the cluster from the herb, then cut the herb down entirely because each plant only produces one banana cluster per lifetime. So labor intensive and so much organic waste! The cluster got pulley-systemed back to the processing plant, which we could visit because it was not a busy  day for processing. Special care was taken to protect the bananas from bruising by the leaves (hence the plastic bag) and by other bananas (they used foam pads in between each bunch of bananas), and by handling in the processing plant (so they traveled via water, which was reused for a week or 2 at a time before refreshed, thank goodness). Although bruising the skin does not injure the fruit inside, bruised bananas violate the international fruit trade regulations---ridiculous, no? All the "unsightly" bananas are marketed within Costa Rica or used for organic fertilizer.  Then we all got to taste banana liqueur (pronounced "licker" by us Southerners: Mom asked me if it was liquor or liqueur, but they are both pronounced the same, in my world.)
• Next came EARTH University, (Escuela Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda, or the Agriculture School in the Tropical Humid Region of Costa Rica), where we had lunch, toured a school-owned farm, and got some information about the university's programs. It's unique in that there are 400 students from all over the world, and all of them major in Agronomy, the only course of study offered at EARTH. The farm we toured was really great: we saw the cow pen where they kept and milked their herd of cows, for which they played "suave" music, to improve the milking amounts and milk quality. Our guide told us the cows don't like reggaeton, haha! Then we saw the corral where all students get experiential learning by artificially inseminating 30 cows--sounds like fun, huh? We saw the biodigestor that collects all the farm's poo, and captures the methane gas released from it, which is then used to power  gas ovens in the kitchen. The excess water and organic material drain (pulled by gravity) through a series of ponds to essentially filter the gunk out; the silt on the pond's bottoms is too strong/ acidic to be used as fertilizer for fields, but the farmers have discovered a way to make fertilizer from the ever-abundant pond plants. When we walked up to the pond, we heard something rustling in the plants and assumed it was a bird, but then a Jesus Christ Lizard skittered across the surface of the water and submerged near the bank. Right as he went underwater, a crocodile surfaced in the middle of the pond--how can you not love nature? The farm also had a Swine-fattening area, where the cute pink piglets turned into large brown pigs that I thought were cows from a distance. I also saw a pink dragonfly with white wings (it was prettier than the giant pigs.) We returned to EARTH (I giggled at the idea of intergalactic travel), we had free time to swim in the pool (where we gave ourselves Martha Washington hair and inadvertently chased off the practicing water polo boys), then a BBQ dinner and traditional dance presentation from some of EARTH's graduating international students. Dancers wowed us from Haiti, Ecuador, Bolivia and Honduras with all sorts of amazing moves and beautiful costumes. It made me regret not being more in touch with my culture, not having any traditional dances of my own heritage to share with my children. Do any readers have specific family traditions that are 100% from your heritage? I think our only one is Thanksgiving and Christmas... What do you think symbolizes "American" culture? After the dance performance, we practiced our own "moves" and learned theirs, and were super sweaty by the time we arrived at our hostel.
• We spent Friday night and all day Saturday at Los Tucanes, a farm-turned-lodging-area near EARTH, where we got delicious traditional meals and tours of their different farmy aspects. They grew coffee, macadamia nuts, sugar cane, and various fruits; had an oxcart and adorable oxen to pull it; a closed-cycle macadamia nutshell slow-burning furnace that satisfied the majority of the farm's energetic needs; they grew and processed everything except the coffee. We picked coffee beans and macadamia nuts, Steffi learned how to drive the oxcart while Jake and I rode in the back, then we squeezed  the sugar-juice (tapas de dulce) out of sugar cane and drank it, while munching on the "meat" of the sugar cane (we were all hyper for about a minute, then just wanted to doze in the sun). We learned how to boil and purify the tapas de dulce juice, then form it into hardened blocks of pure sugar, then how to wrap them in sugar cane leaves. The sugar was delicious, I must say :) 
• We then stopped at Lechería Las Lapas, or The Macaw Farm, a New York family-owned dairy farm. We all got to milk a cow, then watch the milk get separated into skim milk and pure cream via centrifugal force in a funnel that entered small spinning container with two spouts.  Did you know it takes 10 gallons of fresh milk to make 1 gallon of cream to be used for ice cream? The ice cream was (delicious, first of all!) the farm's main product for selling, so the skim milk retained from the milk went to the calves after weaning them from their mother's milk, but before weaning them from milk entirely. I bought a 1/2 pint of sesame seed ice cream because I'd never heard of it before and wanted to try something very new--I recommend it. This farm is still very small, so its products are only found in Costa Rica. 
• Then we drove to the community center in rural La Argentina where we met the farming families with whom we would be staying. Since we were such a large group, each family had a few students. I was staying with Melba and Gerardo at their small farm, La Finca Agroecológica Los Manantiales, with Kimmy. The house had 2 parakeets who craved attention and would dance, sing, laugh and talk to get it; it had an entire room full of 7 beds specifically for people who came to stay, like we were doing. From what I understand they almost constantly have at least one guest, often several at a time, and some for some months at a time. What test of patience! Melba and Gerardo were an older couple with 3 kids who were starting families of their own; their farm consisted of young organic coffee that had not yet reached production age, sweet potatoes, some fruit trees, a horse, a cow, 2 pigs, egg-laying chickens and a rooster (and the eggs were super-yummy. Even Loly, the most vocal parakeet, loved to eat the eggs! and drink the coffee, too...) They also had a tilapia pond, and had found a baby ocelot in their house which they kept in a large cage in the backyard, complete with a flowering tree where it could eat its daily raw steak and raw eggs. Her name was Contessa, and what an incredibly beautiful animal---because she has lived in captivity, she will neither grow to the size of a wild ocelot, nor can she re-enter the wild.
• On Sunday, after Kimmy and I slept for almost 11 hours, we had a delicious family breakfast, then headed out for a property tour (7 hectares, about 15 acres) and river walk with Gerardo and Timo, their newest guest, an American student studying abroad in Panama. The hike through the woods was beautiful: we saw a cute little red frog with blue pants, and after clearing the trails a bit and almost falling down the super-steep hill, finally made it to the really clean river. Hot after the hike, we decided to swim in all our clothes: the water was electrically refreshing. I found a crab and Gerardo found a walking stick bug. On the way back, the three students were teasing Gerardo about lying to us about his age. He was supposedly 67 but we claimed he was 21 because he was in far better shape than we were; he practically ran up the 70 degree incline we climbed down! We made it back to the house, had a delicious lunch, played with the birds some more, and dried off from the river, then got picked up by the bus to head back to San José. What a long but incredibly memorable weekend. I must say that staying with the rural families has been one of my favorite parts of studying abroad so far. How can it get better than a Spanish speaking family that lives in an area that reminds me so much of my TN home?

Over-qualified National Symphony and an Entire Day Spent Walking

• The next memory-worthy activity was our 10/8 cultural activity to El Teatro Nacional in San José where the Costa Rican National Symphonic Orchestra was performing different different movie scores. Just for kicks and  giggles I dressed up "fancy" for the performance, although the dress code was jeans and tennis shoes---sometimes I just have to stand out, ya know? Jakey and Miguelito also dressed up, so I looked like I had a couple of handsome dates. The Theatre was really beautiful inside with all the dimmed lights, ornate gold trim, leather theatre seats, painted ceilings, affluent and middle class Ticos alike: the performance was good, too. The Orchestra played theme songs or medleys from classics  like Return of Superman, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix and Pirates of the Caribbean End of the World, as well as other movies like Memoirs of Geisha, High School Musical and Happy Feet (which was my favorite, very dance-worthy).  
• Afterwards a few of us went out for a tame night that turned kind of wild: we had pizza and beer at El Patio, a restaurant where the pizza was the only cheap thing, then to Barrio California where I met a Costa Rican from Boston with whom I got very frustrated because he spoke fluent English with an almost-inaudible accent, thus wanted to speak in Spanish even though I wanted to speak in Spanish; then to the Latino Rock Cafe where we didn't have to pay the usual cover charge and watched a pretty good live music show whose drummer we thought was naked, then a fairly crappy DJ named Caesar and Joe and I danced to his "spins" which I could have spun, having never spun anything in my life. 
• Due to our upcoming midterm exam on Monday, Jakey and I decided to spend Friday studying at the University of Costa Rica. The first time I went there just to walk around, I decided that I wanted to go there. We sat at a café to eat lunch and study a bit, then walked around the beautiful campus (it actually has trees!), got some ice cream, and sat in a park area until it started raining and we made our way back to the starting-place café. Walking around campus I saw the "bouncer" for Black Tropical Bar in Barrio California...that says I go there too much. That night we had a movie night to watch my first Quentin Tarantino movie, Death Proof. If you have the choice, don't watch it, although it is kind of funny...but mostly strange. And the girl from Rent has a really bad fake laugh.
• Bright and early on Saturday morning Jakey and I bought our bus tickets that would take us to Volcán Barva in Braulio Carillo National Park (foreshadowing: or so we thought). IF YOU WANT TO GO TO VOLCAN BARVA, GET TICKETS TO HEREDIA, THEN TO THE VOLCANO, NOT GUAPILES! The bus dropped us off at the Téleferico (Canopy Tour), which was about 50 aerial miles and 75 miles by the nearest road from where we wanted to be. But, we were just a few kilometers outside Braulio Carillo National Park, so we started walking. We pretended we were road signs, ran the speed limit, created impossible body positions, stood on booby traps to view the view, staged hilariously frightening pictures, arrived at a death  camp, and finally entered Braulio Carillo to "start" hiking, although we'd been hiking since 7:30ish.  So of course I was hungry. But someone apparently stole my mandarin orange and banana from my bag on the bus, and Jacobo warned me not to touch anything on the trail or roadsides because "it's probably poisonous." Thanks, Mom :)
• Braulio Carillo is a huge park, and is separated into two different sections, Volcán Barva (where we wanted to be) and Quebrada Gonzales (where we were and planned to have fun if it killed us!) It's an interesting park because it wasn't destined to be a park but ended up being so as a compromise between constructors of the Guapiles Highway (which splits the park in two) and the people of the area who didn't want the highway to come through. So, although you can hear the highway and it probably chases the more silence-loving animals further into the forest, it is by far the most easily accessible by car, yet one of the least-visited. I wonder why? Most of the park is at the altitude of cloud forest, so Resplendent Quetzals can be found there, amongst the other abundant wildlife. We began hiking on the west side of the highway, on the Las Palmas and Botarrama trails. I found a massive tree, and we found some penis-roots which were disgusting looking. Sick, no? Totally. I know. 
• So after that the trail ended in a stream, we forged it and got a great view of the Río Sucio (named Dirty River for its brown color, which is actually derived from volcanic mineral deposits rather than dirt), saw an animal that looked like a bunny without long ears, and had a couple of girly photo shoots whenever we stopped to sleep in the sun. Then some more hiking on the El Ceibo trail across the highway, tons of ants and a hummingbird, and waited beside the road until a bus picked us up and we had to lie in the aisles since there were no more seats. 
• Then the bus broke down.  
• But the view was beautiful.
• And we eventually made it back to San José to eat a 3:00 lunch, walk around to find some ice cream and take a bus back home because we were finally tired of walking. 
• Once again, Sunday was for resting. And some more studying....maybe.....

Kali, please make fun of me for my love of documentaries

• After my weekend in Monteverde came a fairly tranquil week; Monday we had a debate about the pros and cons of a welfare state in my Poverty & Human Development in Latin America class, then Spanish class in the afternoon where the 3 separate levels of Spanish watched a movie together. It was called "Voces Inocentes", Innocent Voices, a heartbreaking film of the civil war in El Salvador, based on one boy's true experience. As sad as it was, it was a beautiful movie and should be watched (just like any other documentary or true-life-experience film about hardship), to both give the audience a glimpse of life in developing countries and a greater appreciation of what we have. It sounds cliché, but it really makes my problems seem small; that same day I got my Spanish exam back and I was disappointed with the 85 I made. But at least I'm not living in a war zone, dreading my 12th birthday because I know I'll be drafted to fight for a cause I don't believe in. That being said, some activist/documentary films I like, recommend, or want people to view are: Invisible Children (child soldiers in Uganda), Voces Inocentes (Salvadoran civil war), Bordertown (killing women in Juares, Mexico), Maria Full of Grace (drug trade), Recycled Life (living at the Guatemala City dump), Painting Without Permission (Chiapas, Mexico Periclean Scholars' involvement), A Place Called Chiapas (intro to the  The Future of Food, Who Killed the Electric Car?, 
  
• I don't remember anything happening on Tuesday. I sat beside Miguelito in class. And went to a bar in Barrio California which has quickly become everyone's favorite: a girl apologized to me in the bathroom for snorting coke, and a guy who asked me for a cigarette told me he thought I was Costa Rican until I started talking. 
• Wednesday brought with it Zarina's class, which continues to get more and more unbearable. Her 3 hour lectures are basically things we all learned in some Biology class taken over the years (and because we're all in the environmental program and obviously interested in environmental issues, we have all taken at least one Biology class in our short lives).
• Matito and I gave our presentation on the Salvadoran civil war in Spanish class (the US was involved, and not in a good way. You should educate yourself about it.) Basically the US funded the El Salvadoran government and military that were killing the guerilla fighters and innocent bystanders, and the US then-president Jimmy Carter did not respond to the Salvadoran president's plea for the fighting to end. 
• After that class, Kate, Matito, Marcus and I headed northwest of San José to Alajuela's stadium: JUANES CONCERT!!! The 1 hour bus ride and short walk downtown were un-painful, the lines were long, but we made it inside the stadium fairly quickly. We had tickets for the cheapest seats, which ended up being in the middle of the fútbol field covered in cardboard. A local band, Escat played first, a Costa Rican band fronted by a singer with immense lung-capacity. If you are unfamiliar with Juanes, you must definitely check him out, especially if you like Spanish-speaking sex gods.  You can hear some of his songs on his official website (link above), or his myspace as well as drool-worthy pictures. The concert was wonderful: it started raining on us about 1/4 of the way through, just a slight mist but by the end of the night we were absolutely soaked. Juanes played a few songs, then left, causing the audience to chant "Otra, Otra!" (another, another! similar to encore), and he finally reappeared to appease us, which was GREAT because he hadn't played my favorite song yet and I was disappointed. It ended up being the very last song he played, Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor, and I must admit that I squealed like a small child when I heard the first few notes. Made our ways home from Alajuela, then bed para tener sueños dulces de mi amor y cantante favorito :) 
• Friday 10/3 I woke up bright and early to catch the bus to Tortugero, but there was yet another miscommunication among our group and I ended up waiting where the others were not. So I went back home to sleep some more (only running on 2 hours at this point) but ended up making alternative weekend plans instead. The silver lining of getting left behind was that today was Chicitico's 5th birthday, so M.N. invited me to the fiesta :) It was at her mom's house, which is very nearby, and Spiderman-themed (not el hombre de las arañas like I would expect!) I met M.N.'s sisters, their kids and their grandkids, all adorable I might add: there were mostly women there, but neither of Chicitico's parents showed. Perhaps they were working and would celebrate later. We ate pizza, a yummy bread-pudding-esque dish that M.N. made, croissants, cake and ice cream cones. We sang "Cumpleaños Feliz", Chicitico blew out the candles; then we let them again, and he smashed his face into the corner of the cake, coming up to breathe with a huge blue-icing grin. I guess it's a funny cultural tradition! 
• Saturday morning I was up early again to catch the bus to Volcán Irazú, about an hour south/SE of San José. The bus left at 9:00 from downtown, where our taxista dropped us off: I wanted to tell him where I'm from because I eavesdropped on his phone conversation with his cousin, who was apparently in Tennessee, but he stayed on the phone until after we left. We drove through Cartago, a city that has some cool ruins, and eventually started climbing the volcano's steep sides. The views were beautiful, green pastures of pillow-grass (looks soft and fluffy like a pillow, that's the name I gave it), and fields of crops. It must have been the perfect day for harvesting onions because they were all lying on top of the soil, roused from their cool little beds to dry in the sun, still in perfect little rows--a scene my camera just couldn't capture. All the green and the fields and pastures, with crops and cows really reminded me of home :) We arrived at Irazú and first thing  saw a coati playing on the ranger station roof. Coatis are part of the raccoon family, and I just learned that they are also called hog-nosed coons, Brazilian Aardvarks, and--my favorite--snookum bears. Haha!!
• We began hiking around the Crater Principal, which had a tiny lake in it that was labeled "Regeneration Area." I like that. The other crater had a bigger, sulfuric lake in it (let's swim!!) that was bright green; we could see the layers of sediment in the crater walls and so many different colors of rock. And some people think rocks are boring! It was surprisingly chillier than we expected (and we expected chilly due to the altitude), so we continued hiking to stay warm. The surrounding area was covered with these plants called "sombrillas de pobre" or poor man's umbrellas, because of their potential diameter. I finally got the photo I wanted. Kate and Nicole opted to stay at the ranger station to rest,  but I wanted to get my money's worth of hiking so I traipsed to the highest point. The road was in terrible condition, much like most Costa Rican roads, but this one actually had a sign advertising the fact. The vegetation grew on both sides, but dropped off on the left so--if it had been sunny and clear, which it was not--you could have seen for miles, I mean kilometers. I was very out of breath, but I like to attribute that to my being at 11,260 feet above sea level rather than to my being out-of-shape. The hike was "strenuous" enough that I could remove my jacket after a while, but put it back on at the top, where the clouds blew away and I could see both craters, the regeneration pond and the lagoon inside the crater, perfectly clearly: my camera promptly picked a perfect time to lose all battery power. If you'd like to see a photo, maybe I can draw you the one from my memory :) 
• After catching my breath, enjoying the view, watching the clouds come back over the volcanoes, and practicing all the French I know, I headed back down from the summit. Wearing my red rain jacket, I met a little hummingbird friend who hovered around a tree, then zoomed towards me and my jugular, soared past me, returned and hovered by my right elbow, not frightened by my shriek or attempt to cover my face. I think he thought I was a big juicy red flower and wanted to pollinate me or sip my nectar (as dirty as both of those sound). I continued walking down the road only to be the target of another bird "attack", this time by a sooty robin that flew really close to my head, then plopped down on  a branch. 
• When we got back to San José, Kate and I debated the possibility of returning to Pavas for the fiesta celebration we were invited to, but ultimately decided against it because we didn't know any of the details. And the slum areas of San José are probably not the best places for two American teenage girls after dark, if you catch my drift. So we continued walking through the streets of downtown, heading nowhere in particular, which is the way I like to walk. Then we saw two police trucks and a big crowd (definitely a throng) thronging around an empty precaución taped spot: we found a viewing area and realized it was a body, a man had just died of a heart attack in the middle of the street. I'd seen dead bodies before, of animals and people whose open-casket visitations I...visited?, but never someone who had just finished dying. It reminded me of my past fear of dead bodies: even though I'm not afraid of them anymore, my heart still jumped (which is ironic because mine was doing what his couldn't). 
• Just like God, Sunday was a day of rest (not that I'm comparing myself to the Big Guy, don't get that idea) from my relatively-tame-but-still-tiring weekend.

3 Trips in one week---how I like to live! :)

• On Monday 9/22, our Poverty & Human Development class took a field trip to Pavas, a relatively upscale area of San José that--ironically, but not surprisingly--has one of the worst slums. We arrived around 9:45ish at the Pavas Community House, then toured 3 different barrios (neighborhoods/ communities), El Relleno (the trash dump), [forgotten name] and Nueva Esperanza (new hope).  

1) The houses were in pretty bad shape, made out of extra wood lying around and corrugated tin, but the houses (we  got invited to awkwardly tour someone's house---very uncomfortable) had improvised or tapped phone services, electricity, running water, plumbing: the house we toured had a computer, stereo, television, fish tank and lava lamp! 

2) The worst parts of this squatter settlement were: the houses so close together, instability with which they were built (literally clinging on river banks), the drugs, the trash, the prevalence of diseases and sickness-causing  bacteria, and the fact that the people are living on the land illegally and thus cannot get any government assistance. 

3) The 2nd barrio was doing a lot of construction on its roads (through an area where houses used to be, whose families now have to PAY to rent a house when they don't have enough money to MOVE out of the slums), but this area was receiving some help from an assistance group. 

4) Then the 3rd barrio was the worst off in my eyes--it had no roads and a lot of the families had to move from their old illegal "homesteads" to new illegal "homesteads" because their houses constantly flooded with sewage. So they tore apart their corrugated tin shacks, moved the materials to the new location and hoped that their new neighbor was a strong man who could help them reassemble their house. Instead of being in the sewage valley, the new location was on its banks, with the earth just barely holding the houses on the ground. 

5) Our guide said that about 1/2 the families there are single female headed households with 6 or 7 kids--so there is obviously no opportunity to work for income & take care of household duties & raise your children right at the same time. 

6) There was a school where 500 kids attended per period, each morning, midday and late afternoon (making for a total of 1500 kids passing through the school every day. Overcrowded?) For this reason and the lack of parental supervision (due to trying to bring in money), a lot of the kids get into drugs or ne'er-do-well activities at an early age. To deal with the stress of wanting to provide for the family but being unable to, the parents, too, turn to drugs (paying with money that has been stolen from somewhere), so the kids grow up in a drug-infused situation, never learning the harmful effects, just that it takes away the pain temporarily. 

• Afterwards we had Spanish class where I eventually convinced Matito to trek downtown with me to fetch my package from the post office. I should have brought a map, is all I will say about that adventure.
• Prof. Q. wasn't feeling well on Tuesday, so our 9-12 class ended at 10:30 and our 1-4 class was replaced by attending a guest lecture at U of CR on the American elections. It's humbling to know that other countries follow our elections so closely and with such interest--while we don't even know the current administration or how often the leader gets elected in other countries! The speaker was a professor from GATech who spoke about the electoral college, presidential and vice-presidential debates, Republican and Democratic parties and their nominations--new information for Costa Ricans, but middle school information for us (and I am not at all trying to sound like we know more than Costa Ricans--obviously on this subject we should since it is OUR government, and OUR lives the elected president will impact!) The most interesting part of the lecture, however, was that it was all in Spanish--and I understood most of it! I think, with some problems and a lot of thinking, I could rise to the challenge of having all my classes taught in Spanish. 
• Wednesday morning included a City Tour with the CIDH group, which turned out splendidly because we visited a lot of the places that I didn't but wanted to visit on my personal city tour last weekend. 

1) We started with the National Park, where we got the story of William Walker's attempt to control all of Central America. Walker was an American (from TN no less!) filibuster who made his way through the Central American countries, causing trouble (what we Tennesseans are best at, haha!) and eventually became the 6th President of the Republic of Nicaragua, Costa Rica's northern neighbor. He tried to conquer Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, too; eventually Costa Rican troops led the Central American fighters in an attack against Walker. It began in Nicaragua where a young man named Juan Santamaría gained fame by burning down the fort in which Walker and his troops were stationed. Santamaría died in the process, but is still known as the country's national hero, with the main airport named after him and several statues of him around the country. Walker was eventually killed by the Honduran government (by order of the British Royal Navy.) You can read more about this crazy Tennessean's adventures. The National Park has a statue of 6 men (one representing each of the 5 Central American countries affected by Walker, with Nicaragua lying wounded in the arms of the others because it was where Walker did the most damage).

2) Parque España was next, where we saw cork trees ("Did you know there's a cork shortage?")

3) Parque Morazón, where Jacobo and I checked the supposedly-perfect acoustics in the rotunda. On my city tour I passed a building that said "School for Women" that I was curious about--was it a school for nurses during a war? Did it come into being just in time for women's rights and equality? But it turned out that it was the girls' entrance to a school that is housed in one of the two all-metal buildings in San José.

4) Parque Central and then we entered the beautiful yet intimidating  Catedral Metropolitana, a huge Catholic Cathedral with some major stained-glass portrayals of the life of Christ.

5) Then the Teatro Nacional,  a very fancy, ornate and almost gaudy building, that was built by European architects in a French-inspired style and was funded by rich coffee barons who wanted a place where they could watch operas, just like the Europeans. The coolest parts were a) there is supposedly a phantom named Diego, b) the floor raises up to the level of the stage to create a single-level dance floor, and c) the sitting rooms still smelled like cigar smoke and cedar wood.

6) We walked through the Plaza de la Cultura (aka pigeon-infested cement area. I always heard them called "rats with wings", but every time I try to say that, "rats on wheels" comes out,) to the Museo de Oro, or Gold Museum, underneath the Plaza . We didn't stay there very long,  but I wish I could have taken my time reading the descriptions in Spanish, because I certainly can't do it in a rush!

• Chicitico was sick yesterday so he spent the night here, and it made me so happy to wake up in the morning listening to the giggles and squeals of a happy child playing downstairs! On Monday an adorable new puppy was roaming about my house on her squatty little legs--Chicitico told me to guess whose it was, and I guessed that it was mine, but she was actually his, a birthday present named Nini. How precious, no?
• 9/26 Friday I woke up at 5:00 to catch the 6:30 bus to Monteverde Biological Reserve. The bus stopped for about 30 minutes in the middle of the bumpy, mountainside dirt road because a landslide (or something of the sort) was blocking the road. We arrived in Monteverde a little before noon and found the hotel at which we had made reservations, Sleepers Sleep Cheap Hostel in Santa Elena, which I strongly recommend. We explored the town a bit, and decided to go for a guided night hike (through Ecological Sanctuary) before dinner. We hiked for 2 hours through a pitch-black jungle scene, armed with nothing but flashlights and my Buzz-Off infused shirt,but--alas--saw nothing more than 3 wild female tarantulas. As it turns out, tarantulas' poison comes from their mixture of foods, and since one of those foods doesn't grow in Costa Rica, none of its tarantulas are poisonous. If you try this night hike, I would recommend NOT taking teenage boys as they are noisy and scare away all the wildlife. The guide was wonderful, and tried really hard to find things for us, but the singing and American sitcom-quoting was just too much for the ocelots to take. 
• Saturday morning we were up bright and early to do a 6:30 zipline (Extremos Canopy Tour) above the jungle. An amazingly fun and terrifying experience with handsome guides, a group rate and gorgeous views of the Monteverde floppy-eared cheese-producing cows below us that looked so tiny. After the first thrilling 16 zipline cables, there was a rappel line, then a frighteningly thrilling, almost-peed-my-pants free fall/ Tarzan swing. The last zipline was a tandem line (to provide more weight, go faster, and ensure that everyone reaches the end of the longest, 750m cable); Marcus was right behind me in line, so we went together and proved to be extremely aerodynamic. We had a homemade burrito lunch, toodled around Santa Elena, then made an afternoon decision to visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. If you visit Santa Elena, you will see a woodwork artisan's shop from the road (Artesania de Madera). Walk towards "downtown", turn left at El Romantico Restaurante and follow the dirt road until you reach the front of this store/ house where a very nice old man named Graciendo makes beautiful jewelry and sculptures out of wood, seeds, and leather. 
• Our hike through the Cloud Forest Reserve was nice and relaxing with beautiful views--and it got very cloudy very quickly! If you go here, be sure to hit it early so you can see animals and the views of the valley, not impeded by clouds. (Also the park only lets in 150 people at a time, so make sure you are one of those 150!) A cloud forest is very similar to a rain forest, except it gets its moisture from the clouds rather than from actual falling precipitation. Once again, we didn't see much wildlife (some iridescent Blue Morpho butterflies that surprise you when you see their brightness out of the corner of your eye), a few birds and an interesting looking centipede.
• FYI, I peed in the jungle :)
• While we waited for a taxi, I walked down the road and stumbled upon a free-admission Hummingbird Gallery, which ended up being quite a highlight of an already-highlighted day; there were 5-6 hummingbird feeders dripping with sugar water, and teeming with nearly 50 hummingbirds of so many different sizes, colors, patterns. They zoomed around, squeaking, careening close to my face and neck. (Think: toothpick flying at you at 60 mph). Such a breathtaking experience, such a simple pleasure: Mom, this is the main reason I wanted you to come to Monteverde, I think you would love the Hummingbird  Gallery :) Then a late-night chat session on the stoop of El Mundo de los Insectos (World of Insects museum), where Philippe thought the insects were throwing those rocks at him, Matito freaked out about a scary cat, and all the boys at some point peed on Insect World. 
• Most of our group left on the 6:00 bus back to San José, but the rest stayed until 2:00. Walked around the little towns, visiting artisans and little art shows and practicing our Spanish with the shopkeepers (visit La Luna Azul and House of Art for locally-made and beautiful art/jewelry/clothing). Brief freak-out when Matito's and my bus tickets somehow fell out of my pocket and I had to retrace my steps in the rain (and miss out on the cheese factory, where I was headed when I realized my pockets were empty), but we managed to reach San José safely after a 6.5 hour bus ride--ugh--where I sat beside a man with the hairiest arms I'd ever seen, and temporarily lost my shoes when I gave my seat to a man who'd been standing up the whole time. Back at home at 8:30, totally exhausted, for good reason.

I simply can't believe I've already been here for a month...

• Week 5 began with a Monday free of classes, September 15th,  ¡El Día de la Independencia! That's Independence Day, for all you readers :) I slept late since there were no classes and I wanted to rest until my body was ready to wake up--I had had a HUGE weekend. I headed downtown at 10:00 am (10 minute bus ride, shorter than normal because the streets were blocked off a few hundred meters in front of the pedestrian-only section of downtown to make way for the Independence Day festivities). I found a spot in the crowd with my camera and watched 2 hours of parades; the local kids, called Josefinas/Josefinos because they're from San José, marched in their snazzy little school uniforms, played instruments in their school bands, waved Costa Rican flags and danced to their school band's tunes. It was really refreshing to see everyone so excited for their country's independence, even though Costa Rica's liberation from Spain was really easily won--without a huge and bloody  battle, even! Regardless of whether there was a battle or not, independence from the colonizing European entity is still a BIG reason to celebrate. 
  
• September 16th held a field trip to Atenas with my favorite professor. Prof. Q. teaches both Environmental Group classes on Tuesday, (Rural and Urban Dimensions from 9-12 and Ecotourism & Conservation from 1-4), which makes it easier to have a field trip that lasts all day--we don't have to come back to school for another class, and he makes an effort to include aspects and lessons from both classes into the field trip agenda. I'm telling you, he's the greatest, always looking for the student to feel comfortable and learn at the same time (because it's hard to learn when you're not comfortable, as we all probably know!). So, Atenas is the Costa Rican town to which he returned (with his American wife) after doing his graduate work in Oklahoma. The guidebook I found in my house this morning (left by a previous student, thank you!) said that Atenas, a tiny rural community in the western mountains of Costa Rica's Central Valley, was voted by National Geographic to have the "best climate in the world." So that is their selling point, now, a slogan that can be seen on the backs of buses all around "town." 

Our first stop in Atenas was to pick up Prof. Q. on the side of the highway. In my guidebook I read about a really interesting-sounding school where we could learn about iguana-farming, which turned out to be our next stop,  way out into the countryside, ECAG or the Escuela Centro Americana de Ganaderia (Central American School of Livestock Farming, English translation). There we met our guides and began a tour of their dairy farm. 
1)"cow poopy" (Prof. Q.'s exact words) compost pile, where they use worms to expedite the decomposition process, the end product essentially being fertilized soil. They use this product to fertilize the fields where the cows live (to continue growing healthy grass), and in the garden where Agriculture students learn gardening techniques and the veggies are used in the school cafeteria. Completely closed cycle, just how I like it :) 

2) Dairy barn where twice a day they milk their 35 cows, 4 at a time. Through a gate on one side, we could see the cutest Costa Rican barn-hand I've ever seen (OK, so at this point I'd only seen three of them) feeding a baby cow with a bottle. I think that's what made me like him :) 

3) The baby cow nursery/ kindergarten where baby cows get weaned from their mommies onto yummy green grass (rather than grain and corn, like American cows. Cows' stomachs are not made to digest that stuff! See: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, this great website about cows eating grass, and--if you don't have a problem with seeing innards, this blog.) 

I'll just paste the info for you:  basically, as cows are fed grain, the pH level of their stomachs decreases (becomes more acidic), which can cause "indigestion, rumen stasis, dehydration, acidosis, toxemia, incoordination, collapse, and frequently death" (Merck Veterinary Manual, quoted in Fanatic Cook blog).  If you're not an animal rights lover and don't care about the livelihood of cows, continue reading to see how humans are affected: when the pH of a cow's stomach(s) drops to around 5.5, the bacterial protozoa begin to die, and dangerous E. coli strains begin to form (namely E. coli 0157:H7, found in the human-induced unnaturally acidic stomachs of cattle), which is more likely to cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, and sometimes fatal kidney failure in humans.  (Nina Planck, NYTimes article, quoted in Fanatic Cook  blog). I'm not advocating vegetarianism or boycotting the consumption of meat, just the boycotting of the consumption of meat that comes from big commercial farms (you know the type, cows standing knee-deep in their own "cow poopy"--how can bacteria NOT proliferate?) or from a source whose practices you don't know. Anywho, continuing with the field trip saga (but I don't apologize for that little rant, it's important information for anyone who eats in today's consumer society!)

4) Next we tried two of the types of cheese that are made with the milk--these cheeses are sold to the farm's visitors, and served in the school's cafeteria. And might I add that they were delicious---and I do love cheese. I don't know if that makes it easier to believe me because I'm a "connoisseur" (haha!) or harder to believe me because I love almost every cheese...

5) After a short walk through a field with a really interesting tree, we came upon a wooden dock that extended out over a sludgy lagoon, about 15' above the surface of the water. We looked around for a few minutes and finally saw scaly, pointed heads gliding through the water--a crocodile pit. The school keeps these crocs for conservation purposes, making sure their species doesn't die out. In captivity, if there is more than 1 male crocodile, the males will fight to the death. So, this pit had 9 females and 1 male who was rumored to be 4.5 meters long (that means roughly 13.5 feet  for us non-metric users. Wow.) To continue closing the cycle, the crocs get fed the unusable portions of any goat, sheep or cow that dies of natural causes. This is not a hamburger farm, just dairy.

6) We visited the baby goats kindergarten area to play with, snuggle with, and pester the little goats, who are there to make it more farmy and to save on lawn-mowing costs. I don't think the goats provided much milk, but they do provide a lovely soundtrack (that incessantly reminded me of home, along with the soothing smell of manure and freshly cut hay--you only wish I was kidding about it being soothing).

7) Lunch at a yummy Atenas buffet across from a park

8) Then a tour of an organic coffee cooperative in the hills of Atenas. We got a tour of the grounds (whoa, no pun intended!), sampled fruit from the fruit trees that shaded the coffee plants, saw the processes through which the cooperative farmers pick, wash/soak/separate, sun-dry, shell, shell again and grind the beans, then we were provided with samples of the coffee and some homemade coffee-complementing goodies from the owner's wife. 

9) Prof. Q. was excited to take us to a spring fed, chlorine-free swimming pool in the area; when we arrived, though, the deep end had only 1.5 feet of water in it! It turns out that the pool gets drained every Monday so bacteria and yuckies won't grow in the water in the absence of chlorine. Since we came on a Tuesday it had not yet finished filling up for it's heavy weekend usage. Prof. Q. has promised that he will take us back there some time later in the semester :)

10)In addition to seeing the rural aspects of living in Atenas, one of the main reasons for going on this field trip was to visit the community center that Prof. Q.'s wife started, called Su Espacio (your space). It serves as a central location that offers dance lessons, martial arts classes, English lessons, etc. to the community's kids (or adults).

• Wednesday night held a funny time at Bar Rio where my friends and I each ordered mixed drinks based on their names along. I opted for the cheapest, a Miguelito (which is funny because I call one of my friends here Miguelito), there was a Cerebral Hemorrhage and all sorts of weird names. Most of them were terrible, but it was still hilarious.
• Thursday 9/18 was my mommy's birthday! I called her to sing Feliz Cumpleaños, talked on skype for an hour, then got a call from Dad. He didn't have a sound chip in the computer he was using, so I pantomimed--I'm sure that made the crazy American in McDonald's look even crazier. 
• Friday morning I woke up early to follow my previously-planned itinerary, which involved meandering downtown to get some much-needed Mica Time. I am good friends with almost everyone in my group, but sometimes you just need some peace and quiet--although it's quite ironic that I go to the capitol city to get my peace and quiet! Most of my journal entry for today is in Spanish, but I'll translate: I walked to the main avenue of the pedestrian-only section of San José, then climbed a hill to reach the Children's Museum. I thought it would be a great way to start because the exhibits would be in Spanish but at a child's level (which is about my level), but I decided such a colorful museum would be more fun with friends. So, I made my way back down the hill past the cute alphabet sidewalk mural and crossed over the Rio Torres that runs alongside the north side of the city. I explored lots of different streets, not looking for anything in particular, and most of the city parks; in Parque Morazón there was a big festival for kids with music and dancing. I received free entry to the National Art Center and another connected gallery, where I saw two exhibits on modern art and graphic design. Then I hit the National Library to wait out the rain, but decided to continue walking after a while because all that was available to the public was the reference section. I walked through the National Park and finally to the National Museum, which is located on the eastern side of town in an old military fortress (from before the military was abolished in the late 1940s). I tried to read all the exhibit descriptions in Spanish--it's amazing how tired that will make you! I walked through the room of Pre-Colombian gold; an exhibit on mosaic tile fabrication and design; a colonial house model with original furniture donated to the museum; Costa Rica's diverse population roots; Costa Rica's history; the impact of coffee and bananas on its people, environment and economy (provided jobs for people, did wonders for the economy, but any monoculture crop will bring soil nutrient leaching and other problems). Then I visited the secret garden, which had some butterflies in it, then some beautiful wooden sculptures shaped like different animals, a tour of what the military fort looked like (I'm glad I wasn't a soldier back then, tiny dormitories, tiny public bathrooms, crowded showers--hard life in general), and then I learned about the legend of the passionflower; did you know its name is derived from the Passion of the Christ, and that every section of the flower--including color--has a different meaning? If you visit the link, be sure to click continue so you can read the legend in its entirety :) It was a really long day, but I definitely enjoyed my Mica Time!
• Saturday I did wings, beer and football with Matito, and Sunday I attempted to use the internet at his house, watched some more football/ golf, and got walked to the bus stop in the rain. [long.week] 

"This is the coolest thing I've done today!"

Week 4 began like this:

• Apparently nothing happened on Monday or Tuesday because I didn't journal about it. I'm sorry you're missing out :)
  
• On Wednesday 9/10 we had another CIDH (remember, the program through which I'm studying abroad?) Experience Sharing Meeting where we talked about Culture Shock. After the experience sharing meeting, all the students have their own experience sharing meeting, just like we do every time we get together (read: gossip and weekend plan-making) and it was general consensus that we all felt great about being here UNTIL the Culture Shock meeting. It made us think of home and start to get homesick and experience culture shock. Thanks a lot, CIDH ;)
  
• Wednesday afternoon, my Current Environmental Issues class took a field trip to INBIO, the National Institute of Biodiversity. It's an organization that has taken upon itself the daunting task of finding, recognizing, classifying and studying any medical or other benefits of all of Costa Rica's biodiversity. We saw some cool movie/slide shows,  pictures can be viewed here, of all places. The best parts were the 6 foot bright orange iguana and the caimans (especially the one that kissed the turtle). 
  
• 9/11 At first I failed to realize, but then my class mates pointed it out as we waited in line at the San José Police Station (not because we were in trouble, don't worry!!) that today was September 11th. Some of their teachers had apologized that they had to have class today, but it didn't seem like too much of a transgression. It's just weird to think that it happened 7 years ago, although I'm sure it feels shorter (or longer) for some people. Every year, whichever group of people I'm with discusses where we were when we found out. I was in Mr. Sands' 7th grade Social Studies class at Santa Fe, watching people's worlds collapse on tv; he kept telling us "war is eminent, the world is going to end, we are all going to die." Encouraging words, I thought. Where were you? [moment of silence]
  
• That night I went to Curridabat and had a fresh ingredient homemade pizza night with the girls, then a night on the town in San Pedro (at El Sultan bar...interesting, to say the least. My cab driver was smoking weed as he drove me there, Matito got offered cocaine in the bathroom, my name was written on the girls' bathroom wall, and the DJ was spinning tunes on Windows Media Player), girl talk till 3:00 then up at 6:00 to catch the bus to Montezuma. 
  
• The 9/12 trip to Montezuma happened via bus to Puntarenas, ferry to Cobano, bus to another little town, then a 4 wheel drive taxi to the quaint beach town of Montezuma. I had forgotten how much fun riding a ferry was :) We spent the night at Hotel Lucy (I recommend for the beachfront location, the verandahs and hammocks, and proximity to "downtown" but NOT for Lucy and her minions.) Then some exploring, twilight yoga, and a night with 2 in a twin bed.
  
• 9/13 began with getting screamed at and kicked out of the the hotel by Loving Lucy and her cohorts-in-casualties, but we ended up having one of the best days ever. We hiked up Montezuma Waterfalls, through the waterfalls (because we missed the trail, but we didn't mind), found swimming holes and "bathing" areas, jumped off rocks, then climbed through the woods (practically vertically, I might add) to a huge waterfall that we swam beneath (it was 36 feet deep) and eventually pulled ourselves along the rocks to climb behind it, an activity that involved lots of squealing and exclamations of "this is the coolest thing I've ever done! No, this is the coolest thing I've done today!" Then we jumped in the water and realized that the group of locals on the beach had been videotaping us, which was strange. If you google or youtube "gringas behind a waterfall" you might find us ;) There was a little boy in a puddle who was catching freshwater shrimp using a stick with a fork attached--how clever :) After some beach time we went to a live reggae concert at a nearby hotel that we got invited to while beach-lounging. The music was great+ everyone was dancing +most were drinking +some were doing harder substances +we danced in the sand (mind blowing, do it if you haven't!), a beautiful evening +awesome band +absolutely amazing atmosphere= a super duper time in Montezuma. 
• 9/14 involved exploring the town, wearing my hair up with a chopstick I found on the road, buying used books at a...used bookstore (has anyone ever read Glamorama? I bought it and 2 Spanish books....it's rather strange so far). Then the afternoon bus back to Cobano and the ferry to Puntarenas, then the bus back to San José a taxi back to ULatina and walking the rest of the way back home. Exhausted, let me tell you.

SURPRISE!!!!! I'M A LIZARD!

• Got to talk to my family early on Monday morning. That includes Pippin, Bartok, Diesel, M, D, and K. K flies to France tomorrow for her semester abroad, you can check out her blog ici (means here in French). In class today my team won a pack of cookies for highlighting "red flags" on the Human Development Index, if that gives you any idea about the difficulty level of studies in which I am enrolled. 
  
• Tuesdays are my favorite class day because I have 2 classes with the same teacher, Professor Q., who is really nice and genuinely wants us to have a great time and learn a lot. He advises us where to go on weekends to see what, and is just adorable--Stash and I both admitted that we have MAJOR platonic crushes on him, heehee:) I say that because he let us have our lecture outside and took us to get coffee when it rained on us. Also, I got mistaken for a local, which was fairly--no, EXTREMELY--exciting. Today (9/2) he mentioned an opportunity to teach English at ULatina because it has a bilingual policy. Every year the local's classes get progressively more English, from the 1st year up to 1/2 of the readings in one class can be in English until the 4th year when one entire class is taught in English. To fulfill this policy they'll need native English speakers to teach--I never thought of myself as a teacher, nor have I thought that I would enjoy it much, but what an opportunity, to live in Costa Rica--or to simply return to Costa Rica! Thanks for the deets, Prof Q. :)
  
• Nicknames are really big here, and are usually given in a loving and endearing manner as opposed to derogatory (like calling someone fatty or a gringo isn't seen as mean here!) Regardless of how long your ancestors have lived "away from the home country", and regardless if the home country is Japan, if you have slightly slanted eyes, you will get called "china" or "chino". Chicitico and Medio (my host... nephews, I suppose) have both started calling me "Muchacha" (literally: girl) P.N. and M.N. lovingly tease me about being small by calling me señorita or chica--little lady. I feel like I fit in:)
  
• Wednesday (9/3) I limped home on one shoe because the damn rain made the damn sidewalk tiles outside the damn University so damn slippery that my damn shoe just ripped in half. I was seriously afraid of catching a disease, and some guy hollered "Hola preciosa" (hey precious) as I walked by. Could he not have offered to carry me home on his moped or brilliant white steed??
  
• Thursday (9/4) held a great conversation with my host dad, but one in which I noticed some of the machisimo (chauvinism) we'd been told to look out for. The Costa Rican culture is funny in that women are professionally equal and can hold equal positions and receive equal pay as men without judgement. But socially they are considered....not exactly men's property or inferior to men, but something along those lines. But maybe many Costa Rican men's perceptions of themselves are just fairly inflated and the women are self-conscious (which leads to a lot of comments like "wow, what is she doing with HIM?") After our conversation, P.N. said in his adorably accented English "I like the way you are, Mica. Never change." 
  
• On Friday (9/5) I woke up early to catch the bus to Playa Nosara with some friends, but we waited on another friend (who never showed) and ended up missing the bus--luckily busses leave every few minutes to go somewhere, so we hit Playa Hermosa on the Pacific Coast. The mountainous drive was really beautiful out the windows, and the cutest baby was sitting in front of me. We arrived in Jacó, caught another bus at the "bus stop" (also known as Pizza Hut), and got dropped off in front of someone's house as Stash's seatmate told her we were at Playa Hermosa. After traipsing around we finally heard (or smelled or saw, or maybe all at once) the expansive black sand beach and knew we were in the right place. We stayed at Cabinas las Arenas, which I would definitely recommend to anyone, although Playa Hermosa is a world-renowned surf beach (for that reason I would recommend it to any single female.) The waves were huge, we played, drank and met Markel from Cuba, hit the weirdest bar I've ever been to (foozball-turned-DJ table, strobe light and no one dancing, just 7 guys sitting at the bar). We got back to the hotel and walked in on some girl just realizing that her car had gotten stolen from in front of the hotel. Eeeep.
  
• Saturday 9/6 found us swimming in the extremely strong current while Philippe surfed (in the waters in which 2 guys apparently died on Monday. Eeeep). After some beach time we hiked through the mountains on an old zipline trail and saw some great big spiders (don't worry LeGrand, I didn't take pictures!) and some adorable black and green poison-dart frogs, of which there are pictures. The main road gave us a show of monkeys, then a beautiful view of the beach from above. When we returned to the cabinas to frolic, we found out that aforementioned-girl's car had been found in the mountains burned to a crisp. Eeep. Nell thinks Markel was trying to buy me from Philippe by giving him beer and cigs every time he saw him; he  told me I was "una señorita muy bonita, más bonita que una floresita, una estrellita, una mariposita." (A beautiful young lady, prettier than a tiny flower, a tiny star, a tiny butterfly). I didn't fall for the Latin lover phrases, but geez Spanish is such a beautiful language. We watched the fútbol game at the owner's apartment, watched the sunset, then Philippe and I snuck into the hotel next door's pool to skinny dip. Shhhhh ;)
  
• All weekend since we were on a budget, Stash and I ate several meals just picking leaves off a huge head of cabbage that continually froze in our tiny refrigerator. The only other things in there were our beer and my blackberry jelly, which allowed Philippe and I eat cereal-and-jelly sandwiches----surprisingly delicious!
• Sunday we left Playa Hermosa in the afternoon, though I think Philippe seriously will live here someday like he said he wants to. While we waited for the taxi, a lizard popped out of the drainage grate in the restaurant and scared us all to death. When I arrived home, I ate an early afternoon dinner, then said I was going to shower and rest; my "rest" ended up lasting from 5:15 in the afternoon until 7 the next morning when my alarm went off!