back to Monteverde

Got up this morning and hit up the reception to find out about the Jeep-Boat-Jeep ticket...they still weren't open so I went to the buffet breakfast with the girls and then went back. The place was open but they won't run the trip unless they have 4 people and they didn't have any others so we called Eagle Tours and they agreed to pick me up.

Milton picked me up in the bus at 8:15 and I said goodbye to everyone who was heading out on the horseback and ATV tours for the day. Wish I could have stayed...

We picked up some other people for our trip who were also coming to Monteverde including a guy from Syracuse who teaches in Arizona, a couple from Vancouver, another girl from Canada, and some others who I didn't talk with. The car ride to the lake was quick and the boat ride was awesome. The sun and breeze were a great way to start a day and with a view of the volcano, it was pretty great. Milton said sometimes when they don't have customers they can take the boats out just to swim and said I should let him know if we want to do that one weekend.

Got back to the house and ate the lunch that Daisy had left for me before heading up to the institute. It took a little less than 15 minutes and I was sweaty and gross. Boo. I got assigned to a studio group with Keith, Will, Josh, an Amber to work on an office building for the municipal government of San Luis and the water authority.

Everyone went up to the Friends School in the afternoon where one of the parents grilled us for being students and wanted to know all of our qualifications etc (because she was an architecture student when she lived in Germany...whatever that was supposed to imply). The project there seems really neat and has a lot of options especially because it is a pretty experimental Montessori school...bilingual to boot! We got to learn a bit about greywater treatment...but it's al fairly basic and aside from being able to actually see it in person I don't know that we gained to much new info yet. Amber is going to start researching that tonight before our own meeting in San Luis tomorrow.

It's been slow at school because we can't really get much started until we go to our meeting and they spell project for us so tomorrow morning we're just going to do some research on the community and on past projects done by the Sustainable Futures groups there.

Left studio around 5:30 with the intention of meeting up with people around 8 at bar amigos. When I got home Daisy still wasn't back so I went outside to play some soccer with some guys across the street. Christian, who was playing at the gym, was there. I don't think he remembered me, but whatever? We played for a bit before it was too dark to continue, even with the lights, and I headed inside where the fam was waiting. The guys invited me to play tomorrow and to bring whoever. I'm not sure that many more people will fit in the yard they were in, but we'll see.

Had pasta and rice for dinner and lots of water to rehydrate after my weekend of soccer then aYipi (chocolate-covered vanilla wafer) for dessert. Marlen and the kids stayed over and we all watched a special on TV about the poverty that the fishermen and their families are experiencing on the coasts of Costa Rica due to the low prices that people are willing to pay. Marlen and Daisy seem very conscious of the issue of poverty and were really into it which I thought was really interesting. Marlen was upset because of how little the fishermen get payed compared to how much the restaurants sell it for to tourists, etc. She's totally right.

After Marlen took the kids to bed I called Keith to come get me so we could walk to Bar Amigos but it was 8:15 and he was already gone. I tried Fernando and he was already sleeping. I stayed up for a little bit longer watching the news with Daisy before we both just decided to go to bed. I have nothing better to do, I suppose. I really don't know what to do with down time here. So it's not even 9 and I'm going to sleep.