Last Day in Monteverde

Woke up before my alarm went off this morning. Got up and spent time with Daisy making cookies from scratch and rolling them into shape with Raulito for the lunch this afternoon.

I walked to school on my own and got there around 11 to fill out all of the evaluation forms that Anibal had for us. Families started showing up for the lunch at the institute and it was almost as if we had reverted back to the first day when we all stood around separated ticos/foreigners for a while. Then we all kind of started to mesh again and had a really awesome lunch of chicken with mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, and vegetables wth fresh juice. Mmmmm. It was the first time I've been hungry all week...and then I was too full for dessert!

We all ended up playing charades as organized by Anibal. All of the things we were acting out were spanish sayings, though, so it was really difficult for us to really work as teams since we were just yelling in our own languages and not actually communicating. It was still hilarious and the laughter brought everyone together.

Watched the little kids playing a tag game then more handstand competitions between Linsey and Brian...which ended up being taken over by teacher-Kevin, who stole the show with his skills. Played with Mariana and Raulito in the grass out front and then got ready to head out. My family left without saying goodbye because they had to get to a birthday party for one of our bajillion family members...everyone here is related!

Headed back towards Cerro Plano with Tuona, Lins, and Josh and they waited for me while I dropped off all of my trace paper and drawing stuff so it wouldn't get wet...but we got ridiculously lucky and it was gorgeous and sunny and warm all day! Thank-you Monteverde!!

We all walked down to Santa Elena together to see some shops, etc. Stopped in to see Diego and Amy, hit up the liquor store for chocolate covered coffee beans, the super-compro, a little jeweler/wood-worker shop, the jersey store, and finally the Cafe below Tree House where Johan was working. After a short rest we headed back up the big hill, left Tuona and Linsey at their street, stopped in at Alejandro's, and headed home to pack and eat dinner with our families.

I had fried tortilla and soup...I can officially say that there were only 3 meals that I did not like here...and one doesn't really count because it was leftover from the 1st time I had it!

So after dinner I got ready to go out and Josh showed up just after my family was done joking around with me about being a streetwalker..they're ridiculous! We joked a bit longer before Josh and I headed out...in the pouring rain... and high heels. By the time we got to the bus stop and my rain jacket was soaked through already so we decided to wait for a taxi to happen upon us so we could stay under the roof. Within 10 minutes onearrived after dropping its passengers at El Establo and we got a ride less than a kilometer to Johnny's to spend a while chillin with our friends there.

Randall's gf and son, Randy, were there and the baby was sooo cute. Entertainment value way up there. Everyone was working but Nacho so that was cool too! What would this experience have been like without them,? I don't even want to think about it!

Around 10 Josh, Dan, his bro Francis, Oriane and I all headed down to meet up at Bar Amigos...where we started our Monteverde experience 10 weeks ago. The entire place was crazy because Andersen, the main DJ from the most popular radio station in Costa Rica, was DJing. It was a ton of fun, almost everyone that I talked to about coming beforehand was there and we all danced like mad. A few people stayed in and some went to Chancho's at some point but Tuona and I stayed out til 3:30 or so, talked with the DJ and his assistant and might meet up tomorrow since we'll all be in San Jose!

Walked home with Tuona, Royner, and Victor (who I just found out the other day lives on my street. By the way, saying street, to me, suggests a certain image, and my road does not in any way appear to be what I would call a street. Weird how words get connotations that way.

So we left Tuona at her road and now I am home, half-packed and still don't have my bag for the next 2 days because it's at Amber's house...Need sleep now as we have bags ready at 7:30 and get to Johnny's by 8. I asked Daisy if we could make arepas for breakfast, too...ahhh...