Back to the mountain

Got up around 8:30...Amber and I had a 2 hour breakfast from our first coffee to fruit platters to mini buffet when the fam and boys finally made it to the table.

Got our last truly hot shower for at least a good week or so, packed, and said goodbye to Katherine. We'll be sure to call her when we head to Samara in a few weeks.

From there it was a long, cramped, trip back up the mountains. We made a business plan for a hotel in Samara: 4 hermanitas y un boy that speaks spanglish. It was pretty cloudy, which may even be better in some respects for pictures and the experience.

Dropped Amber off and I stayed home while the fam went to check in to Heliconia. I got all of my stuff put away, ate the lunch that Daisy left for me, and headed down to meet them at their cabin. We went to Johnny's for a brick oven pizza :) love.

From there, we took a walk towards Sta. Elena, stopping at Alejandro's shop to say hello. Walked around the town to familiarize everyone with the little triangle and the bakery, supercompro and liquor store...which is really a cheaper supermarket that also has alcohol. The fam got a closer look at "the hill" and the "not-so-handicapped-accessible" ramp (+2 steps)!


Everyone was tired.

So we stopped at Di'Kary for crepes and agua. Stuffed to the brim, it was back up the mountain where we are passing out from exhaustion.

Sports day at the beach!

Got a late start today after a lazy breakfast. We headed to Samara again to use internet before heading to the beach to check out the surf competition. I was dead tired and having a hard time keeping my eyes open. We got homemade sangria, went swimming, and attempted to play frisbee. It was pretty windy and it wasn't working too well so I just went back to chill on the towel for a bit. When Amber, Keith, and Dan got back I met up with Jairo and they headed out in search of Imperial towels. I chilled with Jairo before walking back up the beach to Tabanuco where Choco told me my fam had arrived for lunch and the other three came in through the beach access...nice timing :)

Even better timing was the kid with donuts which had holes in the middle but had dulce de leche filling in the dough...awesome. Heart attack waiting to happen. Some guys were playing Vball so Amber and Keith challenged them while Dan and I chilled on a log and talked.


Dan headed to use nature's toilet...

and then it was time for about an hour or 2 of soccer on the beach...which I'm sure I will pay for later but it was totally worth it! Some of the same guys as yesterday were there. One guy on my team, Kevin, was really nice and introduced himself and kept trying to help me out which was cool.

Back to the hotel for dinner...which consisted of an AWESOME plate of nachos and chicken fingers with fries and Frank's Hot Sauce, courtesy of Alice! On the way back to Tabanuco for a night of fun, Amber spotted a Potoo, which basically is a bird that flies really awkwardly like a bat...

We nearly forgot that while we are here in the 'Rica, many people are back home celebrating our independence day...in honor of that...4s for July 4.

The girls were a riot as they contemplated talking to the cute bartender who'd invited them to come to dance earlier in the day. Finally they got (a small amount of) guts and got his name, Hector, from Jairo. She's excited...cuz he came out to dance with her.

Amber and Keith returned after heading to Olas to play more fussball with Dan.

And FINALLY Jairo was free to leave the bar for the night to dance!

Cristian played No Games, by Serani, which has become mine and Amber's theme song for the vacation :)

When we got back to the hotel around 4:15 am the gate was locked and the guard was nowhere in sight. We sat around talking and no one woke up. Amber walked along the side to see if there was a way to hop the back fence, and Keith was genius enough to look up from where we were sitting on the porch waiting and to realize that we could climb the fence...and so we did. On the other side, Max the not-so-guard-dog was waiting for us wagging his stubby little tail, and in the room Amber, Keith and I killed my dinner leftovers of fries, salad and chicken...with Frank's of course. Keith also had tuna which we ate because we were still hungry and besides, when else was he going to eat it?? haha.

Dead tired now. I'm hoping to get up early to go to the beach before we leave tomorrow. We'll see how well that works out!

Surf Sun and Reggae

Started the day off around 10 o clock. We were a bit late for breakfast but they didn't seem to mind too much and kept the buffet open. I think there may only be one couple staying here.

That's Max, guarding the door...or not.



We met up with Jairo at 11ish at the beach to get Jess, Alice, and the boys set up for surf lessons. Amber and I were still a bit nervous about ging alone so Jairo came out with us and helped. I did it alone a few times-go me! The two of us moved up a level with our boards...they weren't foam anymore and they were shorter, so it was harder to balance but still fun. I ended up getting a burn on my elbow from the board, but it was all good because I was getting tired anyhow. After surfing at Choco's we grabbed some drinks from the supermarket and some food at the corner restaurant. We swam for a bit before it started to rain at which point we chilled under the surf tent and then played cards and ordered drinks from Adolfo at Tabanuco.

Mom and Dad came back to get us earlier than we expected, so we played soccer for a bit after the rain stopped and then headed to the hotel to get ready for tonight. When we got there the hotel had little kids doing traditional dance. They were so pretty! From there we hit up Tabanuco for the CR vs El Salvador soccer game in the Gold Cup.
Amber, Jess, Keith, Dan, Mom, Alice, Me, & Dad @ Tabanuco:

Of course there was more fussball to be played at Olas.

Keith Amber and Rob

Tabanuco...Reggae Night

Amber, Dan, and Me @ Tabanuco...and those are not all ours

Kiefer being a dork...

Amber, sporting Dan's eagle!

Keith with the eagle...not quite as fashionably...

I think the guard hates us for coming home at 4 am... :-o

Spanish and Soccer

Got up a little bit later this morning because I didn't have to go all the way to the institute for class. Cristina met me at the gas station and we walked down toward Santa Elena. Met up with Fernando and Tuona along the way and started Spanish class which basically consisted of getting to know the town a bit, practicing Spanish conversation and inquiries at local businesses. We actually learned a lot, including the fact that we can use the pool at the hotel "Poco a Poco" for about $10 for a whole day.

That would have been a nice way to spend yesterday or today (at the pool) because it's what they call "veranillo" which is basically "little summer." Every year on the feast of San Luis, Monteverde gets a day or two free of rain...now I understand why it rains so much here...that sun is HOT. Luckily there wsa a good breeze the whole time we were walking.

I still feel crappy, actually worse than yesterday, so one of my class interactions was with the pharmacist to get medication. Feeling better, and still drinking lots of water...I had the rest of the day to work on studio and to get ready for a soccer game that Anibal set up at the synthetic field against a local tico team. We got a little while to warm up and play against ourselves before they showed up and kicked our butts about 47 to 7...but no one was counting after about goal 12. haha. It was a good time, despite our losing. Wish I could have played a bit better and helped our team out, but it was all for fun!

Ate, and managed to stay up to watch the news with Marlen and Daisy but I'm fading fast!

Not-so-family-day

Was supposed to spend a good majority of my day with the family for the baptism and the birthday party...and my alarm didn't go off...

This is not a new issue. I think the problem was that my alarm clock needs a new battery which is why I've depended on my cell phone (which is only about 50% reliable...0% this morning). The fam probably thinks I was out late drinking but it was just something that little. I'm surprised they didn't wake me up, especially considering that we've talked about it all week, if not more than that...I almost feel like they didn't really want me there and it was just a courtesy thing? I don't know.

Other than that I had a good day. That smoke last night really did me in...my throat is killing me and my head is pounding. Studio wasn't happening so Amber and I layed out on the front lawn, walked with Dan's host brother, Francis, to the cheese factory, and then the three of us and his younger brother, Luis, played some frisbee. We almost killed them when they ran into the bushes trying to catch a few of our throws...oops!

Amber and I headed down to Sta. Elena to run some errands and ended up sitting and chatting for a while over a plate of Nachos and some strawberry smoothies at the Tree House cafe. Walked all the way back up to the Institute only to find Linsey and Tuona heading back down to town so we grabbed our stuff, and Keith, and met up to walk down to the Tree House for dinner and relaxation. Calm day, with lots of walking, and lots of water.

The place for amigos

This is where I live... :)

Headed up to the institute in a hurry this morning around 9:30 to meet Linsey and Tuona for the Friends' School rummage sale. It was HOT! No one was around so I figured they left without me and I just ran up there. The doors weren't open but there were a good 30 people waiting outside already...none of whom were my classmates! Cristina and Marco were there with their daughter, Naila...she's just adorable! I didn't have money, though I wish I did so I could have gotten something for Raulito's birthday and Mariana's baptism tomorrow.

Once I realized they weren't there, I headed back to studio to do a little work. Shortly thereafter I caught a huge portion of my family over skype at Aunt Mag & Uncle Lou's house for Liz's graduation party. Jealous. It sounded like a lot of fun and it made me miss home. For some reason the sound wasn't working so after making faces and reading lips for about 30 minutes Jess and I gave up.

Headed home then met up at Johnny's so we could go to the bat museum. Unfortunately, the woman Amber spoke to this afternoon is a liar...ok, maybe that's too strong of a statement, but either way when the group arrived, she came out and turned off the light and said they're closed. Super. By that time there was a decent-sized group of us so we headed to the Pizzeria where Ledi (pronounced "Lady") greeted us as per usual. We only had one deck of cards so we played a game that Keith called "Pass the Shit" since it only requires one card per person per round. Amber started demonstrating the card trick her host brother taught her, and even more of the group appeared!

Gravin & Lins:

At this point it was time to split up in order to accomodate everyone so Tuona, Lins, Bryan, Oriane and I went to Bar Amigos to dance. Not sure what everyone else ended up doing, they were still playing cards when we left. Met up with Gravin (sp?) upon arrival and he ended up hanging out and dancing with us most of the night! Marvin, Anibal's bro, and Jainer were there, too! I met Adolfo, who is his brother's twin as far as I'm concerned, which is how we met. I played soccer at the mini-field near my house with his bro and thought it was him! What's really entertaining about it is that I asked Adolfo's bro one day if he had been at the Cheese Factory earlier in the day and he told me that it must have been his brother...they really DO look alike, but apparently they aren't twins...? W/e.

Dancing...

Apparently someone photostalked with my camera...LINSEY.

No DJ Toni tonight! Much better than usual nights out at Amigos which was good. Chatted with Jainer for a bit til his g/f got mad--oops--it's too bad because he's really interesting to talk to. Fernando showed up around 1am. The smoke tonight was intense...I think it's because we were there a lot later and a lot longer than usual. The combo of cigarettes and the smoke machine was a bit extreme but all in all a really fun day!

My first dance night!

It was really nice out for most of the day today. Working on studio is really tough because combining multiple designs is never easy...I would actually beg to suggest that it would be easier to design in teams to begin with instead of individually and then together, which I thought we would do from the beginning.

I did some research on wall types, facades, and wall sections today but to no end as it was fairly random. I did learn a bit about wattle and daub (which has a million spellings, feel free to let me know if you know the correct one). I think that metal may not be the way to go because of the rain here...it is a really terrible absorber when it comes to noise.

After lunch, when I realized that the work I was doing felt useless I talked with Josh and he hadn't started the powerpoint so I jumped on it. I believe we're going to try to re-use the powerpoint from last year that also had two proposals for the same project. I began translating and writing the notes in spanish for the presentation. Before we get the two proposals there is still a lot that can be done on this so it should keep me busy until I can be more helpful to my team with the design.

Met with everyone just before 5 and ended up having a long meeting discussing what design has been done and how it needs collaboration despite the difficulty of this. I agree, but saying it aloud again doesn't make it any easier. Looks like it's going to be a whacky proposal...but there's a week to go and it needs to happen like...yesterday, so I am sure I'll be in here a lot this weekend.

After the meeting I didn't feel much like going to the dance class that Anibal and Evelyn planned so I went and played photographer. I attempted to help Tyler out with his salsa...he was so hilarious while I videotaped...he wouldn't let the camera out of his sight because he was so self-conscious! Everyone did surprisingly well until they got hungry at which point they got cranky and went home to eat. I walked back with Lins and Tuona and planned to meet up before meeting everyone to practice the new dance moves at La Guarida.

Chatted with Daisy about the stuff that has been going on at school...it's a small town, she's bound to find out at some point and at least I can tell her from closer to the source I guess.

The Goddess of Regueton was on TV...its basically American Idol for Regueton-dancers...which means super-grindy, music-video-esque dancing...at the end the past winners came on and my family was making comments about the two girls who were overweight and it really bothered me. Just before that, while I was getting ready, little Raul came into the bathroom and asked me where I was going. I told him I was going dancing and he, being 4 and taking in everything he hears from all around him, says "you're too fat to go dancing, right?" and i tried to get him to explain and he said "because americans are fat and you eat too much." WOW. Talk about the harsh truth of the matter. I was a bit taken aback and asked if he meant me and he said yes...sigh...it's weird because I think that any terms here can be used as terms of endearment that we usually take negatively in the US such as "gordita"-fatty, or "negrita"-little black girl. At the same that it's important for us to understand and learn these differences, I think it is as important for our families to learn from us about our culture. This was a tough lesson from a 4 year old.

Met up with the girls and had to basically take a shower for my legs at Linsey's because walking a mile in flip-flops on dirty roads equals basic ruin of cleanliness. no fun. From there we took Yenaro (sp?) to Johnny's. Finally got the names of all of our friends there, Randall, Luis-Carlos and Jainer (sp?). They were about to close down to head to Guarida, so that was cool and we ended up meeting them out.

At Guarida I spent a while wandering around, chatting with each person who came in from our group who was all over the place at the bar. There were girls dressed in what I thought was underwear (until around midnight when there was an actual lingerie show and I realized what underwear really is...) dancing in the middle dance floor. I'm not going to say they were terrible dancers, but they weren't anything super-special either. Shortly after they played all of my favorite songs from the US for these girls to dance to, they switched it up and played music that Anibal and Evelyn had taught dances to so a bunch of people hit the dance floor. I played photographer. I found out a bit later that Jainer is the only tico I've met so far outside of the institute who can dance! He was there with his brother's wife and his neice and she lent him to me to dance. SO MUCH FUN! I love all of the cool spins and everything and I can follow pretty much anyone if they are a strong leader...I just need to get the basic steps and I'm good to go.

Everyone started trickling out just before or during the lingerie show...which was like a 45 minute production of girls in thongs and bras modelling on the dance floor. The boys said it's probably the closest thing there is to a strip club here. Jainer told me he doesn't like it because, while he and Randall both admitted the girls are gorgeous, obviously, he doesn't understand why anyone would want to parade themselves around for people that way and they don't think it's a decent job. Meh...I wasn't entertained, but it also wasn't meant for me to be-haha.

Home super-late. Meetin up early tomorrow.