Day 17 - Counting Cards, Waterfalls, Chess, Hot Springs, Longest Day Yet. Make sure you have some time on your hands if you are going to read this entry. It’s a full one. I woke up at 5:00 am to get to school by 5:30. On the way to Arenal we watched “21” on the bus. I enjoyed the film. Well done in my opinion. Worth renting for sure. We stopped at a park in Zarcote where there was awesome hedged art everywhere: archways, animals (including dinosaurs, birds, and horses), funny faces, patterns and designs. Check out the pictures. I think [View Full Entry]

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Day 16 - Short We listened to Spanish songs in class today. I wanted to learn more guitar after listening. Downloaded guitar tabs. Played for hours at home. Went to bed. The end. [View Full Entry]

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Day 15 - No military = More $$ Had a big discussion in class today about racism and discrimination and the like. It was very interesting to talk about, especially because for the last 2 weeks (and the next 3 months) I’ve been the outsider. I talked about how that is somewhat ironic because I have a scholarship for Latin-American back at SU. What if someone that wasn’t Latino needed that money and was more qualified for the scholarship than I? Hmmm. Interesting things to think about. At home I had a discussion with my Mama, brother Gustavo, and his girlfriend [View Full Entry]

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Day 13 and 14 - Umm… September 16, 2008 So, really, a bland day. I had my class with Ticos again where I’m the only white guy. I understood a lot more this time though. Today I also posted like 5 blogs. I need to get more on top of this. I’m working on it, I promise. Pura Vida September 17, 2008 Another normal day. Except I went to a storytelling event (kind of like something SEAC would put on) and listened to a woman tell stories. It was pretty cool because, really, how often do you just sit and listen [View Full Entry]

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Day 12 - Denim Diapers September 15, 2008 Today was Independence Day - not just for Costa Rica, but for all of Central America. I didn’t know that’s how it was until I got down here. On September 15th, from Mexico to Costa Rica (not Panama), they all celebrate independence. In my opinion, that’s a pretty cool concept that brings unity to an entire region regardless of their present differences. They apparently run a torch all throughout Central America leading up to the 15th, like the Olympics. There’s just no Michael Phelps. Or Bob Costas. But there probably should [View Full Entry]

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Day 11 - Nature and Pierce Brosnan We woke up early to go to the Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest Reserve. With a couple friends we conquered almost the entire park in 2 hours. So many amazing different plants and fauna, things you picture when you think of the rainforest - huge leaves, towering trees, vines, moss, bright colors. I think my skin became saturated with chlorophyll. We went across a cool suspension bridge and saw an amazing waterfall. Maybe the best part was coming upon some hanging vines from a towering tree and just going for it. We grabbed them and [View Full Entry]

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Day 10 - Bon Appétit Introduces Grilled Choco-Cheese I was so stoked for this big day that I put on my ipod and cranked up the volume as I started to cut my nails outside. I look up and no one is around. I run to the bus and everywhere is there smiling at me and laughing hysterically. Sound like me? I can’t get away from crappy habits. It’s really hard to put my zip line rainforest canopy tour into words. I got to soar over the freaking rainforest dangling from a cable like a little Colombian fishing lure. Epic views, [View Full Entry]

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Today in class we played hangman and 20 questions in Spanish. I’m glad I’m a senior in college. We left at 1pm for Monteverde (a town in the mountains in the north rich with rainforests and adventure) with the group. Gorgeous drive up in our huge charter bus - so much green, hills, forests, cows, locals (I guess this is the same description you could use for like, Carnation, or Duvall, or maybe even Kent. I need to work on my writing apparently. Just believe me that it was super cool. Kent doesn’t have banana trees.) It’s truly refreshing though to [View Full Entry]

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Day 8 I spent most of the daytime hanging out in the office with ISA friends while figuring out Skype and calling friends and family back home to let them know I was alive and kicking. Skype is pretty dang tight. I’m making international calls for almost nothing. I can’t wait to get internet at our house (in CR) so that I can call people back home and what not. At dinner/before we went out, my friend Nick, roommate Matt, and I had an incredible conversation with our mama Tica. We talked about September 11th, as it was the day of, [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 I went downtown again today with the same crowd relatively. Explored. Today, random thoughts and commentary: The weather here is crazy awesome. It is extremely predictable and goes a little something like this. Warm and sunny (70s-80s) through the morning until around 3ish. Then it gets cloudy - really dark clouds - and you know what’s coming. It starts to POUR for an hour or two or three, complete with huge rumbling thunder and elegant displays of violent lightning. That’s how it goes almost every day. The storms here are amazing to behold; the rain just dumps and does [View Full Entry]

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