mi primer noche de salir (my first night out)

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my roommates and i went out on the town last night for the first time.we really had no idea where to go or where anything was so we just started walking.we stopped at la residencia tierrasol where like 15 other students live. it's basically real world costa rican style there. when we got there this guard stopped us and there we struggled for several minutes as he talked to us in spanish and wouldnt let us past as he pointed at his tv yelling toro toro (bull bull). after a few minutes with our collective brains we figured out that no one was home because they all went to the bull fight in zapote. so thus began our journey to zapote and our first experience in a taxi there.it went well until we had to figure out what the numbers on the little meter in the car meant to pay him when we arrived.pretty sure we got ripped off but what's being a foreigner without that happening i suppose.we asked our host mom the next morning and now we got it figured out and we didnt lost that much only like $1 so thats not bad.when we got out of the taxi a guy tried to help us cross the street.you cuold tell he was homeless but he ran out in the middle of his road with his little whistle then followed us around begging for money for some time.the roads here...yeah still incredibly scary cause they dont stop for anything.they were celebrating christmas herewith this huge festival and that's where we went.it reminded me of summerfest.there were people everywhere and of course we stuck out like sore thumbs but oh well.the culture in costa rica is machista and we were warned about "cat calls" from ticos (costa rican boys) which we definitely experienced.we just ignored it and theyd stop.im really questioning whether their pick up attemps actually grant them success in reality.the costa rican beer is imperial and we tried it.it was really good actually and we got 3 for 2000 colones and 2000 colones is about $3 here in the states. we stayed for a few hours and took a taxi home at like 11:30 becuase we had to be at the univeristy by 8 this morning.today was a pretty boring day.but we ate at a local costa rican restaurant. i ordered la sopa negra con arroz (black bean soup with rice.)it was so different and so much better than black bean soup in the states.they also put like 3 fried eggs in the soup which i had no idea about but it was really good actually...sounds weird i know but it was fabulous and typical here.classes start tomorrow bright and early at 8 am...yipee so i will let you know how that goes.hasta luego.the weather here is perfect its like hot enough to get a tan but not hot enough to sweat.how cool is that?!

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