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Published: March 28th 2012
5. ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME
Monday, March 26
MONDAY…
Third week of school. As every week, new classes are arranged and students are assigned to other teachers. Although this hadn’t meant anything for me yet, this week my class changed a bit. Instead of me and two guys, it’s just me and one guy now – his name is Bill and he’s from Estadas Unidas (United States). First being worried that this other guy had advanced too much for our class and therefore had exceeded me in Spanish, I soon found out to my consolation that we had actually exceeded him – so all was good again. I still have the same teacher this week – she is cute, small, energetic and looks like she could be Snooki’s mom. (What to do when you don’t know who Snooki is: 1. Be proud; 2. Google her and sigh.)
In the afternoon, we had lunch together and somewhere between school and the restaurant, Erika had lost her wallet! Very weird, because neither of us could imagine when it could have been stolen, nor when it could have fallen out of her bag! Cool and in control, Erika
El Cuarto
Erika, Javier, David, Neni, Jessran to COSI and when she found it wasn’t there, had all her cards blocked – all is good now.
After lunch, I wrote my last blog and after that, walked around San Pedro with Jessica. We had the most delicious (and unhealthy) ice coffee – mine had Oreos and gave me several brain freezes – and walked to the university. I’d been there before with Neni (=Verena), but Jess hadn’t, so I ‘showed her around’. It turned out to be a very productive walk, because Jessica saw her future husband!
Having been too lazy to walk to the Auto Mercado to do some grocery shopping, Neni and I had for dinner what was left in the fridge/freezer: for each half a pizza and half a beer! At 8 pm, we (Erika, Jessica, Verena and me) met Javier (the local we we met last Friday) and his friend David at the bar we were at last Friday, called ‘Rio’ and went to ‘El Cuarto’ by car. This night was ladies night and a famous Costa Rican band was going to play some live music. We were there pretty early, so luckily – before it got very
San Pedro view
on our way to San Pedro mall / Auto Mercado crowded – I found the opportunity to learn how to salsa (or samba?). As I said, it became very crowded, but the atmosphere was amazing and we had an amazing time dancing, laughing, teaching Erika how Europeans dance, drinking… The band was very good; the lead singer was some kind of rasta dude, but bold. We went to bed at 3 am (!) and had to get up at 7 am again (!) and the great thing is, in that little time to sleep, I woke up about 4 times, being afraid to sleep through my alarm… Ironic much?
Oh, and a weird thing: When I got to bed and got my pajamas from underneath my pillow (the cleaning lady had been here during the day), I noticed that the grey, rib-fabric tank top that was laying there, was not my grey, rib-fabric tank top! It looked like it, and it was laying in the right place (because I use it as a pajama shirt), but it had dirty stains (mine don’t) and no hole in the bottom (mine does)! The moral of this story: my ripped shirt is gone, and I got a dirty one back!
Who the *&^% does that!? What is the point!? And how would this have happened accidentally??!! The weirdest thing of all is that this shirt has no value at all and doesn’t look like it does, so the main question remaind: ¿POR QUE?
TUESDAY…
The next morning, I was feeling surprisingly well considering the amount of sleep I’d gotten (unlike Neni – Or Jess, who left school an hour early to nap!). After school and lunch, I met Erika, Neni, Jess and Howard at COSI to go to the ‘Britt’ coffee plantation. The coffee was very good (but we kind of already knew that, because we have it at our apartment), but unfortunately the tour sucked. The tour guides (one man and one woman) performed this kind of ‘act’ as if they just “happened to be around” while we (read: the tourists with a useless, ugly sticker that says “Britt coffee tour”, a.k.a. “hello I’m a stupid dorky tourist”) we standing there in a group, with our ugly rain coats on. ‘cause it was raining. Hard. So much for ‘dry season’ (this world really is coming to its end!). The tour was over in about 15
minutes, and – believe it or not – the high point of it, is the hat that I ‘won’ for slurping coffee-before-it’s-coffee (picture will be added). Long story short: it’s €26,- that could’ve been spent better.
To make this day a real winner, Neni and I decided to treat ourself to some delicious greasy Chinese food and ended up ordering from the only Chinese in the world that does not have spices. Or eggrolls (NL: loempia’s). We threw most of it out – and that says a lot, because I am Dutch (and my mom’s daughter).
WEDNESDAY…
School and lunch as usual, but… At 4 pm, we went back to COSI to join a (*drums*)… DANCING CLASS! Here I (think I) learned how to salsa! Mostly, it was just a lot of fun and a good work-out! Again next week!
For dinner, I made spaghetti/tortellini-mix with the perfect pasta sauce! Used canned pasta sauce that is too sweet, but added the not-so-delicious Swiss cheese that is too bitter, and created a spaghetti-heaven!
At night, I drank beers with Neni, Jess and Javier, and we did Spanish word-games (“name a word/verb/noun that begins with
the letter…”)
THURSDAY…
After school, I Skyped with Jotte (yay!) and we (Erika and me) were supposed to get a tour by Javier in the afternoon. However, being a latino, 3 pm eventually became 6 pm, so what else was there to do for Erika but get her colored papers out of her backpack and fold an origami-swan!? What can I say? That’s what happens if you keep a Japanese girl waiting! She even taught me how to fold my own, so now there’s 3 origami-swans in my apartment!
Eventually, we just went to dinner with a bunch of people (me, Erika, Neni, Javier & David). This is worth mentioning, though, because the restaurant we went to (‘Chicago’) had delicious food! Maybe it’s because our standards have dropped since we’ve eaten at Costa Rican restaurants a couple of times, but either way we enjoyed it very much!
Downside: all the windows in the restaurant were open, so I caught a cold… 😞
FRIDAY…
Exciting day! Jotte flew to Washington DC and it was our 5-month-anniversary! 😊
School was a drag… Even though the class itself was fun, I was
feeling sick and all I wanted to do was sleep. At lunch, my new class mate for next week joined; her name is Laura and she’s from Germany. She seems nice… Maybe not as crazy as I’d hope… :P We went to a new place for lunch; they have delicious food and a nice waitress – she even speaks English (we don’t, of course – whenever she offers to speak English, we say: noooo, we have to learn!). I had a yummy veggie-soup, went home to sleep, and didn’t wake up ‘till 6 pm.
Because it was Neni’s last night, we (her, me and Jessica) went out. Because I was sick, though, we only went out for dinner and no more. We tried out a vegetarian restaurant nearby (10 – 15 minutes walk), which turned out to be awesome. It has a very homey atmosphere, very nice owners, delicious fruit-drinks (jugos naturales, it’s a big thing here in CR), and good food. This is a place I will come back to! I had soup, again. Afterwards, we stopped by the Auto Mercado on our way home, where Jessica bought tequila, Neni bought beers, and I bought… ingredients to make
soup.
Went to bed at 9 pm…
SATURDAY…
After a long sleep (11 hours), I woke up, took a long hot shower (yes, it was hot this time!), said goodbye to Neni (boo!) and had an exciting day of sleeping, watching movies, and making/eating soup. I started reading one of the books I brought with me, called ‘The Whispering Roads’ and found it to be amazing! It’s a childrens-book for adults and I bought it at a second-hand store for like 50 cents. Happy! Went to bed at 9 pm again… Exhausted!
SUNDAY...
Ordering food is impossible in Costa Rica.
MONDAY…
This week, my classes are from 8 to 3.15 (instead of 8 to 12), because of ‘Semana Santa’ next week. Semana Santa is easter week in Costa Rica, which is celebrated big by everyone. This means there’s no classes on Thursday and Friday, and – for example – there are no busses on Friday, and no alcohol will be sold in bars or stores from Wednesday on. To make up for the classes that I would’ve had on Thursday and Friday, I’m having extra lessons this
week.
In the lunch break, I had the rest of the Chinese food I ordered with Erika last night, and called the Costa Rica-office of my flight company (United) to try and rebook my ticket. I want to go to Washington DC before I come home! This guy helped me sort out a new flight schedule and I just had to wait for him to confirm the new prices. It took a little too long, so we agreed I’d call back after school. I was excited, delighted, and very, very happy! – However… When I called back and waited 40 minutes (!) for them to corfirm the prices, he told me: “I’m sorry m’am, but with the ticket you’ve bought, it is not possible to make any changes.” …Me: “Noooooo! ARGH! %@(^)*&^%$#@! Whehhhhhhh!” but mainly: “Are you fucking kidding me!? You keep me on hold for 40 fucking minutes, after going through the entire fucking schedule with me, telling me everything is fucking fine and all you need to do is check the fucking price and then you…. ARGH!!”
Long story (full of bad words) short (and clean): I was disappointed.
I Skyped with Jotte,
though, and he send me a torrent for ‘Moulin Rouge’, which I watched at night with Jessica and her new roommate Linnea, and I’m not so sad anymore…
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