day 8 Sunday

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Sunday,
Slept in today it was so nice. Woke up at 8 though, but then went back to sleep till 9:30. took my time getting ready for the day, then I went to the kitchen and mama tica had made me a real nice breakfast of eggs mixed with ham, a banana, bread, and hand squeezed juice! She covered it with a picnic food cover thing. I think they had left. I was going to meet Thomas today so we could both go eat lunch since we don’t eat lunch at the homestay and he and I are the only ones not doing a tour today. The other 3 people of our age that are still here (that we made friends with from orientation class) were doing a combo tour today (6:30am, bleh). So I looked up stuff to do in San José and San Joaquin and studied some Spanish then met Thomas at the banco national at 12:30. We went to “taco loco” and had Costa Rican tacos (tiquitos). Then we decided to take a bus to Heredia and walk around (since we couldn’t find anything specific to do). 160 colones to get on the bus (500 colones is about a dollar). We got off by the banco national de Costa Rica and I used the ATM (called ATH in Spanish) to get colones. Then we walked around. We were right by the central plaza. They were playing music. We saw the church, went to the stores, I got an alarm clock finally. Saw a store called Elizabeth Imports or something like that. We got ice cream for 270 colones for a scoop (a poleta). Later we went a sat in the plaza for like 10 mins and listened to this guy playing Native American music with the reed flute wearing a feather get-up. There was a fountain and a gazebo and two creepy looking clowns blowing bubbles trying to sell toys to kids. The church faced the plaza. Lots of people were wearing pink and black rosaries so I think it was “wear pink to church” day lol. Several places were closed because it was Sunday. Then we went back to the bus stop and returned to San Joaquin and walked back to our homestay. Thankfully when I got back both front doors were standing open so I didn’t have to worry about being locked out. I studied a little more Spanish but mostly relaxed. The family left around 5 idk where too. Then came back and mama tica made Costa Rican tacos for dinner. They are rolled tacos fried and repollo (cabbage) shredded on top with ketchup and mayo. It was good. They buy the tacos already made and fry them. Papa tico was telling me about some words unique to Costa Rica. And some Spanish words in general. Like sweater is sweater just spelled with a u instead of w. Shorts are formally called pantalone corto but everyone just calls them shorts. “Tuanis” comes from “too nice”. it comes from the coast where there are a lot of black people and Jamaican-English influences. So if someone asks Como estas, a common reply is tuanis. And of course another common reply is pura vida. “Mopri” is slang for primos (cousins). Its just cut in half and spelled switched around. And they shortened even more to “mop” so if you hear mop it means cousins. More slang from the east coast. He said I should say tuanis to my teacher after my teacher asks como esta? Tomorrow morning. So I'm gonna try to study a little itsy bit more then go to bed. Maybe test my new alarm clock and see if it works. I think my alarm clock on my windows vista gadget sidebar will work even if I don’t pick up a wireless network thought; I experimented with it earlier too. But still, more options are better.

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