Tembloresssssss

Hello again,
I´m writing to you happily from an internet cafe after a sweet weekend of hikes, earthquakes, dance clubs, and of course, more cockroahes. They just seem to love me.

The weekend started off well when one of my friends invited me to her host sisters bday at an electronic dance club. I´ve never been to an electronic dance club, so I thought I´d give it a whirl. Her host sister, Priscilla, was turning 18. Turns out 18 is like 21 in the U.S. but even better because that´s basically the age you can do anything (driving, drinking, tobacco), but probably not good to combine them all. As we went out I thought to myself, "how many more birthdays am I going to have to celebrate in the name of drinking before my own?" Then I remembered my own is just around the corner, Finalmente! Anyways, the club was good, but I think I would have preferred different music. All in all it was really great to hang with Costa Ricans and keep speaking the spanish.

The next day me and three of my friends from the program attempted to go on a hike. We took a series of buses to Coronado which eventually led to the Cloud Forest (Las Nubes). By the time we finally reached the town where the mountain was located we didn´t really have time to hike. But it didn´t matter much because we were all just happy to be out of the city and in a less concrete landscape. The town we were in was beautiful and I actually took pictures for once so I´ll upload them soon!

As soon as we got back to San Jose I quickly went home to change and then headed downtown to watch the Costa Rica/Mexico game. At first we went to this americanized restaurant, which didn´t feel as authentic as our game watching could be. So at halftime we ventured to a Costa Rican bar and truely experienced the thrill of Futbol. Sadly, Costa Rica lost, but the experience and atmosphere was still awesome.

When I got home from the game I immediately went to bed after being out all day. As I was sitting in my bed writing in my journal my bed started shaking a bit. If I haven´t already mentioned I share a bunk bed with my host sister. She´s on the top and I´m on the bottom. I thought she was just having some dream that involved her thrashing around. But about 5 minutes later my Papi burst into the room and said, "¿Tiene miedo? Fue un temblor." Are you scared? There was an earthquake. Apparently my host sister thought I was doing the same thing. So I guess earthquakes don´t scare us.

Yesterday was the best day of the weekend, in my opinion. At around 11 am, my Papi called home from work and asked if I had a lot of schoolwork. I said no, even though I did, and he said the whole family was going to go to the Volcano Poas. After a crazy 2 hour car ride there, we finally reached Alajuela, the town where the volcano is. It was one of the coolest things I´ve ever seen. First we saw a lagoon, then the HUGE crater where apparently there´s a lot of lava underneath the water, but all we could see was green water and smoke. Still an amazing site. Afterwards we went to a restaurant where I tried the Lengua de Vaca (cow tonge). To be honest it tasted like beef, but just knowing it was the tongue, and after seeing it raw in my family´s meat shop, I could only take one bite. The best part of the day was just spending time with my family. I´ve never felt so at home with another family in such a short amount of time. They are extremely patient when I speak, or atleast when I try, and always take the time to explain things when I don´t understand, which is a lot.

Basically, I´ve really been enjoying myself here. Now that I have an idea of the city, transportation, and am in a routine, I feel the possibilities are endless. In 4 days we leave for Limon and I can´t wait to see the town. I don´t think it´s a vacation, so much as school. But that aint stoppin me from going to the beach and livin it up on my bday.

I hope everyone is doing well and, as always, I miss you :)
Buenas Noches!!!!