The puppy

Meet Gracie...the new puppy! How cute is she?! (Just ignore my brother's head) Oh, I wish I was there to see her...

Well, this weekend Kathleen S. and I exhausted every 'Nova phrase we could think of - I believe we even toasted to Creating moments together, the tradition lasts forever at one point. It was good to see her, to reminisce about Nova moments and people, and to go out!

Friday, we saw a fight at la Villa involving our favorite waitress, Lucy, and two big guys (who then got their arses kicked by the bouncers) All over 20 colones - less than a nickel.

Saturday in the day I went fishing with Álvaro - the lawyer from the domestic workers association - and a friend of his. We had such a fantastic time. The weather was perfect outside of Cartago. We went hiking for a while, we thought it was going to be 20 minutes or a half hour or something, but it ended up being an almost 2 hour hike. It was cool, though. We got to see two waterfalls and we talked about currency, politics, and history - slightly different crowd than our other guys friends.

Then we got to fish in this pond (about 15 years ago, the government started encouraging trout farming in the area and now it's huge and they all have hatcheries and lakes stocked with fish and trails and places to picnic and stuff). I was the first one to catch a trout! Then, the owners cleaned the fish and put seasoning/breading on them, leant us a grill, and a frying pan, and we cooked out own fish. We had brought salad and drinks and we had a feast. The fish was SO incredibly good. And I felt like a true huntress, eating what I had caught.

The best part is that Carlos, Álvaro's friend, is moving to London in August! We've decided that we're going to be good friends so that when we're in England we'll have a familiar face to make us feel more at home (Kind of weird that a Costa Rican face makes me feel at home, but it definitely does).

When I got back, Kathleen and I grabbed some Chinese food and headed to Tavarua (The line for Terra U. was super long) And, despite the 1,000 colones cover charge Tavarua is becoming one of my new favorite places to hang out. We bumped into Heiner, Carlitos, Hot Guy, Christopher being sketchy, Alex (with the shaved head and the cute girlfriend), and a few other random people. I told Kathleen about Hot Guy and she was like, then why is he with an ugly girl? Ahhh, Kat, if only we knew the answer to that question! Anyway, we end up hanging out with Heiner and Carlitos all night. Heiner hasn't cut his hair in a while and he had on a headband - Nelson style. We all went for pizza (and Kathleen for falafel) and Heiner gave me his crusts. Excellent.

Sunday, Kathleen, Rachel, and Ginna helped me distribute flyers for the poetry contest in Parque de la Merced. I think it went well, no one threw them out and some people were even reading them. Jose was going to come over for dinner (Chicken Parm), but something came up and he couldn't get a bus until late. So I told him not to worry because it would suck to come all the way out to Curri and then have to turn around and go back to Carrizal (almost 2 hours).

Sunday night, after Kathleen left, I went to Friday's with a bunch of the CIDH kids. It was good to see them all and I think I should hang out with them more often. I dragged a bunch of them to Terra U, met up with Gato, Rodney, saw Christopher still being sketchy (this time with a girl). Also ran into my old host brother, Sergio, his friend Daryl, and cousin Eric.

All in all, good times.

It's a squirrel of my soul day

So, whenever I'm on the bus, I always think of amazingly profound wonderful things and then I tell myself to remember them so I can tell people, or put them here, but then I always forget.

However, several little things happened recently that I thought I should share (minus all the deep thoughts)

1. I saw the chef from the Pica. She was walking near the church as I was walking home from the bus (I had to take La Lia because the mean Curri driver wouldn't stop for me as usual...but that's a whole story in itself). Anyway, a moment of recognition passed between us. I wanted to thank her for making such amazing french fries and ask what she's been doing since the Pica closed, but I thought the fry comment might scare her, so I made do with a "Todo bien? Pura vida. Chao."

2. My real NJ family got a dog. Her name is Gracie - part pit bull, part border collie, part beagle. They still haven't sent me the pictures, but evidently she's cute. I've wanted a dog since poor Thatcher (a Brittany spaniel, may she rest in peace) was put down when I was 15. So, I congratulate Abbey on finally wearing down our parents and getting us a dog! Just think of it as an investment, mom, you'll no longer hear whining about bunnies, hamsters, or fish because we're all obsessed with the new puppy!

3. Related to puppy, we recently discovered that the Costa Rican soccer player known as "Poopy Lopez" is actually alled "Puppy Lopez." So, puppy said with a Costa Rican accent is pronounced poopy. Right. Still doesn't explain why his nickname is puppy...perhaps he has big eyes? or floppy ears?

Also, Nick has instituted theme song Tuesdays in the apartment (this week was Outkast's Hey ya!). At the playing of the song, all three of us must dance shamelessly around the apartment...I must say this week was a success, with us shaking it just like a polaroid picture. Because of Nick's genius suggestion, we gave him the first ever award on the award board (aka tabla de premios) - the Spirit Award. As soon as we find some, we'll be giving him a gold star to go along with the award.

Oh, and I got mail for the first time in a while (not counting contact solution sent by my mom). Kerry put a Valentines' Day message in the local paper for me (and one for Lynnie too). It was very exciting.

Today itself has already been very exciting...had lunch with Berni, Mari, and Miranda. Berni and Miranda told horror stories about monkeys, spiders, and butterflies (who's afraid of butterflies?). I love that I'm living in a country where normal family outings usually involve a run-in with wild monkeys.

Life is good. I leave you with my favorite quote, taken from the back of a bus seat...

"Squirrel of my soul, kiss me under the moon."

I've got a blog!

Naturally, it's taken me how many months of being in Costa Rica to decide to make my own blog...what can I say...I only joined thefacebook.com recently too...I think it all has something to do with my feeling disconected from college, home, etc...after all, I sort of am. Anyway, the actual inspiration for the blog comes from Sarah B. and my stomach virus...So, thank you Sarah for making me realize that if people having fun in England can take time out to update the world so can I...and thank you stomach bug, for getting me out of doing work so I can sit here and make my blog.

I'll be sure to give updates of life in Costa Rica for those of you who don't really know what's going on (ie stories of monkeys, rainforests, migrant workers, etc) and for those of you who have recently left (sigh...club curri is gone) I'll try to keep you updated (what chileans I've seen this week, will the Pica ever reopen? and the joys of working with Jor)

Ok, that's all for now...the stomach bug is no longer cooperating and I better go see if the mean pharmacy lady will give me anything