Taekwondo and action movies

This week has been my first week without a Spanish class during the day. I've been really enjoying sleeping in. Although, surprisingly, I can only bring myself to sleep in until 8 or 8:30. Here's to becoming an old woman.

In the mornings I've been studying Spanish during the time I would normally have class. Today I went to Veritas and read the newspaper. I learned a lot of new words. At this point I feel like vocab is my main hurdle. I'm pretty quick with the conjugations while I speak, but a lot of times I don't know good story-telling verbs. 

Last night, Kristi, our neighbor, our new roommate Miranda and I went to Taekwondo class. The taekwondo class was taught by Jose (Myrna's brother) in his living room. It was a really good class because he's a black belt and actually teaches taekwondo quite regularly. After the class Kristi and I went to a two for one movie night and saw the movie "Unkown" or "Desconocido" as they call it here. It was really entertaining. It was my favorite type of movie: action with a little bit of government conspiracy thrown in there so you have to think. Overall, it wasn't that great compared to the Bourne movies (it was set in Berlin) but it was the exact movie I was in the mood for. It wasn't too long either (always good when you've inherited the sitting abilities of Valery Cochran).

At 1 A.M last night I was sitting in bed reading and I felt my bed start shaking and it felt like we were on the verge of an earthquake. Turns out that it was just a tremor (second tremor in a week). So let's hope they stay small! I was surprised that my bed actually started shaking. I imagine that if it had happened in Seattle Kiro 7 eyewitness news would be all over it. 

OTHER BIG NEWS! On Monday I will be hanging out with none other than SARAH FREEMAN and possibly traveling with her. I'm really excited. Myrna invited her to eat over here which I think will be really fun. I'm hoping we can go to some museums because I haven't had a chance to go to many in San Jeezy. 

Tonight after dinner Miranda wanted to take pictures of her new surroundings so we all congregated in the living room. I was really full after eating 3.5 Maduros*, so I whispered to Myrna that I was really full and it was going to look like I got pregnant in Costa Rica. She started laughing at me then put her arm around my shoulder and put her other arm around my stomach so it was resting on my hip, covering my stomach (kind of like a prom picture). Then she said "there, now they can't see".

 Thanks Mama Myrna.

*Maduros are kind of like fried bananas although they're not really fried, they are cooked in the microwave. They have butter, sugar, and cinnamon on them. They are probably one of my favorite foods. It should be noted that eating 3.5 Maduros = 3.5 full bananas.

Tonight I'm at kind of a low point because I have a "menstruation migraine" as Val-pal dubbed it. I turned off all the lights in the room, put ear plugs in, and put a pillow over my head for about two hours. And showered by flashlight to avoid any exposure to light. Woo! Hopefully this is gone by this weekend.

Speaking of which, this weekend I'm going to our friends host family's cabin. I do not know what I'm getting in to. I'm sure there will be an interesting blog post next week.

T- 12 dias hasta que Mateo llegue a Costa Rica! Que emocion! 

Hitch-hiking and debit card eating machines

Este fin de semana fuimos a la playa Samara.

Samara is a very idyllic little town with a minimal tourist presence and a very laid back vibe. The travel group consisted of me, Jen, and five other people from our program. We divided into 3 groups and all stayed at different hostels. On the way to Samara, we missed the main bus stop and ended up in the next town over. It would have been a really long walk back to Samara, and there weren't many taxis around, so, naturally, we decided to hitch-hike back to Samara. This is a short video of the hitch-hiking in action:

Me and Jen stayed in a hostel called "Las Mariposas". The toilet was really dirty. Other than that, it was cute, and we met really cool people, but the toilet bowl was just really dirty. I attempted to clean it myself because it was bothering me so much. We powered through the first night without a fan in our upstairs room (I almost died), but we made sure to acquire a fan for the second night. I'm pretty sure it was about 95 degrees there... I can't handle that heat. 

Horse grazin outside our hostel.

On Saturday we rented bikes and headed to Playa Carillo. Playa Carrillo is supposed to be one of the prettiest beaches in Costa Rica, and it really was. It was a very long white sand beach lined with palm trees and no hotels or stores along it, just a small road. Obviously, there are plenty of pretty beaches, but this one felt particularly special because there was hardly anyone there. We didn't have to worry about constantly watching our stuff (although we kept it close by), and we could swim and play in the ocean to our hearts content. When I was lying on the beach I had one of those rare moments where my whole body just felt completely 100% relaxed. This relaxation continued until the ATM ate my debit card on Saturday evening. I didn't believe the tails I'd heard of ATM's just plain eating debit cards, but now I know they are true. 

One of our many iguana friends from this weekend. 

On Sunday morning, whilst eating breakfast, we met a couple who worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically with a company who specialized in Women's health. I don't think they were involved with the evil kind of pharmaceutical companies though. The man was English although he hadn't lived in England for 12 years. His work schedule was as follows: work in the US (Boston I think?) for 2 weeks, then, every 3 weeks go to Costa Rica and repeat. I believe his girlfriend was a Tica. They were on the news the morning we met them, because they helped organize a rally for women's health, and everyone from the hostel gathered around to watch it. The man told us how he used to go to live in New Dehli, and about ten years ago he lived in Dubai. His tales of Dubai were especially interesting. For whatever reason, he was sent there during the summer, a time which is ungodly hot in that region of the world. He said it was usually about 120 degrees with 100% humidity. He told us an amusing/ fascinating story about a day when he decided to go for a "refreshing" swim on one of the beautiful beaches. It was another swelteringly hot summer day in Dubai, and he had a rental car so he decided to drive it on to the beach. So, he drove it on the beach, got out, and as soon as his TENNIS shoes hit the sand he could feel the excruciating heat through the soles. So he got back in his car, still determined to swim. He backed it up right to the edge of the water, and put his feet in. He immediately screamed in pain and jumped back in his car. The water, just like everything else, was scorching. 

Moral of the story: do not go swimming in Dubai in the middle of the summer. He also told us the only thing to do was to go to shopping malls. Or indoor skiing which they have now. It's probably much more intense than mini mountain though. 

That's all I can think of for now. I might come back and edit this post later.