Miscellaneous Thoughts

Okay, for those who were keeping up with the Great Scattergories Match of 2006, I won the tournament Wednesday night, beating Kurt by 2 points. We still have to check on the rules about our double letter theory (I maintain that Maid in Manhattan for Movie Title should count double; this is still yet to be determined). My victory was somehow not very enjoyable, though. I think it had something to do with all the debating and discussing we did over the last few days. Time for a new game, I guess. Or at least time to play with more people.

Kurt’s mom and her Romantic Significant Partner (see Kurt’s blog about Grumpiest Old Men in which he wonders if his mom is too old to have a “boyfriend” and wonders what to call Denny) are coming to visit today (Friday, March 24). She has graciously included me in their trip through Arenal and Monteverde. I am elated and nervous. Excited and apprehensive. I recently asked Kurt if she really and truly did like me. Susan is a high-school principal in Colorado, so by career, I think she is conditioned not to let emotion show on her face (if I were a high school principal, I would need major training on this accomplishment). Also, having Kurt for a son I suppose is a challenge in and of itself, maybe that training came from not laughing out loud at his ridiculous statements or faces he is known to make. Kurt says he and his mom are similar in that they “don’t emote.” Is that really a verb? Anyways, I am happy to go along, but yet still feel a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous. This is an odd feeling for me, as in the past my ex-boyfriend’s or ex-dating mate’s moms have always liked me, almost pushing their sons into my arms (am I really that good of an example? Or was I just the best thing to come along in their son’s life at that time???) But, here, where it truly matters, where I will probably be giving her some grandchildren in the (fairly far-off) future, here is where I am less than confident. I am intelligent, educated, conversational (not to be confused with chatty or talkative), open-minded, opinionated (about the right topics), by Kurt’s standards “hot as fuck”, and generally (I think) likable. But yet, I still feel very insecure about Susan’s feelings towards me. Her opinion and what she thinks of me really matters to me. I hope I don’t screw up. Talk too much. Talk too little. Not dress appropriately. Dress too appropriately. Give good Scattergories answers. Give answers that are too good and beat the pants off her (unlikely). Regardless, I hope I don’t screw up. Could this be the reason my chin looks like Krakatoa (Kurt’s book of the moment) and keeps trying to erupt? Am I really this stressed out about seeing my probable future mother-in-law? Yes.

In other news, I have taken to believe that no matter how much insect spray and how much RAID I use in the house, it is never enough. I sprayed the whole apartment (a task of about 7 minutes, seeing as how it is not exactly a penthouse) over last weekend. Kurt and I washed down our windows and sprayed them inside and out, as well as the drapes. The doorway. The “kitchen.” Well, I was really trying to get rid of those pesky, tiny, almost microscopic ants that seem to appear every time we are cooking. I am happy to report it has greatly deterred the ants from peeking out from every little crevice. The occasional ballsy ant comes wandering across the counter or up the wall, and PSSSHHHH, sprayed, gone. That’ll teach you, you cocky little shit. But how come it doesn’t work on mosquitoes? Or the flea that was just arrogantly crawling across my screen as I type. The last 2 Wednesday nights somehow, something that really likes my calves and ankles and feet has gotten me. I woke up yesterday morning with all kinds of little bites, trying to kill the itch. I have taken to leaving the Calamine lotion in the fridge to cool the itch and lessen the bite. Doesn’t work that great, but better than nothing. And how come they never bite Kurt? I tell him my blood is sweeter than his, and he says he would rather have sour blood than a bunch of bug bites. I agree.
Of course, I will probably wind up with any number of various mosquito-related diseases: malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever or West Nile Virus (which Kurt says is only in the US, but that’s what the bottles and cans of OFF say it protects against, so I figure I better watch out for that one, too)

The water is out. AGAIN. This happens about 4-6 times per day. I don’t get it. And the electricity will also go out, leaving us to swelter in our sauna, aka apartment. We opted not to use the air conditioning, due to the fact that the owners said it was $100 extra per month in rent. We’ll sweat, thank you, we told them. But when the electricity goes out and you are lying in bed and your morning wake up call is not your alarm clock (?? Oh, you mean that thing that wakes you up at some ungodly hour, telling you that you HAVE to be someplace? Never heard of it.), but your body clock telling you to get up before you sweat to death, you realize just how much you would love just a little bit of air. Even a small breeze would be nice. Every morning, with the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion, we are talking about an average temp of 93 or so degrees. In our bedroom. FABULOUS! I bet you are all booking your tickets to come and see us now aren’t you??
But back to the water. Apparently, there is one tank that is supposed to be for a single family home. Well they are a single family. But with 8 apartments on this tank as well. So we sometimes go without water for hours at a time. They are my favorite parts of the day, lemme tell you, especially when it comes to washing the dishes after dinner. I feel like we should move into a teepee and Kurt and I should don sarongs and instead of working at the hotel or teaching English, I should be collecting berries and Kurt should be hunting game, which we will eat by firelight that we have struck by rubbing 2 sticks together. Primitive? I think so.

Kurt and I tried to go dancing last Saturday night. When I was here before, I went to La Central disco. So I suggested going there, and the guidebook had said it would be an okay choice. First problem, we looked in the guidebook. Will we never learn?? We went anyways, paid the 1000 colones cover charge ($2) and went inside. Have you ever seen one of those movies where the wrong color person walks in somewhere and everyone stares and the music actually skips a beat? Well, that is what happened to us, except the music didn’t skip. It would have been apropos though. We were the ONLY gringos in sight. We walked in, people stared at us. Went to the bar to get beers. Got stared at. Went to sit down. Got stared at. Drank beers and watched the 3 couples dance salsa. Got stared at. So, needless to say, we didn’t stay long.
Oh, and by the way. La Central has had 2 murders there in the last few years. The guidebook failed to tell us that one.

And the men here. Who in the world taught people that making all those grunts and pseudo-whistles and comments was attractive? IT IS DISGUSTING, and I don’t like it. As my lovely roommate Dana shouted in the middle of the street while we were on vacation in Mazatlan, “IT DOESN’T WORK IN AMERICA EITHER!!!!” So, if you ever thought about that saying “when in Rome…” please refrain from the whistle, cat call, hoot, holler, ts ts ts, or grunt that you thought might attract a woman.

And a final note about my English classes. I am teaching a few different students who want to speak English, and now. Was Rome built in a day? No? Didn’t think so. Why would learning a second language be any different? My 2 main students want 2 hour classes, several times a week. Lemme tell you. You are better off with a 1 hour class with me and 1 hour of studying on your own (watching English TV, DVDs, reading, or whatever). Trust me. It is tiring for both of us. They are trying to jackknife dive off the high dive into the 20 foot pool when they barely know the doggie paddle. But they are paying me, so I try and do as they wish. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t make for long classes.

I guess that is it for now. I am writing more for my own preservation of my experience than for anything else. But I really hope all my friends and family are really reading this. That way, you know a little about what I do on a daily basis. Which, as of now, means leisure reading, swimming, tanning, checking email, going to the beach, and the occasional English class. Is this really what the Costa Ricans term “Pura Vida”?? Cuz, if so, live on!!!

Pictures of Jaco's Sunset, Sunday, March 19, 2006

Believe it or not, the whole process of sunset takes less than 10 minutes. Got to be quick when snapping your photos!

Battles and Wars

Okay, so I won the battle over jicama. I looked it up on Google, Dictionary.com and Encyclopedia.com.

Here is the frustrating part: I had all this information, copied and pasted into a document, ready to give a very informative PowerPoint presentation all about jicama. (I think I have a little too much time on my hands since I left the hotel and give English classes when I want) I had pictures, nutrition facts, ways to cook jicama, everything.

Then the computer I was using froze.

Not just froze, but came up with the really awful blue screen that whatever you did was really bad and now you have to restart everything, losing any unsaved information. Had I saved the wonderful document?? OF COURSE NOT. That would have been too easy. So I had to change computers, except now my jump drive doesn’t work on the 2nd computer. Who knows why. But the guy at the lab got all annoyed with me, saying he told me it didn’t work. No, he didn’t say that. He just said I couldn’t use the jump drive. Never did he say “no funciona” (it doesn’t work). I started trying to copy and paste all my lost information on this new computer, only every time I tried doing anything it said Word was having a problem and was going to close immediately. This happened 3 times. My victory of my knowledge of the word jicama was rapidly coming to an end. I was now on the verge of tears, because I knew that if I didn’t have proof Kurt would look at me and say, sure, right, um hm, I believe you. Okay. After I showed the lab man what was happening, I was even more frustrated. At his system, at his lack of wanting to help me, at everything. All because I was trying to prove a point. Finally after the 3rd time Word shut down, I told him, look, I come here almost every day, so you know I know how to use a computer. I don’t understand why this is happening. I would cut, paste, save. Cut, paste, save. I got the document done, but not nearly as lovely as my first one on the broken computer. Now how in the world to show it to Kurt? The guy said he would put it on the server. But now the actual computer was running slow. I tried typing an email to my sister, too slow, and the damn thing was pissing me off at this point. I swore like a sailor, and I could have cared less who heard me, and much less understood me. With email running slow, and not being able to use the jump drive, I sat there and did what I could. Finally, the guy next to me left, and I switched to his computer.

For those keeping tallies, this was computer number 3.

It worked, but now how to get my jicama document to the jump drive? The guy put it on the server or in his documents, and I was able to put it on the jump drive. But the computer was still running slowly.

I gave up.

I had planned to do some research about schools in San Diego, trying to submit applications, but I had had enough. My victory was much less bittersweet.

I happened to run into Kurt on the way home, and told him everything. He said he had looked on dictionary.com and found it. I told him the challenge was on for the evening.

Flash-forward: After dinner, Kurt and sat down, papers, pencils, lists and dice ready. We split the lists up; he took 1-6 and me 7-12. We would call out random numbers (“list 2, clue 7”) and then write down our clues. We thought this was the most fair and random way to play. Then we had to figure out the letter. He rolled one dice, I rolled the other, and we multiplied the numbers together. With our alphabet, our letter was S.
Here were the clues we had to fill in:
breakfast foods
languages
farm animals
dairy products
stones/gems
fish
kinds of candy
spices/herbs
bodies of water
birds
diseases
cartoon characters

Kurt looked at the clues and immediately said they favored me. He said, “I don’t know any stones/gems are, spices/herbs, CRAP”. I wasn’t thinking that, I looked at the list as a whole and thought, whew, some clues we have!

Off we went. Never has my hand shook so much during a GAME (it is, after all, a game), and never have I felt so much pressure to fill in everything and be as creative as possible.

TIME!!

After reading our answers (I did pretty well I thought), I lost by 1 point. All because I couldn’t think of a cartoon character with a double S. Bummer. I was truly bummed out; I really wanted to win. At least it was fair though.

So we decided to play again. Another 12 rounds. On round 6, we had a problem. Our letter was C. Colleges/Universities and Book Titles were our demise. I tweaked Chico State to be California State University, Chico to get the double C. And I had written down Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for my book, again to get a double C. This is what sparked the debate. How can they count double, Kurt wants to know. Because there are 2 Cs. This is how I have always played. In Round 2, he had written New Jersey Nets for sports teams, and was given double points. Why was this so different? He said the letters should come sequentially, not spread out, and besides, New Jersey is like one word, one entity. We semi-argued over this for 20 minutes. He finally said for me to take the points, but I had crossed them out. We ended up keeping New Jersey Nets and my 2 double C answers. Whatever. Now we have to look up the rules and see who is right on this one.

In List 9, clue 2 is Notorious People. I had looked this up and it means “well-known, especially unfavorably” according to the American Century Dictionary. I knew this because years ago when playing my mom had said that notorious was popular, but in a bad way. So Monday night when we played, our letter was D and I wrote Don Corleone. Last night, we had L, and he wrote Lucy Lawless. The chick from Xena, Warrior Princess, I asked?? How is she notorious? He was thinking of the porn star. Again, where is the notorious? He said starring in porn, according to some, is unpopular in a bad way. Kurtis North, saying starring in porn is unpopular in a bad way? The quasi-King of Porn himself? He who keeps trying to get me to make a movie so we strike it rich? He who says he would promote his own daughter to star in porn? AND NOW HE IS SAYING IT IS NOTORIOUS???????? A paradox if I ever heard one. I had written Lil Kim. Apparently, this category is up for massive interpretation, and leaves a huge gray area for answers.

This is why we seriously miss other people’s company. 3rd party input is definitely necessary in these games. And way more fun as well.

We went on to finish the whole game and I ended up winning by 1 point.

Somehow, though, after my problems of proving the existence of jicama and the long discussion of how to count double letters (sequentially or not), the victory was not nearly as sweet.

Tonight is the best 2 out of 3 round. Stay tuned.

Jicama

Jicama. Who would have thought this word would ever be so important in my life? I have eaten it a few times in my life, mostly on salads, but I know for an absolute, concrete fact that this vegetable exists.

Why in the world, here in Costa Rica, should I be so preoccupied with this, do you ask??

Here is the story.

We live in an apartment complex where 3 of the apartments are occupied by prostitutes, 3 occupied by random other people (the ones who smoke a lot of weed, one American dude included), and 1 Argentinean girl who never says more than hola to us, and then us. SO there you have the 8 apartments. Not a lot of room to make friends. So, being a little more prepared to teach, and to fight boredom, Kurt and I have several games with us. All geared towards teaching English, but also for our enjoyment. I got my butt completely whipped in Boggle on Sunday night. I mean spanked. Not even close to Kurt’s score. I still maintain that my horrifyingly embarrassing loss was due to the horrible brightly-watted light bulb burning down and frying my skull.

So, last night, Kurt got out some of his games. He had brought Taboo and Scattergories. I love Scattergories. My sister and I can play for hours on end, and on one particular day, my dad and I played cards 1-12, 12 back to 1 and then 1 back to 12. Yes, we were bored. But I can play with the best of them. Having not brought the Scattergories dice, we invented our own way of figuring out which letter to roll by assigning each letter of the alphabet a number, and then rolling regular dice. Off we went.

We get to R, and a foreign city is our clue. Kurt seriously questions my answer of “Riyadh”, and looks in the dictionary, proclaiming it doesn’t exist. Why, just because he hasn’t heard of it??? I tell him it is a city in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia or somewhere. Not my fault he doesn’t know his geography. He gave me the point, but skeptically. Later, upon my own looking in the dictionary, I found it, and was correct “the capital of Saudi Arabia, population 1, 308, 000.” Hmm, not only was I RIGHT, I have named the right country.

We get to the last round, list 12. Our letter is J. The first clue is “vegetable.” To which I wrote down jicama. Kurt about flips his lid. I told him it was a vegetable, goes on salads, sorta the same texture as a carrot (sorta) and is clear or white. He doesn’t believe me. And to make matters worse, IT ISN’T IN ANY OF OUR DICTIONARIES. Not either Spanish/English one, nor in the actual American Century Dictionary he has. DAMN FOR NOT HAVING INTERNET AT HOME. Nobody was even home for 3rd party opinion, plus at was already 11pm. We moved on, and I told him if I lose by 1 point he will never hear the end of it. We tally up the scores.

Bridget 101
Kurt 102

You should have been there. I went apeshit. I never never bet on anything unless I know without a doubt I am right. And I knew I was right. So, Mr. Know-It-All doesn’t have this vegetable in the Great State of Colorado, not my problem, is what I told him. I told him I would bet him $1000 for being right. Oh and by the way, he didn’t even WRITE ANYTHING DOWN FOR HIS ANSWER.

So now the burden of proof is on. I will research this till my eyes fall out of my head if I have to. But I need all of your help Please please help me prove my case here. Email me, post a comment, even email Kurt if you have to. kurtis.north@gmail.com I am writing this from home and am headed to the Internet place this afternoon to prove my case.

Stay tuned for the outcome one of the biggest Scattergories tiebreaker ever. I WILL DOMINATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS—if you read Kurt’s blog, he is going to claim I cheated. Okay, fine, I looked at one clue during A and saw the “vacation spot” clue before we started the clock and after we knew the letter. Jeez, shoot me. At least I know what jicama is.

Supply and Demand

This is what the economy is based on. People want something, or demand it, and someone supplies it. It goes back many many years.

Such is the case in my current situation.

As you know, I had been working in sales at a hotel. I made some money, but it sucked sitting there day after day and not earning anything. We got paid on the 15th and the last day of the month. We started working on Feb. 8. On the 15th, I got nada. Zip. Zero. The 19th, I finally got my first tour. A tour is when the people sit down and listen to the whole presentation about our Vacation Club. IT IS NOT A FUCKING TIME SHARE. And if I hear that one more time (I don’t want a time share) I think I am going to throw up. Closed-minded, closed ears, open mouths. That is what people were coming through the hotel saying. I told them we didn’t have time shares, and the looks of relief that crossed their faces were as if I had just told them they didn’t have cancer. Jeez, what in the world is it about time shares that went so bad in the US??? Anyways, we get $15 for every qualified tour (a qualified tour is when both husband and wife sit through the entire presentation—meaning if just one spouse sits through, gets all the way to the end and then says they have to ask their spouse, it doesn’t count. So no $15), and then 2% of the final sale. We were originally told that sales were around $5000. Not true. With discounts and such, the average sale is about $3300. Big difference. Well, by the end of the month, I had gotten 5 tours, and 2 of those led to sales. YAY ME! So I started off March feeling all right.

Meanwhile many people at the hotel had figured something out: Americans. English. Need. Want. Now.

Teaching English was the reason we came down here. After deciding not to live in San Jose, we decided to try something different, hence the hotel job. We had thought about advertising for English classes but never got around to it.

Apparently, we didn’t need to advertise.

They flocked to us.

Why can’t all jobs work out this way? You put out a small word that you are even slightly interested in something, and then all of a sudden, you have more than you can handle.

Supply and Demand.

So Tuesday (Mar. 7), I came home and decided I was going to quit the hotel job and only do English classes. I had already started with one student for 2 hours, 4 mornings a week. More people had kept coming up to me, and Kurt as well, asking if we were going to give English classes. We kept saying we were thinking about it. In Kurt’s words, we figured it was time to “shit or get off the pot”. So, shit (so to speak) I did.

I went in Wednesday and explained how I was happy with the hotel and it had given me experience outside my comfort zone, and how it has now led to other great opportunities. And that day would be my last official day working at the hotel.

Now, I am giving classes to several different students, different levels, and I am passing students on to Kurt. For now, he is staying with the hotel, but has said he may not be far behind me.

My students:
Arturo: a 37 year old former drug addict and alcoholic. Works in the hotel on weekends only selling to Costa Ricans. Beginner, knows some English, has great interest and enthusiasm to learn.

Catherine: a married female who works fairly high up on the chain in the hotel. Learned English by watching TV, understands everything I say, but needs and wants help with conversation and speaking.

Valery: a 10 year old girl who is the daughter of our landlord. Knows more English than our next door neighbor, and enthusiastic about learning (especially since it is like a mini-classroom in her own home)

Jessica: a 20-something girl from the Dominican Republic. Lives next door to us, smokes pot every morning, funny and friendly. Very interested in learning, just started learning English less than 2 months ago.

The best part is that since our landlord is a teacher here in Jaco, she has graciously offered the upstairs outdoor terrace that they have for us to use as a classroom for groups. She has a white board nailed up on the wall, and various supplies, plus a desk with room for about 3 chairs around it. I gave a class to Valery and Jessie this morning, and I felt like I was playing school. It was very fun and rewarding to watch their little faces light up when they knew something.

The other plus is the guaranteed income. I am charging $5 per hour, which is very much a bargain, considering what I charged in Madrid. I charged the equivalent of about $22.50 per hour. Different country, different rate.

So there you have it.

Supply and Demand.

Even at the beach.

My Solo Trip

Solo. One. Alone.

Maybe this word originally comes from the word soul?? Who knows, but this is how I have spent the last 2 weekends in a row. Let me explain.

Kurt had talked about wanting to take a solo trip, so with work being basically cancelled 3 days last week (Feb 22-24), he figured this was his chance. Plus his friend Clint was due to arrive in Costa Rica in the following week, so he figured this was the best time. So he went to Montezuma, and enjoyed himself. I, on the other hand, stayed here in Jaco and made new friends. I went out with 2 of the Costa Rican guys from my work at the hotel on Saturday night (Feb25) and then the next night I spent a very enjoyable 4 hours conversing, all in Spanish, with my new English student, Arturo, who also works at the hotel. I have now started giving Arturo English lessons, beginning last week. The break from each other was nice, considering Kurt and I had spent 24 hours a day together, for 7 weeks straight. So when he came home, I had stories (which included getting 3 tours at work which led to 2 sales, which led me to about $185 in one weekend. Not bad!!!

The small descanso (rest) we had from each other was needed. But I still felt restless after Kurt came back. I hadn’t intended to do a solo trip, but I felt it was needed. So I headed out.

Friday morning, March 3. 4:54am. Normally I would have had at least another 3 or 4 hours of sleep, but Friday morning, I had about 10 more minutes. Why? Because I wanted to arrive at my destination for my solo trip, Tambor. To get there, I had to take the bus from Jaco to Puntarenas, then the ferry from there to Paquera, then the bus to Tambor. The bus from Jaco to Puntarenas left at 6am, the ferry at 8:30. Yes, there are later buses but I didn’t want to spend the whole day traveling.

The journey was actually very easy, and I reached Tambor by about 11 am or so. I went hostel searching, bringing the ever-so-reliable Let’s Go book (said with much sarcasm). The book had warned against places telling you that other hostels were closed so that you would stay at their place. I didn’t believe this until it happened. I found the Cabinas Cristina in Tambor, and asked where Dos Lagartos was. It was a hostel in Tambor that sounded lovely, and I thought I would check there. The woman said they were closed. Hmm, I thought, so this really is true. They must really want me to stay here. The room was also going to be $20 a night, double what I felt like paying, and what I had expected to pay.

So off I went, and I did manage to find Dos Lagartos. The book said friendly owners. I wonder what their definition of friendly really is. The woman at the Cabinas had told me that once the owners at Dos Lagartos had their money, they didn’t care for more people. Score one for that woman, cuz she hit the nail on the head. The woman at Dos Lagartos said they had a German tour group and didn’t want any more guests. I asked about the following night. She said she didn’t know, maybe I could come back and they would let me know then. But her whole attitude was such that oh well, we don’t need/want your money. She said, “we’re old and have had about enough of these people.” Here’s a clue lady: if you don’t want to be around people, maybe you shouldn’t own a hostel!!!!

Back to the Cabinas, where I checked in and was told another solo girl had checked in as well, and we could share a room. I was uneasy about this, but sort of agreed. The other girl seemed a bit perturbed, and asked for me to have the other part of the room. It was a room with 2 parts, separated by a half wall, but sharing a door, thus making it one big, split room: each part had a single and double bed, in reality enough for 6 people. I paid (now down to $15), and went to the beach.

I was the only person in either direction on the beach.

For what looked like a mile in each direction.

I sat and thought, and wondered, maybe I should just go to Montezuma. After all, tons of people from the ferry were headed there so it must be okay.

Talking to myself, and trying to rationalize going to the exact same location as Kurt and hoping no one would think I am really a copycat or follower, I went and explained my case to Cristina. She gave me my money back, and I left. It was about 1:30pm. I caught the bus about 15 minutes later, and by 3:30pm, I had not only arrived in Montezuma, I had found a single room, no sharing, for only $10 per night.

The best part about Kurt having visited Montezuma was that he had told me about a few things he did and places he went. I reserved a table at the restaurant that shows movies after you eat (what a great idea! You eat dinner and stay for the movie! Brilliant.) They were showing Flight Plan with Jodie Foster, a movie I had been interested in but missed. With dinner secured, I headed to the beach.

I love lying on the beach, but didn’t know if I wanted to do it all day Saturday by myself. They had tours going to Isla Tortuga, Turtle Island, the next day, so I inquired. For $35-40, you could get on this tour which includes your boat ride to the island, snorkel time and equipment, a BBQ lunch with drinks, meal, and fruit, more snorkel time, and your ride back. Sign me up!!!

I should mention here that I did email home to let the fam know I arrived safely. Kurt never once emailed when he was in Montezuma. He told me email was nowhere to be found. He must have been blind, or lying. There were no less than 5 email places. Nice try babe.

I went to dinner, had one of the most delicious meals ever in my life, and then back “home” to sleep. Having been up since 5am, you would think I was tired. 11:30pm, and still I was awake.

Saturday, I got up, found some breakfast, and some new friends. These friends had wings, and really liked my eggs. While trying to take a picture of these new friends, this friend had flown to my table, walked across it, and gobbled up half my eggs. Some friend.

The island tour was excellent. I met some very nice people, 2 other women were solo too. One, a young girl from Vancouver, and another a woman living in Quebec City who had been in CR with her husband but was now solo because he had returned home to go back to work. We snorkeled together, ate lunch together and when one of the guys on our tour (from Argentina) started flirting with the young girl, Jessie, we egged them on. It was very funny. This guy, Juan (I wonder if that is preceded by Don), was a crack-up. Innocent flirting, but he had their whole life mapped out, including a ring for Jessie. He had hollowed out a little banana piece for a ring. If we could have filmed the whole thing you would have loved it. Juan had been injured while surfing (stitches in his ear!) so he didn’t snorkel. Him and his 2 friends (both from Sicily, Italy) live in Mal Pais, and worked somehow for the tour company so they didn’t have to pay. We did have a great day, and I redeemed myself from my Coco snorkeling experience. The one bummer was no underwater camera. The snorkeling was good, but not quite the Caribbean. The ride back to Montezuma was VERY choppy. Basically every 5th wave or so my bones and internal organs were rearranged. That’s okay, I needed a spine alignment, and my liver needed a change of scenery anyway. I am not sure if my skull has completely recovered though, as my head still hurts. Could be from my jaw clenching on the snorkel though.

Last night’s movie was Wedding Crashers, a very funny movie. I met some lovely girls who were doing their Master’s and student teaching…but here! Their universities allowed them to do this global teaching thing, which allows them to do their student teaching anywhere in the world! Hello Pepperdine, check into this please!!!!

I had decided to bite the bullet and take the water taxi ($30) back to Jaco this morning at 9:30. But when I saw the water this morning I somehow knew it wouldn’t be leaving. I was right. My money was returned and I was allowed to jump into a shuttle that was going directly to Paquera. I finally learned my lesson on packing light, and this time it was a definite advantage. I only had Kurt’s Jansport backpack with me, and because it, and I as well, were little and wouldn’t take up much room, I got on. I caught the 10:30 ferry thinking I could make the 12:30 bus to Jaco. 12pm we arrived in Puntarenas and I jumped into a taxi and off we went to the bus stop.

Except Let’s Go, as usual, was WRONG.

There is no bus at 12:30. It is at 2:30. Crap.

However, there was this girl who was going to Jaco and needed to get there pronto. Another man was also heading there. So we did the normal thing to do in this situation. Negotiate a taxi ride. Off I went with these 2 strangers and a taxi driver, and by 2pm, I was home sweet home, in my own place.

Now I am refreshed and recharged. I thoroughly enjoyed my solo trip and was quite proud of myself for doing it in the first place. I survived and made new friends along the way.

Solo. One. Alone.

Only if you want to be.


PS---To view the photos of my trip, go to this link:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=90351141597066309/l=84876154/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB