Get the hell out

The Ciudad sucks. Another one of my students got robbed yesterday, this time in front of the police station in The Ciudad. Even more comforting, she is a native spanish speaker. Basically, she got caught up in an elaborate confidence scheme a few minutes after withdrawing $400 from the local Banco, (for those of you keeping score it was her entire student stipend for the month of June). Not that I'm surprised, mind you, because the bank itself is oh-so-secure. For those of you who've never been to the bank in The Ciudad, let me paint a picture for you. In order to get in, you have to go though this one way door which opens when you press a little button, then you step into a tiny vestibule the sixe of one person and the glass door slides closed behind you, and then the glass door in front of you slides open to let you into the bank. Once you're in the bank, there is an armed guerd who watches your every move and, helpfully, polices the line for the tellers (god forbid you don't stand according to the arrows painted on the floor). Once you finally get to your teller, there is absolutely 0 privacy in your interaction. You practically have to scream your transaction to the teller, which can definitely be heard by, oh, everyone waiting in line at a secure distance of two paces behind you. And to make life funnier, all of us have to pay rent, etc. in US Dollars. And, all of the students and staff at the University have bank accounts at this bank, so everyone knows our pay schedule. God, I love this country.

The only comfort I can take from the experience is that, as my student helpfully pointed out to me, I don't speak enough Spanish to get cought this type of con. Whew! What a relief!

While reading my current favorite blog, I was reminded of my favorite cuss word: clusterfuck. Oh, how I love this word. And I have finally found the appropriate context for the word in all of its glorious meaning: Costa Rica. The Ciudad's police operations can be accurately described as a giant clusterfuck. The status of policies, proceedures, and heirarchies at my firm are also clusterfuck-o-riffic. Inter-personal politics among the internationals living down here are also clusterfucky. All around me: clusterfuck, clusterfuck, clusterfuck.

Ah, there it is, yes, my foul mood is back. Gone briefly for several days while I attempted to feel better and stop posting, it's now back in full I hate life in The Ciudad mode. The rain is pouring down, I had to listen to fluent spanish during my lunch break (reminding me that I'm still largely and illiterate mute in this country), and I'm bored out of my fucking mind (and have a ton of mindless drone-like work to accomplish). I hate fucking copy editing. I want to talk to people. In English. And not be robbed. Grr.

Anyway, I'm treating myself to a weekend in "lovely" Jaco. That is, if I can figure out the bus schedule...I did sucessfully make a hotel reservation yesterday, but I didn't have the guts to tell my Tico family I'm taking off this weekend. I need a real break. From the clusterfuck. My bar for the trip is set quite low. If I get out of The Ciudad and don't get mugged I'll consider it a rousing sucess.

Well...back to "work".