New friends

Had lunch today with one of the two new employees here at the University (they both started on Monday). We're hiring 10 new people for ths start of the school year, so the place will be changing quite a bit.

This guy was really nice. A recent transplant from Canada, who grew up in Nicaragua and Panama. He was asking about the best places to live in the Ciudad (hahahahahahahaha) and about safety in the Ciudad (hahahahahahahahaha). I told him that as a guy who speaks Spanish, he'll probably be better, safety-wise, than I was. He laushed and said that with his accent, they know he's a foreigner the moment he opens his mouth. So I told him about my experience watching my student get robbed, and he, get this, apologized to me. He felt personally offended that the Central American culture had let me down. Huh. He also complemented me on my Spanish. Again I say, huh.

All I have to say is, YoE, stop laughing.

If you study under the best...

Just did a google search for "non-violent resistance" and got as my first hit an article in Wikipedia. The article is well-written and reminded me that I've been trained by the best. Two of my teachers are listed as resources who have shaped non-violence theory/practice. Wow.

I have to say, my favorite fictional charactarization of an early non-violence movement is Aristophanes' Lysistrata. I quoted from it in my honors thesis in college. Follow the link to see why. Great stuff. Very inspiring for interpersonal non-violence :)

Lance-type strategy

Friedman gets on the bandwagon with my plan.

krishnalal Shridharanni

"But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It
was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a
battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high.
Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two
ways, but Dumbledore knew--and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce
pride, and so did my parents--that there was all the difference in the
world."
~p.479 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

This morning I was feeling pretty powerless. I won't go into details on a public blog, but let's just say some family truths came to light, and when light shows in dark places it's often a scary thing to behold. What happened? Did you ever have a feeling about something or someone, an instict we'll call it, and know down deep inside that it was true, while at the same time hoping and praying with all of your might that it wasn't true? I even asked friends and family, repeatedly, to tell me I was crazy, I was overreacting, I was wrong. Turns out, I wasn't. So I was feeling pretty crappy. And powerless to change things. And like I wanted someone to stop the world so I could get off and stop having to be a powerless adult. And I exhausted myself, crying myself to sleep.

This morning, I woke to the sounds of my Tico family: youngest host brother feigning a stomach ache to get out of a test at school today, host mom running around getting breakfast ready and kids off to school, fresie cleaning the kitchen...and I just didn't want to think about the truth anymore. I wanted to get away, so I brought Harry Potter with me to work. I waited for the bus for 20 minutes and it never showed (which gave me 20 minutes to fume about the truth) and then decided to take a cab. Rather than converse with the driver, I whipped out my Harry Potter. And to my surprise, I had dog-eared one page in the entire 600+ page book. And on that page was the quotation above. And after reading it, something changed in my mind and heart. I realized that I'm only powerless in this situation if I choose to be. I can, will, and have to pray, but I also have to act. And one thing is still at my disposal: nonviolent resistance. The power of the powerless. The tool of changing hearts and minds through love and non-cooperation. Ghandi stuff. MLK stuff. Lysistrata stuff. War without violence. All based in faith, hope and love.

So, now I'm excited. I can't wait to do the research, to plow through all my books, all my readings, all my experience on non-violent resistance and non-cooperation. Finally, I get to put into practice all of this training I've had for the last seven years. I have to create a plan, devise a strategy, think of contingencies, and put the process in motion. I have a short timeframe, but enough time to (hopefully) make a dent. Make an impact. Time to get going.

You know you're back in Costa Rica when...

1. You see confused people at the airport and think: frigging tourists.
2. In less than 24 hours you've accumulated 9 mosquito bites (six on the upper right arm alone).
3. The first question that pops into your mind when contemplating the appropriateness of your work outfit for the day is: Do I really care?
4. The prospect of having to see the movie The Wedding Crashers in Spanish makes you queasy.
5. You start dreaming of spending one more glorious night at the Quality Inn.

Why

I love being a blogger. It gives me something to do when I wait in line at the airport. I think about what I want to blog when I get home. I'll probably miss it when I'm no longer here in Costa Rica. Maybe. Anyway, on to today's entry.

So, my family, my friends, my coworkers, everyone seems to be asking me this one question this week: why did you come back? Since I had to come home for the wedding, everyone seems to think it would have been best for me to leave CR permanently in late July instead of late August. So, why? I teasingly told my uncle, well, you see, if I show up for another month, they pay me. Which, let's face it, is a major consideration. But really, for me, it's about the committment. I made a promise to work here for a year. And I want to see it through. And despite all of the difficulties I've encountered in the place, the people here have become important to me, and I'm not ready to leave them yet.

When I arrived in the airport yesterday, I realized it was the last time before I leave CR permanently. From now on, if I ever come back, it will be as one of the carefree tourists on an exotic vacation, not as someone who needs to get home and do her laundry. From now on, it won't be easy converation with the cabbie on the way home. It will be straining to try and remember enough spanish to get the cab to my hotel. It will be craving rice and beans instead of sushi and risotto. Costa Rica will be a memory. An event, an outlier in the data of my life.

The reason I came back was that I wanted to say a proper goodbye.

Off

Hey folks, I'm still at work at 7Pm, but hey, I'm finally off to the promised land! The good ole US of A.

Just finished editing something my boss wrote on the giant domestic violence problem here in CR. Makes me so glad to be leaving...

blog ya next week!

Random musings (procrastination)

I've been in full reminiscing mode these past few days (and, admittedly, a bit obsessed with the new "insert pictures" function on the blog). In an effort to do more procrastinating, I was thinking back to my childhood, back to the stories that inspired me as a kid. The TV shows I've been talking about lately very much affected the way I see the world (A-Team, MacGyver, Scarecrow and Mrs. King) , but they were all very male-dominated. Since gender is my thing, I started thinking about the women role models I had in the entertainment industry. My earliest and most favorite was firestar (see pic. to left). She was one of Spiderman's Amazing Friends and, the coolest ever. She lived in a house with her two friends Peter Parker and Bobby Drake as the three of them were attending college. And they just happened to fight crime together when they weren't studying. (The story is rather similar to the Harry Potter books. Except in Spidey they're adult mutants instead of kid wizzards...) Anyway, I really liked Firestar. She was smart, and fun, and quiet, and just as strong as the boys. Her powers were flying and the manipulation and production of fire. And she had an awesome costume!

A close second was my complete facination with Miss Piggy. This is a woman, er...pig, who always knows who and what she wants, and does it with great style, flair and panache. She went along on every Muppet adventure, was cool enough to hang with the gang or with any celebrities that might stop by, and didn't hesitate to show her displeasure when she was angry or frustrated. That's the thing I like best about the Muppets. They don't take any crap from anybody, they don't take themselves too seriously, and they recognize and reward talent when they see it. Seriously, though, the funniest thing I've seen yet is that there are soon going to be Muppet Stamps. The good news is that now I know what to put on my graduation announcements next year. How awesome would that be? Really awesome.

I win.

Just squashed the mosquito using a proven method of squirting it with insect repellant and then stepping on it when it falls to the ground. It had a serious amount of my blood in it. HA!

I am going to reward myself with coffee...mmm...nectar of the gods...

Itchy scratchy (The Ciudad Misery Index)

Grr..stupid mosquito in my office keeps biting me, and I can't seem to kill it. It just bit me on my pinkey at the bend in the joint, so it itches every time I type. I am soooo not going to miss bugs when I go....

1. Number of robberies this week of people I know in CR: 0
2. Number of people I know who were imprisoned in CR this week: 0
3. Number of times I was nearly killed in a car crash this week: 1
4. Number of earhquakes this week: 0
5. Number of mosquitos currently flying around my office: 1.
6. Number of mosquito bites I curently have: about 15
7. Number of bugs found crawling in my bed this weekend: 1
8. Number of Colombians casing out my house: reportedly several.
9. Number of times the power went out today: 1/2 (the power flickered, but didn't go off)
10. Number of times the water went out this week: 1
11. Number of times I ate rice and/or beans yesterday: 1.

Found!

The good news is that the infamous colombian and his accomplice have finally been caught!

Check out the mug shot below:

This town stinks

Er, well, it's going to...

The big news in the Ciudad this week: trash. Lots and lots of trash. The CR government needs a new place to put trash. So...in all of Costa Rica...where would be the best place for a brand new dump? Yep, you guessed it, The Ciudad. And this is not just any dump that they want to build here, we're talking 500 dump trucks a day driving through town 24 hours a day, seven days a week. With very little in the way of environmental protection. The trash they want to dump in the Ciudad is coming from Atenas. And the reason they want to dump it here...wait for it...Atenas doesn't want a dump there. [No kidding? I, personally, am shocked. Shocked!]

The kicker is that the Ciudad's city council has to approve the measure. There are five members on the council, and there was a big meeting last night on the issue. When I say big, I mean most of the town was there. And the meeting ended around midnight (after a 5PM start time). Totally unheard of in The Ciudad. I didn't go to the meeting (I had Spanish class last night and only found out about the meeting about five minutes before it started) so I'm not sure what the final outcome was (I've heard several people talk about it this morning, but all of the discussion was in Spanish, and very difficult for me to understand). I was told by a colleague yesterday that two of the five council members were dead set against the initiative. The other three seemed very convinced it was a good thing for the community (in his opinion, these three were brought to this position through a little old fashioned greasing of the palms). Yea blatant corruption. I asked this colleague if there was anything that could be done if it could be proved that the officials were bribed, and he said he doubted it. Grr...

You know what this means...we don't just need the A-Team. We need an environmentalist, someone who could help restore the friendship and peace to "The City of Friendship and Peace" (the motto written on all The Ciudad's buses), someone who won't be intimidated by the powerful corporate lobby, someone who would be interested in saving a community that supports a University working for peace. We need :

Sleeping with the cucarachas

Thursday night I woke up suddenly and shot out of my bed, feeling like something had brushed my hand as I was sleeping. I managed to convince myself it was one of the ruffles from my comforter and after turing on my lamp and doing a thorough search, I went calmly back to sleep. Friday night, I went to sleep very early with the sound of one of the big, hockey-puck bugs banging into the wall of my bedroom. When I woke up at midnight to a buzzing sound and the feeling something had crashed into my bed, I exhaustedly convinced myself it was a hockeypuck bug, covered the offending area of my bed with the comforter, moved on top of the sheets and promptly rolled over to go back to sleep. As I rolled over, the top of my right foot glanced the pajama pant on my left leg and instad of soft, warm, t-shirt like material, my brain registered something cold, slick and moving. Once again, I shot out of my bed, this time turning on the overhead light just in time to see a CR-sized cockroach dart out of my covers and underneath my bed. EWWWWWWW!

[In defense of my family, I have to say that this didn't happen because the house (or my room) isn't clean. Fresie, our cleaning lady, keeps the place spotless (far cleaner than anyplace I've lived since Mom and Dad's house). It's just part of life here in the tropics. I'm quite lucky it wasn't a scorpion. And it's actually pretty amazing this is the first time it's happened in 11 months.]

Obviously, at this juncture I wasn't about to get back into bed and go to sleep. The rest of the family was already asleep, so I kept the light on in my room (knowing cockroaches hate light and hoping it would seek shelter elsewhere) and went out to the family room to watch some TV. I curled up in front of the TV, turned the volume as low as it would go, and flipped through the English channels. To my surprise, Cinnemax was airing the documentary "Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire". I've been wanting to see this film for a long time. It's the story of the Canadian man who was the commander of the UN forces in Rwanda before and during the genocide, told through reflections as he and his wife traveled back to Rwanda in April 2004 for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the genocide. It's absolutely amazing. The best documentary film, and certainly the best non-fiction film, I've ever seen. The most compelling part is Gen. Dallaire himself. He's so incredibly refreshing. Unlike any prominent political figure in the world today, he takes personal responsibilty for the failure of the UN mission in Rwanda. He can catalog the decisions he made, the mistakes he made, and the criticisms leveled against him, and you can tell that every day since April 1994 he's explored each one in his mind and soul. He doesn't expect forgiveness or fame. He doesn't want to be labelled a hero or saint. He, like the Rwandans he failed to protect, is a survivor of the genocide. The experience changed him irrevocably. And yet, you can tell, he wishes that it had changed him more. This is an amazing bit of film.

If I had not been awoken by my cucaracha friend, I would have missed this important documentary (along with the chance to get another glimpse at the familiar Rwandan landscape). And for some reason, I know it was important for me to see the film. So, much like other difficulties in CR, I'm ironically finding myself grateful for the roach that woke me up. And am happy to report that since Friday night, it hasn't made another appearance in my bed.

Finding my inner Ginny Weasley

You know that feeling you get after reading a really great book or seeing a really great movie? I'm so there. I got the new HP on Saturday morning, and finished it last night. There wasn't as much whimsical detail in this edition as in, say, it's predecessor. And I missed that whimsy a bit. But I really love where J.K. Rowling is going with the theme and the series. The theme, it seems to me, is that no matter how gifted and talented you are, life is only worth living if you do it with great meaning. That means surrounding yourself with family and friends who become like family. That means daring to love deeply, difficultly, and totally, especially in the face of great danger or evil. It means living with courage and purpose. Living through fear and setbacks, not in them. It means being who you are at your core, not who you think other people want you to be. And it means recognizing that you are just a small part of something much greater, a story much bigger, than any one person.

Which brings me back to the title of the post, finding my inner Ginny Weasley. I love the Ginny Weasley character. She's been my favorite HP character since she was first introduced. She always reminded me a little of me as a kid. And in this book she does even more. This past year in CR has been a tough one, but for me it's also been one huge reminder of who I am at my core. Somewhere in my early 20s (right about the time my grandmother died and I lived for a semester in Berlin) I lost sight of who I am at my core. I tried, for the first time in my life, to be someone I'm not. And it cost me dearly. For almost my entire 20s, this voice in my head said that who I am isn't (hypen) enough. Good-enough, strong-enough, smart-enough, sexy-enough, funny-enough, friendly-enough, loving-enough, rich-enough, ethical-enough, savy-enough, cynical-enough, pretty-enough, enough, enough, enough. But here, despite all of my complaining, all of my difficulties, all of it, I finally had time to see myself again. To see my core. To realize that the spunk, the fire, the courage I admire in the Ginny Weasley character has been in me all along. It is who I am. And I do a great disservice to myself and the world when I pretend that passion to learn more, to understand more, to adventure, to travel, to experience, to love, to care, and to be fiercely myself is not who I am. I've learned here that this is who I am to a fault. It's who I always will be at my core. In essence, this year has been about finding and embracing the girl I once was.

Something that the character Harry Potter said at the end of this latest book really struck me. He said (and I'm paraphrasing here) there is a difference between feeling like you're being dragged along to your destiny and making the conscious effort to seek out your destiny. It's a matter of attitude. Since my early 20s I've been feeling very much dragged toward my future. Like tin cans tied behind the bride and groom's car at a wedding, I felt like I was being dragged forward at top speed, and complained loudly at every turn. It seemed that I was so close to something wonderful, I could nearly touch it, and yet, it was constantly speeding out of my reach. Down here, suddenly, my life slowed down. I was able to boil my life down to the essentials. When you live so far away, in a place so unfamiliar, with constant challenges assaulting you, what is most important? Love, health, freedom. In that order.

Love is most important. God is love, people are love. Time spent talking with people is love. It is equally important to give and receive love. Both acts are great gifts.

Health is next important. You do not need to be healthy to give and receive love. But health enhances your ability to love. To touch, to listen, to dance, to learn, to pray, and to travel. Physical, emotional, and spiritual health are all of equal importance. They depend on one another.

Freedom is the final most important. You do not need to be free to be healthy or to love. But freedom enhances the ability to do both. I do not mean freedom in the political sense. I mean freedom from fear, freedom from violence, freedom of thought, freedom of time, freedom from duty. In essence, freedom of will. This type of freedom is our hope.

In this year, I've discovered their great importance as I've felt myself, or watched others, be deprived of these essential things. And I know now, that this is my passion. This is what I have to start working towards. This is why I was brought here. And this is how I want to live when I leave.

27 days

Woo-hoo. Only in the Ciudad 27 more days! Yee HAW!

Ciudad Misery Index-New and Improved.

You know you were missing it...another installment of the one and only Ciudad Misery Index! Enjoy the misery.

1. Number of robberies this week of people I know in CR: 0
2. Number of people I know who were imprisoned in CR this week: 0
3. Number of times I was nearly killed in a car crash: 0
4. Number of earhquakes today: 0
5. Number of mosquitoes currently flying around my office: 1.
6. Number of mosquito bites I curently have: about 20 (including one annoying one on the bottom of the arch of my foot. Agh.)
7. Number of stomach ailments I've had this week: 1 (today. suck.)
8. Number of Colombian drug cartel members casing out my house: several.
9. Number of times the power went out today: 0
10. Number of times the water went out: 0
11. Number of times I ate rice and/or beans yesterday: 2 (soup for dinner. oh how I am starting to hate soup.)

Sorry, can't get the A-Team theme song out of my head....The only two better 80s theme songs than the A-Team are the MacGyver theme and the Scarecrow and Mrs. King theme. Enjoy the stroll down memory lane...

The A-Team

Where is the A-Team when you need them? 'Cause I need them.

Yesterday, over dinner, my host mom let slip that one of her students advised her this week to be extremely careful (a familiar refrain, I know). Apparently there is a group of Colombian men who have moved in down the street. According to the woman, the group robbed a car last week in the city center, the Ciudad cops know it was these guys who did it, but refuse to arrest them because they are known to kill people. Host Mom was warned not to take my youngest host brother into town to play soccer anymore (it's dangerous). As an added bonus, these "gentlemen" have apparently been asking around about our family and the houses on the property we live on.

Now, I figure there are two possibilities here: one, colombian drug thugs have moved into our neighborhood, are casing our house, and we'll need an A-Team-like presence to put their violently oppressive selves behind bars (remember those episodes when the A-Team would be summoned to some far flung town to rescue the beautiful daughter and her hapless dad from the local extortionist and oppressive thug? Yeah, well, now that's me.) or two, the Ciudad is suffering from the Chinese Professor syndrome (chronicled in The Tipping Point). The CPS, is based on the story of a China-born professor who traveled to a small US town on vacation during the early 1940s. As anyone on vacation does, he walked around town, snapped some pictures, and didn't really talk too much to the locals. However, because the real story didn't make sense to the local people, the rumor quickly spread through town that the professor was a Japanese spy sent to gather intellegence on their town to prepare for an attack. In other words, it could be that a group of 30-40 something, good-looking, single, and wealthy Colombians turned up in the Ciudad and the town just assumed they are nefarious drug lords (I believe this could also be a good A-Team episode).

At any rate, it all boils down to the fact that I need the A-Team here to sort things out. I would definitely be able to go out at night again with BA Baracus escorting me. Hannibal's cigar smoke would be comforting, and much better smelling than Puppy. I would pay to see the Tico reaction to Murdock's nutty ways. And, of course, a date with Face would be just the thing to take the edge off...

Ah, A-team, where are you now?

Ch-ch-changes

I walked into my room last night and...all of my furniture was re-arranged again. Our cleaning lady tends to re-arrange my furniture every few months. I kind of liked where my bed had been placed the last time. But now it's back to where it was when I moved in. Like no time has passed. Like nothing has changed. It feels strange. At this point, I kind of want my space to reflect all of the changes I've lived through in the past four months. Wow. I guess that's it. I want to look different. I want my space to feel different. Because inside I feel different.

In a way, that's why I went to the multiplaza yesterday. I wanted to wear something to the rehearsal dinner next week that reflects how I've changed. The new shirt and skirt I bought are different. They have ruffles on them. The skirt is a bright salmon flowery print. I love it. The top is a black, semi sheer, and covers everything I want it to and shows the things I don't. It's a bit more sophisticated (and more Tica) than I used to dare. The only thing I'm worried about now is the dress for the wedding itself. I tried on my two fancy dresses that I brought down with me. The good news is, I've lost weight since I moved down here. The bad news is that my dresses are still the same size. Not exactly the flatteringest. Which is sad. There is really something about wearing a dress you love. It gives you that extra confidence, a glow. I call it dress karma. I really wish I could wear something I love to this wedding. Sigh.

Well, enough waxing philosophical. Back to work.

Seven plus one

The number of days till I go to Connecticut! I'm frantically trying to find a beauty salon in CT that can do my nails and hair and stuff for the wedding (I hate doing it myself...) thank goodness for the internet!

I guess my goodbyes are officially starting. My boss came into my office today to tell me she is inviting me and a few of my colleagues over for lunch this weekend as a farewell luncheon! It will be great to see her house again (she's got a lovely place in San Pedro on the other side of San Jose). Sadly, she's headed off to Uruguay and Peru for two of my last four weeks, returning two days before I leave the country for good. I'm really going to miss her.

My preparations for grad school are coming along nicely too. I have a good lead on a work study job. It's at an off-campus global education non-profit (work study has come a long way since I did it in college...) that sends volunteer teachers all over the world. One of the main countries they work in is..........Costa Rica! If you follow the link, there is some excellent and quite accurate writing by the in-country team. I particularly enjoyed the articles on laundry and squeaky cheese.

No Spanish class tonight, so I'm heading to the Multiplaza. Must buy shoes for next weekend. Also hope to scout the new Harry Potter possibilities...

Fire

The news here today is of a huge fire that took place last night in one of the two major public hospitals here in San Jose. 17 people died because it was an old building with no smoke detectors, sprinkler system or fire exits. The President of Costa Rica says it's not his fault. The building is just old, what can you do? It's like a national day of mourning here in CR.

Which is a good lesson for me. Why? Because 17 people dying is a cause for national mourning here. In the states, 17 people dying in a fire might make the regional news. Maybe. (Baltimoreans will remember when the Dawson family were killed in a fire as retaliation for reporting drug activitiy on their street to the cops. It only made regional news when Mayor O'malley showed up at a local radio station to scream at the DJs who were chatting about the incident live and dared to accuse him of not caring about the family.)

In other San Jose news, I saw a student yesterday that I haven't seen in a couple of months. I asked him what he'd been up to, and he said he's living in San Jose this summer. I asked how it was going, and he said "disasterous". Huh. Apparently, Claroscuro's lyrics to their song "San Jose, Decrepid City" (translation mine) are right on.

In the good news department, the new Harry Potter book arrives on Saturday! Yea mythical magic world!

And another one's gone..

Said goodbye to my Swiss friend this past weekend. We went out for a wonderful dinner on friday at a local indian restaurant (mmmm......) and then out for coffee yesterday before her plane left. I realized that her departure actually marks the third time this year I've said goodbye to a close girlfriend here in CR. My first CR friend left in February with her partner and their new baby for a new life in New Zealand. My friend the intern left in the last week of June, and my Swiss friend left last night.

My Swiss friend said something important to me this weekend that stuck with me. She encouraged me to think about how I can get prepared to leave this place. What do I need to do to properly prepare myself for moving on to the next step? I just looked at a calendar and realized I'll be back in the US next week (!) for my friends' wedding. After their wedding, I only have three more weekends left in CR. So, I'm going to think more about this leaving business. E-mail me or post comments with any suggestions for farewell to CR strategies. (Also if you have any ideas for goodbye gifts for the host family, please send those too!)

Tales from the list-serv

Yesterday, my name was added to the new list serv for the MA program I'll be entering in september. Apparently, one of classmates is named, and I am not making this up, Hermenegildo. Wow. This is going to be an interesting year.

Six weeks (41 days)

but who's counting...

It's friday. I feel a lot better today (seems I'm kicking the CR flu) and one of my good friends here just returned from Cuba. She's leaving Sunday night. We're getting together for dinner tonight. (Yea! Getting out of the ciudad!)

I'm skipping a big goodbye party tonight for two of my coworkers (who are both leaving around the same time I am in August). It's in Heredia (at a co-worker's house) and doesn't start until 8PM (which would mean a late night, and a lot of spanish-speaking). Blech. Office politics, and Spanish, and transportation, oh my!

Going off-campus for lunch today with a friend who graduated from the same MA program I'll be starting in September. So, we're going to chat about school and catch up a bit.

Have a great wekend all!

Ow.

I'm writing to you this afternoon as I'm sitting here drinking my last bag of "throat soother's tea". I've been trying to fight off this stupid CR flu, but no luck. Today I have a massive sinus headache, watery eyes, sore glands in my throat and the chills. Not really good... I'm going to bed early tonight, and I'll see how I feel in the morning. Blech.

Went to dinner last night with New African Friend. Incidentally, host mom was very pleased I decided to go out for dinner, as she hadn't been able to cook yesterday afternoon due to a terrible migrane. Ate at a small Soda in town (we really don't have these in the US, I guess a diner would be the closest thing. In german they're called imbisstueben). Because the Ciudad is sooo big, we ran into four other students eating dinner in this place (which only has 6 small tables). Dinner was nice, there was good discussion about diplomacy, relief and development organizations and the University (for me that's fun). We walked back home (NAF lives one block away from me in the cemetary neighborhood. uh huh, I live like a block from the cemetary...)

All was going well until we got to his street. At the intersection, he paused, put his hand on my back, as if to guide me toward his house and made some lame comment about the night still being young and us having some time to go back to his place. Grr! Damn it! Do I have a sign on my forehead that says "I'm easy"? What is it with guys down here? I totally hate it when my intuition is right about these things! Gah! I heard myself telling him that I had to get home, and was mildly amused when I realized that the whole time I was thinking that I had to get home so I could read more Harry Potter before going to bed. Sadly, this is what my love life has come to: I would rather just go home and read Harry Potter.

And there you have it my friends, NAF loses out to a fictional boy wizzard. Ha! At any rate, I figure this can be my new thing. Men now have to pass the Harry Potter Test. If there's no magic, he's history. Bonus points if he can explain Quidditch.

My day...

Ah...it's good to be back on the web...the USB backup for the University's server got fried over the weekend during a power surge/outage, so our network was turned off for 24 hours. During that time I concluded that I am addicted to the internet. It's my tie to the outside world, my string of sanity in this storm of reality, and my best means of procrastination. Ah, the internet, all the information you never knew you wanted and never really needed...but I digress. I'm supposed to be posting about my morning.

1. Got up late (kids are out of school, so no natural alarmclock at 6:30 in the morning).
2. Took shower, put on jeans and flipflops and compromised by wearing a dress shirt (didn't feel like dressing up, and my boss isn't here today).
3. Walked to the mini-super to buy my tico gatorade substitute and bottled water. (since I started the Tico Gatorade regimine, I've had no stomach problems. Woo-Hoo!)
4. None of my colleagues passed by on the uphill road toward the University, so I took a taxi to work.
5. Taxi nearly got into a head-on collision on the way to work (scarily, this time I wasn't surprised. My mind just kind of drowsily noticed. I'm beginning to understand why one of my friends refuses to get into taxis without functioning seatbelts...)
6. Ran into New African Friend and found out that he's been so persistant about getting together because he's leaving on Friday to go back home. Oops...Made plans to go out for dinner tonight after Spanish class. Really. And helped him buy a Skype card.
7. Checked e-mail.
8. Borrowed $20,000 for grad school.
9. Rented a car for trip to CT (ok, during trip to CT. No way I'm driving north on the interamerican highway through Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatamala, and Mexico. And then from California to CT.)
10. Talked with a Tico co-worker and found out we're in the middle of Tico flu season. This explains the sinus pain/headache/sore throat I've been fighting off all week.
11. Thought about getting some coffee or doing some actual work.
12. Blogged instead.

I'm in a great mood today. The sun is out, my boss is out for two days, things are falling into place for my trip up to CT for the wedding of the italian princess and scottish prince and all seems to be well with plans for grad school. Also, the thieves seem to be staying away from the casa. So, while I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, I've decided to be in a good mood.

Good good good.

More bugs

I just have to report that there is a mosquito flying around my office that is, and I am not exaggerating here, an inch long. Where are those spider webs when you need them?

In other costa rican bug news, the hockeypuck bugs are back. Big, black beetles that are slightly bigger than a siver dollar (and make great hockeypucks if you flip them over onto their backs). The thing about these bugs is that they're dumb. They're also not very aerodynamic. Come to think of it, they fly a lot like my brother used to ice skate. Point in a direction, take off, teeter back and forth as you build speed, and stop when you crash into something. Dumb bugs.

Feelin' like Harry Potter

Happy 4th, to those of you who are reading this from the US! It's a gorgeous day here, hope you're enjoying the same up there :)

My weekend was productive. I picked up the last Harry Potter book (Order of the Phoenix) yesterday for a quick re-read before the new one comes out next week. This was the best part of my weekend. Because I realized that, this whole weekend, I'd been feeling like Harry Potter on summer vacation. For those of you who've never read the Potter series (and if you haven't, give it a try. They're inventive, funny and new), that's not really a good thing. Harry's favorite time of year is when he leaves his dreary life at number four privet drive in Surrey (where he lives with an aunt, uncle, and cousin who treat him pretty much like moldy wallpaper--unsightly, unmannered and stinky) to join the friends, montors and teachers he loves at Hogwarts School for Wizardry. The summer, for Harry, is a tortuous time where he sufferes the insults of his family, regular beatings from his bully of a cousin, and occasionally encounters life-threatening situations on the streets near his front door. Luckily, in the Ciudad, my family is wonderful (I can't help but feel like wallpaper--although perhaps not moldy--on my bad Spanish days). Why was I feeling so Harry-like? I really feel most like Harry in these five weeks I have left before I go back to the world (and people) I love the most. Besides, Hogwarts / Harvard...they sound awfully alike. How was my weekend?

1. Friday night I was fending off a cold (picked up either from the airplane last week or my host brothers who were sick while I was gone). I went to bed early(7:30 pm), and was woken up at 10pm by...an earthquake. A 6.7 (this one located on the cost of Nicaragua, thus causing great concern about Tsunamis...) In case you're interested, the one during the day last thursday was a 6.0 located on the CR/Panama border.

2. Saturday I stayed in all day reading and watching TV. I got through to my parents on the phone, but couldn't reach anyone else. In the morning, my host parents were very upset with the kids, and host Dad gave teenage host siter a talking to about using the phone so much. I felt a little guilty because I use the phone for long stretches at a time too (although not all afternoon every day...) In the afternoon, my host mom heard from her niece that the police in the Ciudad have noticed some people watching our property. Presumably to rob it. She cautioned me to be careful coming into the house when no one is home. Great. The Ciudad police are on the case. I feel better already....

3. Had to get out of the house. Went to the multiplaza and bought books. Host Mom cautioned me to watch out "for the thieves". Great. Got coffee and pastries and read HP for a few hours. Went home early and read HP some more. Family left to take teenage host daughter (THD) to a party. Which means I was left all alone. In the house that thieves are casing. Great. At least I had Harry Potter and The OC to keep me occupied. The Fam got home from THD's party at 11pm. I was exhausted, but didn't want to go to sleep until they got home. y'know...thieves...So, today I'm exhausted.

4. This morning I woke up late, the power went out briefly at the end of my shower, and in the cab on the way to work the cabbie was listening to a station called "new classics" which was playing lenny kravitz and wang chung. Great. When did lenny kravitz become "classic"?

Despite all of this, I am in an excellent mood today. My host Mom wished me a happy 4th of July during breakfast! I won't even let the cafeteria food get me down :) Afterall, today's Independence Day.

Don't worry 'bout a thing...

Growing up, my father always warned me, "Be careful what you wish for, for you surely will get it." Today at lunch, he was proven right once again. For almost the entire year, as you know, I've been complaining about the steady diet of rice and beans we get here at the university every day. When I got back from the US yesterday, there was a memo in our e-mail saying that the cafeteria was being renovated over the summer and thus, starting today, we would no longer be eating in the cafeteria, but in the two classrooms closest to my office. (so much for long lunch breaks) And we would no longer have the services of the caterer we'd used for the past year (YAY!). The university will be looking for a new caterer over the summer. In the meantime, they contracted with the gentleman who runs the snack shop at the park to provide lunch for University staff and students. Sounds good, right? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, it is not.

Today, the new "caterer" pulled up in a foodmobile (what my father, who once worked construction, refers to lovingly as a "roach coach") and gave us the option of "Special" hamburgers (cheeseburgers with spam-like substance on top), fried chicken, french fries, fried tacos, and pop. No rice. No beans. No fruit. No salad. No fresh juice or water. Grr. If I eat this food every day for the next month and a half I'm going to gain 75 pounds before I leave here! AND to top it all off, it cost me MORE MONEY than the previous contractor. Today's lunch (spamoriffic burger, small fries, and a gingerale) was 1300 colones ---nearly a dollar more than the usual---and my boss helpfully pointed out that a Burger King meal only costs 1200. Gah!

Oh, and they didn't have a menu with prices posted, and the servers in the (mobile) kitchen didn't speak any english, so our poor african students were having a hell of a time understanding what was available and/or affordable. My boss and I did a little bit of translation...but, c'mon.

Speaking of Africans, my African friend blew me off last night (thankfully). At least he called. He said he didn't want to be that african guy who makes plans, doesn't show and doesn't call. God was clearly having fun with me on that one. After blasting the stereotypical african male in my post yesterday, my african friend calls and checks in so he can avoid being the stereotypical african male....riiiight got it. So, we're supposed to get together tonight. But it's rainy and cilly [er...that's chilly] out now, and I'm still exhausted. So, who knows, I might not get out of the house today either...

So, the post title today comes from a She-Daisy (of course I still listen to country music) song. I was listening to it on my launch.com station today. It came on after simon and garfunkel's sound of silence. The mixture of these two songs is how I feel today. Don't worry bout a thing. Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again. Can you tell I'm still feeling a bit out of sorts? Maybe it's jet lag. Maybe some weird form of Costa Rican short-timer syndrome. Don't know. Don't really care. It's july. One month and 19 days till I go home.

Happy weekend one and all.