This weekend

This was the first weekend we didn't spend away from Heredia the whole time, and it was nice to save some money and catch up on sleep.

Thursday
On Thursday night we went to a futbol game between San Jose's team and a team from one of the rural provinces. I don't remember either of their names because futbol is pretty irrelevant to me. Luckily San Jose's team is purple which, being a Ravens fan, I have no shortage of. The game was at the National Stadium in San Jose, and it was really fun! Costa Rica is super into soccer and I don't think they were quiet the entire time I was there. And, I was able to get home and into bed by the time I usually do! Which is a big deal for me because I do not function very well without sleep.

El Estadio Nacional

Some amigos at the game

Friday
On Friday, Danielle, Scott, Jacob and I were planning on doing a hike to a volcano that is pretty close to Heredia, but we didn't plan well enough (apparantly you need mega 4-wheel drive to get to the entrance, or else have to walk 3 hours just to get to the front of the park) and were tired so we just decided to try it another time. That night we went out to a bar near school. It was "ladies night" so we were able to drink for free the whole night-there wasn't even cover! College Park needs to take notes from Costa Rica.
We met a lot of Ticos and Ticas that go to UNA or work in the area. Since we've been traveling so much, I hadn't been out in Heredia for a few weeks so it was really nice to go out here again and meet more locals.

Saturday day
Saturday we all met early to go to Puntarenas, a port town on the Pacific side about 2 hours away, for the biggest Carnaval in Costa Rica. There were a million vendors set up, a ton of people, and some really good music acts playing! Apparantly one of Bob Marley's sons was going to be there later that night after we left, but the guy who played before we left was sooo good. I have to figure out who he was. I don't have any pictures of that because Puntarenas is kind of sketchy and I didn't want to bring my camera, but imagine a smaller scale music festival with a lot of hispanic people without shirts on.

Thoughts on being a white girl in Costa Rica
If you want to feel like a celebrity, move to Latin American and be a white girl (Credit for this joke goes to one of my old camp counselors who is blonde and currently in Korea). In Heredia they mostly stare and whistle, and sometimes yell things that I can only assume to be innapropriate. In Puntarenas, they had a different approach. They would stare at us intently, tell us "you are so beautiful" (in English), and ask to take a picture with us.
All of this can be a confidence booster but also gets old fast. Like, really old. I can't wait to walk on streets in May when I am home and not have one thousand Costa Rican men staring at me.
I think they do this to Tica girls too but I would imagine that it doesn't phase them as much.


Saturday Night
We got back to Heredia after Carnaval with time to shower, have dinner, and go meet our friends out at a discoteca in a town right outside of Heredia. It was a super fun night!
Afterwards we went to one of our friends' house that lives around there, and apparently my sense of humor is different from all of my friends who are from the West Coast and Midwest, because they thought I was being so funny when all I was being was normal.

Today
Today I mostly did nothing. This nothingness was premeditated as I had been thinking about it all week, looking forward to the first day since Winter Break when I could sleep in and spend the whole day accomplishing nada. It was great!

I did end up going grocery shopping as I had literally no food in my house and the choice was either grocery shop or starve. I must have looked super Tican today or something because SO MANY PEOPLE were asking me things in the grocery store, on the street, in the park, hoping I could supply them with an answer to whatever the hell they wanted to know, but only getting a blank stare and a "uhhh...No se" (I don't know) in return.  This group of guys on my street were in their car and pulled up to me and asked me something and then looked at my blank stare and were like "Oh...you speak American, nevermind."
I'm getting pretty good at Spanish but there are a lot of words I still don't know and unfortunately every single question I was asked today included nothing that I do know. Hopefully by the time I leave I will be able to answer everyone's questions!!


I should note that if, as you read my blog, you are imagining Costan Rican people to look like other Latinos that you might have met from countries like Mexico, El Salvador, Columbia, etc (areas that have a larger pool of immigrants in the US), then you are imaging wrong! Costa Rica has a lot of European influence so they are one of the more lighter skinned populations in Latin America. They all have brown hair and brown eyes, but I would say about half the population is only a little darker than the average Gringo. This is why it is not absurd for pale little me to be mistaken for a Tica.

Other things:
-I have had 2 more cockroaches in my room, both of which were handled much more calmly than the first incident with simply a can of raid. I make my roommate do the disposal though because I am still too scared to get that close. And today I bought traps. They do not stand a chance!!!!! (I HOPE)
-Hillary and Mahila bought plane tickets to come visit me during UMD's spring break. I am so so so so so so excited. =D
-This weekend starts my first spring break (yes, I have 2. So lucky!). We are going to Nicaragua (with the program so I will be safe, don't worry) and Guanacaste in Northern Costa Rica. I can not wait!!!!!!!  Can't believe we get a break already.
-I found this cocoa farm on the Pacific Coast that apparently does a really awesome WWOOFing/volunteer program. I am considering spending half of my second spring break there (the other half we are going to Panama), but I may just do a long weekend there with Danielle and Austin next month.

Danielle just posted this picture from Montezuma last weekend. This is another example of why Montezuma is AWESOME. Instead of stray dogs everywhere like in most of Costa Rica, Montezuma had CATS!!!!!!!!! What a dream land.  This little guy sat with us for dinner, don't worry I washed my hands before I ate. =)