November 1 - 18

Life has handed me a multitude of opportunities within the last two months. After the best Halloween of my life, my studies and traveling have taken me hostage. My absence has been a effect of my traveling choke-hold, but I fully intend on sharing everything that I can muster from my occupied mind.

November 1st: A continuing habbit has formed as every morning I inturrupt my walk to school by picking up Miss Molly. Today was no exception until I found Molly in bed, purple, over-heated, and disoriented. Minutes spent trying to convince her that taking the test with dangerous fevers is not appropriate circumstances for anyone. Stubborn as she is, we made our way to class long enough for her to run from the room for a quick episode of siesures. I found Molly on the bathroom floor, white faced, and terrified. We rushed her to the hospital to find out that a vicious infection was blooming in her kidneys.

November 4th: School's out for a feild trip to Monteverde! We piled all the USAC crew into two small Turismo buses that struggled all the way up the windy roads to the cloud forests of Monteverde. Nestled into out beautifully unneeded rooms we went for a quick lunch followed by a hike through the Park Reserve. We hiked through the tropical rainforest. We found a overlook of the entire valley but the clouds were so intense that you could not see farther than a few feet in from you nose. The abyss was eery and extrodinary.

Later in the evening the tour buses unleashed us to the town for dinner and a good curbside wino party. There is nothing better than huddling, drinking wine, and singing in the street with you two best friends. The bottles bottom enticed us to some dancing in hopes of warming up. The bar welcomed us with a local battle of the bands and drunk Europeans. The disappointing dancing atmosphere proved to be perfect conditions for Spencer taking a home run in a game of Champ-Points.

Another great memory that will forever be imprinted in my giggle list occured when I bounded down the stairs of the bar in search of something more interesting than the latin screamo band and moshing germans. With each step taken, more heads lifted from a room full of Latino Bikes playing pool in a toxic cloud of smoke. There is nothing more awkward than bouncing down the stairs to an entire room of rough lonely men in a basement thinking you will find a better adventure than the first.

November 5th: Adventures awaited us early in the morning. We participated in Cost Ricans' longest Canopy Tour Zip Line. We descended through the jungle feet from trees and above soaring eagles. Not surprising, I had to make the story even better with my misfortunes. Deciding that jumping from a platform would assist my decent in a more rapid and adventurous fashion. Sadly, I could not have been more wrong. Instead of accelerating, my zip ended in a dead stop and an unfortunate pain. I lost control and hit a trilogy of trees. Pin-balling through the jungle with a possible broken leg was not on my Bucklist.

The drive home was filled with pain and stupid regret. Deciding that the fresh air was an appropriate solution for my bruised and swollen leg, I sat with my legs dangling from the bus window as we curved and swerved over mountain passes and ravines.

The night became more and more interesting. When I returned from Monteverde and the painful cloud forest experience, I was overtaken by a strange sickness. Dizziness stalked me like a lonely ex-boyfriend. Eyes closed, Eyes open - I was unable to muster the motivation nor balance to move. We intended to explore Heredia's nightlife before the dizziness snuck through my back door for a quick reunion. After crawling to the kitchen's phone to alert Molly of my undesirable status, I fell asleep with my make-up on, hair did, and sexy salsa dress - all because dizziness had pinned me to my bed and turned the walls into a carnival ride from hell.

November 8th: Add to the list of stupid decisions in Costa Rica - Nose Piercing. Don't ask me why I believed that a needle through my nose from a foreign third world country sounded like a great idea, but at the time I did. With the decent of adrenaline, my blinged nose and I made our way to the Vista for homework and soccer cheering. The boys kicked the ball around and kicked me in still swollen leg. I ran around like an idiot with the local drug dealers keys, glasses, and sweater on. I was dubbed the soccer-mom of the evening for all the neighborhood homies while they played. I felt that if I was going to take on the responsibility than I would take advantage and run around wearing all the attire dumped in my lap. Unfortunately, the collection of items created an ambiance similar to Hermione Granger.

November 11: The girls and I adventured to Tica Bus for our tickets to the upcoming road trip to Nicaragua. We made friends with Randall who will forever come into play with our later adventures. I absolutely love making new friends that I will forever remember and travel with in my future.

Molly and I took a ice cream break in Central Park where we ran into our Tico neighbor Walter. Walter spilled the beans of his life and entertained us for hours. Distracted from our studies, we hung out in the park watching the BMX kids get kicked out by the cops only to return minutes later hoping that the cops wouldn't be present upon their next attempt at ridiculous hoopla. Walter has presented enough quotes for his own personal "magic book." This evening was no acceptation. Walters greatest of the evening was asking Molly and I how Idahoans survive in the snow without freezing. Our response included a heater as our solution. Walter's response was, "What is a heater." Oh tropical rainforests..... The following included a conversation in which Walter gloated about how amazing his home city is by including the description of, "The water is so pretty, it's like the color of TURKEY!" What Walter intended to say was "turquoise." Oh Walter! How we will miss your ridiculous unfiltered lifestyle.

November 10: Today our class was informed how truly intriguing our professor is. Our professor has continuously built a hit list of people she would like to kill. The top of this list includes the construction workers that began their daily work everyday for a weeks time at the same time that our class was in session. The greatest part was the construction was in our room. Our professor also has a series of personal traits that chronically surprise our class. She is a die-hard fan of Horror Movies, Chocolate, Hit Lists, threatening disruptive loiterers in the hallways, and teaching us how to construct the perfect personal add. Not that I needed an add, I have to fight the men off with a stick. Apparently, redheads are a latinos' sign for "eternally available."

November 11: The crew and I ferried our way to Montezuma for the weekend. Upon the ferry we indulged in our weight in fruit. My boy, Spencer, made his way into the magic book once again. Following my list of consumed fruits of the day, Spencer stated, "Girl, you know that you're going to be $hi+!n& like a juicer!" Oh how Spencer knowledge haunts me. We drank wine from empty coconut shells while re-interpreting the classic Titanic seen on the nose of our Ferry. We found the greatest crap-hole hostel that included free locals to hang out with. Why are the most interesting locals the cocaine dealers?

November 12: Montezuma is famous for three things. The weed, the nudist beach, and the waterfall. We chose to indulge in the last. We hiked and climbed the mountain up to a 47 foot waterfall. I mustered the courage to jump twice followed by Molly. Molly's experience was a bit more unfortunate than my own. Her jump haunted her kidneys, back, and booty for weeks after. This was added to the list of obviously stupid things that we shouldn't have participated in - but did.

The rest of the evening was filled with dancing and relaxing. The girls and I participated in a over-priced dinner and the boys lucked out with Dawg, Dog, Dog night. Their bro night included the term of endearment "dawg," the local stray dog, and hot dogs over the beach bonfire. A great memory that I created in Montezuma presented itself while I was stupidly walking home by myself. Two men were approaching me with cat calls and possibly other intentions. My response - creatively false sign language cussing. I was in a poor mood and had no tolerance for a mugging. Apparently, God found humor in my spontaneous choice of defense because those hommies turned right around and walked away just as confused as I was as to where that come from.

November 13: Ferry and buses were a blessing. Both force you no motivation for exploring, but rather sleeping. Exhausted and bored, the girls and I used my telephoto lense for the good of entertainment. We were able to translate every text message or booger picking episode within a hundred feet of our lookout. An addition to Costa Rican Buddies was added this evening. We met a foreign exchange student from Veracruz, Mexico. Dani and I immediately fell in love with the kid. The three of us were "those kids" in the back of the bus. We spent forty minutes learning to say "I have a bean in my pants" in English, German, and Spanish. We laughed so hard the tears streamed down our sunburnt cheeks. To our misfortune, an impatient German sat across from us long enough to inform us that our forty minute German Bean session was not entirely accurate. Good news = laughter is a universal language that few can confuse.

November 18: The girls and I went to Liberia this weekend for a one nighter. We had an Ipod jam session in the back of the bus. We found a hostel that inhabited the silliest Guatamalan who we spoke in Spanish with the entire evening. Study Points!!! The next morning we were informed by the Hostel Owner that there are no buses from Liberia to the National Park of Ricon de Vieja. However, there are plenty of truck drivers that were willing to give us a lift. Yes, yes. We hitch-hiked with a Panamanian truck driver heading to Nicaragua. We were out of our minds and wanted to document the madness with a few pictures in the back of the cab. We estimated these photos at the approximate time that we passed the street where we should have taken. Since our ignorance proved blissful, we took the truck all the way to the Nicaraguan boarder. We had to take a bus back to Liberia for another attempt. A friendly Sweedish family to the Yellowstone of Costa Rica. We hiked over hanging bridges, witnessed boiling mudd pots of eternal sulfer stench, climed tree limbs, and paraded in the beautiful cascades. I might add that there is nothing more revealing of God's mighty power and wrath than a hole in the hearth that rummbles as the earths core heats the rocks that you are currently placed.