Update

I forgot to mention something about Jaco (though, I feel like I am bound to have some ridiculous experience at that beach any time I go because it is such a ridiculous place). After Jamie and I had lunch and got in a little bit of day drinking, we relocated to a slightly more shady (literally less sunny, not sketchy) part of the beach and were quickly approached by some guys. One by one they came up asking for the use of Jamie's lighter - because clearly not one of the four of them had a lighter but they all had cigarettes... riiiiight. After they had exhausted their lighter excuse, they (individually) repeatedly offered to go a buy us drinks or some food. One of them, desperately searching for a reason to talk to us, asked us to hold on to his passport and wallet while he went swimming, and offered to watch our stuff in return. It got more and more ridiculous the longer we were there.
I think my favorite one of the day was when one of them approached us offering to take us into the water. As the afternoon went on, the tide got stronger so we didn't go as far in. They decided this meant they needed to offer their services to help us go swimming. We got a 5 minute speech about how this one guy would be happy to be our guide in the water. Seriously. At least 5 entire minutes of us politely saying no thanks over and over and over. SO ridiculous. All in all, we were probably approached at least 12 times in 2 hours. Eventually they gave up and moved on and we headed back to Heredia for business as usual.

Tuesday night only one person came to tutoring for about an hour, so I got to head home early. I arrived home to find Saray cooking for Jose Mario, Felix and Gary. It was maybe the best way to end the day ever. I wish I’d taken a picture though, because it looked like our living room was an internet café. Everyone had their computers out and was comparing and sharing pictures from the Shakira concert.

Thursday night I met Jamie at Parque los Angeles in Heredia and we hopped the bus to Hooligan’s (bar/restaurant) to meet up with a bunch of the other Politecnico teachers for what turned out to be an absolutely ridiculous night. By the time Jamie and I arrived at 8:30/9:00, the majority of our friends and coworkers were well on their way to causing serious damage to their livers. We were at Hooligan’s for an hour or so when half the crew went home to be responsible and get some sleep before they had to work the next morning. Since the rest of us didn’t, we stayed for a bit longer. After a short while, we decided to give our wallets a break and head to Zach L.’s to hang out for a bit before deciding how to continue with the rest of the night.
At Zach’s was Jamie, new Jamie (who will be referred to as blonde-Jamie from now on), Pete, Luis from Politecnico, Luis from Costa Rica and two of Luis from CR’s friends whose names I can’t remember. There wasn’t a whole lot of diversity in the names as you can see.
After everyone finished all the alcohol at Zach’s place, we ventured out to downtown Heredia to another bar. I don’t remember the name of the first place we went to, but we didn’t even make it in the door before being turned away. There was some mention of the bar we were trying to go to having a vendetta against gringos, and the bouncer took one look at blonde haired, blue eyed Jamie and turned us away. Granted, at this point everyone had had a fair amount to drink, so I’m sure that wasn’t the only reason the nine of us were turned away. Instead, we walked up the street to the uber gringo-friendly Fiesta Casino. From what I understand, Fiesta looks exactly like any other casino – full of slot machines and no sign of natural light. We all ventured upstairs to the bar area and found ourselves a place to sit and I observed the belligerence that ensued. Finally, around 3-ish I decided I’d had enough and went home, already feeling hungover.

Friday I decided I was going to make crepes for my roommate and the guys. After napping away my pounding headache I headed to the local mini-super down the street and picked up fruit and eggs. Saray, Laura and Gary came home around 6 and we hung out and ate a little bit until Walter and Alvaro came to join us. Eventually Jose Mario and Felix came and brought a friend of theirs and her 3 year old son. We played a super long game of Uno, ate some crepes and had a super great time, as always. Oh. I also tried a “tico taco” for the first time, and it was amazing. Cheese, ham, beef, some salsa of some sort (and probably some other things I can’t remember right now) wrapped in a tortilla, fried and covered with lettuce and some other kind of salsa. Deeee-lish.

Saturday after class I went to Paseo de las Flores to meet up with Kerensa for lunch. While I was waiting for her, I ran into William and Mecia, and we decided to all have lunch together. The four of us went to RostiPollo, a slightly more upscale fast-ish food place that I’d probably call the Boston Market of Costa Rica. We shared a pitcher of beer, toasted to having a week off of work, and decided to have dinner together before we all went our separate ways for the break.

Later that evening I made my way over to William and Mecia’s place in San Joaquin. They live ridiculously close to me. I’m pretty sure if there was a direct route there, it would be a 5 minute walk. But, alas, there are no such things as direct routes in CR and it is a 20 trek by bus and foot. Shortly after I arrived, Kerensa and her boyfriend Martin came and Kerensa began making her infamous pizza from scratch. Mecia whipped up some guacamole and then she and her neighbor cooked up some shrimp. I, on the other hand, brought some store bought cookies and watched. We all drank some wine and ate incredibly delicious food and enjoyed each other’s company while listening to a wide array of amazing music (everything from Boyz II Men to Bob Marley). Great great night.

All in all this past week has been wonderful despite some ridiculousness at work that I won’t get into here. I couldn’t ask for more.

Just in case you were wondering, not only did I teach my beginner English students what the word “shenanigans” means, but they have started calling each other out on shenanigans when some of them inevitably goof off. It’s amazing. I’m pretty sure I can die happy.

I'll potentially write about the flight home yesterday and being home later this week. Hope everyone is doing well!