This is part of 8 posts where I will, with minor edits and omissions, put my journal from days in Costa Rica online. There is no real grammar structure, but hopefully it makes sense...
10/31/2009 Saturday
Last day of vacation. Boo. Major bummer. Need to catch up on yesterday first... Before my surf lesson at 4:00 I took my rented board and got the hang of messing around in the whitewater. Rode a few waves on my knees. Russell gave me a different board for the lesson; not made of foam, better. We spent about 15 minutes on the beach and then took to the water. The very first wave he told me to try I stood right up and rode to shore. He seemed surprised. "Most people don't do that." I was really stoked. I only rode / stood up on a couple more, but it was a ton of fun. I can easily see how people get addicted and chase waves for years. What a great sensation. (What a beautiful buzz...) It started raining really hard and got dark fast. When we had walked back to Caza Zen, the Black & White party picked up. I only had one clean black or white shirt... a long sleeve. Oh well. 4 beers and dinner were about $9. I talked to a lot of interesting people. (Earlier in the day before my lesson I talked to a couple from Columbus. We talked about the black hole that is Ohio State Buckeye football and why nobody seems to do anything but drink at social functions in Ohio.) The party went fairly late... maybe 1am. I got excited when 2 Swedish guys invited a lot of people to their room for some "Swedish water." I thought it would be a new discovery, like the aguardiente incident in Seattle. No such luck; vodka. I hate vodka.
Also, before I forget about Friday, I kept thinking English speakers I talked to were Aussies. A girl from Minnesota selling jewelry at the party sounded like that, but said it was just because she had rarely used English in the past 6 yrs. "I just decided I didn't want to live in the States anymore." Russell, my surf instructor, was from England and could pass for an Aussie too. His girlfriend definitely sounded British though. I talked to a Kiwi and recognized right away he was from New Zealand, so no error there. He re-taught me the term "seppo" for "Americans" - I had heard the term but not the origin (Yankee shortened to Yank rhymes with septic tank, shortened to seppo). He seemed surprised when I told him that if he used phrases like, "Good on you!" people from the States wouldn't understand, or that if he referred to our measurement system as the Imperial system "Americans" wouldn't know he meant weight in lbs, distance in ft/in. I honestly think most people wouldn't though. Sidenote: I find myself not liking to use the term "Americans" for people from the States, myself included. It seems wrong; arrogant. This is America too. I am not in the central USA but I am in Central America right now.
I woke up, caught the bus, the ferry, then another bus and was in Alajuela to wait to catch a taxi to the airport. Molly, Catherine and I split a room to save money and shopped a bit. I bought a hammock! Lunch at my last soda for this trip.... so filling, only 1 meal needed today, roughly translated to about $4. As the sun set we walked west to a cemetery (seemed fitting for Halloween and a nearly full moon) in town then walked back towards our hotel. It seemed like a waiting game, just killing time before we had to leave. The trip was over. We walked past the main cathedral in town... that's a nice area. After dark Molly and I walked down to Pops to get some ice cream then watched surf porn on youtube [segments of Endless Summer... I still need to rent it] on the free internet connection at the hotel. There is a very obvious police presence in Alajuela, and I did not feel in danger walking after dark.
I'm excited for the snow at home but already missing this country. I can't say for sure (obviously) yet, but I feel like this trip has yielded one of the most important weeks of my life so far. Definitely significant. Costa Rica truly is a rich country, and it gave me a lot.
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