Las Orquideas y La Fiesta del Toro

On Tuesday I went to San Jose to sell the orchids that we grow at the nursery. I was really excited, imagining a little Tico market, with tons of cool stuff. It turned out to be a market celebrating health. The other tables were selling Listerine, Theraflu, chlorophyll to be taken orally, gatorade, Kashir brand cereal, and then there was this one table where the ladies would take your measurements to make gurtles. Pretty different from what I expected. But it was cool because it was in downtown SJ, between the Congressional and Judicial buildings. So we got to talk to Congress people about orchids, and look at all of these professional people walking around. I like it how all the women wear really bright colors--like beautiful made dresses that are bright orange and yellow.

On Friday my roommate Noelle and I went to the Volcan Irazu with our little Tica sister´s class. It was very interesting. We were told that we would get to walk around with them and learn everything that they would, and I was really excited because the teacher is a biologist and I was stoked to learn all about the trees and volcanoes. But it turned out, as always, to be different. We had to hide in the bus to get past the security gate, since we had already paid in the packaged school deal a Tico student fare. That was interesting. And then we just went to the volcano on our own, with one of the teachers, but without all the other kids, who were off at a different part of the park. It was freezing, so we sat inside with the teacher for a few hours and we taught him how to play hearts. It was fun, but not much learning going on. The field trip was complete experience with many interesting occurrances including--
-our host mom preparing us 5 sandwiches for a day trip
-one of the bus windows shattering on the students when a rock was kicked up by another car
-one kid getting sick on the bus
-the lights turning out at night and everyone screaming at the top of their lungs and flashing pictures in each other´s faces for about a half hour
-being splashed while walking across a bridge--it had been raining so there were huge puddles and we were a little line of kids walking along, with nowhere to go and this car of teenagers intentionally sped up and hit us all. We were soaked
-an earthquake as soon as we arrived back safely in Atenas.
Needless to say, it was a very intense day.

This past week has been exams for all of the elementary schools and high schools. The whole town celebrates that they are done with exams--there is a huge festival-party all weekend long! On Friday night they converted the gym down the street from my house into a discoteca. There was tons of loud regaton playing and everyone in the whole town under 30 was there. We danced to all of the crazy beats of regaton, and then it would switch to merengue and salsa, which was really cool. Except that I can´t dance. My Tico novio was there, and he can really dance, it was cool to see him dancing with all his friends who also know what they´re doing and lok good while they do it. But it was so fun!
On Saturday, Noelle and I went to the beach with Miguel, a friend who is the son of one of the women I work with at the Orchids. It was really fun--he picked us up early and we went to a beach at Jaco where the waves were perfect for body surfing and we played in the water all morning until lunch, and then we went to Playa Hermosa, which is down the road a little bit. It was so beautiful, with big surfing waves and black sand. We took a nap in the shade and woke up because it was starting to rain. A huge storm had rolled in and the sky was completely black, and the wind was so strong that some of the bushes and trees were being blown over, and a huge tree had fallen over on the autopista and this soccer team, complete in uniforms and cleats, had to move the tree. It was pretty crazy. We waited out the storm by sitting in our car along the sand and then getting a coffee. It was a perfect day at the beach.
Today Noelle and I are going to cook lunch for our family, which we´re really excited about. And then tonight is a rodeo, complete with bulls and cowboys! I´ve never really been to a rodeo before, so this should be really cool. I´m excited! And then, my parents, brother, aunt and cousin are coming to visit on Wednesday, and I´m going to take time off work and go travel around with them! I´m so excited!!!!