i can be so much more grammatically correct than this

Okay, so Friday night was kind of funny. We were really tired from waking up so early to head to the park, so after making plans to dance the night away, we settled on going to see Captain America instead. Maria said we should meet there like an hour early but I thought that was ridiculous and had to eat dinner so we met like 20 minutes before it started and it was already sold out. Hence, 100% my fault. So then they wanted ice cream and we sat in the mall contemplating our night. Eventually, we decided to go to a bar (thankfully in the mall-no paying for taxis!) after much insistence from a quite sun burnt and exhausted Chatham who had done the walk to Cartago during the day. I ordered a vanilla caramel martini-how delicious does that sound? Well it was the grossest thing I’ve ever tasted. I will give you a synopsis of what probably happened to result in it being so disgusting (I’ve translated from Spanish for your sakes).

Waiter (in his head): Ahhh this stupid gringa (me) might look like she’s Latin, but her accent is so bad that I can’t even understand what she wants to order when she points to it on the drink menu…let’s see what I can get away with here…I bet she’s rich; she definitely hides a lot of money in that giant hair…(to bartender): Combine the cheapest alcohols we have and whatever old things you can find laying around, stick it in a martini glass and give it to me. We need to spend as little money as possible to milk all we can out of this gringa.

Bartender (in his head): Hmmm…well this person didn’t take the entirety of their tequila shot, I’ll put the rest in here…oh and a splash of this 3 week old flat beer…oh, and there’s some mud on this floor from when that manure worker tracked it in here, I’ll add that…Oh, some pickle juice sounds good…and maybe a splash of Tenley vodka. Hmmm but wait, it needs a yellowish tint. (Sees a homeless person peeing on the side of the bar) Says to homeless man: Wait! Stop!

(Man looks afraid that he’ll get in trouble for peeing in public)

Bartender: Here, isn’t it nicer to go into a cup? It doesn’t splash on your feet that way.

(Homeless man is so overwhelmed by this man’s generosity he isn’t afraid to let it all out into my drink)

And that is what happened to lead to the delightful flavor of my drink and is the reason why it took so long to get to me. And guess what. I drank it. Why? Everyone asked me. Because I am a poor college student and also because in Latin America and in the Rauchwerk family you finish what you’re given. Anyway, the bar ended up being really fun. Marco showed up lookin’ spiffy with a fresh hair cut even though he had to wake up at 4:30 the next morning to work, and we all chatted and even went to the place next door to dance a bit before leaving.

The next morning I woke up and helped the fam (including cousin Louis who is about the same age as me, studying civil engineering, and has long blonde hair, wears skinny jeans and screemo band t-shirts aka looks way too American) prepare lunch. Which consisted of me attempting to make the juice and misunderstanding and doing the completely wrong thing. At around 11:30 we headed out to Castillo Country Club which is this place with a ton of picnic areas, a huge indoor pool and game area, soccer fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, and a lot of grassy area. I ate some mad good salad (my host padre loves to put everything he can find into salad, just like me. It’s bomb), amazing refried beans Louis made, and some tortilla chips, and then this tiny little chocolate thing that tasted like ice cream but wasn’t cold. I also watched the cousins play soccer with Maria, tossed (or tried to) a football, played some basketball and ping pong, and then watched/took a nap for the Costa Rica/Spain soccer game. On the way home we stopped at Raul (host dad’s) parents’ house-first time I met them. They are both so adorable and energetic! We ate some home made roll things, drank tea, looked at family photos Raul’s sister took out (some at the abuelo’s birthday with pictures of them with the ex President of Costa Rica!), watched the little puppy pee all over the floor, I tracked mud all over the carpet and Raul’s sister took me outside and scrubbed my shoes, and we all had a very nice time. Raul’s dad is great and adorable and loves joking around and when I was leaving he walked me to the car with an umbrella even though I was wearing a rain jacket, handed me a flower (which I pressed) and told me to come back every Sunday. At night I watched the karate kid with Marco.

Yesterday I woke up and ate breakfast and talked to Marco about life and love and relationships for like two hours and I barely left for class on time. When I got there, I was of course lost, and some man who looked to be in his late twenties and dressed very spiffily asked me if I needed help. He told me he knew where the classroom was and then proceeded to walk very close to me, touching my arm unnecessarily constantly and asking me questions. Including if I had eaten and telling me we needed to eat together next time and have a conversation. All the while he was asking every person he saw where this classroom was. Then when he dropped me off he asked for my number, and I should have told him I didn’t have a phone but instead gave it to him, thinking it couldn’t hurt especially because I wanted Tico friends. The class wasn’t horrible; I understood a descent amount of it, and the teacher seems fair. But I didn’t exactly make friends, and it wasn’t my favorite experience. However, my next class was Intro to Tridimension which is like making sculptures with paper and everyone in it is an artist aside from me and this other American girl with a different program. We were going to switch out of it but then I found out that we get out a half hour early every day, the teacher is super understanding, and the most beautiful boy in the world asked to be in my group...it's probably mostly just the beautiful boy part though…bah why do I always think with my estrogen? Then, on the cab ride home (too dark to walk) I get a call from a mysterious number asking me if I was busy…it turned out to be the man who helped me find my class earlier…CREEPY. I told him yes and added his number to my phone as “Creepy Man”.

I had time to come home, eat, change my clothes, pack a backpack, and then head to the University to help out with cleaning up trash for the pilgrimage to Cartago http://www.usexpatcostarica.com/2010/07/annual-pilgrimage-to-cartago/. The walk takes about 4-5 hours from San Jose (about 16 miles) and more from Heredia. There are people who come from further and spend days walking and nights in hotels or people’s homes. Anyway, they took us to Cartago in a bus with this volunteer group of UNA students and they fed us (chicken and rice and potato chips…I said I didn’t eat meat, they said it was chicken…then they gave me an entire plate of potato chips and an apple) and gave us soda and water bottles (plastic bottles when it’s an eco group…okay…). We then were paired up one American with one Tico and sent to stations. Now I thought we’d be walking through the streets picking up trash, but we were just supposed to sit at our station which was positioned along the walk and instruct people on which receptacle in which to deposit trash…probably about 10 people came to our station in the 4 hours we were there when we would have been able to pick up about 15 bags of trash walking the streets but whatever. That’s what frustrates me about a lot of community service wherever you go…there are a virtually endless amount of things you can do to help but the way it’s organized somehow finds a way so that you do the least possible…or nothing at all. But it was fun because I made friends with the really tall man George working with me, and I am going to be his English tutor, and also with this really super nice guy Kevin who is studying biochem and absolutely loves it. Which is pretty admirable. And they are both great. Except for there was also this guy in the group (not in my station) who just didn’t ever stop talking. Now I know that sounds like me but 1. never put two people on the same bus who love to talk about everything and refuse to shut up to listen to anyone else because then there is no one to listen to them 2. I would like to think my talking is at least endearing/comical sometimes and that at least some of my stories are interesting and that I listen to other people sometimes 3. He was speaking in really rapid Spanish so I’m not even really sure if he was entertaining or not. Anyway, we finished at a little before 4 am and walked to the church which was SO COOL because there were thousands of people camping out surrounding it and every store on the street was open and we of course went into a panaderia and got dessert and it was beautiful. We got back at a little after five, and oh good, it was light out so it was safe to walk the mile and a half home on no sleep…And then I slept until 12:30 and when I woke up I helped Marco cook lunch (meaning I mostly just cut things) of this sweet potato like thing that we mashed with juice from the mandarins I picked from the tree outside and a wine reduction sauce and then a salad of tomato and cabbage (I actually really like cabbage in salad now) with little thin fried plantain chips on top and then zucchini and carrots and mushrooms and pepper and onion cooked together. And he just made it up. And it was awesome and fancy. Not even fair. I then hung out on my computer and went for a run and went back on my computer and then ate vegetables and rice with my family for dinner and they hadn’t tried some of the vegetables before like brussel sprouts which they call, directly translated, “mini squash” and yellow squash and then I had peanuts and oh no they have them here Oreos. And I need to make them zucchini bread because they’ve never had it. Now to sleep because I have class at 8 and want to wake up at six to run tomorrow! Look at me, I actually enjoy running now-WHATT is this who am I?