SAMARA BEACH!!!!I decided to crank out at least one more journal entry before I embark on my journey back to the US. First really cool thing that happened is I went to the beach for Holy week. Holy week along with Christmas and New Years is when all the national tourism happens aka all the Costa Ricans head for the beach. That being the case I went with the family that I am currently staying with and had a blast. The greatest thing was that it was just really chill and nobody really cared to do anything. For four days all we did was sleep eat go in the ocean and repeat. I was really amazed because we could have gone horseback riding or rented inter tubes or a kayak but nobody did. The most we did was bring a soccer ball and play soccer when the tide was out. Really beautiful beach and we were a big group of about 15ppl so there was always plenty to talk about and do. The one thing that unfortunately will stick out in my mind the most will be the ride back to San Ramón. When we went to the beach it was only a three hour drive, however on the way back it took 7 hours. Everyone knew that coming back would be a lot of traffic and for that reason we came back a day early on Saturday but it didn’t matter as it was bumper to bumper traffic for a good 50 miles. I knew the roads in Costa Rica were bad, but I was once again amazed by how a country as advanced as it is neglects its highways so much. We were traveling on the main highway in Costa Rica and there are parts where the center line isn’t even marked and the majority of the road is only two lanes.
Other than that my time is winding up down here but I am a little concerned I am losing my mind. The town San Ramón is so laid back that I am usually in bed by 10pm and I am starting to take a lot of naps during the day on the weekends. I am really concerned I am turning into a grandpa. I have a friend who readily admits to being a grandma because she would sleep 15hrs a day if she could and would be fine by it. It is really starting to scare me though. The other night I went to bed and forgot to take my contacts out. I had never done that in my life before and it was the strangest thing. I think I might need to get out just to save my sanity. A running joke I have with the family I am with is that I am a big strong North American and never get sick and I don’t need anyone to look after me. Naturally though the Costa Ricans are always telling me to wear a jacket when I go out and are always offering to give me pills or take me to the hospital even when I have a little cough and I always tell them no, that they are crazy and that I am not sick and that these things always happen to me (asthma, allergies etc.). Well now they have been bugging me so much that subconsciously I think that I believe them.
Now sometimes if I have a little headache I will think about it more and because I start to believe that I am getting sick, the headache will get worse when before I could just forget about because nobody was telling me that I was sick. I don’t know I am probably just going crazy but I am at a weird point in my non-US life. Like for instance I got really sick the other day when travelling in another part of the country and I couldn’t pin point the reason for why I got sick until I realized that I hadn’t eaten rice and beans that day. I am sure that is had nothing to do with why I got sick but it just makes sense to me. Now I make sure to eat rice and beans each day and when I do start to feel a little sick with a headache I will make sure and eat rice and beans and I will feel better. I think I honestly have just a mental obsession and that I just believe that it will keep me from getting sick and that alone will trigger the hormones to cure me.
I am typing all of this half jokingly but the more I think about it I will probably need some psychiatric treatment at some point in my life if these weird things keep happening to me. Like when I forgot to take my contacts out, I hadn’t been drinking or doing anything out of the ordinary so I have no logical explanation for what happened other than I am losing my mind. Even the grandmas here are even saner than I am.
The family that I stay with goes and visits the dad’s mom every weekend and is probably the coolest grandma I never had. What basically makes her the coolest grandma is that she takes shots of liquor 3-4 times a day and when I come over sometimes she invites me to do a shot with her or she’ll offer me some drink she made with alcohol. And she is 84 years old! It is really funny because the family I live with doesn’t drink at all. They have half a bottle of baileys that has probably been in their fridge for three years and still have not finished it. Only the daughter drinks and she might drink one beer at a bar and that would be it. The last time I went to Panamá where the liquor is a lot cheaper, I brought back the grandma a bottle of rum and she had the bottle finished in like a week. Nice of her though to save the last shot of rum from the bottle. Really cool old lady though, she lives all alone so she sits all day and drinks and watches soap operas a
nd is content as all can be. I hope someday my life will be that simple. Her kids chip in and buy her a ton of food each month and she cooks so whenever people come visit her they can not leave until they are stuffed. Every time I go there I have to eat a meal and if I don’t she’ll get upset. The food is really good though I am just glad I don’t live with her because I would probably be about fifty pounds heavier.
Other than that my time is winding up down here but I am a little concerned I am losing my mind. The town San Ramón is so laid back that I am usually in bed by 10pm and I am starting to take a lot of naps during the day on the weekends. I am really concerned I am turning into a grandpa. I have a friend who readily admits to being a grandma because she would sleep 15hrs a day if she could and would be fine by it. It is really starting to scare me though. The other night I went to bed and forgot to take my contacts out. I had never done that in my life before and it was the strangest thing. I think I might need to get out just to save my sanity. A running joke I have with the family I am with is that I am a big strong North American and never get sick and I don’t need anyone to look after me. Naturally though the Costa Ricans are always telling me to wear a jacket when I go out and are always offering to give me pills or take me to the hospital even when I have a little cough and I always tell them no, that they are crazy and that I am not sick and that these things always happen to me (asthma, allergies etc.). Well now they have been bugging me so much that subconsciously I think that I believe them.
Now sometimes if I have a little headache I will think about it more and because I start to believe that I am getting sick, the headache will get worse when before I could just forget about because nobody was telling me that I was sick. I don’t know I am probably just going crazy but I am at a weird point in my non-US life. Like for instance I got really sick the other day when travelling in another part of the country and I couldn’t pin point the reason for why I got sick until I realized that I hadn’t eaten rice and beans that day. I am sure that is had nothing to do with why I got sick but it just makes sense to me. Now I make sure to eat rice and beans each day and when I do start to feel a little sick with a headache I will make sure and eat rice and beans and I will feel better. I think I honestly have just a mental obsession and that I just believe that it will keep me from getting sick and that alone will trigger the hormones to cure me.
I am typing all of this half jokingly but the more I think about it I will probably need some psychiatric treatment at some point in my life if these weird things keep happening to me. Like when I forgot to take my contacts out, I hadn’t been drinking or doing anything out of the ordinary so I have no logical explanation for what happened other than I am losing my mind. Even the grandmas here are even saner than I am.
The family that I stay with goes and visits the dad’s mom every weekend and is probably the coolest grandma I never had. What basically makes her the coolest grandma is that she takes shots of liquor 3-4 times a day and when I come over sometimes she invites me to do a shot with her or she’ll offer me some drink she made with alcohol. And she is 84 years old! It is really funny because the family I live with doesn’t drink at all. They have half a bottle of baileys that has probably been in their fridge for three years and still have not finished it. Only the daughter drinks and she might drink one beer at a bar and that would be it. The last time I went to Panamá where the liquor is a lot cheaper, I brought back the grandma a bottle of rum and she had the bottle finished in like a week. Nice of her though to save the last shot of rum from the bottle. Really cool old lady though, she lives all alone so she sits all day and drinks and watches soap operas a
nd is content as all can be. I hope someday my life will be that simple. Her kids chip in and buy her a ton of food each month and she cooks so whenever people come visit her they can not leave until they are stuffed. Every time I go there I have to eat a meal and if I don’t she’ll get upset. The food is really good though I am just glad I don’t live with her because I would probably be about fifty pounds heavier. (Photo: Coolest Grandma and grandaughter)
I am really a sucker though for grandmas, the family’s other grandma I bought a box of cookies for her birthday. I really wanted to bring her a hamburger or pizza because that is what she really likes but is not supposed to have because of a medical condition but still sneaks that food into her diet when nobody is watching. Not just the grandmas I get along with but also my aunts (or the sisters of the mother of the family who I am staying with). There are four of them and they are all a little off their rockers but in a good way so it is always a good time conversing with them. When we went to the beach three of them went and you could totally tell they were sisters in the jokes that they made and just the way they got along. A lot of them are pretty strict with their kids and raise them a certain way always the straight and narrow and the kids never revolt or challenge their ideas so I am usually the one who will speak up for them and defend and at least put up a fight for them. I never win but at least I generate some conversation and a lot of times I feel I make a point but they never agree with me. There is one aunt who has a son who wants internet at the house but the mother says no because she does not want him to get on chats and make internet girlfriends and waste away his life online. She says nothing online will ever replace handholding or talking to the person face to face. I however argue though that he is really interested in a computer career and the internet is a resource he could use to learn about jobs and learn more about the computer in general. I also argue that someday there will be a program where you can stick your hand through the screen and touch the other person on the other side. She thinks I am crazy but I least try to get a little charge out of her even though it is probably better to keep the internet out of house until the kids are at least 18. I saw what the internet did to my house when it arrived and I see what it is doing to the kids who are getting it at their homes now in Costa Rica and they are obsessed with just like I was when I first got it. Anyways I get along so well with the Aunts that one of them invited me to go to her six year old daughter’s birthday party this weekend. She is having it at Brincolandia (Jumping Land) which I think is like a kid’s playground where you climb all around tubes and have a ball pit. I think in the US it is called jumping jacks or discovery zone. I don’t know they told me to wear socks, I can’t wait.
I am really a sucker though for grandmas, the family’s other grandma I bought a box of cookies for her birthday. I really wanted to bring her a hamburger or pizza because that is what she really likes but is not supposed to have because of a medical condition but still sneaks that food into her diet when nobody is watching. Not just the grandmas I get along with but also my aunts (or the sisters of the mother of the family who I am staying with). There are four of them and they are all a little off their rockers but in a good way so it is always a good time conversing with them. When we went to the beach three of them went and you could totally tell they were sisters in the jokes that they made and just the way they got along. A lot of them are pretty strict with their kids and raise them a certain way always the straight and narrow and the kids never revolt or challenge their ideas so I am usually the one who will speak up for them and defend and at least put up a fight for them. I never win but at least I generate some conversation and a lot of times I feel I make a point but they never agree with me. There is one aunt who has a son who wants internet at the house but the mother says no because she does not want him to get on chats and make internet girlfriends and waste away his life online. She says nothing online will ever replace handholding or talking to the person face to face. I however argue though that he is really interested in a computer career and the internet is a resource he could use to learn about jobs and learn more about the computer in general. I also argue that someday there will be a program where you can stick your hand through the screen and touch the other person on the other side. She thinks I am crazy but I least try to get a little charge out of her even though it is probably better to keep the internet out of house until the kids are at least 18. I saw what the internet did to my house when it arrived and I see what it is doing to the kids who are getting it at their homes now in Costa Rica and they are obsessed with just like I was when I first got it. Anyways I get along so well with the Aunts that one of them invited me to go to her six year old daughter’s birthday party this weekend. She is having it at Brincolandia (Jumping Land) which I think is like a kid’s playground where you climb all around tubes and have a ball pit. I think in the US it is called jumping jacks or discovery zone. I don’t know they told me to wear socks, I can’t wait.
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