There will be thunderstorms sending me out of Costa Rica (I leave next Saturday and it will not stop raining before then). I am reminded of the tiny holes that existed in my roof in Hone Creek, of a rainy walk in Barcelona, of being in a permaculture forest and forgetting a raincoat.

"those who have money spend money, dont play into their game." "why buy vegetables when you can grow vegetables." "the mind is a garden, let it grow." "dont become preprogrammed. "the youth are soil." "there is one constant, and that constant is change."

luis rodgriguez.

leaving

baile baile. i thought there were gunshots, but there were fireworks. i thought i wasn't going to get in, but then the guard gave me a free ticket, fifth row. it was beautiful.

on saturday i leave and i cannot wait.

to grow

isn't it weird (that i think it's weird) that all of our food comes from.. food? from the earth? i never thought about it. i never knew what a rice plant was. what a mango tree looked like. that there was more than one type of cilantro. that a yucca can grow so large. that clamming is difficult. that trolling is so bad. that there are many types of sugar cane but they all taste the same (once processed). that shrimp are so bad for the environment. that duck eggs are edible. that cows here have bigger ears. that their grazing can prevent forest fires. that watermelons grow best by the water. that unorganic bananas are so sad they make me cry. how a pineapple grows. that each tree only produces one bunch of bananas. that it's not really a tree. how bad the side effects of pesticides can be (ie nemagon). how hearts of palm are cultivated. that onions and potatoes were excluded from cafta in costa rica. that they can all grow together.

that we eat three times a day. that i knew so little. that i`ll keep learning so much.

mujeres fuertes

rice farming, clamming, women's groups, UN money, eco-tourism, wildlife reintroduction, national parks, migration and immigration, education, wildfires, bugbites and mangrove scratches and flat tires and ocelots.

this country is so immense. it's so diverse. by tuesday i need to chose my idea for my independent study but i feel like there's so much (and so little i can do in under 4 weeks!) and everything is so different.

i am much too interested in the thing that i just learned. too fickle to pick something. it's why i love everything. i love the women who drink coffee and patrol their waters to make sure that outsiders don't come to catch their fish late at night. i love the man who realized that letting cattle walk the wetlands during the dry season will prevent forest fires. i love the girl who wants so badly to go to high school but who can't because her mom is scared to let her go. i love the sunset in guanacaste and the busride listening to 80s music. i love cutting mohawks on people who should not have mohawks and i love the fact that in a week i will be setting out, to pause my ADD, to focus on something, to get to know some people doing some amazing things.

fight the good fight

some things in the world are beautiful. this bug, for example.

other things are way more scary, more ugly. minimum wages, herbicides, pesticides, monocultures, corrupt governments, racism in the planification of this country, banana plantations, boredom.

there are lots of festivals here in san jose, which are full of hippies and unicyclists and music and art.

there is a lot to costa rica. everything is new. this could be the most simplified thing, but i think it's the only way to sum up my past two weeks of traveling, interviewing, seeing and smelling and tasting, birding and coral reef monitoring, of sloths and monkeys and toucans and planes spraying pesticides above.

in a city on a mountain

i really don't know why i went to barcelona, or why i go to school in ann arbor. suburbia life doesn't cut it for me, and i am definitely not metropolitan. no, i'm starting to think that i'm more of a mountain-type. a fire ant, roosters at dawn but i still got my 8 hours of sleep, mot mot, farmer's market type.




today on our field trip to collect bugs and identify them, and to measure tree sizes and forest canopy, my teacher stopped the car on the road to pick up roadkill.

in addition, the weather has been wack here (rain in the dry season, super hot days, super cold days). as i write this, the sky is a scary pink color, and while this picture doesn't capture it, here it is.

por supuesto

being in nicaragua, how to sum it up on this page.

it was beautiful it was terrible it was corrupt it was fun we were gringos we were tourists we were learning it was hot it was polluted it was tranquil it was peaceful it was war torn they were fighting they are fighting they are fighters we were contra

it was squatters and shelters and hostels and host families and stray dogs and little kids and gallo pinto and bucket showers

it was poetry and war stories and volcanoes and would you rather and music and dancing and pinatas and hammocks and futbol

it was stares and broken english and broken spanish and kids begging for money

it was a post revolution country that felt like a pre revolution country, and it was a lot to take in.

it was a place i'll be going back to, that's for sure.

con boca abierta

i worked in a coffee store for over two years, and probably drink a cup or more a day. heck, i even did a report on it and was in the growing hope group at school. and, finally, i visited an organic coffee farm, and saw all of the steps from little red berry on a tree to little expensive cup in your hand.

it was so great.

i was thinking that i wanted to be in the city for april, but after seeing this family and their way of life on this hill, with their garden and chickens and dogs and cows and horses and coffee and tons of land, i have started to rethink things.

like, i mean, check out this plant growing in a microwave!



i thought that after laura won the presidency, all would be quiet. but, because i live across the street from a bar, i still hear the crackling of the bouncer's walkie talkie, i occasionally hear the drunk quarrel, the screeching wheels of an intoxicated driver, and i just witnessed a group of dudes wearing big fluffy white hats (think jerremiguire) singing "day-O" and "feliz cumpleanos". also, two nights ago was this little earthquake which did nothing more than shake my room and light fixture and make all the alarms of every car on my block go off. it was awesome.

global weirding

the classes are great and the people here are great. the food trumps all, and there are puppies at ever turn.


i guess there is a downside, for the first time in my life someone tried to rob me. it took place at 6:45 am, on my corner, on the way to the volcano. i was with 3 other students. it was the scariest thing. he said, in english, to give him my ipod, that he had a knife. a cab happened to pull up, and the other students and i got in and rode away safely, without any confrontation or giving him anything. he probably only learned the smallest amount of english and i don't think anything could have happened, but it was mad scary to almost be burgled before 7am.

aside from that little setback, i guess everything else is great. Poas, the volcano we went to today, was really beautiful. For some reason it was also great weather.




tomorrow is the election for the president and it's been nutso here so far. the streets are filled with cars yielding the flag of their party, and honking. this probably won't stop until a winner is decided- hopefully tomorrow.



my house mom here is wonderful. she cleaned bluberry, which is kind of scary. she calls him "fresa"- strawberry.




this is the table that i sit at for spanish class


i'm going to go to church tomorrow with my family here and then watch the two great sports, football and politics.

que quieres? justicia

i'll just keep this blog and continue as if nothing happened within the past 10 months, since i last updated. i guess i could put up some pictures, and maybe it will spark my interest to continue with this, until i am living in a jungle.


this is the park near my house




there is a slight language barrier between my host family (a 74 year old woman and her 81 year old husband) and i, but i cannot wait to improve. the barrio is located right next to San Jose, and last night there was a slight earthquake from the volcanoes.

because it is sunday, everything is closed. rows and rows of stores offering cold coca cola all have shut doors today, so i am instead spending the day getting my act together, unpacking, things of the sort.

guess we'll keep in touch.