Lightning! ¡Ay Díos mio!

Last night I was working on some homework/studying for today's exam/facebooking late into the evening at the University. We were without internet at the house. It was raining. At maybe 9 pm, after hearing some thunder, I heard the absolutely loudest thunder I have ever heard in my whole entire life. I jumped out of my chair a little bit. It was quite startling. My ears hurt. I figured if it had been that loud, it must have been pretty close.

I didn't think about it again until this morning when I had no water to take a shower. I was pissed because I thought it was a glitch from the power going off for about half an hour last night. I contemplated taking my towel into the main house to see if I could use one of the other showers, but decided it would be more convenient to take a baby wipe bath. I was really unhappy about not being clean because today was the last day of class and I knew we were going to take pictures. Plus, we're leaving for Panama today. But whatever. I survived the photos and I'll survive the epically long van ride.

At breakfast I found out that no one at the house had water because the thunder I heard last night was caused by a huge lightning bolt which hit in the middle of the street that runs kitty-corner to the university. Here is a link to the photo on my web album. You can see on the little map on the right side where the photo was taken. You can also see how close to the university it is.

When I got to school, most of my classmates hadn't had water either. Only the few who lived super far from the school still had water. The lightning had burst the pipe running under the street. I hope that there's water when I get back from this weekend!

UPDATE:

There was indeed water when I returned. They closed the street and started making repairs. It took them less than two weeks, which I think is pretty good considering I heard they had to replace the whole length of pipe under the street and then repave the entire thing.

"Potable water is health and development"

How I almost spent $320

This weekend I’m going to Panama. Last weekend I met a girl who had a waterproof camera. It was super handy when we went parasailing. So today I went to the mall with a girl I met on the trip to Puerto Viejo to look for a water proof camera. I wanted to buy one—if it was affordable—because part of this weekend’s itinerary is snorkeling and swimming with dolphins. Now that is an awesome experience I would love to document forever!

We took a taxi to the mall. In the whole 3 story expansive mall (it reminds me of Lloyd Center in Portland minus the department stores... and the ice skating rink), there was only one store that sold cameras. And you could hardly call it a store because it was more like the cell phone kiosks we have in US malls, but for Olympus cameras. They only had two waterproof models, one for c160.000 and the other for c228.000. I saw the prices and was a bit in shock so I told the clerk I didn’t have enough money. That wasn’t true, but I really doubted that I wanted to spend $320 on a digital camera. My friend and I continued walking around the mall. We got ice cream but before we left I wanted to go back to the store and contemplate spending a very significant chunk of money. Because part of me feels like documenting my amazing experiences doesn’t really have a price. However, the logical side of me balked at spending that much money on one item—especially when my friend from last weekend spent about $50 at Walmart. I refuse to shop there but I figured that I could find something similar for a lot cheaper that what that store was asking. In the end, I did not buy the camera. I’m hoping I wont regret it—but my logical side just wouldn’t budge. There were more cons than pros:

• A lot of money
• Takes greatly away from my ability to buy other things or go on other trips
• Really would only use it for one occasion, and although I could use it for future vacations, I already have a camera that I would use in everyday situations. I would only use a waterproof camera while in or near water.
• Maybe I won’t be able to take photos worth $320

I’m hoping that I’ll have a really great time and I’ll just have to rely on my memory and perhaps a new friend’s waterproof camera. But I think I want to add a waterproof camera to my wishlist for the next time I have some extra cash.

Want some sugar with that?

A few weeks ago, during a trip to the nearest supermarket, I picked up some crackers that looked like Ritz crackers. I like to eat Ritz crackers with peanut butter. But the Costa Rican versions of these items I can hardly stand. The local "Ritz" tasted more like graham crackers. And the peanut butter had both sugar and honey in it (or the actual insect itself, if I was to read the English label literally, which read "honey bee"). My favorite pb in the states has only peanuts and salt in it. I miss it. They have Jiffy and Skippy and nasty American products like that here, but I have always tried to buy the local versions of things when possible. Although during my last trip to the grocery store I caved and bought real Ritz. Even though they were made in Nicaragua, they tasted much more like the American version.

I've long ago stopped trying the ketchup. Way too sweet for me, and sometimes too watery. French fries enter my mouth un-sauced. In the savory---sweet continuum, I prefer a lot of items more on the savory (or salty) side.

Here they also drink a lot of fresh, home made juice. Most of the time it's absolutely delicious. My favorite is mora (blackberry). But depending on the concoction, sometimes it's waaaay to sweet for me.

Sounds of Costa Rica

From the porch just outside my studio apartment door, I can see the back side of the university's auditorium building, which also contains a gallery and some classrooms. We are extremely close. Last month it probably took me a minute to walk from my door to my classroom. This month, I'm in a room further away so perhaps it's more like three minutes, tops. Crazy!

Anyway, our proximity to the school allows me to hear a lot of the things that go on there. They have a welding lab that I think is used by their architecture students. I can hear saws and welder-y tools up until 10:30 at night. Since we're so close to the school, we're more or less surrounded by parking lots for the school. This means I hear a car alarm go of at least--at least--twice a day. Usually they don't last very long.

The road that goes by the house and the university is fairly busy. It's not uncommon to hear regular road noise, a truck rumbling by, or a motorcyclist zipping by so fast he must have a death wish. Of course, the cars passing by honk at the cars who are blocking the road while they wait to enter the university's parking lots. All of the lots are fenced and gated so the drivers must wait for an operator to open the gate for them.

Twice this month the university has had some kind of live music playing in the courtyard at night. Once it was a party with live bands with American alternative rock playing the entire afternoon before (I liked that), and the other was a dance party with latin music. I don't mind any of the noises coming from the university as long as they stop before I go to sleep. And they always have.

Before it rains, it can be quite windy. My host mom has hung a variety of wind chimes along the alley that serves as a four car garage. It kind of nice hearing them jingle. Except for the Wind Chime from Hell. It is hung right outside my door. It has a heavy glass ball hung in the middle on the longest chain. This ball would continually smack against the glass window in my door. I was very fed up with the sound and worried that it might eventually break the door, so I took that damn glass ball and wrapped the chain around the wind chime to make it shorter. It still occasionally smack the door but not nearly as often.

Probably my favorite sound is the chirp of the geckos. I've never seen one in my room but I hear them frequently at night. They are so cute!

¡Voy a Panamá!

I paid for Panama! $160 for three nights, transportation, hotel, breakfasts, snorkeling and swimming with dolphins. I don't even have to take my Friday final on Thursday because the bus doesn't leave til 10:30! Usually class is 8-12 with a break from 10-10:30. As long as we begin the test at 8, I should be just fine. Last time it took me an hour and a half.

I know I owe you an update from last weekend but that will have to wait since last night I could not get the internet to work for more than a minute in every 10. Today it seems as though I'm having better luck. So I really need to do some research for my final oral presentation. However, I will make time to upload my pictures so you can check those out later tonight.