CARNAVAL!!!

I don't even know where to begin. Thursday night, 5 of us left for Panama to celebrate Carnaval. 15 hours on a bus went by relatively fast, and at 5am we were there! Of course, when we go to our hostel they didnt have our reservation...but after walking around until 6am and watching the sunrise while doing so, we finally found a hostel and passed out until 10am. We then headed to the Panama Canal, which was totally anti-climactic. It is definately an amazing feat of engineering and the history is cool, but seeing it was not quite what we expected. Or it may have been the exhastion...so we went back to the hostel, hung out, and then headed to Carnaval. Dancing, drinking, drunkenly ending up at McDonalds with my vegetarian friend, where we shared a chicken sandwich (her half with bacon, i might add. but as she shouted out... "vegetarian is only a title!!! I can eat meat if I want!! leave me alone!") and felt gross in the morning. excellent.

We soon find out that we are staying in like...the shadiest part of Panama City, and everyone we meet or run into or see from afar tells us how dangerous it is and to be careful. again, excellent. Saturday we somehow ended up in Panama Viejo, the old part of Panama City. We roamed around an artisan market and chilled in a field looking at ruins (where a couple came up and told us that we were in a dangerous area. i swear to god, we totally felt safe...apparently Panamanians do not.)

shit...i forgot that my mom reads this and i gave her the cliffnotes version...hi mom. stop reading. sorry.

We spent the afternoon shopping downtown since panama is so unbelievably, amazingly cheap...my friend bought a dress for 99cents. That night we went back to Carnaval, and our evening was...eventful. Buy only by proxy, through our crazy friend Paul who manages to become a shitshow every single weekend, without fail. My friend Kaitlyn and I decided to leave before the rest of our group since we were so tired, and got back to the hostel around 3am. At 4:30am, we are woken up by our dear Pablo, asking us for money since he had none to pay his taxi and had been separated from the rest of our group. We then realized that the very scary and angry cab driver was standing in our doorway...this was to Paul's surprise as well...thank you, hostel, for telling the nice man what room we were in. The next morning, I proceeded to steal a delightful blanket from them to make up for it. But very long story short, Paul's night involved accidentally picking up a hooker, accidentally trying to pay for a 60cent beer with a $100bill and having it ripped in half, getting lost and walking for 3 miles looking for a cab, and then you all saw where that ended up. goooood times.

Sunday we went to Casco Viejo, another old part of Panama City that is supposed to resemble old Havana (ps, going to Cuba is like my new obsession. don't think it will happen on this trip unless I win the lottery, but I want to go so badly! Learning about it is just not the same as going...so that trip will happen sooner than later). We walked around for a while, it was a beautiful area, and then went back to Carnaval, where we caught the awesome parade, tons more dancing, and just a little more drinking. It started to pour, and everyone just danced and went nuts, soaking wet and having an amazing time. Carnaval consists of people just throwing confetti and shaving cream and god knows what else all over you...so the rain was a nice touch and kept us semi-clean. I will definately be putting up pictures of Carnaval soon. We then headed back to the hostel of some friends that had met us in Panama, changed, showered, and headed to the bus stop for another 16 hour ride. Except that the bus broke down at 4 am and spent the next 7 hours on the side of the road. The ride ended up taking a full 24 hours...but we all made it back alive, and hey, we got to see the sunrise again. so now we're back for the longest week everrr, since none of us are quite recovered yet.

Wow...reading back on that just made me laugh...quite an experience. And thats not even everything...i love this trip. and Panama.

Classes are still good and interesting, and this weekend we are doing a bunch of day trips and staying close to home.

hey sweet...i think i just figured out how to post pictures on here...if i was successful, the picture is of the panama canal. the ones from carnaval are a lot more exciting, and ill get them up soon.

hope all is well at home! off to "study" for a quiz tomorrow. Pura Vida!!

casi una mes! que rapido!

I can't believe that i've already been here for almost a month, but at the same time, I feel like i've been here forever. I definately feel at home now, and I am totally comfortable in my new life. Marielos, my host mom, never stops feeding me, so i'm going to come home very gordita. I joined a gym to hopefully keep that from happening...too many trips to the beach and too much time in baithing suits for me to get fat. Last weekend at Playa Conchal was amazing...like, "holy shit i found paradise" kind of amazing. At first glance it looks like a normal, beautiful, sandy beach, until you look closer and step onto the 'sand...' because its not sand, its billions of conch shells. Most of them are ground up into tiny pieces, but they are all shells. I'm bringing home a bottle filled with them! We also saw a howler monkey, which was super badass.
This weekend we're hanging around home...went to some museums in San Jose, went to a small town called Heredia thats about 11kilometers from San Jose to walk around and explore a bit. Went out last night to sort of celebrate valentines day...or Dia de los Enamorados, as it is called here. I also talked to my drunken mother who called me a little shit...that made me really miss home. Speaking of home, a big felicidades to my smartypants sister who keeps getting into grad schools. I have decided for her that she is going to Tufts so that way we can hang out in Boston. Oh, and I booked my flight to Buenos Aires for early April to visit her, which I am verrryy excited about!
My other big adventure has been dealing with dentists...thanks to my lovely dentist back home who clearly cannot put in fillings and who hopefully does not read my blog. Sooooo I have to get a cavity re-filled, hopefully tomorrow. But I first went to the clinic at my university, where I felt very proud of myself for dealing with everything in spanish. Once I was told that yes, I did need my cavity refilled, I decided to find a private dentist (everyone at the clinic were students, and my guy had braces and couldnt have been more than like 12. Yana, I swear to god, if it wasnt for you I wouldnt have let them near me or my teeth. But I just pretended that it was you and your fellow students and let them do their thing), and everything should be taken care of soon. But it was nice to know that I can pretty much deal with any situation, completely in spanish, and feel confident about it. Hopefully I remember the words for "help," "novacaine," and "no, I don't want it extracted." That last phrase is actually in one of my phrasebooks, and my friends very lovingly told me that I should probably memorize that one. Thanks guys.

I'm trying to think of any other adventures that I've had, but life is pretty low-key right now I'm just enjoying the weather, the people, pretty much everything. My family is just about ready to book their trip to come visit at the end of my program in May...I am super pumped to show them around Costa Rica and have them get a little taste of my life here. Anyone who wants to tag along, I'm sure you can hide in a suitcase.

Hasta luego...

not quite jealous enough?

Google "Playa Conchal Costa Rica."
Thats where I'm going tomorrow.
...life is pretty sweet.

Also, for anyone who hears about the flooding on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, I live nowhere near there, and we purposely changed our trip this weekend to go to the Pacific Coast instead. (Costa Rica has both coasts, so you can head a few hours in either direction and end up at either the Pacific or the Caribbean. In fact, there is actually a volcano here that, if you climb to the top on a clear day, you can see both bodies of water!)
But anyhoo, i'm fine and not drowning in a flood.