Sunday, July 17, 2011

The United States are gonna be so lame...

            With the mid-way point of session two approaching there has been a lot of reflection on how we will feel when we return to the United States. I personally am starting to get ready to come home but I am also starting to feel more and more like I live here. Putting toilet paper in the trash can is second nature, cold water is expected, waiting is natural and well English is HARD!
            I planned to keep things low-key this weekend but of course you can’t hide from adventure here…
  Or quick shoot over to San Jose area to see Harry Potter turned into an unsuccessful exciting adventure. A girl who came with had to pick up a package that her parents sent her… which ended up being a wild goose chase to the airport and then finally a remote loading dock... put us at the mall in Heredia at 5:30 when all the tickets were sold out. We were extremely bummed but people had to return because they had class commitments on Saturday. The mall was weird though, I almost fit in with blonde hair! I also had arroz con leche caramel flavor! We ended having to take a crazy bus that seemed to stop every five minutes on the way back and didn´t get to Puntarenas until 1:00 but oh man did I sleep good.
            Saturday was more low key… we enjoyed the carnival, watched the Puntarenas scrimmage in the stadium by my house, drank smoothies but things got complicated when I tried to cook:
            Collin brought me cake mix when he came to visit so I planned to cook heath bar cake, I figured my family would love it due to the obsession with condensed milk here. They put it on ice cream, rice, marshmallow. And I figured the other ingredients would be easily to find. Assumption wrong. They do not have cool whip, caramel ice cream topping or heath bar in my town. I was ready to resort to regular icing but that is also not present…
    So I figured I can use dulce de leche, make my own whipping cream, and frozen caramel candy!

 Close… and well its gluten free and somewhat like bread so I WILL eat it and enjoy it!

           
        The highlight of the cooking process may have been the mid-break snack. We only made a 9x9 pan so we had half a can of condensed milk and dulce de leche left. I suggested ice cream and well Annemarie, my brother and I were practically laying on the floor because we were all having sugar overloads.
            Sunday brought another exciting church trip. Annemarie and I were under the impression that it was Protestant and were very excited for the opportunity to having something a little more similar to home but turns out it was Pentacostal… I could handle the flag dancing and sweaty screaming preacher (I actually could understand a good portion this time J) but the people falling on the ground when the Pastor touched them and the Mariachi band that showed up at the end threw me for a loop! Also on the way out we say a traditional Costa Rican parade for the festival. The typical tradition though is that clowns dress up and chase and whip the young women and children… I was honestly scared.
We enjoyed the carnival in Puntarenas a lot too.
          The only thing I am going to call a real disappointment is that the fireworks for the festival NEVER happened L. I developed a fireworks obsession last summer viewing


Them close to 10 times and think they should be used to celebrate every special occasion in life. But alas none ever lit. The ¨chicas locas¨, a named we earned from Collin via our Osa trip did score ourselves some free cotton candy. Cat calls for being a gringo does have it´s perks. Also while hanging out at the carnival were asked multiple times if we were sisters, just another story to not feel bad for not being able to separate Asian dialects. 




F.y.i I am eating queque right now and LOVING it.

2 comments:

  1. So sorry you couldn't see Harry Potter. Any plans to try again? I do know how you feel about returning back home. We were gone only 12 days, but the stimulus overload and new adventure opportunities in big cities like Wonju and Seoul made home seem a bit tame (boring?). I can't wait to see you though - we'll have to have our own adventures before you have to leave for school. LOVE YOU!

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  2. I think we'll see fire works when you get married!!! If all goes well, weather wise, we're heading to Houghton tomorrow, we are taking a couple to Calumet to go to the mission store. Wish you were there so we could see you.., Love you, A. Dona

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