Wednesday 9/10/08

I woke up early for a nice morning run. I figured out a trick to avoiding sprained ankles (which was a concern on my first few runs on the sidewalks). When I wake up and go for a run ridiculously early (5am) I can run on the street rather than the sidewalks. And the streets are much smoother than the sidewalks, so I don’t have to stare at the ground the whole time to avoid huge holes, gaps, drop-offs, etc. I’m also enjoying finding my way around on foot (since so much of the time I use a bus). After a day of classes I went to a friend’s house to do some homework before our second soccer game. It’s been interesting visiting a few of my classmates’ houses and seeing the different neighborhoods, social classes, and backgrounds we are all experiencing. For example, some people live with super rich families and have maids. Others, like my friend’s house I went today, are immigrants (in her case, she’s living with an Ecuadorian family who moved to Costa Rica) Based on my few friends’ houses I visited, my neighborhood is a bit of a ghetto (in comparison to their nice residential neighborhoods) but I wouldn’t change my family or experience for anything. I know Tibas is right where I’m supposed to be with my wonderful Mami, Papi, my brother David and sister Pamela. Even though I have the longest commute out of all 47 students, I feel blessed to have the experiences that other’s in my group will never have (becoming a known local in Tibas, building relationships with people on the bus because I’m on it more than anyone else, being known by name at the fruit stand where I stop for my daily afternoon snack in between bus rides, etc). It’s been fun to see the wide variety of families and lifestyles each student is experiencing. Anyways, my soccer team met up at the mall for a quick dinner and then headed off to our game. Since its futbol cinco (5 vs. 5) we played on these small fields that like batting cages were netted in. Just as the game was about to start, the power went out. We were determined to play, so we played in the pitch black and allowed the constant flashes of lightning be our source of light. It was so much fun! We were playing in the pitch black, in the pouring rain, and during a huge booming thunder storm in Costa Rica (how many people can say that’s what they did with their Wednesday night? This is truly a once in a lifetime experience!) I headed home via taxi and hit the sack after a short telephone call with a gringo.