Wednesday 10/29/08

Today was a good day! Well, practically everyday here is good, but today was just extremely good and busy day. It all began with a nice morning run (my first run in over two weeks, since I couldn’t go at all in Nicaragua). After a nice hot shower (something I’ve missed) and a bowl of Corn Flakes I made my way to class. At class we learned some extremely exciting news….WE’RE GOING TO CUBA! We finally got the permission from Washington D.C. and we’re good to go! Woohoo! I’ve been hoping and praying for this for quite a while now as all quarter we’ve been waiting for permission (due to the strained relations between Cuba and the U.S.). After class some friends and I set up the overhead projector and watched Motorcycle Diaries (an awesome movie I highly recommend if you haven’t already seen it. If you have seen it, watch it again!) After the movie, we decided to go to the Saprissa game. Saprissa is one of the biggest soccer teams here in Costa Rica and the stadium is right by my house. Some friends and I journeyed over to my house, dropped off our stuff and walked to the stadium. We bought some cheap jerseys and made our way into the stadium for a night of pure craziness. Saprissa was playing Cruz Azul (a team from Mexico). I don’t even know how to explain the atmosphere of the stadium other than with two words….absolute craziness. The fans are so intense. Let’s just put it this way, if you attempted to come to the game as a Cruz Azul fan you may just end up dead. Luckily everyone gets a thorough pat-down before the game so no weapons are in sight, but if they were, we’d all be in trouble. You’re not even allowed to bring in coins because people have been seriously injured due to people throwing coins down onto the field. Swear words are treated much differently here in Latin America, so anything and everything is followed by cursing. I’m surprised the refs make it out of the stadium alive. As scary as this may sound to a North American, there is also plenty of fun and excitement that overpowers the swearing and threats of violence. There are millions of chants and cheers that we learned (for example, Vamos Vamos Morados, Esta noche, Vamos a ganar!) and the whole game people are yelling, cheering, singing and dancing. As intense as it is, it was an extremely fun night and nice to have all my friends finally make it over to my neck of the woods (yeah, Tibas!) After the game we stopped at a Soda and some people ordered dinner. I held off and just ordered a drink as I knew since I lived close dinner would be waiting. We all made our way back to my house and Papi was nice enough to drive everyone home even though they all lived in different neighborhoods and suburbs of San Jose. After a nice car ride home with Papi, he and I got home really late (11:30) and had dinner just the two of us. It was a wonderful time of good conversation with Papi and we finally said our goodnight just after midnight. What a day!