green, green mountains. .

well here i am at three fiftyfah in the afternoon, stomach full of delicious roasted veggie quesadilla, excellent (organic shade grown and LOCAL. . wow) coffe with a splash of homemade kaluah. . .

i am exploring Santa Elena, the town down the (breathtakingly steap) hill from Monteverde, a quiet, adorable and almost 50 50 tico-foreigner inhabited town in, yes - green mountains. there is a large quaker population, and bunches of otehr north americans to boot. leaving flamingo was rather tough, but already after two days i've got another place i'll be needing to revisit.

my family is, likely in the fashion of all of cpi's homestays, polite, kind, and totally accostumed to strangers living in their house. i am the 78th guest in this house. the father is a carpenter, and i have yet to find out for sure, but i beleiv he vuilt their home - the woodwork is simple but beautiful. they have a 9(ish?) year old girl and a 3 year old boy; things are a little crazyloud at times but all in all the house is great. the mother, yorleny, is a seamstress and even has a surger (drool) and has made much of the kids clothing and it seems all the curtains/bedspreads/pillows. and they're quite nice.

it's been raining on and off (seriously like kids playing with lightswitches, one-minute-to-the-next) and the clouds whizz by like they're late to a party. the wind, oh my goodness the wind. . imagine those winter nights on the island when sleep is nearly impossible because you think the house if going to just say 'uncle' and collapse, but you wouldn't really mind because, what with all the energy whirring around, you'd be able to put it back together before morning - - that wind, that ferociously playful and more-than-slightly-intimidating wind is rather constant here. needless to say, i am enjoying it immensely.

i have found two favorite lunch spots - one, a bakery/cafe that has a book exchange (!). . i raded daniel's Adventure Divas (will be happy to replace it or trade you like we discussed. .) for an adventure novel called aborat, which i began yesterday and will likely return tomorrow for a new read - possibly ana karenina(sp?). the otehr is called flor de vida, and man oh man it was hard to giggle quietly while eating there yesterday; the similarites to vita's are remarkable. (but the differences are all in vita's favor, as flor could benefit from a teeny bit of loosening up) it features vegetarian food (let me tell you, a rare thing on my journey thus far) and just straight up good food at that. i had a blended juice - piña, ginger, coconut milk, cinnamon and a dash of brown sugar. brilliant, just enough ginger. . plus their special - veggie tamales that were less than $4. hottdamn. the music that was playing was a latin jazzy somethingorother that i swear i've heard at work, and as i ate, i just kept on thinking of home. . the color scheme was what really got me, only the soft blue was replaced by dashes of deeper shade, and the coralish hue of vita's countertop was on the majority of the walls,and a bit darker. but the yellow - the same, the mixmatch of walls - similar. an oversized wooden bowl on the countertop that in vita's would have tomatoes, pears, or apples, was brimming with piña, bananas and watermelon. there is an art gallery of local work and clothing attached, and they have live music in the evenings. it seems like the majority of the restaurants around here have bands playing mosts nights of the week. i am considering taking a salsa class at the bakery on thursday, then going dancing at 'moon shiva' next door.

i am going to take a variety of excursions in the next few days - a hike through the nature preserve, of course, then a tour of -get this- a cheese factory. felt a little confused when inquiring about it: 'also, i'd like to take a tour of the cheese factory'... uhhh...
but it's just about the only business here run my ticos (so i hear) and in my line of study, fodd systems and localization (??) i figure it will be pretty interesting. the only catch is that they have a required minimum of 2 people for each tour so i ahve to find someone willing to come along. might have to pay their $8 entrance fee.... ah, well. (almost)whatever it takes in the name of knowledge.

this weekend, i will be (sadly) leaving a day early - i've elected to drive extra hours out of my way to the next shcool to visit volcan arenal. there are 2 hikes in two days, one near the volcano and the next to some waterfalls (deja vu, anyone? sheesh) but i'm confident there will be considerable less rock climbing (and hours) involved.

i have my first male teacher, and am again the only student, but as usual classes are close to excellent and i am learning more each day. definitely feeling more comfortable speaking to whomever i meet. being friends with jeffrey helped considerably, because practice was less formal than the classroom but, like in the school, i had no worry of embarrassment. it will be getting dark soon and i am going to had back to the school for the movie night - they're showing the mototcycle diaries so i figure it's worth the trip.