well.
saturday: bussed to heredia with Halle and Ariel from NM, then to a museum/park outside the capital and spent 4 hours walking through it. . it's a nature exhibit, with simulations of all the biosystems of costa drica, and even some of the animals that live there. saw another sloth, some snakes and deer, large spiders and lots and lots of plants. walked through a labrynth and made it out alive, then visited the heredia mall to see a movie. we saw 'the day the earth stood still' - the new keanu reeves movie. . not something i would watch again but definitely entertaining.
that was my last night with my host family: we went out to dinner at a funny dinner in a neighboring town, then settled in at home to watch the bull runs on tv. i had never seent hem before, and it was not at all what i expected:

in a large rodeo corral wait roughly 150 people, mostly men. they crown around the opening of the bull-gate, and before the animal is even visible, they all scatter. . then the large large and usually hyper bull chases them around and occasionally makes contat. mostly the runners just flirt with his perepheral(sp?) vision and run away. a lot. sometimes they taunt him with flags or kneel down dangerously close to get a cheer fromthe crowd, then hurdle over the edges of the corral when he starts to run at them, but mostly it's just running away at a safe(ish) distance.

well, i went ot bed early, but not before considering making a trip to the capital to see this nonsense and all the other new-year's-week festivities that are going on.

sunday morning i moved to a b&b not far from the town, and met a woman who had been on the arenal trip. i had resigned myself to a lazy day of reading and writing, as i had no desire to go to san jose without a companion, but she plops down and goes ' up for an adventure?'
i believe
'shit yeah!'
was my exact response. (wonderful.)
she wanted to go to SJ, and i suggestedthe bulls. .
after that ppint, we essentially spent the entire day waiting.
for the bus
to get off the bus
for the other bus
to get to zapote, where the rodeo stadium is

in line.
in line.

for hours.


there are 2 shows a day, one at three and the other at nine. we naiively beleived we were waiting for the 3pm show while in line at 2:30. but oh, no. they were long sold out and the lines were fo the 9pm show. the ticket gates were'nt even open, and we eventually learned that they would remain closed until 5, which of course on tico time means 5:30ish.
however, we made friends with a fellow praticioner of patience, and familiarized ourselves with the 3 for $4 beer stand which we took turns attending. apparently it's legal to just crack open a cold one in public if you're in the rodeo area of life. . ? meh. we took bathroom and food runs and finally got our tickets sometime around 6. our new buddy cristian and his friend juan diego had the short straws of their family and were getting ticket for the whole crew. there was a 5 ticekt limit to prevent that kind of business and to discourage the scaplers (one tried to sell us $9 ticekts for almost $30. . whaa?) so we helpped them out with their family entrances in exchange for an excellent place in the OTHER line. . oh yes, even before the tickets went on sale there were people lining up for the entrance. so we got in with the diego family mish mosh (i think it was crisitan's brother/sister in law wairnt in the other area?) , made another food run and waited some more. i took a few minutes and $1 to go check out the snake exhibit. . that and 'espejos locos' (crazy mirros) were just about hte only booths that weren't selling chow mein, fried chicken, fried rice, churros and cotton candy. honestly every food booth was the same, although some sold exclusively sweets. then there were carnival rides, but manyof you will be happy to hear that i did not go on any of them, althogh they did have 'the zipper' in my opinion the all time best ever carnival ride possible. at least in my memory. . it was tempting, but we refrained.

another temptation averted:
the toreros -bull runners- are not professionals. they are just the first 150 people to get in line and sign a waver. i found this out by askng around about participatiing. got a lot of incredulous looks and no luck - would have had to go get in line on the other side of the stadium. . so i setttled for observations (told my ma that my costa rican gift to her is my non-participation) and now have some decent videos of silly people and large bulls.

well that was that - thankfully didn't see anyone get gored, just took a taxi home and slept asap.

yesterday i didn't do much to speak of - relaxed and went to town, got some groceries (i get to cook at the b&b!) and read a trashy magazine (glamour. bleugh.)
got to borrow a friend's skype account and call home without spending 30 cents a minute, which was refreshing to say the least. .

and so. here we are. at now. here i am, 25 hours from leaving for the farm.
for thos eof you who don't know the scoop, it is this:
Earth Rose farm is int he WWOOF network, and i will be doing a worktrade there from the 1st of january until the 18th ish of february. they grow all kinds of fruits and veggies, but also have a reforestation project. i hope to spend time working with the medicinal garden as well as with the whole shebang. i will not have internet, unless i make a weekend trip to the city - the nearest town, 'las esperansas' is not on any map i've seen thus far. .
tommorrow i will be meeting Rosie, the lady ofthe farm, and traveling to Angostura with her to stay the night with some friends before traveling to the farm in the AM of the 1st. 4 hours+ on the public bus then a taxi, then my new year's eve is rather undetermined - her friend's house could involve a tipical tico fiesta (music food dancing and generall rowdiness into the wee hours) or dinner and a quiet night. really don't know but am up for whatever.

as some of you may know, the lopez high school spanish club is making their biannual trip to nicaragua in february; waht you probably don't know is that my pa is going to spend some time with the CDCA (center for development in central america - wher the school stays) aroudn the same time. well even better is that he's going to visit the farm and work for a little while just before it'stime for me to head north to my returning flight. so, we get to work then travel together, then split up for seperate coutnries - me to home, and him to nicaragua. sounds like an excellent plan if you ask me, the only fault being that i am not going to nicaragua as well.
however, i suspect that i will be ready ish to gohome; i am looking forward to runiting with so many people and places, and keeping my fingers crossed that we will get a little snow at the end of february. .

in related news : i will be/am looking for place to live in bellingham come march, so if you've got any leads please pass them along, and thank you.

will be posting a farewell blog either later today or tomorrow am.
until then, enjoy the snow for me if you've got it,
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