kristin is so weird

kristin gets pulled over and gets out of a ticket usually. she didn't get a ticket today. here's our aim conversation:
soh 00 hos: where'd you get pulled over?
Oh k d 0h k: 280 off magdalena
soh 00 hos: god
Oh k d 0h k: he just thought i was drunk
Oh k d 0h k: bu i was acutlaly dancing
soh 00 hos: how'd you get out of it?
Oh k d 0h k: !!!
soh 00 hos: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Oh k d 0h k: i told him that i came bck from a christian convention praise night
Oh k d 0h k: and that i wasl istening to the new cd
Oh k d 0h k: and i guess i got carried away.
Oh k d 0h k: yeh he said i was driving kinda wobbly
soh 00 hos: HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

sometimes kristin amazes me.

thanksgiving

i went home wednesday in time for me and alice to watch the motorcycle diaries. kristin had to go to class so she couldn't go with us. alice didn't know it is based on a true story. but it's not like che is talked about much in school. it's a good movie. and very pretty.
on thursday, kristin, alice, my mom, and i went to my uncle's house to make won tons. my cousins michelle, jenny, jake, and julie helped us make the wontons. and julie's boyfriend came to help and jenny's boyfriend came to help. so did david and michael siegel. enough ppl to make about 1000 wontons. which were mostly eatten by the end of the day. in my family, thanksgiving is all about turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and wontons. not always in that order. there were 33 ppl over for dinner so we had to make more than normal. it was crazy. 2 round tables full of ppl filling and folding wontons. but eventually, we had to take a break. so most of us went to play frisbee golf at jordan. it's hosted by the ziesler family every year. and has been for the last 12 years. 2 yrs ago, they even had 10th anniversary frisbee gold t shirts made. hehe.. a couple of the ppl were wearing them. kristin and i were a team. we got a 62 but i think that we counted wrong b/c that puts us in second place. after the game, we went back to my uncle's house where i helped jenny make her turkey. and almost all the wontons were fried by that point. since there were 33 ppl comming, they made 3 turkeys. my uncle grilled his.. smoked it. jake fried his and jenny baked hers in the oven. i made the gravy. but it was thicker than i wanted it to be and was kinda lumpy. ah well. it wasn't all that bad. the tables were set up in a bit "U" shape. running from the dining room across the hall and into the living room. the adult table was only one side of the "U" and the kids section (from 18 to 32 years old) was the rest of the "U". it was kinda cool.
friday i went to frys to shop. right as i walk to the door, i see a guy holding a sign that says "free dvd player with the purchase of a tmobile cell phone plan. crazy huh? then i had to come to santa cruz in time for work. bleh. why anyone would even go out to eat after having a ton of leftovers from the night before, not to mention the fact that ppl probably woke up still full. i know i did. but yeah. after work, i made green chili with the left over turkey that i brought from home. good times. it wasn't all that bad. i had a recipie but didn't really follow it in terms of portions. b/c what am i going to do with half an onion and who knows if i have 2 lbs of turkey. ah well. it's not bad. and a nice blend of spicy. i was worried that it might be too thin for chili but claudette said it taste good. which is good. since it would be alot of hard work trying to eat something that tastes bad.

reality tv

hi. my name is sandra and i'm a tv-aholic. which, sadly, includes reality tv. i draw the line at some things. like the surreal life, the swan, real world, road rules to name a few.. the surreal life b/c it really doens't look all that interesting. the swan b/c i think it's depressing and not a good show overall. the real world, road rules, and real world/road rules challenge b/c i never grew up with cable so i never really watched it. except for the really old ones that were on late at night on regular tv. but there are some reality shows that i do watch. i watch the simple life (to laugh at paris and nicole), the apprentice, the biggest loser, and he's a lady. omg.. he's a lady is great. it probably takes away the brain cells that i might have earned from watching the apprentice. it's basically a contest where a group of men compete to be the best lady. a drag beauty contest. very too wong foo.
i wouldn't be sad if reality tv left forever and ever. but if they think up new shows like he's a lady, i might not mind it as much. but if more shows like temptation island and the swan are created, i don't know if i'll like it too much. it's all about the concept. and how it's executed. but that's also true for all shows. but real shows have more to worry about. a good concept, good chemistry with the actors, good writing, and actual viewers. that's probably why there are so many reality shows popping up everywhere. even cable. like queer eye for the straight guy.

oh the stupid people of the world..

so, a lady paid for clothes using a fake $200 bill with bush's face on it. clearly fake. read the article. it's funny how fake it is but ppl still believe it's real.
i also read an article about finding over 1500 lbs of coke. hidden in squid. guess how they covered the smell. PEPPER!!! and the squid itself. but still.
you know, if bush and chenney die, condoleza would become the first black president and the first female president. kill 2 birds with one stone! heh.. but it won't happen. bush and chenney won't die. i just think it's kinda funny. not funny. just kinda interesting.

where for art thou, ksjo???

ksjo. 92.3 it was always there. they always talked about all the years it's been on the air and being the longest rock station in the bay area. and now.. it's a spanish oldies station?? what? ksjo can be heard here in santa cruz and all of a sudden it was a spanish station. i thought "oh, well, maybe they sold their santa cruz station. i'm sure it's still around in the bay area." but it wasn't. i wonder why they don't give any notice. and what happens to all the dj's? ah well. the songs are pretty. i don't always know what they're saying though. since it's in spanish and all. there's this one spanish station in santa cruz. it's called "super estrella". it's alot of love songs. claudette calls it soap opera music. and, really... i can hear it too. very dramatic singing.
today at work, i found out i was half an hour late, ended up doing the dishes, cut myself on a stainless steel pot, and had a huge stainless steel 1ft by 1ft square bowl thing fall on my head. yay for quiznos'. i think the cut hurt the most. i had to keep washing the dishes so it was always irritated by the dirty water. ah well. i'm sure my immune system is tough enough for dish washing germs.

FALSE ADVERTISEMENT!!

why don't things with descriptive words live up to what they say? like tissue paper. right now we have angel soft. by the name you would expect it to be soft. but right before angel soft, we had charmin. charmin was MUCH softer than angel soft is. also, angel soft has this "quilted" quality to it. i don't know if it's supposed to make it softer. b/c it doesn't. well, it's better than the school toilet paper. but everything is better than school toilet paper.
while i was googleing angel soft, i came across the virtual toilet paper museum. you have to check it out. http://www.nobodys-perfect.com/vtpm/index.html i hope that shows up as a link.
and clean and clear. "clean and clear and under control". BAH! in middle school i used dial bar soap and i got my face clean and clear and under control. ppl think i'm crazy when i tell them that i used bar soap b/c it's so harsh on your face. but hey, it worked for me.
also, soft and dry isn't the softest and dryest deoderant that i've ever had. the arm and hammer brand one i had right before it did the job just fine. and made me feel like i was dryer. well, no. i really don't know about that b/c i really don't care enough about deoderants to compare them accuratly. i just couldn't think of another thing with a descriptive word in it.

being the filthy liberal that i am, i was sad about the election

there's one chick in my class who's wearing black for the week b/c of the re-election. and she told me that she met someone who is going to wear black for four years. CRAZINESS!!! i was sad when kerry lost. but the way i see it, he won well. he got most of the votes and most of the people who bothered to vote voted bush. i'm just not looking foreward to more war in iraq. maybe if there was a real plan and a real goal. a real goal is not tring to eradicate all terrorism in the world. and really, it' not like all of the world's terrorists are iraqi. but it's also a bit too late for us to back away from it. we'll probably always have some sort of military there. kinda like there's always military in okinawa and s.korea. well, maybe not forever. but a long while anyways.
a nice thing that came out of the elections was a bumper sticker that i saw. it said: NO CARB and underneath it said: Cheney Ashcroft Rumsfeld Bush. heehee. that's alot better than the normal campaign bumper stickers. the ones that just say "bush cheney" or kerry edwards".

election day

so, it's election day. and p. diddy and all of mtv have been saying forever and a half to vote. or die. so i voted. but.. everyone telling me to vote or die is really turning me off to voting. i mean, i've always voted every year since i could. and i've always told ppl to vote. b/c the way i see it, you have no right to complain about things you don't like if you don't vote in the first place. but i kind of thought the whole vote or die thing was a bit over-the-top. i mean, sure. tons of ppl don't vote every year. but i really don't think that after the whole gore-bush voting hell, as many ppl will stay away from the voting booths today.

so, as my senior project, i have to research and write about the cost of food and its relationship to malnutrition (both under and over nutrition). so i decided to go to a bunch of markets in santa cruz to compare produce prices, make a survey for ppl to fill out, and interview some of the survey takers. so far, i've only gone to 3 markets and haven't even typed out the survey yet. ah well... i guess i should do that soon though. eh.. not too worried about it. i've trained myself to procrastinate successfully. clearly can't spell. but i can procrastinate.
so anyways, i went to safeway on monday to write down the prices. guess how long it took me. THREE HOURS!! why three?? well, it's probably got to do with the insane amount of produce, seeing someone i know and stopping to talk, and needing to take a break from writting down prices. also, for most produce, there was a price for club members and for non members. bah.. made me not want to go to the mexican market and whole foods-ish market today. but i went. b/c it had to be done. the mexican market frustrated me so much! why don't you have prices marked? and even if you do, why don't you write all the vegetable names in one language? (i'd prefer english but i guess their customers are mostly spanish speaking). but whatever. it's like the vegetables were pretending to be john kerry or something with all the flip flopping. the whole foods-ish market was cool though. didn't frustrate me. didn't make me go crazy. makes me feel better about going to other markets now. except that i know there's an albertson's. i see that taking three hours also. ah well.

side note: i'm watching leno as i write this and a guy is promoting his documentary. on comb overs!! hehehehehehe!!! i wanna watch it! were was i when this came out that i didn't know about it? it's called comb-over: the movie. HEHEHEHE!!!

i've decided that i want to be a piccaso painting for holloween. but i have to work until 10 on both saturday and sunday nights. i don't know if i'll end up doing it. it would be a cool costume though. i haven't decided if i want to be part of his blue period or if i want to go with his cubism yet. if i can't do it, someone should. but my friend might make a haunted house. so i might go off and visit. and my cousin, her husband, and baby are visiting for a week so i think i'll go home at some point to visit them or they'll come here to see my school. whichever. i want them to come here though. b/c i think santa cruz is pretty. where else can you be on a mountain on campus and still be about a mile away from the ocean?

laundry and such

ok. i have know realized how important quarters are in life. they pay for parking meters, newspapers, gumball machines, and most importatly, washing and drying machines. so, on that note, how can a person run out of quarters? ESPECIALLY when a person just put in a load of clothes into the washing machine. so what does any sane person do when they realize they're fifty cents short of drying their clothes? first, frantically search the apartment for quarters, sit on the couch defeated, and watch an episode of roseanne. then, realize that the friendly neighborhood 7-11 is a short 3 blocks away. so off i go to buy a bag of chips for my senior seminar pot luck and a beef jerky stick for me. then after i pay, ask for the ones to be converted into quarters. then rush back to finish the episode of roseanne and off i go to dry my clothes. and so are the adventures of my life..

quizno's

i'm a workin gal now. i work at quizno's in downtown santa cruz. it's ok so far. but then again, i haven't officially worked there when customers were there. the store just opened yesterday. the only thing i can see a problem with the place is that the managers are 2 very disorganized people. i guess it's ok though. i can understand since they were frazzled about the opening and all. but still. i want to know that they have control over everything. ah well.
does anyone out there in cyberland use toothpicks? i just read that it's probably one of the oldest hominid habits. there are teeth that have grooves in them b/c of the grass stalks that were used as toothpicks. pretty cool huh? i wonder if we have those grooves from our toothpicks and flossing.

i hate being forgetful

today i went to longs because i knew that if i put it off until later today, i'd completely forget and realize a little too late that we don't have anymore toilet paper and that we need a set of mini screwdrivers. but worse than that, i don't remember my password to my own computer!! goodness. there's forgetful and just plain stupid. and i have no idea how to fix it. my computer is password protected and it can be changed every month or so. but over the summer i didn't need the computer so i never used it. then i turned on my neglected computer and realized that i don't remember the password. sometimes i amaze myself. narrrff... and to make it that much more interesting, i'm taking my senior seminar class this quarter where eventually i'll have to write a 15-20 page paper. i wonder if i can turn it in on post-its. anyways, i'm off until i can think of something equally as stupid or doubly funny to write about.

grape picking

on saturday bailie, philip, and i went to Rick's house to pick grapes. philip used to work for him before he started ucsc. rick only hires people from jc's. i guess because most other people probably wouldn't want to work on a farm/vineyard and such stuff. he has a small vineyard with cabernet and pinot noir grapes. we only picked the pinot grapes though. as a thank you he fed us lunch and dinner and gave us each six bottles of wine. too bad i don't know much about wine though. four other people that rick knows were picking too. two work for him and two are home brewers and were buying grapes from him. then we went up to the house and put the grapes through a grinder type thing. it basically split the grapes from the stems. it's hard work but fun to do too. after we cleaned, we played horseshoes. philip said that rick made him build a regulation sized horseshoe track thing and make it laser-level. but the ground is made of dirt and in the path of the creek if it overflows. i guess there will always be work for philip there. there was so much yummy food though. lunch was make your own sandwiches with different breads, mustards, meats, and cheeses! so many choices! and lots of beer, wine, and sodas. the beers were from all over. like france, Prague, italy, and more. it was crazy. i didn't even know you could buy beers from all over here. well, i know you can. i just didn't know people who did. for dinner we had tacos. rick made three different types of meats, homemade salsa from his garden, and mexican sour cream. it was so good! but what was even better was the dessert!! imagine a HUGE meringue cookie. then cut off the top crusty part, spread a thick coat of whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top, then put the crust back on. MMMMMMMMMMMMmmm!!
i'm taking a class called book arts. it's gonna be pretty interesting. but the professor is the first person i've ever met who actually whistles when he speaks. hehe!! i'm going to be very amused in the class.

i'm in santa cruz now

i moved into my apartment in santa cruz a couple weeks ago. it's been an interesting couple weeks. i live with claudette, also an anthropology major and ex-villager. we have a tv and 2 computers but no cable and no internet. it's more like decoration. if we were ikea, the tv and computers would be made out of cardboard.

i've been on the job hunt but not having much luck. i applied to retail jobs, bakeries, and even to ups. one of the requirements for ups is to lift 70 lbs. i hope they don't test that on me.. i haven't been called back. i did get an interview but i don't think that got me anywhere. ah well.

lately, i've been going to the gym around 1pm. not because i have nothing better to do or b/c the lunch crowd is gone. more because that's when days of our lives is on and i can watch it while i use the elipical machine. closed captioned of course.

in sc now

i'm all moved into my apartment in santa cruz now. i got here mid afternoon on sunday. it turned out that that's not the best time to go to santa cruz. aparently, a silly holiday called labor day combined with a hot day made people want to go to the beach. those crazies. anyways, i am now officially on the job hunt. i wonder what i'll find. i hope it has flexible hours so i can work it around school.
on sunday the church service was about the experiences the mission team had in china. kristin was one of them. i thought the sermon was interesting but had alot of questions about the ethics that were invovled. the mission team was told not to contact people who could give away the fact that they are christian missionaries and they went to china under false pretenses and everything. but during the sermon, the pastor named names and after the sermon, there was a slide show presentation of their experiences. if the MISSIONARIES can't let the chinese government know that they are christian, wouldn't the people who actually live in china be more in danger? the pastor got verbal consent from the people who participated but they might not know that the photos and all that such stuff can get themselves identified by the government and sent to jail. i guess it sounds a bit far fetched but being an anthropology major makes you have to sit through alot alot alot of ethics lectures and things related to ethical treatment of participants. also, it's just safer that way i guess. nobody goes to jail this way.

tech support and frustration

after about three days of me trying to make the computers in the house run wirelessly, i found a few odd things. like one tech support site said something along the lines of "if you can't connect online, click here for help". merr.. how can someone without internet click that link? also, i hate calling tech support. i never really liked it. but now i really hate it. i first bought a netgear router and it completely confused me and the tech support weren't very supportive so i returned it and got a d-link router. and after 5 hours of fiddling with it, calling both earthlink and d-link tech support, and pure dumb luck, i now have wireless internet! yay for sandra! but yeah, through my talks with various tech support guys, i realized that there are some who have thick accents and are short tempered, there are 15 other people who need tech support at the same time as you (10ish pm), and that it's monsoon season in india right now. but it's a sunny day today.

who's watching the olympics with me? the olympics even make ping pong really intense and exciting to watch. i missed the men's gymnastics though. i was trying to get to computer to work and forgot about it. boo.

i know i have more to say but i can't think of them right now.. i've been trying to post things but it wouldn't except my password when i had things i wanted to post. ah well. at least it worked today.

back at home

i'm back home now. yippie for me. i got to the airport at 930am ish with chris and elizabeth. i was coninental and they were both american. we got in line and i made it a race between the two airlines. i won. yippie! but also, american was 3 hrs delayed so it wasn't all that cool for them. i borded the plane and waited for take off. then at houston i waited 1/2 an hr for a parking spot for the plane. our plane had to fight against 2 british airways planes. after i deplaned, i rushed over to customs, got my luggage, went through a security check again, left my bags at th e side of a wall, then ran around the airport for my gate. all in 1/2 an hr. i got to the gate and found out the plane had just landed and would be a 1/2 hr late. so i waited around. then got on at 730 when i found out there's a mechanical problem that would take about 1/2 hr to fix. so i ran across the whole airport for nothing. not too happy about that. b/c while some women "glisten", i sweat like a hog. A HOG. but whatever. then i get to sfo at 1015. and home at 11 or so. fun trip home. but i found out that there was a flight to san jose that i wish i had known about since it's closer to home. ah well. elizabeth had it worse though. she flew from san jose, cr to miami, spent the night at chris', flew out of ft. lauderdale today at 7am, and got to minesota at noon. craziness.
but now i want to go back to cr to play more. and jealous of scott and joanne for being able to do that.

happy birthday jong

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIYONG!

this post is all for jong the day after her bday
hope you had fun.
i tried calling you yesterday but got your voicemail.
unni

almost done with this program!

i went to a big waterfall on saturday that i don't remember the name of but it's in san luis.  and i get mesmerized by water so it was fun.  it was just patty and i.  the day started with me walking from the institute to canitas (still don't know how to tilda) to be back in time for painting the casa clup.  there ended up being more ppl than brushes so i was sent to the cement area.  then i mixed cement and handed buckets of it to the guy to pour it.  it was ok.  kinda tiring.  i later found out i wasn't supposed to mix cement but whatever.  then a bunch of us hung around until everyone had lunch and was ready to go.  it ended up just being patty and i.  we walked to santa elena and caught a taxi then hiked up through a farm (had to pay to go through private property) then hiked some more (like an obstacle course really) and finally got to the waterfall.  SO PRETTY!  i love monteverde and the surrounding areas.  then we head back and go for dinner with a buch of the others.  but morphos double booked the reservation and we ended up waiting an hour.  so our drinks were comped.  then there was a club that's only open that one night so we went there.  it was ok but every song that wasn't salsa was interupted 10 seconds into it.  irritated me.  i was tired so i went back early with patty on the back of a pick up.  which was interesting. 
sunday i went to gaudy's farm and went horseback riding with a bunch of other ppl and her son.  it was fun.  we rode along the continental divide.  then we all watched spiderman 2 bootlegged b/c there's a dvd place here that rents out bootlegged movies.  hehe.. 
oh!  last week, i went to a dairy farm (gaudy's) and a pig farm.  at the dairy farm, i had a sip of fresh milk and a shot of vodka (tastes like bailey's) and at the pig farm, i petted a baby pig (which will someday be my dinner).  the next morning, i told my host family all about the farms and confused them all when i kept saying knife farm instead of pig farm.  boo...  i hate being retarded in spanish. 
tomorrow my group starts focus groups!  yay!

playa tamarindo

i got to playa tamarindo friday night but we didn't find a hotel with room for 10 ppl that we could agree on the price for. my only criteria was that i didn't want an over crowded bed. like 1 per twin, 2 per queen. and a few others agreed too. i mean, who wants to sleep 3 to a queen/king when we're all sticky and hot? not i said the fly. ok, i've decided that this keyboard is from hell. the wind blows and the spacebar moves. narf.
anyways, i tried surfing yesterday and that was a sad sad process. i can't stand up! ah well. that's what todays for. that and another sun burn on my sun burn.
i fo und some cute things and i want to buy a sarong. such pretty things. but also, tamarindo is very touristy so the prices are all us prices. b/c ppl will pay them. we went to a couple bars here and there's one restaurant that has super cheap drinks. a bit oer a dollar for cocktails. good stuff man.
welp, gotta go play in the water. it's so warm you don't need a wetsuit to surf or anything!

and the tobacco group wins the race!

today my group finished the IRB proposal to get approved for our project. now we have to wait to see if we get approval so that we can conduct ethical interviews. yay for us. haha, there´s a mini ¨we hate the tobacco group¨ club but whatever. that´s just because they´re jealous. hehe..
on a happy note, i haven´t had to eat beans in a while so now i don´t have as much gas. not just gas either. just a funky feeling in my stomach because of all the beans. just about everyone else has experienced the same thing.
this comming weekend i´m going to the beach! yay for sandra. this group is so organized and has connections to odd things. like reeve´s family knows someone who drives taxi busses so we´re getting a good price and chris talked to they guy who works at the internet cafe about hotels. so good.
my fourth of july here was un-fireworky. but it was still good. i went on the zip line and sky walk! i first did the walk and that was really cool. i saw a family of monkies and a bird of some sort (we´re thinking it´s a turkey). it´s called the sky walk because there are 6 different suspension bridges throughout the walk. really cool. i have some nice pictures. i hope they come out ok. the zip line is where there´s a cable that you´re attached to and you zip across. SO FUN!! there are 11 total. number 7 is the tallest and number 11 is the longest. half a mile! kitty and i had to go on number 11 together b/c it was too windy and we´d probably get stuck in the middle and someone would have to rescue us. so we go together. and we get stuck. but it was cool. they guy who rescued us came and wrapped his leg around us and pulled us to the platform. apparently, it was very sexy. i don´t know. i was just hanging out. haha...

weekend so far

yesterday i went to elsa´s house with almost all the other ppl from the public health program and some other ppl who just work around the institute. elsa´s the public health coordinator. anyways, we stayed until about 1030ish which is late for us because most of us usually sleep by 9, 10 at the latest. most ppl left her house about 1030sih then the ones who stayed went to moon shiva. i swear. i love moon shiva. they had a dj and so we stayed there dancing until 1ish. it was patty, chris, scott, diana, oriana, elsa, christina, her boyfriend, and me at moon shiva. christina and her boyfriend decided to stay at moon shiva past 1. but yeah. after we got back to elsa´s, chris put on lock, stock, and two smoking barrels so we can watch it to sleep to. after patty, chris and i finished the movie, we just stayed up and talked some more. which was fun. we never get actual down time to just hang out with ppl. it was really fun and relaxing. elsa had enough beds so that if we doubled up, we all slept on a bed. then we had tamales for breakfast but there was hair still on the pork so i fed that to the dog.
now i´m gonna walk back to canitas to help clean and paint a community center. we have to because that´s how we negotiated getting to use the place.
tomorrow i´m going on a canopy tour and a zip line! it´ll be so much fun! basically the canopy tour is when you´re walking on bridges through the canopy of the forest and the zip line is where you´re harnesed to a cable and you swing through the canopy. i hope i see monkeys!

i missed my bus!!

narf.. so now i´m here at the library typing this up because i missed my bus home. narrrrrrrf.. but whatever. only 8ish ppl were going home because 4 others had to go to a meeting and the rest wanted to do yoga. being oh so athletic and limber, i´m here in the library having successfully avoiding the yoga group.
yesterday, my host mom called me over to the living room and she had a broomstick in her hands and with the broom stick she pointed down to the ground. there was a scorpion! so i took a picture of it. no scale though so you won´t really know how big it was. i think it was probably an adult. then my host mom used the wooden end of the broomstick and started to poke it. she poked it until it died. then i said "it´s dead" and she said "i know" but kept poking it until she cut the tail off. then she showed me the tail and asked if we had them in our homes in the states. i said i don´t and she said that they have alot.
you know how in class projects theres always that one overachiever group? yeah, that´s my group. with not much help from me. and you know how in every group there´s the overachiever and the moocher? yeah.. i´m the moocher. also, i´m the slacker of the group. narff.. whatever. today our group was told to slow down a bit so i´m going at normal pace while the rest of the group was going superspeed.
there was a blood drive today at the cheese factory (which has really high fat content like all other yummy things) but i didn´t donate. they closed at 5 (the same time my bus left) and i was in class until then. ah well. it´s not like i would have been able to donate anyways.
this trip really makes me wish i had a laptob and a digital camera. ah well.

Tobacco

so, i'm in the tobacco group here. i'm in the group with diana from ucb, joanne from harvard, susie from texas women's institute, and myriam from dunno. we're doing the influence of advertising in rural youth. too bad i don't know much spanish.. anyways, that's pretty cool. i originally wanted to be in the food and nutrition group b/c i'm doing the food and culture class in the fall but whatever. so now i'm taking pics of all the tobacco ads i see. so far i have 2. woo! i'm on a roll!
the class is taught more like a seminar type thing than an academic class which is pretty cool. but they also like to spring assignments on you 15 minutes before the class is over due the next day. i'm like.. ummmm... wanna give me a bit more time? but whatever.
omg. ok, so, this morning i leave from my house in canitas (needs a tilde but don't know how) to walk to a quaker meeting in monteverde. which is about 1.5 hrs away. so i gave myself enough time. i left at 7 for the 9am meeting. on the way i meet 2 others who are also going. ton and blythe. we walk together into santa elena, the next town over. walk through, get on a main road, keep walking, keep walking, keep walking. then we're in los llanos. ummmmmm.. WRONG WAY!! so we turn around. and IMMEDIATELY after, it pours. POURS POURS POURS POURS. then blythe asks a guy in a car how to get to monteverde. he says "oh, i'm going to the cheese factory (which is right next to the institute and has yummy ice cream) so he gave us a ride. then we walked to the meeting. i was drenched. and being the well prepared person for getting caught in the rain, my jacket was unzipped for part of the downpour, my jeans were soaked through, and my socks got wet. dunno how. the quaker meeting was cool though.

wow, the first week is over.

welp, i guess i should start from the beginning.
i got into san jose, costa rica (which at first confused me b/c i saw an email that said get your own transportation to san jose airport and said, well that's easy.. haha.. i'm a dork) last. i got in at about 830pm. and when i got out, gaudy was there with a sign saying "sandra kim" which kinda made me worried that everything in the program would make me sandra kim instead of sandra oh. but whatever. i get in the van and i meet scott and ashleigh and we start talking. scott's a physical anthro guy like me and ashleigh is something along the lines of biochem. scott goes to usf ( which confused me too b/c i thought that was u. san francisco but it's u. south florida. still a dork.) and ashleigh is at harvard. we get to the hotel and i wake up reeve, my roommate. then ashleigh, scott, and i go to a restaurant for dinner. then we go to bed.
on sunday, we meet for breakfast, go on a tour of rio damas, the bad water supply, and a watershed. the woman also showed us a swimming pool that women meet up to swim in together. then we got a lecture on the history of the costa rican health care system. pretty interesting. now i kinda want to know more about the american health system. then we had dinner. good food. americanized though. but still good. YUMMY vanilla ice cream. better than
monday, we went to ucr (which i thought was uc riverside at first but it's u. costa rica. such a dork.) and got a lecture about the current health care system here. there is a 3 tiered hosptial system here. so we saw the top tier hospital in san jose. then had lunch. more fruit drinks and vanilla ice cream! i heart fruit drinks. pinapple, mango, starfruit, blackberry, etc. mmmmmmmmmmm fruit drinks. then i went to the jade museum with a couple ppl in the pouring rain in the skirt i was wearing to impress ppl i was getting lectures from and visiting the hospital. i was very soaked. thank god for north face's gortex knock off! after the museum we had lectures about individual topics that we're doing research on. i'm doing tobacco. afterwards, we went to dinner and the tobacco guy went with us. diana from ucb speaks spanish fluently so she chatted it up with him. our topic is going to be the effectivness of anti-tobacco campaigns in rural areas since they already have a study in urban areas. then a bunch of us went to the pueblo. which is a whole bunch of buildings really close together that are all bars or restaurants for us to dance in. good times. one was ladies night and had 3 guys dancing. very nsync. haha. oh, the night before, there were a a bunch of ppl who went out to a bar and met some cool transgendered ppl (male to female) who told them about the pueblo. after the pueblo, i went back to the hotel and pooed. but i was so paranoid that i would clogg the toilet that i think i over flushed. i flushed 4 times! i probably could have gotten aways with 2 but i had anxiety.
tuesday we left san jose for monteverde. on the way, we went to a fruit stand and truck stop type thing. the fruit stand had ants crawling in the candies. and flies all around the things that didn't really have peels. so i didn't get anything. but patty got a coconut and was just chillin with her huge coconut still in its husk drinking the milk. i hope someone got a picture of it. then we went to the second tiered hospital in puntarenas. it's kinda like a state hospital. the hospital is RIGHT on the beach and was really cool. the top floor is for the 5th year med students and the director was joking and saying that sometimes you see guys in the girls section and vice versa. haha. from the roof we were able to see out into the ocean (pacific) and turn around and see monteverde. the director said that it takes about 20 minutes to see a doctor from the emergency room. cool huh? as opposed to our 5 hr waits. after the hospital, we had lunch at the caballo blanco and had yummy food, fruit drinks, and the choice of 4 desserts. so my table got together and we each got one dessert. i had the tres leches. mmmm so good. joanne had coconut flan, patty had a squash type thing, and susie had rice pudding. all of them were really rich and sweet. except the rice pudding. then we got to our hotel at monteverde and explored the downtown area. "downtown". it's 3 buildings. there's a cafe and i went there with a couple other ppl and we had fruit drinks. haha. i heart fruit drinks. HEART!!
on wednesday, we went to the monteverder institute which is right next door to the monteverde cheese factory. OMG! yummmmmmmmmmmmmmy ice cream!! i'm sure the cheese is good too. i haven't really tasted any yet. but i will. then we went to the monteverde clinic. it's like the county hospital. the third tier. and had a tour then walked back to town, which probably took us about half and hour. then we had dinner, more fruit drinks, then back to the cafe. it's called moon shiva. the guy remembered us and said welcome back. haha. they were showing my big fat greek wedding with subtitles in spanish. pretty cool. i had a chocolate frio this time. just to taste it. bleh. i'm sticking to my fruit drinks. it tasted like chocolate syrup and milk. with crushed ice. i like my fruit drinks better.
thursday i went to the institue again, had more ice cream, took a spanish test to see what level we're in (i chose to be in beginning b/c i don't really know my past tense but i probably could have gone to intermediate b/c of my vocab). then we went to a sobado, a traditional healer. that was really cool. she said that she doesn't do it as much now b/c her shoulders and arms hurt b/c of it. but she did it to one of the ppl in the group. she only helps ppl who have digestive problems. she rubs the inner elbows, inner knees, and back of the neck. but while she was massaging, she turned the volume up on the tv when her telenovela came on. haha. then we found out that oriana, who's a med student in spain, found out that she passed her boards and that she's now officially a doctor! cool stuff so chris organized a surprise party at moon shiva. this time beers all around and some bailey's and hummos/pita breads. yummy.
then friday, we went to our homestays. my family is really nice. very polite and everything. luis is the father, monica is the mother, habraham is the 4yr old, and adrian is the 6mo old. cute but shy. adrian doesn't stay wake very long.
on saturday i took a shower in cold water b/c i couldn't get the hot water comming. i later found out that the switch was turned off. ah well. then i hung out with the family until we went on errands. we went to the supermarket where they asked me what foods i like and everything. coolio boolio. but i kinda felt like they were only buying food for me, which didn't make me feel all that cool but yeah. we also went to a carpenter so he can build them a cabinet. and the boys got a hair cut. then more hanging out with the family.
sunday (today) i went on a tour of the monteverde reserve. COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLIO! i saw monkeys (howler), birds(quetzals, turkey, mountain robins), and lotsa other stuff. it's so pretty here the pictures don't do it justice. now i'm in the next town over where there are internet cafes and supermarkets and very tourist friendly. the downtown even has paved roads! i get so happy when i see paved roads. it means that my food isn't wishing there was a seat belt feature in my stomach. anyways, this is a long entry and if you got this far, it mean you need to come to costa rica and visit monteverde. so pretty.