Craziness in Costa Rica!!!: Nicki and the Running Man

See how this weird light just shines through???

Well, last night rolled around and low and behold, the light came on. Nicki and I were talking and doing homework on the couch outside the two rooms upstairs when Amanda went to hop in the shower. She just happened to glance in Nicki and I’s room as she passed by and all she had to do was say Nicki’s name and we all knew the light had returned. I honestly have never seen Nicki move that quickly before in my life. She ran down the stairs with her hands flailing in the air to go get the other girls from Nebraska. Then, within 10 seconds Nicki had made it back up the stairs and was pointing at the light and yelling, “I TOLD YOU SO! I TOLD YOU SO!” at all of us. Although I did see first-hand that Nicki was right, I still wasn’t scared. However, Amanda, Liz, and Finn had all turned to “the dark side” and were a little creeped out to say the least. At this point, theories started surfacing about what this light could be. For instance, one theory was that there was some sort of alien that had put a spell on me which is why I acted completely unbothered by the light and that also explains why I was unable to wake up the night Nicki tried to show it to me. After all these conspiracies surfaced, I still wasn’t convinced of this mystery and so the three of us (Amanda, Nicki and I) decided to further investigate. After all this hype, we were a little disappointed to discover where this light was coming from (and you will be too after reading the next sentence). The “light from above” simply occurs when Amanda (who lives in the room next door) has her light on. When Amanda turns her light off, the light in our room also disappears.

Since we had finally figured out what exactly the light was, everyone was able to get a good night’s sleep and wake up bright and early today. We ate breakfast and attended class as usual. During my history class, I was able to learn a lot of interesting information about Costa Rica. I don’t want to bore you all to death with countless details so I’ll just list a few:

-Costa Rica is divided into seven provinces which are further divided into 81 cantones which are further divided into 400 districtos which are further divided into thousands of different barrios (neighborhoods). I live in the province of San Jose!

-1991 was the first time the indigenous people of Costa Rica were able to vote.

After class on Tuesday we decided to drop our backpacks off at our house and then go in search for the Plaza Cristal. This plaza has already served as a meeting spot a few times and tomorrow morning it is where our group will gather at 6 A.M. to go zip lining. Our host mom told us countless times that “everyone” knows where the plaza is. Well, we tried finding this exact plaza yesterday and we asked at least seven people none of whom knew where it was. When we got back from class today our mom gave us the directions one last time and sent us on our way. We were told to take a left at Parque Freses and when we arrived at what looked like a small park, we couldn’t decided if this was the spot we were supposed to turn at. I went up to the security guard that kept watch over the park and asked him what the park name was called. He told me it was his first day of work and he didn’t know. I then asked him if he knew were Plaza Cristal was only to find out that he didn’t. Well, Nicki decided to take this problem into her own hands. We saw a man running for exercise across the road and even though there was traffic, Nicki jetted across the street. By this point, the man was a little ways ahead of us and as Nicki was running to catch up with him she started screaming “Tengo una pregunta.” (I have a question). She finally caught up to the man who seemed a little frightened. He didn’t even stop running so Nicki just ran beside him as she asked for directions to the plaza. Much to our surprise, HE KNEW WHERE THE PLAZA WAS!!!!!! We followed his directions and were lead straight to the plaza!!!

After this adventure, we started home and walked into a house filled with delicious smelling food. We chowed down and then showered. Now, it’s time to hit the hay because we have to be at Plaza Cristal tomorrow morning at 6 A.M. for our zip-lining adventure!!!

Mary

We got this fruit from a street vendor for free. It tastes like a sour apple
and after you take off the outside covering it has a weird, squishy texture.