Descanse bien, sueñe conmigo

Mood: Fabulous
Music: Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies

All right, where did we leave off? Cerro Danta, right? Okay then.

Saturday and Sunday were nothing especially interesting. Sunday, Emily and I spent approximately 6 hours working on the ten pager we had due Tuesday (that we started at 14:00 on Sunday). I was really pounding it out (heh heh) until her host dad turned on Ms. Universe. Fortunately, I was already at the conclusion. Also, size 14 periods (with size 12 text) are a gift from god. Thanks, Emma Jean.

Monday, I had my meeting for volunteering (which I'm trying to turn into an internship - I already wrote up the proposal and everything). IFSA set me up a meeting in the Asamblea Legislativa with la Diputada Doctora Lesvia Villalobos Salas, a member of the Partido Acción Ciudadana. Or, for those of you who don't know Costa Rican politics, I've now got a congressional internship two days a week with a member of the most liberal party in the country (wait, did I actually leave AU?). The best part? Dra. Villalobos lives 50m from me, so she drives me to San José on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I don't have to take the bus.

Tuesday was boring. Actually, that's not true. I'm just so used to Tuesdays being boring that I say it automatically. No, actually, Tuesday wasn't bad. Instead of having class in Costa Rican Cultural Identity, we went on a field trip (yeah, my university still has field trips, because we're all teh ballers) to San José, and wandered around the mercado central and the National Theater. Since we gringas in the group had already had that field trip about three weeks ago, we just got to tag along and hang out (just being there was five percent of our final grade, haha). Emily, Vallerie, and I made two new friends that are in our class - Jorge Pablo, who is kind of timid and lives in San José, and Cristian, who is an absolute riot. Shame he's so young, otherwise he would have potential ;)

Yesterday was my first full day in the Asamblea with Dra. Villalobos. She set me to reading and taking notes on the Constitution of Costa Rica, so I'll better understand what's going on. After that, I get to work my way through two more books: one of the rules of the Asamblea and one of some other thing that I forgot. And then I get to read through all of the bills currently up for debate, and only then do I get to start working projects. But you know what? It's not bad at all, because this gives my volunteer work an academic component, which will hopefully make it easier to get it changed to an internship.

Then, last night, I may or may not have kissed the cute Nicaraguan shopkeep...

Today, we didn't have Advanced Spanish, instead we went on a field trip (not only do we have field trips, we have -lots- of field trips) to the Museo de Cultura Popular. Basically, we got to see a Costa Rican house from the late eighteen hundreds, talk about medicinal plants that they used, and cook prestiños, which are kind of like elephant ears, but not really. I'm baller at dough-making, fun fact for those of you who didn't know.

Now I'm in the library until class at 14:00. Tomorrow, a bunch of us are leaving early (like, 4 AM early) for La Fortuna for a weekend vacation. We're planning on hiking Volcán Arenal and through the Monteverde cloud forest. More on that on Monday.

Pura Vida,
Sarah

New words:
semillas de ajonjolí - sesame seeds
desfile - parade
hígado - liver
hostigamiento - harassment
seglar - secular
indigente - poverty-stricken
dozavo - one-twelfth
potestad - legal authority
yacimiento - (mineral) deposit
alegar - allege
derogar - abolish, appeal
abrogar - abrogate, annul