Codependence

There are some things you expect the people you call your friends to do for you: bring you soup when you're sick, lend you lunch money when you forgot yours, tell you when there is a booger hanging out of your nose or a tree branch between your teeth.

I just went to the bathroom (for the 7th time this morning) and realised that I have been walking around the office for the last hour with a rather sizeable piece of toilet paper stuck to my temple. Nobody said a word.

I guess it's nice to know who I can't count on. I'm not embarrassed about it, I just think it's funny.

Amanda sent out part 2 of yesterday's news. Here it is:

OK, day two update from an exhausted Amanda even though it's only 3.19 pm. Feel free to forward as you wish.

Last night I did go out with another solo female traveler, Nicole, from NY, who's been here once before. Through random walking we stumbled upon Vishnu, a local veg dig where my less than $3 dinner was less than $2 because they forgot my sandwich at first and in turn gave me my drink free.

This morning I woke up way too early at 5.30 when I didn't fall asleep until past 12...

I tried to hit the crime museum but they were closed. But hey, I found that out with one simple sentence "Donde esta el museo criminalo?" and one simple response, "No tenemos hay. Por un or dos anos." Oh, it closed one or two years ago. Still glad I ventured to find it since I found a closer Vishnu place to eat dinner--only 2 blocks away. Very cool. I like the restaurants where the price isn't offered in US dollars, which are kind of hard to find in
Chepe (the nickname for San Jose).

So I headed over to the Museo Nacional where the price is $4 US for non-Costa Ricans and about $1.10 for nationals. It had a lot of info about the history of Costa Rica including various art. Most of the pre-Columbian art (it seems like a lot is based on Christopher's little visit, not the least of which is that the monetary unit is named after him) had penises of various sizes. My favorite piece of art was a giant pot in the form of a monkey with a giant penis on it. Hanging to the left, nonetheless. That was amusing.

There was a lot of information about the Costa Rican civil war, too. And there was "El jardin secreto" which was a butterfly garden. So cool! I've seen those butterflies in gardens up north, but this is their natural habitat. OK, as natural as a gutted out old military fort can be...

Oh, I forgot to mention that--the museum is in gutted military fort that still sports bullet holes from the civil war. Cool. I ate in the garden and there were several school groups there, so I approached one teacher and stumbled over saying I was a teacher from America, 11 and 12 year olds and how old were his kids? He responded in flawless English that they were fifth graders, he was from Boston and where was I from? We chatted back and forth and discovered we both majored in Philosophy and he told me to check out Arenal Volcano (which I was going to because of Claudia) and also Puerto Viejo on the Caribe coast, which I was already planning to check out. So that was cool.

While taking photos my camera started acting up, which makes me very nervous...the shutter isn't going down until I advance the film and it started out of the blue and I don't know how to fix it. I shot 3 or 4 rolls of film today...

After that I wandered around in some bookstores, found a camera place and bought a new battery (using very broken Spanish, but the battery didn't fix my problem...) and stumbled across the Museo Oro Pre Columbiano or something like that. There are various exhibits at this museum but the biggest and most impressive is the collection of pre-Columbian gold, carved and poured and beat and molded into awesome shapes. And yes, the animals and gods and figures are often sporting penises.

With the help of a guard (again using my horrible Spanish) I found a cash machine and wow do I feel rich with the balance popping out in Colones. Anyone want a cash advance?

Some more grocery shopping, some dodging around in pouring rain, now I'm back darn near ready to crash. I wish I'd only scheduled two nights, however, as I want to get out of here. However, tomorrow I'll get some laundry done and go get a bus ticket to Puerto Viejo and I'll leave Saturday morning. Should be good.

Take care.
Amanda

Hope she's checking the mirror from time to time.

Flown by mariposa at 08:04 AM on June 17, 2005