Pimp Suite and Satisfaction

So much to update I don't even know where to begin.  I guess I'll start with Friday..

My class ended at 10:15 instead of 11:15 like usual because my teacher had to go to San Jose for a meeting in the afternoon.  I think she briefly tried to get me to get in the cab and come with her, but I couldn't really tell what she was saying, soo after a short conversation that probably made no sense, I just smiled and waved and said "Ciao!", and she drove off leaving me with an hour and half to kill before the bus came to take me back to the home base.  On most days, another volunteer who works down the street and I walk from our schools to a school that's about 20 minutes away to get picked up.  Friday I was on my own though because her school was closed for the day (it's a daycare with only one teacher).  After spending a good while just walking around, I ended up sitting and talking to the crossing guard who works in front of my usual pick-up spot.  

His name is Jose, and I would guess that he's about 45 years old.  He has 4 sons--3 from before he was married, and 1 with a wife that he was married to for 5 years.  He was born in Puriscal and has lived here his whole life but said that he would like to travel elsewhere someday.  It amazes me how many people are raised here and never leave--not even to look at their own, West Virginia-sized country.  For some reason I feel like there's so much, so many places, that I need to see in order to be satisfied.  I forget that, for some people, seeing a lot isn't a high priority.  I want Jose to want to see more though, and to have the chance to do it.  He was so cute.  And so interested in trying to learn English.  I helped him practice some phrases like "Where are you from?" and "My name is Jose", and I showed him how to pronounce "three" as opposed to "tree" because he said that th sound was always a problem.  I don't think the practicing helped too much, but I smiled and said "Si, si!" and pretended like he was getting better because I think it made him happy.  Then we talked about how only a handful of policemen here know English and how helpful it would be if more learned, not only in case of emergencies involving tourists, but also for simple things like asking directions.  And we even talked about how the Costa Rican president has made it a goal to make the whole country bilingual by 2020.  When the bus finally came to get me, I was just so satisfied that I had helped Jose learn a little more English, and so pleasantly surprised that I could talk about those things with him in Spanish, and so happy to see how excited he was by learning that I knew it was going to be a good weekend...

Rocking J's.  Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.  How oh how can I do it justice through a blog? 

I'm gonna put the link to the hostel's website here in case you want to look at it because I feel like my words and my lack of a camera won't be enough:

http://www.rockingjs.com/

Rocking J's is a hippie's paradise.  It's cheap as dirt, but the whole place is like a mural covered/mosaic filled/scribbled on piece of art.  It's not necessarily the kind of art you would want small, sheltered children to see (i.e. the back door of the pimp suite read something like "I'm a c*** whore a** licking mother f*****"--sorry! I hope that's ok to write on a blog!), but there was definitely no shortage of things to marvel at.  I literally could have spent a whole day just walking around reading the walls and looking at the mosaics.  I think there are actually plenty of people who do spend most of the day doing this, just not while they are sober.  This place was just such a far-removed sense of reality that I don't even know how to evoke the feeling of it...soo I guess I'll just try some description..

There was a live band playing at Rocking J's restaurant on Friday.  We were exhausted and trying to fall asleep in the Pimp Suite, which, despite it's attractive name, was not such an attractive place.  There was a gecko on the ceiling.  We were under no sheets and sweating and trying so hard not to think about what might have happened on those beds before.  The fans were broken.  We were still smiling at the fact that, on our short walk to the Pimp Suite, we had passed four fellow Rocking J's residents standing in a circle on the hotel's astro-turf lawn holding hands, jumping up and down in a circle and laughing hysterically.  Falling asleep was impossible because all we could hear through our large non-window windows (a few iron bars instead of something solid) were the band and the bar-goers singing at the top of their lungs the words to "Wonderwall".  During the break between songs, someone nearby outside was puking.  We were doused in bug spray.  The air tasted like bug spray.  I could roll over on my stomach, look up, and tell myself goodnight because on the wall behind the bed (and on the wall across from the bed, and on the wall behind the door, and on the wall behind the bunk beds, AND on the wall beside the door) was a huge mirror.  Sleep came eventually, but it was interrupted often as I had to itch myself throughout the night.  

(side note: I actually did love Rocking J's despite the poor descriptions...they just made the experience funnier)

Naturally, I woke up at approximately 6:15 Saturday morning.  Somehow, getting up at the crack of dawn seems to be my body's only option here in Costa Rica.  I wandered out of the pimp suite with my friend Jessica to find our friend Katie, who had already been up reading on a bench beside the rows of tents, which you could look down and see dirty feet sticking out of.  A boy walked past us and said "Ughhh, it's so late" (I probably would have used the word early here, but things don't work like that at Rocking J's).  Then, he proceeded to ask Katie if we had any papers (I guess he wanted an early/late start on his day's dosage of weed).  Now this is already funny because Katie, in her pearl earrings and J-Crew attire, is definitely not the type of person who would have papers on her.  So, she smiled at him and said "No, sorry" and attempted to move on.   But I, being the wholesome child that I am, and a little on the half-asleep side, said, "Wait what are you looking for?".  He said, "papers," again.  I must have completely forgotten I was at Rocking J's because for some reason I responded, "You mean like a newspaper?", at which point Katie preceded to burst into hysterical laughter and the guy looked at me and said, "What?? No. No, I don't want a newspaper.  I mean unless I wanted to roll like a HUGE one," and walked away. And then we all laughed so hard that I almost peed in my pants.   So I guess you could describe Rocking J's is a place where you're much more likely to find someone smoking a joint with their cup of morning coffee than reading a newspaper...(even though there were signs all over the place that read "por favor, no te fumes la marijuana").. 

Anyway, you know it's going to be a good day when it starts with laughing that hard.  We walked down the road a little to a breakfast place that had crepes and eggs and croissants.  Eating so much rice and beans has turned us into animals when we go to real restaurants, even after only 2 weeks.  I had a banana and nutella crepe, and I seriously thought I could have died afterwards and been happy (we went back the next morning and had more, and I actually picked up my plate and licked it haha).  Then, half of the group went snorkeling for the day while a few other people and I went surfing.  It was SO fun.  I'm glad I didn't actually die after eating my crepe because I had forgotten that another thing I wanted to do before I die is learn to surf.  Our guides provided us with soft surfboards, which are easier to learn on, so we all actually stood up a lot of times during our 2 hours in the water.  Sometimes I got caught a little off guard because I would be having a conversation with the guide and all of a sudden he would say "Ok paddle paddle!" and push me off with a wave.  Then he would yell "UP!" while I still felt like I should be responding the the conversation.  But, overall, I think it went really well considering that none of us had surfed before.  And it was the most beautiful setting, and we were the only people out in the water.  I could have just floated on the board out there all day.  

Then, the day only got better when it was time for lunch.  We had real American food--the kind you wouldn't expect to get out of a little beachside restaurant in a rastafarian town, and it was so good that I could have died and been happy again.  We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping around town and napping in the hammocks at Rocking J's.  And then we all wanted to die one last time when our dinner was so good.  We finished the night with a little salsa dancing before retiring back to our pimp suite where the fans were now working.  What a satisfying day.   

It's funny what a small place this whole country is.  In only one day in Puerto Viejo, we managed to make friends with our surfing guides and see them around town 2 other times, run into a Dutch girl we became friends with at our hostel last weekend, and pick up another guy who had been volunteering with CCS before all of us got here to add to our group!  Staying in these hostels makes me want to go hostel-hopping all over the place.  I don't know that I could do it alone though...maybe I'll be bold enough for that someday.

Sunday morning, we had a little scare before our 2nd amazingly delicious breakfast of the weekend.  One of the girls got a reeeally bad sunburn on her whole backside surfing and almost passed out Sunday morning a few minutes after she came out of her tent.  We were able to avoid having to get medical care or anything, which is good because I'm sure that would have been a slightly sketchy endeavor..

Some of us rented bikes for the day and we spent all morning biking around town and looking in the shops some more.  I LOVE bike riding.  I don't even know why.  Something about just pedaling around is so relaxing...especially near the beach...and on colorful bikes with really  cushiony seats.  I accidentally lost the key the man gave me for my lock though because who knew there was a huge hole in the bottom of the bike basket?? That was a poor bike-making decision.  Soo at the end of the day I just kind of chose to ignore the fact he had given me a lock and I brought it home with me.  I feel slightly guilty know...maybe like I owe something to the people of Costa Rica...so I'm gonna promise to be an extra hard working volunteer this week :)

We made it home safely Sunday night...we drove all the way from the Atlantic Ocean almost to the Pacific!  Again, small country.  It was really sad though because we had to stop in San Jose and say goodbye to 3 of our group members who are going back to Canada now :(  It's crazy how quickly you can bond with people in 2 weeks when you're together all of the time.  It's hard to not know someone one week, get to know them really well, and then have to say goodbye without knowing when you might ever see them.  And then once they're gone, all you have left is the impression they left on you and the hope that you left some sort of positive impression on them.  Hmm.  I'm hoping we can all make it to Canada sometime soon!

The house is so much quieter now because 7 people total left this week.  And it's going to be even weirder next week because 4 more will be leaving, and then those of us left are going to be outnumbered by a new group coming on Sunday.  It's kinda nice being the ones who have more of an idea what's going on though.  We got a new volunteer at my school this week and I felt like I'd been there so long being able to answer her questions and introduce her to the kids.  They are still as cute as ever.  They still come running with big hugs in the morning.  And they've even started calling me Nina Sophie!  I get sad though when one or more of them isn't there.  Like today, Antony, my little playmate who's always smiling and saying "Jugamos? Jugamos?," had to stay home sick.  Boo. Oh well...jugamos tomorrow.

K I think that's sufficiently updated!  I'm sure I could find more to say about Rocking J's, but I'll leave it at this for now..

:)