love

All I can really say is that life has been pretty weird, but also fun and scary. I am completely incapable of keeping any decent journals anymore, so I am thinking I will make a list of winter break highlights and one of the cheers and jeers of Costa Rica.

- My first day back in town Carlie, Janaki, a whole mess of boys, and I went to the beach and played a lot of drawing games in the sand and I found a dead jellyfish and got dared to put it in my mouth
- Gianna came back but her parents didn’t so there were a couple nights of extreme parties at the Mercaldo residence and staying up all night with Kevin listening to Jeff change all the lyrics to Blink 182 songs into songs about himself
- Speaking of Blink 182, I saw Joven and Erich play in a Blink 182 cover band in Poway on Boxing Day! They dressed up like their respective members of the band and the show was really secretive because Joven had to break into his old empty house to play in it.
- I celebrated so many holidays! These included Festivus (I aired so many grievances but also the celebration was kind of overshadowed by the making of the Festivus Pole, alternatively known as the bro drinking game Wizard’s Wand)! And Boxing Day, which was at Doug’s house and Carly and I got forced to participate in a sexy rendition of “Santa Baby” with Doug’s drunk British mother. Doug’s entire house was filled with drunk Brits! Also, I saw Matt Zenick there! Christmas happened too, twice with the Mercaldo family, which mostly involved Pizco sours and Swedish cookies and videos of the Goldenboy’s horses winning races. Christmas with my family was lots of awkward fighting but also my parents rule and got me a digital SLR (Canon Rebel! It rules!) so I have been obnoxiously photographing everything ever since. Also, there was New Years, where I went to an awkward party at Jayne’s house and saw Japandi play but was designated driver and ran into Brian Daggett and he told me he was going to be in love with me for the rest of his life. At midnight, Charlie and I set off lots of poppers just as Japandi finished. Then, the party resumed at Jacob’s where I took too many shots and spent the night on the phone with Alex, and then shortly after, asleep with Shivaun.
- And Shivaun! We had Camp Shivaun while her parents were out of town. One night, Carly and I made pizza and lemonade and sorbet while two simultaneous games of Settlers of Catan were played. Afterward, Jacob got ancy and made us do yoga in Shivaun’s living room. Also, she and I went bowling with my parents and I bowled a 132! Go team!
- Post-New Years, I had a very relaxing day eating sandwiches and watching Flight of the Conchords at the Toyer house. 143 Paula!
- I tried to see my grandma but she was in Kansas for most of break so one time Carly, Charlie, his awkward friend from college, and I were driving to pick up Shivaun from the airport and made us late and made everybody wait so I could spend twenty minutes with her. True grandmother dedication right there.
- This one night we had a Jacuzzi party at Trevor’s! Carly and Carly formed a band called Dr. Finger (the name of Charlie’s dentist), and performed hits like “Oh Yoko!”, “I Wish that I Could See You Soon”, “The Sign” and “Don’t Worry Baby”. Actually, that’s all they played. The first ever Dr. Finger setlist!
- We tried to have a softball reunion but instead we just ate at Rico’s because nobody showed up (but Robert Dowling was there!!)
- I had Shivaun call me in sick to the dentist because I got too scared to go and now by the time I get back I won’t have been to the dentist for a pretty substantially long time. Whatever, fuck the dentist.
- I got really into playing chess with Charlie and Evan this one night but I am pretty sure it had something to do with everybody around me freebasing drugs! Not legit, team!
- Basically I spent lots of time with Carly and Shivaun and at Casa Mercaldo and Team Winter happened and lots of people were hard to deal with but some people were surprisingly excellent, and you know, it’s being home.

Cheers and Jeers of Costa Rica (Dudes, I have lived in Costa Rica for five days now! What the fuck?!)

Cheers:
+ Costa Rica is so beautiful! I have seen lots of cool things here like toucans and sloths and poison dart frogs and a million crazy birds and lots of rainbows and waterfalls and more types of trees, mushrooms, and butterflies than I could have ever imagined existed!
+ I live on a farm filled with baby animals! There are tiny pigs and goats and chicks and cows and they are all very adorable! Speaking of things tiny animals are supposed to do, I milked a cow yesterday.
+ I have a very nice host family for the next month, Walter and Giselle and their daughter Emily and her abuela Elvira, we all work at Luna Nueva together. Walter is really cute and goes on walks to pick us all flowers and Giselle makes me lots of food and tea and speaks really slowly to me.
+ My boss knows so much about ecology and farming, it is incredible! He is also my only fellow English speaker and is pretty cool even though he is hippie who is into farming according to the zodiac.
+ Tough as it is, I am learning to slow down and calm down and it’s probably a good thing ultimately, right?
+/- I am learning to speak Spanish FOR REAL, but it is so much harder than it was learning to like, take Spanish tests. People like, have really thick accents and poor grammar and use lots of slang and don’t finish their sentences when they are not from textbooks.
+/- On my flight here, I met a life coach named Erika and a Christian Surf Pastor named Jason. Erika got rid of lots of negative energy for me, presumably, and Jason volunteered to escort me to my hotel so he could meet his friends and go back to the town where the Christian Surfers live. This didn’t pan out very well and his phone had no service and we got locked in the hotel and he got me drunk to try and get me to talk about God. This ultimately led to him sleeping in the other bed in my hotel room and watching me while I pretended to be asleep. Dare I say it, I almost miss him but I think it’s because I don’t really know anybody who speaks English.
+/- I work on a resort that rarely has guests. It seems like whenever there are guests, they are really important but it’s sort of weird not really having anything to do at work. Apparently, we have the CEOs of Whole Foods and a reporter from the New York Times coming to stay in a few weeks, SWEET.
- I can’t speak Spanish for shit and miss all of my friends and family and Alex like crazy and spend a lot of time looking at photos and wearing my Louisville t-shirt. Am I seriously staying here for six months?
- It is really hard for me living really slowly and with this family but I know that it’s good for me and sometimes I walk by the cabin I am moving into on the resort and look at it longingly like we did when we were staying with Mitch and waiting to move into Main Street House
- Ever since I got here, I have had a complete and total breakdown every single day. This has created a lot of awkward situations, particularly due to the language barrier and the fact that I am rarely alone. Note to self, you probably shouldn’t decide to live with strangers, leave civilization, and quit smoking for the first time when you are PMS-ing. 100% asking for trouble.