"Gringa":White chick
I think it is safe to say that just about every girl has a little black dress that she can turn to for any event. I on the other hand have opted for a "Lucky Black Dress." My black maxi is ready for a walk in the town or a fancy night out. In Costa Rica my lucky black dress has met fútbol superstar Michael Umaña as well as the president of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera. So how exactly did I meet the president you may be wondering. The last time that I was in Costa Rica two years ago I was able to visit the gorgeous Teatro Nacional and see the grand foyer but I never saw the inside or went to see a show. This time I knew I could not leave without going back to the Teatro Nacional. About a month ago myself and two other ladies at my Spanish school bought tickets to go see the Vienna Choir Boys. Sunday rolled around and we are beyond excited to go to the show! We arrived about an hour and a half early to pick up our tickets and of course to enjoy a classy pre-show coffee. It was a good thing we arrived with time to spare because the spelling of my last name on the ticket was barely recognizable..... After straightening out the last name fiasco and finally receiving our tickets it was time for a coffee. For "Johanna Narkieuuitz" this coffee needed to have a nice spike of Baileys, but an Irish coffee did not exist on this menu. Luckily I was wearing the lucky black dress, so I described what I wanted to the server and we quickly coined this drink the Cafe Johanna. Point 1 for the lucky black dress. Two "Cafe Johanna's" later we decided to make our way to our seats with plenty of time before the doors opened. As we waited in line in the theatre foyer there was a man filming the crowd. We were joking around about smiling pretty for the camera when the guy actually walked up to us and asked if he could interview us about why we had come to the show. He asked us to respond in Spanish and English where we were from, why we had come to the show, and what we were most excited about. Being nervous we responded in more English than Spanish, half laughing our way through the interview. Possibly making it onto costa rican television... point 2 for the Lucky Black Dress. When we finally made it to our seats we realized that we were in the 4th row! We were so close to tne front that had this been a live showing of Magic Mike, we would have seen each individual cut of Channing Tatum's abs. It was a beautiful theatre and we had an incredible view throughout the entire event. (See pictures below) At intermission the chior's conductor announced that President was present at the performance and that the rest of the show would be dedicated to him. Though I had not a clue where the President was, I was extremely excited to be in the same building as him. At the end of the show he came onto the stage to make a quick speech but I couldn't get my phone out and turned on fast enough to snap a photo. I was totally bummed. ... little did I know we would soon be taking a selfie together. As myself and my two friends exited the theatre it was easy to see where the president was since people were swarming to take pictures with him. I decided to take a picture from a far because I felt bad bothering him. Apparently I shouldn't have worried though because as soon as we were out in the street and I was on my tip toes holding tight to my phone and watching the president about to get into his car, one of the his body guards pushed me forwards and told me to go! Now having been forced into the clearing between the crowd held back by guards and the president I had the choice to run back into the crowd or to quickly approach the president. I decided I had to meet him, so I quickly ran forward and asked if I could take a photo with him. He said yes, but after quickly scanning the area around us, there was no one within arms length to take a photo. Therefore I had to rephrase my question to ask if I could take a selfie with him. Luckily he smiled and said yes. I took a selfie with the president of Costa Rica. Point 3 for the Lucky Black Dress.
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I took a selfie with the president of Costa Rica....enough said. Find out how in tonight's blog post! This past weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Manuel Antonio beach located on Costa Rica's Pacific Coast. I stayed in a gorgeous hostel, Hotel Plinio, and the most frequent question that I recieved was, "Who are you traveling with?" or, "Oh so you're travelling in you own? That's awesome." While you would think that my answer would be yes, yeah, or si, the one thing that I consistently learned from this weekend is that traveling alone most certainly does not exist.
On the bus on the way to the bus public bus station you are not traveling alone because having been lucky enough to find a seat, you have the pleasure of having a stranger's butt, backpack, or crouch invade any personal space that ever existed. On the taxi ride from the bus to the next bus you're definitely not alone as you become the taxi driver's newest confidant in a matter of minutes. In the common occurrence of the taxi driver asking the very non invasive question of whether or not you have a boyfriend, I'll have you know that I am never alone. In fact, though my "boyfriend" (though I don't actually have one) lives in the states, he just started an amazing new job and will be coming to visit soon. In the meantime we find time to skype... Thank goodness for technology! Once on the bus on the way to your destination theres a 50/50 chance you'll sit next to a talker or a sleeper. On the way there I sat next to a sleeper, but on the way back, well that's another story. After finally having arrived at the hostal the first night, I didn't do much since it was already way past my dinnertime. The next day while I did go to the beach on my own, I was accompanied by hundreds of beach goers of all shapes and speedos. The second night I started talking to two other girls that had been traveling together, and we ended up going into the town and getting dinner together. Sharing food with two new friends, again not traveling alone. The following day I had time to kill before my bus so I got some postcards in town, went to a smoothie place, and began writing. (Don't forget to send me your address via the gringa girl mail section of the blog! ) As I was writing, up walked a clan of 6 very obvious gringos. One of the guys looked like jersey shore had thrown up on him, while the others had just walked out of a vinyard vines catalog. When they came and sat down at my table I realized they all had one thing in common...they were manscapers. Their chests and arms were recently shaven, but their stubble was still obvious. Now I understand the need to shave for swimming or for triathlons, but after talking to my fellow travelers for quite some time, the closest that any of them got to a water sport was that one of them kind of surfed. Therefore these became my wonderfully nice group of manscaping friends. The last friend that I made on this trip was Brian. After a long weekend of "traveling with friends," when it was time for my bus on Sunday I was pooped! I was one of the first to get on the bus, and as I sat and waited to leave I thought to myself, "There is no one that could sit next to me right now who I would want to have a conversation with. Even if it was a very attractive tican I don't think I could talk to him. " I quickly made up my mind that the only exception would be if Channing Tatum walked onto this $9 public bus and sat down next to me. Then I would talk to him. Unfortunately, I was not given a choice as my not so dear friend Brian came and sat next to me and literally did not stop talking the entire four hours...with stop and go traffic. After asking me how long I had been in Costa Rica, and I said 2 weeks, his response was that I looked very clean. He told me that he looked clean because he had showered that day. After nodding my head since I was semi speechless, he proceeded to tell me that even my backpack and clothes were clean. Suddenly he saw two small stains on my shirt and proceeded to point them out as if he was proud that he had found them. In this case I definitely had a travel partner, or rather a travel leech. As you can see, though I may make my own travel decisions, I never travel alone. I always have a wide array of travel buddies. I'm currently sitting in my own mini heaven. My first weekend trip in Costa Rica I have returned to the wonderful Manuel Antonio! This time I am not staying in a lovely hotel with the family or in cabinas with study abroad friends but instead to the unique abode that is hostel plinio nature park. The dorms open completely to the air allowed me to fall asleep to the sound of birds, monkeys, and insects of all sorts. This morning I got to wake up to a breakfast of fresh gallo pinto, eggs, and bread. Now I am enjoying the sound of Jack Johnson and reggaeton playing in the background while reading a book. This to me is the epitome of a start to a great day. I have included pictures of the hostel below. More stories to come soon! A lot has happened since the last time that i wrote. I have completed my first week of classes and I am almost halfway into my second week. A professional blogger would probably post an entry religiously once a week on the same day at the same time. I however am not a professional blogger for two reasons: 1) the Internet in Costa Rica is more tempermental than a yappy dog and 2) i am severely affected by FOMO (fear of missing out). Because i have a terrible case of FOMO, i typically will say yes to any spontaneous adventure or activity that is thrown my way. This could be anything from playing bannagrams (spanish edition) with my tica cousins, to going to Zumba with my tica mom, aunt, and sister, to casual sidewalk sittin' hanging out with the neighbors. So please accept my apology for the spontaneity of my blog posts. I hope they come as pleasant surprises rather than a boring scheduled updates. Moving on from my rant, last week began, and Spanish classes were slightly overwhelming along with the fact that most people my age had left 2 weeks prior to my arrival as the"high season" of U.S. travel was creeping to an end. I was more anxious than anything else. Luckily, Monday is Zumba day at my tica house (along with Wednesday and Friday) so I immediately had a fun activity to put my mind at ease. I knew from my previous dance experience in Costa Rica that my innate ability for latin dance, especially the salsa was somewhat lacking, but I definitely didn't know to what extent. When we walked into the gym there were over 100 women AND MEN of all shapes and sizes ready for Zumba class. Now a little shout out to BBYO dances and shaking what your Mamma gave ya, I thought I had some small instinct on how to dance. Yeah right. I had nothing on Latin dance hip shaking. Although, after 3 classes now I like to think I'm learning. The rest of the week went by without too much commotion until Saturday night when my tica cousins and I went to the club ESTEREO (guess what that means?) Here I learned what a miguelito is (an absolutely delicious shot) and how to dance to reggea music. I also learned how to fake it like you know every song that the dj is playing. Sunday came along and I went to play "bola" with the whole family. What is"bola" you may be wondering? Bola is the common man's soccer/fútbol. In my tica brother's words it is the game for people who aren't good enough to play soccer. The field and goal are a little smaller to even the playing field (literally) for average and less than average players (like myself). I did make one goal and my tica brother even told me I was a good defense player. (Probably because blocking is much easier rather than "dribbling the ball with my feet") Fast forward one day to Monday of this week. I was skeptical since only two of us stayed from last week and only 3 new people were coming into conversa. The three new ladies come from three entirely different walks of life. One is 28 from Maryland. Another is from L.A., California, and my personal favorite is the 83 year old woman from Chicago. First of all, 83 years old and still traveling on her own with nothing more than her sassy personality and a sturdy trekking pole is beyond words. "Juanita" is here for a month, and I obviously can't wait to know more about her adventurous life. I found out she was my long (very long) lost soul sister Monday at lunch. I went to go sit with her when we began talking and sharing stories. At 83 wanderlust and curiosity still captures her heart and motivates her yearly travels. She continues to learn not only through spanish classes but through living with a host family as well. In her words, "I don't follow the Spanish program here; i choose what i want to learn because i have all the degrees that I want." (Yes mam!) You would think that sometime who travels abroad annually has a very lucrative job. Not in Juanitas case! She was a middle school teacher for over thirty years and absolutely loved teaching. That was similarity number one. Similarity number two was that like myself, she is an artist as well. She prefers 3-D art and sculpting while I prefer water color. The strangest similarity was that we both despise horses, for the exact same reason that they stink, and they poop when you're riding them. From a far we agree they are pretty but that's where the admiration ends. All these similarities and more just prove that we must be sisters from another very old mister. During our conversation we talked about many different things including her annual trips throughout Europe. When I asked her where she had been, she said everywhere and meant exactly that. Juanita is a tall, confident, in your face, witty person who continues to live her life like she is in her twenties. She is a fireball for sure and would probably take a shot of fireball with you if you asked. She told me that a younger person once said to her, "I want to be just like you when I am your age. " her response was, "Well remember that, keep your eye on it, and don't get off track!" I'll do my best Juanita! |
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