| Rain, Rain to go away Additional Photos
 This picture of a beautiful sunny sky was taken Monday afternoon. The rainy season is coming to an end.
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¡Pura vida!
Buenos días a todos, I have some great news! Well, for me at least. The sun came out this morning and is actually still shining after 3:00 p.m.! It looks like the dry season, or “summer” as everyone calls it, is finally here. I am crossing my fingers for this weekend, because if the weather holds up I’m returning to the turtle beaches in Santa Rosa. If all goes well, I’ll have some great close up pics of Olive Ridley or maybe Pacific Green sea turtles, and. hopefully, some more croc photos (from a fair distance of course). I’m trying to find other students to go with me, but it looks like most of them have class field trips this weekend.
This last weekend was another rainy one, and I declined an offer to go to San José. I decided that, with the weather how it was, I should use my time to catch up on readings for my classes instead. Plus I’m getting sick of the capital…it’s too industrialized for my liking. There’s little else to see besides buildings and taxis, and the overpowering smell of diesel exhaust makes me nauseous. I’d rather save my money for trips to parks and beaches, where I can really enjoy my time spent. I took care of all my midterms and finals last week, and it’s all downhill from here. November is going to be much more action packed than the first two months have been, since I have all three of my class trips within the next four weeks. To foreshadow a little bit, my destinations include the famous Monteverde forest, Cabo Blanco for snorkeling on a coral reef, as well as a couple parks on the Caribbean side of the country.
 This is a man holding the family parrot in front of his store.
Although elections aren’t until February 3, 2006, propaganda for the candidates with enough funds is already circulating on all the major channels. From what I’ve gathered, the main three this year are Otto Guevara, Ottón Solís and Oscar Arias. If I were voting, I would choose to re-elect Oscar Arias. When he last held office from 1986 to 1990, he made a great effort towards preserving Costa Rica’s natural resources, something that I think is critical to the country’s future. Also, in 1987 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for drafting the Central American Peace Plan, which was signed by all of the presidents of Central America earlier that year.
As a kind of side note, I recently discovered more on the history of the word tico, the nickname for Costa Ricans. Apparently, the name was given to the Costarricenses by the rest of the people of other Central American countries because of their frequent use of -tico or -tica as a diminutive. Where other Spanish speakers use an ending such as -ito(a) or -ico(a) to mean little (like saying ranita to mean little frog), Costa Ricans combine the two (ranitica) or use double diminutives like chiquitico or chiquitica for a little boy or girl. I’ve heard that it was frowned upon for a foreigner to use the term about 40 years ago or so, but this no longer applies. Usually the women only use the -tico endings, with the men preferring to use more macho ways of calling something small (like rana pequeña). The term can also be used to show affection towards the subject, as though calling it cute. I guess this makes sense, since women find most little things “cute.” My host mother uses it all the time, and she finds it hilarious when I use it.
 This is my second bike, which is now history. Ironically, I chose to include this picture in my article before it was stolen.
I had to go to my Tropical Marine Bio class before I could come back and finish this entry, and now I have some more great news, but some very bad news as well. After a speaker gave her presentation about her organization and their efforts at stopping dam construction in Central and South America, we got our midterms back. I don't want to brag, but I am one of only two people that got a 100 percent. That put me in high spirits, and I decided to spoil myself. So I accompanied my companions from the Santa Rosa trip, Dawn and Scott, to the Muswannis bakery here in town that I'd been hearing so many great things about. There weren't any good places to lock my bike, and, I hesitated, but thought it would be alright for a minute while I bought my donuts. Dawn's and Scott's bikes were sticking out into the entrance a little bit, but mine was behind theirs, out of sight from inside the store. No more than thirty seconds after I entered, I walked out to discover once again that I'd been robbed. I felt that familiar helpless sinking feeling in my gut, and laughed cynically in disbelief. After being so careful since my first bike got stolen, the one time I don't lock the bike is the very time it disappears. The horrible irony was not lost on me. To make things worse, on my way back walking the nine or ten blocks to my house from Muswannis, I somehow managed to kick a protruding cement block in the middle of the dilapidated sidewalk. Since I was wearing sandals, as usual, it ripped off the greater part of my toenail, leaving me both bleeding and cursing profusely. Aren't I lucky? Now, not only will I be walking everywhere for a couple days, I'll be limping the whole way. As for my soon to be third bike, the only time it won't be locked is when I'm riding it. Or maybe I should handcuff it to myself, just to be sure...I'll think on it. Until next week, I hope you'll wish me better luck!
Hasta luego,
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