Songs of Freedom

7/11/09

From in the dormitory-style room I'm in I can hear them still singing. They have moved on from The Redemption Song and are now on Three Little Birds. We'll see if they continue the Marley pattern. It is about 11:15 maybe at this point. I've decided to call it a night and retire back to my room. Long day and I'm beat. Although there are two bunk beds I am the only resident in the room. It is sort of nice, yet it would also be nice to have someone to chat with or something.
I'm writing this now in a word document. I didn't have time to make use of the wireless signal at Otiac.

Shall I recount the whole day? Eh, why not.
Got up about 5 o'clock this morning and dragged myself out into the car. Got to the airport around 9 I believe. This is when it really hit me that I was leaving. I'm not completely sure it has hit me yet that i'll be gone for 5 months. Still hard to grasp. Went through security bawling my eyes out. Okay, hyperbole. I kept it under control...for the most part I think. The flight itself was no problem at all. I was seated next to this older couple who had just gotten married and were on their honeymoon. They were great to talk to. They are from the Minneapolis area. The flight was approximately 4 hours plus some odd number of minutes. The second the wheels his Costa Rican turf, it was pouring rain. I'm going to skip over the taxi ride to Montaña Linda (the hostel/language school I'm at for the next two weeks). Lets just say that it would be hard to navigate alone and I never want to deal with Costa Rican traffic. There are general guidelines for the road, but for the most part it is just ad lib. I arrived at Montaña Linda and then came the 'oh shit. What do I do now?' thought. I found a packet of information in my room and read through it and right near the end there came a tap, tap, tapping at my chamber door. This very sweet woman by the name of Cary (Carrie?) said that she was going to dinner and was wondering if I'd like to come along. She made my life a hell of a lot easier. So I got a bit of her story and shared a bit of mine over dinner. I had casado con pescado. Not the exact name on the menu, but close enough. It was a small piece of fish, rice, beans, and a sauteed potato/carrot/green bean thing. To drink I had a mora (blackberry) refresco. It was a very nice first Tico meal. We returned to Montaña Linda and sat around and talked some more while a couple people came and went. I little later I had the most legit hot tub experience. Now get this. A wood stove-heated hot tub. Took about 3 or 4 hours to heat up. Increible! Some of us hung out in the hot tub while other played guitar and sang. They only stopped playing a couple minutes ago.

I must say it was a great first night in the great little town of Orosi. Orosi is settled in a valley between some beautiful mountains.
I wanted to write this while it was fresh, but I will likely add more after I have had a chance to sleep on it.