Hour Long Series Finale of Friends (Emails)
Welp, theese eez eet. Probably the last email for a long time, now that I have reached some kind of destination after so much wandering, I probably won't have too much to say, really.
I've been living in Monteverde for a little over two weeks now and I'm somewhat settled. The only thing I really need to do is either find a cheaper place or find another job, because the numbers aren't quite adding up. Right now I'm working twelve hours a week teaching English and making almost $4 an hour, which is pretty good wages for Costa Rica. It's weird to be back in the classroom, hell, to be working at all, since the last time I worked or taught was in June. The classes are going pretty well and the students really do want to learn, which is a welcome change from California public schools. Basically, they want to learn enough English to get jobs in the tourist industry in Monteverde, because it's cushier and they can make more money that way. In that sense, I feel kind of strange about the whole thing. Partly class conciousness I guess, or maybe just hoping they could have higher aspirations, because I mean who really wants to learn a language just so they can understand the whiney demands of its speakers? And teaching English as a second language to Spanish speakers kind of sucks. While the Spanish were only about as good as the English at making friends with Indians, they were a lot better at making a language that is consistent in its rules, pronunciation, and spelling. They even have a Royal Academy that keeps the language in order. So now I have to try to explain things like there is 7 ways you can pronounce the letters "ough" and that you have to "look for HIM," but you have to "look HIM up," without any logical reason that I can think of for the placement of the pronoun. And I have to answer questions like, "How come there aren't accent marks to tell you how to pronounce words? Isn't there a Royal Academy for English?" I hope they understand how much more fucked up English is than Spanish, and don't just think I'm a shitty teacher (which may or may not also be true).
Since I've had so much free time, I've mostly been hanging around my apartment, reading and listening to music, going for walks in the woods, or hanging out with the friends I've been making. Most of the friends I've made are other expatriate English teachers like myself, although I have made a few local friends. I find language is still somewhat of a barrier for getting beyond superficial aquaintance, although my Spanish is getting pretty damn good. Also, I think it's a little harder to find common ground, since I don't think there are many Costa Ricans that read a lot of Bukowski and listen to a lot of Velvet Underground, but so what, we'll find some way to relate. Actually, I was pretty damn shocked to see a Costa Rican about my age wearing a Total Chaos t-shirt! I think I kind of got off on the wrong foot with that guy, because I couldn't contain my contempt for that particular band, a contempt that is far more personal than musical, really. I tried to expalin that some of their music is OK, it's just the singer that's a wanker (although I couldn't think of a word in Spanish even remoretly like wanker, so I think I actually just said I didn't like him and he was a dumb son of a bitch, oh wait, now I know, puñetero!). Riot City Costa Rica! Nah, he's a good guy, I'd like to talk to him more about his musical tastes in a more sober environment. I actually feel pretty ashamed for commiting the greatest sin of scene whoredom: judging someone by their music tastes.
Hmm, I imagine some of you probably have no concept of what a young Costa Rican is like, so I hope you don't have the impression that they're uneducated, peasant farmers or anything like that. Even up here in the mountains, the Costa Ricans are pretty well educated, well spoken, and fairly concious of music and fashion trends, whether they are literally also farmers or not. For example, I've recently found out that Elizabeth, one of my more hiply dressed students, actually is in fact a farmer and that she milks cows on a daily basis. You never would've guessed from looking at her designer jeans that the hand now holding a pen was probably holding an udder just a few minutes ago.
So yeah, Costa Rica is a developed and rapidly developing country hovering in a limbo between "third" and "first" world. You could say "second world," although technically that term was reserved for the USSR and the Soviet Bloc, but since they're gone, maybe now it can stand for countries like Costa Rica. I don't want to go into too much detail, lest this email turn into some big lecture on Das Kapital, but I would like to give you a better idea of what Costa Rica is like.
Costa Rica has a strong tradition of democracy and peace. After the brief civil war of 1948, the military was abolished. This peacemindedness causes my various cousins to ask me if I had to serve in the military. From the US tradition of military conscription and warmongering in general, they were under the impression that all men had to serve at all times. Thankfully not, for now.
Costa Rica has free, compulsory, education up to ninth grade, resulting in a literacy rate of 95%, which is as good as just about anywhere in the world, and especially high for Latin America. They have socialized medicine, although I'm not sure of the extent and quality of their healthcare. They also have potable tap water just about everywhere except perhaps in some of the coastal areas. The water I get in Monteverde is way clearer and cleaner than the sea monkey lookin' sludge that came out of my tap in California, far tasier too. So it is immediately obvious that the Costa Ricans are generally of better health than the Guatemalans, for example. I think this also contributes to the general attractivness of the ladies here. I never realized that beauty was so closely tied to class, although I'm not sure exactly how it works. Is it the healthcare that minimizes sickness that minimizes blemishes? Is it the better diet? Is it more time and money for make up and clothes and things? Access to television and magazines that show Western standards of beauty that are more pleasing to my little, TV-brainwashed, mind? Is it all the hardwork in the sun in other countries that ages people more quickly? Or is it just that poverty has a way of making people ugly? Probably some combination of these factors, all I know is that the girls here are damn amazing.
Another interesting result of all this education and high standard of living is that many Costa Ricans have reached the point where, like in the US, they no longer want to do the shit jobs like picking bananas and coffee or cleaning toilets. So, like the US, their poorer neighbors come over to do this work. More than any other country, Nicaragua is the Mexico of Costa Rica. Many Nicaraguans, legally or illegally, come over here to work and find a better life, so, even though they are mostly doing jobs Costa Ricans no longer want, they are still criticized for "taking jobs away," crime, and any other number of social ills. Quite an unfortunate ammount of racism exists in Costa Rica towards Nicaraguans, Salvadorians, and Columbians especially. This was all a surprise to me, but really fascinating to see a country just begining to gentrify to that point, and how that point causes an increase in racism, for what is racism, really, but the hating of the lower classes by the upper classes? What is true in the US is beginning to come true here. Of course, the racism is no more universal here than in the US, and I really can't even say how widespread it is, just that it does exist.
A couple days before I came up to Monteverde, I went to my cousin's finca (farm) in the Peninsula de Osa in the very southwest of Costa Rica. I had been to this farm on my last trip to Costa Rica when I was seven. It's where I flipped over a hammock and cut my head open on the ground requiring two stiches and leaving that little scar on the back of my head, if you've ever noticed it when my hair is really short. My cousin Santiago (Iveth's husband, the cousins I've been staying with in San Jose), I'm not sure if I've mentioned, is pretty damn rich, a millionaire landowner, actually. He comes from a long line of cattle ranchers, and had worked with cattle all his life, although he was born a campesino. Campesino a word that has given me some trouble as the most literal definition is "peasant" which doesn't seem very PC. But here, it doesn't have a negative connotation. A campesino, derived from the word campo (countryside), is someone who works with the land and lives in close relation to it. It could be a farmer, or just like a country person or something like that. Even Costa Ricans from the city pride themselves on their campesino roots and talk about their "campesino sense," it's kind of like a mark of credability even. They also use the word peon for the workers who do the most basic labor, which really caught my attention, but this word too, it turns out doesn't mean "peon," like a worthless, expendable, person, but rather it just means laborer. Anyhow, a wealthy gringo investor came down, bought up a bunch of land, and hired Santi to run the show. After a few years of this, the gringo said, "Well, I've got more money than I can spend, just take the farms, I don't want to deal with them any more." So now Santi is one of the richest men in Costa Rica and has three sizeable cattle ranches. You know how they're always talking about how they cut down the rainforest to make grazing ground for cattle? Well, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how they got rich. I think his farms are pretty sustainable though, I don't think it's continous slash and burn or anything like that, because he constantly rotates his cattle from one field to another, giving the grass time to regrow in the latent fields. I don't know, I've been their guest, I didn't really want to go prying into it in some kind of accusatory manner. Actually, the government bought quite a chunk of his land for part of Corcovado National Park. The park, supposedly one of the wildest and most beautiful in Costa Rica, is within walking distance of the "finca," but I didn't get a chance to visit it this time.
It's an eight hour drive to get out to his farm (and he does it every week!). With that drive under my belt, I've seen quite a large expanse of Costa Rica, almost everything at least in passing from the main highways, north to south, east to west. I really liked the farm, and I would have liked to visit for longer than two days, but I had to be in Monteverde for work soon. The farm has lots of fish stocked lagoons, most of which have an alligator or two in them as well. I went fishing with a couple of the kids that live there. It was the first time I'd done free hand style fishing without a rod and all just using a string with a weight and hook, and it was pretty fun even though I didn't catch anything (the kids did). I also went on a small roundup with a couple of the cowboys, early one morning, just a little after sunup. I know I was deluding myself to feel as mythic as I did, sitting tall in that saddle there, and all we really did was patrol the fields, and move a bull from one to another, which involved the simple opening of two gates. Still, I had a good horse, compared to the tourist horses, that could run pretty fast and it was a calm, misty, morning. I saw uncountable flocks of parrots flying around and it was just a time of high joy for me. The cowboys, who'd I actually met before at Santi and Iveth's house in San Jose, told me, "You know, the parrots mate for life, they only ever have one mate. But the rooster... the rooster has lots. Which one are you?" Funny guys, I don't think they knew what to make of this semi-gringo "cousin," as they called me, living in Costa Rica. They kept asking me, "You´re going to live here?" There's also beach front property with surfable waves which I barely even got to catch a glimpse of. Maybe next time, although I need to get a board first.
Another one of my cousins, Adolfo (I don't think they make the connection to Adolph, because it's still a fairly common name), gave ME a new name. "You need a new name, Alan. Something Spanish, something holy," he said, smiling. So he named me Alan de Jesus de la Santisima Trinidad (Alan of Jesus of the Most Holy Trinity). I'd have to say I like it, it's sure got more punch than "Arthur." That Adolfo is a really funny guy, always this mischievious smile on his face. And Santi is a good guy too, the most decent (and only) millionaire I've ever met. No, really though, he's got a heart of gold, always giving, especially to the kids that live on his farms, won't let anyone pay for anything in his presence. Completely unpretentious, still a campesino at heart, usually goes around in cowboyish clothes, doesn't go for like haute cuisine or any of that shit, always just odering the typical Costa Rica meal from the regular Jose little cafes. Almost deaf now, which makes it hard to speak to him, I just feel silly yelling at a 72 year old man. Every day at exactly 4:19 the alarm on his watch goes off for about ten seconds and he doesn't even blink at it, which I think is like the greatest thing ever.
Well, back here in Monteverde, the rainy season is threatening to bust loose any day. I'm getting mixed reports. Some people say it will be better because it won't be so windy and dusty, just a little downpour of rain for an hour or two every day. Some people speak of apocalytpic deluges, turning the roads into foot deep mud that ends up covering you from head to toe. I don't think it's going to be too bad. Either way, I've been trying to make the most of the last sunny days. I headed into the forest again and finally got to see the White Faced Capuchin monkeys in the wild (the one that posed for the photo with me was in a wildlife refuge and used to being around people every day - come to think of it, I need to go visit that little guy again). I watched the monkeys for about two hours, a family of four adults and two small children. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen, I got to see a wide range of their behavior, getting aggressive and jumping up and down and shaking branches when I came to close (but thankfully not throwing their shit at me), the children riding on their mother's back as she made a far leap from one tree to another, peeling off bark in search of food, wrestling with each other, usually taking occaisonal peaks at me to make sure I wasn't up to anything funny during all of this. The coolest was when they would quickly swing and jump from tree to tree. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, because as it turns out, I seem to have lost my camera somewhere. The last time I remember having it was the last time I came to this forest, so it's probably gone forever. Ironic to bring it all those thousands of miles just to lose it at my destination.
Today, the top two Costa Rican soccer teams, Sarprisa and La Liga will face off for the North American Cup (out of all of North America, the two Costa Rican teams ended up being the finalists by defeating Monterey, Mexico and Chicago). So the game that will decide the North American championship, also happens to be "el classico," the big soccer rivalry of Costa Rica, so it should be a pretty big event for this soccer crazed country. Somehwat surprisngly, I've found myself becoming quite interested in Costa Rican soccer and have been watching a lot of the games, especially the big ones. I've never been a big fan of watching sports on TV, but I don't know, I really like soccer, I find it pretty exciting. Who knew? So 8 o'clock kick off should find me down in the local bar, which should be packed with shouting, chanting, drinking, fans. I haven't really decided my loyalties on this big game, but even though my family is from San Jose (Sarprisa), I tend to find myself more sempathetic to the underdog, Alajuela (La Liga), where I also do have some family. Then again, I still don't even really understand what offsides is, no matter how many times people explain it to me. I just know I like to watch. It seems there's a greater variety of things that can happen, maybe even more than basketball. A lot of grace and passing and headbutts and things. No commericals except at the half, which is probably why it hasn't caught on in the States, the networks can't make enough money off of it to shove it down our throats. (I didn't mail this when I expected, so the game already happened, and the underdog La Liga massacred the favored Sarprissa 4 to 0, which would be like winning by a 30 or 40 point lead in the NBA finals.)
So I guess this is it, unless something really huge happens. Speaking of pretty huge, I'm curious as to what the coverage of the Iraqi torture scandal is like in the US (and elsewhere). Here, the Sunday paper (from May 8th) had most of it's little Sunday pullout magazine devoted to it with the big title "Verguenza Americana" (American Shame) on the front. In the article, along with the shocking, but unfortuneately not at all surprising pictures, it includes an excerpt from an interview with the Joint Chief of Staff, General Peter Pace, saying unequivacolly that Bush and all the other muckitymucks knew about the torture while it was still going on, and didn't care to do anything to stop it, until it came out, then they tried to cover it up. There was also a related article about American soldiers knowingly and purposefully killing unarmed Iraqi civilians. Is that the impression that the American media is giving (or German, Norwegian, Australian, or Japanese)? What are your impressions on the matter? Write to me about it, and whatever else you feel like, you know, like, what you've been up to and all that.
I won't be writing any big emails, but I'll still be checking once or twice a week. So don't you forget about me.
Cuz I'll be there for you.
-Alley G
Could I have WRIT-ten any more emails?
(no, no, no, I haven't even watched the show once since like high school)
I've been living in Monteverde for a little over two weeks now and I'm somewhat settled. The only thing I really need to do is either find a cheaper place or find another job, because the numbers aren't quite adding up. Right now I'm working twelve hours a week teaching English and making almost $4 an hour, which is pretty good wages for Costa Rica. It's weird to be back in the classroom, hell, to be working at all, since the last time I worked or taught was in June. The classes are going pretty well and the students really do want to learn, which is a welcome change from California public schools. Basically, they want to learn enough English to get jobs in the tourist industry in Monteverde, because it's cushier and they can make more money that way. In that sense, I feel kind of strange about the whole thing. Partly class conciousness I guess, or maybe just hoping they could have higher aspirations, because I mean who really wants to learn a language just so they can understand the whiney demands of its speakers? And teaching English as a second language to Spanish speakers kind of sucks. While the Spanish were only about as good as the English at making friends with Indians, they were a lot better at making a language that is consistent in its rules, pronunciation, and spelling. They even have a Royal Academy that keeps the language in order. So now I have to try to explain things like there is 7 ways you can pronounce the letters "ough" and that you have to "look for HIM," but you have to "look HIM up," without any logical reason that I can think of for the placement of the pronoun. And I have to answer questions like, "How come there aren't accent marks to tell you how to pronounce words? Isn't there a Royal Academy for English?" I hope they understand how much more fucked up English is than Spanish, and don't just think I'm a shitty teacher (which may or may not also be true).
Since I've had so much free time, I've mostly been hanging around my apartment, reading and listening to music, going for walks in the woods, or hanging out with the friends I've been making. Most of the friends I've made are other expatriate English teachers like myself, although I have made a few local friends. I find language is still somewhat of a barrier for getting beyond superficial aquaintance, although my Spanish is getting pretty damn good. Also, I think it's a little harder to find common ground, since I don't think there are many Costa Ricans that read a lot of Bukowski and listen to a lot of Velvet Underground, but so what, we'll find some way to relate. Actually, I was pretty damn shocked to see a Costa Rican about my age wearing a Total Chaos t-shirt! I think I kind of got off on the wrong foot with that guy, because I couldn't contain my contempt for that particular band, a contempt that is far more personal than musical, really. I tried to expalin that some of their music is OK, it's just the singer that's a wanker (although I couldn't think of a word in Spanish even remoretly like wanker, so I think I actually just said I didn't like him and he was a dumb son of a bitch, oh wait, now I know, puñetero!). Riot City Costa Rica! Nah, he's a good guy, I'd like to talk to him more about his musical tastes in a more sober environment. I actually feel pretty ashamed for commiting the greatest sin of scene whoredom: judging someone by their music tastes.
Hmm, I imagine some of you probably have no concept of what a young Costa Rican is like, so I hope you don't have the impression that they're uneducated, peasant farmers or anything like that. Even up here in the mountains, the Costa Ricans are pretty well educated, well spoken, and fairly concious of music and fashion trends, whether they are literally also farmers or not. For example, I've recently found out that Elizabeth, one of my more hiply dressed students, actually is in fact a farmer and that she milks cows on a daily basis. You never would've guessed from looking at her designer jeans that the hand now holding a pen was probably holding an udder just a few minutes ago.
So yeah, Costa Rica is a developed and rapidly developing country hovering in a limbo between "third" and "first" world. You could say "second world," although technically that term was reserved for the USSR and the Soviet Bloc, but since they're gone, maybe now it can stand for countries like Costa Rica. I don't want to go into too much detail, lest this email turn into some big lecture on Das Kapital, but I would like to give you a better idea of what Costa Rica is like.
Costa Rica has a strong tradition of democracy and peace. After the brief civil war of 1948, the military was abolished. This peacemindedness causes my various cousins to ask me if I had to serve in the military. From the US tradition of military conscription and warmongering in general, they were under the impression that all men had to serve at all times. Thankfully not, for now.
Costa Rica has free, compulsory, education up to ninth grade, resulting in a literacy rate of 95%, which is as good as just about anywhere in the world, and especially high for Latin America. They have socialized medicine, although I'm not sure of the extent and quality of their healthcare. They also have potable tap water just about everywhere except perhaps in some of the coastal areas. The water I get in Monteverde is way clearer and cleaner than the sea monkey lookin' sludge that came out of my tap in California, far tasier too. So it is immediately obvious that the Costa Ricans are generally of better health than the Guatemalans, for example. I think this also contributes to the general attractivness of the ladies here. I never realized that beauty was so closely tied to class, although I'm not sure exactly how it works. Is it the healthcare that minimizes sickness that minimizes blemishes? Is it the better diet? Is it more time and money for make up and clothes and things? Access to television and magazines that show Western standards of beauty that are more pleasing to my little, TV-brainwashed, mind? Is it all the hardwork in the sun in other countries that ages people more quickly? Or is it just that poverty has a way of making people ugly? Probably some combination of these factors, all I know is that the girls here are damn amazing.
Another interesting result of all this education and high standard of living is that many Costa Ricans have reached the point where, like in the US, they no longer want to do the shit jobs like picking bananas and coffee or cleaning toilets. So, like the US, their poorer neighbors come over to do this work. More than any other country, Nicaragua is the Mexico of Costa Rica. Many Nicaraguans, legally or illegally, come over here to work and find a better life, so, even though they are mostly doing jobs Costa Ricans no longer want, they are still criticized for "taking jobs away," crime, and any other number of social ills. Quite an unfortunate ammount of racism exists in Costa Rica towards Nicaraguans, Salvadorians, and Columbians especially. This was all a surprise to me, but really fascinating to see a country just begining to gentrify to that point, and how that point causes an increase in racism, for what is racism, really, but the hating of the lower classes by the upper classes? What is true in the US is beginning to come true here. Of course, the racism is no more universal here than in the US, and I really can't even say how widespread it is, just that it does exist.
A couple days before I came up to Monteverde, I went to my cousin's finca (farm) in the Peninsula de Osa in the very southwest of Costa Rica. I had been to this farm on my last trip to Costa Rica when I was seven. It's where I flipped over a hammock and cut my head open on the ground requiring two stiches and leaving that little scar on the back of my head, if you've ever noticed it when my hair is really short. My cousin Santiago (Iveth's husband, the cousins I've been staying with in San Jose), I'm not sure if I've mentioned, is pretty damn rich, a millionaire landowner, actually. He comes from a long line of cattle ranchers, and had worked with cattle all his life, although he was born a campesino. Campesino a word that has given me some trouble as the most literal definition is "peasant" which doesn't seem very PC. But here, it doesn't have a negative connotation. A campesino, derived from the word campo (countryside), is someone who works with the land and lives in close relation to it. It could be a farmer, or just like a country person or something like that. Even Costa Ricans from the city pride themselves on their campesino roots and talk about their "campesino sense," it's kind of like a mark of credability even. They also use the word peon for the workers who do the most basic labor, which really caught my attention, but this word too, it turns out doesn't mean "peon," like a worthless, expendable, person, but rather it just means laborer. Anyhow, a wealthy gringo investor came down, bought up a bunch of land, and hired Santi to run the show. After a few years of this, the gringo said, "Well, I've got more money than I can spend, just take the farms, I don't want to deal with them any more." So now Santi is one of the richest men in Costa Rica and has three sizeable cattle ranches. You know how they're always talking about how they cut down the rainforest to make grazing ground for cattle? Well, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how they got rich. I think his farms are pretty sustainable though, I don't think it's continous slash and burn or anything like that, because he constantly rotates his cattle from one field to another, giving the grass time to regrow in the latent fields. I don't know, I've been their guest, I didn't really want to go prying into it in some kind of accusatory manner. Actually, the government bought quite a chunk of his land for part of Corcovado National Park. The park, supposedly one of the wildest and most beautiful in Costa Rica, is within walking distance of the "finca," but I didn't get a chance to visit it this time.
It's an eight hour drive to get out to his farm (and he does it every week!). With that drive under my belt, I've seen quite a large expanse of Costa Rica, almost everything at least in passing from the main highways, north to south, east to west. I really liked the farm, and I would have liked to visit for longer than two days, but I had to be in Monteverde for work soon. The farm has lots of fish stocked lagoons, most of which have an alligator or two in them as well. I went fishing with a couple of the kids that live there. It was the first time I'd done free hand style fishing without a rod and all just using a string with a weight and hook, and it was pretty fun even though I didn't catch anything (the kids did). I also went on a small roundup with a couple of the cowboys, early one morning, just a little after sunup. I know I was deluding myself to feel as mythic as I did, sitting tall in that saddle there, and all we really did was patrol the fields, and move a bull from one to another, which involved the simple opening of two gates. Still, I had a good horse, compared to the tourist horses, that could run pretty fast and it was a calm, misty, morning. I saw uncountable flocks of parrots flying around and it was just a time of high joy for me. The cowboys, who'd I actually met before at Santi and Iveth's house in San Jose, told me, "You know, the parrots mate for life, they only ever have one mate. But the rooster... the rooster has lots. Which one are you?" Funny guys, I don't think they knew what to make of this semi-gringo "cousin," as they called me, living in Costa Rica. They kept asking me, "You´re going to live here?" There's also beach front property with surfable waves which I barely even got to catch a glimpse of. Maybe next time, although I need to get a board first.
Another one of my cousins, Adolfo (I don't think they make the connection to Adolph, because it's still a fairly common name), gave ME a new name. "You need a new name, Alan. Something Spanish, something holy," he said, smiling. So he named me Alan de Jesus de la Santisima Trinidad (Alan of Jesus of the Most Holy Trinity). I'd have to say I like it, it's sure got more punch than "Arthur." That Adolfo is a really funny guy, always this mischievious smile on his face. And Santi is a good guy too, the most decent (and only) millionaire I've ever met. No, really though, he's got a heart of gold, always giving, especially to the kids that live on his farms, won't let anyone pay for anything in his presence. Completely unpretentious, still a campesino at heart, usually goes around in cowboyish clothes, doesn't go for like haute cuisine or any of that shit, always just odering the typical Costa Rica meal from the regular Jose little cafes. Almost deaf now, which makes it hard to speak to him, I just feel silly yelling at a 72 year old man. Every day at exactly 4:19 the alarm on his watch goes off for about ten seconds and he doesn't even blink at it, which I think is like the greatest thing ever.
Well, back here in Monteverde, the rainy season is threatening to bust loose any day. I'm getting mixed reports. Some people say it will be better because it won't be so windy and dusty, just a little downpour of rain for an hour or two every day. Some people speak of apocalytpic deluges, turning the roads into foot deep mud that ends up covering you from head to toe. I don't think it's going to be too bad. Either way, I've been trying to make the most of the last sunny days. I headed into the forest again and finally got to see the White Faced Capuchin monkeys in the wild (the one that posed for the photo with me was in a wildlife refuge and used to being around people every day - come to think of it, I need to go visit that little guy again). I watched the monkeys for about two hours, a family of four adults and two small children. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen, I got to see a wide range of their behavior, getting aggressive and jumping up and down and shaking branches when I came to close (but thankfully not throwing their shit at me), the children riding on their mother's back as she made a far leap from one tree to another, peeling off bark in search of food, wrestling with each other, usually taking occaisonal peaks at me to make sure I wasn't up to anything funny during all of this. The coolest was when they would quickly swing and jump from tree to tree. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, because as it turns out, I seem to have lost my camera somewhere. The last time I remember having it was the last time I came to this forest, so it's probably gone forever. Ironic to bring it all those thousands of miles just to lose it at my destination.
Today, the top two Costa Rican soccer teams, Sarprisa and La Liga will face off for the North American Cup (out of all of North America, the two Costa Rican teams ended up being the finalists by defeating Monterey, Mexico and Chicago). So the game that will decide the North American championship, also happens to be "el classico," the big soccer rivalry of Costa Rica, so it should be a pretty big event for this soccer crazed country. Somehwat surprisngly, I've found myself becoming quite interested in Costa Rican soccer and have been watching a lot of the games, especially the big ones. I've never been a big fan of watching sports on TV, but I don't know, I really like soccer, I find it pretty exciting. Who knew? So 8 o'clock kick off should find me down in the local bar, which should be packed with shouting, chanting, drinking, fans. I haven't really decided my loyalties on this big game, but even though my family is from San Jose (Sarprisa), I tend to find myself more sempathetic to the underdog, Alajuela (La Liga), where I also do have some family. Then again, I still don't even really understand what offsides is, no matter how many times people explain it to me. I just know I like to watch. It seems there's a greater variety of things that can happen, maybe even more than basketball. A lot of grace and passing and headbutts and things. No commericals except at the half, which is probably why it hasn't caught on in the States, the networks can't make enough money off of it to shove it down our throats. (I didn't mail this when I expected, so the game already happened, and the underdog La Liga massacred the favored Sarprissa 4 to 0, which would be like winning by a 30 or 40 point lead in the NBA finals.)
So I guess this is it, unless something really huge happens. Speaking of pretty huge, I'm curious as to what the coverage of the Iraqi torture scandal is like in the US (and elsewhere). Here, the Sunday paper (from May 8th) had most of it's little Sunday pullout magazine devoted to it with the big title "Verguenza Americana" (American Shame) on the front. In the article, along with the shocking, but unfortuneately not at all surprising pictures, it includes an excerpt from an interview with the Joint Chief of Staff, General Peter Pace, saying unequivacolly that Bush and all the other muckitymucks knew about the torture while it was still going on, and didn't care to do anything to stop it, until it came out, then they tried to cover it up. There was also a related article about American soldiers knowingly and purposefully killing unarmed Iraqi civilians. Is that the impression that the American media is giving (or German, Norwegian, Australian, or Japanese)? What are your impressions on the matter? Write to me about it, and whatever else you feel like, you know, like, what you've been up to and all that.
I won't be writing any big emails, but I'll still be checking once or twice a week. So don't you forget about me.
Cuz I'll be there for you.
-Alley G
Could I have WRIT-ten any more emails?
(no, no, no, I haven't even watched the show once since like high school)