The other day, I was telling Cesar and Luis Diego about my weekend in Manuel Antonio. There were shirts at all the souvenir stands that read, "Soy gringo, pero no es mi culpa." I am gringo, but it's not my fault. I thought this was really funny, but when I told Cesar and Luis Diego about it, Luis Diego got very upset. He went on a rant, saying while it was funny to make fun of gringos, a gringo should never make fun of himself or where he came from. It was disloyal to my country, the United States, to want to be anything but a gringa. I understood his logic, but the shirt was purely for entertainment value. Luis Diego is very religious. He loves his family, his Catholicism and his country. He is also slightly bigoted. He doesn't like the Chinese population in Costa Rica, because he says they rudely refuse to adapt to Tican life. They don't make an effort to learn the language, and this insults him. Luis Diego also dislikes the Spanish (people from Spain). He says he knows they are lovely people, but he also knows they look down on Latin America. He thinks Spaniards think they are better than Latin Americans. He dislikes the French, and I suspect he dislikes African Americans, too, though he has never said it directly. He did say that a lot of black Ticans are arrogant. He is full of opinions! Luckily, he likes Jews and Israelis. He recently went to Israel and is obsessed with talking about it. He made a comment along the lines of, "I know Jews don't believe in Jesus Christ, but it's okay. I love Israel." I have to laugh, because I don't know what else to do.
Luis is around 30 years old, and he does not have a girlfriend. He claims he wants to get married and have a family, but he is annoyed by Tican women. He says they are very needy; girlfriends here like to call their boyfriends throughout the work day. This bothers Luis Diego; his work is important to him. He does not have time to be disturbed (I would attest otherwise, but who am I to pass judgment?). On the other hand, he only wants to marry a Tica. He loves his country and the culture, and he could not imagine marrying a woman from anywhere else. It sounds to me like Luis is extremely picky and has caught a case of unrealistic expectations. I enjoy my conversations with Luis Diego. I've learned a lot from him and his antics.
My roommate, Amy, made her own Web site the other night. It's through iWeb - just another cool application Macs have that my PC doesn't. I helped her design it. I enjoy layout and design. I've watched Cesar at work with Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. I was thinking about taking a journalism design course next year, and now I definitely want to take it. It's smart to know as much as I can in my field, especially with the industry going in the direction that it is.
Last night, I stayed at work late, because the guest speaker I was planning to attend was right near work. It wasn't worth it to go home for an hour and turn back around. I brought a book to read. As I was getting ready to leave, Rafa and Luis Diego told me to be careful because our building was haunted. I was going to write it off as another prank, but then they showed me old issues of the magazine from 2005. One of the old directors was murdered, and Summa employees claim they see or hear her ghost in the building from time to time. Luis Diego told me that it was just scary to be in the building alone after dark. I don't know if I believe them or not, but I left in a hurry.
The guest speaker was excellent. His name is Jeff Duchein, and he is the general manager for the central American region of Aerocasillas. Aerocasillas is a company that facilitates online shopping for residents here by setting them up with a mailing address in Miami. It expedites the shipping process and removes the hassle of picking up packages here. Addresses here are a joke. Unless you have a P.O. Box, you can't be guaranteed you will ever get your mail. The address for my house is something like 50 metros al norte del Colego del Rosario. Uh, what? A postman would be wandering the streets forever. Aerocasillas price range is somewhere inbetween U.S. Postal Service cheap (with a 4-5 week wait) and DHL ridiculous (with a 4-5 day wait). Aerocasillas gets you your online purchases in 2-3 days for a decent price. It was a great lecture. I don't know why I enjoyed it so much.
We talked about the situation in Honduras for a while. Interestingly enough, Zelaya had the ballots printed for the referendum...in Venezuela! Oy vey. And how funny is it that the entire free world is rallying around Zelaya as the face of democracy, when in fact, the democratically elected official was trying to extend his power? Zelaya physically walked over to the military base and removed the confiscated ballots from their holding area. Maybe he should go back to Honduras; maybe he shouldn't. I don't know, but I'm starting to think it was necessary to kick him out at 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning.
I had a little miscommunication with Patri. Background information: ever since I arrived in Costa Rica, the bathroom upstairs (my bathroom) has been broken. Juan Carlos has tried to fix it multiple times, but it always breaks again. Also, when Patri does laundry downstairs, there is no running water in the shower or sink in the bathroom upstairs. Tuesday evening, Patri told me the toilet was fixed. I used it. It didn't flush. Wednesday morning, I told Patri it wasn't working, and she claimed it was. Wednesday morning, I attempted to brush my teeth in the sink upstairs. Patri was doing laundry downstairs. Hence, I went downstairs to brush my teeth in another bathroom. Patri was weirdly insulted. She kept telling me the bathroom was working, and I kept trying to explain that there was no running water while she did laundry. I left for work in the middle of this discussion.
When I met Amy for lunch yesterday, she told me that Patri was in a bad mood back at home. Patri told Amy, "Lauren me molesta." Lauren annoyed me! Clearly, Patri and I were not speaking the same language (I swear I tried). This morning, I told her that I didn't understand what she said yesterday. Was the bathroom working or not? She said yes and gave me a grand tour of the toilet's knobs and pipes. I still don't want to use the toilet. Natalie told me she just makes sure that Patri doesn't see her use the bathrooms downstairs. Why it is so offensive to her, I don't know.
This morning, one of the women in the office announced that she is two months pregnant. She is overflowing with happiness; it's so cute. We all sat around looking in a baby name book her sister gave her. She likes names with one or two syllables, and she also likes religious names. She doesn't like names that are gender neutral. Basically, she is a typical Catholic Tican: Traditional and religious, minus the fact that she is not married. I didn't ask about the boyfriend.
Well, I guess I did have a lot to say.
I'm looking forward to going to an Independence Day picnic tomorrow. There are going to be hot dogs and hamburgers and lots of people and music. All I know is that I will NOT be eating a hamburger. Bad memories.
Pura Vida,
Lauren
P.S. Lauren is pronounced La-ow-rrren here. I gave up on introducing myself as Lore-in weeks ago.
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