Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Birthday Wekend Pictures

Ok, so I have yet to get the pictures from the English class party, but the following are from my actual birthday. Costa Rica`s national soccer team played Mexico to see who goes to the world cup, so we had a big party with neighbors in the rancho. After the game (which CR sadly lost), we blasted music and danced and sang karaoke (tìpica fiesta tica!) and enjoyed some delicious birthday cake. It was a lovely party and I could not have asked for a better birthday celebration. Also attached are pictures of the trash clean up I did with some neighborhood kids and Georgina, the super sweet PC trainee who came to visit for the weekend. We quite successfully cleaned up a huge part of the road and soccer field, and now we have to spread the word so that people do not continue to litter-- no small task, but poco a poco vamos!

Ok, here are the pictures!


my host parents
some of the lady party guests
me cutting the delicious birthday cake

after singing happy birthday, everyone was chanting for me to bite the cake. thinking that is must be some CR tradition and not wanting to offend anyone, I proceed to bite a little corner. imagine my surprise when one of the neighbors dunks my face into the cake! needless to say, I think I will be endlessly teased and reminded of my gullibility, but at least they got a kick out of it!

picking up road-side trash

garbage collected in a span of about 300 meters of the road and the soccer field (insane!)

enjoying a much needed boli-helado break at the pulperìa
after 3 tiring hours of trash pick-up, we celebrated with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (the kids´first time trying my favorite American snack!)
the cutest little puppies I have ever seen (about 3 weeks old)