Pobre Polly

I´ve been here for nearly four full days now, and I finally feel like I´m starting to achieve a bit of regularity--in both my schedule, and my bowel movements.

Mornings are a bit hectic in the household. By the time I wake up at 6:15, Sebastian and his mother have already showered--separately I hope. Kristian is usually in the shower, and the two little girls are in their parents´room being dressed for school.

Denise and the children eat breakfast first, and they´re out the door by 7:00 AM on their way to school. (Denise teaches at the school that the children attend.) I shower while the children are eating, then Kristian and I eat breakfast together in a quiet house. At 7:47, I embark on my twelve minute walk to school.

Kristian and I have really hit it off. He´s a real mench, with a big heart and a great sense of humor.

At breakfast yesterday morning, the two of us literally laughed until we cried. We were talking about my life back in the States, when the subject of my having worked in a Mexican restaurant came up. Kristian began to speak some Mexican slang, and I reciprocated.

Then, the dog began to scratch at my leg, and I looked at her and said, ¨Polly, mi amor. Que tu quieres de mi vida?¨ Polly, my love. What do you want from my life?

Kristian burst out laughing, and for the next ten minutes we took turns assaulting poor Polly--a three pound poodle--with Mexican slang.

¨Polly, calmate que te calmo.¨ Polly, calm down before I calm you down.

¨Polly, caete que o te cayo.¨ Polly, shut up or I´ll shut you up.

¨Polly, ahogate en mi verga.¨ Polly, choke on my_______. (Alas, boys will be boys.)

Anyway, we´re getting along really well.

In other news, since my lessons at the school were converted to private lessons from group lessons, and there are less of them, I front-loaded my week so I could take off on Friday.

The other student, Heike, and I signed up for an overnight exursion to Tortuguero National Park this weekend. We leave tomorrow morning at 6:15 AM from San Jose, stop at a banana plantation along the way, and arrive at the park around lunchtime. We have the remainder of the day on Friday to wander around on our own, and then on Saturday morning we take a boat tour through the canals before heading home in the evening. Supposedly, it´s fairly common to catch a glimpse of crocodiles and other such amphibious rodents (see: The Big Lebowski.)

On Sunday, Kristian is going to BBQ at the house, and I´m in charge of the guacamole and margaritas.

Anyway, hopefully I´ll have some free time to put up a post tomorrow night at the hotel, but it´s possible that I wont have computer access again until late Saturday night.

So, until next time, I leave you with a public service announcement from my twin sisters: