lucky you, its time for another update.
two weekends ago we went to Manuel Antonio, a very touristy spot on the pacific coast. the three of us boys spent three hours in the ocean with nothing more than SPF 4 on... my skin is still peeling off my back today from the 2nd degree burn i got. don´t worry i learned my lesson, and the blisters were really tiny. in the evenings the whole group went dancing (in this wall-less place with mirrors everywhere, and a bunch of creepy guys watching the tourists dance), skinny dipping, and probably some other things. it was so humid and hot (partially because of the burn) that i was shirtless pretty much the whole time.
and then this last weekend we went to a cloud forrest, San Gerardo de Dota. it was SOOO beautiful, the food was amazing, they even cooked the fish that Soni and David caught in the stocked river. we hiked to two waterfalls through actual, primary rainforest, one was about 20 ft high and had a cave carved out right next to it that you could climb into to watch the waterfall. the second was about 60-70 ft high, absolutely amazing. the trails were so allovertherplace that there were ropes everywhere we had to use to get there. we also went birdwatching for quetzals with a guide who taught us tons about the biology surrounding us (i was in heaven!), horseback riding, and played soccer with the guys that worked there one morning.
my internship has been really good, i´ve learned a ton at the Clinic, not to mention that my spanish is getting worked. they let me give shots in the injections clinic, i watched a gunshot wound get cleaned, got to hold a baby of a mother while she got a pap smear, and go twice a week into the community both for domilicary visits and for primary medicine (education, blood pressure and sugar checks, both of which i was taught to do), its so hard to follow the accents and fast spanish of the people in the community, especially when they get going on their opinions of the health care system. med school is only six years of college here, instead of two different schools, four apiece, like in the States, so the doctors are only a couple of years older than I am. the one i directly report to has good conversational english skills, but doesnt know medicinal english, and my spanish is pretty much the same, so we teach each other the medicinal language in our native tongue. it also never ceases to amaze me how much power the white coak of a doctor has, people treat me differently in the clinic when i´m wearing mine and when i´m not.
my host family is still great, understanding when i come home after a long day of internship and spanish classes and stumble over every word cuz my brain is sapped. i find my english is getting worse as my spanish gets better so that now i can´t communicate period. a group of us went to twoforone movie night on wednesday (every movie theatre in the city, which works out to be $1.6 a person), and i invited my host sister. we saw X3, which i loved (even though the writing kinda sucked), and would love to discuss the finer points of it with any of you who are willing (Jacob, you especially).
we´re going to see an active volcano this weekend, Arenal, which is especially active right now, so unfortunately we can´t climb it, but i´m looking forward to watching the lava glow from afar, sitting in the hot springs with the swim up bar. we were going to go to a banana plantation today, and then on to the Carribean coast to Puerto Viejo, which is another kind of touristy place. but we decided to do all that next weekend because no one will be at the banana plantation today because ------>
the first game of the world cup of soccer is going on right now, and i just heard everyone yelling and screaming, meaning the game at least won´t be a shutout. costa rica vs germany, we dont stand a chance cuz we´ve got three injured players and the game is in germany. but heres hoping. the whole country is going nuts, and all public employees (like half the country) have the day off, as well as many other people who will simply not work today. the whole country stopped.
i hope that all of you are having a great summer, and that i hear from y´all soon.
peace and elbow grease.
smiles
Ben
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