Perfect Day

So spending my weekend in the city turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would. It's kind of nice to be able to take the bus and just explore. Friday, I ventured into a beautiful Catholic church in the center of town, a panaderia that sold pizza bread (with ham in it, because Costa Ricans love ham on their pizza and so do I), another panaderia that I had visited the day before, and the Central Market. I bought something at the central market that you might find particularly interesting. I made a video about it:

One of my roommates left early yesterday morning to Puerto Viejo with her Alternative Medicine class. Puerto Viejo is in Limon province and is very different from the rest of the country, since it is on the Caribbean side. I will not have the privilege of going to see Limon this time, but maybe I'll be back in Costa Rica someday and I'll go there.

Thus, my other roommate and I were left here to figure out what exactly to do with our Saturday. We decided to go to a smoothie place near Veritas, then take the bus into the city to go to the Parque Metropolitano La Sabana. This is a gorgeous, huge park close to the National Stadium. It has a small lake, tons of green space and trees, playgrounds, picnic tables, the Museum of Costa Rican Art that used to be the airport, and the national monument. Here are some pictures I took during our tour of the city at the beginning of the trip:

 Parque La Sabana filled with people.

 The former airport/Museo de Arte Costarricense.

El Estadio Nacional. A gift from the Chinese Government.

It turned out to be a lot of fun. We had burger king for lunch (because we're Americans) in the park, then we found paddleboats for 1000 colones ($2) each and horseback rides for 2000 colones each. We managed to take only buses the entire trip (no taxis), and we figured out where we were going in the city. When we got back to downtown San Jose, we ran into a silent flash mob by a bunch of youth. That was interesting. Then we got ice cream and took the bus home.

This morning I got up early and watched the Synchronized Swimming Technical Qualifiers. My former teammate Mary Killman was one-half of the duet. It was so exciting to be able to see her swim at the Olympics!! They got 10th in technical routines. They swim free routines tomorrow, and if they make top 12, they will swim their free routine again in the finals on Tuesday. I will be up every morning watching it online! GO USA!!

I stole this photo off of Facebook, it was taken by Mary's sister in-law. Mary Killman is on the left.

And this is how I knew her. Pirouettes of Texas 2005 National Age Group 16-17 Team Finals. Mary is second from the left. I am third from the left.

I can't believe I only have a week left here in CR. I'm anxious to get home, but I'm sad to see it all end. I'm hoping to make a bunch of memories this week!

Chao luego!