To Ellie, From Lauren

Dear Lauren and readers,

I decided to address it so, I hope you don't mind. It feels more inclusive.

Doggie Update: I think Anusca may have rabies. He was acting very very strange the other day (like spasms and twitches and drool) and I'm definitely going to avoid him for awhile. Of course when I brought my host mom to see, he was just lying there calmly like nothing happened. Apparently an animal can only live with rabies for 10 days so if he is still alive on the 10th I will know he is fine. I'll be rooting for him from afar.

I just got an email from my good friend Mary (I think you met her?) from Senegal. She is studying there this semester and recently arrived. I absolutely love her. The email got me thinking about the way people live and how we are all so different but all fundamentally the same. Even when there are language barriers communication still manages to occur. I love it when I can talk to my host mom and we understand each other. Apparently there is an event this weekend where they bring cattle pulling carts down the roads and I said "En españa tienen..." and she knew exactly what I was talking about. We both had a good laugh miming people running from bulls. Things like that make me smile so so much.

I finally made friends with some ticos (costa ricans). USAC

has a "tico friend" program where the students learning english sign up and are paired with one of us. They are supposed to help us with Spanish and getting adjusted and seeing San Ramón, and we help them with English (which they don't really need from what I've seen). Most of them want to be English teachers. My tica friend is Libia and she is extremely nice. She really likes to dance, and so do I, so we've danced a lot. I actually managed to recruit one of the tico guys to our dance class on Wednesdays. We are in desperate need of men for that class,

and ones that can already dance are preferred. It seems like all the ticos already know how to do salsa, meringue, bachata etc. It seems like they learn young, like how we all know the macarena. It is amazing how quickly I accept people as friends here. I feel like I have known the other USAC students for much longer than two weeks, and the ticos for longer than four days. Come to think of it, my first week here felt like it was about a month.

I finally had a talk with my host mom about not giving me so much food. She goes for walks in the morning, so she leaves my breakfast on the counter and I get ready and go to class while she is gone. This morning I had

huevos con jambon between 2 tortillas, a piña fresca (like a very watery smoothie), two bananas (granted they are small) and a huge bowl of cereal. We agreed that tomorrow I would just have some cereal, and some coffee. I'm growing to like the coffee here a lot. Here is a photo of my host mother by the way. She is in purple and walking with her sister who lives next door and is hosting mi amigo Andrew.

Wednesday was San Ramón day, so the saint (San Ramón) invited all his other holy friends to come party with him. They all arrived on Tuesday in the Entrados de los Santos which was a huge parade and city-wide holiday. Each of the nearby provinces and cities brought a statue of their saint, adorned with real flowers, to San Ramón. The photo is my favorite saint of the day, in a wheelbarrow with lots of flowers. The statue of our saint-San Ramón- paraded through the city, stopping at intersections where the newcomers were waiting to officially welcome them. Then the parade would move on and the welcomed saints would join, carried upon the shoulders of the

representatives from their towns and listening to music from the band they brought. I joined the parade and walked along right behind San Ramón himself, listening to San Ramón's band and the band of the saint behind us. Once the saints got to the church they were placed in their positions along the inside. The fiesta de San Ramón goes on for more than a week, with events and bands

playing each day. Every year they build a covering where vendors

and the bands and people can be and stay dry from the afternoon rains. The event was such a beautiful taste of Costa Rican culture and I absolutely loved it. That night, after dancing, my friends and I split a piña from the ice cream stand at the park. It was filled with fruit, jello, and ice cream and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk. Yummy!

You asked about the weather and boy am I glad to be here and not in the CA valley heat! The temperatures are mid-60s low to upper 80s high. The only thing that is less than perfect is the humidity, which is fairly high, but not unmanageable. It usually rains for a few hours every afternoon. The first thing I bought myself here was an umbrella!

On the wildlife front, I saw my favorite Costa Rican critter thus far, the three-toed sloth. We went last weekend on a USAC fieldtrip to a coffee plantation, then to a wilderness park, and some of us saw this guy hanging out in a tree. There was also a neat butterfly garden. There are lots of photos up on facebook if anyone is interested.

You should be in Chico by now, so say 'hi' to everyone for me!

Pura Vida,

Ellie