Two weeks

I have been in Costa Rica for two weeks: took the wrong bus twice, walked home in a river that forgot it was a street once; got cured by the witch doctor twice and experienced the obligatory stomach-wrenching, cold sweating diarrhea vom only once ---thank god!
FOOD: I´ve eaten a day´s worth of food at each meal which includes RICE and BEANS, always, fried plantains, my favorite, coffee, usually a meat-sometimes a weird one like bologna\hotdog or a cooked to death piece of beef, and buttery buttery buttery fried everything. The fried eggs are soooo good because they are cooked in plenty of oil and sprinkled with delicious sea salt. I sometimes eat bimbo bread aka wonder bread drenched in thick yellow butter beside my fried eggs and fried plantains lol. Don´t forget the tortillas! which can be added to any meal at any time. But the best part of all is the fruit. Those frutas, que rico! I´ve tried some new crazy fruits: guanavana with a texture like juicy styrofoam and a sweetness that is almost too much. A papaya look-a-like that is SO SWEET, too sweet, the juice drips like simple syrup. A new discovery called tamarindo--a big wad thats brown and sticky like the inside of a fig newton. Its filled with large black seeds at random and is actually a little sour along with the tacky sweetness. It reminds me of nature´s slightly sour, brown, gum wad. Don´t be fooled by the description. Its actually quite good. Papayas are my favorite, but everything from Mangos to Bananas are a pleasure. Haven´t eaten too many veggies except for juicy avocados with a green skin...ymmmm...if you don´t count plantains, which the ticos DO consider a veg.
This is a lot about food, but its the most important thing that happens all day. All the ticos exclaim at how little I eat when my stomach is streching and I´m working up a sweat trying to eat all my breakfast!
My host family is awesome. My tica mom loves to talk and cook. Therefore, all hours of the day people come by and she fixes them food and they talk. and talk. and then someone else pops in to talk and of course my tica mom makes some coffee and sandwiches or cookies. Its just my host mom and her oldest son Rudy, 24, in the house besides me and the new foreigner Cybil from Switzerland. However, her daughter lives in an apartment upstairs with her hubby and two kids, ages 3 and 4. The house is behind a gate (like all houses, which have bars on their windows or are behind a very high enclosed iron gate) and inside the gate are three different families in small houses. Our neighbors are very close in the sense of space and also in the sense of friends.
I am going to Playa Hermosa this weekend which is near Jaco and only two hours away. This will be my first big trip out with a few people from the institute. I´ve been to Cartago--sort of---and into San Jose and Heredia-Alejuala. The fiestas in costa rica are incredible: birthdays, saint´s days, and going away parties! details and pictures later. Hasta Luego