Eaten by Tapirs

Photos!

Lots of 'em!

posted by Paul @ 12:54 PM 2 comments

I'm still alive!

The last three weeks have been devoured by a horrendous exercise in sadism called the "Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies Foundation Course", an endless monstrosity dedicated to teaching multicultural skills (primarily through card games and pencil-drawing exercises) to the two or three people at the school who don't have any multicultural experience. Sadly, everybody else had to spend eight hours a day on it too. My blogging and emailing suffered horribly as a result.

But it's done now! And the first real class of my program, "International Law, Governance and Human Rights", has begun most promisingly. Tonight's readings are a comic book about Machiavelli and a few paragraphs from Paolo Coelho's "The Alchemist". The prof is an Egyptian-Canadian named Hassan who was first specialized in Islamic Law before he was jailed and tortured for gay rights activism - something of an eclectic fellow.

And now I have free time, more or less! I also have basic internet access at homem, and am looking most forward to blogging regularly. When I have batteries for my camera, I'll upload oodles of beach photos and generically pretty shots of sunset over a volcanic lake.

Beaches, you say? As it happens, Costa Rica is sandwiched between the Pacific and the Caribbean, which creates lounging opportunities irresistible even to a committed beach-o-phobe like myself. Among the many things I've failed to write about so far: a week and a bit ago, I visited the touristy but pleasantly close (about 2 hours away) Jaco Beach and took a surfing lesson. Cost $30 I didn't really have, but dang I had fun. While acquiring a fearsome sunburn, I actually managed to stand up on my beloved surfboard and ride the white waves for five or six seconds at a time - more than I'd expected for a first time (my failed expedition in Mozambique in April doesn't count). I lack photos of this excursion, but this weekend just past my wonderful host family organized a cheap'n'sweet expedition to several northern Pacific beaches, a national park, and the glorious but too-distant Volcan Arenal. Photos and details to follow tomorrow, when I have four hours to sit around and blog between morning classes and afternoon Spanish lessons.

Please, accept this post as the first in a long and imminent line of posts about my (sedentary) adventures here. More will come tomorrow - I promise.

posted by Paul @ 4:55 PM 3 comments