party all the time, party all the time

Enough of the serious stuff, we've had a lot of fun down here.

The proof is in the pictures:

Karaoke= my job in Puerto Viejo. Before this, some pretty scuzzy guys were passing me around when they figured out I could dance. I got sick of it, and started to stay close to Kirby and Efra. After I sang, the same scuzzy guys asked Kirby and Efra PERMISSION to clap for me and "honor" me. Machismo works in mysterious ways.

Dancing on the beach at "Johnny's Place" earlier that night. Micah (aka 'Capatin Caskey', USMC, or aka 'South Carolina' (depending on my mood)) confessed to me later that night that after dancing with me, it was really hard to dance with the other girls who didn't know how. He immediately asked that I dont let it go to my head (it did).

There's nothing like sleeping it off the next day in a hammock outside of your little home in the Caribbean...


The following week, my mysterious fever went away just in time for me to celebrate the last day with the whole group. We hit the town *pretty* hard. We went to a group of bars in "el pueblo." It was nice to have a large part of the group together (minus Efra, who took his test late after he got my fever).


The girls, sober and pretty, in the beginning of the night (+ Kent, who can not take a picture without looking like a creep).

Apparently, we had a good time. Lisa is on the left and Vicky on the right. Lisa lives in the city and I'm sure I will see her more. Vicky is from Jersey, and one of my favorites now that Ash is gone and Robin spends every weekend with her boyfriend.


Let me introduce you to Guaro, the Tico's version of imitation vodka? (But it tastes more like rum.) Somehow, they thought we were VIPs at this bar, and let us up to this VIP balcony level. The bartender handed us two bottles of Guaro when we walked in, so Lisa and I took advantage. After these swigs, he handed us glasses and mixers (whoops). I still don't really know what happened, but the point is, we had a lot of fun for a little money.

Yesterday we went to the History Museum and a craft market. It's a good thing I'm so poor, because I basically want to buy all the jewelery that I see. The museum was cool, but the coolest part was when it started to absolutely storm and we all sat in the center of this old castle and watched the water poor down on the roof tops of the entire town below us. You could see the whole city and the stretches of mountains behind it.
I stood with four friends and looked out through the rain to buildings that probably contained a million people, but I felt peacefully alone.

Pictures to come.

wasting time on cheap talk and wine

I'm supposed to be writing my final right now, so obviously I will write instead.

Today was my last day of Human Rights. Next week those of us staying on will do Refugee Law. I will miss the group, the court, and Judge Antonio Cancado Trindade.

The judge and Efrain, who next week starts an internship at the Inter-American Court.


Because I can't get to my computer, I will have to settle for some of Efrain's pics. I realize the link didn't work, so I added it to the tool bar at the right.


The night before Ashley left, we went to a coffee plantation. I think Efrain ended up paying a taxi driver $80 to drive us up this mountain (well, volcano really) because we wanted an adventure. It was POURING rain like I maybe have never seen. The taxi was old and I was sure we wouldn't make it. Efrain was constantly wiping down the front window for the driver to see as the driver gripped the wheel and did his best to navigate and Ashley and I were deep in conversation (as per usual). Along the way, people shouted directions to us through our window. At one point, lighting touched down literally feet from the car. When we got there, the rain stopped just in time for us to get some beautiful pictures (mine are really good :) )


The rows of coffee plants and banana trees reminded me of the vineyards in Napa and made me homesick.
After the coffee plantation we met up with Robin and her boyfriend Gusto and went to a jazz club. Turns out jazz is pretty much the same wherever you go. Lord, I'm craving live music.




The weekend after Ashley left Efrain and I went to the Caribbean and met up with 10 others from our group. We went to Puerto Viejo. The beach right outside the town has black sand. There seems at first glance to be a lot of tourists, but I think most foreigners have actually moved there. Hotels and restaurants are run by many Germans and Austrians. The food was so good and fresh.

When we arrived, we checked into our little bungaloo and rented bikes. We rode a couple miles down a mud road full of pot holes (I never fell, but was covered in mud none the less) and found some white sand beaches, but the rip tide was so strong you couldnt swim. When the rest of the group came, we got a sweet little house and I made pina coladas for everyone. After some begging, they found me a place to dance- right on the beach. We danced in the waves by candlelight and then somehow ended up in a tiny local bar, where I, yet again, ended up being the entertainment for the night and sang karaoke.

The playa negra (black beach) on the caribbean side:
Me, Lisa, Vicky, and Kirby

Vicky and I.

The sand is carbon black and would shine in the foamy surf. There are animals everywhere, including wild horses. Incredible.

We had a final dinner in an Argentinian steak house with the whole class- on Santa Clara's dime (and our tuition $s). We got stuck outside (Efrain, Robin, Gusto, and me) which was fine by us. Out of sight from the teacher, we ordered up a storm. But, by the main course, I was already wrecked with fever.

I am really going to go work on my final now and try to nurse myself back to health.
Sleep well, wherever you are.

quick update

I finally moved into a safer/closer neighborhood.

My computer is broken, so access is super hard.

Efrain, Ash and I had a coffee farm adventure in the pouring rain, then went to a jazz club before she left.

Last weekend, the Caribbean was beautiful.

My first program is ending, so final tomorrow. But I am sooooo sick! Fever all night and all day....

Efrain posts pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/efrainstaino/CostaRica03?authkey=3WnoyaTFKus

(my new house is the same as his)

more soon. promise.

caribbean dreams

My computer is broken. It's extremely frustrating. I may have to get a new one when I get back.

I will write more about the Caribbean, but we had these perfect little bungaloos with mosquito nets covering the beds. There were journals in each room with entries written in French, Spanish, English, czech, German, and more. Falling asleep in the heat, with the light above my bed lighting the net above me, I wrote:


My face is warm, my eyelids heavy.
Twirling the thin glass stem between my fingers,
I watch the soft light illuminating the
edge of the pools of red.
Liquid gliding easily along the glass,
mocking me,
pretending like one escaping drop won't be permanent.

Staining images and burning dreams,
I'm working harder than I should.
Laughing too loudly, listening too intently,
I recall places that existed only in a moment
and people who spoke only for me to hear.
My hand appears steady,
but my cynicism knows me better.

Exhausted, I wake remembering it's you
I'm pretending to forget.
The shadow of your laugh used to echo for me
constantly.
Speak to me.

Before Sunrise? Before Wednesday.

I will save you all the meta-philosophical rant that I began the last post, as I have decided to turn it into my first article for the first issue of the Advocate. I think that the concepts of law have deviated too far from the discussion of ethics. Mostly I think that we take for granted that progress will be continuous- it’s not unless we fight for it.

Thursday night my new hermanos took me to a bar, Castros, which was a salsa bar downstairs and a karaoke bar upstairs. Basically, it was made for me. For those of you that know how passionate latin music is, I’m sure you can imagine the intensity that comes from the “Ticos” (what the Costa Ricans call themselves) in a karaoke bar. Of course I sang and made a fool of myself but then went downstairs and danced and felt a lot better. I have to say, it feels damn good to be a gringa in the biggest salsa bar in San Jose, Costa Rica, and still be one of the best dancers. Obvs, I had a blast.

Sometime around Wednesday or Thursday, something really amazing happened. That first day when you go around the room and introduce yourself and the impression you’re making on your classmates and teachers hedge on the few words you choose, a young woman named Ashley said she lived in a cabin in a little mountain town in Colorado with her husband a two dogs. She was one of the few that I initially thought I’d like, but had been busy with my new family and hadn’t reached out. She found me at break one day, and we instantly formed a great friendship. At dinner that night, we went to the bathroom and both gushed about how happy we were to have found each other and our other new favorite, Efrain, a married man who was born in Cuba, grew up in Sweden, and who's parents are from Uruguay. Efrain goes to Santa Clara and I am happy to have made a good friend that I can keep at home. It took a few days, but I finally found the people that I was destined to travel, laugh, cry, and grow with.

This weekend we went to Manuel Antontio, a beach on the pacific coast. Somehow by the time we got there, Ashley and I had already made each other cry on the bus. I don't think I've ever met a friend that I've so instantly connected with. I can't really type much about it now, because we're already feeling super emotional and the cafe we are at is about to close.

Ashley called her Dad the day we got to the beach and found out he has to have surgery on Thursday. After much discussion and tears, she decided to go home. It breaks my heart that our little group is already disbanding. Much like the movie, "Before Sunrise," the three of us are trying to suck out every moment we can. We swam for hours and hours, hiked all day, and stayed up talking and drinking all night.

With all the changes going on in my life, my short encounter with Ashley and Efrain really made me remember that what's important in life is always something that you carry around inside of you. More moments that make you laugh so hard that you cry and cry so hard that you have to laugh, are still ahead of us. Home is where we are, and with the people that are with us.

Ashley on the beach the night we got there.

Ashley and Victoria

The group from the first night. My two favorites are on the right- Ashley and Efrain.

On our hike, we almost literally walked into a group of about ten monkeys having lunch. This baby was my favorite.

The beach inside the park.

"people pass thru life nowadays..."

I am grateful for all of your comments, emails and well wishes! Knowing you are in someone´s thoughts is one of those deep pleasures in life. Keep leaving comments, if even just to say you´re reading.

It´s funny. Sometimes you have to get out of your routine and your life to really feel like you´re exercising pieces of yourself.

On the first plane ride- really feeling alone- I rediscovered that music has and always will be one of my closest friends. It seems silly to say, but I know that most of you have felt that moment when you´re in a new place, so far from home, and a familiar melody or song can bring a flood of emotions. I was grateful.

On the second plane ride (and time in the airport, mostly) I rediscovered my love of talking to strangers and making new friends. I went from feeling alone and content on one plane to feeling like the entire world was on my side in the other. It´s what I loved about the restaurant, bartending, and living in a city. In a matter of minutes, I can form the kind of connection with someone that could last for years if I pursued it. The choice is mine- truly empowering.

(My new sister and brother are in the kitchen making me MORE food (I swear I have a belly already) and discussing where they are taking my school friends and me drinking Thursday night. See, I have already learned the Spanish that matters.)

I don´t know when dinner will be ready, or if I have time to get into it, but I have rediscovered a piece of myself already at school as well. My teacher is AMAZING' Judge Antonio Cancado Trindad from Brazil. He is really into the philosophy of law! Most people brush past philosophy just to learn hard and fast law- what needs to be applied today. But in the time of Plato, Socrates, Hobbes, Mill, and Suarez, the two were indistinguishable. Law was born out of philosophy- the idea that humans had rights and wondering where they came from is the basis of the way we govern today.

Much of the philosophy of law came out of Spain, although most Europeans don´t admit it. Victoria and Suarez wondered whether the "indios" of the new world had souls- because if they did, they had rights (they believed this to be true). Do the rights exist only because we right them down, or are they floating around somewhere above us- were they there before and despite the fact that they are written (I can´t find the question mark on this spanish computer).

ugh. dinner. more later.

my new family. Memo and Mami.






















my new neighborhood


















Mami showing off my sign

I met my guardian angels, They live in costa rica.

I haven´t been gone 24 hours and I already have enough material for about 5 short stories.

Due to my two hours of sleep in the last 24 and the Imperial cervesa I just finished, you´re lucking out with little snippets.

I arrived in Miami this morning at 5am EST, so 2am for yáll. Miami International is the worst airport I´ve ever seen. Yes, ever. No sleep, gate is changed three times, plane that is supposed to leave at 10am is "lost."

The next 7 loopy, goofy, delirious hours in the airport allowed me to make many friends. By the time I arrived in Costa Rica, I had made contacts with 6 new people, including an old bball player for the Indians who now works for the Mariners who promised to take me out with the boys the next time I´m in Seattle (this is no joke, he had a pic of Sexton´s ass on his digital camera), a woman who owns a Romanian restaurant outside of San Jose, CR, a new girlfriend = Mari, who wants to take me out in San Jose and then eventually Argentina, and some college kids who somehow got their weight in vodka on the airplane for free. Arriving hours and hours late, sitting on the runway for 30 minutes and customs for 45, I walk out to see a sea of drivers with printed signs pressed to the glass, and one man with "Catalina Robinett" scribbled with a sharpie on a yellow sheet of paper.

I walk around the corner and see a woman of about 5 feet, holding another sign with my name, gerber daisies, and wearing a button up pink shirt in the pouring rain. I must have been beaming, because my host Ydaria and her friend Memo both ran up to be yelling "Cati!" and my new Costa Rican mother gave me tres besos.

Right after I arrived, they closed the airport. Pouring.
Somehow, I´ve already been fed three times. Mami (Ydaria) is worried about me eating lunch while I´m at school, so she may pack me something even though I´m getting breakfast and dinner from her. She wants to drive me to and from school all week because she wants me to be comfortable before I use the metrobus. I have my own room in this precious home with an old wood slanted ceiling which echos the sound of each raindrop like it´s making a point for me to pay attention and remember. Most everything has been in Spanish although Memo speaks a little english. and ive already learned so much...

literally cant keep my eyes open. sorry doesnt make sense. just wanted to say that i´m already spoiled as hell, am pretty sure i´m going to get fat, i´m constantly being complimented and even the waiter at the restaurant ran into the rain to bring me an umbrella, so maybe i´m never coming home.

fat and happy, here i come.

school minana. i promise to be more poetic then.

(disclaimer. this computer doesnt really work so I cant use punctuation properly. also' i dont speak spanish and know im going to be spelling and using words incorrectly. get over it)