CARDRUNNERS

The place we're staying at is interesting but it's fairly run down as well.  Most homes in Costa Rica do not have hot water heaters. They have special shower heads down here that electrical current passes through to warm the water for your shower. Unfortunately ours is malfunctioning and provides only scalding water. So I am bathing in the back yard with a hose and a bar of soap. It's liberating actually and I really don't mind so long as no one sees me. This guy we're staying with is a character. He's the epitimy of a surf bum. He only talks about waves, girls and conspiracy theories. He drives a 72 land cruiser with no suspension to speak of, a roof that leaks and the wipers don't work. We were driving in one of Costa Rica's daily down pours and he was wiping the window off with his hand as he speed down the dirt roads of Nosara. Water was pouring into the cab from the holes in the roof. It was so loud in his truck that you had to yell to communicate to one another. I asked him how he manages with out wipers in an area that gets so much rain, he replied that the wipers should start working again someday as if they were magicly going to fix themselves.

Dan came down with a nasty cold just one day into our trip. It seemed like I might avoid it but I caught it about 3 days into our trip. So here in Nosara (it's a very small town and I'm sick!) my options are limited at the moment. I've been spending most the day surfing the internet and then going out for a cpl hours in the afternoon/ evening to surf the waves. The surfing is good for me, the waves have a washing machine effect on my face/ sinus passages and I always feel refreshed after wards. 

Our second day here our host's fuel pump went out and I thought surely he'd have to fix this. I guess not though, he just pulled it in the driveway and spent the rest of the week housebound. Anyways, our host Ryan is super cool/nice. He allowed us to use his boards during our stay and showed us around town and where the good surf breaks are. I had a blast surfing here this week but am itching to move on as Nosara is a little too small/ quiet for Dan and I.

So we got into Manuel Antonio today and I am very impressed with this place, especially after spending a night in Jaco! The landscape here is unique in that the mountains meet the ocean with very little transition/ flat inbetween. This creates some dramatic views! Manuel Antonio seems to have everything.... nice weather, beautiful women, Pristine beach's with snorkeling/ fishing & surfing options, mountains, a national park, lots of restaurants and night life, oh yeah and it's not over developed! There is a spanish language school here which Dan and I have decided to attend, we did a placement test and were both assigned to lower levels then we said we were at. Class starts after the weekend on Monday and will go through Friday. Some people do these programs for months but we are running short on time and can only afford one week. Dan and I have decided to get separate accomodations here because we were disagreeing about what type of place we'd like to stay at. So Dan being Dan picked a cheap ass place and I'm in a pretty nice air conditioned room hotel :)

Dan came by and we went out for our first night in Manuel Antonio. We spotted a place that said they were having latin dancing tonight. I'm stoked at this point becuase this will be my first opportunity to dance since I have left the States ( 3 weeks). This place was a bar/ grill/ disco/ pool hall & casino all wrapped up in one. I got there and they were playing Bachata for a while it seemed. There were not too many ladies who seemed available to dance near the floor. Then the Salsa set came on, they kicked it off with Oscar De Leon and kept it going with some classic stuff that is very dancable. At this point I was asking any female to dance regardless, and I got shot down every f..kn time. I wasn't really too surprised I guess. This bar was dominated by gringo tourist and they were just being lame and not wanting to experience something new.

So anyways, I was really wishing I had one of my female partners from Juan's to dance with me. We then met some local guys and they said where we could go next. It was off to another bar until nearly 2am, then onto a local club in Quepos ( we couldn't get there before 2am cause nobody would have arrived yet). So here I'm getting a little love from the local Ticas, at last! Only problem was they only played Merengue and Reggaeton here. Shit... oh well, I got a couple good Merengues. Anyways, I was happy to mingle with some local Costa Ricans who know how to have a good time!

One other bad thing about the bars and clubs down here is that they're filled with smoke. In CR it seems that everyone in these establishments smokes and it's fairly unpleasant. I do not think they have any age restrictions here either, never see anyone getting carded or anything and some of the ppl in there are obviously teenagers.

Today during lunch we met a lady who has a large studio behind her house for rent for $400 a month. We ask if we can stay there for a week as it is right near the school. She shows us the place and we all agree on a price and it's a done deal. Afterwards I go back to my hotel and have a quick snooze then over to the beach for a bit of sun and swimming. As I'm exiting the water I get stung by a bee on my right thumb of all places. It hurts bad, a few hours later my right leg is a strange combination of pain & numb, and I now walk with a limp.I hope this subsides soon!

We moved into that lady's studio tonight and it's really nice/ secure and spacious (over double the size of my apartment in San Leandro). Internet/ tv and all utilities are included plus we can cook instead of eating out every meal. I'm very tempted to miss my return flight and just stay here for a while.

May 30th, OK, so I woke up today and my leg is completely better... ya! Did a bit of surfing today first time in over a week... caught a couple good waves but that pain I had in my abdomen/ rib cage area flared up again so I really need to ease back into surfing I guess :(

We went out tonight to a couple of local spots in Manuel Antonio and were not really feeling it. So we went over to Quepos again. We ended up finding a club with a lot of locals that were pretty good (no flip flops here) I felt a bit out of my element being one of the few gringos in there and not knowing the language, plus I was a little gun shy after getting turned down SO MUCH the other night! When we got there they were playing lots and lots of Merengue, then Cumbia then a mix of reggea (Bob Marley, ya!), soul and pop songs. After kicking back for an hour I got a look from a cute girl and managed to smile back, she seemed friendly enough so I asked her to dance and she accepted. We were dancing to the soul music and I don't know where she was from but her skin was black. Anyways, she had really nice rythm and good vibes. We danced many songs and she was really celebrating the music... singing the lyrics to all the songs. She said I dance nice to the music (in spanish but I still got the jist). We danced a bit longer then we gave it a rest. I was warmed up now so feeling a little more confident. I ended up getting a few more ladies to dance with me that night but I still got rejected 80% of the time. Perhaps when my spanish improves my success rate will improve. That girl asked me to dance again later that night, we started to some reggaetone stuff (huge weakness for me but I pulled it off), then a salsa set came on. Unfortunately she didn't know salsa at all, and I noticed the majority of people there were dancing random stuff to the salsa.  Anyways, I had a good enough time to go back and give it another try.

May 31st, I slept one off here today then played a bit of poker. Dan spent most the day in Dominical and came back completely stoked on the surf there. He said he caught a couple of barrels which is a first for him so he's really amped right now!

June 1st, Today was our first day of class which started at 8am so we didn't go out last night and managed to get a good nights rest for once. School was good but difficult for me. They only speak to you in Spanish there and the teacher makes a face at you if you try and speak English. So I understood 50% of what she tried to teach me and plan on studying a bit tonight as well. There were only 3 students in my class and this school is very well organized so I feel lucky that we choose this one (some of the language schools down here are a bit of joke from what I gather). Our classroom was on a patio area outside the building and we had a sweet view of the the ocean/mountains and a nice sea breeze to keep us comfortable.

In my last blog I talked about the beginning of my family vacation in Florida.  I mentioned that I had signed up for surf lessons but that I wasn't feeling great and it was supposed to rain, so I probably wouldn't go.  Well, I did!  It was an interesting experience.  My sister and I were the only two people taking the lesson.  We drove to a state park nearby with a lady who worked at our resort (who was very nice) and then met up with our surf instructor in a pavilion.  She talked for the next hour or so about safety, technique, and all that good stuff and then we practiced on our boards on top of the tables at the pavilion some before heading over to the ocean.  When we practiced it wasn't so hard standing up on the board properly, but in the ocean it was a totally different story.  The water made the board so much more slippery, not to mention the fact that it was moving due to waves and currents.  Also I had a nice sunburn on my stomach so it didn't exactly feel great with that rubbing up against the board.  We had an hour of ocean time, and for the first half hour I hardly made any progress and was getting pretty frustrated.  I took a few minutes out of the water to regroup and collect my thoughts, then went back in and gave it another try.  Eventually, I got up on my board a few times, sometimes on one knee, but a couple times I legitimately stood up and rode the wave for a few seconds.  This made me very happy.  Overall, I'm not sure if I am eager to try to surf again, but I'm glad I did it.  It's very difficult and there is certainly quite a learning curve, especially for someone like me who has never really even skateboarded or snowboarded, but it sure felt rewarding when I started seeing some results.  I would also imagine that it is a ton of fun once you get legitimately good.  I doubt that will ever be me, but you never know...


sister and me with our boards, unfortunately no action shots

The next day, we headed to Walt Disney World, Joe 'LL2' Ward's favorite place on earth.  I know it is commonly thought of as a place for kids mainly, but if you haven't been there at least once you are missing out.  There is some great stuff to do in Disney World.  I have been there with my family I believe 7 times now, so I wasn't concerned with trying to see everything this time, I just wanted to do a few things I felt like doing and relax.  Each night we were there we ate a great dinner out.  My favorite was at Narcoossee's at the Grand Floridian resort.  I had an Ahi Tuna dish that very well may have been the best tuna dish I have ever tasted, it was very rare, almost like sashimi, and featured an Asian sauce and spices that were very spicy.  I probably consumed about 7 glasses of water due to the spiciness, and at one point the waiter just started bringing me 2 at a time.  If you like spicy food, you'd love it.  My parents and sister also enjoyed their meals very much.

On the second day there, I planned on sleeping in while my mom and sister went to Disney's Hollywood (formerly MGM) Studios.  Then, my dad received a phone call around 8:30 am.  There is a new American Idol attraction there in which people can audition in the morning and maybe other times of the day in order to appear on the show.  There are seven shows during the day and the winner of each advances to a finale at 7pm, with the winner of that getting a free pass to cut the line at real American Idol auditions.  So anyway, my sister had auditioned when the park opened, and she was going to be on the first show at 10 am.  My dad and I quickly showered and then called a cab since we were kind of in a rush (we were instructed to be there at 9:30).  We called at 9 and the company said 10 minutes, ok cool.  We met the cab in front of our resort at about 10:12 am or so.  The cab driver was apparently very unhappy that we were 2 minutes late.  My dad tried to start a conversation with him, and he mentioned something about us being late.  I responded, "Sorry about that man, I tip well" or something along those lines, and I really did intend to give him a decent tip, because cab drivers are on a tight schedule and all.  Then, for the rest of the 10 or so minute ride, EVERY TIME one of us tried to talk to him, he would spin it back into guilt tripping us for being 2 minutes late.  For example, he made a smooth pass of a car on a 2 lane highway, my dad said, "Nice pass, you're a pretty smooth driver," cab driver responds, "Yeah I am, but I don't make any money because I wait around for people too much."  A PSA to cab driver's:  if you are trying to earn solid tips, being an asshole and making the passengers feel guilty for minor things is NOT the way to do it.  Just be nice.  I gave him a $2 tip on like a $17 ride, and honestly I think that was too much.  What a jerk.

Anyway, we made it to the park, and got in to see the show.  My sister was up third.  The first two people were, surprisingly, middle-aged, probably both between 35 and 45.  I don't think I've ever seen this on the real American Idol.  They were okay, although the lady who went second sang "Waiting for Tonight" by Jennifer Lopez which was kind of weird for American Idol I thought.  My sister chose to sing "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger.  Her taste in music is much better than most girls, obviously.  She did a pretty good  job and the judges (who were trying to act like the real American Idol judges) had all good things to say.  The audience of about 600 people voted and she ended up winning and advancing to the finale! 

As it was still only about 11:30am after we got out, we had plenty of time to kill before the finale.  We decided to go to the Indiana Jones stunt show, which I hadn't seen since I was 14 or so.  I was very excited for this.  A few minutes after we got into our seats, I was checking email on my phone waiting for the show to start when I heard a voice announce, "If anyone 18 or over wants to be an extra in the show, shout and wave your arms!"  I had never done anything like this in my life, but after just seeing my sister performing on stage, naturally I wanted to try.  I got up and shouted and waved, and sure enough, I got called on stage along with about 20 other people.  We signed some waivers and put on some Arabic costumes and then headed for the stage.  Most of the extras' tasks were simple, like running around as a group, yelling, pointing, etc.  But then, one of the performers said, "I need one of you to come over here and do some acting, how about....you (pointing to me)!  Would you like to come act out a death scene!"  I have never acted in anything in my life, I have never been in a school play or anything.  So naturally my response was, "Sure, I'd love to!"  I was instructed to look menacing and pretend to hold a knife in my hand and walk slowly toward the stuntman, who would shoot me with his imaginary gun, and then I would fake getting shot and act out dying in a very elongated fashion.  Hilarity ensued, as I was pretty terrible at looking menacing and acting in general but as a result it was very funny and I think the crowd enjoyed it quite a bit, for one reason or another!  I had an awesome time doing this.  Here is a pic of me with the extras on stage, I think I am in the yellow:

So speaking of Vegas, I am heading there tomorrow, and staying in a house with Taylor, Andrew, Joe, Scott (irockhoes) and a few other friends, 9 of us in total.  I am really pumped to get out there as I had a blast last year, and even moreso because I will actually turn 21 and be able to play some this year.  I will be playing the main event, likely the 5k 6max NL, and perhaps some live PLO cash, depending on what kind of games run.  Mostly, I am there to have fun though.  I very much look forward to it.

I have to run, I meant to post a few hands too but this is long already.  I will do a more poker focused post in the near future.