Gin and Soda

Oh yeah, definitely rats in this here house. So, I come home this evening and my “Tico mom” and her son are gone and it’s just dad and me. He’s in the kitchen and I go in there to say hi to the dog in the laundry room where she “lives.” I feel sorry for the poor thing. I would bring her home if I could. She can go “outside,” but it is an all-concrete, totally enclosed patio. I hate shit like that. But anyway, just as Tico dad is leaving the kitchen, but is definitely still within earshot, two rats run along the rafters in the laundry room and start fighting. SQUEEK! SQUEEK! So I didn’t get to have any eye contact with ol’ dad, but he knows that I know. Hell, the dog knows. She looked up casually like she hears it every night.

Now, like I said, I’m not a rodent hater. But, it’s just like if you had a house in the states and you suddenly had feral cats living in your attic, pooping and peeing and spraying their male stink everywhere. You just can’t have it. These are uninvited, non-cleaned-up-after rats. No esta fresca.

But, all is well, as I’m moving to a new home tomorrow. I talked to the homestay lady in charge this afternoon. She told my family here that I wanted to be closer to the other American students, that I was having some stress with the school. I was glad to hear that she put it that way, so things aren’t awkward tonight. However, Linda, the homestay American chick who works here, said she would investigate the home at a later date because this family wants to have more exchange students. AND, with a large emphasis on AND, this family did have a bad rating in the clean category by another American girl in the past. But, for whatever freaking reason, Linda didn’t take it seriously enough. Well, let me help you make it serious, then. I’ll have a chance tomorrow to tell Linda about the rat cha-cha in the rafters.

She did tell me about my new home, however, and it’s right across the street from this other student that I like. He’s from Austin, a twenty year old kid that works at a theatre there and he grew up in Mexico. He’s forcing me to speak in Spanish with him only. It pisses me off at times because I can’t get the words right, but I know he’s doing me a favor. So, he’ll be able to walk me home. At my new place I will have my own room again with an attached bathroom, fancy. Plus, it’s a mother and 36 year old daughter who live together and the daughter speaks some English. And since my main issue has been cleanliness, I’m assuming that Linda really checked this place out. Hopefully my next entry about living here is mejor, no mejor que nada.

Now to more interesting stuff. I was hoping to lose some pounds here, or put on some calf muscles or something with all of the walking, but DAMN, the food is freaking fattening and GOOD and CHEAP! I want to eat all of the time! I want to eat when I’m not hungry, it’s insane. These people eat rice and black beans every day in everything. They just make up different names for it. There’s rice and beans with chicken, rice and beans with pork, rice and beans with beef, rice and beans with eggs in the morning, rice and beans with beans, rice and beans with rice…it’s nuts. And what are the sides, you may ask? Well, of course some queso, or guacamole, or more beans and rice, or some pico, or some rice, or some beans. But I have had fruit every day. Pineapple, mango, melon, oh, and damn….that banana thing that isn’t a banana. They eat those fresh, or fried up lightly in a pan. They’re freaking good.

Tomorrow we visit a rain forest with waterfalls and then a live volcano. With my luck, the freaking thing will blow. I was better at robo lab today. At least that’s one thing. And I made this thirty second video where the letters in my name fly around in space and then come together in the correct order at the same time. I’ll have to show you later, however. Can’t e-mail it to you. BUT, what’s cool, is that this program we’re using, Adobe After Effects, is like expensive and kick ass, and we all got it free on our computers. Yeah, illegally. We get Photoshop on Monday. Sweeeeeeet. Breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law!

V