Random stories.

I don't actually have a lot to talk about, but I have some random things that I want to say, so you can read them if you want, or you can just look at the pictures and call it a day. Whatever floats your boat.

We have cats. I don't know why, but we have cats in our yard, and they make very, very strange noises at all hours of the night. I'm pretty sure they are living in our roof now. That's good, right? I just hope they don't die up there, because when I was in Florida for Catholic Heart Work Camp last summer, we had a possum in the ceiling of the room we were sleeping in, and it died. I think that all of the girls on my CHWC team would agree with me when I say, that is not a stench that I wish to smell again.

I'm watching that clay rudolph movie on CBS right now...and I have to say...I'm pretty sure I've never actually watched this. I know it's been on every year on my TV, but I don't know if I've ever actually paid attention. I'm now a fan.

The other day, I was walking down Paseo Colon (the main street I walk on for about a half hour each way to and from work every day), and I passed this guy selling lottery tickets (the lottery is crazy here...there are people selling tickets on every corner I think). As I passed him, he looked me up and down, and shouted/sang, "HEY JUUUUUDE!" And that was all. I was too busy giggling, but all of my roommates said that I should have sang back to him. I've also gotten a, "NICE!", a "Hello baby, how are jou?", and "Hello, blonde." I'm pretty sure people see me, see that I'm obviously from the United States, and use the only English they know. It's pretty entertaining, and slightly offensive, but I always get a good chuckle out of it.

So for Thanksgiving, we went over to our friend Charlie's house, whose mom is from Guatemala and whose dad is from the US, so they do Thanksgiving dinner every year for his dad. I had to frantically make 4 pumpkin pies in about 2 hours right before we went over, because Liz was going to make them, but got extremely ill the day before Thanksgiving, and was that way for a couple of days after. It was very sad...she couldn't even eat a Thanksgiving dinner. But I made the pies, and they turned out edible, so that was good. It was super fun being over there, and it made me not quite so homesick to be with friends and to eat delicious traditional Thanksgiving food. Kinzie has pictures on her camera, so once I get those, I'll put them up.

This weekend, John, Kinzie, Gabe and I went to Gabe's family's house and we went with his cousin to "Monte de la cruz" or "Mountain of the Cross," and we hiked a bit, walked under this freezing waterfall, almost fell about 5000 times because it was so slippery, and finally made it to the top of the mountain where there was a huge cross (surprise!). Apparently, according to what I understood of Gabe's cousin said (which often is not much, because he speaks SUPER fast), there are 3 crosses in Costa Rica, and this is the top of the cross....So the three crosses make one big one or something? Okay, maybe I should talk to him about this again....haha. Anyway, so then we hiked back down, saw a little lake, got a big bruise on my thigh from climbing over a fallen tree, and then played a pick up soccer game (I know. I do NOT play soccer. It was funny to say the least) with some random high schoolers. Then we went back to Gabe's family's house and ate some delicious authentic tortilla soup (probably the only Costa Rican dish I actually enjoy). And to top off the day, Liz and I went to see New Moon that night. IT WAS AWESOME. I'm also excited to see it again in the United States with delicious movie theater popcorn. I definitely enjoyed my Saturday :-)

Yesterday was my night for prayer, and I decided that I wanted to spend some time together decorating our house for Christmas, so we had a blast decorating ornaments and wearing Santa hats and eating M&M cookies with frosting. I couldn't find any sugar cookie mix/didn't want to put in the work to make them from scratch. They were still really good. You should try it. Really. Betty Crocker M&M cookie mix. Delish. Enjoy the pictures of our Christmas celebration :-)

We decided to do a pensive pose. It took like 5 tries....and we still didn't get it.

Corny, but funny.

Juancho has a lot of guts. He's lucky I did not notice what was going on.


The famous "John's dad pose."

A few of our awesome ornaments!

Working on the ornaments.

Liz and me working hard.

Juancho was showing me his ornament, and said, "...and then here, I put FC Eleven, for FrancisCorps 11, and here--" And then I cut him off and said, "Wait. Isn't that a 6?" We're going to go over his roman numerals soon.

My four fabulous friends. Haha, I was going to say roommates, but then I got excited about alliteration.