A Different Smile for a Different Face

Back from errands and not a moment too soon as it looks like the clouds are starting to roll in. I just took a stroll into the chaotic downtown san jose with one of the hostel employees. I have reason to believe she reads this so i will give her a name. Tara, i went to downtown san jose with Tara. The hostel will soon be changing its name to the rugged pineapple for legal reasons, but its definitely a pretty awesome name altogether. In honor of that, I have decided to be none other than 'rugged' for halloween. We hit the few san jose thrift stores in search of a flannel shirt. The downtown area was full of comotion. horns sounding from all sides, street vendors screaming promotions for their products, and of course the constant influx of consumers perusing window after window, shop after shop. It is a cluttered mess of miss matched items sold in the same establishment. One shop that tara noted in particular was a shop that only sold backpacks and camo shirts. to which i was supposed to understand that they solely go hand in hand. after a little while, we finally found everything i was looking for and so much more. It isnt too hard to be 'rugged' here in costa rica. for my get-up tomorrow i will be complete with what appears to look like a flannel shirt, but it is not exactly flannel. Ill lose the sleeves and expose some of my chest mane. I found a pair of jeans that i plan to turn into cutoffs with the trauma sheers that i have readily available. I new i wouldnt regret bringing those guys. bare feet... pretty rugged and i will by default pick up a case of what they call here 'hostel foot'. when all that is said and done, there is still something missing. the image just isnt quite pulled together yet. all over the central market, we kept seeing these goofy horse heads on a stick. no, not real horse heads, but cheaply made imitations. After not finding a suitable price, we resigned the idea of having one and continued our trek. a few shops later, we found a vender selling just the head and no stick for a considerably less price. a few seconds later, I had a horse head ready to put on top of a hostel broom. nothing says 'rugged' like somebody who strolls up on a trusty steed. all in all, tomorrow should turn out quite well.

The last week has been pretty slow because my tuesday interview was rescheduled and my wednesday interview was pushed to thursday. That interview was with a group called 'in lingua' and it is the school that everybody here in the hostel works for. The day leading up to it was spent listening to what everybody had to say about the school and about corey, the man who was to interview me. the bulk of the info was that these kids really enjoyed their jobs and it was a great place to work for. after getting directions to the place from a friend, i was off. There was no trouble in finding it and before i knew it i was sitting in a room with the man who could potentially hold my future employment. the interview was amazingly easy in fact, I barely did any talking at all. before i knew it, he was offering me a job for january and everything was honky dory. I sent a letter of confirmation to him this morning now i have got the next few months to get out and explore before settling down for a little while. It looks like the first order of business for traveling is to head to mal pais in costa rica, buy a surf board and spend the better part of november getting my surfing legs beneath me. after that, nicaragua is the next destination where i have had my heart set on climbing two volcanoes on the isla de ometepe in the middle of the country. after that, ill be moseying my way up into guatemala to meet a friend and travel with her for a bit and they slowly head back to costa rica to begin work. Id like to be off and traveling by monday so i have a little bit of work to do this weekend.

over the past week, it seems like i have been strumming life away. hours and hours of jamming, kicking out tunes and a little bit of solo practice. I have also met a girl who is a pretty good player and we have spent countless hours going back and forth, song for song, etc etc. unfortunately, she is leaving next week to go back to the states, but plans on returning in january. i think by then we will be ready to write some pretty cool songs together.

I guess thats about it for now. job is secured, now its time for some real fun.