So, I didn't actually have horseback riding yesterday morning. After getting up at 5:30, looking around in the classrooms and standing by the stables for 15-20 minutes I came back to check the schedule. The first group, which I was in, started on Tuesday. Not Monday. Oops! I got a little nap from 7-7:30ish. It was worth it though, because I saw TWO blue motmots, both pretty close up! I didn't get many good pictures, but it was a really cool experience. They're gorgeous. At breakfast we had some more of that home made bread that is like pita but sweeter and way better with homemade preserves. I had Spanish at 8:30, which means my breakfasts are limited to a half an hour, but since class is a door down from the cafeteria it should be okay. We spoke in Spanish the whole time, and so far we're at a level I can follow. Hopefully I'm not in over my head. I'm kinda surprised how well I can piece words together to form butchered sentences that get the point across. Most people I try to converse with compliment me on my Spanish, but I think that is just because they appreciate my effort. When I come back I want to be able to dance well, speak Spanish well and play soccer... better. I'm not too optimistic about that last one. Immediately after Spanish I have Geology, which seems manageable. Dr. Whitney is really practical about what he wants us to know, and would rather we know what we might be able to use rather than jargon we'll forget as soon as class is over. After Geology is Anthropology, which I'm really looking forward to. It sounds like there aren't many graded assignments, but there will be a lot of discussion and reading, so learning without the pressure of grades every day! Should be good. Anthropology is my last class of the day, after which is lunch. As an aside, Dr. Whitney who teaches my Anthro class and Dr. Whitney who teaches Geology are a married couple. They've been coming down here to teach for a while, I think. Lunch was beef stew, among other things previously mentioned. After lunch I vegged out in a hammock for a while, reading for homework and trying to get a nap in. I finally gave up on sleeping outside and went to bed... in bed. After my nap I did some more homework and went to a meeting about horseback riding, a sort of prep meeting I guess. We went over basics and names for tack, but in Spanish. Then we had dinner, after which was a FIESTA! A group from Colby College had been here for a while and were leaving the next day, and it was this lady's birthday, so they made a little cake and hung a pinata, which was destroyed. After the pinata Geovanny taught us all how to merengue! It was fairly easy, but the room was very full so there wasn't much room to move. It was tons of fun though, and we have another dance lesson tomorrow night! This time it'll just be us with faculty and the resident naturalists. We'll get more individual attention and not be as self conscious about dancing in front of strangers! We danced for like 2 hours and were all exhausted by the end of it. We all had homework to do, so after the dancing we went to the library for a few hours. Some strange stuff happened, but besides the ugliness at the end of the night there was a lot of laughter. We laugh together all the time, I love it. I almost laugh until I cry at least once a day. "Bad time to drop the trumpet on the convo." Hahahaaa. Don't worry, it doesn't make sense, I just misheard some stuff today. Anyways.

Today I really did have horseback riding. I was a little nervous because they do things pretty differently down here, but I think it went really well! I was with huesos (Bones) first when we were brushing them down, then I was with Cholo for the actual riding. Huesos, Chele and Moro are all white horses, Cholo is chestnut with a black mane and tail. Instead of putting on bridles, here they kinda just lasso them and tie them up while putting on the saddle. I learned how to do that and how to saddle them up. You just slip on the bridle, so that isn't much to write home about. The saddles are put on pretty much how I remember Mountain Lakes doing it, but the seat is Australian style or something? I don't actually know what I'm talking about. Chele neede a shoe and they tied one of his feet up so he couldn't stand on it. He almost fell over and started running around with one foot tied up. They calmed him down and it was kinda scary, but we all just stood by our horses and kept them calm. Confidence! The vaqueros were really helpful and complimented me on my Spanish. One of them asked Erin (our teacher) if I'd owned horses because I knew so much. Earlier he's asked me if I had experience, and I said a little - but a long time ago. Which is the truth, but I felt flattered none the less. I was really proud of myself. My knee didn't hurt at all! Today at breakfast we got cheese tico-fied empananas for the first time. They're tasty. Spanish went well again, a few resident naturalists are joining our class. We were in Geology for about 30 minutes before being let out to go watch the inauguration. We streamed it live in the library on Caitlin's laptop. It felt awesome to watch it live and kinda be a part of the moment. We had to go to Anthropology class after Obama delivered his speech, and after that was lunch. Laundry day is tomorrow, so today I went through all of my dirty clothes and rinsed the pink sharpie out that I used to label them. The socks bled kinda a lot, and I'd rather not have all my clothes be pink for the rest of the trip. Fun stuff! We went over my Geology lab today, we're going to describe rocks! How fun! I'm going to enjoy pretending to be a scientist and stabbing rocks to see how hard they are, teehee. I did my Spanish homework after dinner, but I still have Anthro and Geology to do. Tomorrow! Before the sunset tonight we spotted an agouti eating an orange! It was so cute! Just now Caitlin spotted a fox on the porch, and after lunch we went on a brief walk to see our first sloth of the trip! He was really high up so we couldn't see much besides a ball of fur, but it was a cute ball of fur. Tonight I started my tab in the gift shop with a Milky Way, my first chocolate since leaving the states! MMM!

I'll try to post more pictures later, but it is bed time at the moment. Hasta luego!