It's 72° ..... and I'm cold

Although the news has been rolling in that it's ridiculously warm up there in Iowa and that the no-shave november beard, typically a necessity for the brisk and uninviting weather change, is quite unnecessary this year. That's fine and all for you guys, but we've got it rough down here. With the change in seasons (ridiculously relentless rambunctious rain to..... sun) comes a cold front just in time for Christmas.

- There are Christmas lights on some of the houses next door. The palm tree leaves continue to shine bright green and show no sign of falling... looks like i'll have to find a different pile of decomposing matter to jump in!!! (well, maybe not...)

That sun which finally (might) continue to shine... has been illuminating Heredia for the past two days and it's been stupendous.

- It's also got this song stuck in my head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvY38j7JdCk

To break any sort of chronological order... I'll jump back a few weeks before the sun broke through the grey weather.

- After getting back from Panamá on Monday I had an epic take home test for thursday to complete (3 days of nonstop statistics, essays on sexual selection, and lots of coffee) which was immediately followed by a 10 page paper on the evolution of Oophaga pumilio in Bocas del Toro for monday.... followed by a research (conducted while under the influence of 3 hours of sleep and copious amounts of coffee) project on sparrow population size in Heredia & San Pablo.

In case you were wondering... there are approximately 267 rufous collared sparrows per kilometer squared in San Pablo
-wikipedia it.

After I pulled out of my sleepless/coffee induced coma it was time to celebrate globalization at its finest: 

Halloween

The holiday is in a weird state of cross cultural awareness... but that didn't stop us from costumes, 90's music/salsa, and the grilling of 10+ kilos of steak and sausage. Jen's host mom didn't have a grill... but she did have a flower stand, car rim, and oven rack.

That's Caitlin, she made her own costume (typical folklorical dress)

- mine's homemade as well

We filled up on food, chatted, danced, had a random kick-off (Germany-Capoeira vs. USA-Taekwondo), and got some nice stares at the bus stop. 

The congregation of foreignors, sorry party, wasn't the only throwback to the States. Last week I registered for spring classes... : /

Plant Ecology

Organic Chemistry & O. Chem Lab

Spanish Phonology

Creative Writing

Latin American Anthropology

A pretty good mix.... although chemistry isn't certified organic by the USDA or grown homerange... meaning a bunch of adverse side effects due to chemical overload. bummer. The other jolting reminder is the fact that classes are coming to a close (November 27th is the last official day of the program) and the rest of the study abroad group will be headed home...

- that's our spanish class (germans, americans, austrians, and Alexa - our profesora tica)

- and that's the jungle behind the classroom which is somehow more captivating than imperfect subjunctive

It's one of those bittersweet cliché moments where you realize time flies (even if it's 30 minutes late for everything -still making good use of that).

nevertheless, it's about time for a month of unrestricted travel