Every night is a weekend night.

I've realized that bringing my laptop to class has the same effect here as it does in the United States - I don't listen as much. But I've decided it's the only way I'm going to get through three hour classes, and we have six hours worth of class today. The morning class wasn't that bad. It was about political risk analysis and governability of countries, and it was interesting, but I still can't sit in class for three hours. The coffee break helps. It's actually awesome, getting caramel empanadas and watermelon juice and other finger foods and eating outside by the pool...but it makes me not want to go back inside.

So I'm inside learning about cultural differences in organizational theory right now, and we have class until 5 and then we have dinner at a nice restaurant at 6:30.

We planned our weekend excursion today. It's 67 dollars for hotel and transportation for two nights. Basically, dirt cheap. We're living in Alajuela, and we're going to Puerto Viejo, which is about five and a half hours south on the Caribbean coast.

I'm staying with Elise in a double room, but there are two suites that are four-person rooms with a pool inside the room and a few other insane amenities. We wanted that, obviously, but there are about six of us who would have wanted to room together and that would have sucked to leave two people out of the awesome room. It is very cool that all 30 of us are going on the same weekend excursion, though. The bus ride there and back is going to suck - the roads here are really bumpy, and it's hard not to feel a little bus-sick on even a one hour ride like we've had - but I can't wait to lay on the beach for two days. We really haven't had much sun time, with all the classes, meals and events, and since it gets dark at 5 or 6, which is when we get out of class. I've only laid out for maybe 45 minutes maximum at a time so far.

Yesterday night was great. We rented a bus and all of us went to the Fiesta Casino.
It was like a party bus - and only five dollars per person round trip, which was definitely cheaper than a taxi. I didn't actually gamble, and the dance floor was pretty lame - we were the only ones dancing, and I know they were all thinking, Stupid Americans - but the bar was fun.

We just sat around and chilled, and I tried to get everyone to dance but it was mostly just the girls - the guys kind of sat around like middle schoolers.