Monday night at the casino.

This professor is pretty intense, so it’s hard to blog during class like I usually do. We went whitewater rafting yesterday, which was awesome, but we couldn’t take our cameras on the river and so I have no pictures. I guess the BBA director bought the professional picture pack and is going to put the pictures on a website. But until then, we don’t have anything from the trip.

Our course coordinator docked a bunch of us participation points during Monday’s class because only three or four people “ran the discussion,” but the BBA director was here to observe the new study abroad program and he was thoroughly unimpressed by our class participation. So now a bunch of us have check-minuses for participation even if we had been participating during the whole two weeks before that. Lame. Yeah, I’m griping.

We went out to the Fiesta Casino Monday night again, after going there the first Tuesday we were here.

Monday is ladies’ night – which means free drinks for all ladies between 8 and 11 p.m. The results were insane. The bar/casino was packed for a Monday night. A lot of the men there weren’t drinking, or they were sipping Red Bulls or Smirnoff Ices, which we found hilarious. We had to get up at 5 a.m. Tuesday to go whitewater rafting, so we agreed we’d be in bed by midnight and go to the bar at 8. It’s definitely the earliest I’ve gone out in awhile, even including Saturday’s early bar night adventure. The bar was a lot of fun, though. We danced, the girls got the boys a lot of free drinks (until they got yelled at, because the free drinks were in different cups). I won 300 colones on the slot machines (that’s 60 cents). I spent 200 and won 500. Big payday for me. Aaron won 55 dollars, I think he was playing blackjack. I’m really going to miss walking into bars and getting big, fruity, frozen drinks. It’s expensive but so amazing.

There was a live band there, so we danced a little but mostly just sat and chilled.

Four of us girls took a cab there because there was no way I was going to try and organize another 30-person bus after what happened last time, but mostly everyone ended up showing up in cabs anyway. We had 25 of the 30 of us there, I think. Funny how that works.

Elise, Jeff, Shunji and I went to the adjoining Denny’s for dinner. We’re eating increasingly American here. I’ll still refuse to go to a McDonald’s, I don’t even go to those in the U.S., but I’ve been sick all weekend and I was finally craving Coney Island-type food. I would never go to a Denny’s in the U.S., either, but my egg white omelette and hash browns were absolutely amazing. The only thing was that everything was over twice the price it is in the United States. My omelette, hash browns and toast was $11.50 U.S. Elise’s grilled cheese was $7.50. That’s insane. Our meal was so good, though, and at least I feel a little better lately.

I’ll write about whitewater rafting soon. We only have one class this morning, then we have lunch with a few CEOs, then I’m going into the city to shop with a few of the girls for the afternoon since we have a free day. I think we’re bungee jumping Thursday. I still haven’t decided if I can afford it, though, after spending so much money during the past 2 weeks. I’ll probably be too terrified to move, I know it’s a crazy idea, but I still want to do it.