23.08.2009
Having a little vacay time has given me a chance to do many of the necessary overdue blog updates.
Barroom Wisdom had been updated…
www.patchesweaver.com
22.08.2009
So I met up with Jen and David yesterday. We planned to meet eachother at their hotel around noon or so. Since they were running a bit late due to transit problems, I decided to wait in the restaurant for a bit and then made my way over to the bar. I hung out there for an hour or two, learned about guaro, and exchanged bartender war stories with the bartenders there. The bartender introduced me to their limonada de mente… which I totally need to reverse engineer and begin making. It’s lemonade, gingerale, and mint leaves (alcohol optional). Kind of like a mojito but not really. I also bought a drink made from ginger and fancy rum, but unfortunately this seems a bit too complicated to reverse engineer… lots of pre-drink-making preperation involved with this one.
We had lunch at a local Soda (as little diner/restaurants are called here) and then made our way back to the hotel. Not overly impressed with San Jose in general, we decided to hang out in the hotel instead. We made a bodega run and then watched “No Country for Old Men”.
Dinner at Grano de Oro... Try the coffee cake..
Before dinner I had called the hostel I had stayed in the night before only to find that they were completely full. Jen told me that it was no problem to request a cot in their room and just stay with them. She explained that they needed to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to catch an early cab to the airport, but if I didn’t mind this then I was more than welcome to stay in their room. This seemed like the best option.
The hotel was really nice by the way, it was a renovated victorian house that had been converted to a hotel.
So midway through dinner, David handed me a keycard and was like, “here you go, room 30″. Due to my lack of critical thinking skills at the moment, I thought he was just giving me an extra card to their room, however, unbeknownst to me, they had actually ended up getting me my own private room.
p.i.m.p... and it has two beds. People seriously need to come visit me down here, for some reason, wherever I go, I always have multiple beds in my room (which for the most part are usually unoccupied)... oh, and its good that they were doing minor construction in the room next to me this morning, otherwise I probably would have been a lazy bastard and slept all day... the bed was SO comfortable.
So anyways, a big thank you to Jen and David. Hope you guys had a great time down here. It was great to meet up with you, even if it was only for an afternoon…
21.08.2009
The proyectos page has been (hastily) updated. It’ll at least give you an idea of a few of the things I’ve worked on here. A more formalized update will come at some point…
20.08.2009
In order to regain my legal status in Guatemala, I had to leave the country for a few days. Being mojado isn’t as bad as it sounds, but the fine adds up after a while…
A big thanks to Myrna (Otto’s mom) who drove me to immigration to take care of my fine before flying out.
I just flew into San Jose Costa Rica this afternoon after a bit of a long flight. Due to weather conditions, the airport in San Jose was closed, so I had to temporarily land in Guanacaste to wait out the storm. The total flight time ended up being 5-6 hours as opposed to 1.5 -2. Oh well, what’re you gonna do…
So I meet up with my sister Jen and her husband David tomorrow. I am going to be hanging out with them here in San Jose until the 22nd. They will then fly back to the US.
The following day, Melissa and our friend Pablo will fly into San Jose from Cuba. We’ll be here until the 30th. We don’t really have anything planned out beyond our first day, but I’m not too worried about it, we’ll ask around and get the opinions/recommendations of the locals…
20.08.2009
So Sifu (my Kung Fu teacher) had us hit the ol’ punching bag a few (hundred) times last week. Needless to say, my hands have been better… Bar construction hasn’t helped either. Over the past week and a half or so, I’ve been keeping track of the days by involuntarily adding a new mark to my hands at some point during the work day.
Manos Pisados
And I’m pretty sure that making a drink with manos pisados doesn’t really make people want to order a second one…
Fortunately, my hands are a bit better now. I’m excited to go on my trip to give them a bit of a break.
19.08.2009
the crash is now fixed. uploads can proceed as usual…
thanks otto… for crashing my cab into higgins.
16.08.2009
Otto’s mother and little brother are here. I met up with them for some wine and cheese (with promises of Pollo Campero despues – but it all fell through because it ended up being closed).
Rachid is going to be here until the beginning of September. We’ll hang out. He really wants to try the redbull at Bistro Cinq. I told him that we have the best in town.
However, due to my passport troubles, I will be gone the majority of the time that he is here. I will be in Costa Rica between the 20th and the 30th. However, the time that he is here we’re gonna paint the town red.
He’s also started a blog. You can visit it at http://chino44.blogspot.com/
And don’t forget to give him a hard time about it having absolutely no content right now.
16.08.2009
So I’ve moved again. I am now staying in the “volunteer house” for an organization called CasaSito. It’s nice because it’s more or less cheaper than normal housing because it’s set up for short term stays. I now have my own room, a bed, and a door with a key. I am happy. I found the place through Melissa. I’m here with her and 3 other girls.
This will now be my 4th place here in GT. I’m actually liking the fact that I can pick up and move all of my stuff in 1.5 hours and am going to try to keep it this way. I consider it a benifit to be able to pick up and move on a whim. No ties… kind of keeps the options open…
16.08.2009
So the Bloody Marys have been going well. I feel like I’ve now pefected the recipe. At this point they are basically toxic because they’re so friggin’ hot, but hey, whatever floats your boat…
As for the blog, this is a different story. It won’t let me post images. I just get techno jarg0n when I try to post. I am hoping to resolve this issue soon…
16.08.2009
So about 2 weeks ago Otto and Mia came to the GT. Since it was only for a long weekend, I unfortunately did not get to see too much of them. We did however have an awesome dinner at Posada Don Rodrigo with Marty, Carlos, and the rest of the gang. We then made our way to Kafka and discussed a little of this and a little of that over some liters of Gallo with Milton and Ricardo.
I wish I had more pictures of their times here, but Otto has yet to send me more and I have somehow misplaced the ones I have.
brian in front of fancy restaurant where he works.
Clustrmaps