Futbol and Jungle Adventures

Backing up a little bit, since I was swamped with homework this week and didn't get a chance to write. This is what I did last weekend, March 26th and 27th.
After a day completely full of trying to do my homework for my independent study class, Lula, Naty, and I went over to our aunt and uncle's house to watch the inauguration of Costa Rica's new stadium.

Every Tico I've heard talk about it is very proud of the new stadium, now the best one in all of Central American according to some. The stadium was a gift from China to Costa Rica, so the inaugaration ceremonies had lots of Chinese looking dancing (with a lot of Latin hip thrown in, which I thought was amusing) and the first soccer game was China against Costa Rica.

 

The new stadium

This was Lula's favorite dance. She squealed like a little girl about every thirty seconds. "!Que Divina! !Que Artista! Que Linda!" and any other phrase that would express awe and approval.

After the ceremonies, the game started. Now, I don't know much of anything about futbol, but it seemed like Costa Rica played well. They didn't lose, ending the game 2-2. And the very first goal of the new stadium was for Costa Rica.

Also, during the inauguration, fireworks were going of at the stadium, and from the balcony of the house we could watch them and see the stadium's lights. Being that close was quite an experience! I felt like I was experiencing a moment of Costa Rica history.

On Sunday, after running some errands and going to mass, Amy and I met up to go to her house and hang out. We had lunch, which her lovely mother provided for us, and then took our homework out into this awesome jungle she has behind her house.

A tree on the property. Very good for climbing.

  

Which I did.

Anemone Plant

We encountered some really unusual plant life! This first picture shows the coolest one. It is a plant that folds in half as soon as you touch it, just like a sea anemone sucking in its tentacles. The picture is rather blurry, sorry, but it is the sort of fern-ish like plant.

Holey jungle vegetation, Batman!

We trying to read it, but it started to rain after approximately 2 minutes.

Lovely red flowers. I believe Merce uses these sometimes in the Floristeria

The dinosaur plant

To me, this plant looks like a dinosaur. It has wicked thorns, but not on the stems, directly in the center of the leaves. And that cute little yellow fruit is poisonous. Be afraid.

While exploring this jungle, Amy showed me these raspberries.

Don't worry, her family had already told her they were edible. Everyone seemed very concerned that we were eating mysterious berries, but I promise they were safe. Just like our raspberries, but with smaller and more seeds and I think their flavor has a little hint of strawberry. Amy does not conquer.

Amy wanted to pick berries and bake something with them, and this was the result:

YUM!

Our "muffins"

We used a muffin recipe. And by used, I mean we looked at the recipe on line, put in the nearest equivalent ingredient we had without any standard measurement, dumped in a lot of extra cinamon, and then poured our "muffins" in a big glass bowl to back, due to the absence of muffing tins. And it was GREAT!

Sunday evening, Lula and I went over to help at the floristeria and Merce gave me this these lilies for the help. And now my room smells fabulous!

Photo Credits:
1st (stadium): ICODER website
2nd (dance):aforadio.com
3rd (soccer): navegalo.com