2nd Night: Change of Plans

My plan after my first night in Costa Rica was for my friend’s family to come pick me up from the hostel and spend the weekend there before heading to the farm I’m going to work at on Monday. Unfortunately they were still on vacation in Panama with no phone service and the hostel said I had until 3pm to leave. My friend called everyone she knew in Costa Rica asking them to come pick me up. Finally one of her childhood friends came to save me. That night we went to a Karaoke bar where I tried my best to sing “Bailando” and “El Pérdon” by Enrique Iglesias in Spanish. I learned how to salsa and some different cuban dances while trying my best to learn a few words in Spanish. By 3am we were all pretty tired so we got in the car to head home. During the car ride one of the girls offered me a piece of candy. I asked her what it was and she said “alls”. After a few repetitions of the word I finally figured out that she meant “halls”, as in “halls cough drop”. THEY EAT COUGH DROPS AS CANDY HERE! I thought it was a joke but her and the other girls were dead serious. So of course, since my goal is to learn about other cultures I ate the cough drop. But after about two minutes I had to spit it out because that’s just gross. I even brought halls cough drops with me in my bag but obviously that’s in case I get a cold or stuffy nose. Sorry Costa Rica, but that’s too much for me.