El Teatro Nacional

                Sunday was a lazy day for me. I slept in a bit, and had the Costa Rican equivalent of huevos rancheros for breakfast. I spent most of the day a home with my tico family and working on homework. I met Randdie’s parents when they came to pick up the rest of the family for dinner. I couldn’t go because I had a concert at 5:00 at the national theater. We were going to see a Costa Rican group perform soul and gospel music! Since we were meeting at the theater, Jessica, Travis and I were planning on taking a bus into the city. We had planned to meet at four to catch the bus at 4:10. Buses in Costa Rica (or just city buses everywhere I don’t know..) don’t really have a posted route, everyone just kind of knows where the stops are. You also have to flag down your bus. The only problem with this is that most of the buses look alike so you have to read the smallish sign on the front of the bus as its coming toward you to find out where it’s going… Needless to say we missed the bus. We ended up sharing a taxi (it only cost about $5) although Jessica said that in the worst case we could have walked, but it would have been about 30 min.  We met Francy in the theater at 4:50 and she had brought an API cell phone (my third attempt to get a working cell phone in Costa Rica). IT WORKED!! I am now the proud barrower of a little Nokia phone. I was really worried when she first gave it to me because I couldn’t remember what I had done with the SIM activation pin… I was starting to stress when I realized that I was missing out on being at a concert in the National Theater, so I said Que sera, and decide to just let it go and live in the moment… a very difficult thing for a planner like me.

                The national theater was built buy the people of Costa Rica at the end of the 19^th century because they wanted their capital to have more arts and cultural events. The money was raised by placing a tax on coffee production (the main industry at the time).  The theater is gorgeous. It is built in a European rococo style with beautiful frescos, neo-greco/roman statues and gilding everywhere! Off of the main lobby they have a beautiful little café where you can get café con leche (as I did) or cakes, soup, and quiche! I absolutely loved it. It’s my own little slice of Europe in Costa Rica! The concert was really good as well! It was all sorts of Motown, Soul, and Gospel music (in English) performed by a 5 man harmony group. For several of the songs they added modern influences and had guest singers one of whom was a really good dancer and did a little bit of rapping! After the concert they came out into the front of the theater and we got to take a picture with them!  It was a really fun time, and to top it off, when I got back my mama tica had made some awesome pasta and Randdie and I watched Inception with Angel and Sofie.

                Tomorrow I have plans to take a bus downtown after my morning classes with some other students to see El Mercado Central and maybe a museum! As I write this I’m eating arroz con leche and listening to the rain… I am so spoiled!

Two Caitlins and Masterkey

El Teatro Nacional

The mountain view out my window!