We began a slew of presentations over our novels Wednesday morning. I feel that my presentation went rather well, but I was extremely grateful to the professor for helping me understand/explain more of the ending of the novel (which basically seems to digress into a slurry of dialogue and unrelated entrances and exits). Immediately after class, we marched our crew over to Esperanza Park for our Earth Day festival. We partnered with several of the Tico families, the community kids, and those in our group, to put on what became quite an event. Amidst the garage sale, face-painting, tree planting, fútbol playing, mask-making, and running around in general, my group and I got to be part of the festival as costumed characters. I played Señor Basura (Mr. Trash), and had a magnificent time wandering through the park interacting and picking up trash with the kids while wearing a costume I had made the prior week from a little hot glue, and whole lotta trash and recycling. Later on, our theatre troop staged a short show exemplifying the beauty to be found in nature and the way trash misplacement or irresponsible disposal can disrupt this. We also talked about the importance of recycling what is recyclable rather than simply throwing away, but that reducing consumption and reusing what we can are steps to take even before recycling. It was an absolutely amazing time, and it was so fun to see the SOL mates and our host Tico families coming together to create something like this. That afternoon, I made a trip to the store for some frozen chicken, and on my way back home, made a new friend in the panadería on our street. I spent the evening writing final plane letters and relaxing.
I was mentally preparing myself for the very long day to come Thursday. With an extra hour of Literature scheduled, I was slotted for 9 1⁄2 hours of class once again…and not particularly looking forward to it. Fortunately, the presentations went smoothly and rather quickly—so we actually got out at the 3.5-hour mark, as opposed to the planned four. Lunch at the school with friends and a little downtime at home got me ready to pick my backpack right back up and head to the final 5.5 hours of class. Amazingly, the history of cinema class finished an hour early after our French film about rampant bike theft. I ran a quick errand to the store with Pranav to get food supplies for the next day and discuss if I would get out of COM class early. I was rather convinced we wouldn’t…I was very wrong. Our professor decided to speak with each of us briefly about our final exams before having the final presentations given to only the other students who hadn’t presented. This meant I was only there for 30 minutes—which was great! My 9.5 hours-of-class day had shrunk to a mere 6 hours; definitely a great way for the last day of class in Costa Rica to go. I went home to enjoy an early dinner before going to dance the night away with friends at Tipico Latino. When we finally got in around 1:00, I got to chat a bit with Megan in England—an excellent close to the day.
