Done!

Wow. It's about time this semester is over. My finals weren't too bad, though I did study for them a little more than usual. But ya, I'm glad it's summer!

Finals

Ya I know, it has been a while since I last updated. Not too much has happened. I've been busy with school and tests and stuff. I guess the newest thing would be I signed up for hockey again and got 2 more hockey sticks. Yesterday was our 3rd game of the season. We won 2-1 last night and actually, that's our record on the season too. Oh! and I got a goalie interferrence penalty with 10 seconds left in the game. Finals are this week. I had my logic final this morning...logic proofs are slightly better than pre-calc proofs, but I still don't like them! Hmm...I think that's everything for now.

Costa Rica

Warning: This is a long post.

Where do I start on this one?? I guess it would have to be with the 1:00 AM flight out of LAX early Friday morning that was delayed until 2:00 AM. I slept the entire flight. And when I woke up, we were over Costa Rica. We got there around 7:30-8:00 in the morning. And straight from the airport we found out taxi driver, Victor, and we to Jacó. Now this drive was about 2 hours, but nothing like what I expected. Costa Rica drivers are crazy, and all their roads are 2 lanes and windy. I'm not used to passing people on blind corners and stuff. It was a bit scary the first time, but I got used to it. The drive was awesome though, just seeing everything. We stopped at the little restaurant for breakfast. That was the best rice I have ever had. And still on the drive to Jacó we stopped at this bridge where there are a bunch of crocodiles. They were huge. The scenic view was also really nice.



Sometime Friday morning around 11 or so we got to Jacó. And basically from there, we jumped in the pool to cool off, got a drink at the bar (I had iced tea, not beer) and then hopped in a taxi and went to the marina (in Los Sueños) to go fishing. We met Rob the captain and Dañello (I'm sure I spelled it wrong) who was the deckhand. Then we went out for some in-shore fishing. Basically fishing for fun fish. Then that evening we went back to Jacó. We cleaned up, went out to dinner, then basically went to sleep. That was ALL on Friday. From the flight to the drive to fishing. It was a long day.

So then Saturday morning we woke up nice and early go get to the boat by 7:30-8. We ate on the boat. Now, this boat, named Lightspeed, was super nice. It is a fishing boat, and like I said, very nice. This thing was fast. To put in comparison, the previous fishing boats I have been on cruise at about 10-12 knots. This boat: about 30 knots. Fast. Anyways, Saturday we went fishing for the big stuff, mainly sailfish. The weather in Costa Rica is hot and humid. It wasn't much different on the boat either. So Saturday was spent catching sailfish. We caught 13. I caught the first one and it was the largest. The fish was 100-110 pounds. By far the largest fish I have ever caught (the picture at the end of the post). I don't know how long it took to reel in, but I do know I felt exhausted after I got it in. Lets just say when I was holding the rod I stood there wondering when the line was going to run out. Seriously, I wondered. The fish took the bait and ran with it. It took more than 300 yards of line. And the whole time the line was going out I was aware that I had to reel it all back in. It was a blast. That was one experience I will never forget. That night we went back to Jaco, cleaned up, went to dinner, and walked around the town. It was like a nightly rhythm we had.

Sunday we decided to go fishing again because we all loved it. We woke up a little bit earlier so we could get to the boat earlier. Sunday the fishing was good too. It started out a little slow, but once it picked up it was great. By then end of Sunday we caught 14 sailfish. The two day total was 27 fish. We let all the fish go. Both days we were 30-35 miles off shore. And 550-600 miles from the equator. The way back to the marina was fun. We, as in me, my dad, and my two uncles were all up top talking and listening to music. Watching the sunset with just ocean in the background was a sight to see. When we got back to the marina we went to the bar to just relax and soak up the weekend. There I had my first beer. I'm 19, I'm allowed to in Costa Rica.

Here's a little more in detail about how awesome the boat was. On Friday when we first got to the marina there were already fishing rods set up all over the place, and Rob had the music playing. It was cool. The inside was really nice too. The kitchen had two pull-out refrigerators and at least one pull-out freezer. And in the room with the kitchen, the two sofas, a table, and a tv was a 5-speaker Bose surround sound system. Wow, just wow. The cockpit was decked out for fishing. It even had one of those fishing chairs bolted down. The helm was incredible. Just to mention a few of the things it had: a large screen GPS (ran by the laptop stored beneath it), sonar, water temp, a cd player (with two speakers outside), and an mp3 player (also with mp3's from the laptop). Here's a picture of the boat.


Sunday night we hit the town for dinner and walked around. Monday was out day for touring before the flight back at 6:00 pm. We had Victor for our taxi driver again. He was cool, and helpful. We left the hotel at 7 am and went to a rainforest. It was freaking humid, but it didn't bother me much cause I was enjoying the rainforest so much. The rainforest was...really green to say the least.

After the rainforest hike we went to a volcano. I kind of wanted to go to another rainforest, but after seeing the volcano it was just as spectacular. And besides, there was a rainforest at the volcano too, which I did walk through. It was cool because this one wasn't quiet as green. It was a high altitude rainforest. The volcano was about 8,000 feet in elevation. The rainforest was dryer, and had more trees, but I still liked it.


Then after the volcano, Victor drove us to a waterfall. It was so cool, not just the waterfall, but driving around the country. Just being able to see all the fields and mountains and counrtysides.

After the waterfall we went to the airport. And from there we flew back to LAX. The flight back was not as great. Primarily because a group of people who had too much to drink, were being loud and annoying. We got back to Bakersfield around 3 AM Tuesday morning. And that was my vacation in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica was beautiful. Everything I did and saw was awesome. I can't describe the overall level of fun and enjoyment I got from this vacation To sum up the it up, this picture says it all. (This is that 100-110 pound sailfish)

Quick Post

I'm back. Costa Rica was awsome. I'll write a post about it later, when I have more time. And I will try to post some pictures too.

Work for Play

Today I forced myself to work on research papers. Well it was just one research paper, but it wasn't easy. It's for sociology, with a minimum of 15 sociology sources. Finding them was not fun. However, after about 8 hours of work, I am just about finished. I'll write the bibliography and make a title page next week sometime. And just when I wish the work load is over, it comes back. Tomorrow I have a sociology test, ugh...and sometime in the next two days I have to write another research paper for anthropology. This one only needs 5 sources, so it will be much easier. I think that's the majority of work for me. Now there's a good reason as to why all of a sudden I decided to write two research papers in 3 days. I was planning on having next weekend to do some of this work, but instead I decided to go on vaction next weekend (and for once it isn't Mammoth). I lost a weekend of homework and replaced it with a weekend of fun. COSTA RICA here I come!! It's going to be so awsome! I'll write all about it next week sometime.

Stupid Cat

I learned something a few nights ago: Don't put a small handful of multi-flavored jelly beans in your mouth at once instead of setting them down. The mixture of flavors can be rather nasty tasting.

So with that advice out of the way I can continue with the many events of my life. I didn't do much this weekend. I watched two movies and some golf, but that's about all. This morning was kind of bad. I woke up at 9:15 for a 9:35 class, and then I couldn't find my wallet. It turns out Kitten knocked it off my dresser and it went under my bed, stupid cat. I made it to class at 9:35. Don't ask how, because I'm not sure how I managed it myself. Lately I have wanted to do so many things, most of which I can't do here in town.
Here's the list:
- go snowboarding
- surf (or try to)
- go snowboarding again
- go deep sea fishing
- golf (I'm not good, but it's fun)

And that's about all I have to say right now.

Nothing New

Well, hockey season is over. We lost tonight's playoff game (7-1) so we're out. It was a fun season even though we lost a lot. Our record was 4-9. Spring season starts in a few weeks, but I don't know if I am going to play. I want to, but I don't really want to fork out $250, so we'll see. In other news...well there hasn't been much other news. Classes are still mostly boring and procrastination bites.