The Return of the Ants and Other Juicy Tidbits

     It's the last day of August, and many things have happened in the past few days, varying in degrees of importance and excitement. I shall now tell you, dear reader, about the aforementioned things. But first a fun fact: Costa Rica's legislative body currently boasts that 38% of the representatives serving are women. In comparison, if all the women who have ever served in the United States Senate served concurrently, they would make up 39%. Woo equality!! Now, the previously referenced happenings:

• The other day I was empowered to find in myself the strength to summon up the courage to accomplish a seemingly insurmountable task: broaching the subject of my living quarter's ant infestation with my host family. I decided it would be best to go to my host Dad for help, seeing as he might be more, how do you say in English, action-oriented? Upon telling him, he feigned ignorance that Costa Rica had any ants whatsoever within its wonderful borders. Thus, I feigned ignorance of the enormity of the colony and beckoned him to my bathroom to show him that there were "a few." When we arrived, we both tried to outdo each other in the category of "unbridled disingenuous shock." I thought all of our proverbial chips had just been shoved into the proverbial middle of the proverbial table, but I was sadly mistaken. He profusely apologized and then played the trump card of Costa Rican passive-aggressiveness: rather than doing anything about my concern, he summoned his wife, who had been watching her favorite telanovela to the scene. In short, she responded with a concerned look and words of shock and sympathy to my predicament. Her eyes, however, betrayed an inner dialogue that went something like this:

• When I returned home from school later that day, I was overjoyed to see an appreciable decrease in the ant population; mí Mama had kicked some butt and took some names!!! Alas, the queen's still there somewhere in the wall or underneath the floor and the population of ants is booming once more. But I've made an explicit agreement with them- I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes, these ants do speak English- that they can congregate in the northwest corner of the bathroom without fear of reprisal (i.e. death). Hey, it worked in the United States for the Native Americans right!? I love happy endings!!!
• In all truth, I love my host family and my host house! My mom makes two meals a day and my dad really takes the time to have conversations with me, rewording things when the need arises (very often).
• The first week of classes is over. I don't particularly enjoy three hour classes, but I do very much enjoy THESE classes. Some are more engaging and others are more lecturey. On the whole, however, it should be a stimulating and educational more weeks.
• I am really impressed by the caliber of people on this trip. There are many people passionate about helping others and all that good stuff you read about in movies all the time. When I grow up, I wanna be just like them!

Well, that's all for now. More to come!