Quepos part III, or it can only get better.

Monday morning. Day one of class. Tiff and I are a bit sleep deprived, since we were up until 3 am and then got up at 7:30 to make it to class by 8;30. We spoke with Eve, Susan, and Jason, who all seemed to think we were overreacting judging by thier reactions..."Its Central America... its all dodgy." (everyone here says dodgy) So, Tiff and I decide to just find our own accomodations, because we'd walked around all day the day before talking to locals, and finding people to rent from. All the people we talked to told us we were paying WAY too much ($400) for a two bedroom apartment.

So, we leave the office both feeling like they aren't taking us seriously. Both a little bummed and sort of pissed that everyone else gets great places to live and we get crack central. But, later on in the day, Jason came over to us to say "i've got REALLY good news." I told myself not to get excited. All our friends were asking us what that meant, and I was like.... who knows. They told us those other places were nice as well.

So, after class, Jason sits us down and tells us about our new accomodations. His friends have a place that they normally rent out for $1000 per week, but they will let us have it for $1000 a month. (more than we were paying before, but worth it if we are safe). We pull up to our old place, and Jason makes a comment "yeah, this is a really high crack area." Uhm... didn't you say this was safe... glad we're leaving.

We drive to the new place and pull into the driveway of the new place. Its a large white two story house right next to a Spanish Language school. It looks gorgeous! Apparently there is a large deck, which you can see from below. There is a cafeteria below (must be for the school) and it is set back from the street just a ways.

We meet the owners, and the first thing they say to us is "No Parties!" and then walk us up to the second floor, which is flanked on both sides of the house by the same set of stairs. Once we open the front door, we realize there are no windows and no doors, besides the front door. Its open, much like a treehouse. It's absolutely gorgeous, but how exactly is this safer?? Someone could just get right in. When we expressed our concern... one of the owners said "No one can get in. Well, I can, but no one else."

Uhm.... RED FLAG. The bedrooms are separated by a wall, but the doors are merely curtains that sheild you from the living room, which is what I thought the large deck was when we first pulled up. Basically, its completely open. After everyone leaves, we laugh and talk about how nice it is, but it seems pretty open, so I wonder what that is.

We unpack and sleep there that night (after staying up yet again until 2am because we felt weird) and the next day told everyone in class about our weird nice open house. There's no walls, we kept telling people, and everyone had a really hard time figuring it out.

After class, Josie came over to see our place, and she even said the same thing... how exactly is this safer? But, we got our stuff, went to dinner, then went to this place called Bamboo Jam, because they have salsa dancing every Tuesday. Here, we ran into the annoying old american men, one of which promptly grabbed me and started flinging me around the VERY small dance floor, annoying all the Ticos and in the process making me feel and look like an idiot.

At the end of the night we met Justin and Chris, both local ticos, but very nice. They even said we were paying too much, but that Justin would show us a place the next day that is right across the street from where he lives and he knows two other girls who live next door. Its a duplex but it has everything...even cable. (TV?!?!?!?!)

So, we stay out til around 2, come home to our house without walls, and stay up a little later because now we know this place isnt safe, that we weren't overreacting, and that we needed to leave that place TOMORROW.

I wake up at 7 the next morning without the aid of my phone, which must have dropped off the ledge next to my bed. I thought I'd put it on ring so that I could hear it, but I could have had a couple too many and JUST THOUGHT I did it. So, I look under my bed, no phone. I look in my purse, right next to where my phone was, and its not there either.

Then, I look under the bed again. no phone. What the hell did I do with it last night.??? Did I bring it to the bathroom?? No. So, I look in my purse again. No phone. WAIT. No camera. No Ipod. No Cash. omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg!!!!!

I run to Tiff's room and wake her up becasue her alarm hasn't gone off. "Tiff, where's your stuff??" She's groggy so it takes her a minute, but she looks in her bag and says its all here. So, I run back to my room and look for my credit card. I hid it in my bag with the tampons, so it was still there. Who ever has taken all my electronics has also found the cords that go with them, as well as looked through my costume jewelry bag. They didin't take anything, so .... I still have my Express specials.

We pack our stuff and march to the school to tell them we want out and we want out now. I'm not going to class until I get into a new place, and I better not have to pay for it. This is absolutely unacceptable. So, Tiff and I go to the police station and file a report. The Detective wants to come up and take fingerprints (a formality and just for show apparently for tourists) and when they get to the house, the women who own it have already talked to Jason who has told them what happened.

Susan came with us to translate becasue my Spanish, while good enough to get by, was not good enough at this point and I was slightly histerical. As the day went on I was more and more aware that someone was in my room from 3am to 7am while I was sleeping. Had I been awake, this could be a very different story. The women were visibly upset and we couldn't tell if they were mad at us or if they were mad in general, but they were trying to figure out if we told anyone or had boys back with us or something....



back to class... tis the life of a student. more later.