Fútbol and the Fiesta

We have had an extremely busy weekend, so we have not had time to write any new posts. Since this is the case and I'm writing the post, not Steph, it's probably going to be a little long. So anyways, on Friday morning, Steph called me right after she got to school and told me that I needed to call the team Doctor for the professional futbol, or soccer team here, the San Carlos Toros del Norte. The Doctor is a neighbor of Paul Gray's, so Paul arranged a volunteer opportunity with the team for me. After talking with the Doctor in broken Spanish on the phone I figured out that I had to meet him and the team at the "stadium" in half an hour to take a bus to practice. The field is being converted to artificial turf and we had to bus to another field in town.

At the stadium, I met with the doctor and the team physical therapist and arranged to work with him during practice. The physical therapist is basically the Costa Rican equivalent to an athletic trainer. We went to practice and since it was the day before a game, everyone was expected to play a small game. Since I haven't really played soccer since I was 8, you can imagine how it went. What was worse was a coach on the opposite team kept kicking ants on me so distract me from doing my already poor job of goal tending. Anyways, it was fun and after that I got to spend the rest of practice working with the physical therapist to rehabilitate a kid with a three month old ACL repair. Overall, it was really fun and the only significant difference I noticed was that the players didn't have any water bottles. They had sandwich bags that were filled with gatorade and water and tied off.

After working with the team, we went to the Green Forest School staff party. It was very different from a similar type of party in the U.S., and it was kind of the same at the same time. There was a lot of dancing, but it was to types of music that I wouldn't dare try to dance to. There was plenty of drinking. In fact, Don Manuel, who is the director of the school kept making different kinds of frozen drinks that he had had during his time in Brazil and he made sure your cup never got empty. Also, when he'd bring out a new kind, he'd make you get a clean cup so one flavor didn't contaminate the next. The food however was very different. There was what looked like a normal type of trail mix, but it contained fruit flavored marshmellows. Additionally, the steak was slightly seasoned and served whole on a tortilla, and when the tortillas ran out, it was served only on a plate. Though it was very different, it was delicious none the less and there's definitely something to be said about grass fed beef. The flavor was indescribable.