For Everything Else, There's Mastercard

Reader, I have a confession. I passed up on a very blogworthy experience today in the name of responsibility. There's this National festival going on called Palmares and it's apparently a huge party that lasts a couple weeks and it culminates in a day of live music, food, drink and general mayhem. Well, today is the last day of the festival and I had planned on going, but at the last minute I decided not to go. I'm not really a fan of huge crowds of people, but I would have sacrificed my general comfort for the experience and the resulting blog post. Basically, I was going to go for you Reader, but I just couldn't justify spending that much money. Things are surprisingly expensive down here. Food is almost the same price as it is at home, with a few exceptions (bananas, beans and coffee). I got paid a little bit last week, enough to get me through until my next paycheck if I budget wisely, so that's what I'm doing. I do have money in my American account, but I really don't want to revert back to that. I have to learn how to live off what I make here and it's unfortunate that you, Reader, are the one that will suffer the most. It's pretty common knowledge that I have just as much fun staying in as I do going out, sometimes much more fun. But I know reading about my misanthropic lifestyle is way less entertaining than reading about crazy social exploits with the local culture. So for this, I apologize and promise to make it up to you...or at least try and make my antisocial lifestyle sound more interesting when I write about it.

So, while doing exciting things usually involves money, there are certain experiences I can have that are, for lack of a better cliche, priceless. For example, having perfect weather everyday...priceless. I mean, it's January and I can go outside in shorts and a t-shirt, how awesome is that?! Also, finally solving a logic games problem set within a respectable time frame...priceless.

LSAT update: I finished the chapters dealing with basic and advanced linear games and today I moved onto grouping games. I've worked through a bunch of actual LSAT logic games and I usually get all of the questions right. The hard part is answering the whole problem set within 8 minutes and 45 seconds, which is the recommended time allotted to each logic game on the LSAT. Getting them all correct doesn't really matter if it takes you 15 minutes and you don't have time to finish the rest of the questions.

In other news, I did finally get to a beach on Friday. I went to one of the Pacific beaches that's about an hour and a half away with my housemates. It was a small local beach, nothing breathtaking, but it was definitely nice to get out of the city and see the ocean. The water is really warm and the sand is black, I think because of the volcanoes (I either slept through or didn't go to the geology class that talked about different kinds of sand). It was pretty cool to see black sand, definitely a first, but sadly not priceless. It cost me 3 bucks to get into the beach. Most of the beaches are also National Parks, so there's usually an entrance fee. It is really nice being close enough to take a day trip to a beach, especially since I don't have consecutive days off.

Speaking of, my job is still going well. I love most of my classes/students and I'm now up to 18 hours of class a week. I did have a little run in with the Present Perfect this week in my intermediate class. Most people couldn't tell the Present Perfect from the Simple Past without a Google search, but having taught English for over a year, I have developed (example of the PP) a decent understanding of this rather difficult tense. Well, I had just introduced the tense to my class on Tuesday and on Thursday I had one student refuse to do any of the activities because she did not completely understand why/when you use the Present Perfect. It was an incredibly frustrating experience for both of us. It's definitely not her fault though, the PP is just really hard to understand, especially when it's being explained to you in a language you have just started learning. Other than that, things have been pretty smooth sailing in class.

Here's some other random information you may or may not be interested in...
Currently reading: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (I needed something to lift my spirits after the Hunger Games)
Recently watched: Roman Holiday, Iron man, The Waitress and Raiders of the Lost Ark
About to watch: Boardwalk Empire
Most played artist on my iPod recently: Alicia Keys
Most anticipated moment of this upcoming week: Monday night's Castle...it looks awesome

I'll leave you with my favorite Dove chocolate quote from last week:
"Always bring your own sunshine."

P.S. The inspiration for this post comes from the fact that I got a bank account setup here and a Mastercard debit card to go with it. So when I get paid at the end of the month, I will be able to experience some of the "everything else."

P.P.S. I had some requests for more pictures with my posts and I want you to know that I'm not ignoring that request, although this picture-lacking-post may lead you to believe that. I have something special planned for my next post that will involve a lot of pictures. So check back in a couple days for a visually stimulating experience.