Terrible Weekend

This post is going to be really negative. If you're feeling down today then don't read it. But I'm not going to sugar-coat anything about what happened this weekend, or try to make it sound nice, because it wasn't.  Also this post will be long.


Here it goes.


This weekend my friends and I decided to go to Tamarindo Beach. There were 10 of us, 9 girls, and the 1 guy that's with our group. We took the 3pm bus from San Jose to Tamarindo. It was a 6 hour bus trip so we arrived to Tamarindo around 9pm. We went straight to the hostel were we would be staying for two nights. As soon as we got there my friends decided they wanted to buy alcohol so they could pre-game for the local bars and clubs in the area. Legally we are allowed to buy and drink alcohol here. Most of my friends are 20-23, and the drinking age is 18. So we went to the store to get whatever stuff they wanted. I personally don't want to drink here:
1. I don't feel safe here as it is sober
2. I wouldn't know what to even buy
3. I don't like the idea of mass amounts of alcohol messing with my brain (it's one of the few substances next to drugs that passes the blood brain barrier and directly effects your brain)
4. It's expensive, and a whole lot of hidden carbohydrates
5. Also I don't think I like most drinks. I've tried someones Imperial beer (it's the beer of costa rica) and thought it was nasty, and I tried someones long Island and it want to throw it up. Maybe I just don't like crappy drinks, I don't know.

That's in no specific order.

Also my friends brought a hookah, which I also didn't use because I don't like the idea of tobacco running around in my body either. I know, it sounds like I'm a purist. I guess I might be.
I don't care that they do it, and I don't care that they drink. I like everyone's company so it's not a big deal to me that they do it. Everyone on this trip is an adult and can do what they please, and no one has a problem with me not drinking/smoking

Anyways,
after the stuff is purchased they pre-game and some people go to the bars/clubs and some people want to go walk on the beach. I go with the group that's walking on the beach and so does Steve (the 1 one guy that's on this trip). After were done at the beach Steve goes to check up on the girls at the bar/club. My group heads back to the hostel to watch a movie. Steve and the other girls go back to the beach but decide that they want to swim in the water. So they all strip down and jump in. Apparently Tamarindo is another really dangerous beach and they decided to go swimming at 11:00pm, which is right during high tide. Steve swims out farther than the girls, and one of them starts swimming towards him saying they want to get out. Suddenly Steve gets sucked under with the current and waves and the girls can't find him. They run along the beach looking for him but can't find him. They run to different places asking people to call the police. The police gets there and they call the coast guard. So the coast guard and the police are looking for Steve for 5 hours. Someone calls the ISEP coordinator for our program to let her know that Steve is missing and maybe dead because the police and coast guard have stopped looking.

While this is all going on the other group of girls and I are at the hostel. We get the call about Steve and the police requested that we look through Steve's stuff to find his insurance card. We find it and head to the beach. Ivelina, our ISEP coordinator, tells us all that we need to get on the 5am bus back to San Jose and then come back to Heredia. So we all head back to the hostel. During all of this chaos everyone is crying and crying, and grieving, and crying and it's an absolute mess.

We walk to the bus station. As we're walking I see Steve walking towards us in the distance. We all literally start screaming and crying even harder, shocked that he's alive. We literally thought, and for good reason, that our friend was dead. So Steve is back, and by the time we get things straightened out it's 6am. We're all starving and decide to get breakfast but nothing opens until 8am. So we wait. I didn't get any sort of sleep till about 11 or 12, and it could hardly be called sleep.

The rest of the weekend sucked because everyone was so upset. We didn't go back to San Jose that morning, we went back Sunday at 1pm. Today I found out that none of my credit/debit cards work. I told my bank before I left that I would be in Costa Rica for 5 MONTHS. They said okay, we'll take note. Well they didn't and they suspended my card the first week so I had to call them again and tell them what I'm doing. They suspend the card AGAIN and actually cancelled it this time. So now I'm out 1 credit card. So I use my debit card for this weekend. Now it doesn't work either. Now I'm out both of my cards and luckily have about $40 dollars worth of colones. Also my much anticipated first massage class was cancelled today.

To top it all off I was called today to talk to Ivelina about what happened this weekend. I get to her office and she's asking me about everything. I asked if Steve would be sent home and she said that there's a very, very high chance that he will be. This upset me. Steve is 6foot 5in and wards off most of the creepy Tico men that try and hit on us. This is especially nice at night. He goes with us most places just to make sure that we are okay. He walks us to our bus stops/finds us taxis when it's dark and dangerous and then walks by himself home. It will really suck if he's sent home.

I might post some photos of Tamarindo, but for now that's it.