Canned Beans

I'm missing three inches of myself right now. I made the mistake of getting my haircut today. Alannah and I walked into this beauty salon, excited to finally get our ends trimmed. I think the hard water makes my hair a little dry, and both Alannah and I are growing out our hair and wanted to get the dry ends snipped off. Well some snips was what I was expecting...instead 3inches of hardwork got sliced of my hair today. I guess it really wasn't hard work, and it will grow back, and I do have healthy hair now...So, Pura Vida =) (however the beauty salons in Costa Rica definitely don't have any regulations when it comes to sanitation...The guy used the exact same comb that he had used on Alannah....full of her hair, on my hair. I don't really care, but that's not normal. They also don't have any cleaning solutions for the combs and scissors.)   

The fun didn't stop there, however. After the hair massacre we went to a tattoo parlor and I got my first tattoo. Tattoos and piercings are really cheap here. Oh, but I didn't actually get a tattoo. Alannah wanted to get her conch pierced, that's the inside part of your ear for those who don't know. I didn't know that it was a popular place for piercings but so many people have their ears pierced in that spot! It was only 14$ which includes the sterling silver earring. I would be way to scared to get that part of my ear pierced but Alannah just walked into that parlor and 15minutes later had a new hole in her head. Impressive. I couldn't have done it. 

The final part of my day that's worth mentioning is the conversation that I had with my mama tica just now. I was asking her to give me her pinto gallo recipe because we're supposed to bring in a tico recipe in order to practice our commands. She told me the recipe and while I was writing it down I remembered what one of my friends told me about her meals here. Her host mom doesn't cook dried beans. She warms up canned beans. I told my mama tica this and she was absolutely APPALLED. She couldn't believe it, canned beans?? That's so not Tico. Then I told her that my same friend is sick and last night for dinner her host mom made her soup from this packet thing. Again, she was appalled...and disgusted. She told me that one of the requirements for the host moms is to cook fresh Tico food. Not only is it not Tico to cook canned and packaged food, but it's also against the rules. That's kind of cool, although it sucks for my friend who has the slacker mom.  

That being said, my group has come to a general consensus that I have the best meals out of everyone. I'll admit that they're very correct. I try not to gloat about it, but when we all sit down together and I whip out this amazing, fresh, big lunch the food itself does all the gloating. Eyes quickly turn to my food, then down to their own food, then back at mine. The foods top notch. I look forward to opening my packed lunch every day to the surprise inside. I couldn't ask for more. Muchas Gracias Mama Tica. 

I hope everyone has had a great start to their week! 

Buenas Noches, 

Sara