Day 35 6/26/13 (Kathy’s Waffle House, the ultra-marathon on Ometepe, getting prepped for San Carlos, a fiesta, Kelly’s bar and a reason to take a taxi home late at night)

Today was an early morning as I intended to (and successfully went to Kathy’s waffle house two streets parallel to Calzada. I met Evan for breakfast at around 7 AM. As I heard the chocolate waffle was delicious, I ordered that and waited patiently with my real orange juice in a glass (not the ½ cup sugar per serving soda we normally have). The chocolate waffle was an interesting beast which consisted of a waffle with chocolate chunks in the recesses (the chocolate was immensely satisfying). Then we went to class and talked more about the ultra-marathon on Ometepe (fuego y agua) and detailed the tasks involved in the super endurance test (including carrying the chicken, carrying a huge tree, digging a hole, swimming a bit with a plastic bag of plastic bottles attached, climbing Concepción and descending the mountain, carrying a tree used later as a ladder for climbing a 10 meter high tree and carrying an egg for a long distance. Dang! Anyone that finishes this is a boss. We then worked a miniscule bit on our presentation for grammar and went over the verbs and their use as commands). The presentation was a dramatization of a medical scene and we had to use terminology and act out something. We did a crazy hilarious part about trying to fix a pulse oximeter and then Kevin and Matt came up and asked how we all woke up (it’s very important). Kevin then had a heart attack and we had to come up with devices to save him. We finally got a defib (like 5 minutes later) and we revived him and then Matt asked him how he woke up. Scene. It was Academy Award worthy (where’s my nomination? (at minimum it was probably better acting than Keanu Reeves)). Anyways after that we had fried fish for lunch which was legit. After lunch was a long chill 3 hour time period where Alex and Kevin talked to the groups individually about the upcoming trips to the hospital and the status of the hospital and the homestay. During this time I also went out to buy syringes (for applying small volumes of oil into hard to reach places (what were you thinking I was buying them for?) from a street front store for 11 cordobas for 3 mL, 5 mL and 10 mL ones). After that I got my debit card from home and withdrew some money for later. I then returned to watch part of Resident Evil Extinction on my laptop (from a plethora of movies I got from Mark). After that we heard about Alex and Kevin’s experiences in Nicaragua and Tanzania respectively. It made me so stoked for my project! LIKE SO STOKED FOR FRIDAY AND THE NEXT MONTH! Anyways after that we had the surprise which was a fiesta with our teachers with a piñata (of Lightning McQueen) and candy and cake and coka cola. It was a blast and of the first hour with the piñata I have 40 minutes of video (O.o that’s what the 1 Tb drive is for). I even got to wail on that piñata a bit (sorry McQueen). After the piñata we had a bit of dancing with some of the teachers and gave them thank you cards and said our goodbyes. After that I returned home and chilled and eventually had repochete (those epic filled tortilla jawns). I worked out and then showered and left for Calzada street to find the group of people heading out for the last night together in a month (little did we know how the night would turn out). The night started out sort of poorly with me just chilling with the group members as we drank (differing beverages and alcoholic contents (I don’t drink)). Anyways at around 11:30 PM or so and after much futzing around and waiting, the group finally left for Kelly’s Bar (where there was a decently sized party with dancing around the bar going on). We arrived with one of the spokespersons for Kelly’s (the guy that walks around and talks up the bar and gives out papers telling of the night’s activities there). We walked in and saw the raging crowd just chilling around the side of the bar with the DJ station at the one end (just as before). It was quite a ton of fun dancing there, as this one English chick named Hailey showed up (after being with us on Calzada) and she and I danced for almost an hour (just doing the Meringue and also learning some Salsa as well (good clean fun)). After she left it was sort of downhill from in terms of excitement, but I was able to rage with the group a bit and to throw down some of my moves (even my handstand and handplant!) (the two younger Spanish teachers had also come out with us and were dancing with the group). The time was pretty fun. Kasper and I also started doing different everyday activities such as digging, hammering, sawing, sewing etc (as pantomime dance moves which was hilarious). After a good while of this, we decided to leave around like 1:50 AM. Several members of the group were not is a great mental state and the girls took a taxi home. A larger group of us (Dan, Soorya, Jack, Ringo, Lucas, Mark and I) started walking back up Consulado. The group stopped to talk to this one dude sitting outside of one of the houses (who is always sitting there) and it turns out he is a paid security guard with a knife that is looking after that garage because it has been broken into in the past. Anyways several members of the group were taking forever talking to this dude and it was really late at like 2 AM, so Ringo and I left for our houses a couple blocks up Consulado (we arrived without any issue). I started packing for the trip to San Carlos and was gathering all my things and it was like 2:20 AM and I had still not heard from Dan. So I texted him and he said that Lucas had gotten surrounded and they were heading back. Eventually Dan returned at like 3:30 AM and I heard the full story (I had heard parts over texts and then just waited). So what had happened was that the guys walked Mark home (as he lived on a side street) and had run into this group of young kids who harassed and joked with them a bit and then Dan gave them cookies and the kids left. Later when they were walking back to Consulado, another group of 6 or so approached the group carrying rocks (and acting as to inflict harm with these weapons), so several members of the group ran, but Lucas got caught up and surrounded and hit with some rocks (one hit to the head that wasn’t all that bad) and some other beating areas. The kids that were doing this also took his wallet, shirt and belt. Meanwhile Dan, Jack and Soorya had watched this take place as they were unable to do anything as another young dude from the group was holding a forearm sized knife and keeping them away from Lucas. Eventually the delinquents let Lucas run back and threw rocks at him as he ran. The group then ran back to Consulado and got help from some security guards and Alex. After calling several hotline numbers for help and talking through the situation, Alex took Dan home with Lucas in a taxi then headed for the hospital. At this point, it was 3:30 AM and Salvador and I listened to Dan tell the story (I had been home for the whole situation) and then basically went to bed. Long day and little sleep.