More corn and more pig fat, please.

I'll do my side note first: I decided to tackle homosexuality in my community diagnostic. The document is almost complete (how long have I been saying that?) but I felt like I needed to include something about the homophobic sentiment in my region. Not to say that I come from a culture that is the model of acceptance. I emailed one of my bosses asking if this was okay. I got the go ahead to approach the subject carefully and now I'm doing my best to skate on thin ice. To blunt, too offensive and I risk turning people off to working with me. Too passive or bland means I'm not accomplishing anything.

In other news, December is the month of celebrations and parties in Costa Rica. And the weather could not be better to find oneself outside at a fairground. Mom and Dad - forget about January 2013. December is THE month to be here. In San José this past weekend there was the Festival of Lights. The name is misleading, it's not about Chanukah. Insteadn the Festival of Lights in Costa Rica is a huuuuge parade with tons of floats, costumes and bands. From what I saw, it's like a cross between the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Philadelphia Mummers' New Year's Day Parade. My favorite part was the parade anthem sung by a woman who would have been X-ed out of America's Got Talent with unmatched speed. It went thus: ''Festival de la Luz! Festival de la Luz! Festival de la Luz, Festival de la Luz, Festival de la Luz!'' And so on.

There's also big town parties locally. Just a week ago, I came back from vacation in the United States to catch the tail end of the festival in Santa Bárbara. Got back on a 5:00 pm bus, showered and got changed and was out the house with my host sister by 6:30 walking to where our ride would pick us up to go. I don't know why, but after vacation in the U.S. I feel like I've got a new perspective - enjoy, guilt free, when fun things are happening. And continue to do my best when it comes to work. And not worry if I'm doing enough to merit having a good time. Although that is certainly a difficult attitude to maintain.

Speaking of good times, they continue this next weekend. There's a tope, or a horse parade that'll go to the next town over from mine in the direction of Nicoya. I'm not sure where it starts, but my cousin just told me that he's going to find me a horse to ride and we'll join it from my town. WOOP! My only regret is that I did not pack my cowboy boots when I came back from vacation. What footwear, indeed, is appropriate for a gringa non-horsewoman who wants to appear legit? I'll probably end up wearing my ballet flat Crocs. They're a safe bet and a good deal sexier than my sneakers. Yikes. I just called my Crocs sexy. I have been in the campo a long time. Anyway, expect a ton of photos from that. I'm going to feel like a monster bad ass.

There's also posadas all over my town. The best I can figure, a posada is like caroling, but instead of going house to house in one night, kids and their parents go to one house on a different night during the week. The kids hang ornaments cut from paper (by yours truly) on a tree, everyone sings villancicos (carols) and there's refreshments. I haven't been to one yet for one reason or another, but that's on my list of things to do this week, for sure.

And the fooooooood...oh my GOD the food this time of year is nuts. There's tamales which are okay - when the piece of pork in the middle isn't all fat, I looooove me some tamale. I'm also eating things made of corn that I didn't yet know existed. There's at least two more types of ''juice'' made from corn. And because everything is a celebration, there's a ton of chicheme. Chicheme is like...unfermented chicha. Which doesn't help if you don't know what chicha is...dang. How do I explain? My host mom takes fresh corn and grinds it up. Then, it's collated so that only a certain part remains. Then it's put into a huge pot over a fire and cooked with a lot of water and a LOT of cane sugar. I think there's something else...maybe cinnamon? Whatever it is, it tastes delicious. If it weren't for the texture, I'd drink it all day. But because the texture is close to that of...erm...liquidy chunky silicon, maybe? I just can't do it.

There's also chicharrones. I think they're fried pork rinds. I can't tell you for sure, because I never would have eaten pork rinds in the U.S. So I honestly don't know if they're the same thing. But chicharrones are pig fat fried in more fat and they're the best goddam food on the planet. Again, I never would have chosen to eat these in the U.S. But it's like carte blanche in Costa Rica for food. Yum. The little crispy pieces are served on a bed of shredded cabbage with fresh salsa on the side. A little lime wedge to squeeze on top of the chicharrones makes the plate complete. It's a typical Nicaraguan plate when it's all pulled together like that and it's called viguerón. It's probably the only thing that Costa Ricans will admit they like about Nicaragua.

Hmmm, what else? Not much. Family, good. Boyfriend, good. Dog, slobbery and dumb. I took a really sweet picture of Doky that I'll post below. Also, I swear that sometime I'll get a picture of me and the BF together.

Look at that dumb little face. Oh my, he's so cute.

Oh, also...today I saw a chicken jump up on a shallow metal bowl, but it only landed on the edge and it was empty. So it flipped over on the chicken and the chicken started running around with it on top. But all you could see was this upside down metal bowl moving across the ground. I almost peed myself.

Not this same chicken.