mastatal...still

I am currently in a situation where i have 3 things that are going to be happening at the same time and i want to do all of them. 1: last night my family informed me that i just had to stay with them and in mastatal until new years and christmas. and everyone else here is saying that december is the most fun here. so that is one enticing option. 2: over christmas some relatives are vacationing in CR, as well as one of my friends and her family, so i was wanting to get to see and hang out with them. 3: I am still wanting to go to Ecuador to travel with my friend bianca. she´ll only be there for about a month, from mid december to mid january, so this would be my only opportunity. So there is my big fat dillema. three choices, all of which would be very fun, but i can only choose 1. So crap. i mean i guess it could be worse-i could have no good options at all-but i still don´t feel so privilidged at the moment... Aside from all that, my time here is still very enjoyable. Yesterday a group of about 6 of us took a hike down to this gorgeous swimming hole at the river and hung out for a few hours there. and then i played soccer for the first time since i got here and it was muddy. And then they had chicharones at the bar at night! it may have been the highlight of the day since i so rarely get to eat hearty portions of meat her. every now and then at the bar they will just decide to make them and anyone who wants can buy a plate and then have as much as they want. Eating those fresh, hot, and in enormous quantity along with a cold beer was about all i could ask for. Today for work we moved cement blocks for about 3 hours and we all felt a little like we were in some sort of forced labor camp. its this weird mix of wanting to help out but then when you look back on it you think how absurd it sounds to be paying to do this sort of thing. but i have no regrets thus far. so bueno. i gotta run now, ill write soon.

gus