giggle pop

After telling the tale of the Mardi Gras horse Miss Jaco asked me to share our adventures at Jaco Beach in Costa Rica…one of the many times we took our adventures international. We had just spent 2 weeks in Costa Rica taking classes with our law school. I would be an understatement to say that it was one of the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life, almost traumatic. At the same time it was a frickin’ great time. Here I am with about the only two people I could stand by the end of the trip… Miss Jaco and another friend.



We went through about everything you could imagine…vacationships, ending of friendships, strengthening of friendships, crazy new friendships as well as more alcohol and avocados than anyone could imagine. My liver hurts even thinking about that summer. After our school program ended it was time to get out of San Jose and do a little soul searching/cleansing.

As you see me here in this candid shot on one of our last nights in San Jose with the program giving my best “bitch please” pose…this picture sums up the trip pretty perfectly. Knowing me I was drunk and probably actually saying “bitch please” at the time.


Once the program ended I made plans to travel with Miss Jaco for a few days before we headed home. We spent a while deciding which beach to go to and what hotel to stay at. After some planning we picked to Copa Cabana at Jaco Beach. As I said we needed a weekend of soul searching/cleansing. Little did we know we picked an ocean side Costa Rican whore house with a view, and what do you know there was no better place.

The arrival, after an incredibly awkward van ride (all due to previous drama) we arrive at our hotel, the copa cabana. It is starting to get dark so we sit by the pool enjoying some drinks and order a pizza, and thinking “damn this is living.” When all of a sudden a group of middle aged men come over to our area, they brought an endless supply of imperial (Costa Rican beer) so we begin to chat. They explain they are there for a friends birthday celebration and ask why we are at this particular hotel. Well it turned out the hotel was mostly filled with prostitutes, and they were curious because we clearly were not prostitutes. After a few beers we begin to ask them questions about how this whole prostitute thing works and why exactly they would do such a thing…and what resulted was a very informative conversation I would rather forget. I did learn one thing however, my future husband will NEVER go to Costa Rica without me.

We make more friends at the hotel, some there for the hookers some not. We have one big fun chat session by the pool. At one point we received salsa dance lessons from one of the prostitutes, it was free. After hanging out at the hotel for a while a bunch of us decide to go out on the town and drink some more. On our way to some fun bars, some of the guys decided they would take us on a walk through of a very interesting bar…

The Beatle Bar
This bar had a simple black sign with white writing and it said “Beatle Bar” from the outside it seems like any other bar, but when you go in you can tell quickly something is just off. All you see is a lot of people talking in pairs, a lot of older men and a lot of younger women. It is very hard to explain, but it was a very interesting experience.

We spend the rest of the night out with random people from our hotel, including a very nice mattress salesman who was not there for the prostitutes, he was on vacation with his cousin.

The Cousin
The next day we go walk on the beach, lay by the pool, and relax in general. That night we hang out at the hotel bar drinking, not really sure what happened that night because after 2 weeks of heavy drinking and two nights in a row of staying out until dawn I fell asleep at about 8pm. But apparently Mr. Matress Salesman goes out. Later that night Mr. Matress Salesman wakes up to some disturbing sounds and comments as cousin and his new friend get to know each other. Mr. Matress Salesman goes and sleeps on beach, tells us about how disturbed he was by this the next morning. I go ziplining in the jungle (awesome by the way). After some evidence collecting Miss Jaco and Mr. Matress Salesman figure out Cousins friend is most likely a prostitute, and cousin somehow ended up going to a family picnic with her.

You can see me here soul searching on the beach


After yet another night of drinking followed by another day of laying by the pool and playing on the beach we decide we will spend our last night relaxing and having a quiet dinner at the hotel. Quiet dinner turned into many glasses of wine and about 8 shots of patron…each. While we never left the hotel we had one of the most wonderful conversations about life and all the adventures we had been through together. We talked about, life, love, lack of love, drama, mean people, nice people, and realized that night just how much our friendship meant.

We went to the beach for some soul cleansing, and while we witnessed some of the dirtiest sides of life, we walked away from Jaco Beach with souls cleansed, baptized by Patron. At times all we could do was laugh and/or be disturbed but in the end it was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. I saw a side of the world that I guess I always knew existed but never thought I would really see, and then there I was a spectator in the middle of it all. After everything we went through in the previous two weeks we needed a shock to the system to shake us out of the bubble we were in for that two weeks. When it came down to it all we needed was a weekend in a brothel with an ocean view and a whole lot of tequila.

Me and Miss Jaco at the beach on our life changing weekend

How I became a Serie A fan. Towards the end of the summer I decided I was going to start following the Serie A. I have followed the EPL and La Liga for years, and had my alliances very set in stone for both leagues for a while, but I had never followed the Italian league closely. While my alliances in the other two leagues formed fairly organically (stories for another day) I started thinking, hmm I need a team if I am going to follow this league, right? It is pretty impossible for me to watch any sort of competition and not get behind a team, I mean I cannot even watch a game show without picking a favorite and screaming at the tv. I decided to give the impossible a try and not pick a team until the end of season…and I succeeded. I spent the season as a happy neutral spectator learning and enjoying the intricacies of the league. I saw a lot of beautiful football and a lot of beautiful men.

As the season progressed I began to sort out teams I could see myself as a potential fan of and ones I just could not get behind. I decided quickly that AC Milan just was not for me, they were just to polished, smug, or something…can’t put my finger on it. There are a lot of great players on the team and not really hateable, but just not for me. The three teams that started to stand out to me as possible candidates were Roma, Juventus, and Inter. After a few Roma games I realized that while they were ripe with hotties there just was not that spark there, and with that Roma got an honorable discharge. There I was trying to decide between Juve and Inter and it was a tough tough choice.

Juve had a little something I loved, not to mention my near obsession with Iaquinta’s head and Gigi’s hair. On the other hand Inter had The Special One, how could I NOT cheer for The Special One? The more I watched Inter the more I loved them…it was going to be so tough to choose. I made a pro list for each team…I managed to lose this list but it was full of quality reasons to cheer for teams such as: Pupi’s right thigh, Pupi’s left thigh, the pure awesomeness of Gigi, Nedved’s hair, etc. (btw the was I was choosing on more than just hotness, but that is just how my lists always turn out). After some time Inter was pulling away into a lead and I was inches away from declaring them the winner.

Then all of a sudden Juve hit hard with a three-pronged attack of firing Ranieri, signing Cannavaro (again), and Gigi Buffon wore bobby pins in a game I never thought I could want a man in berets so badly. Inter needed to step up their game…and step it up they did.

I think it was a few days after the clinched the title I was spending one of my usual awesome weekends sitting on the couch with the dogs, watching sappy movies, drinking lots of wine, and chatting on twitter with my lovely kickette ladies. All of a sudden I get a set of tweets I have only been able to describe as “drunken pictorial persuasion” TB was making a last ditch effort to sway me to become an Interista. It was a series of pictures of Mr. Stankovic in most of these pictures he was about 85% naked and one of which was on a waterslide. It not only provided material for fun dirty jokes, it involved something awesome…a waterslide! Also there were pictures like this…of the boys drunk and in festive wigs from the night before a game after they clinched the title. I LOVE FESTIVE HEAD GEAR!

I was drunk, TB was drunk, the nerazzurri boys were drunk it was like fate…I knew then and there that Inter HAD to be my team. And lets not forget the one of Julio Cesar in a crazy hat, no shirt, and a flag…too bad I can’t find it now.

I had been waiting for my magical a-ha moment, and that was it. So here I am an Internazionale fan. I cannot wait for next season when I can really watch the Serie A with my very own team to support. I loved watching the league this year, but without a team I did not have deep deep emotional attachment I have to La Liga and EPL. I know it is going to come and will develop more with another season or two. So there it is, how I became a fan of the Serie A and a fan of Inter.