So I really should be writing things down more, but I am extremely lazy.  I know a lot has been happening and I want to remember it so here is a brief over view of life lately.  When we got back from the guanacaste trip we still had the weekend of Semana Santa so I had the opportunity to see the processions in cartago.  We went to watch the processions at noon on holy Friday.  We could here the processions all the way a few blocks away at the house because they had drums.  By the time we arrived the street was already full of onlookers.  Everyone was dressed nicely in summer dresses, or shorts.  I felt very hot and out of place in my jeans.  This is like the first time that I had seen such a high percent of people wearing shorts out of the house, it's normally almost exclusively jeans despite how hot it may be in the afternoon.  There was also a vender selling crushed ice with fruit syrup, condensed milk and milk powder.  It's kind of like a Costa Rican slushy, but sickeningly sweet it almost tastes like overly sweet medicine (not my favorite).  The drumming got louder as the procession advanced.  It was lead by rows of "Jews" as the people here called them.  People dressed up in what looked like roman costumes to me.  The had drums and were marching forward with extremely serious faces.  They were organized by age with the oldest ( some white haired gentleman) towards the front and going to the youngest ( ending with some kids who probably were about 7 or so).  In between there were some guys in my high school who looked mildly embarrassed as they marched, they were less in character than some of the older men, who were marching exaggeratedly in front.  Further back in the procession you could see the imitation of Jesus bobbing up and down as they walked.  I took a video of the whole thing.  The soldiers were followed by some women and eventually Jesus. They all finally arrived at a cross parrelel to the church and reanacted the crucifixion.  Shortly after we walked to my host grandmas house where a lot of the family was gathered for lunch.  Lunch was based heavily on mariscos or seafood as they don't eat meat on holy Friday.  As a matter of fact I don't think they are actually supposed to eat meat for the entire week which is why they eat a lot of seafood then.  This however isn't very strictly adhered to, as they love meat here.  That night I went to processions again with some of my cousins.  Now they reanacted the burial of Christ.  They took the life sized Christ doll from the cross and a extremely emotional woman cried and sobbed over him.  I have a feeling she wasn't able to talk the next morning because she was practically screaming her lines.  Lets just say she got very into her role.  The soldiers then walked all the way around the block with the body and brought it to the tomb.  This entire thing lasted for like two hours.  It was very interesting to see.  My cousins told me that it is always the same every year.  Then that Sunday I went to San Jose to the children's museum with my family which was very nice.  Afterwards we went to Walmart which is pretty much the same as in the USA although I really haven't  been to Walmart enough to remember what it's like.  Monday school began again.  Friday i slept over at my exchange student friends house. We went out to eat to celebrate her moms birthday, then went back to her house and made brownies with ice cream and strawberries and watched a movie.  The next morning we had brownies and ice cream for breakfast before we left to go to the birthday party of her 1 year old host cousin.  For the occasion the family had rented a ranch, with a nice view overlooking Agua Caliente.  Everything was decorated and they even rented a bouncy house kind of thing for the kids to play on.  They had a variety of dishes brought out slowly throughout the afternoon.  They also had a piñata in the afternoon.  It was almost all adults who were there.  The party was supposed to start at 10 but we got there at 11 and hardly anyone showed up till after 12.  Then on Sunday we had a picnic with afs in cartago.  All of the exchange students had to bring a dish from their county.  I made baked Mac and cheese, with cheddar cheese which is very pricey here.  There are a lot of German students, one Swiss, Icelandic, Italian, Hungarian and me.  Tomorrow I am leaving for San Jose, and Thursday for guanacaste for a trip with afs.  Luckily since school even in Costa Rica is getting very boring.