Startling Awakenings 1: Reasons to Sleep With Your Clothes On

This morning was ridiculous.

I was peacefully sleeping in my bed with my fan blowing on me, and sleeping only in a light sheet since it is over 100 degrees here just about every day.

All of a sudden, I wake up to what sounds like thunder. I see bright flashes and I think, "Oh, it must be a thunderstorm!". I take out my ear plugs to see if I can hear the rain, but I notice that it is not raining. All of a sudden, another loud burst of light and sound echoes through my house, and I start to get a little concerned. I sleepily try to reach around for my flashlight, but I can't find it, so I just lay there for a few more moments.

And then my fan stops moving, and I realize that the power has cut out.

As more and more loud blasts and bright balls of light filled the streets and sounded throughout my bedroom, I started getting a little bit nervous, so I reach for a night sleep shirt and find my flash light. I open the door, and Jennifer opens her door, and we hear Lidieth downstairs and she says something about "light" and I tell her I have a flashlight if she needs one, and I am just now realizing that I completely misinterpreted her (surprise!).

Lidieth leaves and Jennifer and I are really unsure of what's going on. By now the disturbances are more frequent and we can smell a little bit of smoke. We try to see if Carolina is awake, but she somehow managed to sleep through this incredible display of noise and light.

"Help us, the Gringos are confused!" Jennifer desparately calls to no one.

Now, I'm starting to get kind of really concerned. Our host mom is gone and we are all alone in a dark house. I start to think, "Is this an attack? Are there gunmen in the street? Should I turn off my flashlight? Am I a target? Are they terrorists? Who the hell would terrorize Costa Rica? That's just some straight up bully horseshit," and I can't figure out what's happening. All the while, I'm half cracking up thinking about the insanity of the moment.

Finally, Jennifer suggests the possibility of fireworks.

"Oh."

Finally understanding, we walked to the gate of our little complex and watched a very pretty display of fireworks over the sunrise, laughing to myself about the whole scenario. We only caught the last part because we were too confused for beginning of it, and too busy fearing for our lives. Did I mention that this happened at 5 in the morning?

"They probably meant to start at midnight, and just tico time'd it," Jennifer suggests. The funny thing is, she is probably very right.

My favorite part was going down to the kitchen this morning after waking up for real. I ask Lidieth about the "juegos de bombolos", and she casually mentions that they do this every year when Carnival begins. It is absolutely hilarious what they find normal here, and what Americans would consider completely unacceptable.

My other favorite part is that literally just LAST NIGHT I was telling someone how my newest goal was to see a fireworks display in Costa Rica, but I didn't know if they would have some here. And the friend I tell this to says, "Well, if they fireworks, they'll definitely be at Carnival!" ....Got what I wanted, I guess!

Well... Happy Carnival, then! If this is how it starts, I'm pretty pumped to see the kind of craziness that will occur this weekend.