A275

Wow, well guess who just returned home from a ROUSING FORTY FIVE minutes at the bank? THIS KID. Not even kidding- I really wish I was. That little trip to exchange my dollars to colones turned out to be WAY more exhausting than expected. [and my mama tica just informed me that the 15th and 30th of every month are the WORST possible days to go. That was very useful information I could have used about I dont know FIFTY minutes ago] Anyway, I didnt think I was going to have anything to write about today but oh how the times have changed. Okay, first of all despite the fact that costa rica is a pretty laid back country with a "do whatever you want" kind of attitude most of the time, their banking system is actually pretty organized. When you walk in, you get inspected by a policeman I guess to make sure you aren't packing heat and then you make your way to a kiosk where you inform it what your purpose is for being there [like one transaction or two, etc] and then it spits out a ticket with your number on it. My number was A275. By the end of this experience, I had never wanted to be a three numbers and a letter so badly in my life. As soon as I got my ticket, I knew it was a big mistake when I looked around and saw that the place was SLAMMED full of people. I should have left but I was literally down to about 1000 colones (not even $2.00) and I knew that wasnt gonna get me very far. So I took my seat and looked to see what number was on the screen. It was only on A255. Dear lord, i was twenty away. At least thats what I thought anyway. i was already pretty tired from work today, so I didnt feel like being there to begin with. As I was just chillin in my chair for a while, the dude next to me was obviously exhausted too because he kept dozing off. I wanted to do that but I was afraid I would fall out of my chair or miss my number being called which would have SUCKED. So I just sat there. Everything was fine until A261. Because after A261 you would think A262 right? [at least thats what I learned in 1st grade] Oh no, you wanna know who came after A261. M276. yup thats right M. Where the heck did this mysterious M come from. and why was the person who had the number RIGHT after mine going before me. I looked at miss M276, which happened to be an elderly lady, and wondered what made her so special that she got a different letter and got to go before everyone else. Well the sign right beside the teller where she was at gave me the answer. The sign that showed a picture of a pregnant woman, an old man with a cane, and a person in a wheelchair with the words "priority service" So apparently pregnant women, elderly people and those in wheelchairs get bestowed a random letter like M or R (yeah R 307 even got to go before me) and got to go whenever they came in. I had been there for a while at that point and honest to goodness i thought "shoot Ill go get knocked up real quick if thats what it takes to get the heck out of here" [just kidding mom and dad. Not the part where I thought that, the part that I was serious about it] Sorry, I promise Im not hating on anyone that meets those three categories and I do think they should get priorty service. I was just jealous that I was a plain jane, young healthy adult without a fetus in my womb. Anyway, after I kept getting skipped a lot, to make matters worse, teller number 2 mr Jose Rojas S. just got up and started walking around where everyone could see him but he was definitely not doing a dang thing. I was like "scuse me, Jose, could you please stop wandering around and start helping one of the 5 billion customers you have here" Clearly Jose did not get my telepathic messages because he NEVER came back to his desk the entire time I was there. Darn you Jose. When it got to A272 I started getting excited, and I had never been jealous of someone named A274 in my life. I knew my time was coming. Unfortunately as always, Mr. A274 was the bigshot executive dude with some large manila envelope which indicated he was going to be taking his sweet time. [btw, there was this other dude there who was one of those business men types, but i promise you, This dude had so much gel in his hair that on top of the fact that i could see my hideous reflection in it, his hair looked like someone had strategically placed tiny sharp peices of plastic all over his head.what is it about Gel that guys think they can put as much as they possibly want in their hair? The light reflecting off his hair was so blinding that a couple times i think it even woke up Dozing Dan beside me.] FINALLY (cue the hallelujah course) the lady on the tv screen so sweetly said "A, dos cientos setenta y cinco" that was me, my time had finally come. i made my way to teller 1 [mind you this is the third time i've gone to the bank but none of the other times were like this] and placed my money and passport on the counter [you have to show your passport to get money exchanged here. Now at this point, I'm tired, hungry, and way past the point of even wanting to speak or think in spanish. Every other time I had been to the bank, the teller didnt say more that then word "pasaporte" to me to indicate that I needed to hand it over to him. But oh no, the one day I dont feel like saying anything, conversation charlie feels like learning about my life story. He kept asking me questions, and to make matters worse, at the banks here, there is a window that separates you from the teller with only a few holes cut out for you to hear them. Not only do I have to be listening intently to understand spanish, I definitely dont need some kind of barrier that makes your voice sound like the teacher from charlie brown "wah wah wah" I kept trying to talk, but it was clear by the end when he started speaking English that he realized that I had no idea what was going on. Needless to say, after I left the bank, i went to POPS (the mcdonalds of Ice cream down here) and got a guanabana nieve (its kind of like sherbert). I was not intending on going but that experience was really exhausting and I just wanted to treat myself gosh darnit. Well anyway, thats about all. I'm sorry thats all I wrote about but I promise thats the most interesting thing that happened. And I promise Im not in a bad mood at all, its just funnier to write like I am sometimes. Anyway, Love you all, PURA VIDA!