just what i did tonight

I met up with only one bus today to recruit guests for my hostel, after I got the schedule from the bus office. Only eight backpackers got off and all had reservations elsewhere. There was a local waiting at the bustop trying to sell rooms also, a known cocaine dealer. He didn't seem to mind me being there though. My friend Giovanni from the hostel I work at tells me these locals will try to intimidate me and that if I don't stand up to them it will just get worse.
So far, I haven't had any problems, all of the locals have just been friendly.

I've started reminding a few of them that bug me everyday to buy pot that I don't smoke, and they need to remember that. They reply with 'oh sorry, don't remember, the party is at so-and-so see you there later'.
After being here over a month I really don't understand how they can't remember the same gringo that walks the street daily and says no to buying weed every single time, but we're talking about guys that start drinking around noon, start smoking weed probably earlier than that. Local surfers that get by financially on this.

My boss invited me to hang around the hostel tonight and later to a sports bar in Playa Langosta to play foosball and ping pong. Before we left the hostel, he told a group of Canadians and me about a backpacking experience he had in Vietnam in 2006. It did not have a happy ending. Maybe someday I'll retell it, but it is so unpleasant and gory I'll refrain for now.
I never planned on visiting Vietnam, but after his story, I'm absolutely positive I will never visit that country and its corrupt government. If they treat a Canadian the way they did him, I can only imagine what they would do to an American. Screw that, don't care how pretty the land is.

At the bar, almost all American men playing poker. Gambling is legal in Costa Rica.
My friend Giovanni and I played foosball instead. Only seven balls, so whoever gets to 4 first wins.
I won the first, he swept the last two.  Costa Rican foosball tables are ridiculous. They have little ashtrays by the score and are really low to the ground. The ball kept getting stuck. in the corners.

Gio is one of the best surfers in Tamarindo, he rides a short board and has been surfing for six years. He does tricks on the top of the waves and all that. Front side spins, 360s.  I'm still at riding through a barrel swell all the way to shore.
You would think his good coordination on the surf would translate to the ping pong table but apparently not. After he beat me at foosball I challenged him to a best of 3 series in table tennis...the guy could barely make contact with the ball. I won the first two by 10+ so there was no need for a third.

My boss came later and played a few games with his wife and some travelers staying at the hostel.
He said "why don't you and Giovanni be on a team?" and I replied "because we would win every game." this is true...if there's two bar games I'm good at, it's foosball and ping pong.
Pool and darts, I'm terrible.
Later he asked his wife for 100 colones to play a game and challenged me. He said "I hate to do this to you, Jeff."
Whatever. I beat him by a point. Completely opposite styles...his was finesse and precision and mine was all power and spinning. I couldn't help but think this is resembles the Canadian vs United States culture.
He even pointed out he was the tortoise, slow and steady, and I was the hare.

I won now buddy, ay?
It's hard to talk crap to them because anywhere else in the world takes everything literal. As a country, the USA is the most sarcastic and mocking country in the world. That's something I've really had to adjust to. If I joke about something it has to be good-natured or else it's considered rude, no matter how funny.
Honestly, I wish we were more like other countries in this regard. We mock and make fun of each other way to much, it's unhealthy socially.

I think I'm repping our country well so far. Almost every traveler I meet has a negative opinion about United States' foreign policy.
One traveler tonight in the group sharing traveling stories talked about how the Americans dropping Agent Orange in Vietnam is still causing cancer and birth defects in babies born there, and how he saw the pictures in the war museum.

These moments of negativity directed towards American foreign policy are common and usually I just let them go. There is really no use arguing our case and in some instances, we were wrong.

Also, apparently we are about to start World War III in Korea, and backpackers are advising each other not to go there, whether North or South.