Well, I ended up changing my mind about Costa Rica this week, mostly 'cause I ended up feeling deceived by the place, still feeling “spoiled” simply by living close to N.Y.C. - for starters, we ended up getting our departing flight changed again last Sunday, in spite of us getting to the airport during the overnight hours, followed by getting bumped to a direct flight to San José, Costa Rica on United Airlines, leaving Newark that afternoon, arriving at
As for Costa Rica itself, everywhere except for San Jose ended up being even smaller than though
On Tuesday, we headed off on a long drive to the natural hot springs near Lake Arenal National Park, which also contains a volcano 
that actually forced the town of Arenal to move to higher ground way back when to avoid getting wiped out by the volcano , and there was also some wildlife there, albeit near the top of the cable car 
leading to the top of the volcano ; we mostly just hung out in this resort complex nearby for the day, though, in these hot tubs and spas scattered around the property, before eating 
at the restaurant also located on the property and repeating the same long drive back to our hotel at night 
!
Last Wednesday, meanwhile, came and went with us visiting Bay Island, along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and also a long distance from our hotel - once we got to the nearby port town of Puntarenas, a "catamaran/yacht", I guess you could call it, ended up taking a few dozen people over to the island in the early afternoon hours; from there, the few dozen of us part of that whole tour group had the island all to ourselves, along with some tour company staffers, and, as such, we ended up snorkeling, riding in a "banana boat", and taking this very deceivingly steep hi
Last Thursday, meanwhile, we went to three places, the first of which was Atlantic Park, one of the filming 
locations in 1993’s Jurassic Park, along with many other places in the Caribbean and Central America (FULL DISCLOSURE: this isn’t the last time here you’ll see me referencing something made by Spielberg), taking a cable car ride above the rainforest there, finding out why those places are called “rainforests” in the process, followed by a boat 
♀️ trip along a river in the nearby town of Sarapiqui, and, lastly, walking 
along a trail in the “Selva Verde”, or “Green Jungle”, national park 
/nature preserve; after a late-afternoon buffet lunch 
, we headed to the artisanal marketplace back in San José before returning once again to the hotel !
The very last night of the trip, though, brought about the aforementioned Uruguay @ Costa Rica game in San José, and, as is natural with "national team" events hosted by one team or the other the world over, the majority of the crowd was wearing the blue/red/white of Costa Rica, with only about a handful of people wearing the Uruguayan blue/white!
The first 10 minutes or so definitely belonged to Costa Rica, but, afterward, Uruguay maintained more possession, and Costa Rica suddenly kept making one too many passes, without shooting on the Uruguayan keeper at all; a few foul calls, and missed foul calls, however, only increased the frustration inside the Estadio Nacional, leading to what appeared to be a Costa Rican goal called back for being offside in the 25th minute, and a penalty being awarded to Uruguay right before the halftime break, which ended up getting converted to give the visitors the lead and silence the crowd that had been trying to distract the Uruguayan PK taker right up until the moment of the kick, through the last few minutes of the half and up through the halftime break!
The crowd that had been silenced late in the first half suddenly had reason to burst early in the second half, though, as Costa Rica converted a free kick opportunity that looked very close to a penalty kick opportunity that way - for a while after that, the game seemed even, only to revert later to the way most of the opening half had gone, with Costa Rica once again not shooting on net, and also seeing the Uruguayan keeper suddenly "crumple" to the grass around the 70th minute, looking like he had pulled something after a rare shot on goal for Costa Rica, despite the fans protesting that he was "faking" the injury; Uruguay kept most of the possession through the 90th minute, and, indeed, would end up getting rewarded with a goal deep inside the Costa Rican box, officially sending most of the home fans heading for the exit gates, and allowing Uruguay to hang on for the sudden 2-1 win!
As for the stadium itself, it was clean and all (albeit slippery with all the rain throughout the week), but the PA announcer seemed to barely be present, basically only announcing the goals and substitutions, while the replays kept malfunctioning (at least the "live" shots kept working), at least up through late in the second half, and there are old "trough"-style toilets in the restrooms there, despite the stadium being a reconstruction (2011) of the old national stadium in San José, which opened almost a century ago (1924); also, the fans were certainly "animated", but surprisingly quiet, given your "typical" Central/Latin American sports crowds ("exhibit A": the Peruvian fans in Russia for the most recent FIFA World Cup), and also somewhat critical of their team late in the game, once Uruguay got the very late goal, never mind that just moments earlier, some had left, while the rest of them remaining by the time the 90+ minute period stayed "slumped" in their seats!
(...as always, highlights; recap)
(...speaking of sports, the "NFL 100" season opener was honestly dull - certainly not the way the league wanted to showcase its "oldest rivalry", while, as the NFL celebrates its centennial this season, Flushing, Queens has suddenly been getting "taken over" by young people, specifically at the annual U.S. Open; that reminds me, lacrosse and tennis are the two (somewhat) "major" sports, at least here, that I've seen possibly hundreds of times by now, yet never actually "in-person", although I have wandered around Flushing, home of the 1939 and 1964/'65 U.S. World's Fair(s), and its "Chinatown" a few times on other occasions in the past, so at least I'd be able to figure out where to go to find the U.S. Open action every August/September - this time next year, though, will be especially tough on those competitors, given that they'll have to head to London (Wimbledon), Paris (French Open), and Tokyo (2020 Summer Olympics host), along with other tournaments, before returning to the N.Y.C. region; that summer, though, should be epic, overall, in sports, between the UEFA Champions/Europa League finals in late May, the NBA Finals/Stanley Cup Final, and CONCACAF Nations League soccer tournament/Gold Cup qualifier final game over here in June, the aforementioned tennis tournaments/Olympics, in which baseball will return to the "slate" of competitions for the first time since 2008 in Beijing, China, and the Argentina/Colombia co-hosted Copa América, 60th anniversary UEFA Euro soccer tournaments co-hosted by many European cities, and the winners of each of the aforementioned Champions/Europa League final games facing each other that August in the UEFA Super Cup championship game!)
In retail news now, Fry's Electronics, the longtime CA-based consumer electronics retailer, is closing its Palo Alto, CA location now, right in the "Silicon Valley" of northern CA, and reportedly hasn't received stock at any of its locations in weeks now, suddenly putting it in the same "boat" as JCPenney, Kmart, Sears, and other "troubled" retailers nationwide!
...meanwhile, back over here, the "American Dream" entertainment complex/"mega-mall" that's been under construction since basically the beginning of this "millennium" looks like it'll finally open sometime soon, given that the lighting system at the complex just got activated:
...also, adding to the woes of Kmart/Sears, even more closures of even more locations recently got announced:
...in still other recent news involving Kmart/Sears, 250 employees reportedly just got laid off by the company:
...also, something else I meant to mention to you here, now that I've told you about the latest round of Kmart/Sears closures, is that I'm also planning - like, truly this time around - on re-visiting my "old stomping grounds" in the high school and a few other places around here, n
Also, there was lots of "filming" around here this summer, between DC Films/Warner Brothers Pictures bringing the start of its planned future Joker series of action movies to Newark, following in the footsteps of those studios setting The Dark Knight Rises there, along with the Sopranos HBO TV series (1999-2007) essentially getting a big-screen "prequel" set in the immediate aftermath of the infamous late 1960s nationwide riots, courtesy of quite a few of the people originally involved with the aforementioned series, and the aforementioned Steven Spielberg basically helming what amounts to "Jets v. Sharks 2.0" (incidentally, since I referenced those two NHL teams, I should also mention that, on the ice, those teams actually faced each other during two different eras, as the San Jose (CA) Sharks started in 1992, while the original Winnipeg Jets left for Arizona in 1996; the Atlanta Thrashers left that city in the midst of "infighting" among the ownership there back in 2011, returning the NHL to Winnipeg the following season, once the following off-season came and went!) locally this summer, actually giving a few people from right here their "shots" at that whole "saga" in the process, which I'd say "we", locally, in the general sense, should acknowledge at some point within these next few months; unfortunately, none of those crews went to the landmark stadium in the article linked below - all three of those films should hit the "big screen" sometime next year, so along with the insane amount of domestic/international sporting competitions then, there'll be remakes of "show business" classics battling it out at the "box office" sometime then, also!
...back to football now, that group of "Jets" dominated the Buffalo Bills early, only to entirely blow a 16-0 lead just in the fourth quarter of their game this afternoon, while the Giants let the Dallas Cowboys pull away early in that game, and couldn't even come close to "rebounding" later...
...also, the Montauk Theater in Passaic, which lasted for over a century between circa-1900 and 2005, joined the old Capitol and Central Theatres there, and the Fabian Cinemas in downtown Paterson, in terms of being "gutted" and/or replaced by other types of establishments in recent years; also, the Capitol has a tribute website dedicated to its historical performers:
Overall, after this past week, I'd say we should've just stuck to Panama City, and maybe the border region with Costa Rica - first off, Panama City reminds me somewhat of places like Miami, with the skyscrapers and people from just about all parts of "the Americas", instead of dealing with the surprisingly "sheltered" Costa Rican population, its reckless drivers, and a strange lack of "national media" there, and also considering U.S. travelers to Panama City/etc. don't even have to change currencies, considering Panama uses the U.S. dollar alongside the "balboa", the country's "own" currency! (I'll say, though, that Costa Rica was surprisingly accepting of the dollar, even more than some places in Canada!)
Well, I know I already told you this around this time last year, when we returned from Europe, but I'd say that now, I truly don't know what the future has "in store", having been "officially" graduated from college for this past entire summer; what I do know, though, is that whatever does end up happening anytime soon, I'll remain here to tell you all about it!
