Julia In Costa Rica: How I Met the President of Costa Rica

This is the story of how I met Laura Chinchilla.

Every Friday I get together with Julia R, the closest PCV to me, and we have theme dinners. We pick a country or another specific culinary category and make different recipes we've never tried before. It's a fun excuse to get together and is always a test of our cooking abilities. We've been having theme dinners for a while now, and our list of themes is dwindling fast. This week was soup night. This week I was also really strapped for cash (PC pays us around the 20th of every month, and right now I am running on about 6 dollars to get me to pay day). All I had in my fridge were avocados from a neighbors farm and an onion and cucumber. Avocado soup it is! I was less than excited about dinner (mostly because I make myself avocado soup all the time and wanted to try a new recipe, but was too broke to buy all the ingredients, not because Avocado soup isn't delicious) I decided that I would go into town a little early and spend a few of my remaining dollars at the internet cafe. Right before I was to get on the bus, my friend Julia texted me saying that the President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, was in Upala. She was at a building caddy corner from Julia's apartment for the grand re-opening of a preschool. It wasn't just the President either. The VP, the Costa Rican equivalent of the surgeon general, the Costa Rican equivalent of my region's senator, and a few other big time government officials. What?? I could not believe it. The President has never been to Upala during her presidency, and didn't even campaign here. Costa Rica is a small country, but I never imagined I'd get the chance to see the President in person. She was scheduled to be in Upala for a mere 30 minutes, and lucky for me, my bus got me into Upala during that time frame. A big part of her political platform is improving preschool care and child development in Costa Rica. I met Julia R at the preschool and we hung out with the general mob of people surrounding the place. We figured out that the building was open and that we could just walk right in. Security was really loose. Costa Rica is not a very violent country and not prone to acts of political violence, so Presidential security isn't even a tenth of the level it is in the states. She had a few body guards, but they were just wearing polo shirts. No bullet proof vests, sun glasses, secret microphones--just a few dudes to make sure no one bothered her. It was easier to get into the same building as the President of Costa Rica than it is to get into a dance club in Raleigh. I was wearing my backpack and everything, just walked on in in my street clothes. We even got to get into the room where the Preschool committee was presenting their project to the President! I took a bunch of paparazzi shots of her. Both Julia R and I were really nervous about meeting her and we were talking to some of the event photographers about how we would love to shake her hand but were way to shy to actually go up to her. As she was leaving the room, the photographer stopped the president and presented us and asked if we could get a picture with her. She was incredibly obliging and nice. She shook our hands and told us "mucho gusto" (nice to meet you) and then "hasta luego" (see you later). I could have died. Then, one of the doctors of Upala presented us to the Surgeon General and a camera crew was filming us as she told us how much she appreciated our work and how nice it was to meet us!! At best I had hoped to get a glimpse of the president, I had NO CLUE that I was going to actually meet her and the Surgeon General. Seriously the best theme night yet!