the adventures of buckaroo bonzai
Got an email from JB of +/- the other day. He gave me the scoop on the new record.
Let’s Build A Fire
It will be out in early October 2006, even though the Japanese version came out in December 2005. Why the wait? The U.S. release is remastered and will include two new songs!. Additionally there will be a Fall tour to support the album.
Yes. As always, it will be worth the wait.
So after all my stuff got stolen, I have a few people to thank.
Lauren and Clark: Let me count the ways… they told the police what happened when I was in too much shock to speak Spanish, and gave me hugs to make me feel better. They then went with me to the U.S. Embassy, only to find out it was closed. And finally, they took me to the police station to get a copy of the police report. Altogether, about 4 hours of their time and the money required for all the cab trips. They then got in touch with Ashley, who lives in San Jose and provided us with a place to stay for the night. I am so in debt to these two… they really went out of their way to help me in a time of need, and proved to me that fundamentally nice people do still exist.
Ashley: She gave us a place to sleep and good drinks to wash away the multiple misfortunes of our day. The next morning she made me an delicious breakfast, then took me to the embassy so that I could get a replacement passport. We walked around the rest of the morning and ate at a great Chinese restaurant where she then paid for my (not so cheap) lunch. Yum. Later we went to the Wal-Mart type store here where I bought a couple of necessary items like a hat, towel, and poncho. I picked out some new deodorant too (Axe… mmm) and she paid for it cause she said it was her favorite kind. But wait! We bought some food ingredients, went back to her apartment, and she made lasagna and garlic bread for dinner.
Unbelievable right?
These three top the list of most amazing people I’ve met in my travels. Despite my misfortune, I am very, very lucky.
My entire daypack was stolen yesterday, right out from under 5 of my friends and I as we were eating lunch. Literally, taken in broad daylight, in what we thought was a fairly secure location. We still don’t know how it happened without us noticing a thing, because it wasn’t crowded or anything.
I lost nearly everything but my clothes (which were in my hiking pack). Camera, iPod, all associated accessories, calculator, swiss army knife, books, rain coat, my backup CDs (with pics), and of course the daypack itself. Plus my wallet with passport, drivers license, credit cards, student ID, etc. All gone. I started tallying up everything and its approximate value: $1300. I never even realized I was carrying that much of value in one small bag. Not to mention what it will cost to get another passport, drivers, license, student ID, etc.
The thieves racked up about $300 on one credit card. The other card denied the charges immediately. My debit card was not so lucky, they cleaned about $1200 out of my account before I could call and cancel the card. Thankfully Visa is refunding everything to me. It’s still amazing to me that credit card security is so lax… why do they never require a PIN number, or actually check ID when you make purchases? It’s not like anyone here could pass as “Ben Garland”. Maybe Jorge Rodriguez… but not Ben Garland.
Despite this, I’m not really in shock. It could be worse, you know? I can eventually replace most of that stuff somehow. And all of the best of my photos, except for the ones I took in the last 5 days, have already been backed up to my Flickr account.
Luckily, I’m meeting up with my mom tomorrow who is also in Costa Rica. So I can chill with her for a few days. Then I’m meeting up with the UGA group in a week and a half, and everything for that is paid for already. At least I don’t need any money (not much anyway) for the rest of my time here. And most of the stuff that was stolen I can do without, for now.
It still sucks.
The photo speaks for itself:
Clark and I volunteered to go to Guapiles (the closest “city”) to help add a room onto the back of a family’s house for their 5 year old daughter, Karla, who has Leukemia. We mainly just hauled about 50 loads of sand and gravel from the road to the back of the house (not a short distance) and played with the kids every now and then. Here are a few pictures.
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