Chapter 9 (June 27th):

A/N: bienvenidos a Costa Rica! Mi pais favorita en todo el mundo.

So guess who's computer crashed over the weekend? *raises hand* Just got it back this afternoon. Do not fret though! I have a bunch hand-written that I need to type up. Maybe you'll even get another chapter tonight! :)

Ok so like I said a while back, all of the things that these boys are going to do on this trip - like sightseeing and whatnot - I have experienced all of it firsthand! Wahoo! Thanks for your reviews, I really appreciate it!

I still don't own Glee.

Blaine

After experiencing two transatlantic flights in the past week, the flight to San Jose seemed to pass very quickly. We both nodded in an out of sleep during the flight, Kurt more than me, and by the time the pilot announced that we were half an hour away from touchdown, I felt myself getting more and more excited.

I had enjoyed Paris. Truly enjoyed it. 25% because I enjoyed the romantic atmosphere and things that we got to experience while there, 75% because the boy that I love more than anyone in the world loved it. But Costa Rica was a place that I had always found interesting. My parents traveled there once, the year before, on business (I was at Dalton, so I couldn't go with them) and they talked about it for weeks and weeks on end. And then a few months ago, my Spanish teacher at Dalton, who is originally from Costa Rica, set that assignment to research the tourism of Costa Rica.

I spent hours and hours on that project, probably double the time that it truly took to complete the assignment, buying books and researching on the internet, and writing, if I say so myself, one fabulous paper. Probably the best thing that I've ever written - because I was truly interested.

So when Kurt told me that we were going there - to the place that I had dreaming about going for months - I could hardly contain my excitement. But with the other trip and how quickly and busily everything had happened over the past ten days, I really hadn't had an opportunity to properly process. But now, only minutes from landing, I flipped through one of the books that I had purchased during my studies, and I was hardly able to contain my excitement.

I was getting fidgety in my seat and with all of my moving around, I eventually woke Kurt up. When I saw that he was awake, I couldn't help but exclaim, "Kurt! We're almost there!" The lady sitting in front of us turned around and shot me a nasty look, pointing to her little boy who was sleeping in the seat next to her. I instantly felt bad and apologized and then repeated, this time in a whisper - "Kurt, we're almost there!"

Kurt smiled sleepily and grabbed my hand, "I know it. Are you excited?" He rolled his eyes so I could tell that he already knew that I was. "Well a little bit," I said, still whispering. He rolled his eyes again and peaked out the window. I followed his eyes and noticed that more and more things were becoming visible so I knew that we had already started descending.

Unlike with Paris, there was not exactly a large city scape to be seen when landing. There was a city, of course, but it was more spread out and had a lot more greenery than the city we had just visited.

We touched down and I gasped excitedly and jumped in my seat a bit, waiting for the plane to stop at our gate. Although the area surrounding the airport was a lot greener and more desolate than in Paris, the airport was no less advanced. I ushered us off of the plane as quickly as possible and we flew through customs and got our luggage fairly quickly. At this point I had to let Kurt lead the way, since he had been the one to plan this trip, he knew the details that I did not. Like where we were staying and how we were getting there. So after I pushed open the door that led us out into the city, I motioned ahead of me, letting him go first and letting him lead the way.

Kurt

The first thing that I noticed when we stepped out of the airport was the temperature change. Paris had been cool, and Ohio this time of year really wasn't super warm yet, but when we walked out into the open you could feel the heat and humidity in the air. Suddenly there were dozens of people weaving their way around us, nearly all speaking very fast in Spanish, and I found it immediately and extremely intimidating. I grabbed Blaine's hand and headed for the nearest bench and he came after me, pulling both of our suitcases along.

I sat down quickly and took a deep breath. He looked at me with concern and asked me quickly and quietly, "what's wrong babe?"

After sitting down and breathing for a second I felt a lot better already. "I was just really intimidated all of a sudden. I mean, in Paris, everyone was speaking either French or English, but now I feel so...I don't know...a little lost to be honest. And nervous." He nodded his head and seemed to understand what I was talking about.

"Yeah, in my report I talked about this. Culture shock. Even Paris is similar to American cities in a lot of ways. This is just really different and you need a minute to get used to it. I totally get it though," he said, smiling and squeezing my hand tightly.

We sat there for a few minutes, watching people coming out of the airport and hopping into taxis or boarding buses or meeting with loved ones and every moment that we sat there the anxiousness slowly faded. Eventually I noticed a business name that I recognized from my planning, and relieved, I got up and started walking again, pulling Blaine along with me.

"Well the thing is, this trip is kind of a lot different from Paris. Because Paris is kind of really condensed. So we could like stay in the same hotel and just take taxis or walk everywhere, ya know?" I asked him and he nodded in response. "So," I said, stopping in front of a kiosk that was sitting in front of the airport and off to the side, "I had to rent a car for us."

"Wait, a car?" he asked, surprised. "I thought you had to be 18 to rent one?"

"No, that's only in the states. Here, as long as your have a license, it's okay. I briefly considered renting one of those little scooters that people ride in movies. But since neither of us know how to drive it, and there isn't proper storage for all of our luggage, I decided that it was impractical."

Blaine laughed and his eyes sparkled. "It must have been expensive though? Renting a car for a week?"

"Surprisingly, not really. I mean, we didn't need a massive SUV or anything." I said, pressing buttons on the kiosk and pulling out my folder with all of our reservation information and inputting the data that it requested. Blaine stood by silently while I tried to figure it out (luckily there was an English option on the machine) and at last, I stepped back and pulled out the receipt that it gave me and we walked over toward the sign that told us where you could rent the cars from.

After picking up the car (an adorable little red two seater) and deciding that Blaine should drive, at least to start (thank God for GPS!), since all of the traffic signs were in Spanish, they made it to their hotel. Granted, it wasn't as fancy as the one Blaine had chosen for them, and there was no breathtaking view, and there were bars on the windows (Blaine convinced Kurt that they would see this everywhere, and that there wasn't anything to worry about), the room was nice enough. The dropped off their luggage and changed quickly, and with bright, excited eyes, they set out together to explore the city.

Blaine

After walking for about an hour and getting off course a couple of times, we made it to the market that I had been striving for. Kurt hadn't made any real plans for the day, since he didn't know if our plane would be delayed, and he figured (correctly of course) that I would have a better idea of where to head in this city.

Almost completely enclosed in tents and buildings, the four-block market was one that I had previously read about. Kurt looked around at the vendors skeptically and shot me a confused glance. "This is the place we were looking for," he asked, trying to hide the disbelief from his voice. I looked around a bit, and realized what it must look like to Kurt, who only bought designer - well - everything.

"Yeah! But I mean, it's not like you buy good clothes here. Everything is handmade. That's what makes it so special," I said, pointing to the nearest booth, "that lady who is painting those jewelry boxes has probably been doing it her whole life. And probably taught her kids how to as well." Kurt looked at the woman, still a bit skeptical, but he smiled slightly at my words.

"It is kind of beautiful - the jewelry boxes..." he said quietly, as if he was convincing himself to enjoy something not made from one of his favorite designers.

I smiled widely as he watched the woman work and pulled him forward into the crowd of people.

Kurt

Okay, so I was having trouble admitting it, but Blaine was totally right about this whole market thing. As we wove in and out of people and looked at all of the different things for sale, I was amazed at some of the obvious effort that went into the pieces. When Blaine saw a beautiful necklace that he decided he wanted to buy for his mother, I was surprised at how confidently he walked up and asked the man about it.

They talked back and forth for a few minutes and the man seemed to be considered something when he finally sighed and handed the necklace over to Blaine, who gave him some currency in exchange.

"What was that all about?" I asked him curiously when he came back to my side, purchase in hand.

"Oh, I told him that I only wanted to pay the equivalent of thirty dollars for it and he was asking fifty. He offered forty five and I told him no thanks, I would find something elsewhere and he offered it to me for thirty five. I probably would have paid forty for it anyway. Did you see how lovely it is?" He was talking excitedly and pulling the necklace out of the bag and putting in front of my face for closer inspection.

"What? You just asked him to lower the price for you? And you only paid thirty five dollars for that? It would be easily over a hundred in the States." I asked in disbelief.

"Yeah! That's totally fine in these markets. Bartering is encouraged. I mean, it's all handmade so they can charge whatever they'd like. And yeah isn't it awesome!"

I couldn't really shake my disbelief, but looking at the jewelry a little closer and hearing Blaine in the background going on and on about the history of bargaining in these small markets, and hearing how evidently excited he was, I smiled and returned it to him, looking with wide eyes around at the merchandise nearest us, thinking how pretty Carole would look with a necklace like that.

Blaine

Boy, once Kurt got the gist of how this shopping was going to go, he really got into it. I had to translate for him, but it seemed like every booth we passed he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the table, sometimes only to admire the items, but sometimes excitedly buying things for his family and friends.

We spent hours wandering through the groups of people, hand in hand, exclaiming to each other excitedly when we found something that we wanted, and especially when we got it for a good price.

At nightfall we were getting hungry, and we ducked into a little restaurant that Kurt spotted on the walk home from the market. We sat down and I enjoyed being the one to make suggestions and order for us instead of the other way around. We ate quickly, having gone nearly all day without stopping due to our excitement, and it was truly dark when we left again.

We found our way back to our hotel much more easily despite the darkness and we dropped off our purchases in our room and I convinced Kurt to go for a walk since it was still fairly early and neither of us were sleepy.

We left in the opposite direction from where we had head to reach the market, and were happy to find a small park only a few blocks away. On the far edge of the park was an enormous tree - easily the biggest either of us had either seen - and we wandered over to get a better look.

I translated the sign in front of the tree for Kurt's benefit, which explained how it was the oldest tree in the city, and as far as was known, the whole country. Kurt looked up at in awe and climbed over some of the smaller roots and sat himself down on one of the roots that had been carved out into a bench and patted on the seat next to him, motioning for me to join him.

I followed his suggestion happily and grabbed his hand and sighed contentedly when Kurt laid his head onto my shoulder.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Kurt said quietly, "This feels so right."

And even without any more explanation, I could understand completely what he meant. Sitting there with him, hand in hand, with his head on my shoulder, both gazing up silently at the stars, I knew that what we had was real. There was no real way to describe it. It was just so...right.

I turned my head and pressed a light kiss into his cheek before resuming my gaze at the stars above. And couldn't help but wonder for the umpteenth time - how did I get so lucky?