Nothing to report

We've been getting back into the swing of things now that class is in session. But it seems that most of our time is spent on language study, because we have to learn about 30 new words and characters a week, not to mention grammar. It is somewhat difficult to describe some of the mental gymnastics required to translate "America is between Canada and Mexico" into Chinese, let alone asking someone what day they are free next week. Sigh...

We ended class this week with another dinner at Kro's. One of our classmates is Costa Rican, so we got to talking about their recent referendum on the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is referred to as "TLC" in Spanish. I'm not sure if it was reported much in the Western press, but according to Luis, there's a lot of speculation indicating that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez funded the opposition, as shown below.
Loosely translated, the buttons say "the Referendum is the Enemy," and in the smaller letters say "Venezuela is your friend." The flags say "TLC is terrible for Costa Ricans." Now that the referendum passed, however, some people are trumpeting the victory as a victory for Bush against Chavez. According to Luis, however, though the referendum passed, some required enabling provisions might not make it into Costa Rican law. Although evidently the required political consensus has been reached, it is unclear whether certain procedural obstacles will be employed to prevent full implementation of CAFTA in Costa Rica. So much for all of George's bluster.