While I was looking around me during the game, vendors would walk around selling churros (donut sticks), popcorn, hotdogs, burgers and french fries. Although I didn’t buy anything myself, my friends did and it cost them 7 mil colones, which is a whopping $13! By the time it was the third-quarter, a team finally scored… but it was Panama! The air grew grim but the Costa Ricans began cheering louder. At this point, I was getting bored and was nearly checking out, but I still screamed whenever other people screamed as well!
Sooner than you knew it, the game was over and Panama had won. The tiny section that was cheering for Panama lit up flares and were yelling in praise of their team. I looked back at our head-coordinator and saw his serious face and couldn’t help but joke with my friends, “I guess the ride home will be silent”. And I guess you could say the ride home was silent! As we headed out the stadium to walk back to our van, the streets were filled with new food trucks and vendors selling delicious-smelling food. By the time we got to the van, half of the students grabbed some water bottles for the rest of us, and many of us fell asleep before we had arrived to be dropped off at our host family’s house. Although Costa Rica had lost the game, as a first-time sports event, this was a really fun experience for me--I honestly wouldn’t change a thing about it!
