Most weeknights I shuffle myself off to bed a few minutes after 8 o´clock, once I have determined that nothing worthwhile will be on tv. The fact that Costa Rican programming is unexceptional fits in nicely with my 5 AM or earlier wake-up time almost every morning. Weekends are a different matter altogether, most importantly because there is a greater possibility of my host father and I staying up late to watch soccer. I really lucked out in this family because neither my host dad nor I are very discerning. We will delight in any game played at or above the level of the Costa Rican league - essentially everything that is likely to be televised. The problem is that my mother goes to bed almost instantly, although sometimes this is a blessing because she wakes up at 4 to cook breakfast and lunch for my host Uncle.
On non-soccer nights, when Costa Rica´s stations bring out the best they have to offer (´La Pension´ a sitcom about a boarding house in San Jose, ´Nace una Estrella,,´their American Idol, or ´Bailando por un Sueño´their dance program) we stay up together as an extended family and either comment on the action or try to talk over the television. Everyone in my family seems to possess the ability to scream a conversation without considering for a moment lowering the volume or moving to another room. Usually the person trying to watch television has been surreptitiously raising the volume, until the entire house is yelling at ear-splitting levels. I always try to avoid the problem by surrending the remote the moment I sit near it, or capturing it and lowering the volume, but before long the same situation has repeated itself.
The real reason I stay up late is to drink Powdered Milk, which is really quite good. I have found that warm milk right before bedtime is one of the few things that counteract the effects of the incredible volume of coffee I consume throughout the day, and frequently a warm glass of milk will allow me to doze through the bellowed conversations in the living room. In this climate milk goes bad fast, and my host family lived here for years efore they had a refrigerator, so powdered milk is a very common food item, and my host mother has, through years of experience, perfected a mix of sugar and milk powder that has come to completely replace dessert in my diet. Much to my surprise, I have come to prefer warm powdered milk to heated fresh milk, and since the government gives powdered milk to single mothers, and Joan and Yendry spend most of their time at our house, we have a pretty constant demand (and supply) of my favorite nighttime treat.
What Powdered Milk lacks in richness is easily made up for by the texture when it is warmed. Normal milk (unless watched carefully, and that is impossible while the television is on) develops a thick film that can come close to chocking the unweary gulper. The milk we buy here is fresh, and though we separate out the fat, it remains lumpy, a problem solved in Powdered Milk simply by stirring more heartily. This brings me to the chocolate. We make it with unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar, and powdered milk, and it is the best I have had outside of Spain.
On a rainy night few things are better than falling onto your pillow with the warmth in your belly almost making you forget the water dripping on your face.
