This was written by a friend after an interview with me, i found it in a cpu at work, i hope he doesn't mind...
Andres Moises (yes, that's my middle name) Lopez
Andres Moises Lopez is 20 years old. He reminds me a lot about myself. We have similar ambition, girl techniques, family support, and religion. I loved interviewing Andres.
Andres has one older brother and one younger sister. His older brother lives with him in an apartment close to the university. They have been living in San Jose for 8 months. His younger sister lives with his parents in Alajuela which is about an hour away from San Jose. Andres goes home every couple of weeks to do laundry and catch up with the family.
Andres has a lot of support and drive from his family towards his education. Both his parents were non-educated. Both wanted their kids to finish high school and get a college degree, so they can have good paying jobs when their older. So far, Andres has finished high school and in his first year at the university. There are 11 grades he had to pass through before entering college. Andres couldnt start college earlier because he didnt pass the math section of the ¨big¨ test before graduating high school. He retook it and had to wait one year before starting college.
His current major is in history, but he plans on changing to journalism. Ideally, he wants to become a movie or commercial director. He wants to get a good job that pays enough to support a family. College scholarships are ranked on a scale of 1-11. Andres is on a number 11 scholarship. It pays for all his education and an extra check for the work he does at the college. He mentions that almost everyone has scholarships at state colleges.
On a typical day, Andres wakes up at 6:20 and goes to COSI. He works at COSI from 7:00-5:30. He has college classes Mondays, 7-9 A.M. and 5-8 P.M, and Thursdays 7:00A.M.-9:00 P.M. After COSI, he likes to go to his apartment to study and ¨chill.¨
Andres´s favorite place to go with friends is Caccio´s. It is a bar near San Pedro that doesn´t include a lot of dancing. But, it has huge pitchers of beer. When he is in the dancing mood, he goes to El Pueblo. Andres has an awesome approach similar to me when picking up chicks. He starts by making eye contact from across the room. Then, if he has the ¨balls,¨ he starts up a little chit chat from nothing. First impression is huge because you can tell if the chick ¨digs¨ you or not. He warned me to beware of the girls that act like they aren´t interested, but you can sense that they still are. The most important thing is to make sure she likes you. Through these series of little chit-chats, Andres finds out what places she likes to go. Then, the dating begins.
Andres´s religion is Catholic. However, he doesn´t really practice it. He says that this is a common trend among the youth in Costa Rica.
Andres said a lot of things about the government. Currently, the no TLC is a hot issue. It includes the CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) treaty. The citizens are afraid it will hurt small business and privatize schools. 70% of the population is against CAFTA; 20% for, and 10% undecided. Supposedly, most of the government funding goes to education and healthcare. However, nobody can tell or see changes in the government funding. If there was one thing he could change about the government, it would be to make sure that the people are heard rather than the ¨top dog¨ of the government making all the decisions.
When it comes to traditions and celebrations, Andres says there are parties for everything. Parents day, Mothers day, Christmas, New Years, holy week of Easter, national hero day, independence day, and many more are all examples of parties with the family. During holy week, nobody eats red meat. He loves eggnog on Christmas. His favorite food his family makes is called ¨tamales.¨ It includes pork and veggies wrapped in a banana leaf. His family also loves seafood.
The best time in his life was when he went to Puerto Viejo. He climbed a rock and saw the whole ocean. He also went in a cave and watched the water flow in. The worst time of his life was when his grandpa died. He was in 3rd grade and playing in a soccer game. He was the goalie and his team was winning. At halftime, he was forced to leave because he was told his grandpa wanted to see him. The rest of the story is too sad to type out
THE END