campus shutdown

There's been some recent protests and demonstrations by students the past few weeks, as the new budget for the next 5 years was revealed. University of Costa Rica is a public university and I'm not sure about the budgeting details. Two weeks ago there was a march, and apparently yesterday some students tried to talk to admin on campus . . Something about the school admin striking a deal with the government that still leaves the school with less money than it needs . . so today some students (I think its FEUCR, federacion de estudiantes de ucr) held a peaceful protest . . but as a preventative measure all the buildings were evacuated, meaning classes were canceled and I had to leave my office (around 1030am) along with everyone else in the building and other campus buildings. Quite exciting! no one really knew exactly what was going on, so I waited around a while and heard/saw a procession of students yelling something that I couldn't understand and waving flags.

So I left campus and decided to head to AutoMercado before it started to rain, a supermarket that has imported goods. I found quinoa, tofu, wheat pasta and pollenta! Spent a lot of money but will help balance out my meals. 4 pack of Morningstar Veggie patties and package of vegan bacon cost about 5000 colones (almost $10 US)!!! so I skipped those. Plus my freezer is tiny, couldn't even buy ice cream.