COVID-19 TESTING and Earthquakes

In order to enter another country, we have to test negative for COVID-19. So, I made an appointment with a Labin, showed up, filled out forms, paid my bill, and waited to be called in to the testing room. A nice lady named Sophie took me back to a very sterile room, showed me where to sit, took a sample from my throat, then my nose...both nostrils. Now, I knew that the stick they use to test for COVID-19 goes all the way to the back of the nose (which I originally thought went upwards toward the brain until I was tested for COVID last year before my surgery) and is effing uncomfortable, awkward, and painful, but I didn't realize that when Costa Ricans test both nostrils, they USE. THE. SAME. STICK. Both times.

EW.

I grabbed a tissue and tried to blow my nose afterward, but everything was shoved so far back in there that I had no choice but to let the mucus drip down the back of my throat for the rest of the day. Yup. I spent most of the rest of the day dry heaving.

Also, I have been here for three months and I have already felt three earthquakes. In the entirety of the first 34 years of my life, I had only ever felt one. And now - THREE?! These aren't mild shakes, either. Like 'huh, someone must have dropped something heavy in their apartment and it shook the floor in my apartment' - nope, nothing like that. They also weren't SO strong that people's lives were in danger. They were right in the middle. Just enough to scare me...I could see and feel the floor moving up and down. For example when you are in the wave pool at Seven Peaks and it's just getting warmed up, and your whole body, your inner tube and everyone to the left and right of you rises a bit while everyone in front of and behind you drops a bit. That is kind of what it was like. And it lasted for 2 minutes...Which is apparently a lot in the world of earthquakes.

Just FYI.