When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Just so people don't think its all fun and games down here, (although 96% is) I thought I'd do a quick post about school, since you know that's actually why I'm here.
I just finish my conversation course. It was SO helpful. Everyday I hear a word/phrase or use one that I wouldn't have known without this class. It was the best Spanish classes I have ever had.
The June session is now over and we get a week break. We lost a couple amazing friends, but I also have some I get to keep through the end. We have done some awesome little things this week too like go to the artesian market in town. So much fun.
This upcoming week will also be one to remember forever. Today, I am on a bus to Nicaragua. Later this week we are traveling to Panama. It's going to be a crazy week, but this is my chance and I'm seizing it!!
Pura vida!

Beach Weekend

I had a cold the days before this trip. I wasn't fully committed to going until 2 hours before I got on the bus. This was by far the most spontaneous trip we took yet and was also one of the best :)

We took two buses to reach Manuel Antonio and some how managed to find an amazing hostel. It was only $10 a night, clean, had wifi, and a cafe attached. There were giant breakfasts with 2 huge plates of food for only $4. The beach was a minute walk from the hostel and the National Park was a minute walk the other direction. Manuel Antonio is a small lazy beach town, with beautiful beaches.
We spent our whole first day relaxing on the beach. We rented two surf boards and one of our guys attempted to teach us how to surf. It was SO much fun, but I can confidently check surfer off my list of possible future careers. We layed in the sun and explored the coves and rocks around the beach.
The second day our bus left at noon, but we first hiked through the National Park. They have wildlife hidden in the trees and a beautiful beach. The wildlife was really hard to spot and we didn't have a guide with us, but I still managed to see a couple creatures: a lizard, some crabs, toucans, sloths, and some really weird spiders. We also found monkeys outside the park playing in the trees.
Manuel Antonio was truly beautiful and reflected the image I had of Costa Rica in my head. Costa Rica has spots of complete beauty, but at other times it is easy to remember that Costa Rica is still a developing country. In some programs of recycling they are far beyond other countries, but take a drive through the country side and you'll see crops growing with pieces of litter beside them. It is a wonderful marvelous country that is capturing my heart, but there are vastly different sceneries here.

 My friend Justin surfing

 A squirrel monkey

 Manuel Antonio Beach

 Some kind of amphibian

 Katrina and I climbed the rock

 The rocks

 A freaky looking spider (not in my hand!)

Parque Nacional Manuel Anotonio's Beach

The meaning of Pura Vida

White water rafting was one of the best thing I have ever done. It was incredible. They say the phrase Pura Vida all the time here. It means pure life, but they use it as a greeting, as a salutation, as a "let's do this" as everything. That's what it was: pure life. One minute we'd be floating gently down the river with just beautiful selva (jungle) on either side and the next adrenaline would flow through you as your guide yelled "forward!" and we charged into the next rapid. I'm totally hooked! 

My raft had 6 people in it, plus our guide Ricky. There were 4 girls from my school (including me) that decided to do it. In the pictures Nely and I are in the front and Katie and Katie from school are in the middle row. Behind us was a dad and his son Henry. They were taking a vacation just the two of them and Henry was so scared when we started the trip. I have to admit I was scared too! Once we were in the boat, however, the only thing to do was row! It was a really amazing to witness the girls I had with me build Henry up and encourage him through out the trip. I know the dad was very thankful for us and I think Henry ended up having a good time. I have been so fortunate to meet such amazing people here and have seen God's presence time and time again. Our journey contained 38 level 3 & 4 rapids. A little rapid information for you all: The highest level of rapids is 5, so this was quite a wild ride for my first trip! It was a 4 hour trip on the river, plus we had a lunch break on the side of the river. There were about 10 rafts over all, 6 per raft. The river was so cold and soaked us completely through, but with all the heavy paddling we were doing it felt good. The Rio Pacuare is apparently world known for its rapids and the selva on either side was absolutely beautiful. The river floated us past waterfalls, canyon walls, selva so dense you couldn't see past the first few trees, and indigenous homes that are only accessible through the river. I was fortunate enough to have a waterproof camera (thanks to my amazing friend Anna Fee!) and cannot wait to get the film developed back home!

Nelly and I on the bus to the river.

 Me and the two Katies on our lunch break

Crashing into a rapid

 I'm the front right

Sliding down a rapid!

Volcán Poás

Today I woke up at 6 am to go to Volcán Poás, but it was completely worth it.


On the bus ride there, we stopped at a coffee plantation to get coffee. I do not enjoy coffee, but I do enjoy taking photos at a beautiful plantation!

When we arrived, we hiked up the trail to the top of Volcán Poás. We were so lucky and had a beautiful clear morning waiting for us. Our guide told us sometimes they have to wait an hour before the fog clears enough to see the volcano.

After the volcano, we headed to La Paz (The Peace) Waterfall Gardens. They are beautiful. We walked through rooms of birds, butterflies, big cats, monkies, frogs, and humming birds. Some were in cages, but others surrounded us as we walked through the rooms. After the animals, we hiked the trail to the waterfalls. There are two big waterfalls and they were beautiful. They made me want to find some waterfalls in less tourist areas. These ones you had to stay on a trail behind a fence. Granted, the waterfalls were letting off so much mist that we were getting quite wet from where we were, but it still will be awesome to find a waterfall we can walk right up to! 

This trip was amazing. Seeing the animals so close was awesome. Some of my friends held the butterflies. I was a little too nervous to hold them. I am not an insect person. I do however enjoy taking pictures of them! I said "Estoy en el cielo de fotografía!" I am in photography heaven and it was true! Costa Rica has so much beauty waiting to be explored!

He amado las estrellas demasiadas cariñas a tener miedo de la noche

"I have loved the stars too fondly to be afraid of the night." One of my favorite quotes by Galileo

Today I made 250 flashcards for my big vocab test nest week. Then, I got quite depressed when I realized this amount doesn't even cover half of my words. The good thing about this class is most of these words are actually quite practical and ones that I do need to know. I really do love my class. There are four of us plus the teacher and we sit around just talking. We tell stories from our lives, talk about controversial topics, the culture of Latin America, big events in history, famous people, the excursions we have been taking, anything and everything. I did two oral presentations this week. The theme for the first one was a big day in history and the second one could literally be whatever we wanted. For my first presentation, I discussed Galileo discovering the moons of Jupiter and the implications this had on astronomy. Today, I talked about the Inca Empire and the ruins you can still see today. The great thing about this was these are two topics I am actually interested in and enjoyed researching them.

Elise, Nely, and I decided to find a grocery store today. We first went to what we're calling the Cosco of Costa Rica, but they did not have a good food selection.

We then found a whole other mall in San Jose and it had a large grocery store inside. My goal was to find some granola bars for snacks. Unfortunately, they do not have much snacky foods in this country. They really do not have any granola bars. I do not understand how people can last from lunch at 12 until dinner at 7 without eating anything! I have to eat something around 4. The hunt for food is still ongoing. I had fruit at lunch today that was delicious: pineapple, mango, papaya, and watermelon. I could eat fruit all day everyday and still want more.

This weekend I am taking two day trips. Saturday, I will be visiting Volcan Poas and Sunday is white water rafting. I am really excited about the trips, not so excited for having to be at school at 7 and 6:20 am.

Pura Vida!

Estudio estudio estudio

I just thought I'd drop a note telling everyone I am still alive.

This has been a crazy school week. I had a ten minute oral presentation on Tuesday and I have a twenty minute one tomorrow. Spanish presentations are twice as hard because you have to write it once in English and then again in Spanish. I'm going to be up for a while still tonight. At least I have a kitty keeping me company.

My tica mom told me my head was going to explode from all the studying I do. It hasn't been all studying this week though. I went to church with an amazing group of women. The service was entirely in Spanish and the pastor talked VERY fast, but I got the overall gist of his sermon. I did have a headache afterwards though from trying to translate that fast!

We also visited the mall for the first time and went to see a movie. We thought it would be in Spanish, but it was actually in English with Spanish subtitles. My brain was grateful for a break. They have caramel popcorn at their movie theaters. It was not as delicious as I hoped for though.

Pura vida!

Anhelo una reina

I spent this past weekend in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. It was a long bus ride, but part of it was through the mountains. It was foggy out and it made the view look very eerie. The Caribbean Ocean is so warm! It was the first time I ever actually swam in the ocean instead of simply wading. The hotel was nice with hammocks outside the rooms and the beach across the street. Showers in Costa Rica are huge, probably twice the size of ours.

Puerto Viejo is a small beach town on the Caribbean Ocean. There were 2 strips of shops and restaurants, as well as a long line of beaches. Lots of the beaches have coral reefs right off the shore and you cannot swim in them very well. We went to Parque Nacional Cahuita on our first morning. We walked the trail there and saw a few cool creatures! There were lizards, crabs, a purple locust as big as my hand, monkeys and sloths high up in the trees. We swam for a while and walked along the beach. The water was unfortunately too rough to go snorkeling.

For lunch, we ate at a restaurant called Maxi's and I had chicken that just fell off the bone. We walked along the beach again and enjoyed the digestion time. There was a man selling cheap fresh whole coconuts along here. I bought one for the experience! He used a large machete to slice off the top and I poked a straw through to sip our the milk. It was not what I expected. When we had drunken the milk, he chopped it in half and sliced off a bit to be a spoon to scoop out the inside fleshy coconut. They were baby coconuts and the inside had a texture sort of like fish. I can't say coconut will be added to my grocery list, but it sure was an experience! The man was very interesting too. He told us about how he has a nice relaxing life, but "anhelo una reina," he craves a queen to share it with. It was quite sweet.

On the way back to the hotel, one of our program directions just pulled off to the side of the road and said "follow me." It was a little creepy, as he then led us seemingly in no direction through the selva! But when we emerged at the ocean, we were on a huge cliff with the waves crashing below us. It was absolutely beautiful.

Today before leaving we went back to the beach to lay out and swim. It was cloudy all day Saturday and cloudy when we left on Sunday, but the sun came out finally! I got a little burnt, but nothing too bad. For lunch, we ate at a restaurant called Bread and Chocolate. It was owned by a man who used to live in Pennsylvania and moved to Costa Rica. Best food I have had yet!

I ate a bacon, avocado, cream cheese, and tomato sandwich with fresh fruit on the side. They put avocado on so much here and I am starting to really enjoy it. I also had to get dessert since the place was called Bread and CHOCOLATE. He had caramelos, chocolate covered caramels. It was absolutely to die for. The caramel was the richest I had ever had. I was resolved to stay in Costa Rica for my whole life simply for these chocolates. I also had some blackberry and passionfruit ice cream scoops while in Puerto Viejo. They were also quite delicious.  The five hour ride home went by much faster as I slept most of the way.

Pura Vida!

One bumpy ride

It was a 5 hour ride where we were tossed around like a salad. We are now, however, laying in hammocks outside our hotel room, the beach waits across the street to be snorkled in tomorrow, and there are stars in the sky. It was a bumpy ride, but the end destination sure is nice.

Señora de Los Ángeles

Today was our first time out of San Jose. We took a bus ride to Cartago, Costa Rica. Cartago was the old capital of Costa Rica. It was damaged by earthquakes quite a while ago and some "ruins" still remain. It sits at the bottom of Volcan Irazu, which we were going to journey to today, but did not end up having time.

Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles

I was told that Señora de Los Ángeles is the patron saint of Costa Rica.

There are also "ruins," Santiago Apóstol Parish Ruins. It is actually an unfinished building that was damaged in the earthquake and then they decided to not finish it.

The first step is always the hardest

I have now been in Costa Rica for 4 days!

It was a little hard at first to adjust. This is a different culture and I was very shy about using Spanish at first, knowing I would make a lot of mistakes. I still make a lot of mistakes, but now I'm coming out of my shell and just going for it.

I had a big decision to make today. My first day of classes I went to the Advanced 1 grammar and conversation class, which would count towards my Spanish minor. It was very difficult. I knew the grammar, but I had never had a teacher stand in front of me, talk rapidly and completely in Spanish and then expect me to reply quickly. It was overwhelming. I talked to the teacher today and she had me try out a conversation only class. I think it will be just what I need. It unfortunately does not count towards a Spanish minor, but this could be a big step towards me being actually able to speak Spanish. The more I think about it, the more I see that now and in the future, what will help me most is being able to semi-fluently speak Spanish. A handful of the students here can already rapidly talk in Spanish. It was really intimidating at first. As I got to know them more, I found out that some had already lived in Mexico or Spain or some other Spanish speaking country for months at a time. One of my friends here has already had a job teaching high school Spanish for 2 years! Since this is my first venture, I feel a bit better.

My tica mom and I are starting to understand each other better. Tico is the general term to refer to native Costa Ricans. At first, there was a large language barrier. She does not speak any English and I was shy with my Spanish. The house is pretty quiet, quite unlike some of my fellow student's houses, since it is usually just her and me, but I am getting used to it. We also have homework assignments often, which require us to ask our host families questions. This has given us something to talk about.

It is almost always cloudy. It pours almost everyday for two or three hours in the afternoon. Thankfully, this is nap time. I love the sound of the rain! The other day, we got caught in the rain at the park and I forgot my umbrella. One of my friends shared with me, but we were soaked by the time we got back to our houses!

We also found these plants at the park, which provided us with quite a lot of entertainment. They are commonly called touch-me-not and when touched or shaken they leaves fold inward!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa_pudica

It has been quite an adventure! For food, I have been randomly trying things, since I often do not know what they are. So far, almost everything has been delicious! For almost every dinner, my tica mom has sort of a salad available. It is just lettuce with usually fresh tomato or some other vegetable, but it is delicious. She must prepare it with some kind of lemon wash or something. There is no salad dressing, but it is very flavorful and probably a lot more healthy! I will have to help her prepare it one of these nights. This weekend we will be going to Puerto Viejo, a beach on the Caribbean coast. It is supposed to be beautiful and more sunny over there. I am quite excited to get out and start seeing Costa Rica!

Pura Vida!

Nothing worth doing is ever easy

Theodore Roosevelt said "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty..."

Well if that quote is true, this should be the most rewarding experience of my life. Despite my precious baby kitty dying, having an allergic reaction to penicillin, which put me in the hospital briefly, and a number of other things getting messed up, I have arrived in Costa Rica!

Nathanael and I took the Mexico City Airport by storm. He wrote one of his papers in pencil and was told to redo it. I did not realize there was a security check point ahead and my waterbottle was still full from the Chicago airport. It took some convincing for them to let me simply pour out the water, instead of taking my whole nice bottle. We, however, successfully navigated the international airports and arrived around noon today. Costa Rica is one hour behind Illinois.

I moved in with my host family today. There is a mom and her son, who is older than me, living here. She has another daughter and granddaughter who have their own house, but visited with us today. They are quite nice people. The mom only speaks Spanish, which is difficult, but is forcing me to speak Spanish a lot (which is the whole point of this trip). There are also two cats living in the house, who provide good entertainment. Toño, the kitten, was snuggled up on my bed earlier.

Tomorrow, I have orientation at the university. I will be able to meet the other students and figure out how to get around this crazy city! The university is only a couple blocks away from my house, but the streets here are quite twisty. You have to go one block to the left and over to go two blocks to the right. I'm glad I don't have to drive. It would be quite easy to get lost.

Pura Vida!