Home Again

Sorry this is a couple days overdue. I've been trying to think about what I'm going to say, and so have been putting it off. But it's on my list of things to do today, and since I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow, I figured it would be best to get it done. So here goes.

Sunday went fine. I made it to the airport SUPER early. My plane left at 1:50, so I decided to leave my house around 10, thinking it would take me a while to get to the airport, and then I'd have to go through checking in and all that, and you're supposed to arrive 2-3 hours early for international flights. But literally 45 minutes after I left my house I was at my gate. So I had some time to kill. My friend Kelly, who's another ISEP student from Minnesota, happened to be on the same flight, so she met up with me later, and we actually ended up sitting in the same row! How crazy is that? It was nice to have a friend to travel with. One of the weirdest parts of being at the airport was hearing so much English. While some people, mostly workers, still spoke Spanish, it was strange to walk by people and hear them speaking in English. And I realized I was going to miss hearing Spanish all the time. Strange, after going so long being frustrated at not being able to understand, to suddenly missing it.

The plane ride was fine, and we got into Houston just a few minutes late. Unfortunately, Kelly's flight was supposed to leave at 7, so we rushed through the airport, trying to hurry so she could make her flight. But then we had to wait in line at Customs for a while, and then we had trouble finding her bags, so that by the time we made it through the next line of customs, she had missed her flight. So she had to go change to the next one, which unfortunately didn't leave until the next morning. But she got that worked out, and we went over to the terminal my plane was leaving from, and then found something to eat. We said good-bye, and I got on my plane and flew home to KC, where my family met me with a green welcome home sign. It was great to see them. :)

Monday morning when I woke up, the house was quiet. Outside it was chilly and the leaves were bare. Dad made me coffee, and I unpacked my suitcase. Everything was pretty much as I remembered it; it was like I had never left. I think that's been the strangest thing: I feel like the past four and a half months was a dream, like it never happened. The small house full of people, the long walk to school, the rain, my classes, the mountains, the beach, the forests, my friends. It took a long time for all of that to feel like home, but eventually it did. Now, I am happy to be back in the States. It's great to see my family, and I'm excited to visit North Park this weekend, and all of that. And yet... I miss Costa Rica, especially the people. I think it will take some time to adjust to being back in the states (I still have to stop and think before I throw the toilet paper in the toilet). But just because I'm home doesn't mean the roller coaster ride is over (reference to first ever blog post). It's still going, the adventure continues, and God is still teaching me, building on what he taught me in Costa Rica. He hasn't left me now that I'm home, and He won't ever leave. Of this I am sure.

I don't know if I'll keep blogging or not. The Costa Rican part of my adventure is over, at least for now. But I've really enjoyed this, so I'll keep an eye out for a chance to continue.

Hasta luego for now.

Holly

Una despedida

In approximately 12 hours I will be in a taxi on the way to the airport. I can't believe I'm really leaving. Seriously, it doesn't seem real. For the first several months I was here I couldn't wait to get home, and now I don't feel ready to leave. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to see my family and be home and visit North Park and see my friends. But right now I'm also really sad that I have to leave my Costa Rican family and the wonderful friends I've made here.

I was planning to write a really long post tonight, but I just don't have any more words to describe what I'm feeling right now. So I'll have to postpone this until later-- maybe tomorrow from the Houston airport (where I have a several-hour layover) or Monday from home.

Thanks to all who are reading this for following along on this incredible journey. I can't wait to see you all and tell you more about Costa Rica in person.

Dios les bendiga,

Holly

4 Things I'll Miss and 4 Things I Won't

Things I'm going to miss about Costa Rica:

1. The people. I've made some great friends here among the other ISEP students and the young people at Bible Study, and I'm really going to miss them. Also, my host family, who have been amazing.

2. Speaking Spanish. It's going to be weird to walk down the street and hear English, or sit in church or in classes and be able to understand everything that's being said.

3. The food. It's pretty much amazing. Most of the time. I think my favorites are Gallo Pinto (which is rice and beans and other stuff, eaten for breakfast with eggs) and Arroz con Pollo (rice and chicken, served with ketchup and with potato chips on the side). The pastries are also pretty good, and so is the chocolate. Not to mention granizados...

4. Coffee. The coffee here is just so good, and I don't know if the coffee back home will measure up...

Things I will not miss about Costa Rica:

1. ¡Upe! This is the word people use when they're calling at someone's house to see if they're home. And since my host mom runs a business from her house, and since my room is at the front of the house, I hear this all. the. time. It's especially annoying when the sign clearly says closed, and nobody's home, and I have to go try to explain to people, that no, I cannot rent them anything. I'm sorry, we're closed.

2. Piropos. This refers to the comments that guys make to girls in the street. It's very common for men to say "linda" or "guapa" (pretty and good-looking) or to honk or whistle. It's not always meant to be rude, it's just a part of the culture and they mean it as a compliment. But sometimes it's just annoying and even downright creepy. I once had a guy make a kissy face at me from a truck. That's one thing I definitely will not miss.

3. Rice. Even though the food is really good, and I like rice, after over four months of having rice pretty much every day, I'm okay with not eating rice for a very long time. Although if I make Costa Rican food I'll probably eat it, I don't know if I'll be able to eat it otherwise.

4. Speaking Spanish. I know, I also put this as something I'll miss, and I will. But it will also be really nice to be able to explain myself or tell a story without having to think really hard, and to be able to follow a conversation, and to be able to know what is going on in my classes. Yeah. That'll be nice. :)

5. I know I said 4, but I just though of this one: Finding cockroaches in my shower. They were small ones, and it only happened a few times, but still. Ew. (shudder)

Thanksgiving and Pumpkin Pie

You know that feeling when you're so full it feels like you're stomach is about to burst and all you want to do is go to sleep? Yup, it's a happy feeling.

Well, my Thanksgiving was quite a bit different from any I've had to date. First off, it was 80 degrees and sunny and humid for most of the day (though it did rain later, imagine that!) where I've had Thanksgivings where there's practically a blizzard outside. Also, it's the first year that I haven't been with my immediate family for Thanksgiving. :( My day was pretty uneventful. I slept in a bit, went to school to turn in my grades (it's a long, boring, complicated story which I will spare you) then went to AutoMercado to find pie crust and whipped cream. Then after lunch and a short rest I made my pumpkin pies (also a first, as I've never made pumpkin pie before). Then around 5:15 I took a taxi to the ISEP office to drop off the pies and whipped cream, as well as the table cloths they were renting from my host mom, and then I went to my friends' dance show. That too was a cultural experience: I saw karate demonstrations (Japan), belly dancing (Middle East?) and then some modern-day Costa Rican dances. After my friends danced I went over to the dinner where we had a delicious Thanksgiving meal, complete with turkey and mashed potatoes. The only weird thing was that the "sweet potatoes" were yellow/green. They weren't really sweet potatoes. But everything was really good, and there were a ton of desserts. It was really fun to just hang out and talk and laugh with (almost) everyone one last time. There are a few people I'll see yet, but some people I won't see again till who knows when. Sad.

Now, on to my pumpkin pie story. Yesterday I went to AutoMercado, which is a nice grocery store that has lots of American foods, to find the ingredients for pumpkin pie (I found a recipe online). I was able to find canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, and the spices I needed for not very expensive, so I went ahead and got enough to make two. That way, I could make one for Bible Study and my family to try, and one for Thanksgiving. The only thing they didn't have were ready-made crusts-- they had graham cracker crusts, but I wasn't sure if you could make pumpkin pie using graham cracker crust. So I decided I would go home, look up a recipe for pie crust, and then check the Hipermás to see if they had pie crust or just the ingredients to make a crust. Well, every recipe I found for crust required it to be refrigerated for several hours, and I didn't have several hours, so I hoped I could find a crust at Hipermás. Not only did they not have pie crust, they didn't even have graham cracker crust! People in Costa Rica really don't do a lot of baking, I think. So I figured I could make a graham crust pretty easily, except that they didn't have graham crackers. Finally I settled on these graham cracker-like crackers and made a crust with those and butter, because I didn't want to go all the way across town to find the ready-made crusts again.

Well, as you know, the one yesterday turned out well (so well that, apparently I can get married), and today I went back to the AutoMercado to get pie crusts and whipped cream (it was kind of expensive, but you just can't have pumpkin pie without whipped cream). The recipe I found made lots of batter, so I used the leftovers from yesterday mixed with today's to make two pies. And I think they turned out pretty well. There were so many desserts though that we only ate one pie, so I brought the second one home. I figure we have so many people in and out of this house that it will get eaten eventually. :)

So that was my Thanksgiving. I'm very thankful for all the friends I've made here, for my host family, that I'm done with classes, for all that God has been teaching me this semester, and that I get to see my family in 3 days!

Over the next two days I will be packing, and tomorrow I'm going to go see Harry Potter with my friend April, and then on Saturday a bunch of us are getting granizados one last time. It'll be a full few days, but I'm very much looking forward to them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow :)

I just had a wonderful evening with the Bible Study (they call it Gal, but I'm not sure what that means/stands for) group. They had a sort of going away party for me-- they got chicken and tortillas, in addition to the usual chips and dip and pop. I also made a pumpkin pie (it was much harder to find the ingredients than it was to make the pie itself, but it turned out okay) which they said was delicious. Actually what they said was, "Que rico. Puede casarse." Which means, "It's really good. You can get married." :) Also they taped a big piece of paper to the wall and everyone wrote me messages on it, and they even gave me a canvas bag that has a turtle on it and says Costa Rica.

I have just been blown away by how welcoming and accepting this group of people has been. From the very beginning they've been excited that I was attending, and even though I couldn't always understand everything that was said, I always felt included. God has truly blessed me through these people, and I am so grateful.

Church

Yesterday was my last day of church in Costa Rica. My friend Caitlin and I have been going to Vida Abundante (Abundant Life) for about 3 months now, and while we haven't gotten super involved there, I've really enjoyed going. The people are really nice, and the pastor has made a point to come talk to us before the service a few times, to ask us how it's going, how's the Spanish coming, etc. Sunday after the service Caitlin and I went up to him to say good-bye and thank him, and he took us aside and prayed for us before we left, and told us that when we come back to Costa Rica, we should come back to visit.

I am looking forward to visiting my home churches (Immanuel in Chicago and Hillcrest Blue Valley in KC) but I think it's going to be weird to sing in English again. And to hear the sermon in English. I definitely want to get some of the praise songs I've learned here on iTunes, because I really like some of them. Here's a link to one of the songs we sang in church a few times that I really like. It has kind of a random music video, but it's a good song. It's called "Jesus es el Señor." (Jesus is the Lord) Enjoy!

Finals, Excursion, and the Beginning of the End

Here is something I'll bet you didn't know about Costa Ricans: they really like fried chicken. No joke! They even have fried chicken at McDonald's. So we eat it at my house fairly often, or at least a lot more often than I'm used to. That doesn't say much though, because I hardly ever ate fried chicken growing up. And therefore, I really have no idea how I'm supposed to eat it. The drumsticks I can handle pretty well. But the other parts? It's a mystery to me, and I'm sure I look pretty ridiculous eating it. But oh well. We had fried chicken tonight for dinner, which is why I mention it.

But on to other things. This week was busy, but now it is over! I think my tests went pretty well, my anthropology presentation went well, and I got decent grades on my term papers. And now I am done with school for the semester! Crazy, huh? It's not even Thanksgiving. All I have left to do is go pick up my grades next week. See, here they have what they call "Entrega de promedios," which is when you just show up to the class and the teacher gives you your tests and other things back and gives you your grade for the semester. So I have to go pick up my Spanish, Literature, and Expression grades next week, but otherwise I'm done. ¡Gracias a Dios!

Today I went on an excursion with some of the ISEP students. There were only 9 of us, but it was really fun. We went to a botanical gardens at this biological research and conservation center in Turrialba. The botanical garden part was really cool, and we saw some amazing flowers and trees. Honestly, God's imagination is astounding. Then we went to see the conservation part, which wasn't quite as cool. This guy talked a lot about seeds and how they store them and stuff. It was kind of boring. But then we had cafecito and some really yummy cake things. And the day overall was really fun and interesting.

Well, that about brings us up-to-date. I'm planning to write a bit more often this week and tell some random things about Costa Rica and stuff like that, since I don't have a whole lot to do. :) But good night for now!

Learning to Fly

So this weekend I went with my friend Caitlin to Monteverde, which is a famous national park in Costa Rica. We left really (and I mean really) early Saturday and came back Sunday evening, so it was a fast trip, but a fantastic one.

Friday night I was up late working on my final paper for literature, and I didn't get to bed until after midnight. Then I couldn't sleep because I was so worried about getting my paper done, and waking up on time, and making it to the bus on time, so I didn't really fall asleep until around 2. My alarm went off at 4, and it felt like I had hardly slept. But we made it to the bus stop near my house by 5, and found the bus terminal for Monteverde without too much trouble, and were there before 5:30. Our bus didn't leave until 6:30, and the ticket office didn't even open until 6, so we went across the street to a soda and had coffee and gallo pinto for breakfast. Then we bought our tickets and climbed aboard the bus for our 4 and a half hour bus ride. The last hour and a half of our trip was on a windy, bumpy, dusty road, but the view was spectacular. We made it to Santa Elena, which is the town our hostel was in, a little after 11, and immediately met a guy from our hostel, who showed us the way there.

Our hostel was called Cabinas Visto al Golfo, and it was fantastic. The people were super nice, it was really clean, there was a kitchen we could use, and a couple lounge areas with a beautiful view and hammocks. After checking in we ate lunch at a restaurant in town, then came back to shower and take a nap (Caitlin only got a couple hours of sleep too). Then we bought our bus tickets for Sunday (the trip to the beach had taught us to buy our tickets ASAP!) and walked around a bit, looking in the gift shops in town. We worked on our final papers for a while, then made dinner--pasta with sauce and green beans, yum. After dinner we got ice cream, then returned to working on our papers. I know, super exciting for being on vacation, but we really didn't have a choice, especially since we were supposed to have turned them in last Wednesday....

But Sunday morning made up for all of that. We went on a canopy tour with a company called 100% Aventura, and they picked us up from our hotel around 7:45. Once at their headquarters we got strapped into harnesses, learned the safety procedures, and then were off to zipline through the rainforest! It was pretty scary, not gonna lie, to go flying through and over the trees, while the only thing holding you up several hundred feet in the air is a metal cable and a harness. But the views were breathtaking, and it was exhilarating. Besides Caitlin and me, in our group were two others from our hostel: a guy from Spain (I can't remember his name) and a girl from Germany, Charlotte. Then there was a couple from Spain, and a man from New York. He was the only one in the group who didn't speak Spanish, and later when I asked him where he was from, he told Caitlin and I he thought we were Costa Rican! We took that as a complement. :)

Our guides were super nice, but really goofy. They liked to make jokes and one guy would hide in the forest when we were walking to the next place, and then jump out and scare us. The best trick though, was at the Tarzan Swing. This was a place where we walked to this area, then climbed up steps to this giant platform. There they strapped us in, and we jumped off a platform and swung like Tarzan! After we swung back and forth a few times, two guides on the ground caught us and unhooked us from the rope. So anyway, when Caitlin went, they had caught her at the end and were taking off the clips, when the two guys at the top of the platform let out loud yells, like the guy up there had just jumped. Both the guides and Caitlin hit the ground, expecting someone to come flying over them, and the guys at the tops started cracking up.

The last cable was called the Superman. For this one, they rearranged our harnesses and strapped us in so we would fly, well, like superman. It was probably the scariest and coolest part of the whole adventure. I was flying over this valley, at eye-level with the tops of giant trees, belly down and arms outstretched. And they say people can't fly..... :)

The rest of our day was calm in comparison. We ate lunch with the two other people from our hostel, who were both really nice, then walked around some more. When we went back to our hostel I took a nap in one of the hammocks (ah, bliss), then we went to catch our bus back to San José.

Well, I'm still trying to catch up on the sleep I missed Friday night, but the weekend was buenísimo, and I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Costa Rica. Now for a week of final exams!

Just a Quick Post

Taking a quick break from homework to update. My literature paper is *still* not done, but it's getting there. It has to get done tonight, because I leave early tomorrow morning to go to Monteverde! My friend Caitlin and I are leaving around 5 tomorrow morning, and we plan to get back Sunday evening. Monteverde is a national park that, from what I hear, has beautiful rainforests. We're going to take a canopy tour that includes ziplining--kind of crazy. But I'm really excited to go, and maybe just as excited to be done with this paper! After that, I just have a presentation on Tuesday and final exams.

Only a couple more weeks here... I'm really excited to be home and see my family and friends again, but I think I'll be sad to leave too. A lot of people here have started decorating for Christmas already (they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so there's no "no Christmas until after Thanksgiving" rule). :) It makes me miss home more and is getting me ready for Christmas, although I must admit it's a bit strange to see Christmas trees and lights when it's still in the upper 70s outside.

I'll try to post about my trip to Monteverde either Sunday night or Monday. Until then!

Spring Weather

Today is a beautiful spring day. In November. :) I know, those of you reading this who are in places where it's getting really cold will probably hate me, but the weather here today feels like May. It's sunny, windy, somewhere between warm and cold (which my computer says is mid-70s). The only sad part is that I'm stuck inside working on homework. And that in three weeks I'll get icky late November weather with absolutely no way of easing myself into it...

But I am making progress on my homework. Yesterday I gave a presentation on American holidays for my Oral and Written Expression class, and I think it went really well. Some of the questions they asked included why the color green is associated with St. Patrick's Day (Because it's from Ireland and Ireland is green?), and what's the connection between Easter and hiding colored eggs (Well, there's an easter bunny and he hides easter eggs.... I don't know why. They just laughed.).

Last night for dinner I had pizza with my host mom, two of her sisters, her sister's son Adrián, Shirley, and another lady (she's here a lot but I still haven't figured out if she's a relative or a friend). We ate in the dining room by candlelight and they drank wine (Adrián and I stuck with Coke). It was really fun, and it made me smile to have such a fancy ambiance for pizza. :)

Oh, and I put up some pictures from Halloween and the church in San Rafael and Bible Study, so here's a link to see those: Pura Vida

Mudslide

Although this doesn't seem to be breaking news anywhere but in Costa Rica, I just wanted to let you know that there was a really bad mudslide just south of San José last night. We've had a lot of rain the past few days, I think because of tropical storm Thomas or something like that, and it caused a huge mudslide in a suburb of San José called San Antonio de Escazu. It hasn't really affected anything here in Heredia, but in that area there are bridges out and homes completely destroyed. I think they've declared a national emergency, and schools in the San José area are closed indefinitely (though I still had class this morning). I was watching the news at breakfast and it showed a picture of one house where there was mud several feet deep all around it. They also showed several houses that looked like they'd been shoved into the trees and were just completely destroyed. Several people have died and a lot more are missing and displaced, so please be praying for everyone down here, for the rescue effort and for the people who have lost their homes and loved ones.

For a link to a short CNN article about it click here.

Halloween

Okay, really quick entry before lunch.

Yesterday was Halloween, but it's not nearly as big here as it is in the States. Nevertheless, my friend Jennifer, who's in ISEP, threw a Halloween party, which I went to dressed as a ninja. Unfortunately, I could only stay for about an hour, because my friends from my theater class called me that afternoon and said they were going to the play that night. So I left after about an hour, met my friends at the University, and we went to go see "Dos arriba, una abaja" (Two above, one below), which was a comedy about this guy who's dating three different girls, all flight attendants, and things get complicated when all three show up at the same time!

The next two weeks are going to be insane, homework wise. Between now and next Thursday I have due:

2 term papers

3 presentations

2 literature essays

1 group essay

1 take home final (basically a big essay)

Ugh. Needless to say, I'm kind of excited to be done with school for the semester. Although I think I'll be sad to leave, I'm ready for that six week break I get when I go home... :)

P.S. It's November, and it's 80 degrees out. Pretty sure this is going to be the warmest November of my life.

Nothin' Particular

Well, it's Friday night, and I don't have anything in particular to talk about; just wanted to write. Even though I'm not one for going out much on the weekends (leading one of my host mom's friends to ask me one Friday night, "Don't you have any friends to go out with?" Awkward.) I still have trouble making myself do homework on Fridays. Which is a problem, since I have big term paper due Tuesday for my Anthropology & History Class, and I have a loooong ways to go on it. But instead, I've been watching an episode of Chuck (thanks Bekah) and listening to Great Big Sea (thanks Drew). My host mom brought me pizza for dinner, and everyone's gone, so I have the house to myself. Which is nice. I'm planning to skype with my family soon, and then I'll probably go to bed. Then get up early and start hammering out that term paper.

This week I caught a little cold, so my nose has been running like crazy since Tuesday. Which is not much fun, but so far it hasn't been too serious, and I'll take this over stomach issues any day.

Wednesday evening at Bible Study we watched the movie "Faith Like Potatoes." The movie itself was good, but the message was really good. I'm getting to know the people better and I'm glad I finally started going.

Thursday I went to San José with my theater class and we toured the National Theater. It was a little shorter than when I went with the ISEP group, but we got to stand on the stage, which was pretty cool. That theater is absolutely gorgeous, and if anyone reading this ever gets to Costa Rica, you should go see it. (If you want to see a cool picture that I unfortunately didn't take, click here.)

Today I slept in until 8 (woohoo!) and did some random things that needed doing, then had class at 1. Next week I have to give a speech for that class, and I'm going to talk about American holidays--I'm really excited about it. After I got home I drank some coffee and played this Monopoly card game with my host niece and nephew, Andréa and Adrián. Adrián won the first game, and I won the second, and it was really fun.

Well, that about sums up the exciting parts of my week. Sunday night I'm planning to go to a Halloween party that one of the ISEP students, Jennifer, is throwing. I think I'm going to be a ninja, just because it's a really easy costume, and it should be fun!

¡Pura vida!

Pictures!

Okay, so I've just figured out how to link to my facebook photo albums so you can see pictures even if you're not on facebook! So here are a few links if you want to see some pictures of my time here:

This one is for the coffee tour:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=533781&id=570960062&l=f0cb9c3a82

These are pictures of our excursion to Volcan Poas and the Waterfall Gardens, as well as some random pictures at the beginning:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=500397&id=570960062&l=9e8f3cf1a7

And these two albums are from my first week here (warning, the first one has about 200 pictures!):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=461324&id=570960062&l=807e7cdee7

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=461931&id=570960062&l=00a90e3c01

All right, now I really am getting back to homework!

La Playa

This morning I went to church with my friend April, who's Catholic. It was very different, but I liked it. Everyone knew exactly what to do and when, and I did my best to follow along. The church building was gorgeous--I'll try to post pictures soon.

But on to the recapping of my trip from last weekend:

I went with three other girls from the ISEP program, Caitlin, Callie, and Corrylee (I guess I missed the memo on the "C" name). We left early Friday morning (I skipped my Friday afternoon class) and took a bus from San José to Brasilito, a little town on the western coast of Costa Rica, in the region of Guanacaste. The bus trip was about five hours, so by the time we got there we were sweaty and hungry. After checking into our hotel, we ate lunch at the nearby restaurant, Outback Jack's, where we were serenaded by a mariachi band (we then had to pay them). Then we went straight to the beach, which was literally right by the restaurant and hotel. The beach was beautiful, the water felt great, and we had a lot of fun swimming and looking for shells. When it started to get dark we went back to our room, showered, then went to the nearby soda for dinner. (Quick note: a "soda" is like a little family-owned restaurant, and they usually sell typical Costa Rican food for fairly cheap.) The food was deliciosa, and after walking around town a bit we went back to our hotel and watched "Pan's Labrynth," which was good, but dark. So we watched half of "Raising Helen" to cheer ourselves up. :)

Saturday we got up and took the bus to Playa Tamarindo, a bigger beach about 18 km away. There we rented surfboards and Caitlin, who's from Hawaii, taught us how to surf. I have to confess I didn't get very far though. At one point, Caitlin was helping Callie, and Corrylee and I were sitting on our boards in the water, when a set of big waves came in, and we kept getting shoved underwater and hit with our surfboards. So I took a break and sat on the beach. Later Caitlin took me out again, and I rode a couple waves in just lying on my surfboard. It was actually really fun, but that was as far as I got. We ate lunch in the town of Tamarindo then went back to Brasilito, which was a little trickier than it had been in the morning. See, there's a direct bus from Brasilito to Tamarindo, but not one from Tamarindo to Brasilito. We asked a guy which bus we should take, and he told us we could take a taxi, and then proceeded to hail one for us. Only it cost about $30, which is ridiculous, so we turned him down. Then the man got another taxi for us (people are sometimes overly helpful), and this taxi driver lowered the price to $18. That was still way too high, so we said no thanks, but it took us about 10 minutes to convince the man we really didn't want to take a taxi. When our bus finally came, Corrylee got pooped on by a bird right as we were getting on. A girl told us it was good luck, and it kind of turned out to be true, since when we got off that bus at Haucas, the bus for Brasilito was right there.

Once we made it back to Brasilito, we went exploring and walked to Playa Conchal, which we had heard a lot about. It was a beautiful beach, and a good portion of it is made up entirely of shell pieces! (Hence the name, "conchal" means "shell.") We stayed there for a bit, until it started raining, and then we went back to our hotel, showered, and ate dinner at Outback Jack's again.

Sunday we were planning to go back to Tamarindo, but we missed the bus. So we had to wait a while for the next one, which would only take us to Haucas, but we met these two nice women from the Netherlands who were on vacation in Costa Rica. Once in Haucas we waited for a while, but the bus to Tamarindo never came, so we walked over to the taxi drivers and asked how much it would be. It was only $5, so we took it. On our way we got stopped by, of all things, a herd of cows walking down the road. Our taxi driver, who was really nice, said this happened pretty often. We finally made it to Playa Tamarindo, where the other three girls rented surfboards again (I was content to lie on the beach, read, and take pictures). We ate lunch at a soda in Tamarindo, then hung out there until the next bus came (figuring out the buses in Costa Rica can be frustrating). For dinner we ate at a pizza place in Brasilito-- it was a really cute place, with all the tables under these grass-roof huts, and the pizza was yummy.

Monday was a very long day. We walked to the bus ticket office to buy our tickets for San José, only to find out that the 9 o'clock bus was full. And the next bus wasn't until 2. Shoot. So we went back to our hotel and asked the manager. She told us we could take a bus to Santa Cruz, where buses leave for San José every hour or so. Oh, but the bus for Santa Cruz was leaving.... now. So we ran across the town square to the bus stop, made it onto the bus and took it to Santa Cruz. But we found out the 10 o'clock bus was full. As was the Noon bus. Argh. If we wanted to, we could take the noon bus, but we would have to stand. Since we wanted to make it home, we decided to do that. So we sat in the bus station for a couple hours, making quick trips to the grocery store across the street for food, since we still hadn't eaten breakfast. The bus trip wasn't as bad as I expected. We stood or sat on the floor the whole way, but the ride was only about 4 hours, with a rest stop about half-way. We got off at the airport and took another bus to Heredia, and I was home before 5. As fun as the beach was, I felt good to be home.

Here's a link to the facebook photo album of pictures from the trip. You should be able to look at them even if you don't have facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=544539&id=570960062&l=6a90c805a4

Well, I should be getting back to homework now. Sorry that this was a really long entry...but as you may know, I'm really bad at making short summaries. :) This week looks to be full of paper writing, since I have two term papers coming up in the next couple weeks. But I'll try to keep you updated if I do anything interesting. ¡Hasta luego!

Coffee!

Well, I haven't been being super productive with homework, so I figured I would be productive in updating my blog. This post is about, as you may have guessed, coffee! The coffee in Costa Rica is amazing. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go through a caffeine detox when I get home (as well as a sugar detox, since Costa Ricans like everything sweet).

Two weeks ago I got to go with my Spanish class to tour the Santa Maria de Dota Coffee Co-op. Coffee is the second largest source of revenue for Costa Rica (next to tourism), so we had group projects on coffee for our Spanish class (mine was on the history of coffee, which is really interesting) and took a "gira" or tour, of the coffee farm two Saturdays ago. There we learned about how they grow coffee and how they roast it, and got to see and sample different coffee drinks made by professional baristas. All or nearly all of the coffee grown is of high quality, mostly because it is grown at a higher altitude: higher altitude=higher quality. The co-op we visited uses sustainable methods of farming coffee, which includes growing shade trees among the plants. This keeps direct sun off the coffee plants, and provides more nutrients for the soil. You'll see a lot of coffee fields on hills in Costa Rica that are just coffee, completely stripped of trees, but that method isn't as good for the land, and produces coffee of lower quality.

After touring the co-op, we met up with this guy named Arturo, who's a private coffee farmer in that same area. He's Tican (Costa Rican) but lived in the US for a few years, so his English was pretty good. Arturo grows organic coffee, and is kind of an advocate for organic coffee farming. He explained to us how the traditional methods of growing coffee (like the shadeless coffee farms and using chemicals for fertilizers and pesticides) isn't sustainable, and in the future the land will be useless for farming. Also, the use of chemicals on the plants can be dangerous for the people who work in the fields, since coffee is tended and harvested by hand. The problem is, organic coffee is more expensive to grow, which is why a lot of people don't do it. But Arturo says he grows organic because he thinks it's the right thing to do, for the land and for his children and future generations. He was very passionate about everything he talked about.

Next he took us to the house of some of his neighbors, who are indigenous Costa Ricans and work on a coffee farm. There he explained about another project he's working on, which has to do with a stove. He told us that about half the women in the world cook over an open fire, the smoke of which not only contributes to global warming, but also is breathed in by the people, especially women and children, tending the fires, causing lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. So there is a company, based in Seattle, Washington, that has created what they call a "Estufa finca" or "Farm Stove." It's a very simple contraption that looks like a metal bucket with holes punched in the bottom and surrounded by a layer of rippled metal, but it's pretty incredible. It will burn a small amount of biomass (sticks, leaves, etc.) for hours, because it also burns the smoke it creates. And because it burns its own smoke, it releases hardly any into the air. It needs hardly any tending, only uses a small amount of wood, reduces the emissions of toxic gases into the air, and only costs about $40 to make. Pretty cool, huh? So anyway, Arturo is helping this company make and deliver the stoves to indigenous families in Costa Rica, and the people have really taken to them. Apparently the company recently received a grant to further test the stove to see how much it really reduces emissions, and also to see if native peoples are willing to make the switch from an open fire. Here's a link to their website if you want to learn more:

http://seachar.org/wordpress/?page_id=2

The trip was interesting, and I learned a lot. It definitely made me think about where my coffee comes from!

Quick Update

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but homework has really been catching up to me. I have two posts I want to write in the next several days, one about the coffee tour I took with my Spanish class, and one about the trip I took to the beach this past weekend with three of my friends (I have pictures up on facebook of the coffee tour, if you're on facebook). Also, my friend mentioned something about being able to link my facebook photos to this blog so that people can see them even if they aren't on facebook. So I'll be looking into that and hopefully I'll be able to figure that out.

I have less than 40 days left here, which is crazy. I have one term paper due in two weeks, and another one due a couple weeks after that, plus all the regular amount of homework. I would greatly love to travel at least to a couple more places, so with all that it looks like the next 40 days are going to be packed! The weather has been really nice lately, hardly raining at all, and it's been really warm. On the one hand, it's kind of nice, not having to worry about the cold and all of that, but on the other hand I miss Fall (it doesn't feel anything like October here) and when I get back to the states at the end of November I'm going to FREEZE!

Well tonight is Bible Study (I missed last week because I had homework) and I made some chocolate cookies for snack, and then after wards I'll probably try to finish up some homework, or just go to bed. We'll see. :)

Un temblorcito

I felt my first earthquake tonight! Don't worry, it wasn't a very big one (hence the title of this post, which means "a little earthquake"). I went to go see a play in San José with some girls from my theater class, and we had just taken our seats when it happened. Funny thing was though that the chairs were set on tiered platforms, so at first I just thought the platform was shaking because people were walking up it. By the time I started to think that it might be an earthquake, it was pretty much over. It was 5.9 on the Richter scale, if that means anything to you. Looking back on it though, it was the strangest feeling, like the ground was moving in waves. It boggles my mind how the ground can do that.

So that's my earthquake story. But now I'm going to bed, because it's 11 o'clock, and I have to get up very early tomorrow because my Spanish class is going to visit a coffee farm (I'm super excited).

¡Buenas noches!

Bible Study

Tonight I finally went to the Bible study that meets in my house. I know I've talked about the Bible study my host mom goes to on Thursday nights, but it stopped meeting here, so I haven't gone in a long time. But there's one made up of people my age that meets on Wednesday nights, and every week I've heard them come in, and I've even said hi to them a few times, but I've never participated. Sometimes I had homework, and sometimes I was just really tired, but I think the main reason was that I was scared. It's hard to meet new people sometimes, and it's hard to join into a formed group. But I only have 52 days left here (crazy, I know) and I feel like I haven't been... what's the word I'm looking for--investing? connecting? very well. I mean, I've made some good friends among the other American students, and I'm getting better at connecting with my host family, and I'll say hi to a couple people at school or at church, but I haven't really made any Tican friends. I haven't traveled a whole lot or seen much of this beautiful country, and sometimes I feel like all I ever do is go to class and do homework.

A friend told me before I left that really good things were going to come of my being here. But lately I've been really frustrated, and have been asking God where are these really good things? Why do I still miss home so much, and why hasn't this been all that I expected it to be? And then I realized something: just because God promises good things doesn't mean they're going to fall into my lap. Sometimes He wants us to get up and take them. It's like I learned in the Beth Moore Bible study this summer: God has granted us a glorious inheritance, but instead of simply giving it to us, he asks us to get up and take it. Because only then will we build up the muscle to keep it, since Satan is trying to steal our inheritance from us.

So earlier this week I realized that God practically has dropped something really good into my lap: a Bible study that meets in my own house (I don't even have to go anywhere!) where I can learn about God, have Christian fellowship, practice my Spanish, and make Tican friends. And all I have to do is walk down the hall. (I'm really glad God is patient, cause I can be really dense sometimes.)

All this to explain that I went to Bible study tonight. And it was really good! There was a guy who was new too, and a girl who I found out later had only been coming for a few weeks, so I wasn't the only new person. However, the leader asked me to open in prayer, the new girl who doesn't even speak Spanish fluently, to which my initial reaction was, what? But I prayed, and it was really short, but that's okay. :) Then we talked about David, and she wrote questions on a big sheet of paper on the wall, and we all had to go up and answer them, questions like, "What does it mean to be a Christian?" and "What are the desires of your heart?" It was a little intimidating to be answering some really deep questions with people I'd just met, but overall it was really good. Then afterward we had snacks, of course, and talked for a while more. My host mom came home from her meeting and she was excited to see me participating.

So basically, God is good, and I'm really glad He continually reminds me of this. Amen?

Saturday

Cell phones are a wonderful modern invention. Despite the negatives people talk about, how they control our lives, etc., etc., they are darn useful when trying to meet up with someone. This morning, for example, I was planning to meet up with my friend April to hang out, do some shopping, and later maybe some homework. However, there was some confusion about where we were meeting, so I ended up spending a good portion of my morning waiting and going all over Heredia trying to find her, while she waited for me in the parque central for me. Finally a little after noon, three hours after we had planned to meet, we finally found each other.

But despite a confusing morning, we had a really fun afternoon. We walked around Heredia, going into several different stores and I found a cute shirt, although no jeans that fit. We stopped at a café for cafecito, then walked around a bit more. Then around five we went to Pizza Hut and picked up a pizza which we took to Callie's house, then the three of us ate and watched "Horton Hears a Who."

Tomorrow morning I have church, and then the afternoon will hopefully be spent working on homework, since I did none today. For now, I'm headed to sleep, but first I have to figure out the mystery that is my bed (There's this sheet, that I think is supposed to be the top sheet, but it's fitted, and it's connected to a long bed skirt. So it's not really a top sheet or a bottom sheet, and I'm kind of confused as to whether I'm supposed to sleep on top of or under it. Wish me luck!).

¡Día de Independencia!

In case you couldn't figure it out, the title for this post is Independence Day! which is September 15th here in Costa Rica. And it was a blast! As I said in my post earlier this week, they've had decorations up since the beginning of the month-- at school, in stores, on houses, on the bus, in cars... everywhere.

Tuesday evening I met up with some friends at the Central Park in Heredia, where they had an area roped off around the gazebo for musicians and traditional dancers. We saw some cool dances and heard several groups of kids sing and play music. We also saw the famous torch leaving Heredia shortly after we arrived. See, several countries in Central America all declared their Independence from Spain at the same time, so about two weeks before Independence Day, a torch leaves from Guatemala and makes its way through all the countries until it arrives in Cartago, Costa Rica, on September 15. Another tradition they have is to make "faroles," which are lanterns. All the kids make them for school, and apparently there are prizes for the best ones. We saw some shaped like torches, houses, paper lanterns, even one shaped like el fortín (a famous fort in Heredia). It was a little scary, since most of them had lit candles in them, and they were made of paper and wood, but I didn't see any catch fire, so they must know what they're doing. At one point everyone sang the national anthem, which was pretty. I also bought some churros, which I don't know how to describe, except that they're some sort of dough that's fried and covered in sugar, or filled with chocolate or dulce de leche. Google "churros" and you'll see some good pictures.

Wednesday morning I got up early and met with some friends at Central Park around 8 for the parade. We were there early, so we got good seats right on the curb. Even though it was early, the sun was HOT, and we all got pretty tan. All the schools in the city of Heredia participate in the parade, with bands, dancers, cheerleaders, and/or flag bearers. Some of them looked pretty hot and tired by the time they got to us, but there were plenty of parents walking with them, offering them water and making sure they were okay. It was cool to hear the music, some tunes I recognized and some were new (xylophones are very popular in the bands) and some of the dancers were really good. It was neat to be sitting there, crowded on the sidewalk with probably hundreds of Ticos, all celebrating their freedom and their country. There were two things I noticed about this parade: first of all, it's long. They started about 8:30, and I don't think they finished until almost 1 (although we left around 11). Secondly, and this probably contributes to the first point, they are slow. One group would walk up, and then march in place for about five minutes before moving on. On the one hand it was kind of nice, because we actually got to see the dancers perform, and hear a good part of a song, but on the other hand, sometimes we were just watching the flag bearers march back and forth. Oh, and they don't throw out candy. But all-in-all, it was a good time, and afterward several of us went and got granizados, which are ice cream and slushy and powdered milk and cream and fruit (it may sound kind of weird, but they are delicious). Wednesday afternoon I mostly just hung out at home, and then in the evening a bunch of us went up to Barva and surprised our friend Lauren for her birthday. Her host mom made lasagna, and several of the girls had made a cake, and it was really fun.

So that was my experience of Independence Day. But now it's back to work, as I have a take-home midterm to write for my Anthropology class this weekend. ¡Hasta luego!

Volcán Poas and La Paz Waterfall Gardens

This past Saturday I went with some of the other ISEP groups on an excursion to Volcán (Volcano) Poas and a place called La Paz (Peace) Waterfall Gardens. We met at the University at 7 and took a tourist bus/van up to the volcano. It was chilly up there, being at a higher altitude, but it felt really good. It reminded me of Fall, which is something I'm going to miss this year (I still can't wrap my head around the fact that the weather's not going to change the whole time I'm here...). Anyway, we walked up to the viewing point, where we could see the whole crater and white steam pouring out of it.

Then we "hiked," aka, walked up concrete paths, to another viewing point where we could see this beautiful laguna. The walk itself was pretty cool--literally--and beautiful, as we walked through a dense green of trees, shrubs, and vines. The laguna was a pristine blue surrounded by lush green hills. We took several pictures, and after a while some white clouds moved in over the lake. Apparently we were really lucky to be able to see the volcano and laguna: usually it's too cloudy to see them, especially in the rainy season.

Next on our agenda was the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which is sort of a resort and nature park. We ate lunch in this beautiful dining building, then had several hours to explore. We saw dozens of colibrís (hummingbirds) flitting around a whole row of feeders. Some flew so close to me that I could hear the buzz of their wings. From there we went into the mariposería, saw some cute capuchin monkeys, and then went into the aviary and we got to hold toucans! (See my facebook if you have one to see more pictures.) Next we saw lots of scary snakes (they were behind glass, don't worry), and then we walked down to the waterfall path. We saw several beautiful waterfalls from different perspectives. One we got to stand so close that we got wet, and looked straight down another one. All around were hills and mountains covered in trees and above the sky and clouds. The beauty of this country leaves me speechless sometimes; words and pictures don't even begin to do it justice.

Well, tomorrow is el Día de Independencia (their 4th of July). Decorations have been up since the beginning of September, and apparently the festivities start tonight. I'm planning to go with some friends to check it out, and also hopefully will be able to see some parades tomorrow! Check back later this week and hopefully I'll have posted about it.

Whitewater Rafting

Yesterday I had a great adventure--I went whitewater rafting! I have been twice before (in the States), but I think this was the most intense. First of all, it's the rainy season, so the river was pretty rough in some places. We rafted down 18 miles of the Pacuare River with class III and IV rapids. I went with nine other exchange students, and it was a blast!

We met at 5 am at the University--it was VERY early, and still dark. From there we took a bus to San José, and then took cabs to the bus station, where we bought tickets to Turrialba, which was about an hour and twenty minutes away. There, the people from Costa Rica Adventures picked us up and we drove about 40 minutes to the launch site. We put on our life jackets and helmets and divided into two boats: six of us in one, four in the other with a couple from Mexico. I was in the first boat with five other girls (Ashli, Lauren, Caitlin, Corrylee, and Abby) and our guide, Mario. We stopped about two-thirds of the way for lunch, which was sandwiches and fruit (we were all super excited for "American"-type sandwiches on wheat bread).

The river itself was goreous: surrounded by huge trees, green plants, vines, and mountains, it felt like something out of a movie. We saw birds and several butterflies, including the Blue Morpho butterfly, which is black and bright blue. The water was chilly, but it felt good in the heat, which was a good thing because we were all soaked in minutes. Huge rocks that looked like they'd been there forever lined the banks of some parts of the river, and some were worn into smooth curves by the water. We saw dozens of little cascadas, or waterfalls, some trickling down along the rocks and some pouring out of the forest.

Paddling was hard work, and sometimes nearly impossible in a rapid. I'd reach my paddle forward, only to not find any water as we went over a wave, or to have it pushed back by a crash of water. Sometimes I would look and see a drop that was a good couple feet, and down we would go, then have a huge wave douse us with water. It was kind of scary sometimes, though really fun. I was amazed by our guide, Mario: how he knew exactly when we should paddle, when we should stop, and when we should "get down," which means slide off the side and hunch down on the floor of the raft. It was also amazing how the river would carry us in exactly the right direction: we'd be about to run into a rock, but then a wave of water would carry us forward and out of danger.

We did pretty well until one class IV rapid (named the "Indian Cemetery," as we found out later). Mario told us to get down as we rode down this rapid, and water was splashing us like crazy. I had my eyes closed because of the water, and then the next thing I knew I was in the water! Apparently our boat had kind of flipped, and all of us were dumped out, even our guide. One of the kids in the other boat said he looked back to watch us and there was just nobody in the boat. I could tell I wasn't in the raft anymore, and the current was really strong. It was kind of disorienting, and I know now what people mean when they say they couldn't tell which direction was up! I made it to the surface, but since I hadn't taken a breath before going under, my lungs were full of water and I had to try to get the water out so I could breathe. I don't remember being all that scared of being in the water; I knew that I was just supposed to float down, feet first, until I got to a place where I could get near the raft. The scariest part was just not being able to breathe. I think I went under at least once more before we got to a calmer part of the river. By then our guide was back in the raft, and he told us to swim towards it. I grabbed on to the rope and held on as we continued to float downriver, until he could pull me up into the boat. Three of the girls had floated way ahead of the raft and had been rescued by the other group, and the rest of us made it back into our boat. So in the end, nobody was hurt, (thank you Jesus!) and we even managed to pick up our lost paddle when it came floating down the river. They say that it's not rafting if you don't fall in, so I guess we had a pretty authentic experience! Nevertheless, I think we all were a bit more nervous after that. The next time we went through a rough rapid and had to "get down," we all cheered when we made it through.

The rest of the ride was uneventful compared to that, though still exciting enough, and fun. We got out of the river around 3, took a bus back to San José, and then four of us shared a taxi back to Heredia. I got back around 5:20, and I was exhausted. Today I woke up really sore from paddling and everything, but I'm still glad I went. If anyone ever comes to Costa Rica, I would definitely recommend going whitewater rafting.

Our raft (from left): Mario, Lauren, Me, Ashli, Abby, Corrylee, Caitlin

Going down a rapid!

Thursday Update

Since it's been almost a week since I last posted, I figured it was time for an update.

My weekend was pretty low-key because, as you can read in my previous post, I wasn't feeling very good. I did go to church on Sunday with my friend Caitlin. She's from Hawaii, and knows a lady from her church back home who moved to Costa Rica some time ago, and this is the church her friend attends. We went there last week and liked it, so we went back again this Sunday. But other than that I mostly did homework and rested during the weekend.

As for the rest of this week, I finished my second paper for literature (I have another one due next week, ugh) and gave my first presentation outside of Spanish class. It was this morning, for my Appreciation of Theater class, and I just had to talk about whether the play we were analyzing would work in the US. I think it went pretty well--I know I made a few mistakes, but nobody said anything about it.

My Spanish overall is improving, I think. The other night I was working on my paper and twice when I tried to look up a word in the English section of my dictionary I couldn't find it because I was trying to spell it in Spanish. I hope this means my Spanish is getting better, but now I'm a little concerned for when I go back to school in the States...

Something else I've been doing lately is reading the "Stuff Christians Like" blog by Jon Acuff. He's really funny and at the same time really profound. I'd highly recommend it. The link is:

http://stuffchristianslike.net

Until next time!

Sick :(

This weekend I was planning on going up to a national park nearby with some friends to hike and stuff, but at this point it doesn't look like I'm gonna go, because for the last few days I've been feeling really crummy. It's not anything serious, just stomach ache and nausea mostly, but I haven't eaten very much in the last couple days, so I don't think hiking is a good idea right now. I bought some Pepto Bismal today and just took some, so hopefully that will help, but I don't think I'll be 100% by tomorrow morning. I'm bummed, cause I was really looking forward to getting out of the city and spending time having fun with my friends, but hopefully we'll get to do something fun soon. I did just get an email from the ISEP director here about an excursion on September 11th, so hopefully I'll be able to go to that!

So anyway, if you could pray that I feel better soon, that would be great. Thanks!

Holly

¡Luces, Cámara, Acción!

So today I did something fun, something other than homework: I got to be in a movie! Just as an extra, but still. Supposedly my name will be in the credits. :)

See, my friend April is in this Latin American Cinema class, and her professor is friends with this guy who is making a movie, and they were going to be filming on campus today and needed extras. So April invited me and we showed up around 12:30 at the registration building, but they weren't ready for us, so we came back an hour later.

The movie is called "El Regreso," which means "the return," and it tells the story of this guy who's returning to Costa Rica after having lived in the United States for a long time. Here's a link to an article (in Spanish) about it:

http://www.89decibeles.com/noticias/hernan-jimenez-inicia-rodaje-de-el-regreso

and the same article translated by Google:

http://translate.google.co.cr/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=es&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.89decibeles.com%2Fnoticias%2Fhernan-jimenez-inicia-rodaje-de-el-regreso&sl=es&tl=en

The scenes they were filming today were ones where he was in the immigration or customs place trying to get his passport stuff figured out. There were all these chairs set up, and the main character (who is also the director) has a conversation with this strange guy sitting next to him. We extras filled in the other chairs and walked back and forth behind and in front of the chairs (to make it seem busy). So in the first scene, I was a person in the chairs, "reading" my Spanish-English Dictionary and moving over one seat every thirty seconds or so. In the second scene, which I think was supposed to be another day, we switched and everyone sitting in chairs walked back and forth while the people who had walked back and forth sat in chairs.

For the third scene, those of us sitting in chairs had to react to what was going on at the desk. Apparently, he's up there trying to get his passport but the lady working is being really frustrating. So he starts yelling, and we all look up and kind of look at each other like "What's going on?" The funny part was, nothing was actually happening when they filmed our "reactions." He just told us what was supposedly happening and told us when to look up.

It was cool to be able to see how a movie is made up close, but it was also a little boring. It took us about an hour to film a three-minute scene. I don't know how many times I moved over in those chairs. But overall it was a fun experience, and I'm going to have to try to find this movie when it comes out so I can watch it.

Below is a picture I took of the set. Of the two men sitting the chairs, the man on the right is the director, and the man on the left is the guy he meets while waiting in line. In front of them, they're setting up really bright lights. If you look closely you can see the camera (start from the red sign in the ceiling and go straight down). It was set up on a platform with wheels that ran along a pair of pvc pipes.

Random Things About Costa Rica

To the left is a picture taken from the "main" entrance to the university. A lot of times the mountains are covered in clouds, so I took a picture while I had the chance.

Okay, here are some random, interesting things that I've learned about Costa Rica:

1. Never go anywhere without your umbrella.

This is right up there with remembering your keys, wallet, and phone. At any time, any place, when you least expect it, the heavens could open up and pour gallons of water on you. Usually it rains sometime between noon and 4 o'clock, but it could start earlier or later. The one thing you can count on is that it will rain at some point during the day.

2. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way--and sidewalks are hit-and-miss.

Having lived in Chicago for two years, I feel like I am a pretty accomplished street-crosser. It's a little different here, though. First of all, cars do not have to stop for pedestrians. They usually will, and I've had people wave me across sometimes, but I've also almost been run over several times. Also, just because there's a stop sign doesn't mean that the cars will stop. If the way is clear, they won't even pretend to stop like people do in the U.S. They just go. Also, while most of the streets here are kept in good condition, the sidewalks are another story. Sometimes they're fine, but sometimes they're all torn up or super narrow or made from tiles instead of concrete. On my walk to church there's a whole stretch where there's no sidewalk at all.

3. Go into public restrooms prepared for anything.

The first thing you should know is that you do not throw toilet paper in the toilets. Their system can't handle it and it will clog. So, you throw the toilet paper in the trash cans conveniently located in every stall. The second thing you should know is that many restrooms have one toilet paper dispenser per bathroom--you take some before you go into a stall. And there's no guarantee that there will always be toilet paper, so come prepared. Soap is also often missing from bathrooms--although sometimes they have plastic water bottles filled with soap sitting on the counter--and paper towels are very rare.

4. None of my classes have textbooks.

Well, they do, but not in the way we do in the States. Textbooks are really expensive here, so everyone just uses copies. The first day of class, the professor tells you which fotocopiaría they use (there are dozens in the area around campus) and you have to go there to pick up your copies. For three of my classes I have an "anthology" compiled by the professor that contains all the readings for the whole semester. For my Anthropology and History class, I have to go each week to pick up the next week's readings. I'm not sure if it's entirely legal, but that's what they do here.

5. Cafecito may be best invention since the siesta.

"Cafecito" literally means "little coffee," but it's basically a break in the middle of the afternoon to drink coffee and eat pastries-Yum! Often I'll have cafecito with my host mom and whoever else is at our house, and we'll talk or watch a movie on t.v. My literature class on Wednesday afternoons has a twenty minute break in the middle for cafecito, too. :)

6. Don't say "de nada"--use "mucho gusto".

This has taken me a while to get used to, since for the past 6+ years I've been trained to say "de nada" after someone says "gracias." But here, they use "con mucho gusto," or "my pleasure." Which I really like, but I still catch myself automatically saying "de nada."

7. Costa Rica uses a different verb form/pronoun that I've never heard of before.

This is going to make very little sense to anyone who doesn't know Spanish, but they don't use the informal you (tú) form very much here. They use "usted", which is usually more formal, for everyone--friends, family, children, pets, etc. And they also use "vos" which is sort of like a singular form of "vosotros." It uses the "tú" form for most tenses except present, preterite, subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive, and command forms. So yeah. I would pick one of two or three Spanish-speaking countries that uses a verb form I've never heard of before... :) Thankfully it's not too hard; again I just have to get used to using it.

Well, my computer is about to die, and I need to go home to start on homework, but it's pouring right now. I do have my umbrella, but I think I might hang out here at the library for a while and see if it stops.

Skype, Buses, Marcha, Alarm Clock

So I've just spent the last hour adding friends' blogs to my "dashboard" and reading through them a bit, and I decided I can put my homework off for another few minutes to update mine.

This has been a good week: Monday I got to talk to Drew for over an hour on skype. Tuesday I took the wrong bus home, spent 45 minutes on it and only made it half-way home, and then had to walk the rest of the way in the rain (funny story). Wednesday my Spanish class was canceled because the whole school shut down for a protest "marcha" (in which I did not participate, due to my status as an international student and my desire to not get deported). Thursday morning I woke up 15 minutes after my class started, got there half an hour later, and my professor just joked about it and made me read aloud #3 on his list of excuses students give for being late.

Well, I really do have a lot of homework to do this weekend, so I'd best be starting on it.

A Weekend of Adventures

I finally have some interesting things to write about, so I figured I should post this before it gets too late.

Friday afternoon I got to skype with my mom for a couple hours, and then hung out with my host family for the rest of the evening. My host sister-in-law works at a restaurant called "Bagelman's," which is based in New York, and she was asking me how to say things in English and to explain what certain foods or names were. I think they get a lot of Americans in there, and she doesn't always know how to say the foods in English. It was really fun to exchange language lessons.

Saturday morning I met my friend April in the central park and we did some homework (or attempted to do homework) in the shade. I love this park--I pass it on my way to school every day, and it might be one of my favorite places in Heredia. It's not like a park back home; there's very little grass but there are lots of trees and benches, and a huge fountain and a huge gazebo. At one end of the park is the Iglesia Inmaculada Concepción. I say April and I tried to do homework because there was so much going on. A lot of people bring their kids there to feed the pigeons or roller skate, and there's lots of families and young people and couples walking through or just sitting on the benches. I also saw a line of "scissor"(?) ants carrying leaf pieces from a tree to their nest. So we stayed there for a while and then walked around central Heredia for a while, looking at stores and exploring a little. We ate empanadas for lunch at a little soda, and walked briefly through the central market.

Sunday I went to the same church I went to last week, by myself this time. My host mom called a taxi for me, but I walked home. The service was good, and we had communion. I wasn't exactly sure how to get home, but I made it without too much trouble. I had pizza for lunch and took a short nap before I had to leave to go to the theater.

Which brings me to my next "adventure". For my Appreciation of Theater class, we had to go see this play in San José called "El Métedo Gronholm" or The Gronholm Method. Thankfully, some of the girls in my class asked if I wanted to go with them, and they took care of ordering tickets and figuring out how to get there. We planned to meet in the Parque de los Angeles at 2:40 (the play started at 5). So when I was getting ready to leave, it was raining a little bit. I really didn't want to call a taxi, and it wasn't raining too hard, so I figured I could make it. And it's hard to know what the rain is going to do: it could stop, slow down, or speed up with no warning. Unfortunately, when I was just a few blocks from home, it started pouring. I think I've tried to explain Costa Rican rain before--when it pours, it just dumps tons of water. So I'm standing against the wall of this bakery, trying to decide if I should try calling a taxi (it's nearly impossible to find one when it rains like this) or wait for it to stop or just go for it. But then, gracias a Dios, a taxi pulled up nearby dropping someone off. I asked the driver if I could get in and he nodded, so I got a taxi to the park. I had to cross the street to the bank where we were supposed to meet, and it was still pouring. All the streets here have really deep gutters, probably about a foot deep, and they were overflowing with water. So I waded across the street and made it to the shelter under the bank's overhang. I dumped water out of my shoes (literally) and sat down to wait and watch the rain. It was still pouring, and the streets were practically rivers, flooding up onto the sidewalks. It was ridiculous, but this is pretty normal for the rainy season. I'm not sure where the water goes, but when it stops raining, the water recedes fairly quickly.

My friends were a little late getting there, because of the rain, but eventually they showed up and we walked to the bus stop. We took a bus to San José, walked to another bus stop, took another bus to the neighborhood of the theater, then walked to the theater. We were about an hour early, so we had to wait a little, but it wasn't too bad. It was a small "store-front" type theater, and there were only 4 actors in the play. It was about these four people who are candidates for an important job at a company, but instead of a regular interview, they're put in a room and given tasks to do to evaluate their character, ability to work as a team, etc. It was pretty funny and well done, although I couldn't understand everything that was said. Afterward, we took the same way back to Heredia and the bus dropped me off a few blocks from my house. It was only about 8:30, but I hadn't eaten dinner yet. My host mom had bought me a hot dog--more toppings than meat--which I ate, and then went to bed. I found a Hogan's Heroes episode on YouTube that I hadn't seen and watched that before I went to sleep. It was a nice change from a full day of Spanish. :)

Well I should probably get some homework done. Hopefully it won't be as long before I write again...

Ephesians 3:20-21

Well, I have survived my first week of classes in Costa Rica. The way they do classes here is a little different than in the US. For one thing, instead of having class for an hour three times a week, they have class once a week for 2-3 hours. And I have trouble sitting through an hour and a half class at North Park... My schedule is really spread out, too. I only have one class each day, expect for Wednesday when I have two classes; my Spanish class meets Mondays and Wednesdays for an hour and a half.

So Tuesday morning I had my first "real" class, Anthropology and History. I was super nervous, but the profesora was really nice and told me I could meet with her after class if I didn't understand something. Wednesday afternoon I had World Literature of the 20th century, which I think I'm going to like. Granted, it's going to be a lot of reading that will take me forever, but the professor seems good and I like literature. Thursday morning was Appreciation of Theater. My professor was interesting. He told us he's an actor, not a professor, and he's really funny, when I can understand him. He kept asking me questions, but I could never understand what he was saying when he talked to me. At one point he was talking about practicing diction, and he went into this thing where he talked really loud and fast and ended by pointing at me and asking me to repeat what he said. I just smiled and shook my head, knowing there was absolutely no way. Finally, today I had Oral and Written Expression. My teacher is pretty easy to understand; I think she used to teach Spanish as a Second Language. It seems like an interesting class: we're going to learn about Spanish grammar and punctuation, how to write essays well and speak in public. Hopefully it will help my Spanish a lot.

I have also been to two movies this week. Wednesday afternoon I went with four other girls and we saw "The Karate Kid" (in English with Spanish subtitles), and this afternoon I went with another girl to see "Despicable Me" (dubbed in Spanish and renamed, "Mi Villano Favorito," or My Favorite Villain). Movies are really cheap here, which is great. My movie today cost 2,500, which is about $5, and it's a Friday night and a 3D movie! Wednesdays are 2-for-1 or half price, so it was only 1,300, or less than $3.

Last night I attended a Bible study here at my house. I didn't understand everything that was said, but I got enough to know what they were talking about, which was holiness and how we are called to be holy. We sang at the beginning, and one of the songs I knew in English, which was really cool. It felt really good to be part of a Christian group and read Scripture and worship together. Before I left home, I asked God for at least one Christian friend here, and He has blessed me with a Christian family, plus a few Christian friends among the ISEP group.

Immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine... to Him be the glory.

...and then it started raining, part 2

I am now attempting to load my pictures from the past week onto facebook. There are 200 of them, and my internet is being spotty, so I'm hoping it will work.

Today I had my first class, but it was my Spanish class with all the other study abroad students, so it wasn't very different from my Spanish classes in the States. But tomorrow I have "Anthropology and History," so we'll see how that goes.

To pick up where I left off:

Thursday morning we had to be at school by 7 am--super early. We had a mini tour bus that held all 17 of us students, plus the two women who were our guides/chaperones, and of course the bus driver. We drove for about an hour and a half to this huge pineapple farm, where we toured the fields and the plant. It was really neat to see how they grow, sort, and package the pineapple, all by hand. We got to eat some pineapple straight from the field, and it was delicious! After the tour we got to drink pineapple juice from a hollowed-out pineapple, and eat more slices of pineapple and pineapple bread. Muy rico.

After we left the pineapple place, we drove to where we'd be staying for the next two nights, the Tirimbina Field Station. To get there, we had to leave the main road and drive on this windy, dirt-and-pebble road that was barely more than one lane. I wondered where in the world we were going, but the station turned out to be really nice. The food was excellent, and the view was beautiful. After a siesta, we had a workshop about interacting with our host families and safety in Costa Rica. That evening we played a big game of Phase 10, which was really fun.

Friday morning we got up early and went to the other side of the forest, to the national park. There we got to take a "Chocolate Tour" and see how they grow and make chocolate. We crossed over this huge suspension bridge, walked through the rainforest a bit--watching out for snakes and bullet ants--and finally reached the chocolate trees. Our guide pointed out the tiny flowers that would eventually turn into giant yellow pods. Under a shelter built there, our guide and a man that was working there took us through every step of the chocolate-making process, from the opening of the pod to drinking hot chocolate and eating candy. It was quite delicious! We walked back through the forest, ate lunch at the main headquarters for the park, and then got back on the bus. Back at the field station, we changed into our suits and headed down to the river to cool off. It was amazing, walking in this river through a rain forest. It felt like something out of a movie, with huge trees and vines and the sound of insects and birds. Later we had more workshops about adjusting to culture and taking care of your health.

Saturday morning we left the field station and drove a ways to a place where we got to ride horses! I was excited, since the last time I'd ridden a horse I think I was about 8 years old. They gave me a nice horse, whose name was Gitana (Gypsy). I found out later that she was 7 months pregnant! She was very sweet, and kept a pretty steady pace for the most part. A few times she would break into a run, which was a little scary, but fun too. I'd let her run a bit, and then slow her down. At one point we had to cross a river that was pretty deep, and the water came up to my knees. Needless to say, we were all hot, sweaty, muddy, and sore by the end of the ride.

After riding, we got to cool down with cas, which is juice made from the cas fruit. I don't know what the fruit looks like, but the juice is really good. It's a little acidic, and very sweet. Then we got onto the bus and drove to El Hotel Tucana, the Toucan Hotel--a very nice hotel. When we arrived we ate lunch first, since our rooms weren't ready. It was a little weird walking into a super nice restaurant/dining room in our muddy, smelly clothes. The food was excellent, and afterwards we got to go swimming. There was a pool and several hot tubs, as well as hot springs in the river. I went down to the river with April, my roommate, and we sat in the river for a while with some other students. The water was weird, because when I sat on a certain rock, the water on my right was scalding hot, but the water on my left was freezing cold. We had to keep changing positions and stirring the water so we wouldn't burn ourselves. After swimming I took a hot shower (it felt sooo good, the field station only had cold water) and relaxed a bit before dinner.

Sunday morning we got up, ate breakfast at the hotel, then drove to a zoo/animal rescue center. We got to see a jaguar, a tiger, some snakes, monkeys, parrots, ostriches, and these weird animals that looked like giant hamsters. We spent about an hour there, and then started for home. We ate lunch at a restaurant along the way, and finally arrived back at the University in Heredia around 3:00. It had rained a bunch on our trip back, but when we got to Heredia it wasn't raining. I was glad, because I had to walk back to my house, not having any cash on me to take a bus or a cab. Unfortunately, just as I started walking, it began to rain. And it kept raining most of the way home. Since I was wearing flip-flops, this made the sidewalks even more treacherous, since there are slippery parts. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, with my huge backpack and bright green rain jacket, slipping along down the sidewalk in flip-flops, absolutely drenched. But, gracias a Dios, I made it home before the rain began to fall even harder.

My host mom was getting ready to leave for church, so I had most of the evening to unpack, rest, and skype with my family. It felt wonderful to be able to talk to them.

Well, that about sums up my weekend. It's only 9:00 now, but I'm already tired. I have class tomorrow morning at 8, which means I need to leave here around 7:15, since it takes about a half hour to walk to school. Hopefully from now on, I'll be able to keep up to date with this a little better so the entries don't have to be so long. :)

Until next time!

...and then it started raining.

Okay, I know I haven't written here in almost a week, and I've gotten several messages asking how my first week was. Sorry I haven't updated. Tuesday the internet wasn't working, Wednesday I got home late, and Thursday morning I left with our group for the weekend and just got back. But now I will try to give a full update of my week (it's going to be long, so hang on).

Monday my host mom walked me to school, where I met the other students in the ISEP group and we had a full day of orientation lectures (which were really boring). But after a cafecito (an afternoon coffee break) we got to go to a dance class for two hours where we learned to salsa, merengue, swing, and more. None of us were very good, but it was fun because we all tried. The room was super hot, so we were all sweaty and exhausted afterwards. Ana picked me up and we walked home.

Tuesday was a VERY long day. You know how, in the movies when things are bad, someone will say, "At least it can't get worse," and then it starts raining? That kind of describes how Tuesday went. Not that it was all bad. It was sunny in the morning, the first time I'd seen the sun here, and we got to tour the campus (it's huge). We took our Spanish placement tests, and then in the afternoon signed up for classes. That was really frustrating because the whole process is confusing, and then I found out I couldn't take half the classes I wanted to because I can only take one general course. Then later I had to go to the bank to make these deposits for my visa, only my credit card wasn't working, and I didn't have cash.... Eventually I got most of them paid, and we left. But by then it was pouring rain. So we went around to this shopping area and stood under cover while my host mom tried to call a taxi and her sister and different people trying to get a ride home. No dice. Then there was this HUGE thunderclap and lightening flash and all the power went out. The thunder was so loud it set off a car alarm. So we go up these stairs and cross the parking lot to the McDonalds (yes they have American fast food here) to wait, but their doors are locked and they won't let us in. We try Taco Bell next door, but same thing. So we stand under the overhang of the Taco Bell drive through for about twenty or thirty minutes. At one point the power came back on. Finally Ana decided we weren't going to get a taxi, so we sloshed up the hill to the bus stop and stood there for a while until our bus came and took us to the Hiper Mas and then we walked two blocks home. So we were soaked. Because not only does it rain here, it pours. And it's not like at home, where when it rains really hard it stops after a few minutes. When it pours, it pours for a long time. The whole time we were out in the rain, it did not let up at all. I just stood there amazed that the sky could hold that much water. When we finally got home and after I'd eaten and taken a hot shower, I tried to get online, but the internet wasn't working. It was a very long day.

Wednesday was fun. We toured the main part of Heredia and then took a bus to San Jose, where we walked around a bit and then ate lunch at Pizza Hut; it was the nicest Pizza Hut I've ever been to. After lunch we went to this big, beautiful cathedral, and then took a tour of the National Theatre, which was also gorgeous. Then we took the bus back to Heredia. After that two other girls and I walked to the mall to buy cell phones. We had to wait in line for about an hour, which is normal in Costa Rica, but eventually were able to buy pre-paid phones for pretty cheap. We took a taxi home, and the ride from the mall to my house was only 2,000 colones, or about $4.

This entry is getting super long, and I'm about to Skype with my parents, so I'm going to stop here and write about our weekend trip later. Hasta luego!

Guacamole for Breakfast

¡Hola de Costa Rica!

It's still hard to believe I'm really here! Yesterday was a long day of traveling, but I made it through with no problems, and met some really nice people traveling to Costa Rica for various reasons. My host mom Ana picked me up at the airport, and we took a taxi to her house. She runs a party rental store out of the front of her house--a garage-like room--that rents out chairs and tables and things for parties. I have my own room and my own bathroom. I even have a t.v. in my room. Last night she asked me if I liked television, and I said yeah, so she said, "Ok, we'll put a tv in your room." I watched some last night while I was unpacking. They have several channels from the US that are either dubbed in Spanish or have Spanish subtitles, as well as lots of Costa Rican channels. I saw a bit of "Phineas and Ferb" in Spanish, which made me laugh. The best part is that this house has internet, so I'm able to check my email and everything, which is great.

Last night Ana and I went to the supermarket (think a slightly smaller version of WalMart in Spanish) and ate at the little cafeteria there, then went shopping for some fruits, veggies, milk, and other stuff. We came home and I unpacked, and then hung out with her and her sister, who I think runs the business with her, while they set up for a party. Normally she just rents party stuff, but her sister's son is getting married soon, and they're having a party for his engagement? wedding? (I haven't quite figured it out yet) here this afternoon.

I understand about half of what people are saying. Sometimes I understand more, and usually I can figure out what they're talking about, but not really what they're saying about it. Like the party thing. I know that it's this afternoon, it's for Ana's nephew, and it has something to do with the fact that he's getting married.

It's a little overwhelming, knowing that I'm really far away from home, and I'm going to be here for almost five months, and not being able to fully communicate with anybody. It's intimidating, and God is good. Everyone is really nice, and they're patient with my Spanish and very helpful.

I almost forgot to tell you what I had for breakfast: Pan, or bread, that was kind of like French bread, with guacamole, tomato, and deli ham. Not necessarily what I would have chosen to eat for breakfast, but not bad. I think that sums up my experience so far: a little different, but not bad; something I think I'll get used to. In the words of Annie, "I think I'm gonna like it here." :)

Until next time,

Holly