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!