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.