Terrible Tuesday....for my nails!

Tuesday mornings are always our "sleep in" days...by Maru's standards anyways! We don't have to get out of bed until 8:30 but that is still much earlier than we would like! We had the lovely rice and beans for breakfast...definitely not my favorite! I tried it once and that fine with me...I don't care if I ever eat it again! It's not awful but when I think breakfast I just don't think about beans....well I really don't think of them for any meal :) We didn't have to be at school until 12:30 for our meeting so we wasted a little time at the house before heading that way. Our next weekend adventure is in Arenal, which is an active volcano. It sounds pretty fun but if the weather is not perfect we won't be able to see it at all. And right now the weather is super unpredictable! After our weekly meeting, our cultural activity was to talk with other Ticos as the university. It was pretty fun because they were learning English and going through the same struggles as us. The only bad part was that it was for 3 LONG hours...we thought it was only 2. But after that we went downtown so I could get my nails done...this is where the real story begins! Our mom had told us about a place that we should go to so that's where we went. At first there was a problem because the Spanish textbooks in high school don't have a section on "getting your nails done". The woman wasn't particularly familiar with acrylic nails because apparently they use gel - red flag number one. Once it was clear what I wanted, they sent me to the only Asian in the room's table. I do not mean that in a racist way but at the time I felt more comfortable because in the states most of the nail people are foreign. There were little things here and there that were out of the normal order but I tried to tell myself that it would turn out the same. When I asked for him to make them shorter he pulls out finger nail clippers! (I know most of the people reading this are unfamiliar with nails but normally they use a drill thingy and sand down the nails to make them shorter). What I didn't know at the time was that my cuticles on my left hand had grown out much longer underneath my nail than on my right so when he cut my nails, he cut them too! You know when your nail rips and it goes back to the nail bed- hurts doesn't it?! Well imagine that on four fingers with acetone being poured on them! It hurt so bad I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying! Now I know I am not known for my pain tolerance but I am telling you it felt like my nails were on fire! So that was a HUGE red flat number two. After he is done, and I think it can't get any worse, a woman comes over to paint my nails. Well I asked for the French tips (normally airbrushed on) and the woman comes over with a bottle of polish. I turn to Kayla and say 'Oh no I am picky, I am picky. This is not going to be good!'. Boy was I right! She paints the thinnest white line you've ever seen and they are so crooked I think Matthew could've done a better job! It was getting dark, and I knew that polish was going to come off as soon as possible, so we left before they had a chance to dry. Outside we were able to look at them and take it all in...and boy was it a lot to take in! Kayla joked and said that they were Pura Vida nails! (Pura Vida is a phrase in Costa Rica that means: it's all good, don't worry about it!). We were bent over we were laughing so hard in the middle of downtown! As soon as I got home I took it off! So at the moment I have unpainted acrylic nails, mainly because I scared to get them painted or filled again! For dinner we had tilapia and corn...fish is still new but I can get it down! After dinner we watched Maru take a slice of lime, put some salt on it and eat it. Well Kayla and I decided we'd try it, because after all Maru said it was rico! Kayla did it first and to put it lightly she didn't like it! Then I had the bright idea I'd try it and it was not pretty! As soon as it touched my tongue my mouth started drooling, and it wouldn't stop! I'm coughing because it's burning my throat and I'm trying to put napkins to my mouth so I don't drool on the table! Kayla and I decided it was NOT rico!

Marvelous Monday

Because of the weekend I am a little behind on my posts so I am trying to get caught back up....well and I am procrastinating my homework just a little bit :) Mondays and Wednesdays are our long days, so Kayla and I were really dreading the first day of classes after Tamarindo! But the classes went by surprisingly quickly! The first one was pretty boring because we didn't play any games :( But the second one we took turns reading different parts of 'Little Red Riding Hood'...en espanol. After that we played a game! It was one of those memory games where there are a bunch of cards with the picture facing down and you pick two trying to find a match. Except in order to turn a card over, we had to say the number written on top. It wasn't the best game in the world but it did make the time go by rather quickly. After class, we went to the store before returning home. I decided I wanted to make my family peach cobbler and sweet tea. Well apparently they have to import their peaches so they were actually more expensive than in the states. Butter was also surprisingly more expensive...for one stick of butter here I could buy four in the states. Finding black tea was difficult...all of their tea is fruit flavored or herbal. There was only one brand of black tea! The one thing I couldn't find on my list was self-rising flour! (I later learned that they do not have self-rising in Costa Rica and I had to find a substitution online). As soon as we got home I started making the tea. It had to be perfect because I have been talking about it the whole trip, it had to be good! For dinner we had mini hamburger things (except we were told they weren't hamburger...not exactly sure what they were. Tasted like hamburger to me, guess it's better that I don't know!) and this weird potato dish...it was just a weird dinner. Not bad, just weird! During dessert we had my sweet tea! Kayla said she liked it...which was HUGE because she said she hadn't drank sweet tea yet she liked! Maru said it was rico...of course :) But apparently McDonalds down here has sweet tea, I think I need to check it out! Later that night I spend FOREVER loading pictures (the ones I posted earlier) and didn't go to bed until 1:30. But it wasn't that big of a deal because Tuesday is my free day!

Tamarindo

So this past weekend we went to Tamarindo....basically a small tourist beach town. We left the school at about 1:30 for our 6 hour drive. Tamarindo is on the west coast of Costa Rica so we were going to be going through some interesting terrain. One of the ISA women was handing out Dramamine to everyone at the beginning of the trip so I knew it was going to be a little rough. I took one to help with the motion sickness but then I decided to take another one to completely knock me out. The seat I had chosen was directly below a speaker and for some reason the volume was MUCH louder than on the front of the bus. Well my plan failed....I was not able to go to sleep but was instead completely drugged up and loopy for about half of the drive! But after it wore off I was able to look at the beautiful scenery. The topography is very different depending on where you are in the country. In San Jose we're in the mountains and we have to go through, I believe, another mountain range and then down to the flat land. When we arrived at our hotel, we threw our bags in our room and went to find some food! About half of the total group (San Jose and Heredia) went to a restaurant on the beach. After we placed our order we all walked down to put our toes in the ocean! At that time it was low tide and we had to walk about 50 yards to get to the water! There is a HUGE different between the tides! My food was nothing to write home about but everyone else seemed to like theirs. After dinner I crawled in my bed about 10:30! The next morning we had a mangrove tour at 5:50...that's right I said 5:50! It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't rained! (I later learned that there was a tropical depression/hurricane in the upper part of Central America and only the top portion of Costa Rica, where I happened to be, was affected.) Our little boat had a tarp over it, but the tarp was to keep out the sun....not the rain. I guess the animals didn't like the rain either because we saw about 5! One crocodile, an iguana, some parrots, and a vulture. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty neat to be able to see those things but I'm not sure it was worth sitting in a cold rain! The mangrove trees were probably the neatest thing we saw. Their roots weren't underground, you could see them sticking in the water. Even the limbs/branches on the trees grew towards the water. (You can see what I'm talking about in one of the pictures.) After that, we went back to the hotel to eat breakfast and to get ready for the zip line tour! We were really excited about that...although Kayla was freaking out because she WAS afraid of heights! When we got there, they gave us some quick instructions, strapped us up, and we were ready to go! Above our first platform was a tree full of howler monkeys! We were supposed to see those on our mangrove tour....but that didn't work out! I don't think they liked us being there because they were howling at us! Our first line was short and they got bigger and faster after that. On about the third line, one of the instructors went upside down. That prompted some of the guys to upside down and another girl to go upside down with one of the instructors. I didn't want to miss out on anything, so I went upside down once with an instructor and another time by myself! It was really fun! After that we went back to the hotel to change into our swimsuits and head to the beach. Once we got out there it was cold, the wind was blowing and it was raining off and on...not exactly sunbathing weather! We stayed for about fifteen minutes! But during that time I experienced another first....a woman in a thong bathingsuit! It was one of those times where you don't want to look but you can't look away! When we left the beach, Kayla and I decided it would be a good idea to get in the hot tub...however it turned out to be a lukewarm tub with bubbles! Trying to remain optimistic, we gave up and went to our rooms to get ready for dinner. For dinner, we went to a beach side restaurant where the food was very good and we were even serenaded by a mariachi band! There was also a super cute dog who I gave my leftovers :) After a quick walk on the beach I went back to the hotel and went to bed! The next morning the weather was beautiful, of course, and we were able to spend a couple of hours on the beach. On the ride home I decided to only take ONE Dramamine and the trip was much better!

Finally the pictures!

Although it's been a few days since I've posted, I'm going to have to make this one pretty short. It has taken me forever to figure out how to post the pictures in the order I want and with the text directly under it...I now know it is super easy and I can't believe it took me as long as it did! Nevertheless, these are all the pictures I have taken since I've been here. I know pictures say more than I ever could so I hope you enjoy them! :) I will post again soon so the pictures will make more sense!

This is a picture of the entire San Jose group (there is a group from Heredia, which is very close to San Jose, and we meet up with them on the weekends for our trips) on our first day!

A view of the mountains from my afternoon bus stop.

A view of the traffic from my bus stop...I have to cross that scary street! But most of the time it's not that scary because traffic is always stopped!

Sort of a side view of the house, all of the houses are connected.

A front view of the house....Kayla and Maru are unlocking the first "front door". The gate on the right side is their garage and the door goes side to side instead of up and down. The gate on the left is more like a carport.

The next few are of my room. It is small but it is more than enough for the little time I spend in it. I have my little bed, a desk, and a huge closet! My window has a view of a school across the street...I can hear their class change bells in the morning.







On our first full day, our host dad brought us roses!



The kitchen is nice and open! We love to sit at the bar while Maru cooks dinner.

This is the more "formal" living room. It is the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

Right off of the "formal" living room is the kitchen table. I sit at the back left chair against the window and Kayla sits in the right chair. To the left is the kitchen and to the right is the family room.

This is the family room, the place where everyone gathers to watch tv or to get on the computer.

To the left in the picture of the "formal" living room are the stairs to go upstairs. Up there is my room, Kayla's room, Fernando's room (my little brother) and one of the daughter's room (also the mother of my little brother, Fernando). If you walk past the stairs you will go into Maru and Luis' bedroom...but I've never seen it.

Back to the family room picture.....on the left side of the picture is a door. That door leads you out to the terrace where you will see this. There are many flowers and trees that bear fruit.





Also outside are their two parrots. It was kind of dark outside so these pictures aren't the best...I will make some better ones. I am able to see them from my spot at the kitchen table.







The Family Name.

A sample of the fresh fruit we always have to eat!

Random pictures I took of the downtown area.

















The view from my classroom. I sit next to the window so I am easily distracted!



The SUPER small bathroom!

Real eucalyptus to help my asthma.

The rest of the pictures are from my trip to Tamarindo. I will explain more about it in a later post. But this picture, although really blurry, is of the mangrove trees. The dark color on the bottom of the trees is how high the water gets during high tide.





Wet and cold on our "awesome" mangrove tour!

Howler monkeys at the zip line place.

Butterfly I found on the bathroom floor...what else is there to do when you're using the bathroom?!

Before our zip line adventure....

....and after!

Dinner at a beach side restaurant is even better when you're serenaded by a mariachi band!

The beach at Tamarindo....it was much prettier earlier in the day. But like clockwork the rain and clouds come out about noon!







Random pictures of the hotel property.



Our last picture at the beach :(