So it's been a REALLY long time since I last posted! I had every intention of making daily posts but obviously that did not work out! I will try catch you all up from my weekend until now....

This past weekend we went to Manuel Antonio which was a beautiful beach! We were warned about dengue (a type of mosquito that lays eggs or something in your bloodstream and you get super sick a couple weeks later) so I basically bathed in bug spray! We arrived around dinner time on Friday evening and were given the keys to our room. Now we have had pretty nice hotel rooms so our expectations were decently high....but we were let down! It almost felt like a dorm room at youth camp. It was clean, just not what we were expecting! After a good nights sleep we headed out to the beach the next morning. At 9 in the morning, it was already super hot! As soon as my feet touched the sand I decided I NEEDED a chair and an umbrella. Well my friend and I split the cost and we got 2 chairs with an umbrella all day for 4 mil (8 dollars). (At the end of the day we decided we would've payed 20 dollars for it!) We put our sunscreen on and while the other girls laid out in the sun, I sat in my shaded chair with a book - who does that sound like? :) But about that time I realized that I had just read the same book two weeks before I came down here! So while my friend Ross tried to surf, I read his book! After I had my fill of reading I decided I would get in the ocean. That was the most perfect ocean water I have ever felt! I could've sat in there the entire day! I went out just far enough to where the waves weren't breaking on my head but could still touch. When I began to drift a little bit down the beach I decided to get out and get some lunch. Lunch consisted of dry rice and greasy chicken...not good any time of the day but especially when you are hot! After that I went back to my lovely chair on the beach. Later in the afternoon, I decided I would give surfing a try. I had watched some of the other girls in the group try out the surfboard that Ross rented and thought why not?! Well I have to say it is harder than it looks! I could balance on my belly and even on my knees all the way to the shore, but I could never get up! Well I kinda did one time but I slipped off - I'm blaming it on the lack of wax on the board :) After what felt like forever, I was exhausted and rode it back in (on my belly) to shore. About that time it began to rain but several of us decided we would wait it out under our umbrella. Problem number one was that the umbrella was not in the best of shape and had holes in it. Problem number two was that it was not just a quick shower, it turned into a thunderstorm! We decided we had had enough of the beach and were desperate need of a shower! After our shower, the sunburn began to show! Although I put sunscreen on I did get pretty pink under my eyes (I'm guessing where I was constantly wiping the water and makeup from my face while I was attempting to surf) and my chest. Kayla, my roommate, got pretty burnt and our pale red-headed friend got fried! But we put some lotion and bug spray on and headed to dinner. The food was very good and after we went to get us some gelato, Italian ice cream. The next day, most of our San Jose group went to the national park. It was a pretty good walk from the entrance to the beach but I think it was worth it. There were no vendors trying to sell you anything and absolutely no trash. You did have to watch your stuff because the monkeys would actually grab your things and open them to look for food! There were a lot of people there so the monkeys weren't too active but we did see one! Kayla could've touched it she was so close! Unfortunately we didn't have much time in the park because we had to leave at 12 to go back to San Jose. The bus ride was pretty uneventful but as always it felt really long!

Mondays are probably the worst day of the week because it is one of our long days and we are tired from the weekend. But classes were really easy because our teacher (the same for both classes) was sick and he was obviously doing whatever he could to waste time! Later that evening when we were waiting on dinner, our sister (the one with the son that lives with us) brought in McDonalds for the kids. Now I'm not a huge McDonalds person but at that moment I could think of nothing else! I wanted a cheeseburger so bad I was drooling! For some reason they had an extra one and after seeing my face (which was apparently obvious that I was dying to eat it) they let me have it! Now I, as everyone knows, am pretty picky. I like my cheeseburgers with ketchup only. This one, I pulled the pickle off and dove in! I didn't care about the mustard, onions, or whatever else was on it! I ate that thing in four bites! When I finally came up for air, everyone was staring at me and laughing! I believe it was the best McDonalds cheeseburger I've ever eaten!

On Tuesday, we ate a nice relaxed breakfast and piddled around until we had to leave for our meeting. The meeting was super short because we don't have a trip through the travel company this weekend. After that, we walked as a group downtown to catch a bus to the ISA office for our dance lesson! Although I was excited to learn some dance moves, I was a little apprehensive. A couple of years ago Jennifer (Justin's sister) had to show me how to do "The Twist"...the really old song where all you do is...well...twist! So we get there and our dance teacher lady is super energetic and ready to get going. About five minutes into what felt like an aerobics class, we realized we could only get one of the windows to open! Now this room had no air conditioning, it was full of people, and we were all sweating like pigs! But after that hour of more exercise than I have had in my entire life, I did learn a few steps of Salsa and Meringue! We left from there to walk to the bus stop to catch a bus back to the downtown area. Apparently 3 o'clock in the afternoon is the most popular time to take that bus! There were almost 20 of us and there was not one seat on the bus! We were standing in the aisle with everyone in everyone else's bubble! Not to mention that no one wanted to put the windows down because it was SPRINKLING outside - so I'm sure everyone loved having the hot and sweaty gringos on the bus! After what felt like the longest bus ride of my life, we ate lunch downtown and went through the artisan market. It was full of tourists but they did have some neat stuff in there...I got something for Sarah :) When we got back to our house we were greeted by some other gringos! Shantel, who had stayed with our family in 2007 for a semester, and Joshua, who's twin brother was here a couple of weeks ago and didn't live here but was over here all the time in 2007. A little confusing I know! Kayla and I played card games with them and enjoyed speaking a little English! They are here for 10 days to sight-see and visit. ISA doesn't allow people from the US to stay in a home where there are students (I assume because they're afraid that we would speak in English the whole time) so they are staying with our sister who doesn't live here.

Well I believe that's everything! I will try my best to post again before I leave for our trip this weekend. It isn't an ISA sponsored trip so everyone is free to go wherever they please. Some of the group and I are going whitewater rafting on Saturday and then are going to be dropped off in Puerto Viejo. It is a beach on the Caribbean side! We will stay Saturday night and catch a bus back to San Jose on Sunday. Next week is my last so I know I will be busy! Bittersweet! :( :)

Two and a half weeks down!

Week 3 is almost complete...I never dreamed it would go by this fast! Since I have not been posting daily, I will try to catch you all up. Monday was so uneventful...I can't even remember what I did! So I guess we'll skip to Tuesday! On Tuesday I don't have classes, so Kayla and I hung around the house until we had to leave at noon. During our meeting they told us about our next trip, to Manuel Antonio. It is a beach that is only about 3 hours away. Cross your fingers for good weather! We decided not to do any extra excursions...the one we had thought about doing was the catamaran/snorkeling. But we were a little concerned that the weather would be like it was last time and being on a boat in the middle of a rainstorm is not ideal! After our meeting we went as a group to the Children's Museum, which used to be a jail. It was really neat except some of the schools just let out so it was packed with little kids! Yes I know it is children's museum! But with all of the people and no air conditioning, it got a little stuffy! When we were leaving, a HUGE storm was rolling in! We made it back to campus before it began to downpour! We waited a little bit hoping it would let up...that didn't happen. So we finally opened our umbrellas and headed for the bus stop. Once we got home we ate dinner and began to study for our test on Wednesday. Well I decided I'd study on the couch while Kayla studied at the dinner table. My method was not as effective because I kept falling asleep. Apparently it was quite funny because I awoke to Maru taking a picture of me! I ended up going to bed and waking up really early the next morning to study a little more.

On Wednesday, we started the day as normal but we had a test to look forward to :/ After we got that lovely thing out of the way, we had one more class before we could call it a day. Luckily, we did absolutely NOTHING! Our teacher decided he would spend pretty much the entire class watching Youtube videos in Spanish. It was pretty sweet! About 20 minutes before class let out it began to rain...and we realized we had left our umbrellas out to dry from the day before! During our walk to the bus stop, it wasn't raining too hard. However, on our route it began to downpour! Thank goodness, two other students who also live in our neighborhood were on the bus and they HAD umbrellas! We looked quite funny trying to fit two under one umbrella during a downpour! When we finally got to our house we looked like drowned rats! Our older sister, Maria, began to laugh at us! We looked quite pitiful! We changed clothes, ate dinner, and got ready to go see a movie on 2 for 1 Wednesday! We took taxi and got there almost an hour and a half early...but all of the movies were sold out! I think it had to do with the Twilight movie opening at midnight (the movie releases are much later here). So those of us who were ticketless decided to hang out. We ended up having a fun night...and we heard that the movie we were going to see was super sad! When we returned home, we found our mother waiting up on us :)

Today we only had one class, but we also had a test. The second one in two days :( While I was studying on my bed, I felt the bed shake....we had an earthquake!!!! It was my first and I was so excited I ran down the stairs screaming "Was that an earthquake?!". It only lasted for like 2 seconds but apparently it was a 5/10! If it had lasted any longer I would have probably been scared to death! Our sister that is our age told us that those happen all the time, she wasn't the least bit phased! After that excitement, we headed to school to take the dreaded test :( But today's was much easier than yesterdays and I got a 97/100 on the oral part! He graded much easier on this one than on our other reading assignment but I was still pumped!

Guess that's all for now because the night is still young! I will finish it up another day!

My Weekend!

So this past weekend we went to Arenal, which is a volcano! Everyone kept telling us that if we were lucky, the weather would be perfect and we could see it. So well all crossed our fingers! We were supposed to leave the school at 6 am so Kayla and I decided to leave the house at 5:20. Well I decided to watch Justin Bieber videos the night before so I didn't go to bed or set my alarm until about 1 am. It turns out that I set my my alarm for 5:25...five minutes after we were supposed to leave! Thank goodness I had pretty much everything packed! We hurried out the door and sped walk to our bus stop. Of course the bus would be running late on the very day we needed it so we had to take a cab. We arrived at the school and then jumped on the charter bus to pick up the Heredia kids on our way.

The drive, for some reason, seemed to go super slow and we were all starving! At about 8 we stopped at a little town for a photo-op. All of us had our mind on food so we were not too excited. But it turned out to be pretty neat! There were bushes that had been trimmed into animals and other things. There was also a beautiful catholic church that we were able to peek inside. We got back on the bus and stopped around 8:30 to an old family restaurant for breakfast. The restaurant seemed to be on Tico time, so it felt like forever until we got our food. After breakfast we were back on the road. The road to Arenal was literally through mountains so the ride was definitely not as smooth as the interstate! After what seemed like forever, we stopped to climb down to a waterfall. Now when I say climb, I mean climb! The steps down to it were very similar to Fall Creek Falls, although not quite as maintained and longer! The entire walk down, all I could think of was the climb back up! The waterfall was exactly the same as the one at Fall Creek Falls but you were allowed to climb on the rocks and swim in the water. The water was freezing! I refused to swim but I did decide to walk/crawl down the rocks in the river off of the waterfall pool and into a calm pool...okay so that was probably the worst possible description! I hope you followed it! But walking/crawling down the river on the rocks was super hard! I don't know how I didn't hurt something! The calm pool was beautiful but still freezing! After that came the dreaded climb back up....I hate hoped it would go away! And it would start to downpour as soon as the trek began...although that might have been a blessing, it did cool me off! It was probably the next to most miserable (the most miserable will come later) time in my entire life! After I finally made it to the top, I changed clothes (yes I am my mother's daughter because I thought to bring a change of clothes, because I knew I would be in my wet bathing suit, and a grocery bag for my tennis shoes!) and we headed to lunch. Kayla and I ate at a restaurant with our friend Ross who decided he'd order the "Tamarindo drink". It was some fruit drink with water but it looked like clear mucus with suspended mini eyeballs! We laughed so hard! But it actually didn't taste too bad...although I didn't get an "eyeball". After lunch we loaded onto the bus for the short ride to the resort. When we got there we were all amazed at how close we were to the volcano! It was huge and, at that time, covered by clouds. As soon as we got to our rooms, we changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the pool. There were a couple of slides but we only went down one. Then it was off to the hot springs! They were, as the name suggests, really hot! After being in there for 30 minutes it began to storm. We waited and waited for the hotel people to tell us to get out of the pool but we never did. We stayed in for a while, until one of the girls decided to tell us the story of how her friend got struck by lightning! At that time it began to downpour while we were walking back up to our room. And it was, of course, uphill! But we laughed about it because as soon as we got up to our rooms it basically stopped! Later we went to dinner and came back and took a nap because at midnight we were supposed to be able to see the lava from the volcano. At midnight we woke up and sat with a couple of other people in the group in the road in front of the volcano. We just brought the chairs from our front porch and put them in the middle of the road of the resort. After about thirty minutes the volcano had an eruption! It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! It's active but it's safe because it goes off like Old Faithful...although not quite as faithful. It goes off every hour or two instead of waiting 50 years and completely exploding! Since that eruption was so fun we decided we'd wait on another one...well 2:30 came around and nothing! So we went to bed and decided to wake up and watch the sunrise. The first drawback to that idea was that the sun rises at 5 am here...yep it was super early! It was really pretty though! The second drawback was that I had to be ready to go for canyoning (repelling down waterfalls) at 7:30 and have already eaten breakfast. So I just stayed up...on about 4 hours sleep.

We rode there in a nice air conditioned van, but when we were halfway there we had to switch to Toyota pickup trucks and sit in the bed that had been converted into seats. When we got there we were geared up and ready to go! After some VERY brief instructions, we were sent down 170ft (that is approximate because I can't remember exactly) cliff that was next to a waterfall! It literally went straight down! It was a little nerve-wracking because I was controlling my speed with my right hand and I had to push off of the rocks with my feet. It took me a little bit to get used to! After that one was over, I was still extremely nervous and not very confident in my repelling skills! But there was no turning back! The next two were my favorite and I repelled through a waterfall! But after about the first and second repel, I began to hurt where the harness wrapped under my butt! I tried to loosen it a little but it just wouldn't let up! But because I am known as a "wus", I decided to try to forget about it...which didn't work. After the five repels, it was time to go back. And although I knew back meant up, I had tried to push it to the back of my mind. It turns out "up" meant exactly what I did the day before....climb five hundred bazillion stairs!!! I was bitter at life because I was already sore, incredibly hot and thirsty, and to top it all off...my butt hurt! But thank the good Lord I made it...barely! We hopped back on the Toyotas and then onto the lovely air conditioned buses to go back to the resort.

By the time we got back, all we had time to do was shower and pack our things. We ate lunch at the resort and then hopped back onto the charter bus headed towards "home". As it turns out, the bus driver decided to take another route home. This route was somehow more windy and backroady (I know I just made that up) than the route that had gotten us there. And in Costa Rica, speed limits mean nothing so Lord only knows how fast he was going! Of course it did not help that we were in the back of the bus. Finally, after some motion sickness and Dramamine, we made it home! And, as always, it was raining! As soon as I walked in the door, I fell down on my bed and fell asleep. After a short nap, I woke up and went downstairs because I assumed it was dinner time. Well I made it to the couch and fell asleep again! When I woke up again I was not very hungry and super tired so I ate about three bites and went to bed. I even turned down dessert...that shows you how tired I was! It was only 7:30 so I got about 12 hours of sleep last night!

Although this weekend wore me out, it was so much fun!

Arenal!

Sorry but I have been horrible with posting lately! Tomorrow we leave for Arenal, a volcano, at 6 in the morning! I will post when I get back and try to remember some of the highlights of last week to catch you up! Adios!

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!