The United States are gonna be so lame...

            With the mid-way point of session two approaching there has been a lot of reflection on how we will feel when we return to the United States. I personally am starting to get ready to come home but I am also starting to feel more and more like I live here. Putting toilet paper in the trash can is second nature, cold water is expected, waiting is natural and well English is HARD!

            I planned to keep things low-key this weekend but of course you can’t hide from adventure here…

  Or quick shoot over to San Jose area to see Harry Potter turned into an unsuccessful exciting adventure. A girl who came with had to pick up a package that her parents sent her… which ended up being a wild goose chase to the airport and then finally a remote loading dock... put us at the mall in Heredia at 5:30 when all the tickets were sold out. We were extremely bummed but people had to return because they had class commitments on Saturday. The mall was weird though, I almost fit in with blonde hair! I also had arroz con leche caramel flavor! We ended having to take a crazy bus that seemed to stop every five minutes on the way back and didn´t get to Puntarenas until 1:00 but oh man did I sleep good.

            Saturday was more low key… we enjoyed the carnival, watched the Puntarenas scrimmage in the stadium by my house, drank smoothies but things got complicated when I tried to cook:

            Collin brought me cake mix when he came to visit so I planned to cook heath bar cake, I figured my family would love it due to the obsession with condensed milk here. They put it on ice cream, rice, marshmallow. And I figured the other ingredients would be easily to find. Assumption wrong. They do not have cool whip, caramel ice cream topping or heath bar in my town. I was ready to resort to regular icing but that is also not present…

    So I figured I can use dulce de leche, make my own whipping cream, and frozen caramel candy!

 Close… and well its gluten free and somewhat like bread so I WILL eat it and enjoy it!

           

        The highlight of the cooking process may have been the mid-break snack. We only made a 9x9 pan so we had half a can of condensed milk and dulce de leche left. I suggested ice cream and well Annemarie, my brother and I were practically laying on the floor because we were all having sugar overloads.

            Sunday brought another exciting church trip. Annemarie and I were under the impression that it was Protestant and were very excited for the opportunity to having something a little more similar to home but turns out it was Pentacostal… I could handle the flag dancing and sweaty screaming preacher (I actually could understand a good portion this time J) but the people falling on the ground when the Pastor touched them and the Mariachi band that showed up at the end threw me for a loop! Also on the way out we say a traditional Costa Rican parade for the festival. The typical tradition though is that clowns dress up and chase and whip the young women and children… I was honestly scared.

We enjoyed the carnival in Puntarenas a lot too.

          The only thing I am going to call a real disappointment is that the fireworks for the festival NEVER happened L. I developed a fireworks obsession last summer viewing

Them close to 10 times and think they should be used to celebrate every special occasion in life. But alas none ever lit. The ¨chicas locas¨, a named we earned from Collin via our Osa trip did score ourselves some free cotton candy. Cat calls for being a gringo does have it´s perks. Also while hanging out at the carnival were asked multiple times if we were sisters, just another story to not feel bad for not being able to separate Asian dialects. 

F.y.i I am eating queque right now and LOVING it.

Week 2 take 2

This week was a busy one. My classes this semester are serious about homework and seriously in Spanish. One professor that I have for two classes doesn't even know English! I am learning a lot though but also realizing there is a long way to go.

The Newhouse Family stopped in Puntarenas on Monday after vacationing here for 2 weeks or so. It was fun to show someone else my home and here all about what was happening at home. It sounds like they had a great time and we exchanged lots of travel stories over lunch and ice cream. 

Right now I am preparing to go watch HARRY POTTER! We have to ride a bus into San Jose to go to the closest theatre, we were all pretty bummed to miss the premier but other than our friends on Facebook the topic isn't really prevalent here. When I ask they all love it but I think they just wait for it to come out on DVD.

Last Field Trip!

We went on our last Field Trip Saturday night to Monteverde a Cloud forest and the most exciting event of the weekend we wore pants and coats. It was wonderful...

The forest was beautiful too often you would just find your self walking through a cloud. We hiked up to the Continental Divide (about 4,500 ft in Costa Rica) which was very cool to think that it ran all the way back to the one in the United States.

A couple friends and I went on a 4:30 am hike to peak a Mountain and we didn't quite make it do to Breakfast time constraints but we did see an exciting sunrise, clouds, walked through a field of Bees on accident and had fun sliding in the mud.

The Sunday activity was ziplining we arrived late because our bus could peak the steep hills with us inside so we would have to walk and then climb back in. That was entertaining. The canopy was amazing my favorite so far. The rain forest there is just so much mossier and one cable was so long you needed to go as two people to cross.

My highlight of the entire weekend though was the Hummingbird garden...Dad you would have been in heaven there must have been hundreds!! I took tons of pictures and videos.

Tico Rules---the lack of

On Friday we went on our first field trip for session two. It was nice to finally spend some time with everyone and get to know the new kids. We went back to Curu where we had gone last semester so we were able to tell the new kids all about the history and the Monkeys.

From there we went Snorkeling! I was a bit skeptical about what I would see but it ended up being amazing. i probably saw 10 different kinds of fish and a star fish . It is not quite intense as the amazing pictures you see in Costa Rica but it is pretty intense in the fact that you pay $5 get some flippers, get in a boat and then they stop in the middle of the ocean by a rock and say "Here is a mask HAVE FUN!" of course that is in Spanish. No formal training no rules, I did however manage to break them though... I wanted to swim out to this other rock but he called us back.

The overall experience reminded me of Horseback riding, they put you on a horse slapped its butt and it started running. You had to figure out the rest.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on a beautiful white sand beach with a bunch of rich ticos. Here is cost $7 for a beach chair and you had to pay to hike in the Jungle. We got lots of free pineapple and watermelon though.

After the trip we hit up the Carnival for its grand opening! The lack of regulations were great here too, Carnival rides have never been SO fun! The atmosphere was great too it was so layed back no bells or whistles it was actually kinda quite.

Surprises Never Stop

A Festival is coming to Puntarenas!!! I kinda new it was coming but now the Paseo is filled with carnival rides, vendors, and stalls. I was quite sad about missing Coast Guard but now I will just experience the Costa Rican version!

I also saw a boy roller skating down the street, and yes I mean roller skates giant four wheeled orange skates I was like huh? Then he went backwards and I was like WOW!

I saw a man cutting his front yard grass with a machete, a long like two foot machete.

My dog got a hair cut and now he is like half the size! and a girl... Our relationship took a hit.

I also found a free aerobics class right next to my house, it was super fun the instructor is crazy energetic. It was easier than the other class USAC sometimes attend mostly because I think these steps were harder and spent more time trying to catch on. For Monday the instructor either said make sure you bring a bike or leave your bike at home... I guess we will find out lol.

Back to the Real World (If you can call it that)

I spent the last two weeks travelling all around Costa Rica and LOVING it! Osa was amazing, we made great Tico friends, rode horses, saw animals, swam with crcodiles, went speed boating in Ocean waves and stayed at an all inclusive resort with three course meals and hammocks everywhere.

Right after Osa Collin Came to visit and we spent a long weekend around San Jose and the Caribbean with some friends I made first session (Annemarie, Stephanie, Tanny). We rappelled down waterfalls, surfed, saw more wildlife and the night life of Puerto Viejo. I skipped class Tuesday and Collin and I took the Ferry to Montezuma where we had more great food, beach time and traveling adventure. 

I would love to give all the details now but unfortunately classes have begun and this semester my classes mean business. They are all taught in Spanish two more grammatical courses plus a class on the history of Spanish literature. We also restarted the speaking only in Spanish all the girls I traveled with decided to join and we have created a system where we have to pay every time we forget and speak English today I owe 20 colones, Roughly only 4 cents though haha I think we need to up the anti. Making friends with the new kids does prove more difficult with this promise... 

Final Week of Session One

This week is the last week of classes for most of the Students in Puntarenas right now. About half of us are going on a Week-long tour of Osa in southern Costa Rica before we start classes again on the 5th.

It is shocking to think that this adventure is already about half over. My Spanish is a lot better, but not fluent. I have only kinda tried surfing once but I have more sessions planned. So I think I am on track for an amazing finish.

Almost everyone that is leaving wishes that they were staying longer. It is wierd to say goodbye and even wierder to think about new people coming. Puntarenas with brand new Gringos. The transition is definitely going to be interesting.

I have my final exam tomorrow in Cinema so we have all been studying. We went to a restaurant, I had a delicious pineapple  drink (tasted like drinking a pineapple through a straw) and watched the Soccer games. America won 1-0.

I had my last day of dance class yesterday my partner Sophie and I passed I guess haha. It wasn't too hard ;) but now we know Salsa, Merengue, Cubiana and Bachata.

 I did my final presentation for Eco Tourism today which was to look into my future and determine my opportunities to volunteer/ give back.

I passed the class but well my new future list includes being a Nanny abroad, engineering abroad, grad school, being a camp counselor in Costa Rica and well at least I have a list in excel now…

The last day of cooking class was a bit of a letdown, I think they are getting sick of my gluten free antics. I was so excited because we were going to make pasta in class…but they just bought mine. They made bread with a maple syrup glaze to go with it but I just got tortillas. But hey it was still good food and if compared to a different standard probably AMAZING!

         

Tomorrow is our last day at school with this group of kids. I hope to keep volunteering next semester but I have class at that time so we will see what happens…Pura Vida.