A little in town relaxation :)

Well this past week was fun, and relaxing because we're taking a break from traveling until Semana Santa next week!

It all started on Thursday when Beth, Myla, Brika, Jeffrey (B and M's professor from OSU) and me went to Tihany. Tihany is like a mini circ de soleil - it was pretty freakin awesome.
I wish I had more pictures to put up, but you weren't supposed to take any pictures, even without a flash, and we got yelled at. It was hilarious though because they were putting people up on the screen and saying things about them...like a couple that had "beso! beso! beso!" at the bottom of the screen (kiss) and a group of old people that had "blah...blah...blah...." Lol, so we were talking about how funny it would be if they put our group on the screen and said "gringos! gringos! gringos!"...and lo and behold....they found us (not that we are hard to spot in a crowd of ticos!).














Just to make sure everyone remembers who people are here...in this picture, from back to front it's: Brika, Me, Beth, Myla :)







Friday night was Bingo at PAS, none of us won anything :( I stayed after school from 3-6 and caught up on the Grey's episodes online that I've been missing out on - crazy stuff has been happening! After bingo we all went out to our favorite bar in Santa Anna, Amigos, to celebrate Jillian's last night in Costa Rica! :(



Saturday we all chillaxed until we went to Cocos (the tico bar) to watch the Costa Rica-Mexico game. If you didn't know...soccer is big here! :) Unfortunately Mexico won 2-0. The day was fairly miserable, I'm pretty sure it got into the low 90s, it was definitely high 80s anyway.

Sunday was unfortunately yet another miserably hot day. I woke up at 9:30 already a little sweaty. I took the bus back to Santa Anna to join everyone at Amigos (our favorite, gringo-friendly bar in SA) for the OU-UNC game.

That was pretty much the weekend. I came home last night and went to bed at about 8:30/9! Even thought we hadn't done a lot, I think the heat totally zapped my energy because I was exhausted. I think my body is going crazy with so much sleep though, I feel really out of it today.

This week is going to be another week full of local relaxation and fun - tomorrow us girls are getting pedicures and going out to dinner for Myla's birthday (which is on Wednesday) and on Wednesday we are going to Multiplaza to do a little shopping and to go see a movie - the boy in the striped pajamas? (i don't know if that's the title in english, but that's the translation of the spanish title) Not exactly a happy bday movie, but it looks so good and we all want to see it.

I've decided that if I could have changed my packing...I would have packed fewer clothes, and a few more books! I've been slightly bored during the weeks...but, at the suggestion of dear Beth and Myla, I am going to start reading the Twilight series which is available through the school library - for free! Yay for libraries! :)

I can't think of much else to update you all on...other than I'm SUPER excited for our semana santa vacation - I can't wait to do some surfing and horseback riding! It's kind of crazy, but if you think about it...after next week I will be almost half way through my time here; it's going faster than expected.

Miss you already Jill! :-*

Trip to Manuel Antonio and Quepos

Hello everyone!

It's Monday, you know what that means...

weekend trip update time!

Well, the beginning and ending of the trip were a little rough...but other than that it was a great time!

On Friday after school we headed into Santa Anna to pick up the bus to San Jose. We were supposed to all meet at the bus stop a 3. Haha, well...by 3:10 all of the girls were there and we were only missing Sean. So we waited...and waited...and waited...and searched...and waited...until 3:45 when we said "screw him." Then, lo and behold, he was at the San Jose bus stop already when we got there. What a punk. It turned out alright though because we were able to hop on an earlier bus at 5.

I think we got into Quepos at about 9:30, with two things on our mind: hotel and food!

We found our place to stay fairly easily, and the owner of the place was really nice and very funny. When the 6 of us walked in he looked at Sean and said "What do you do with five girls?! I have one and that is enough?! All these women, they are a lot of trouble!" Haha...he was very cool. He also directed us to a restaurant that was still open. Our rooms were right off of the common area and we immediately met a Belgian and two Aussies who were hanging out. They came out to dinner with us to a BYOB place and the two Aussies told us their story about how they just decided in a couple of days that they wanted to do a world tour - they started off by going to the US and they are making their way down to South America; from there they are heading to Europe and then to Asia. I admire their ability to be so spontaneous - I'm not the pick up and go world backpacking type, haha!

After dinner we headed over to the small casino at the Best Western, just for a little fun. It was hilarious because for roulette they had like a BINGO ball setup, and they had a five card draw table (never seen that before!).

We turned in kinda early because we knew we wanted to get up early the next day to head to Manuel Antonio for the beach!

I think we got up somewhere around 8 in the morning, had a fantastic (and fairly cheap) breakfast at the hotel and then caught the bus to Manuel Antonio. There were a ton of market stands lining the street along the beach. The walk through the national park wasn't nearly the hike that Cahuita was - but along the way we saw four sloths, some capuccins, and an iguana :)

Third beach was absolutely gorgeous - and totally worth the $10 and walk to get there. It was in its own little cove right up against the edge of the jungle...beautiful. Unfortunately I was an idiot and left my camera at the hotel for the first half of the day, so you have to wait until I get pictures from the rest of the crew for me to add them here.

We stayed at Third Beach until about 1 - soaking up the sun, swimming in the ocean, floating with the greatest of ease (yay salt water)! There was quite the episode when a very large raccoonish animal started skulking around the edge of the beach looking for unattended food - well, he found one! And even though Brika started running up the beach at him, he made off with this woman's bag of bread. It was absolutely hilarious - definitely funniest home videos materal, I wish we had a video of it!

We headed back into town for a small lunch and a little bit of market shopping (I got two beautiful necklaces for $6) and then we caught the bus back to Quepos. It was miserably hot and the sun was ridiculous - I swear I was putting sunblock on every 20 minutes but my shoulders are toast!

We showered, changed, and freshened up to head back toward Manuel Antonio to go to El Avion for dinner. El Avion is a restaurant based off of an actual cargo plane that was left in Nicaragua,bought, and transported all the way to Manuel Antonio. The restaurant is right on the edge of a cliff and has a gorgeous view - so we got there by 5 to make sure we had a good spot for sunset watching. And - we definitely did! The sunset was absolutely gorgeous!




















After sunset watching and a fantastic dinner we went back to Manuel Antonio - our real reason for going back was because Sean and I had talked to a guy earlier about horseback riding in the morning and we told him we would come back to set up a reservation... we went all the way back and he wasn't there! :-/ So, what else would we do except for split some bottles of wine on the beach! Haha :) The six of us passed around some bottles under the stars while we waited for the next bus back to Quepos - it was pretty awesome. After we got back, Sean, Jillian and I went out for a night of dancing.

Sunday we got up for breakfast, walked around town for a while, had a huge lunch (burgers!) and then got on the bus back to San Jose at about 2:45. We got into SJ at about 6:30 and hopped on a bus to Santa Anna. The bus we took, however, was a bus that takes the calle vieja route - a route which no one in the group had gone on at night before - big mistake. We missed our stop, went all the way to the end of the route, had to get on another bus to take us back...it was a big mess! We didn't get back into Santa Anna until almost 8! (what should have been about a 40 minute bus ride turned into 1:30!) We grabbed some pizza for dinner in Santa Anna and then I headed back to Belen.

Well, that's about it. I wish I had more pictures to show you; I will add the pics of the beach as soon as I get them from the others. This weekend there are no big plans - we are staying in town for BINGO at PAS on Friday night (which is also Jillian's last night here!) And then there were 5... :(

Week 2

This week has gone by super fast - I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday and I might be embarking on my next weekend excursion! I say "might be" because we have all been talking about going to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast but there hasn't been any definite plans made yet as far as I know. I'm sure that by the end of the day today I will hear something.

If the weeks keep going by this fast my time here will fly!

The only exciting story from this week I guess would be St. Patty's day. It was very strange to have a St. Patty's where hardly anyone else recognized or celebrated it. Me, Beth, Myla, Bircka, Jillian and Sean all went out in Santa Anna. We weren't planning on drinking a lot until we found out that there was a drink special with 1 1/2 shot vodka, oj, pineapple, and mango juice for only 700 colones! (aka about 1.25 each!) It was the first time anything has been crazy cheaper than in the states - so of course we took advantage :) No worries though, we were all in a big group and very safe.

I know one thing - I want my belated corned beef and cabbage dinner when I get back!!! I have such a craving for it; I only get it once a year and I couldn't here :(

I'm starting to adventure a little more on my own - I took the city bus by myself to Santa Anna on Tuesday night and I walked around town after school by myself. Slowly but surely I am getting more comfortable with my surroundings.

It sounds like Adam and maybe 3 others are really thinking about coming down the last week of April - which would be really awesome, but kind of sucky at the same time because my break is in the first week of April. Basically, I'm going to have to figure out where they can stay and what they can do while I'm at school everyday. I mean, I know they are big boys and they can fend for themselves...but you kind of have to travel to really find stuff to do. It's kind of like being in Chelsea actually - you have to go a couple towns over to get to a movie theater and whatnot.

Well, that's about it really. Nothing too crazy to update you on. Hope all is going well in the States!

My Weekend in Cahuita

My first Costa Rica weekend excursion was a HUGE success! In a nutshell, the beach and jungle were beautiful, I got to see a three toed sloth in action at the national park, as well as a whole family of capuccin monkeys, we went snorkeling, and I got to spend some quality time in some hammocks!

The bus ride to Cahuita was about 4 hours long - so we did not get into Cahuita until about 8/8:30. But, while it was still light out, we got to see some beautiful countryside along the way.


There were seven of us who went: myself, Beth and Myla (who are the other student teachers here at PanAm's elementary school), and Bircka (sorry if I butchered your name, I'm not sure how to spell it!), Jillian, Sean, and John (the other four are all Spanish study abroad students at Conversa).

Our first night in we did not do much except for get dinner and go to the bars for a couple of drinks. Cahuita is a pretty small town - there were only two bars really and they were right across the street from each other. On our first night we met a guy who was traveling from France - he was very cool and gave us some insight on the area.

We stayed in the cabinas that Jillian's host family owns - practically right on the beach. It was really nice because the rooms only ended up being $26 for two nights!














On Saturday we got up early to watch the sunrise - which turned out to be very unfruitful because it was overcast. We went back to bed for a little bit before getting up again for breakfast and to head to the national park. We ate breakfast in a great Caribbean style restaurant that was known for having the best crepes in the area :)

After breakfast we headed to the national park - which at the time we did not realize committed ourselves to about a 5 hour walk through the jungle and beach...but it ended up being soooo worth it!

Throughout our walk in the park, which we were very lucky that it was mostly overcast and not really that hot, we saw: LOTS of crabs, birds, a three-toed sloth! (so exciting because they're usually rare to see), a whole family of Capuccin monkeys, a howler monkey, and, of course, we got to spend some quality time on the beach!


















The family of Capuccins literally just miuraculously appeared out of the woodwork right after we had got done talking about how we were disappointed that we hadn't seen any. They basically surrounded us, came right up to us on the path. I was honestly less than two feet away from a couple of them, and they just sat there checking us out - it almost seemed like they were more curious about us than we were of them! The whole time I kept thinking to myself "Adam is going to be sooo jealous!" I wished he was there with me for it, it was an amazing experience.










































Right when we got to the beach the sun started to come out - we got sooo lucky with the weather! It was overcast and not too hot for our walk through the park, and when we got to the beach we got the sun we wanted! :)




























After our 5 mile walk through the park and beach we were pretty tired - and definitely ready for some food! We headed back to Cahuita for lunch and some relaxation before getting ready to go to Puerto Viejo for the night. Puerto Viejo is a city about a 20 minute bus ride south of Cahuita, it's bigger and has more bars. We had dinner and quite a few drinks in Puerto Viejo before cramming all 6 of us (John didn't come) into a taxi back to Cahuita. We had one more drink and a little dancing before going back to the cabinas :)

Sunday we got up early to go snorkeling! Cahuita has a a very large coral reef. It was really cool, we were probably out in the water for about a hour. It was too bad though because the water was fairly murky because it had rained two days ago - Maimo (Jillian's host dad) said that in two days we probably would have had at least twice the visibility. But it was still cool, we saw a lot of different coral and fish.

We checked out at about 11:30 and John, Beth, Myla and I caught a bus to Limon at 12, and a bus from Limon to San Jose at 2. I was so exhausted from the weekend that I slept most of the way back, which made it a lot quicker! Having been using public transportation all weekend, I felt brave enough to try out the bus from Santa Anna to Belen all by myself, and I did just fine :)

Well, that was my weekend in Cahuita. I have a TON more pictures to show you all when I get home...but for my family's sake I didn't want to put too many on here and make it take 2 hours to upload :)

I love you all! And it looks like this coming weekend we're traveling to the Pacific beaches in Manuel Antonio - so more beautiful pics to come next Monday for sure! :)

March 13/14

Nothing very exciting happened yesterday...except that plans may be made for semana santa to go to Panama. Very preliminary - but Floria said it would be well worth the money and trip. We'll see what happens.

But today is the big day! I'm very excited for my first weekend vacation and to get to the beach! I'm sure I'll have a long post and lots of pictures to put up on Monday morning.

Until then...

Hasta luego!

March 11

Well, I survived my first AND second tremors (mini-earthquakes) today! It was funny because I was sitting at my desk bouncing my leg, as I often do, and then realized that my desk was still moving after I had stopped bouncing my leg. It did not last for very long, maybe a minute – and by the time I realized what was happening it was already half over. That was at about 11 or 11:30. Then, in the teacher’s meeting after school – probably at about 3 – Floria turned to me and asked if I thought it was happening again. I hadn’t noticed until she said something, but when I put my hands on the desk I could feel a little bit of a shake. Not 30 seconds more and we could really feel it. It was short again, but the vertical blinds were swaying back and forth pretty well.

Apparently there was a big earthquake in Costa Rica in January and a whole town disappeared! There is wives’ tale here that whenever there are tremors, it means that the weather is going to change. March is usually Costa Rica’s hottest month and many people have been telling me that it has been uncharacteristically windy and chilly (it’s been very warm to me!) - so I guess we’ll see if it gets hotter over the next couple of days.

Not too much else happened today really. The weeks are going to go by fast here, it was hump day today and it didn’t even feel like it. Back home Wednesday was the day to get through; everything is just so relaxed and easy going here (sometimes too much so).

Anais told me tonight that tomorrow night’s dinner is a surprise and we’re going to see if I like it. Haha; I told her that there are very few foods I don’t like! Especially since I’ve even been able to eat a bit of fish recently…the salmon that Adam and Mike made was really good actually :-)

Life overall has been much better – I haven’t cried once since Monday. Being able to skype with Adam almost every day has really helped. Even though it’s only for like 15-20 minutes, it’s just what I needed to get myself over the hump. I’ve decided that my family needs to get high speed pronto so that I can skype with them too – I would love to see and talk to my mommy! :-)

Well, that’s it really – like I said, not much new since yesterday. Yesterday was just too big of a day, there’s really no way to follow that up!

March 10

I'm doing pretty good at this whole journaling every day thing so far!

Today was a very good day :) Classes went well – we started the eighth graders on the Medieval Model project (which I helped put together!), but mostly it was a good day because a lot of exciting personal things happened! First of all, I got an email from Sunny – which definitely started me off on the right foot for the day! I listened to my own advice and once I was done doing everything I wanted to do online I took my world history book (the ONE that we use for 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade – YESSS!) and I sat out in the courtyard to start my planning in the sunshine.

At lunch I talked to Beth, and plans are already in the works for the weekend. Apparently one of the other girls’ host parents own some cabins in Cahuita – on the Caribbean shore! So, a bunch of us are going to go there for a weekend and we are going to get to stay there for SUPER cheap – like, $7 a person! I’m so excited to go to the beach!

After school I was talking to Floria about some of the things that I wanted to do while I am here and I mentioned the fact that I need to buy Mama Naab a nativity scene. Apparently, near Floria’s house is a whole street market pretty much dedicated to souvenirs! And she said that she knows of another big market on the weekends in San Jose! So…next weekend I am going to stay with Floria Friday night and we are going to go market shopping and sightseeing in San Jose! Yayyy! I already have my next two weekends planned with fun things to do. :) And I’m sure I will have LOTS of pictures to post from both trips!

And, can you imagine?, the night got even better! Floria took me to a party/get-together for all of the 9^th grade teachers, students and parents. The fact that the students at my school are upper-class really started to sink in when we came into this gated community and pulled up in front of a HUGE house.

It was honestly one of the most beautiful houses I’ve ever seen (why doesn’t my host family live there?! Lol). And, to top it off, in the courtyard of this gorgeous house was a priceless historic artifact! Much like the "great heads" of the Olmecs, whose building materials have yet to be found anywhere near their location, there was an ancient Costa Rican culture who left behind mysterious, large, perfectly spherical boulders. It was amazing.

And the cherry on top was the fact that I was with adults, speaking Spanish, and I felt comfortable, and they could understand me – even when I had to introduce myself to the whole group!

It was a GREAT day!

Haha…and funny story because I said I would put it in here. Earlier today I was telling Floria about how one of my first observations in this country was how horrible and crazy the driving is – which they all seem perfectly aware of, and yet…

Anyway, as we are leaving the party tonight, Floria completely blew a stop sign – it was so funny and so ironic I yelled out “Aggh, you typical Costa Rican and your ‘No Rules’ driving!”

You probably had to be there, but we both about died laughing.

March 9

I wish it was possible to sleep in peacefully here! Maybe I will eventually get used to the noise…but man oh man is it a drag on the sleep department. I was supposed to wake up at 6 today, and instead was woken up at 5. I kept trying to go back to sleep, but I was inevitably jolted by some sort of street noise about every 10 minutes. So I ended up getting up at about quarter to I think.

The bus never came…abandoned again! Lol, just kidding. Jo, an elementary teacher who is a family friend and apparently lives nearby came with a taxi. Jo and I will be riding the school bus together every morning – that is, as long as it decides to come! Supposedly there was a new driver this morning or something.

My CT neglected to tell me that during the hours that we don’t have classes, our room is occupied by another teacher with other classes. Haha, I about made a fool out of myself this morning by almost walking straight into the class without looking. So, at this point I had no idea where to go or where my CT was. Abandoned again…lol

Anyway, she did eventually show up and I basically found out that we hang out in the teachers’ lounge all morning on Mondays Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This gave me the opportunity to take care of my emails and start both of my blogs

Today was especially good because during this time I was also able to cam chat with Adam multiple times! It was sooo good to see him and hear his voice! I think that seeing how things are going to go for the next two months made me feel a lot more settled and optimistic.

I also met Yanet today – the woman who was responsible for my being stranded at the airport. Yea…I still don’t like her. She barely apologized, and talked about how our communication was “mismatched” towards the end. In my head I couldn’t help but scream “no no NO lady, our communication was never mismatched, yours was just nonexistent! We do not share the blame here, it was entirely your fault and you admitting that would make it a lot better!” But did she?...no.

I’m a pretty big fan of my new CT – she’s funny, personable, matter-of-fact, and she bought my ice cream; what’s not to love!?!? She also told me that we need to plan a trip to the beach soon, yay! I can already tell that she has a great relationship with her students – they all joke around with each other, they talk to her about unrelated life happenings, and it seems like they would do practically anything for one of her “love stickers.”

I started p90x today. I'm so glad I brought it! I'm going to have so much extra time on my hands with not having to do as much work teaching that I need something to keep me busy. Not to mention the fact that I'm never going to lose any weight here with the way that my host parents keep wanting me to eat more! lol I'm going to try to sit outside in the sunshine more too so that I can start working on my tan!

I went out with Maria, her best friend and her cousin for about a hour or so last night to a nearby restaurant/bar. It was nice, but at the same time disappointing. I realized that when they are talking at full speed, I probably only understand about 1/3 of what they say lol. My Spanish has a long way to go I guess. Part of it too is that I’m sure they were using a lot more slang words than what I know, and they were talking about people I don’t know, so I just kind of tuned out from time to time. It can be exhausting sometimes to try to keep up with the conversations. I have to put so much effort into listening to make sure I understand things that I don’t really end up talking very much. People here probably think I’m too quiet. Haha, which we all know I’m not! I’m sure it will get better with time…

March 8

I think I slept for almost 12 hours last night. I fell asleep with my Spanish dictionary open and the lights on, woke up at about 2:30am and brushed my teeth…and then didn’t wake up until 10! I think I am caught up on sleep now Well, I better be anyway because tomorrow I have to get back into the groove of getting up at 6am

We had “tacos ticos” for lunch – sooo good , although, everytime we eat I start to wonder if they are fattening me up so they can eat me or something because they are always yelling at me to eat more! Lol I’m definitely going to have to start exercising again if I plan to lose any weight while I am here. I am also going to have to put thought into going out if I want a tan, people here are surprisingly not that dark.

Maria and I made the blueberry and corn muffins that I brought after lunch – I’m excited to see if Anais and Chico like them.

Maria is going to be a godmother. We took her to sign her papers and while we waited for her Anais, Llendre (I have no idea if that’s actually how you spell her name, the older daughter of the family) and I went a got some ice cream. Maria and Llendre are working on making scarves, but they are not knitting or crocheting, it’s a different technique that uses a board with nails on it. It is very easy, but I think I like knitting better.

People drive CRAZY here. Like, absolutely crazy. Most intersections don’t have stop signs, so it’s always a game of chicken. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way, so you have to be really careful when you cross the street – I guess Myla, one of the other international student teachers, got hit by a car about a week ago, she has a hairline fracture in her arm.




Tomorrow is the big day! Is it sad that I am most excited to be able to get online and reconnect with everyone back home?

March 7

It was loud this morning; I woke up a few different times before getting up at about 9 I think. Maria made breakfast for me and we talked a lot about Michigan and my family, again I had a couple of urges to cry over my eggs, banana and coffee. After breakfast we ran some errands around town, which let me get to know it a little better. There is a pharmacy, a general store, a market, a couple of shoe and boutique stores, a couple of restaurants and sodas (snack shops), one main bar, a big Catholic church, and a sports field (which more often than not has a soccer game going on).

When we came home we had lunch – basically spaghetti with homemade sauce (no meat) and some vegetables. My host parents kept telling me that I needed to eat more; lunch is the big meal in Costa Rica. While the rest of the family took their siestas, I finally unpacked. Getting things organized helps me feel a little more at ease…but is also a little scary because I began to realize that I’m not just here for a week or two. There is a reason my luggage was so heavy, and it’s because I am here for the next 10 weeks.

I had to call Adam. Hearing his voice really helped me calm down a bit. I cried a little bit again, got it out of my system, finished unpacking…and now here I am. That pretty much covers everything that has happened so far.

There are moments when I am really excited to be here – especially when I think about working at the school, I think it is going to be so much fun; but there are also times when I get really discouraged and I don’t know if I can do it. I’ve never been one to quit anything, and I know I won’t quit this, but there have been moments already where I really want to just say screw it and go home.

I’m hoping that once I get into the groove of my schedule here time will go by fast. The last two months in Grand Rapids went by really fast…so I guess I’m hoping that happens again, only with a lot less stress from my job. I think I can definitely count on the second part.

Maria and I ended up going to a “concierto gratis” at about 7. There were two groups performing, a group of students from the public school and a group of women from Guatemala. Don’t worry, I took pictures and a couple of videos  The Guatemalan group was a marimba band, they can play so fast! But my favorite part was probably the flute – not a flute you would see in a marching band back home, but more of an indigenous flute.

Going to the concert lifted my spirits a bit – it reminded me of all of the cool things I have the opportunity to do while I am here. Being able to hang out with Maria has also helped because she does know a little English, so she has been able to help me a bit with some of the words that have been giving me trouble. She also told me not to worry about my Spanish because they have had students come to live with them before who didn’t speak it at all when they first came; so I also have some more hope of actually improving my Spanish while I’m here.

Pictures of My House and Street