"Sunday, Monday, happy days"

Sunday - slept until 10 am or so. It was nice to get some rest, though I still didn't get a full 8 hours of sleep because I couldn't get to sleep Sat. night, I guess from all the excitement! And we all hung out for a while Saturday night too, which was a lot of fun!

Sunday I met up with Danielle and Alan and we walked to the park to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of the festival! We walked around past all the vendors and listened to some music on stage. We were walking through the park and came across someone named Johnny who is from Guatemala but now lives in Costa Rica. He was making bracelets. We watched him for a while, and then he offered to make some for us, so Alan, Danielle and I all got bracelets, that we are calling our "friendship bracelets." Two other students walked by so we invited them to come over and hang out with us for a while. After Johnny finished our bracelets we all walked around together, and then went to David's apartment. We tried some coffee that David and Edward had gotten at the parade, and it was pretty good. We played some sort of game that Johnny knew where you spun something around in the middle and whoever it landed on, you got to make them do whatever you wanted, so we all made each other act like random animals and dance and sing and stuff. It was really funny. Later on that afternoon we all walked back toward our houses, and on the way home some of us decided to stop at a movie store and rent a movie since it was raining and was perfect for watching a movie! We ended up getting The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (one of my favorite childhood books!) and decided to meet around 7 to watch it at someone's house. I ate supper at home and then we all met and watched the movie. I had never seen it all the way through and I thought it was great! Mom, I think it's something you could show to the youth group back home! I came back and attempted to upload all my pictures, and eventually got them all loaded.

Monday I slept till 8:30 am, got up, showered, and had breakfast:

Gallo pinto (rice and beans)

The kids only had to stay at school till 9:30 am, so when they got back, everyone got ready and we all headed to San Jose!!!! It took about an hour to get there. The drive was BEAUTIFUL! We went to the Multiplaza in Escazu, the same mall I went to when I was here on a mission trip a few years ago! There were a lot of American fast food restaurants there. Shae and I decided to have Taco Bell, and it tasted about the same. There were a lot of people there that were very dressed up, and I assumed that it was just people that work in local businesses in the city that came on their lunch break to eat at the mall. We walked around the mall for a long time and went in several stores. There were a lot of very nice ones - Kenneth Cole, Lacoste - and then other stores that aren't in the US but that have a lot of Amerian-type clothing. We found a store called MNG that is comparable to H&M, and I LOVED it! They had a lot of nice clothes, and I ended up getting a lovely pink dress that fit perfectly:

We stayed at the mall for a few hours and then headed back toward San Ramon. We all fell asleep on the long ride home, and it was nice to have a little nap! When we got back, we had coffee and crackers for a snack. I then spent some time doing homework, talking to some friends online, and Skyping with some others and with my parents too! I had (and still have) a good bit of homework to do for some classes this week and next. I went to bed around 12 and had a GREAT night of sleep!