Tonya in COSTA RICA

Monday, November 9, 2009

Volcano pictures

Hanging bridges that we explored

Our cute little rooms!

Hey, volcano!

Arenal Volcano

at the hotel

hotel pool

First thing I saw when I walked out of our room

Welcome to La Fortuna!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

This weekend our group went to see the famous touristy Arenal Volcano, which is totally cool by the way. We spent all day Saturday at Baldi Hot Springs, going down slides and pool hopping, and eating from the DELICIOUS buffet there. Sunday we hiked for a while across some hanging bridges and then had lunch at this amazing lookout over the volcano. I didn't take any photos at the hot springs for fear of destroying my little camera. Here's the website, though, so you can still see what it was like: http://www.arenal.net/baldi-hot-springs.htm. The food at the hot springs was incredible - fresh cucumbers for the salad, fresh pineapple, and a chocolate fountain that was out of this world. The hotel we stayed at was nice too: http://www.lapraderadelarenal.com/. Unfortunately, Saturday night I got the worst headache I think I've ever had in my life. It really was unfortunate because I wasn't able to hang out with everyone. I laid down in bed and seriously could not move. I still have a small headache now and hiked and stuff anyway today in spite of it all, which may not have been the best idea. Anyway, stay tuned for some photos!

Friday, November 6, 2009

stumbling

Check out these awesome photos:

http://thedesigninspiration.com/articles/40-beautiful-hdr-pictures-you-would-be-amazed/

Thursday

Yesterday my alarm decided to malfunction and not go off. Therefore, I snapped awake at 7:15, leaving me with 45 minutes to get ready, eat, and get to class. Somehow, I managed to do it and I made it to class on time. Class went well and passed by quickly. She let us leave a few minutes early. I came home to finish some homework for my 1 pm class. I laid down to rest for a while, and woke up around 12:20. Normally at this time we have lunch since I have class at one. However, I awoke to a silent house and no food. Initially I was not concerned. Then it became 12:30, and then 12:40. I knew that unless they arrived right then with prepared food, I would not be able to eat and make it to class on time. I got my things together and just figured I could go to the pulperia on the corner and get a sandwich and head to the U. Just as I was getting ready to walk out the door at 12:43, my family busts up in the house with pizza. Apparently the meat that my mother had was bad, and they went to get pizza. I sat down to eat, and they offered to drive me to school. They all decided to ride, even though it's just up the road, but it was special to me that they all wanted to take me. So they took me, and told me if the teacher gave me any problems for being late (the teacher here is my aunt), to have her call them. Class went by quickly. During our break we had coffee and cake in the cafeteria - lovely, as always. We got out of class I bit late, so I went to change and headed straight to dance class. We reviewed all the dances we knew, and then did some aerobics at the end. I love the dances here, especially salsa. At some point before I go home I want to go out somewhere and ONLY salsa the whole time! We all decided to go to a costume party together that was put on by some of our tico friends from the U, and decided to meet at DB's apartamento at 9. I went home and ate some papas with the family. They told me Nicaraguan jokes. (To Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans are a thorn in their side.) They were funny and I was glad that my family decided to share some funny things with me. I took a shower and got ready, called a taxi, and headed over to DB's to meet everyone. We all met there and hung out for a while before going to the costume party. When we got to the costume party (in Night Fever - where else??), our tica friends greeted us and talked to us for a bit. We all hung out together and then started dancing. It wasn't overly crowded like it sometimes is, which was really nice. But there still was a good number of people there. I made a friend and we talked as best we could, given the loudness and darkness. SC and I left together kind of late. Needless to say, I slept in this morning, till 8:30, even though I woke up at 7:15 thinking I had to go to class or something. Overall, Thursday was another busy but good day!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tuesday y Wednesday

TUESDAY

I woke up early Tuesday morning, had some quiet time, and then put on my running shoes and headed out for a little walk around town to wake me up. I walked for about 45 minutes and watched the town come to life! It was pretty chilly, and I just had on shorts and a t-shirt, so I was cold and will definitely remember to take a sweater next time. The walk was pleasant anyway. I walked up the street a good ways from my house and explored some neighborhoods up there. There are some REALLY nice houses up that way, some that I wouldn't mind living in! I also discovered a baptist church that I have never seen before! They have service on Sundays at 9 and on Wednesdays at 7, so I am going to try to make a service ASAP!!!! I was so excited to find it, even though we are already three months into the trip. I really enjoyed the walk and will go again tomorrow. I want to go up high into some of the hills so that I can see out over the city, and out toward the Pacific Ocean toward Puntarenas.

I came back and got ready and headed to school to meet with Claudia at 9 for internship stuff. We 'met' for about 2 hours. During this time we got some stuff done, but she also was doing other things too so it was nice for it to be laid back. We shared a pot of coffee to celebrate the end of our meeting....coffee grown and processed right here in San Ramon! After the meeting I wanted to head back home to wait for lunch, and I ran into Julio! We walked a ways and talked for a bit. I really enjoy speaking Spanish with the ticos, especially one on one, because I think when I am around other gringos I feel intimidated sometimes and don't want to talk in front of them. I don't know why. Anyway, it was fun! I made it home and worked on pharmacy school applications while I waited for lunch to be ready. We had yummy spaghetti!

I headed back to school, to go to class at 1. We had a good class and we talked about prepositions which have always kind of given me a hard time, because the preposition you think you should use based on its meaning in English is not the one you use, and sometimes it can be confusing! About halfway through we piled into teacher's car to go to the bookstore to look for a book for us to read, since the other was out of order. We were unsuccessful. We then went to Aroma's Cafe to have the rest of our class. I ordered the Aroma's Cafe cold coffee special drink which was DIVINE, and a strawberry crepe covered in ice cream, sent straight from God's table in heaven!!!!

After class we went back to school. I did some work and checked e-mail. I left around 5:30 to head home. At home I continued doing homework with my host sister. At 7:30 KL and ES came over to have Bible study. We sat in the sala and each talked about where we were coming from, why we believe what we do, things like that, just to get to know each other better spiritually. It was fun to talk about. We talked about Ecclesiastes too because ES has been reading it and was confused about a few things. We also had prayer with each other, and it was really nice to have the fellowship and talk about the Lord. We are going to make this a weekly thing! I called a taxi for them and then went to bed as soon as they left.

WEDNESDAY

Class from 8-11. We watched a movie about female factory workers in Tijuana, Mexico. It was kind of depressing, and made me understand why so many people try to come to the US from Mexico. These women were paid little, had to deal with pollution and contamination - at work and in their homes and neighborhoods - and then their companies would move locations without giving them any severance pay, leaving them with little to no money. The conditions were terrible, and they tried to fight against it, but companies there have so much power. It was really eye-opening.

After class I went to the library with AK to check my email and such to kill some time before 11:30. Yesterday instead of having Cultures class in the evening, class was cancelled so that we could have a field trip today! We left school at 11:30 to head up into the mountains - Piedades Norte, I believe. It was REALLY rainy all day today, so we weren't able to see views of anything really well while in the mountains. We headed to a trapiche, which is used for processing sugar cane, a huge thing down here in Costa Rica. We were able to see the whole process in action, from cutting the sugar cane down, to processing it to get the juice out, to heating and boiling it to get all the junk out, to making sellable products out of it. I didn't have my camera unfortunately, but DB took pictures and said he would send them to me, so I hope to get those ASAP and post them so that you can better understand what was going on, or you could probably google it and find lots of good pictures. I'll work on that! Anyway, it was neat to watch, and the people who owned it were brothers and were very nice! They knew Silvia because many years ago she did some work with the museum here in town to recognize and preserve traditions like these and to bring attention to them so that people would recognize their importance and appreciate them. So they had a photo of her on the wall because she is special to them!

After visiting there we went to Cafeteria Flory to eat (we were in La Paz, by the way). We had casados that were out of this world, with pineapple fresca, and coffee afterwards. There were also SO MANY beautiful flowers there, and more species of orchids than I have ever seen in my life! Again, I am going to get pictures from DB so that you can see.

After our scrumptious lunch we drove further to see more of the country side and another small trapiche that wasn't running today. We then went back toward SR and stopped at a nice souvenir shop on the way. It had a lot of neat stuff but it was way overpriced! TOURIST TRAP! Afterwards we proceeded back to town and the driver dropped me by my house. We had cafecito shortly after I arrived (cup 4 of the day).

I spent the afternoon studying and doing homework. I had to read a long story that I still don't quite understand, so hopefully I will get some clarification tomorrow in class.

Around 8:15 KL called me and invited me to go see a movie, "Gestacion," with some of the others. It is a film made in Costa Rica with Costa Rican actors, all in Spanish, so of course I said YES! In my opinion it was like a Costa Rican version of Juno. Anyway, the ticket was 1200 colones (just over 2 dollars, yes, only 2 dollars) and popcorn and a drink was 1200 more. Nice, right?! Anyway, I liked the fact that it was Costa Rican, because I could understand some of the slang and things that are said a lot here!! The movie was okay overall. The whole movie was about her pregnancy and such, but at the end we didn't even see the baby! Crazy, right? We took a taxi home after it was over (and pouring down rain STILL), and now I am in bed about to fall asleep. It has been a great couple of days, and I hope tomorrow is equally as good! Vamos a ver!

Buenas noches!!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

November already???

I guess it doesn't feel like November because (a) the time has passed so quickly and it feels like it should still only be September, and (b) because it is not cold here at all, not the November weather I am used to in the States!

It is bittersweet to think about it being November... It makes me happy because I know that in a few short weeks I will see my friends and family again. But it makes me sad because the longer I stay here the more that I love it and the more that I want to stay. Several times this past weekend I had chances to look out over the city, either while walking or being in the car, and it just still astounds me, the beauty of the city and of the mountains and the landscape of San Ramon and of Costa Rica. Initially I thought that maybe I just found it breathtaking because it was novel and different than what I was used to back in the States, but now I realize that it's because it really is just THAT beautiful and magnificent.

And to think that I could have missed out on all this because I was afraid of coming here, afraid of doing what I knew the Lord had called me to do! A dear friend reminded me earlier of how distraught I was when my plans for Mexico fell apart, and then the Lord pieced it all back together so that I could come to Costa Rica, and look at how incredible it has been and how much the Lord has shown me and taught me since I have been here.

I think that more than anything this trip has been a 'return to innocence' of sorts for me. Let me try to explain. Before I came to Costa Rica, I felt like I was in a holding cell, waiting for something big to happen, waiting for God to take me on to the next thing, waiting waiting waiting. I had grown impatient. Yes, I managed to be joyful through this time of waiting, but I knew that there still was something missing. So I came to Costa Rica, terrified and uncertain of what was waiting for me here. And what a ride it has been. I believe with all of my heart that the Lord has been giving that joy back to me, has been giving me a sort of child-like happiness and perspective, like I am 16 all over again! Even so in silly ways, like having a mother here to cook everything and do all of my laundry, so that all I do is go to school and hang out with my friends and enjoy life. I feel like he has simplified my life, and has shown me what life is really about and what is important. Now of course I don't have life completely figured out, that's not what I'm getting at here. But he has been restoring my joy and has been pursuing me and loving me and showing me so much. My prayer is that he would continue to do that throughout the rest of this trip, and even after.

By submitting to the Lord's will for my life for this semester, I believe that I have given him more room to show me how BIG he is and how in control he is. I have learned that when we try to be in control of our own circumstances, we give God less room to be creative and show us what He can do! When we allow HIM to be in charge, we are able to see just how POWERFUL He is!

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Today was a good day. It was kind of dreary outside, so I spent most of the day in the house. I got a lot of work done, and spent most of my study time with my sweet host sister who is studying for her final exams so that she can graduate from high school!

I had class from 8-11, then I came home to eat lunch with the family. MIF and I went out to search for a book for Advanced Spanish, but apparently it has been removed from all stores because the author wanted to make some corrections, so it is not being sold until he finishes. We then decided to see if we could check it out of the public library. We wandered around the tiny tiny library and found the book after looking it up on the database, and were soon approached by the librarian. She kindly informed us that we were in the restricted section which required special permission to enter, though it appeared to us like the other sections because there was no designation or separation at all. We told her what we were looking for and she said we couldn't check books out of that section, that we were only allowed to read them in the library while being supervised, but that if we really wanted to check them out, since we didn't have library cards and couldn't get them (I guess because we are gringos), we could bring a water bill or power bill from our family's house to show that we DID live here, and go through some process to be able to check the book out over the weekend while the library is closed. She was very kind through all of this, and when we left, empty-handed, we both realized how thankful we were for the ease of checking out books in public libraries in the US.

The rest of the afternoon was spent studying, enjoying coffee and pancakes, and relaxing and talking to friends and my mother. It was nice to have a relaxing afternoon and evening. I still managed to get a good bit of work and studying done.

Hopefully tomorrow will be equally as relaxing and stress-free. I meet with Claudia in the morning to work on internship stuff, and I only have one class from 1-4. Normally I have a class after that, but we are taking a field trip on Wednesday so we are not having class tomorrow! Que dicha!

Buenas noches!