Christmas list addition

Lilly thermal mug

Wednesday

Today Claudia and I had another day-long workshop with the hospital staff. Today instead of meeting at the hospital, we met in a large room at the museum here in town. There were about 20 people in this meeting, a few more than were in the last. Today we showed them the CMI that they all completed and that we typed for them, and we took some time to discuss changes and modifications. They were very pleased. I went home to eat lunch and went right back to the museum for our afternoon session. I talked with Dr. C, the hospital director, for a while. I was curious to know if he spoke English because he has said some silly English phrases to me before, so I asked him if he did and I was surprised to find out that he actually spent a year studying in Illinois when he was in high school! He told me that the majority of things he reads now, mostly medical-related, are in English and that he enjoys it. He also shared with me that he has visited over 30 states in the US, something I haven't even done! His favorite adventure was his trip to Bay Hill, Florida, to play at Arnold Palmer's course, because golf is his favorite sport and he loves to play! I told him that my dad stayed there for a weekend one time to play as well. He told me that if my dad came to visit me while he was in Costa Rica that he could play golf with him and his buddies, and that he had a spare set of clubs that he could even use! He wrote down his phone numbers, and I told him that I didn't think there would be time but that I would tell him just the same.

When the day was over I trekked home (around 5 pm), exhausted and eager to relax. And relax I did! I finished my homework rather quickly, and enjoyed a lazy evening.

Monday and Tuesday

MONDAY

Society and Environment at 8 am. We went to Florex, a company based out of San Ramon that distributes environmentally-friendly products. It was so cool! This place is completely environmentally-friendly, with everything from the lights and windows to the building materials taken into consideration. And all at such a low cost! It was really neat to see. On the way back to school Claudia stopped and bought all of us a treat! How nice of her!!! Of course I chose a slice of chocolate cake with sprinkles, that looked like it was taken right out of Matilda. We got back to school and I headed home to do some work and eat lunch! I spent the afternoon and evening leisurely doing work. It started raining at lunch and didn't stop at all - it rained all through the evening and night. It made it difficult to do work!

TUESDAY

I met with Claudia at 9 am to go over some internship stuff, and we finished around 11. I headed back home to finish some homework and eat some lunch. Again, another rainy and dreary day, which kind of stunk, but Costa Rica really needs the rain! I went back for class at one, and was really tired today for some reason and had a difficult time focusing. I had that class till 4, and then class again till 7. It was interesting, though, and we were able to talk a lot in Spanish, which I am always thankful for. I returned home to eat some leftovers from lunch (FRIED CHICKEN - so delicious!!!!!!) and do some work and send some e-mails and such. Got to get to bed soon - we have another workshop tomorrow with the hospital staff for my internship! Wish me luck!

I think I'll let the pictures do the talking....

PUERTO VIEJO, Costa Rica

This city is located on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica in the province of Limon. We met Friday morning at 8 am to take a bus from San Ramon to San Jose, and then we took a cheap taxi to another bus station where we basically got on the bus to Puerto Viejo immediately, with a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to look forward to. KL, AK, and I were the only ones at this point. DB and TC left on the 4:30 am bus, and ES had arrived there on Thursday. The bus ride was surprisingly pleasant and short. I listened to music, read a book, and enjoyed the scenery. We arrived there between 2 and 3 pm and ran into ES who was waiting for us on a corner because "he knew we would be getting there soon." It's so funny to me how much we all run into each other sometimes, even though we have no cell phones or way of communicating! He led us to the hostel where he had left his stuff, and we talked to the resident entertainer, Juan, who was actually just a man who lived next door to the hostel but was allowed to bring guests to and from there because he just has a way with people, I guess. The hostel would be $8/night if 4 of us shared a room, so KL and I took the big bed, and the boys took the bunk beds and we all got to spend a weekend together! KL and I called our bed the "princess bed," or, the-big-bed-that-had-a-mosquito-net-over-it-that-kind-of-made-it-look-like-a-princess-bed bed:

It didn't take long for us to find out why these were necessary. Anyway, we settled in, then ventured off to another popular hostel to meet up with our other gringo friends. We said hello, then KL, AK and I took off to find some almuerzo (lunch). We came across a little place nestled between the trees practically on the beach. I had the most DELICIOUS pineapple fresca, along with a small pizza. This is one of the first views of the beach that I saw:

Beautiful, right? (Click on it to see it larger!!!!) After we ate, we all got back together to hang out and figure out what to do with our afternoon and evening. We decided to go swimming, and the water was a bit chilly because it was cloudy and later in the day. We swam a while and just hung out together most of the afternoon and evening, and then showered and decided to hang out at our place for a while and to then head to Rockin J's for the live reggae music. There were a lot of foreigners there, and we met some different people and listened to the music, which was okay but not stellar. We headed home around 12:30 and went to bed so that we could get up early on Saturday and have all day to do whatever we wanted!

Saturday morning we woke up pretty early and decided to go to the beach. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, which was the bluest I think I've ever seen. We rented bikes and rode down the road for a while so that those who wanted to surf could check out the waves and decide if they wanted to get boards. We all just swam for a while in the beautiful clear Caribbean water. The current was INCREDIBLY strong, and at some point I started to get pretty scared. I couldn't get back to the beach at all, and the water just kept pulling me out and the waves just kept pounding and pounding over me. I prayed and really thought I may never make it back to shore. Somehow eventually I did, and I wanted to kiss the sand when I got back! TC and KL stayed in the water, and I just sat in the sand and tried to take in all the beauty around me! TC, KL, and AK decided to check out the surf board rentals, so I watched our stuff while they did. TC and KL shared a board, and AK and I sat on a log in the shade on the beach and talked for a while. It was VERY hot outside, but not humid, which was really nice! After they came in, we got back on our bikes and headed back toward town to check on our other amigos. We all hung out until lunch time. KL and I asked our hostel owner for a lunch recommendation, and he recommended Soda Miss Sam a couple of blocks away to get some typical Caribbean Costa Rican food. We took advantage of the casado, a typical Costa Rican dish, which had rice and beans which were supposedly different on the Caribbean side. They were different, and they were DELICIOUS. I don't know how to describe the difference...maybe a bit sweeter? Regardless, the food was scrumptious and we ate it up! We then headed back to our hostels. Some wanted to nap, DB and AK wanted to snorkle, but KL and I wanted to explore on our bikes. We rode down the road both ways for a long while - we spent most of the afternoon, several hours, riding and exploring and taking pictures. I will do a whole separate post with just pictures and short captions, in addition to an incredible experience at the end of the afternoon! While we were riding, we experienced a lot of cool things:

• We met a writer from Massachusetts who has been here for 11 years. Our entire conversation was shared while we were riding bikes down the road.
• We stopped to see why a big crowd had stopped in the middle of the road, only to find out that a man had stopped to help a SLOTH that was crossing the road. Yes, a SLOTH. In Costa Rica, they don't have squirrels and opossums crossing the road....they have sloths cross the road. Picture will be in the next post.
• We found a small used book store nestled in the woods. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice and secluded, and air conditioned.

The ride in general was just incredible. I am going to go into more detail about this in a separate post, but I breathed slower, rode faster, and just soaked up every moment of the ride. It was awesome.

After our journey was over, we returned our bikes and hunted for the others. We found them eventually and all just hung out and then went looking for food later that evening. We ate at a nice restaurant and had casados again, which were scrumptious again. We headed back to our hostel to make a game plan after helping TC pick out some earrings for his girlfriend. Right as we got back, the rain started to POUR, and the electricity went out! It was awesome though, and it made us very sleepy. We all went to bed pretty early because the electricity was on and off, and we didn't really want to walk anywhere in the pouring rain.

On Sunday we got up early. KL went to run muy temprano, and AK disappeared, so ES and I went to the store to get something for breakfast. Right after we got back, everyone showed back up, and we all decided that since the weather was still kind of dreary that we were ready to leave earlier in the day than we had originally planned. We chose to take the 11 am bus. For 2 nights and 4 people, the hostel cost $16/person, and the accomodations were just fine. Can you believe that?! If you ever want to travel on a budget but still find good accomodations (you can certainly find more luxurious places than what we have been staying in), Costa Rica is the place to come! While we were waiting for the bus we went to a coffee place nearby, and met some girls from the US who are teachers in San Jose. While talking we discovered that one of them is the teacher for one of the children in a missionary family I know who is here in San Jose! Isn't that crazy?! What a small world! We exchanged information and told them that if they ever needed to get out of the city that they could come visit San Ramon, and they told us that we were welcome at their place as well! We boarded the bus and had a pleasant 4 hour ride back to San Jose. It passed rather quickly. We were giggly and happy, for some reason, and I think that KL and I were the 2 people on the bus that no one ever wants to sit near because we thought everything was funny! We had a good time, and finally made it back to San Jose and took a taxi back to the other bus station. We luckily were able to immediately get on a bus back to San Ramon, and we made it back in less than an hour, which was REALLY fast. It was COLD when we got back! KL came back to my house with me because her host family was gone for the day, so I made us some coffee and we had some snacks. We looked at pictures and watched a movie for a bit, and then she headed back to her house. My grandmother and one of my aunts came over for a while, so we all ate and talked together. We laughed a lot and had a great time. We later went to my uncle's house (the uncle who is married to my Spanish teacher) to take some medicine to one of them, and ended up staying there for an hour or so. I think they were ready for us to go because they normally go to sleep very early. My host dad just kept talking and talking to my uncle, and it was kind of funny because we all were trying to pull the two apart. I went to bed soon after we got back home, and got a good night of rest!

I think that sums up the weekend. Be sure to check out the pictures that I will post on here this afternoon! If you are my friend on Facebook, you can see ALL of them there!

Summing it up: Wednesday and Thursday of last week

Unfortunately there isn't much to tell about last Wednesday.

I had class from 8-10:30 or so, and then worked at school on my take-home exam until 12. I went home and ate lunch, and returned immediately to school to continue preparing my take-home exam and lesson for Thursday's Spanish lit class. MIF and I had a cafecito around 3 to take a break from studying, and then I went back to school where I studied until 5 or so. I then went with JW to the biblioteca (library) to study until it got dark, and then I went home to eat, and to still continue working. I stayed up until 11:30 or so when I just couldn't stay awake any longer, feeling good about what I had done, and ready to teach!

The class on Thursday went better than I expected. I vowed to myself Thursday morning that I would not be nervous, and somehow I wasn't. Instead I was excited to be able to teach the class and speak for so long in Spanish, because I really do love speaking the language. The teacher seemed to be very pleased and said that I did well! Hooray! And no one in the class fell asleep during my presentation, so I took that as a compliment as well. After class I returned home to eat lunch and finish my homework for my 1 pm Spanish class. I finished the homework rather quickly and took a nice little siesta before lunch. We had a quick lunch, and then I headed back for 3 1/2 hours of Advanced Spanish. It was fun and informative, and I finally feel like I am learning new things and applying them as much as I can. Afterwards I hung around and waited for dance class to start. Since our exam was that night, we just did 45 minutes of aerobics with our instructor (who is also apparently an aerobics teacher) which felt really nice! I then went home, showered, ate supper, packed and cleaned, and headed back to school around 8:30 to head to my "exam!" We met our professor at school and then Gerardo took us all to Night Fever, one of our favorite spots here, and we all hung out downstairs before going upstairs for the exam. When we arrived upstairs, no one was there, which was an unusual sight, but they let us chill in the VIP section until the "exam" began. Our instructor talked to the DJ who graciously played whatever we wanted since we were the only ones there. He played salsa and meringue that we all danced to for our exam. It was so much fun! I danced salsa with the instructor for a little while, which was a blast because he dances so well! It is fun being the girl because all you have to really do is keep up the rhythm and steps and let the guy twirl you around! I think I passed the exam, thankfully. ;-) We didn't stay long, and I was back home around 10:30. I finished packing and went to bed, and planned to blog but the internet wasn't working. I took advantage of the quiet of the evening and went to bed early to get a good night of rest.

SORRY!!!

I have blogged almost every day since I have been in Costa Rica, but last week the tables were turned. I know that my mother is probably wondering why on earth I have not updated it in almost a week! To put it plainly, last week was hellacious, work wise. The week in general was good, but I just had a LOT of work to do.

1. I had to complete a take-home exam for my Society & Environment class, which doesn't sound bad, and it wasn't. It was just incredibly time-consuming. I had to do a lot of research online and summarizing and all kinds of things, and it took up a lot of time.

2. On Tuesday, Claudia and I spent the entire day (8:45-4:45) at the hospital in a workshop for my internship. I had to do a lot of prep for that Monday night, and then a lot of follow-up work and research that I am STILL working on, and will be working on for a while, which is fine because I need the hours to count toward the internship!

3. On Thursday, I had to teach my Spanish literature class....in Spanish. The research was time-consuming, and then I had to prepare the lesson and questions, in addition to a thorough analysis of the text we had to read for the class. This took a lot of time and was a bit stressful, because I was nervous about having to talk for so long in good Spanish, since I was being graded on how well I spoke in addition to the content and accuracy of the information. This took up a LOT of time last week, because the project is 15% of my final grade, I believe, and I wanted to do well.

4. For Spanish class on Thursday, I had to read a chapter in the novel we are reading (in Spanish, claro) in addition to the other work for class that day.

5. Thursday I had class till 4:30, then dance class from 5-6, then my dance "exam" at 8:30. In between class and the exam I had to pack for the beach, get ready, and finish up some other random tasks so that I could go to the beach in paz.

Maybe this will help my mom understand why I didn't have a lot of time to Skype last week. I'm sorry, mom. :-( But hey, I get to see you on Thursday!!!!!!

Speaking of....

MY PARENTS ARE COMING TO VISIT ME THIS THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They are arriving in San Jose around 1 pm and will be driven to San Ramon where they will wait until I finish my classes for the day. I still have to work on our itinerary a bit so that they can see the best of Costa Rica!

Anyway, that sums up the busy-ness (or business) of last week, and I will be posting throughout the day with details of last week, in addition to details (and photos!) of my trip to the beach this past weekend!!!