Heading home soon....

Andy and I in Santa Teresa
Some of us before the sunset

The wonderful people I spent Thanksgiving with

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

So like everything in life…all good things come to an end. Last night and today all the wonderful people that I spent amazing days with and non stop laughter with have left. Now its just me, I take the bus to San Jose tomorrow afternoon, spent the night at a hostel and fly out on Sunday morning…

Its funny how things change, I was so nervous to come here, not knowing what to expect, who to meet, or where to live and I ended up meeting some of the most amazing people I’ve met in a while. I had an incredible roommate, okay almost two roommates cause Andy was always here, and we all had so many good conversations about anything and everything. I spent most of my time with five girls that honestly made the experience as great as it was, we laughed soo much it was ridiculous. I really do think that coming here has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.

But it does suck…it sucks soo much how you start something and you like it and enjoy it so much and then all of the sudden, sooner than you know its all gone. Now its back to California (which I do miss), but…I guess there is always a but. I have never been faced with the reality that we always want what we can’t have as much as I have here…and I just kept reminding myself so just enjoy the moment because everything comes to an end…and unfortunately nothing lasts forever. I am glad that the people I did get closer to live either in California (few of them go to school in Chico), Reno, and Arizona. So its good that we can all meet up if we really wanted to. And to all the other wonderful people that I met that are far away, it nice to know that if I’m ever in their home town I have a few friends here and there around the world.

Being home I’m sure will be really nice. The only thing that I don’t want to do is stay here until tomorrow because Puntarenas just isn’t the same without the people…it feels lonely. Today I’ll lay out for a while, read and enjoy the last hot day before going to cold weather wearing sweaters and jeans (but its going to be nice waking up and being cold). Other than that I think I’ll finish packing and cleaning the house because tomorrow the landlord is coming to give me the deposit money back and so I can turn in the keys. He is going to be nice enough to drive me to the bus station tomorrow so I don’t have to carry the suitcase around.

I was telling Jaime the other day that it really sucks meeting people and knowing you probably wont ever see them again. Its not that you don’t want to its just that everyone has their own lives and we all just were a tiny part of those peoples lives. I guess its nice at the same time though, like Jaime was saying because you enjoy the time for what it is and then you can always go visit or they can come visit and I guess reminisce the good times and hopefully plan for more to come somewhere down the road.

Being alone is what I wanted when I came here…to get away from everything I knew. Now thinking back, that lasted for about a few hours and slowly I started meeting the people that made this experience what it was and at the end I’m leaving this place with some good friendships, and incredible memories…

So as of now…50 something hours till I come home!

Last couple of weeks in October

Saturday night celebrating Halloween at the house next to school

A thusday at my house, getting ready to go out

Riding the bus back from San Jose to Puntarenas...we had a little party of our own, ha it was soo funny!

The church that we went to visit on our way back from San Jose, this is where the Virgin was believed to be seen and where millions of people come every Aug 2nd.

So time is going by incredibly fast...I now only have about a month and a half before I head back to the states, damn! (at the same time is nice though, cause I do want to see my family and friends)...actually it was a month and a half when I started writing this but its now exactly a month and 2 days...



It feels like we havent done too much in the past few weeks. Towards the middle of October, it rained a lot so the roads were floated which meant we couldnt really go anywhere...



A couple of weeks ago we had a field trip with my Latin American cultures class. About 20 of us went to San Jose friday October 24th, stayed the night and came back on saturday. As soon as we got there we headed towards the National Theater. It was pretty nice, and well kept... the inside was full of art and so were the cealings. From there we went to the National Museum where we did more walking to see some really old things that told the history of Costa Rica.



We all stayed at a little Bed and Breakfast that night. Some people decided to go to a performance at the theater and others decided to stay at the hotel and wait till the rest of them got back (which is what I did). That night we played some cards and king's cup (which has become one of the favortie games here) and eventually headed to a place called "El Pueblo". We werent there too long before we decided to head back and call it a night...I thought it was a little too intense and being one of the only tourists there didnt feel that great.



Saturday morning our teacher picked us up in the little mini bus and took us to his house. By the way, the teacher's name is Arturo, he is also the one that took us to the Isla de Venado for the weekend at the beggining of the semester. He is pretty much one of the best teachers I've had...Anyway, he and his wife made us tons of food for breakfast and we just hung out by his house for a couple of hours. It was actually really nice being there for a while though because some of us were throwing a football around in the street (it was a gated community so it felt like we were back in the states for a little, no bars on windows so it felt totally safe) Anyway we were throwing a football around so it really just seemed like a sunday, it felt like we should have had a BBQ and hung out with family and friends the entire day...BUT that was short lived! We cleaned up and started heading to our next destination which was a Church called "Basilica de los Angeles"

The chuch white, big and a little intimidating...I walked to this one spot where it is believed that the Virgin appeared there and they turned that one spot into a fountain that has Holy water. I thought it was interesting how much faith some of these people had because Arturo was telling us that on August 2nd about I dont remember how many million people come to this church and ask or thank the Virgin for whatever it may be thats going on with their lives. They get there and then fill water botles with the water to take it home and use (I 'm not sure for what).

Anyway, what I thought was really cool was the fact that I walked inside the church cause I felt like it had been forever since the last time I was at any church...As soon as I stepped in I was totally overwhelmed with this feeling inside me, I dont know how to explain it but all I could go was almost start crying...it was the weirdest, strongest feeling so I just sat there for a little while and prayed...something I felt was needed...

Oh, one more thing I found super interesting about this place was the fact that people were walking on their knees from the door to the altar as some type of sacrifice...

Okay, so the weekend after that it was Halloween...people dont celebrate Halloween here so all the students that are here in Costa Rica (from Heredia, and San Ramon, and Puntarenas) went to this one open place in San Ramon. It was SUPER pretty...it was really green and there was a creek flowing by. We didnt have class that friday (nobody did) So everyone went to this one place like around noon and we stayed there till like 10pm. By the time we got back in to the Punt it was passed midnight.

That was friday...on saturday I went to this beach called Caldera with my roomate and some other guys. People like going to this beach pretty often because its pretty good for surfing....Saturday night there was a party at the house thats next door to the school and we just hung out for a while...

The week went by super fast like usual doing a lot of nothing but reading, eating ice cream (we have been doing that kinda often, they sell it everywhere), going to class for 3 hours a day and just hanging out!

Mmm...this past weekend we went to Monteverde and went on the Zip line but I'll talk about that more on the next blog cause its getting late and I'm kinda tired of writing...

Good night!

10/15/2008

I’m sitting here at Jaron—the restaurant that’s two doors away from the school. We have learned to spend a lot of time here….they have internet, and drinking a hot cup of coffee when its been raining outside for the past 4 days doesn’t sound that bad…at least it’s a lot better than walking home in the rain

I’m listening to a little bit of country cause I haven’t done that in a while, (considering I forgot my ipod at home) so youtube and music videos do the trick…

I cant believe I have already been here almost two months….and I now have exactly 2 more months before I go back to reality, where I will no longer have endless hours to do absolutely nothing, or better said where I will no longer have endless hours to just read a good book, write on a journal every once in a while, and enjoy the feeling of not having plans or things I have to do every hour of the day...where I will no longer just be able to come up with plans for the day or the weekend spontaneously, planning will be a major part of activities all over again, because school, work and countless other activities overtake our every day lives

Yesterday I signed up for classes…I’m taking a total of 21 units, one class during intersession in January, and six other classes during the semester…but what else can I do, I need to graduate, right? Or walk for that matter cause I still have a pending semester, and that’s the only way I’ll actually get done in time. But when I say in time, in time for what exactly? I’m only 21…that’s the funny part about being here, I have come to realize over and over again that we are sooo pressured to do things by a certain age, school, work, marriage, kids and so on…But after getting done with school I’m just going to take my time to keep enjoying life for what it is, whatever that is…


Haha, so in other words I guess I really enjoy just being here it’s almost like getting away from the real world.

So a quick recap on the last couple of weeks::

Most of USAC and I went to a place called Tortuguero, where we got to see a huge turtle lay eggs and little baby turtles coming out of the sand…we spent 2 nights there and from there we made our way to Bocas del Toro, in Panama. In Panama we took a few tours where we got to see amazing beaches…it was like being at those places that you see in pictures that you say “ I wanna go there someday” and we were actually there so it was pretty amazing, I definitely felt spoiled…We also got to snorkel at see tons of little fish, and one of them followed this guy Sam for like 30 minutes, it was sooo funny! It stayed like 3 inches away from his swimming shorts the whole time

When we got back on Thursday we decided we wanted to take it slow that weekend so on Saturday morning we took the bus to San Jose to watch a movie at the movie theater….haha, so yeah we drove for 1 ½ hours to watch a movie, but it was soo worth it! We stayed the night, and watched another movie on Sunday (movies here are only $3) and then came back to Puntarenas.

This past Friday I went to San Ramon with one of my classes, we went to a coffee plantation and bought some Costa Rican coffee! Oh and we also went to some factory where they were processing sugar canes into this candy thing, it was pretty interesting. On Saturday Katie, Kim, Emily and I decided to go to La Fortuna, it’s a town where the active volcano Arenal is at. We didn’t see any lava cause we didn’t take the tour at night…it was raining. But we could see it from where we were staying so it was pretty cool. On Sunday morning we did a hike…it was super pretty! It was like 2 hours uphill but at the top of the mountain in the crater there was a lake…totally worth all the pain and sore legs that the four of us are in today! On the way up its was what you would picture Costa Rica to be like…super dense forests and green everywhere…

That’s about it for now…I’m not sure what the plans are for this weekend but I’m thinking that we might just stay here and take a little break from traveling…but at the same time I’ll feel like I’m wasting time if I don’t go anywhere….we’ll see.

Puerto Viejo and Panama

September 20th, 2008

Jaime was here this week, it was fun, we went to a place called Puerto Viejo (which is in the Caribbean). Puerto Viejo was really Rastafarian looking…weed stuff everywhere, one love, and green yellow and red stuff, it had a different vibe but I liked it. From there we went to Panama to a place called Bocas del Toro. We took a tour to these really pretty islands that had white sands with turquoise water…gorgeous! Oh! We also went bungee jumping…it was pretty awesome! Oh…we spend prpbaby about 2 full days in busses traveling from one place to the next, but it was worth it though!It was super cool to see how people live with soo much less and are just as happy...I think thats one of the main things that I was reminded of this week...

Right now (Tuesday 22nd) Im in my Spanish class and Im about to go crazy! We’re going over “ser and estar” WoW! And the teacher talks soo slowww….

So Jaime brought the new camera for me and after a week of working just fine the battery wont charge the camera, its weird cause ill turn on to view the pictures but as soon as you try to change the mode to be able to take pictures, it just turns off…Horrible luck, I had to have him take it back, he brought the headset too so that’s cool though cause now I can talk to people through skype!

You know whats really cool about going to places we went to this week?? That we met tons of travelers or backpackers that are either traveling th world, or through central America so everone talks about the places they’ve been and how much they loved it, so it just makes me want to travel more! In Panama like 6 of us (everyone in our hostel room) bought stuff to make dinner and they’re the ones that went to the Island tour with us!

In another note…I’m thinking about Chico every once in a while, I really miss the feeling of walking through our pretty campus, wearing a sweatshirt, drinking hot chocolate or coffee…and of course the people too…I cant wait to go out with everyone overthere!


Until the next update…take care everyone and hope everyone is enjoying the fall semester!

Check out pics on facebook, I update those pretty often, theres some on myspece too but not as updated..

Santa Teresa and Venado Island

Hey there! 9-10-2008

So I’m sitting at my dinner table attempting to do some homework but my nose is killing me…I don’t know if I’m allergic to something or what it is but I have a semi runny nose, and I keep sneezing for the past 2 days…ughhh! And…I’m venting a little BUT…since last week weird things are happening to my body. A week ago (sat) I had this ugly, weird dryness right under my nose (above my lip) and it lasted like 4 days…Then, over this trip to Venado Island and Santa Teresa (Ill talk about the trip more in a bit) I had this little bubble looking this on my chin, when it popped it was just water but then it just got really red. And eventually peeled (I figured out that Neosporin got rid of the thing on my nose so I used it on my chin…) then the same thing on my jaw on the left side and another on my right cheek (today I only have one left on my jaw) but in a course of 2 weeks I counted 26 of these weird red circles…tons in my right leg, a couple in my arm, and so on…(I think I need to go to the dermatologist) AnYwAy…to top it off I was dancing the like a week ago and my big toe nail is about to fall off, someone foot hit it, oh and theres something wrong with my ear (first it was the right one, and now it’s the left) AND my stomach was feeling horrible a few days ago…WTF??? I almost laugh about it now that I’m writing about it cause its just too many things going wrong at once. That’s not to say that I’m not happy…I love it here!

But on a better note…what happened this week?? Chriss and I went grocery shopping but we were careful on the number of bags we would end up with so the same thing that happened the first time would happen again, haha!

This weekend we went (as a fieldtrip) to an island that not many people go to (tourists at least). We took the same ferry we too to Montezuma and from there we went on this little motor boats for like 45 minutes into the Island called Venado. Mind you the total population of the island was about 1,200 (talk about small town). When we got there out teacher had a bunch of random stuff for us to have for lunch (it was like 30 of us) from there…oh! We stayed in these tiny rooms that fit about 4 people per room (bed bunks) that had 1 bathroom and 1 shower for like 7 rooms with no running water…ha! I took a shower in someone else’s sleeping area. So…we attempted to do fishing that same day (Friday) with these nets, (well, we didn’t do it but we watched how some of the locals did it), I say attempted cause we only caught 1 little fish, 2 crabs (small) and 1 HUGE shrimp. So, since we didn’t catch anything after enjoying the views we went ack to the island.

Our teacher had told us to bring toys or whatever for the local kids, so we got whatever we ended up buying for them, I bought some coloring books and chalk, and met the kids at a school. There were 50-60 of them just sitting there waiting for us to give them stuff…it was cool, they were happy. That night we went to the local bar (probably the only bar) and just danced till the bar started to close, oh and I saw a fight between 2 ticos (that’s what people from Costa Rica call themselves).

The next day, instead of going back home, like 20 of us or so decided to do to this place called Santa Teresa, (its in the pacific side, in the Nicoya Peninsula). Our teacher had arranged for the little boats to pick us up from Venado Island and take us to where 2 mini-van taxis were waiting for us. THEN, we took those for almost 3 hours until we finally got to Santa Teresa. The drive was super pretty though, but SuPeR bUmPy. Most of the streets here are full of holes (at least the streets that take you to far places) so its funny how the drivers go way of the right side or way on the left side of the street to where sometimes you just feel like the whole car is just going to flip over!

Once we got to Santa Teresa, we found a hostel, we stayed at this place called “Casa Zen”, it was actually super pretty, if you guys ever come I would love to take you there, besides the fact that the beach was really close too. The hostel had hammocks in the 2nd story and there was this other area with pillows and stuff above the restaurant area…(its hard to explain). ..Anyway, that day we spent the day in Santa Teresa and we just waled into town to check it out, it’s a surferish kinda town and its really pretty. We liked it soo much that like 10 of us decided to stay an extra night. So basically all day Sunday we spent just laying out at the beach (under the palm trees cause it was too hot), this guy named Andy was playing his guitar and the rest of us were just laying there reading or just enjoying everything around us. It was so calm and so quiet apart from the waves and the guitar…I loved it! That night we got some pasta and spaguetti sauce and a pineapple, oh and some bread and we split the cost between 6 of us, and we cooked there, so it was basically the cheapest dinner ever! That night we also has a bonfire at the beach, BUT again, it was waay too hot. Oh! And we saw all these little crabs…they were everywhere! It was crazy, apparently they really like lime cause there were like 20 crabs surrounding a piece of lime.

Monday morning, we took the bus back to Puntarenas at like 6am and got the 8am ferry. Hmmm…what else?? Last week was good. Sept 8-12th was just school. Oh! I went to a 3rd grade classroom to met the kids and the teacher that I’ll be volunteering with to each English or help with English.

I need to keep up with writing 1 letter a week because its really hard trying to remember everything that happened 2 weeks ago.

Today is Friday the 19th, so everything above happened like 2 weeks ago already.

Second week

So…today is august the 31st, and August has already gone by fast, isnt it?!

As of today I’ve been here a little over a week. This weekend was a lot of fun. So this weekend started on Thursday for me cause I don’t have class Thursday’s. We had made plans on like Tuesday I think, to go to Jaco which is a beach where a lot of people fo surf but I later learned that that is a really Americanized beach. Anyways…plans changed and Thursday about 1:00pm we headed to a place called Montezuma. We took a ferry (for like @1:50) which was about 1 ½ hours to a place called Paquera, from there we hopped on a bus that was extremely crowded to MOnetezuma which took about another 2 hours cause it stopped at like 4 different places. Ho and the bus was like 2 dollares so it was super cheap!It was 14 of us that ended up going so it was def a good crowd. As soon as we got there we started going p this massive hill looking for a hostel (we did ass a few but none had anough room for 14 people). We ended up finding one on the was back down, more towards the bars and restaurants for like 10.00 per person so that was cheap too. After we put our stuff down we grabbed some food (pizza) and right before we were done eating, the power went out! It was like 7ish so it was already dark so we kinda just sat there with candles. Oh! And it was raining outside too.

Oh! Really quick…on the bus ride to Montezuma, it totally it totally reminded me of the movie “touristas” because it was a bunch of young people, not from Costa Rica, gong to a place we had no previous knowledge of, plus, mind you it had rained so it was kinda muddy and we were going down a super “steep, rocky, and trying to curve” looking street! Ha, ha! Okay. Anyway, after dinner we bought some been at the grocery store and hung out in our hostel (it was 2 people per room with a fan, so it wasn’t bad) Later around 9ish or 10ish we walked to a bar called “Chicos’s” there, they were playing Reggae music and it was right by beach so it was pretty cool!

Okay…the next day (fiday) we found out that no buses were heading back to Paquera (which we needed to be there by 7:30pm to take the ferry) so we finally figured out some taxi mini van deal that would take all 14 of us back. After we did that, we started our hike to the waterfalls. It was some crazy hiking! Half way I was bare fot because of all the mud between my feet and my sandals was making it super slippery, it was pretty steep at parts too. The group split, some of us went hiking closer to the watr and others started going more towards the uphill. Sooner than later , wemade it to this rocks kind of in the middle of the river but we thought we coulnt get any further because there was water EveRyWheRe…We were barely able to see the waterfall until this guy (Will) decided to just get in the water (we were in our bathing suits) and swim to some other rocks and go from there. Long story short after he came ack from being literally behind this huge waterfall, the 4 of us told him to go again and so we followed him into the water and to about 5 ft max from where all the water was falling!! It was soo beautiful cause everything around was soo green! There was even another little waterfall coming fom the mountain that had water coming out. BUT I coulnt take any pictures because oviously of the fact that we went swimming and because of the mist…BumMer!!on the walk back we were hopping that it didn’t rain because it it rains here everyday, even though its still super hot. Thank God it dint rain because we ended up crossing the river one way, walking until we coulnt go anymore cause og how steep it was, then crossing it back. It was funny seeing 4 girsls and one guy going across the river, making kind of an assembly line to pass the backpacks from one rock to another cause we had stuff in there that we didn’t want to get wet! So afer a while of hiking, swimming, and sliding in the mud…we made it back! We had adrink or two while we waitied for everyone else, which it was a hiile because they ended up going to this other spot where you can jump off the waterfall (a different one). I’llpost people’s pictures so you can see them. We also went swimming at the beach when we hiked back down. I don’t know if I already said this, but the beach was gorgeous! Because of the rockson the side view, the jungle in the back and we even saw a rainbow!!
The taxi was witing for us around 6 so around that time we started our journey back to Puntarenas.

Saturday…there was tour that was included in what we had already paid in tuition so I took advantage and we wnt on some type of nature hike like 1 hour from here, and after that we went on some river in a boat and saw crocodiles! We got soo close to them, actually too close! They were literally right next to the little boat.. They were HuGe too!
So yeah, last night we went out to a bar and then we went to a place that had salsa music…we were there dancing till like 2:30 am …it was tons of fun but God it was a long night! Haha!

And that brings us to today…SUnDaY. We watched a futbol game today. Theres a little stadium like 2 blocks from my house and apparently it was this huge deal and so we went to the game. It was pretty col watching how much into it people were. There were people playing drums, yelling and screaming. But I have never in my life sweted as much as a did ttoday….it was gross how hot is was, especially with the humidity. Some days I think im used to it but im really not. The game was over, Puntarenas won! And a few of us went out to lunch from there. Other than that, im ready for school again tomorrow 1-4…not too bad. The class im in has some tours that I already told you about to I think thm going to go for it and pay the extra $200.00. oh! And guess?! I think im going to have another camera because mine runs out of batteries ridicously fast like it wont even last 1 day…and we’re gong to go to soo many beautiful places, its super annoying not being able to take pictures like all or most of the ones from this weekend I’m going to have to steal from other people. So that kinda sucks but at the same time I’m sure in the long run I’ll be glad I spent a little eextra money for the memories!

The first week

So as you know, I’m writing all the way from Puntarenas, Costa Rica!! Its been an interesting couple of days…we got to San Jose like at about noon and waited for the group flight that got there at around 1:00pm by the time I got the san Jose I had already met (thank God) a few people that were catching the same flight as I was and they were young so we figured we were all from USAC, there was about 5 of us.
We took the bus to Puntarenas, it was about a 11/2 to 2 hour drive…there were so many mountains and trees, everything sooo green! So Puntarenas (like I expected) it’s a super small town, very dirty (trash everywhere) and life here is super simple. It reminds me a lot of Mexico, there’s always people in the streets. As soon as I got out of the bus, everyone’s “families” were waiting outside…before getting in the bus, I met one guy who’s name is Chriss, he’s from Reno and the only one that didn’t have a family either…so when I figured that out, we agreed that we would look for places together, and so we did.
When we got to Puntarenas we checked out a few apartments, they showed us a one room apartment cause I guess they thought we were together, and then we looked at a two room which was tiny, everything in that place seemed minimized in size, and we ended up with a little house (not so little compared to everything else). It has three rooms, a VERY narrow/long bathroom, living room, a kitchen/dining room, its not bad at all. Rent is $600.00/month so that’s only $300.00 per person, but we’re hoping that someone else gets tired of their host family so they can move in and that would drop the rent to $200.00 each, which would be perfect! If not then maybe we can talk to the land lord about renting the place to $500.00 total instead of 600. The house was already furnished with everything that you would need: 2 beds in each room (in two of them) sheets and everything (of course I did bring my own), a little tv(which we found out it doesn’t work), chairs in the living room, a dining table with chairs, fridge, microwave, toaster, pots, pans, plates…etc. So of course that was super nice! So basically by 7:30pm we already had a place to stay that same day. Oh! The one bad thing is that we don’t have a phone so getting a hold of anybody is ridiculous…we just walk down the street and hope we find someone out (which they usually are at least 5-10 people out.) The house is 4 blocks away from the school (to the left) and 2 blocks away from where all the restaurants and bars are right across the street (which is where the beach is so I live a whole 2 minute walk from the beach!! The school is also right across the street from the beach so on breaks or whatever we can just walk down.

So…Friday night we went out to check out the town and had a couple of beers an walked hoping to see other people from USAC, after a while we did. There are about 5 other people that got here about a week before everyone else and they all rented a house that is literally right next door to the school…so we went there and they were all having little party, they’re house is kinda cool cause they even have a pool…after that we went to town (again) and went to some bar with one of the locals (someone’s host brother). I keep saying “we” cause Chriss and I got only one set of keys until Monday so we were basically attached to the hip all weekend.
On Saturday I woke up and I read Scotts birthday card. It was really nice to have something to read! I got one from my mom too so that made me a little teary eyed too…I had told people that is was my B-day the day before so we were supposed to go to those people’s house after and have a party but I never made is cause we were at some fiesta (someone’s host grandma’s B-day) we were there from like 4:30pm cause they told Andy (Chriss’s friend) to be there at that time but we didn’t take a taxi till like 5:30 and the actual party didn’t start till 7:30 or 8pm. ((that is called Tico time)) people from Puntarenas are called Ticos, and they have the same mentality on time as Mexican’s do, they say one time but in reality its like ½ hour to 1 hour later…Anyway, by the time we left the party (around10:30pm) people at the house had already left and were out at the bars…they said they bought me a little cake and I felt horrible because I wasn’t even there…We were all at this bar with life “reggae music” it was tons of fun! I didn’t have to pay for one drink cause it was my birthday and everyone was super nice about it.
Oh! We went grocery shopping earlier that day, we walked for like 10 blocks an didn’t think about carrying the bags on the way back, so we were walking (Criss and I) with like 10 bags, 2 huge water jugs and a 12 pack…some lady saw us struggling and offered to help us, so her son took the water jugs in his bike while she helped us carry like 3 bags, so that was super nice of them!
Today is Sunday…we had orientation from 10 something till like 4 something, and before that we took a tour around the tiny town. Oh! In the orientation they were telling us that going to Cuba from here is super cheap, apparently $400.00 for a whole week including transportation, lodge and food…we’ll see, it would be kinda cool but we’ll see.
So here is my schedule: Mon class 1-4pm, Tuesday class 8-11, and 4-6 (a dancing class!) , wed class 8-11, no class thurs unless I decide to add this one class which I’m debating, and Friday class 8-11… How perfect is that?? I don’t think I’m gonna know what to do with all that free time, I’m used to going to school, working, sorority stuff, boyfriend, ect…busy busy busy. And now its like okay, I guess I’ll read a book, or sit here and write my life story in the past few days, and just travel on the weekends…I think I can definitely get used to that!
mmm…what else?? We had a few people over a little wile ago and then we went to some bar just to hang out with like 10 people or so. “Downtown” is 2 blocks away from our house and so is the beach!
Its sooo humid here. I take a shower in out super narrow bathroom and getting ready is pointless cause I’m sweting by the time I’m done! I have 2 fans in mu room on at all times!
Haha! They weren’t kidding when they said they didn’t have street singns, not one house has numbers and not one stret has a sing so its really weird, I wonder how people get mail and nills and stuff?! I

I have some pics up in my room so its nice seeing familiar faces every day!

Today Monday was the first day of class. I didn’t start class till 1:00pm so I cant complain. I had a class in Latin American Culture that lasted till 4:00pm. The teacher talked about all these awesome fieldtrips that can be added for $200.00 and it gives you 1 unit…so I’m kinda thinking about it but I first have to put the money for rent aside and then figure out how much money I would have left and go from there. Two of them would be overnight fieldtrips and one would be a one day flied trip. I think he said one was to a coffee plantation, one was overnight in San Jose, and one was to some islands that are kinda hidden (also overnight). Today it started raining sooo much, lightning, thunder, wind, and tons of rain, and tons of wind…crazy! I took some pictures but they don’t make justice… After class I went to the house next door and went swimming for a little bit, four of us decided to go get some food (I got café con leche) and we sat there waiting for the rain to stop…it never did! So we decided to just start running from the restaurant to our own houses! I was just running with my backpack, wearing a skirt, a spaghetti strap and sandals…haha I was laughing at myself! I was only like 5 blocks away but by the time I got home I was completely socked! Considering the fact that I ran the wrong way for like a block before I figured it out…haha. Later on today we went to the house with the pool again and some of us were thinking about going to this place called Jaco on thurs (cause we don’t have class, cuase we’re in the advanced spanish)

Oh one more thing…I have a gate before getting into the fron porch, a gate before the door and then the actual door…imagine forgetting something! It’s 3 locks to go through!! I’ll update everyone in the weeks to come…

So far its been great though! Everyone is super nice and life is super slow which I love!