CUBA

Wow, can you believe it? Thirteen days until I am home! Time flies thats for sure!

Here my plan for the next 13 days.

Tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. I am meeting the rest of my group to go to CUBA!

Yes, I am going to CUBA. I am really excited and I have no idea what to expect. I don't really know much on what we are doing. However, I do know that I will be learning a TON of information. I also know that we get to go to the beach for a couple of days. How great is that?

Here is a schedule so that you are aware of what country I am in and when!

April 18-April 27: CUBA

April 27 night: spend night in Costa Rica at a hotel

April 28: fly back to the U.S. (Miami)

April 29: debriefing time with the entire group in Miami

April 30: HOME TO 21093!

I will see you in 13 days!

Life in Esquipulas

Hi everyone! It has been awhile since I have written! I am doing very well. I have been in my new house for over two weeks and I have less than a week! Wow, time sure flies. Three weeks and I am home!
Well, my new house is located just about an hour away from San Jose in a place called Esquipulas, Palmares. Palmares is a small city with grocery stores, a market, and a nice park with a beautiful Catholic Church. I live in Esquipulas which is a small town surrounding Palmares. There are small stores all around but for the most part Esquipulas is quieter than Palmares and MUCH quieter than San Jose but it isn’t rural either!
ANYWAY, my house is located right across the street from where I work. I work everyday in a primary school called, Escuela Julia Fernandez Rodriguez. There are lots of kids from kindergarten to sixth grade. There are a group of thirty-some teachers and I work with three of them. Mainly, I work with three women, Julia, Cindy, and Andrea. My day normally starts out with Julia at 8:30. She works with first through third graders. I am with her for three or four lessons. I don’t really do as much with the younger kids because they don’t know as much English so our communication is very limited. Then, everyday from 10:00-11:00, I am with Andrea in the kindergarten classrooms. There are two classes: one class is a delight the other is horrible. Andrea and I both leave there shaking our heads because the kids are wild! We sing fun songs together and the kids are so cute! Funny story: One day we were learning the words, “boys” and “girls” and one little boy said he knew the word girl from the song, “I’m a Barbie Girl” and he started singing it. Don’t ask me how a little boy who speaks hardly any English knows that song! It was hilarious! Anyway, from 11:00-12:25, I have a lunch break. I come back to the house and eat lunch and relax. I go back to school to work with Cindy for the afternoon, usually at about 12:25. She teaches fourth through sixth graders. These classes are more fun because I can actually participate. There are some interesting students but overall, the students are eager to learn and are excited that I am there. Although lots of students don’t understand why I don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes if I am from the United States? It’s really funny!
At night, I don’t really do much. I normally am here with my family just relaxing. I live with three women. I basically have two “moms”. Elisa is technically my host mom. She is super quiet but, really nice. Betty is her sister. She is really nice and although she is still quiet, she talks a little bit more! Magally is Betty’s daughter and she is 22. She takes me out and I have met some of her friends!

Life here is really chill. This whole week, I was off of school because it is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. The majority of the people in Costa Rica are Catholic so this week is really important. There are celebrations everyday. My family is Catholic and I even went to mass last Sunday. I was pretty lost but it was still cool to see a different way to worship God. I have also gone to “prayers” with my family which are AWESOME. Last Saturday night, I went to one with Magally just for young people and I understood the majority of it.

Four Cool Things I have gotten to do:
1) Two weekends ago, I went to a volcano! Volcan Arenal! It was beautiful and everyone said that I was so lucky because I got to actually see the volcano because usually it is really cloudy around it. I have so many beautiful pictures of it! While I was there, I got to swim in a hot spring! It is so weird that the water was warm and in some parts hot! I felt like I was taking a bath.
2) Last Sunday, I went with some family to Naranjo, a neighboring city/town. It was completely overwhelming with lots of family members but, we got to do something really cool! We went for a “hike” basically up this mountain to a tomato farm. We picked tomatoes and I was basically covered in dirt from head to toe! It felt great to do some exercise and it was fun to climb a mountain only to find lots of tomatoes at the top! I told my family all about how we have places like this only for apples. They thought that was really cool!
3) One night last week, I went to Cindy’s (the teacher who I work with) house In San Ramon. She lives with her husband, Gustavo in this brand new house! It is beautiful. Cindy took me to Puntarenas, which is a beach with some of her teacher friends. This beach was a little bit different than the beach I went to with my friends for Spring Break. It was more developed and definitely not as pretty. We were only there for a short time and we didn’t sit on the beach BUT, we got to see the soccer team of Puntarenas (I think) work out on the beach. They are basically like a professional soccer team and it was really cool. It was super hot too; I don’t know how they were surviving!
4) I have gotten to cook a lot too! My host “moms” are very good cooks and they make empanadas and tamales to sell to people. Making each of them is an all day process that I have loved learning about. Don’t worry I have lots of pictures!

Hasta Luego!

Hi everyone! I can't believe how fast time is flying. I am leaving tomorrow morning for my concentration for 24 days! Like I explained before, I will be teaching English and living with another family. I will more than likely not be able to use the internet so I will not be updating for awhile. However, I will leave you with a few pictures of me and my host family here in San Jose. We took a lot of pictures today! Tonight I cooked dinner for my family: Millie's chicken and mashed potatoes! For dessert, a vanilla cake with chocolate icing and caramel ice cream! They seemed to really enjoy it. I did too because it was a little taste of HOME.

I hope you all are doing well. Thanks to those who are reading my blog. It really means a lot that you would take time out of your busy day to read about me.

I'll miss you, Mom, Dad, and Beau!

Talk to you in 24 days :)

The Next Step!

Today we had our orientation about the next step in our program. This step is called our concentrations. My concentration is called Latin American Studies Concentration and there are about twenty of us who are all spread out over Costa Rica doing some kind of work in a community and living with a different family. I leave on Monday, March 23 and I return to San Jose on Wednesday, April 15!

I will be living in a small town called Esquipulas which is about an hour bus ride from San Jose. I am living with a 53 year-old woman and her 43 year-old sister. My “mom” is apparently a very quiet woman who is really nice but hardly talks at all. My teachers told me that this is going to be an additional challenge in my trip. I will also be working at a school called, Escuela Julia Fernandez Rodriguez. At this school, I will work as an assistant to the English Professors. The children I will work with will be between ages 6 and 12. Apparently, the two teachers that I work with are wonderful women and will actually let me help (which is great I won’t just have to sit there for three weeks!). My house is right across the street from the school which works out great-no commute!

I am a little nervous as this part of the trip comes closer because I will most likely have no contact with any people from my group or my family at home! But, I also think that I am ready for a challenge such as this. I feel comfortable enough in my Spanish that I can navigate a new place. I also feel comfortable living with a new family, especially because I will be living with two women who I can’t wait to get to know!

I will update before I leave but please keep my entire group in your prayers as we all venture out into the unknown for 24 days!

A Much-Needed Rest: Spring Break!

After Nicaragua, we were given a short four day spring break: a time of relaxation and rest! For my spring break I decided to go to the beach with my friends.

I went with four other girls to a beach called Jaco. Everything worked out so well with the bus and our hostel. The bus ride was about two hours and after a little bit of wandering we found our hotel, Centro Vacacional Bancosta Playa Jaco. It was made up of little cabins with three pools! The best part was it was RIGHT on the beach. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning we went for walks on the beach, swam in the ocean and the pool, explored the town, and ate at some cool restaurants. The beach was absolutely beautiful. It is cool being at the beach and seeing the mountains at the same time. On Monday night, we found a huge log and sat on it and watched the sunset. It was beautiful!

The town itself was very touristy and it was weird to hear so much English. Almost all of the workers knew English but we were very proud of the Spanish we could speak so we wanted to speak in Spanish. Since the area was so full of tourists, we did a lot of shopping and I got some cool souvenirs for my family back in the U.S.

This trip was great and exactly what I needed before I begin the next part of the trip! However, it was weird for me to get back into what seemed like the American culture so fast after leaving Nicaragua. I spent the week in Nicaragua learning about a different way of life and I so easily go back into the culture that I feel most comfortable in. I hope and pray that I will be able take what I have learned and make actual changes in my life!

My Family in Nicaragua

Here is a video with my family members from Nicaragua! Sorry if you can't understand it but basically they are just explaining their names and how old they are!

Nicaragua

From March 2nd to March 13, I was in the beautiful country of Nicaragua. My trip was broken up into three parts so that is how I will explain it! So many things happened that I am having difficulty summarizing everything. Feel free to ask me questions for more information!

Managua:
On Monday March 2, 2009, I woke up at 4:45 am and made my way to the bus station. Our whole group took a tour bus, TransNica, together. We spent the entire day on the bus and we arrived 10 hours later around 5:00 p.m. in Managua, Nicaragua. Managua is the nation’s capital. The whole feel of Nicaragua is different than Costa Rica. Life seems more easy going and not as busy. The people are friendly and have a different accent (which was hard to understand at times). We spent Tuesday and Wednesday as what I call academic tourists. We heard from many speakers (three who went to Messiah, which was pretty cool!). We visited many of the important locations in Managua. Since I wrote my paper about the Revolution in Nicaragua, it was especially cool to see the places in real life! Overall, I really enjoyed Managua!

Home Stay:
Thursday morning marked my first day of the home stay. Most of the group traveled to communities way out in the country of Nicaragua, but I chose to go to a small town, called Masaya, with 7 others from my group. We had about a 45 minute bus ride to Masaya. We all met at a place called Alternativa, which is a micro-credit loan place that assists people in starting their own business because work is so incredibly hard to find in Nicaragua.
We met our families and off we went! My family was rather large, with a Dad (Flavio) and a Mom (Jacqueline). I had three brothers, Flavio (13), Marvin (10), and Henry (8) and a little sister, Jacqueline (3). What a crew! They were so great and I especially fell in love with Jacqueline. We must have colored every page of her coloring books together. She kept forgetting my name and so she would called me Gringa!
Anyway, my family owns their own shoe business. They hand make shoes for women and children. They make flats and high heels that are absolutely beautiful! There are about seven employees, all male! I worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, in the workshop. I did lots of different small jobs but mostly I used a lot of glue! It was really interesting and really difficult to work with someone in another language but it was especially difficult to work with all men. In Central America, the woman is sometimes looked down upon and only her physical characteristics are noticed. This was an interesting thing to look at and experience. I am not going to lie, I felt uncomfortable a lot of the time, but I think that I definitely learned a lot!
On Sunday, we went to this beautiful lookout point, called Catarina, where I saw a volcano and one of the lakes in Masaya. On Monday, we went and saw the other lake and the other volcano. Definitely breathtaking. I also learned how to cook los rosqillas, which are little tortilla type things. I rolled the dough and everything. I also got to go to preschool with Jacqueline. Wow, it was nuts! Twenty some three-year-olds with one teacher.
This experience was the most difficult yet most rewarding weeks of my life. I was out of my comfort zone the majority of the time but I learned so much about Nicaragua, the people and culture and even myself. I still have a lot of thoughts going on in my head and I am not quite sure what to do with all of this. I was really blessed with a fun family who loved to talk and ask me questions about life in the United States.

Granada:
On Wednesday morning, we said goodbye to our families and took a bus to Granada. I absolutely LOVED this city. It was really old with beautiful buildings and nice people. We stayed in a super nice hostel with a pool! We basically had two free days to do whatever we wanted. I explored the city and went shopping and ate at some cool restaurants. On Friday, we were on the bus to go back to Costa Rica by 7:00 a.m. and I arrived back at my Costa Rican house around 6:30 p.m! It was a long day and I was definitely really excited to see my Tican family!

Overall, this trip was wonderful. I learned so much that my mind is exhausted. I wish I was able to put into writing everything that happened but that is definitely impossible. It was weird being out of contact for almost two weeks so I am looking forward to getting back in touch!
I have Saturday to Tuesday as my Spring Break. I am planning on going to the beach with my friends on Sunday and I will return on Tuesday! Talk to you then!

Nicaragua

Well, Hello Again! This time I am writing to inform everyone about my trip to Nicaragua!

Here's the deal:
Who? The entire LASP group (yes all 47 of us will be traveling together!)
What? An awesome difficult, fun, cool, important learning experience in Nicaragua
Where? Managua, Masaya, and Granada, Nicaragua
When? Monday, March 2 through Friday, March 13, 2009
Why? To gain a new perspective of the Nicaraguan culture (there are lots more reasons!)

Here is an overview of my trip (at least what I think it going to happen)
The first three days we will be staying in Managua, which is the capital of Nicaragua. There we will be what I call, "academic tourists". We will be interviewing people, hearing from guest speakers, and visiting many important places. The next six days we will be living with Host Families. LASP is all spread out in the rural areas of Nicaragua. I think I will be living in a small town. I don't know much about this part! After the home stay we will be staying in Granada for two days. After that we will be heading home!

So, I don't really know much about this trip but I do know that it will be a challenge that I am excited and ready for. I am little bit nervous with the uncertainty but I think that I need to be shaken up a little bit and I think this trip will do just that!

I know that I will not be able to use a computer at all therefore I will not be able to update until I get home! I hope you all have a great couple of weeks and don't worry, I will update when I get home!

Five Things I Accomplished This Week:

Wow, It has been exactly one week since I updated! I am sorry. This week was sort of uneventful so I feel like I didn't have much to write. So here are some things that I accomplished this week. It was my last week of My Core Seminar Class so I was busy with lots of school work!

Five Things I Accomplished This Week:
1) The first and most important thing that I finished this week was my Position Paper for Core Seminar (This was due Tuesday). I wrote about 14 pages on the relationship between the United States and Nicaragua throughout history. I had to take a position on the relationship and give suggestions for what President Obama should do in Latin America. I have never really had to write a paper like this before so it was especially difficult for me. I hope that I get a good grade because I worked REALLY hard!

2) On Wednesday, I had my second and final exam, which we call Reading Assessments. This is an all essay exam where we are given four possible essay questions and we respond to two of them in an hour and a half. The essays are graded on ability to think critically as well as incorporate the tons of readings we did and the speakers we heard. The first exam I did pretty well so I hope this one goes better!

3) On Wednesday and Thursday, I worked VERY hard on a group presentation. I was in a group of six people and we all had similar topics for our position papers (see #1). We had to make some kind of thesis statement that brought all of our topics together. We ended up doing a series of skits and on Friday we presented! Everyone seemed to really like our presentation and I saw a couple of nods of approval from our Professors-which was reassuring! After the presentations, we had a party to celebrate our last day of classes. We even had pizza-AMAZING :)

4) On Friday, I went for a run for 40 minutes! Before this trip, I don't think I would have considered running for 40 minutes a serious accomplishment because I used to run that almost everyday! However, here in Costa Rica, running is different. It is not a normal way of life and I can probably count on one hand the amount of people I have seen running on the street. I don't have a team of wonderful girls to go out and run with. I have to go when I feel like it or when it is safe. There are so many variables that I never had to think of before coming here! However, on Friday I was inspired. I ran for 40 minutes all by myself and I even finished my run UP a HUGE HILL! I realize how lucky I am to have the ability to run and I cannot wait to get home and start training for cross country!

5) I packed for Nicaragua. Now this is an accomplishment. In my next post, I will tell you more about my Nicaraguan trip but, I am only allowed to travel with a backpack for two weeks! It is definitely an accomplishment to have completed by packing!

What Has Happened and What's to Come?!

What Has Happened:
1) This week I graduated from my Spanish Class at ICADS ( Institute for Central American Development Studies). I got a certificate and everything! I spent five weeks and eighty hours learning Spanish and wow, I can't believe it is over! I had a presentation on Thursday. I spoke for almost 10 minutes all in Spanish about poverty! I hope it went well.
2) I met the coolest, most experienced old man in the world. He came to speak to us in Core Seminar on Thursday. He has been a missionary to Costa Rica for almost 50 years. The coolest thing about him was he actaully met and had a meeting with Fidel Castro. They talked about Revelation ( a book in the Bible). Can you imagine meeting Fidel Castro and discussing the bible with him just like he is an old friend? He told us story after story about his life adventures. He is one of those people who has done it all and experienced everything he possibly could. What an inspiration.
3) I went for a run today with two of my friends. We went to the same park that I go to every time I run. Guess what we found? A TRACK MEET. I felt like I was in heaven. I had no idea how much I missed running and being at meets with my team. We didn't actaully see any running events but we saw the introduction of all of the athletes. If I didn't have a paper to write, I would have stayed there all day. I took for granted going to meets and being with a team because now as I am sitting here I am really missing being with the team and competing in track and cross country meets. Go Messiah Track and Field!

What is To Come:
1) Next week is my last week of Core Seminar. I have my big research paper due on Tuesday. I am frantically trying to write it today. It is about the relationship between the United States and Nicaragua. It is actually very interesting to research. At Messiah, I am getting used to writing papers for my major so this is a stretch because I have to write about something that I don't know ANYTHING about.
2) March 2, 2009- March 13, 2009: LASP (Latin American Studies Program) will be traveling to Nicaragua. I am not completely sure what we will be doing but I do know that it will be an eye-opening experience. Once I know what we are doing I will be sure to update!
3) For the last couple weeks in March and a couple of weeks in April, all LASP students will be splitting up and doing something completely different then we are doing right now. There are three concentration in the LASP program. ALL (Advanced Language and Literature), LASC (Latin American Studies Concentration) and ESC (Environmental Studies Concentration). I am in the Latin American Studies Concentration. There are something like 20 of us. We will be all spread out throughout the country of Costa Rica, working in some sort of community project and living with a different family in a very rural area. All I know about my community project is I am working in a school. I have no idea what age group or if I will be teaching. I do know that I will have some sort of interaction with the kids. I am also aware that I will be living with an elderly woman who works at the school. One of my professors said that this is one of his most favorite projects.
4) When I return from my concentration, I stay in San Jose for a bit with the family I am currently living with and then I go to Cuba (April 19-April 27). More to come about this trip!

I hope you feel informed about what I am up to these days and what I will be doing in the coming days. Even though I gave you a tenative schedule for the next couple of months everything might and probably will change. LASP always tells us to be flexible!

What's New?

I have been waiting for an exciting story or something really cool to post but so far I don't really have anything! This past weekend was really great. Saturday I went for a nice run by myself and it was awesome. It was great to get some alone time outside of the house! All day on Saturday, I attempted to do homework while I read and answered e-mails.

Sunday was a great day. I got up early with my family and we went to church. The service was really long but it was better than it has been. After church, we went to this restaurant called, Spoon. It is this cute chain restaurant all over San Jose. It was so delicious. Then we went shopping at Price Smart, which is like a Sam's Club. At night, we watched Madagascar 2 (definitely not as good as the first one). Overall, it was an uneventful yet wonderful weekend.

This week has been busy but really great so far. Yesterday, I played "mother" and went with one of my friends to the doctor because she was sick for awhile. Let me tell you, the system is so different than in the United States. It was an adventure figuring out how to get her to see a doctor. Everyone was laughing at us because we had no idea what was going on. Eventually, we figured it out and now she has medicine and hopefully she will get better soon! It sure makes for a crazy story though.

Thanks for the continuing prayers and thoughts. They are very much appreciated. I have a big Spanish presentation tomorrow that I must continue working on so that is all for now!

Video Tour of my house!

Here is a video tour of my house in San Jose! Hope you enjoy it!

Field Trip #2

Today, we went to the U.S Embassy. The Embassy is located just outside of central San Jose. To check into the Embassy we had to pass through security which took FOREVER (everything takes forever with over 50 people!). Anyway, we waited for awhile and were "escorted" by a woman to a small auditorium where our speakers were going to meet us. This woman then made an announcement to anyone who had to go to the bathroom. I thought that she was just going to lead us to the bathroom but, No! She was our escort to the bathroom. Never in my life have I been escorted to the bathroom!

Anyway, the talk we had was very interesting. We talked with two women and one man who were very good speakers and very nice people. However, I had a lot of problems with their points of views. If you remember a blog from last week when Otton Solis came and talked to us about his problems with U.S Foreign Policy. Well, these people had a view completely opposite of that! Basically, I heard lots of information on how countries in Latin America are weaker than us and therefore we need to help them and spread out principles to everyone who doesn't practice them.

Has anyone heard of CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement)? My guess is probably not, because we don't really talk about policy in the United States very much. Basically, this agreement is supposed to promote prosperity in the people and reduce tarriffs between seven different countries. It sounds really great for the United States because we basically have free trade with a lot of different countries. Unfortunately, this makes the United States seem like the bad guy because we fail to look at the consequences that this agreement has on other countries, like Costa Rica. Yes, there are two sides to every argument BUT, it sure does seem like the U.S pressured Costa Rica and other Central American countries into agreeing to CAFTA. Others (especially other Americans) would say that there was absolutely no pressure applied to agree to CAFTA.

Although these thoughts may not make sense to any of you, these are the kinds of things that are going on in my head. You never learn the severity of what the United States does in other countries until you can see FIRST-HAND what effects they have on those other countries. Everything is not as easy to figure out and I don't know whose side to take. I am not going to lie, down here Americans don't have the best image in the world! I hope and pray that I can try to change that image a little bit in my short time here! Thanks for reading my thoughts. If you would like to talk more about this, feel free to e-mail me.

Field Trip #1

This past Tuesday (February 10), the group visited an organic farm outside of San Jose. It was great to give up classroom time to actually go somewhere but the experience turned out to be a lot more than missed classroom time!

We arrived at the farm and we were greeted by a young guy with his wife and his two year old son. We came to learn so much about this man as we shared a couple of hours with him. Basically, his family owned a farm for all of his life. However, it wasn't organic. Years ago, this man completely turned his farm completely organic all by himself. This meant that his production went WAY down and his workload went WAY up. But he was the most content men I have ever met. He never complained about having to do all of the work by himself. In fact, he has no idea how everything in an organic farm works. He does things by trial and error (Can you imagine how long that takes him to grow crops?)

He told us how blessed he was because God has given him this farm and a wonderful family. He reminded us that although we have so much it can be taken away in an instant. It's hard to explain what an eye opening trip this was because basically we just toured the farm and nothing monumental happened. However, I learned that sometimes God provides us with opportunities that are challenging yet these are the opportunities that change the way we live the rest of our lives.

Daytrip to Cartago!

On Sunday, I spent the day in a near-by city called Cartago. Cartago is the oldest city in Costa Rica! It is very different than San Jose, where I live now. I started the day at 5:30 and met part of our LASP group in downtown San Jose at 7:00 a.m. We took a couple buses and finally we arrived at this small town outside of the city of Cartago. It was so peaceful and we were surrounded completely by mountains and even by a volcano!

1)We first visited this guy's house and he gave us a lot of information about the indigenous tribes that once lived in Costa Rica. We even had some things from 200 years Before Christ was born. It was so neat to see!
2)After that we went over to the soccer field. We split up into two teams. One of all girls and one of both girls and boys. I was on the all girls team. We played an all girls Costa Rica team. We lost but it was still so much fun. The score didn't reflect how surprisingly well we did! The mixed team only lost 9-8! It was such a good game. We had fun cheering and supporting our teammates and our new Costa Rican friends! I actually hurt one Costa Rican girl's ankle because she stuck her leg up right in front of where I was running! Oops!!!
3) We then went to a farm where we ate lunch and played volleyball and basketball. We were there for a couple of hours and it was really beautiful and relaxing.
4) Next we made a long trek up a mountain to an indigenous museum. This cute little old man was so incredibly excited that a huge group was there to visit him. He gave us a tour of the place and if we weren't on a schedule he easily would have kept us there all day.
5) We hiked up the mountain even more. This is where I saw the most beautiful view I have ever seen. I could see for miles and the mountains were gorgeous. There was even a rainbow over the city of Cartago (you can see it in the picture!) The pictures that I have do not even capture the beauty of it. I wish you could all see it for yourself in person.

This blog doesn't really describe what a great day it really was. We met the nicest people and had so much fun. The best part was it cost us less then $10 for the whole day (bus fares, meals, soccer, etc!) Plus, we got to witness God's creation at its best!!

A relaxing Saturday :)

This week was really busy. I had a test and two papers. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep. So, today I decided was my day to relax. I got up around 9:00 and my friend from LASP, Molly, came over to my house to run. We walked to the nearby park and ran together. It was so nice to exercise and I definitely realize how much I miss running every single day. After the run, we met some girls who were clearly Gringas! They are students/missionaries here and have been here since September. We all just became Facebook Friends and we hope to get together with them soon. After the park, Molly and I walked home. On the way home, we stopped at Mas por Menos which is a huge grocery store owned by Walmart actaully. Molly and I were practically salivating at all of the food that we typically have in the States. Everything we normally eat, like peanut butter or chips, is really expensive. Sometimes it is just worth it though!

After our adventure, I plopped myself on my bed and caught up with a lot of people from home through Skype and e-mail! Mami just got home and we are going to relax together, which probably means we are going to watch a movie! Hope you are all doing well!

{I love you, Nonna and Pappy}

Four Exciting/Fun/Cool/Interesting Things that Happened in Costa Rica This Week!

1) I have never seen weather like this before every in my life. People keep saying that there is a cold front on top of us. I feel like we are in the middle of a cloud or something. It has been raining like all day for the past couple of the days but the sun has been out. But, it isn't normal rain. It's like a weird MIST. It's not enough for an umbrella but you still get wet! The wind has also been REALLY strong. Last night, the wind blew up a piece of our roof. I could hear it banging up and down. Probably the best thing about this strange weather, is the amazing rainbows that show up in the sky. They are so pretty!

2) Yesterday in San Jose, there was a taxi strike! Taking a taxi here in Costa Rica is not like taking a taxi in the U.S. In fact, I don't know many people who do take taxis in the States. However, here is is very common and not extremely expensive. All the legal taxis are red with a yellow triangle on the side. There are also illegal taxis. These taxis are not red and do not have a yellow triangle. Apparently, there is a lot of tension between the legal taxi drivers and the illegal taxi drivers. So, yesterday there was a strike. I have no idea the exact reason but I saw on the news a HUGE line of red taxis in the city somewhere. By the way, it took me about 20 minutes to get a taxi yesterday. Usually it takes less than five minutes!

3) Did you know that Costa Rica doesn't have an army? I didn't until about 24 hours ago. I am fascinated by this concept. Costa Rica has somehow maintained a state of neutrality amidst a world of chaos and violence. Since they don't have an army, the extra money is spent on education and health care systems. This helps Costa Rica maintain a higher level of living than other Central American cultures. How interesting!

4) A man named Otton Solis came to my class on Tuesday to talk to us about U.S. Foreign Policy. Many of you may not recognize his name. Let me give you some background information. Oscar Arias is the current President of Costa Rica. He was re-elected as the President in 2006. He ran against Otton Solis! Mr. Solis lost by just 1% of the popular vote. The next election is next year in 2010 and Mr. Solis plans on running again and this time winning the election. It was so interesting to hear him speak about the U.S. He brought up very valid points and he was an excellent speaker. I came home on Tuesday night and I told my family that I met someone famous. They said, Who? And I told them Otton Solis! They just laughed and laughed at me!

Five exciting/fun/cool/interesting things that I did this week

Here is a list of five exciting/fun/cool/interesting things that I did this week. They are very random but hopefully you will enjoy them!

1) On Monday, I went to the outdoor market to go shopping! In downtown San Jose, there are multiple markets that sell basically tourist stuff but, they have really unique jewelry and all kinds of different things. I must have walked up and down the aisle 10 times figuring out what I wanted to buy! I bought a purse for myself and a bracelet and a gift for my Mom and for my Dad! I can't wait to see what other treasures I find in the coming weeks!

2) On Tuesday night, we had CHEESEBURGERS and FRENCH FRIES for dinner! It was so good! My family kept saying, "Oh look we are eating Gringo (Gringo is what they call Americans) food"! It was nice to have a break from the typical rice and beans which I eat everyday for lunch and dinner. I made sure to stress how much I loved it so that maybe we will eat it again sometime soon!

3) Today one of my teachers made the announcement that we are DEFINITELY going to Cuba. It is very hard to obtain Visas to travel especially because we are Americans. We found out today that we were approved, which is really great. (We are going the end of April)

4) Today while walking to my Spanish class, we made a canine friend. He was a small dog cute but really dirty because he was a stray. Anyway, he was the strangest dog I have ever seen in my life. He followed for almost 30 minutes of our walk all the way to the door of our class. The strange thing about him was how he reacted to cars. Most dogs run away from the road when a car comes. No no, not our friend. He ran TOWARD the road. Every car that would pass he would run directly at and bark nonstop until the car left. Then he would return next to our sides. A car would pass again and he would do the same thing. I'm not quite sure how he didn't get hit by any cars. It was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen a dog do.

5) Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of peanut butter. Well, they rarely eat it down here so I haven't eaten it yet! I was in the grocery story and I decided that I needed to get myself some peanut butter. I bought a package of Costa Rican cookies, called Chickys, for 300 colones which is about 60 cents. I bought an 18oz jar of peanut butter for almost 2,500 colones which is about $5.00!!!! It was worth every penny! It is comforting and exciting to be able to eat some of the foods that we take for granted eating every day in the U.S.! Chickys and peanut butter= DELICIOUS!!!

Viaje a Limon (Trip to Limon)

This past weekend, the entire LASP program traveled to Limon, Costa Rica, a province on the Carribbean Sea! Wow, what a busy weekend. We fit more into a weekend than most people fit into a week of traveling!

Friday:
We left around 10:00 a.m. and made several stops along the way to Limon. First, we stopped at a coffee plantation. I didn't know that coffee beans before they are picked look very much like berries. After the coffee, we made our way to a pineapple plantation. Did anyone else think that pineapples grew on big palm trees just like coconuts? Well, I did! Actually, they grow in a plant that isn't very tall. It was SO hot when we were learning about the pineapples. Next, we went to Restaurant Ellis and had a delicious buffet style lunch. The best part of the lunch were the drinks because we basically had pure pineapple smoothies. SO GOOD! Now that we refueled, we were ready for our next destination, DelMonte Banana Plantation. This was my favorite part of the day. I got to see how the bananas were grown, preserved, and packaged. I learned all about the horrors of pesticides and the monotony that the workers face each and every day. I have tons of pictures from this place and I would love to tell you what else I learned!

We arrived in Limon at about 5:00. We had free time and basically we could explore the city. We formed small groups and ventured out to complete interviews for a paper. We had to interview 3 people in Spanish about poverty and racism in Costa Rica. Trust me when I say that the people in Limon are very interesting! Dinner was very American: a HUGE hamburger, fries, and delicious juice. By this time it was about 9:00 and some of the group returned to the hotel. I stayed out with about five others and we went roller skating. This was unlike any other roller skating experience I have ever had. First of all, I was wearing flip flops and I had to stick my bare feet into gross skates. Second, the "rink" was about a quarter of the size of one that I was used to. Spanish rap music was blaring and we were basically the only people in the place. But, my first judgement were wrong because we had a BLAST. It was so much fun and I must have gone around at least 100 times!

Saturday:
Bright and early on Saturday morning, we headed out to see the Bri Bri people. The Bri Bri make up part of the indigenous population of Costa Rica. Unfortunately, the indigenous population all live on reservations and are quickly losing their culture. We talked with this really nice woman for a long time. She told us all about her culture, religion, and what it is like to have their culture disappear. The Bri Bri people raise iganuas, which can be used for food and making all kinds of stuff.

After the Bri Bri reservation visit, we headed to the beach: Cahuita National Park. This park was BEAUTIFUL! We swam in the Carribbean Sea, ate a delicious lunch, played ultimate frisbee, and saw monkeys! The rainforest is literally right next to the beach. It was great to relax but unfortunately it was cloudy all day and it even rained!

LASP had another really fun activity planned for us for the evening: dancing! We went to a educational center where they had a big room. We had a Carribbean style meal and a band play for us. We danced or attempted to dance for a couple of hours! So much fun!

Sunday:
Sunday morning I went to Catholic mass. It was half in English and half in Spanish. Very interesting to observe how other people praise and worship the same God I do. We left right after the service and got home around 2:00. I watched Miss Congeniality 2 with my family and then I even got to watch the SuperBowl! For part of the game, I attempted to explain the rules to my host family. That is very difficult to do for many reasons, 1) They don't really have football down here. 2) I would have trouble explaining football even in English. 3) How in the world do I say words like "quarterback" and "field goal" in Spanish?

Anyway, this weekend was the best weekend I have had since I have been here in Costa Rica. It was exhausting but I learned so much. I took over 100 pictures and I am going to put a few up. F.Y.I: the pictures don't really capture the beauty of everything!

Vamos a Limon

From Friday to Sunday I am off to Limon with the entire LASP group. I will update when I get back! Have a great weekend :)

My First Futbol (Soccer) Experience in Costa Rica!

At LASP, we have a guy named, Andres who is the activities coordinator for us. Andres sets up many outings for us including bull fights, dancing lessons, and soccer games. Last week, he put up a sign up sheet for soccer and today was our first "practice". We met at the Mall San Pedro at 9:00am this morning. We walked about 10 minutes to this field that was already taken so we had to relocate. But to do this meant walking with almost 30 Americans throughout the streets of the city. We got a lot of looks and whistles thats for sure. Andres took us to this field basically right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of everything. We put our stuff down and he numbered us off into three teams. We ended up playing for almost 2.5 hours! It was a blast. We switched the teams up a lot and I must have played five or six different games. It was such a stress relief to run around and exercise. Andres told us that on Sunday, February 8th he has a tournament set up with a local town of Costa Ricans. We are going to go to their town, explore and play soccer. Just in case you didn't know the Ticos are REALLY good at soccer. I think we may need to practice a little bit more!

Happy Birthday to Brenda!

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been a couple of days since I have responded but my internet has been down! Monday was Brenda's 26th birthday. We had the best dinner in the world - filet mignon and mashed potatoes!!! Anyone who knows me probably knows that I am a bit obsessed with mashed potatoes and when Mami told me she made them I hugged her and told her that I was really excited. (I think she thought I was kind of weird). Anyway, the dinner was great andit was a comfort to eat food that I know. We had a total of eight people over for her birthday dinner and we really enjoyed ourselves. Brenda got a new cell phone for her birthday-it's pink! After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to her and we couldn't find any candles so we used that HUGE one that is in the picture now. The picture on this post is of me and Brenda (my sister) and her husband, Mike! Can you guess what I had for lunch on Tuesday? MASHED POTATOES!!!

Good Days :)

I finished up my first week of classes this week. It felt good to get into a good routine and hopefully things will continue to get better! This weekend was pretty good and less overwhelming than the last one! On Friday night, I was able to relax and I helped my sister-in-law (Karen) cook dinner. We had fun and I helped to teach her some English because she is starting English classes on Tuesday. She told me some things that confused her which I thought were very interesting: "Kiss" and "keys" and "Welcome!" and "You're welcome!".

On Saturday, I got up early went for a run with my friend, Peter! We went to a local park which is owned by the University of Costa Rica. It is about a mile to the park and there are trails all over the park. It is really safe and there were tons of people swimming, playing soccer, playing squash, riding bikes, and there was even archery! We ended up running for just about 30 minutes but while we were there we saw four people we knew from LASP-talk about a small city!

After the run, I relaxed a little and then Mami and I and Mancho (another family member) went to downtown San Jose. We walked around and there were TONS of people. Finally, after an hour or two of walking around we went to a local coffee shop and shared a piece of cake!

This morning, I went to church again with my family. It is always interesting to see a different style of church and I actually understood a little bit more than I did last week. We stayed after the service and ate lunch and then we went shopping at Price Smart which is basically like Costa Rica's "Sam's Club"

All in all, I am doing well. I am less overwhelmed by the newness of things and more overwhelmed by the amount of schoolwork that I have. Don't worry that alone will keep me out of trouble!

Ten Things I Have Learned While In Costa Rica

1) When it is in the low 70's and high 60's it is considered freezing! Everyone comments on how cold it is! Yesterday I saw a woman wearing gloves and a scarf!
2) Rice and beans are eaten at literally EVERY meal. But at least, they taste good!
3) My Mami is the best cook in Costa Rica. Everything she has made I have devoured in a matter of minutes.
4) Look out for potholes in the sidewalks. Random holes in the ground and in the road are not uncommon.
5) Take the time to look up. Costa Rica is surrounded by mountains and the sky is beautiful!
6) It takes less than 3 minutes for the water in my shower to turn cold. I better hurry up!
7) Take advantage of every opportunity to speak English. You never know when you will get to again! It could be a very long time!
8) I can get to and from my Spanish classes in three different ways: walking, a bus, and a taxi. I successfully know how to do each!
9) Take charge when crossing the streets. If you run across the street it is a clear sign that you are a Gringa!
10) Hug and kiss on the cheek everyone you meet. Handshakes are not acceptable here!

Que Linda

Que Linda! (That means how pretty!) This is basically what I see everyday, here in Costa Rica! Yesterday (Monday) was a very interesting day. I started out the day with an upset stomach and a dog bite (yes, my dog bit me on my finger-ouch!). A couple of my friends and I took a taxi to our first day of Spanish class! We successfully found our way home too by walking! It is about a 45 minute walk, which isn't too bad! My Spanish class has a total of five super nice girls from my program in it with a really nice teacher! I think these classes won't be too hard! Today I had my first "Core" Seminar class at the LASP office! It was kind of long but I think it will be very interesting! I am excited to learn more and more! I haven't been doing much the past two nights, just some homework and relaxing! Tomorrow I am going to the mall after classes with some friends (If I can find it!)

Here is my schedule:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
1:00-4:30: Spanish Classes

Tuesday, Thursday:
8:00-12:00?: Core Seminar
1:30-4:30: Spanish Class

Keep the e-mails coming!

Pictures!

The first picture is the kitchen in my house! Not what you expected? Me either!

The other is a picture of my room in my house! I have a double bed and a desk and nightstand! I even had my own bathroom and internet in my room. I am so blessed :)

No entiendo nada (I don't understand anything!)

That was the saying of my day today! Today was a really tough day. I woke up early because I had nightmares, which I rarely have! Anyway, then it was time for church with my family. As soon as we pulled up to the building, I took a deep breath because I knew that I was going in WAY over my head. I was greeted by so many kisses and strange Spanish sentences. I just followed that with a blank stare because everyone talks so fast! The church service was like three hours long and honestly, I couldn't tell you one thing that happened. After church, we went to a HUGE gathering of people from the church. It was at a finca which is a farm and it was way out in the mountains. The view was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. We were there for like four hours and the entire time I hardly said anything.

We got home and I took some time for myself and I thought and talked in English to my mom! Then, Brenda had some of her friends come over to watch a movie. Brenda rented The Mist (I have never heard of it). I had to explain to everyone what mist was. It was pretty funny. The movie was suspenseful and had a horrible ending! Throughout the whole thing, one of Brenda's friends and I were speaking a little bit of English. It was hilarious hearing her say some things. I tried to teach her to say, See ya later alligator and After while Crocodile but I think we might have to save that lesson for another day!

The highlight of my day came next when I got to talk to Beau from Skype to his cell phone! It was the first time I have heard his voice in a long time and I am happy to report that he is doing well too! He is just beginning his day full of classes while I am ending mine by writing on this blog! Hope you are doing well. Wish me luck on my first day of Spanish Classes tomorrow :)

The Neverending Game of Uno!

Tonight was a really great night. This afternoon I got to talk to some of my family online. It made me so happy to hear their voices! After that, Mami came home and I interviewed her for my Spanish class. It was really interesting to hear about her life in Costa Rica. We are more similar than we might think!

Much later, Mami and I walked to my brother Jovel's house. He and his wife cooked us sopa con mariscos which is soup with seafood. We even had crab in it! It was really good. After dinner, (I brought Uno with me), Brenda said Let's play Uno! So at about 9:20 we began our game of Uno! It was still going at 11:00!! We were all getting so tired but it was so much fun. Once again, it was fun to be able to understand the same thing. You should have seen Papi, (He is kind of a goofy older man) He would get so excited about putting down a Draw Two or Draw Four! We left at about 11:00 after the game finally ended! It was a great way to spend the evening. I am feeling more and more comfortable with my family each day!

Internet!

My family set up internet in my room! I am really excited and so grateful that they set this up for me! I only wish I could express my appreciation in Spanish haha!

I guess I will be able to update more now!

Whew!

Yesterday was our last day of orientation. We had to go to LASP headquarters which is about a 20 sec walk for me! We learned all about health and our classes. They seem kind of hard. I am a little bit worried but at least i dont have to write my papers in Spanish. I got home around four o clock yesterday and mami was waiting for me. I ate a snack and then read for like two hours. Then, a woman came over i think she was a family member and we looked at pictures from Brenda and Michaels wedding. They were so beautiful. It was such a fancy wedding and i was so surprised. I

started to feel really homesick and exhausted because I can never understand what is going on. Its so exhausting to speak Spanish all of the time! I think I am getting better which is good but I am starting to really miss home. Anyway the night kind of turned around, and I am attributing that totally to God, when Brenda, my sister came home, she came and sat with me on the couch and we played Uno. She speaks English all day as her job so she is extra patient with me and I appreciate that so much! We then ate dinner and I actually understood most of what was going on. We talked about music and church and I found out a lot about the music here in Costa. I also found out that Brenda and Mike are the leaders of the worship band at their church so I am excited to see that on Sunday. Then we did the dishes and Brenda told me that we were going to watch a movie but I could only watch it if I put my pajamas on. So I went and put my pajamas on and we watched a movie! They even have surround sound which is awesome! We watched the movie August Rush and it was actually in English with Spanish subtitles. It was really cool that we could all understand the same thing. After that I went to bed it was like eleven o clock. Today Mami told me to sleep in so I slept until ten. Then i took a shower and ate some cereal for breakfast. After that I read and did some homework and then ate lunch with Mami and Papi. We had salsichitos which are hot dogs. MAmi put them in some special sauce or something and cut them up and they were really good! Speaking of food, Mami is the best cook! Everything I have eaten has been really good and she always tells me to tell her if I dont like something. And I actually do feel comfortable doing that.Tonight we are going over to Mamis sons house to eat dinner. I think that will be a little bit overwhelming because I am going to have no idea what is going on. Tomorrow we are going to church and then I dont know what else.

My Spanish classes start on Monday and I think they will be really great! We are in a class with super nice teachers and like five other students. Me and some people who live around me are taking a taxi to get there. By bus, it would take like 1.5 hours and by taxi it takes about 10 minutes! eventually we are going to get there by walking which will take about 40 minutes or so!

I hope you all are doing well. I miss you and I miss life at home. I am so blessed to have such a great family here! Hopefully I will update sometime soon and with some pictures!

Hola Costa Rica!

Wow, I can´t believe I am finally here! The travel to Costa Rica went very smoothly. No problems at all. There are 47 people in our group and when we go anywhere we definitely make a scene. Everyone in the group is so nice and friendly!

We arrived in Costa Rica really late on Tuesday night. We stayed at a retreat center, where there were three people to a room. I woke up to the bright sunshine, birds chirping, and dogs barking early on Wednesday morning. The center provided us with HUGE meals of rice, beans, and even some chicken. The portions are so big that my stomach usually hurts after I finish a meal. For the entire day on Wednesday, we had orientation. LASP (Latin American Studies Program) doesn´t give us a lot of details. If someone asks a question, they say, Oh good question! and then they move on. So basically we knew nothing as we picked our host families randomly.

After lunch, we had a short orientation session where they herded us into a room where they called us one by one to meet our families. Finally after what seemed like forever, my name was called and a small older woman stood up and we kissed on the cheek and she took me to get my luggage. We went outside and met her husband who is a taxi driver. By the way, people drive crazy here and it is really scary!They took me back to our house which is really close to where my classes are. It is great because I will hardly have to take a bus anywhere! It is a cute little house with gates all around it. I have my own room and my own bathroom with hot water. I live with my Mami, Papi, sister named Brenda who is 25 and her husband Mike. We also have two dogs, Kathy and Molly, who are very cute and like to cuddle.

Yesterday, Mami and I watched Lake Placid 2 (with the big crocodiles) on television. It was in English and there was Spanish subtitles. It was cool to be able to understand the same thing. Mami and Papi told me that my Spanish was better than any of the other students that they had before. That makes me feel really good but I still usually have no idea what is going on!

Mami is a school teacher but Costa Rica is in their summer now so she is off of work. Last night we waited until Brenda got home and then we went shopping to a supermercado, or as they call it the ´super´ Mami said to me, Como (like) Walmart! I was completely overwhelmed in the store. I followed Mami around and I bought shampoo and toothpaste, my first Costa Rican purchase. After the super we went out to dinner. I had absolutely no idea what was going on Brenda helped me and I ordered fetticini alfredo with shrimp. It was the biggest plate I have ever seen. Mami also gave me some of her fish and I have never eaten so much food in my life.

When we got home, it was almost ten at night so I told them I was going to bed!

I got up this morning at 5:30am, (yes, mom, I got up early!) and I ate another huge breakfast and Mami and I went to the busstop. She helped me and we rode the crowded bus all the way into San Jose to meet the group. Today all day I have been with a group of 5 students and we were given a type of scavenger hunt all around the city of San Jose. We were given about 15 tasks to complete and some of them involve asking people questions. I know that we probably don´t make any sense to them but fortunately we haven´t gotten lost yet. Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe in the Mall in San Pedro. After this we have to take a taxi all the way to where our Spanish Classes are. We don´t really know where that is except for that it is near the Indoor Club (I don´t know what that is!)

I am liking it here so far and I am less homesick than I thought. I am exhausted though. Trying to figure out what people are saying ALL day is really hard and this morning I was ready to meet the group again and speak English. Thanks so much for all of your emails! I really appreciate them and I will update again when I have time! Miss you all :)

So soon!

Unfortunately, I am starting to say my goodbyes to some friends and family (Just for the record, I am REALLY bad at saying goodbye!). Yesterday, I said goodbye to Beau and his family (the picture is of Beau and I and two of Beau's siblings) and as I sit here and write this he is sitting in the airport waiting for his plane to Uganda! It is crazy to think that after all this planning, he is off to Uganda and I am only FOUR days away from my trip to Costa Rica! I am really starting to focus on my trip and get excited! I have so much to pack and I only need to buy a few more things like medicines and other odd's and end's! More to come as the preparations begin to end!