Farewell

So I guess my time here in Costa Rica has come to an end. So sad. A week ago I would have been glad to leave, but it's funny how much can change in a week. I've always loved the country and my host family, but the people you're with really can affect how you feel about something. I spent a lot more time with the new kids this past week and I'm really glad because it made my last week really memorable.

Wednesday night was burrito night at my friend Mike's house. Molly and I were going to go out dancing afterward but no one else wanted to come because they had to study for their final. Lame. There's a slight possibility that Carlos will take us out to go dancing tonight, but I think everyone is going to want to go to the bar instead.

Yesterday Carlitos and I went for a walk through San Rafael which is basically the next suburb over, if you can call them suburbs in Costa Rica, to get bread. (I mean how sweet is that, we went on a walk to buy bread for his family and some of the neighbors!) It was so pretty and just really tranquilo as they would say here. It was a good hour walk and we got to talk about a lot. He was telling me about his family and when his parents got divorced 8 years ago and how it was a pretty ugly divorce. They're on speaking terms now, but he said it was really hard. And he was telling me how 3 of the siblings have little family interest even though one of those 3 lives with the dad. Him and Monica are really close with the family though, and Monica is the other sister who lives with and takes care of the dad. His dad developed Esclerosis (which translates to sclerosis, but I don't know what kind) 3 years ago and he said it's been really hard to watch him detoriorate so fast. His mental capacity is all there, but he can't talk and he can't move that well. He's really really sweet though. I've spent some time over at his house with the fam and he's still really funny. Chicho is 32 and I asked him if he ever wanted to settle down and date or have a family. He said, "Yea, of course, I just don't have time now." He works three jobs and loves them all. It was such a good walk.

The fam took me out for a farewell dinner last night since we're having the group farewell dinner tonight. When the food came, Carlos gave me a really sweet farewell toast saying that they've really enjoyed having me here and he's loved helping me practice Spanish. He wished me luck in the future and said I'll be really successful with whatever I do, and that I'm always welcome in their house and he's expecting me to visit in the future. More than once.

I have no idea how I kept it together because all afternoon while I was packing I was about to cry and that was just like icing on the cake. But I held it together and cried myself to sleep instead :) I mean, I watched the Family Stone with my host mom before we went to bed and let me tell you, that movie isn't exactly one to lift a person's mood.

I had my last day of class today. Also sad. Except my teacher promised me that whenever I come back, she's going to take me to this really sweet group home close to Heredia called Roble Alto so I could tour it. The organization just sounded really awesome and I was really intrigued by the work they do and how they operate and stuff. My professor, Eugenia, was so great. By far my best Spanish classes in college.

I just got back from another walk with Carlos to go get some more vegetable for the shishkabobs we're making for the farewell dinner tonight...which is pretty soon.

Yall I'm gonna miss it so much here. I definitely would love to live here at some point. The only two things I like more about the states are that 1) You guys are there and 2) It's much safer in Kirkwood and Columbia to walk around and do things alone as a female, or even as a group of females.

Wellll I walk up tomorrow morning at 3:30 so I can catch my flight. It's been such a great learning experience here. I'd definitely like more of those :) Looks like I'll just have to come back!

And PS Sus, heck yes I will make you some food. I plan on making Costa Rican food more than once next week. I'll share :) Aaaand no way Jose. I'm still an awful dancer, but that doesn't matter as much when the guys lead so well here. I'm going to miss that.
And Aunt Linda, surprisingly no, there's not too much of a problem with obesity here. I mean it still exists, but I think because of the abundance of really cheap fresh fruit and vegetables helps keep people healthy. While some of the foods they make are ridiculously high in fat or sodium I think with all the other good stuff they eat it balances out. It still surprises me when everyone talks about how healthy the food is because I've seen how my host mom cooks certain dishes.

Dancing and good conversations

Sorry to leave you all in the dark the last week and a half. This whole updating thing is hard sometimes. Sus and Aunt Linda, I always love reading your comments! They're so encouraging and make me feel so happy :) Can't wait to see you and the fam next week! (And I like everyone else's comments too, don't worry guys.)

Last week after Puerto Viejo we had a free day that Tuesday, so we went to the zoo in San Jose. The pics are up on facebook, but it was really sad. The cages were really small and the zoo was dirty because it was in the city, so that was kind of a bummer, but we went to this really good Chinese place for lunch and the buffet was like $7.50, all you can eat, they brought everything to the table, and we got fruit for dessert. It was so good, and I don't even like Chinese!

The day before on Monday we had cooking class and I went to my host sister's house for it where we made desserts. SO good. My favorite here is something called arrollado and then we made little fruit tarts too. Arrollado is super easy to make. I can put up the recipe after I get it from my tica sister.

Wednesday we went to see Ice Age 3 in Spanish. SO cute. Go see it.

Thursday we had another informal cooking class where we learned to make this incredible layer cake. My host family is full of incredible cooks. We made cakes at my aunt's house who has her own cake making business on the side. Just cuz she likes to make cake. We made 2 different kinds of cake and tried them both afterward. They were so good, but so rich that that ended up being our dinner, and we went to yoga later that night to work off some of the 6 sticks of butter we used in the cakes.

Friday we had a class field trip. We went to a different zoo that was much better. It was so cool, it had peacocks just walking around everywhere. They mostly stayed by the snack shack though because the parents usually let their kids feed the birds. I was eating crackers and one broke and fell on the ground and this peacock was trying to be all stealth like and sneak up behind me and grab it from between me feet. I mean, she succeeded, but it was crazy. They just came right up to you.Mike and Holly

The group at Arenal-
Thomas, Erica, Omega, Holly, Molly, & me!
(Thomas, Holly, & Molly are from Summer 3)Our hotel
We played voleyball down there Saturday afternoon
Our driver Jorge is not only very competitive, but really good at volleyball!

For the weekend I went to Arenal again. The place with the hot springs and waterfall and bungee jumping. It was by far my favorite weekend, mainly for the reason that for the first time, I had real conversations with people. With every person that was on the trip, including my director Janiva and our driver Jorge, except my roommate, I was able to sit down and learn more about who they are and about their lives. At the hot springs Molly, Holly, and I sat there for 2 hours and just talked about so much and were joined by the rest of the group after that where we ended up talking about adoption, foster care, and having kids. I talked to Thomas at dinner that night about Chirstianity and stereotypes true of some that ruin it for so many people and about how he wants to be a preacher at some point in his life even though he doesn't agree with 90% of Christianity. Janiva and I talked about what she wants to do with her life and I got a little history lesson about Costa Rica in there too. Omega (she's not with our program, but she is a student living with the same family as Molly and Thomas so she came with us) and I talked about what it was like growing up in Mexico and how hard it is to make any type of a profit there in agriculture because of NAFTA and how so many of the men leave their families to go work in the states because work in Mexico won't support their family.

It was such a good night! So many interesting people and lives and part of me regrets the fact that this didn't happen until my last weekend, but at the same time, I'm glad it even happened at all. Not to say that the students from my session aren't interesting, but I just felt like I clicked with the Summer 3 students so much more.

We went for bungee the next morning, and I did bungee AND the rocket launcher this time. SO great. Flips!MollyErica jumped like this

If you go bungee jumping don't jump like this
You'll have a very very sore back and neck the rest of the week

Let's see, this week has been great except for the fact that I keep remembering I'm coming back. I mean, I want to, but I just had an amazing weekend...and now I kind of don't want to :)

Monday, I had another heavenly 2 hour massage covered by Sol. In-credible. Carlitos and I watched 12 Rounds later that night. That's a good movie too. Speaking of Carlitos, this is him:

Tuesday we had another photography class, I liked this picture:And that night, we went out dancing! My favorite night out so far. I maybe sat down for 20 minutes the whole night after we started dancing. The place we went to, the guys just kept coming up asking us to dance. They're all older guys, but they're such good dancers! (And it's not creepy here to dance with an older guy.) We danced Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia, and Bolero. I made a new friend too. His name is Charlie and he was really nice and asked me to dance like every other dance. Got a lot of good practice in!Charlie and I dancing BoleroCumbiaMore CumbiaThis guy was so much fun to watch, and Molly is such a good dancer.

Salsa: Chicho and MollyMore Cumbia, and this dude had some crazy fancy footwork. It was like Cumbia meet hip-hopOmega and Chicho Salsa-ing.

The dancing was a blast. I think Molly and I are going back to Tipico tonight.

Well hopefully I'll post one more before I leave super early in the morning Saturday.

Besos y abrazos!

En Costa Rica...
14. They don't have anti-itch cream here. If you have bug bites they tell you to use lotion.
15. Stop signs are more like yield signs.
16. On the roads, if you see a heart that has a halo above it in a yellow box, that means a pedestrian has died there.
17. Home phones don't have answering machines.
18. They don't have blueberries here.
19. Rice, beans, butter and cilantro are staple items.

Puerto Viejo

We were on our own for this weekend again. So we went to the Caribbean. Basically the weekend sucked for everyone else but I kind of enjoyed it. We got there at night and it was raining. Rained all day on the 4th until like 5, so no beach time. Everyone else sat in one room and watched movies, but I went out to one of the gazebos in the back and journaled and wrote postcards and just watched the rain. It was really really nice to escape the group for a while.
For everyone else, well, they wanted to lay out on the beach and drink from 11 am to 1 am like the weekend before and that wasn't able to happen. And three of them got mugged at knife-point. So it was kind of a bummer for them. They're ok. Don't worry.
A couple of us went on this pretty walk after the rain stopped Saturday night though :)
But Sunday morning, we left at 11 because everyone else was tired of Puerto Viejo and ready to be home. We went because it had been recommended by the other group. They had absolutely LOVED it and it was their favorite place they'd been.

I think next weekend I'm going back to Arenal, the place with the hot springs. I don't think I can take another weekend of the group getting drunk both nights and drinking all day on the beach. It's really wearing when the most said thing among the group is, "I swear I'm not an alcoholic guys, there's just nothing else to do here." I here that several times a day here, even during the weeks.

I absolutely love this country, but I'm definitely being stretched coming with a group I have little in common with. I'm desiring time to myself or with just my family more and more. Really excited to go to Arenal where, for the most part, I can get that at the waterfall and the hot springs.