El Fin de Semana-The weekend

This weekend was absolutely amazing. I took an excursion through the school with all of my friends to Monteverde and the volcano Arenal. Here is the map of our weekend...

We started out after school on Friday at 1:00 and drove until dinnertime before we got to Arenal. Arenal is up in the mountains so it is a little bit colder with a lot less humidity. As soon as we got there we put our swim suits on and headed to the Baldi Hot Springs. The hot springs was so beautiful, even in the dark, it had probably a dozen hot pools with varying temperatures and three big water slides. I absolutely love water slides, so i stayed there for most of the time. Unfortunately we only had an hour and a half there before we had to eat dinner and return to the hotel. Everyone loved it so much we are trying to figure out a way to come back during a free weekend. After sitting in the hot pools and driving all day we were all exhausted and fell asleep early..

Our Hotel

The next morning we had breakfast at 7 and left at 8 for the waterfall. It was just a short ride to the waterfalls where we were able to swim for a few hours. The water was COLD! but felt amazing after the hike down. After getting soaked we returned to the hotel to change and have lunch before heading off to Monteverde. Im not sure if it was necessary or if it was for fun but we took a ferry across a huge lake to get to our next stop but we were all tired and it was pouring rain. After a few more hours of driving we finally made it to our hotel in Monteverde around dinner time on Saturday night. Once again we were all so tired we went to bed really early. 6:30 the next morning we had a quick breakfast and left for our canopy tour. A few girls had already been on a canopy tour so they had an idea of what to expect. I had no idea. I am kinda afraid of heights so i was getting very nervous on the ride up there. It ended up being so amazing that i am hoping to go back with my Mom and Sister when they come down. There were 11 ziplines set up all across the forest. Most of them were normal ones but there were three special ones. First there was just the repel down. straight down. It was probably two stories of free fall, just enough to make your stomach drop. The next crazy one was the tarzan swing, this was the scariest of them all. It was exactly how it sounded..you started out on a ledge and there was a rope that you were hooked to and you just swung, like on a vine, back and forth until you stopped. I have a video of me doing it that will come up someday. The last one was the superman one. This one was scary but there was no drops. You were hooked up to the zipline on your back and your butt and you pretty much just flew to the other side.

Video coming soon..

Museo De Oro y Fiesta de Crash-Thursday, September 30th

I am falling behind on my blogging which is really stressing me out so i am hoping to catch up in the next two hours. I have been so busy! I barely had time to realize it is the 4th of October!

1. Museum

For my spanish class we had to visit the museum about the indigenous Costa Ricans and their gold. I was exhausted and bored. I went with my friend Lisa in my class, i think we were in and out in half hour. They did have really cool sculptures but hardly any gold. Pictures...

2. Fiesta!

Thursday night the school had this party called "Crash" for the exchange students to meet the other students. I cant help but feel like an asian exchange student in these situations. We all huddle together in our American groups and speak english. It was fun, besides the fact that their idea of BBQ and mine were way different. On all the fliers they specifically used the word "BBQ" which to me means a meal. It ended up being a tortilla about the size of my fist and one piece of meat. Other than that there was a dance team that came and performed for us with a percussion band. Me and Alisha were joking that it was the first piece of Costa Rican culture we saw. Although its really different here, it is definitely Americanized especially in San José. There are McDonalds on every corner and any other fast food you could want just a short taxi ride away.

Thursday? Already?

So these past couple days have been so busy! I barely have time to finish my homework before i fall asleep at 10. Sitting in a spanish class for 4 hours a day is so exhausting. Yesterday i had class until 12 then went to a very very very fancy mall. My roommate (Alisha) and i didnt know exactly how far away it was, but it ended up being about a 30 dollar cab ride. The mall was in a very rich suburb of San José with a ton of very american expensive stores. It was about double the size of the Town Center and three stories.

At first i was put into advanced spanish and i tried it out on Monday but it was so hard! Yesterday they moved my down to intermediate 2 and i am loving it. My teacher is so relaxed and nice. Although she gives out the most homework. I am also taking an intercultural communication class as an elective. Luckily that is in English because my brain could explode. I have that class with Alisha and its really fun so far. I cant believe that it has almost been a week already! Tomorrow right after class i am going on a weekend excursion (Many pictures to come!). We are going to this volcano and hot springs called monteverde. The rumor is that there is some flooding up there so we will see how far up we get. In about ten minutes i am leaving for a party that the school is throwing for all the new students.

Today i also went the Mueso de Oro today but i will have to post about it tonight or Monday.

Day 2! First day of school.

First here are some random pics from the trip down here..first my fam. i miss them all so much. then the view from the air.

So somehow this morning my alarm clock'stime zone button got clicked and it was set an hour early. So i was ready and downstairs at 6:30 instead of 7:30. Not a great start to my first day of school but a free hour is a great time to update you guys on everything thats been going on. First of all i want to share my favorite picture so far... I like to be prepared :)

So the flights went great, super long but i survived and made my way here. When i got here i was exhausted and pretty much ate and went to sleep. The next morning (Monday) we had to be at the school at 8 for orientation. We had a ton of our questions answered and it was very nice to hear all the information finally. The school is not the most organized but i got placed into an advanced spanish class, we'll see how that works out. Spanish is SO much easier to learn here. I feel like i have learned more in 2 days here than weeks of school. After orientation we went to a mexican restaurant for lunch. Here was the outcome..

The burrito was amazing but the french fries were way salty. After lunch we went on a tour of downtown San Jose. I was riding backwards in a van for an hour (Barf Central) so i was not up to taking a bunch of pictures.

This whole week is a big blur of confusion. I am so lucky to have a group of girls that are all confused as i am.

The girl on the far left is my housemate (Alesha) the other two live down the street. It appears to be sunny..but that was for about ten minutes before the big thunder and lightening storm. I just realized i didnt bring any sunglasses!! good thing its hardly ever sunny. Well thats all my pictures for now. ¡Hasta Luego!

My first few days have been great! I am learning a ton of Spanish and classes haven't even started. I was placed in a higher spanish that i was originally put into it will be a big challenge. Right now its almost midnight and i have class tomorrow at 8 so i will make this short.

This is my tica (Costa Rican) Mom and another student studying at the school who lives with me.

My tica mama is AMAZING, she is so sweet and so patient with us. I have a million more things to say but i have school at 8 tomorrow and it is now 12:15! Tomorrow will bring full explanations and more pictures.

North Carolina

I have decided I really don't like flying. The air is so annoying and it gives me a sore throat. There is no way i can ever sleep sitting up and between two strangers. So I was too nervous to sleep Friday night and I'm about 1000x more nervous now, so sleep is out of the question. I am currently sitting at the Charlotte airport all by myself feeling exhausted. Although I have to admit there is something empowering about traveling alone, I wish I had just one other person to share this with. Its finally starting to sink in that I will be gone for three months. In my mind this is just a short trip, but I have ten weeks until I can sleep in my own bed. Right now my biggest fears are of losing my baggage and someone forgetting to pick me up at the airport. UGhhhhhh we'll see if either of those happen in about 6.5 hours.

2 days!

After working my butt off this summer i have somehow managed to save 1500 dollars, pay off my credit cards, and pay back the majority of a 1800$ car repair. I have no idea how but it feels excellent to be done. If anyone hears of a job that pays more that 9 dollars an hour, i am NOT working at the pool next summer.

So the day i have been ignoring and dreading has finally come too close to be oblivious to. In exactly 60 hours i will be flying out of Portland to an even rainy-er (sp.?) location. See the forecast below. Amazing.

San Jose, Costa Rica

High Low (°F)	Precip. %
Today Sep 23		Scattered T-Storms	77°/56°	60 %
Fri Sep 24		Heavy T-Storms	77°/57°	80 %
Sat Sep 25		Heavy T-Storms	80°/60°	70 %
Sun Sep 26		Heavy T-Storms	80°/60°	70 %
Mon Sep 27		T-Storms	81°/60°	70 %
Tue Sep 28		T-Storms	81°/59°	70 %
Wed Sep 29		Scattered T-Storms	81°/60°	60 %
Thu Sep 30		Scattered T-Storms	81°/61°	60 %
Fri Oct 01		Scattered T-Storms	81°/61°	60 %
Sat Oct 02		Scattered T-Storms	81°/61°	60 %