I'm hoooooooooooooome!

Heellooooo!

Yesterday, my brother informed me that I hadn't written to tell you all that I am home safe, after 9 weeks.  I'm hoping that all of you out there reading this know, but for those who don't, I'M HOME!

It's been a week since I left.  I can't believe it's only been a week.  It seems like a long time ago that I was there, which somehow makes me miss it more.  Last Monday, I woke up at 6 and ate breakfast like any other day.  My mom gave me a gift, which she insisted go directly into my checked baggage for me to open when I got home.  And then, I got all my bags together, and my mom helped me carry them to the bus stop.  On the way out, my dad gave me a HUGE hug and a kiss on the cheek, telling me I was welcome there any time I like.  Then, the Ciruelas crew, minus Rebecca, waited for the bus with our mom's by our side.  My mom gave me at least three hugs and said goodbye. I wasn't nearly as sad as some people (who were crying on the bus), but I was sad to leave my adventure.  The bus ride seemed to be too short as I was looking at the mountains as we drove, and we arrived at the airport. There, we went through security and all that jazz and waited for our flight. We found out that the flight was delayed for a while, so we all sat together and tried not to be sad.

When it was time to board the plane, we had to take a bus to one of those trucks with stairs on it (like in Arrested Development) to board the plane.  We landed in Houston, and everyone was waaaaay too excited to be home.  We all were shouting, "WE LOVE AMERICA!". Saying things like, why isn't the national anthem playing when you get off the plane?! We loved that we could read everything. The security guard said "Welcome Home." to me, and I wanted to hug him.  It was a little insane. People were starving so we tried to find some food, and by the time we got to our terminal, it was time to go! We said our goodbyes to the Kansas City folk and boarded.  The flight seemed short. We were all so excited. When we landed, we all clapped.  The other people probably hated us, but we were lovin' it. When we got off the flight, we all were so excited and moved to baggage claim pretty quickly.  There, I was surprised by my awesome brother and sister in law and my nephews!! It was such a great surprise.

Saying good bye at the baggage claim.

After I got my bags, we said goodbye to my friends and went to find my parents.  Then we decided to go to Imo's where my other brohan met us.  I was incredibly happy to be home (and drinking a mountain dew :)!)

This week has been bittersweet. I'm so happy to be home and to have seen everyone I love.  I am totally enjoying being able to communicate with people so easily, but I miss seeing everyone from our group. Luckily, I know that we will all be reunited in Kirksville soon. So everyone, my BIG adventure is complete.  I've learned so much about myself and seen so many wonderful places. I am so grateful to have had this experience, and I'm so happy that I could share it all with you. Thank you all for being there for me when I needed it and loving me from so far away...(but still giving me enough space to truly enjoy it.) I can't wait to see what's next for me. Love you all very much!

And now on to the next adventure :)

The last "big" trip!

Let me just start out by saying that this weekend was nothing like I had expected, but somehow, it was still fantastic! We were supposed to stay at this GORGEOUS hotel, but the shareholders apparently are more important and our reservation got misplaced. Luckily, the owner loves Vera and made a deal with another hotel down the road to let us stay there and eat breakfast and do everything else at the better hotel. It was kind of a pain, but TOTALLY worth the ten minute walk. We also were supposed to go on a sunset boat cruise and go snorkeling…but it was raining too hard on Sunday so that got cancelled as well…

Other than those minor problems and some people complaining about it, this trip was fantastic! I couldn’t believe that the owner still let us use his facilities because it was literally the nicest place I’ve ever been. The pool and hot tub over looked the ocean and the most beautiful view ever.  The restaurant where we ate lunch and dinner overlooked the same view so we could even see the sunset while eating.  It was incredible.  The beach was gorgeous and full of people.  We got to stay in rooms with people of our choice this trip and didn’t have to write a single composition all weekend…aka so much time to relax! Everyday (minus rainy Sunday) was spent at the beach or the pool.  One day, we even attended water aerobics, which was way more difficult than people like to lead on.  I even found Mountain Dew in the supermarket near the beach.  It was glorious.  On Sunday, we went to the beach until lunch and that’s when it started pouring. Afterwards, we headed back to our room and a Harry Potter movie marathon was on so we watched that.  All in all, I’d say this was the trip that was most like a vacation.  We lounged in the sun, hung out, and had sleepovers at night J

Today, we had our last school final.  We had to sit in our huge group and talk about questions over Costa Rica that Vera had given us on the bus last night before we went home.  Most of them were about the culture or socioeconomic status of the country.  My question was about what I thought about the women of Costa Rica and if they have as many opportunities as we do in the United States.  I think I did a pretty good job, but we shall see when we get our final grades on Friday.

Tomorrow, we are going to Ojo Azul which is a waterpark in Alajuela.  Later that night, we have our goodbye party with our families.  It’s nuts to believe that this trip is almost over.  When I got here, I never thought this day would come..but now I don’t want it to go away.  On Saturday, we have our last trip to Volcán Poas.  We are planning to try to make the best out of our last bus ride together.  I think we are all feeling the same way: not wanting to leave each other or this country, but so anxious to see our families at home since that is our next “big trip”. 

I can’t wait to see all of you! Love you so much :)

Hello!!

Yesterday was amazing! We only had class until 11 and then Vera took us to San Jose to visit el Teatro Nacional.  It was soooooo gorgeous! The architecture was incredible and the art was so beautiful.  We got to see a performance of four men playing guitars.  They were so good! They played some “classical” Costa Rican songs.  Vera sat next to me and was adorable the entire time.  She kept leaning over and whispering about the songs to me! Afterwards, she was like so did you like it?! Afterwards, we got to look around San Jose for a bit…where I found a bootleg version of Cars 2 in spanish for 2 dolla HOLLLAAAA.  I seriously could not be more excited for this purchase! About twenty minutes later, the bus came to pick us up to take us home.  Brittany, Miguel, and I decided to go to Taco Bell for a study session. It was AMAZING. They apparently have fries here at Taco Bell.  Aka, they make fries supreme instead of nachos supreme.  It was a delight. I’m totally going to tell someone in the States to start selling fries at Taco Bell. J

And today, it’s finals day.  The first ones are over. Not sure how they went. Currently at Mickey D's going to study very soon. 

Wish me luck!

P.S. I wanna fill you in on my family life a little since I haven’t really at all.  Mis padres have been so cute lately! The other day, my padre came to sit with me while I ate lunch and was asking how long it was until I was leaving.  He seemed so genuinely upset that we had so little time left together.  And my madre has been trying to teach me recipes of everything that she cooks!  The only issue is that she never tells me how much to put in anything…so I may just have to use my resources to try to make something similar! Also, my padre was talking to me about he’s upset that he isn’t supposed to use English with me because he could really use the practice. So he said, “Chiquita (the cutest term of endearment ever) next time you come, we are only going to speak to one another in English.” For some reason this made me smile so big! Also, my hermana is finally back from the States! She’s great! She keeps telling me about all these cool places to go in Alajuela…it’s really making me wish she was here the whole time, but that’s ok! Over all, I am really enjoying my time with them…but they definitely don’t compete with you guys.

12 days and I’m hoooome! Five of those glorious days will be spent on the beach in Condovac  starting on Friday, and I couldn’t be more excited! Last BIG trip of this wonderful adventure!

Love you all very much! 

Two weeks, say whaaaaat?!

Herrow derr!!

This weekend has been pretty amazing! On Friday, we went to see Cars 2 at the International Mall.  It was so great! I got some delicious caramel popcorn and a sodie.  The short for the movie was super great! And seeing it in spanish was hilarious. I can’t wait to go home and see it again ;)

On Saturday, we woke up and went to Cartago. There we saw the most BEAUTIFUL church. At the church, a miracle occurred very long ago.  The story was that a little girl was in the woods and found a doll.  She immediately grabbed it and took it home with her in a box, but later when she went to look for it, it was gone.  Later, she went back to the woods and the doll was there again.  She took it home, and the same thing happened.  She decided to try to give it to her priest to see what he thought.  Again it occurred with him.  

After this, it was decided that Mary was appearing to them telling the little girl that she wanted a church built in the woods where she kept appearing (where the church is today).  Pretty cool, huh?  We also got to see this really pretty park there!  It had a gorgeous building around a garden..All  pics below! 

After the church, we went to see the lookout point of Orosi.  It was gorgeous!!  We were on top of a valley! We were taking some fun pics!

On Sunday, we were supposed to have a Fourth of July party at the US Embassy.  Sadly, it was cancelled…but luckily, I have awesome friends here.  We decided to buy food to barbeque at a park in town.  There were only like 6 of us, but it was so great! We had hot dogs and corn on the cob and chips! Then, we went to a café to do homework since our finals are this week.

It’s officially 2 weeks until I am home.  Bittersweet, for sure.  I’m so excited to get home and see you all, but I can’t believe this adventure is almost over! See you all very soon! ;)

Our 4th of July group :)

It ain't no Doe Valley Lake..

 Hiya!

This past weekend, we got to go to Jacó! Friday, we left around 7:30 for our lovely adventure.  On the way, Vera surprised us with a crocodile river tour adventure! It was NUTS! We got to see tons of crocodiles in their natural habitat.  During the tour, the guide even fed some and made two of the crocs fight.  I was literally only 2 feet away from the 15 footer; it was so surreal.  The river and surrounding landscape was gorgeous.  I really don’t know how I am going to go back to not seeing mountains in the distance all the time since they have become a part of my daily surroundings here.

After that adventure, we arrived in Jacó….and we were saw that we were staying at a Best Western. After that shocker, we were told that we couldn’t enter the water since the waves were so dangerous.  It was crazy to watch these waves hit the shore.  I absolutely loved being able to see such intense waves.  We didn’t get to do much on Friday because it was raining, but it was great to get to relax in the hotel that night.

On Saturday, I woke up and immediately put on my swimsuit and ran to the balcony to check out the weather.  It was PERFECT! So, I headed to breakfast and made a plan with the rest of the group.  The boys found out about a surfing competition at the beach up the road from some people at the hotel.  So, we took a taxi to Playa Hermosa for the surfing competition.  It was incredible!! Since I’ve never seen anyone surf in real life, I was amazed by what was happening.  It was fun because there were tents set up on the beach and music playing (even some Pearl Jam was played J ). Afterwards, we went shopping in downtown Jacó.  It was nice to be able to look for gifts somewhere other than the Centro.  When we got back to the hotel, we ate dinner and then met with everyone at the hotel bar to watch the finals for the Gold Cup (USA vs Mexico).  It was so fun to root for the US here!

The view from my balcony :)

On Sunday, I wasn’t ready to leave the glorious hotel and beach.  Again, I woke up and immediately put on my swimsuit.  The sun wasn’t too strong, but it wasn’t raining either.  First, we went to the beach where there was a huge biking competition going on right outside our hotel.  It looked so awesome because the competitors biked on the beach the entire way.  When they returned, they looked like they had a rough, dirty, and fun ride. It made me want to try to ride a bike more.  It started to get pretty cloudy, so we decided to head to the pool until lunch.  After lunch, we packed and left  for Alajuela.

You can see a surfer to the right if you look REAL hard!

Overall, I’d say that this trip was nothing short of wonderful.  Although, I’d have to say I liked the Destin beach more (mainly because I could go into the water), the temperature here was perfect for me: about 85 with a little humidity.  It finally felt like summer there.  I even got a little darker and a little more freckly (hopefully this continues).

This week is our “hell week” for school.  Tomorrow I have a paper due and Wednesday a presentation over the paper.  For Thursday, we have to finish the novel that we were given last week.  Add that to the usual homework, and I’d say I’m set for the week.  Even though this seems like a lot to me right now, I keep telling myself that it’s not too shabby compared to a normal “hell week” at Truman…and I got to go to the beach last weekend…so I can’t complain too much J

Miss you all so much. 20 days, and I will be alllllllll yours! Hope you all have a wonderful 4^th of July if I don’t talk to you beforehand. (I’m anxious to see what a 4^th in Costa Rica will be like..)

Hasta luego! 

:)

Hola!!

This week has been pretty normal, not very many exciting things to report.  This past weekend we went to Cafe Doka! It was actually wayyy cooler than I expected. We got to tour the coffee plantation and learn all about how coffee is made.  It was waaaay cool! Our tour guide was adorable, and I got some gifts for lots of you!

Sunday was our "Family Day" which was decent! My whooole family came over as it was Father's Day here as well.  It was a little awkward before lunch when everyone was running around, but after, my nieces and nephews asked me to watch a movie with them.  It was sooo scary! It's called Amusement.  So freaky, but they had seen it like 8 times and just didn't tell me.  They loved to watch my reactions and tried to scare me even more! Later that day, my group of friends from Ciruelas went to the American Cafe like a block from my house.  I got some delicious key lime pie and vanilla ice cream.  It was to die for!!


Other than that, I have gone to Al Centro everyday to walk around and try to find some gifts for you all. I think I've done pretty well so far, if I do say so myself! :)

This Friday, we leave for Jaco (AKA THE BEACH!!!). I couldn't be more excited to be able to sit on the beach for more than a few hours! Apparently, the souvenir shops there are cheaper too, so that's a huge plus as well!

And to end with one of my favorite quotes: I'm trying my best to live by it here :)

Bribri :)

Haaaallllooo todosss!!

(WARNING: This may be the longest blog I have ever/will ever write.)

Last night, I got back from Bribri. In all honesty, it was up there in the best trips of my life (I know I say that every time…but this one got my heart too.) We left on Thursday morning at 4:00 AM. The first bus ride took about 6 hours with a stop on the Caribbean Sea.  Since seeing that ocean is on my bucket list, I thought the trip was already off to a great start.  When we got off the first bus, we had to cross a river to get to the Indian reservation in motorized canoes. It was a little frightening to say the least since all of our stuff (and me for that matter) could have flipped into a river in a heartbeat…and since I can’t swim, you can imagine how I was feeling. We then loaded our stuff into another bus for a half an hour ride to the reservation.  We arrived at the elementary school, where all thirty of us were going to share a room for the next four nights. We hung up the HUGE mosquito net over about twenty foam pads for our sleeping station.  Then, we all were pretty sweaty (as it was hotter and more humid than it has been in Alajuela ever) and we went to the river to relax. It was gorgeous and so much fun! Some kids taught us a few games they like to play in the river and we even got a little sun.  Then, we headed back to the school area (which is pretty much in the middle of the reservation) to eat dinner and clean up.  After dinner, we got to play so much soccer. It was us versus them….and the little kids totally kicked our butts. This little girl was amazing. She was the only girl playing and it was clear that she owned that field.  Once it got dark, we decided to call it a night and went to try to sleep.  I say try because it was hotter than Hades, and there was so much body heat around me it was unreal.  Thankfully, around midnight, I finally fell asleep.

Caribbean Sea :)

On Friday, we started our day by going to see the little kids sing for us  J.  We had a chance to go to the classrooms to meet some kids and play for a while afterwards.  I got to go into the second grade classroom.  The kids were so fun! They absolutely LOVED taking pictures with our cameras. When that wasn’t fun anymore and the kids went to recess, the teacher asked if we wanted to learn a little bit of their native language (Bribri).  We sat down for a while and learned the basics..pronouns, verbs like eat, sleep, drink, and love.  It was fascinating to learn a language like that.  They had so many nasal and glottal sounds.  It was fun to try to pronounce things correctly.  The teacher taught us simple phrases too (like “How are you?”, “What’s your name?” and “I love you.”) Afterwards, I got to go play with the kids on the swing set! Afterwards, we pulled out all the bags of clothes and toys that had been donated to the reservation and set up a “shop”.  Annie, Bethany, and I were in charge of the baby clothing.  Later that night, I met Stephanie (the little girl from the soccer game) and Jordi.  They are seriously some of the funnest kids I have ever met.  We taught them a bunch of card games like Go Fish, ERS, and 31 (which I also learned J).  Apparently, they don’t have cards, and so they were loving these games! They were so intense in ERS and picked up the games so quickly.  I loved practicing Spanish with them because they were so patient with me.  After a few hours of cards, we called it a night (and it wasn’t even that hot to sleep!)

On Saturday, we got up bright and early and set up “shop” for the people to come in and get items for their families.  Each person in the family only got one shirt and one bottom because we had so many people to give things to.  It was incredible how thankful they were for anything they got.  The first thing we pulled up as an option, they would grab immediately.  No one was picky at all about getting “fashionable clothing” or matching.  It was incredible to see the joy of the kids who got new toys to play with.  I worked in the “shop” for about 5 hours that day. Later that afternoon, I went to the general store up the road to get a powerade. One of the girls that I gave a dress to was in there (wearing the dress) and she ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug and then modeled her new outfit.  It was one of the most adorable experiences ever.  After dinner, we played more cards for a long time and got some of the most delicious “ice cream” I have ever had (see pic below). If I could market it in the states, I totally would.  We asked how they were made and it is just the fresh fruit juice and sugar mixed in a bag and then frozen.  They had blackberry, strawberry, coconut, pineapple, and chocolate flavor.  The coconut and chocolate had milk in it as well we later learned.  My favorite was the blackberry..and second favorite was pineapple.  It was only 20 cents for one of these and they cooled you right down! I probably had 10 thought the duration of the trip…And one kid even packed his insulated lunch box full of them to take back to Alajuela.  (They were that good!) After this, we called it a night.

On Sunday, I went to mass with Vera again.  This time, I liked it SO MUCH MORE. The priest talked much slower and it was so much easier to understand.  The church was kind of sad looking, but it was so cool because the walls were literally fences for air circulation. This time, communion was a much more like that at home and the mass followed the pattern of at home so much better. It was still about an hour and a half long, but it wasn’t as awful as the last time.  And the nuns’ singing was glorious.  (P.S. there was a convent on the reservation and some of the nuns teach in the school.) After mass, we got to go on a hike with Jordi leading us all. We went to a real TEEPEE. It was literally so neat.  They told us about rituals that they have in there and how it was made.  The one we were in (seen below) was built about seven years ago.  It was incredible to see it.  Then we went into a teepee that was not for rituals where a woman was using metates to chop corn to make chicha which is an alcoholic drink that the Indians make.  It was awesome because we had just learned about metates and chicha in class the week before…and it finally came together at the reservation.  Then we headed back to the reservation to change to go back to the river.  There I learned that Jordi was telling my friends I was his girlfriend (sorry Sether, looks like you got the boot J ). It was adorable.  Then we went back and played cards and went to bed with rain, so it was BEAUTIFUL for sleeping.  

Yesterday was so bittersweet.  As soon as I woke up, I wanted to go back to sleep so I didn’t have to face the reality of leaving.  We immediately started packing and taking down the mosquito net.  After we were all packed, the kids called us over to sing and say thank you.  Stephanie asked me to go swing with her before I left and some kids asked for my email and full name to find me on facebook (they have five computers at school).  When the bus came, I definitely was not ready to leave. One girl (Brooke) and I even joked about running to the convent to tell them we wanted to be nuns so we could stay.  But when the bus came, we got on the bus and waved goodbye to all the kids.

This is Bethany, Annie, Stephanie, and I :)

I definitely wasn’t expecting to enjoy a trip with no hot shower, so many bugs, such hot weather, no technology really at all, and sleeping with 30 people to be so fun…but it was the best trip so far.  It was so fun to get to know people so well on the reservation.  They were so welcoming and kind to us.  They were as interested in our lives as we were in theirs.  I really hope that at least one of those kids emails me. I would love to be able to keep in contact with that community.  Thus far, it was the fastest five days of the trip and I wouldn’t replace it for anything.

 I can’t wait to tell you all more about it when I get home.  Love you and miss you all very much. (You guys were the real reason I didn’t run to the convent and stay there forever J)