Puerto Viejo - Caribbean Baby!!

So I could fill this thing with descriptions of my finals (Both of which I am done with!! WHOOOO) But I won't. Because that is boring. It's enough to say that I took them and I did fine. However, I would like to describe my last weekend here in Costa Rica. It was our free weekend which means we didn't have a planned excursion with ISA. We could go anywhere we wanted. My roommate actually ended up flying all the way back to the States in order to take a plane to Antigua to see her boyfriend. Wow.

I wasn't up to leaving Costa Rica yet and I knew exactly where I wanted to go. Long before I was even signed up for this program I knew that I wanted to go to the Caribbean Coast and check out the Jamaican vibe at Puerto Viejo. I started trying to get a group together that was willing to travel together before we got here and finally found a group of girls.

Friday I took my Spanish final and then took a cab to the bus station. Back home, a 5 hour bus ride will cost you around fifty bucks I think. Here it cost me 9 bucks! Whooo!

We got to Puerto Viejo around six and started looking around for a place to stay. Our travel director at ISA had advised us against making reservations and we were a little worried about it but it turned out fine. We found a hostel that had a room with six beds for us for ten bucks per person. Not bad!

Then we hit the town! We went to a dance club across from the beach named Mango where they had free daiquiris. They sucked but the music was awesome. We ended up going to the beach and dancing for hours under a palm tree. It was one of the highlights of my entire trip here. Seriously, if you ever have the opportunity to go dancing on the beach . . .  Do it!

Dancing under the palm trees

The next day we rented bikes and rode around for hours checking everything out. It was great. We rode to this beautiful beach we were told about and swam for hours. (Yes, I got sunburned. I had a ton of sunblock but it could only do so much.) After a few hours of swimming we were finally exhausted enough to wonder what all the red flags stuck along the sand were for. Finally we found on an itty bitty little sign a half mile down the beach tan explanation that red flags meant it was too dangerous to swim that day. Oops.

Later on my friends and I decided we needed to spend at least one night at the notorious hammock hotel, Rocking J's so we packed up all our crap and checked out a hammock.  We paid 7 bucks for a hammock, a sheet and a locker. This place was seriously cool but seriously crazy. The entire place is crammed full of mosaics and murals from traveler before us. I meant to make a mosaic but with everything else, I forgot until after I left. Oh well.

My cocoon! So comfy! 

So after the long day of riding and swimming this old lady took a nap. Fortunately, this meant I slept through most of the craziness. Unfortunately, this meant that I woke up just as everyone was running around drunk (chasing armadillos, yelling "This is a chance of a lifetime!!!"). Most of the people there were under twenty one so by 11 O'clock most people were passed out. This left the entire place for the ones that managed to stay awake. It was pretty cool. The owner came down and gave us all free beer and we sat around the bonfire for hours. I even made friends with a tico couple. We went down to the beach and sat around talking in some really bad Spanglish until it got light. BTW, My spanish still sucks.  :(

Oh, because of this couple, I no longer freeze up when someone tries to do that cheek bump kissing thing. I used to stiffen up and be like Why is this person moving in on my cheek? Are they going to bite me? But the tica broke me of this. Every single time she saw me the next day she would run up and do the kiss greeting thing and then again when she left. And . . . I never once forgot and leaned in the other way. Which has always been a fear of mine because you would end up with more of a kiss than you were intending on. :D

The next day we went back to the beach (one that was safe to swim in) and lazed around until four when our bus left. Oh, right. Okay, so we had all bought our tickets back to San Jose the day before, knowing that they sometimes sell out. Well apparently we needn't have worried because they over sold the tickets anyway! By like 30. We were waiting in line to load when the bus abruptly left, leaving our group of five split into two groups. Of course I was in the group that was left behind. We were like . . . Um . . . that was the last bus of the day and WTF? We have tickets. And of course it's not like we were at a bus station to ask someone. It was only a random spot on the road. So we wait around. And wait. Then wait some more. Finally we heard a rumor that someone had talked to someone who had talked to someone who said that they were sending another bus. Which finally arrived almost an hour later.
Pura Vida
The bus ride back was more fun than any bus ride should ever be. My friend Katie and I decided that I had contacted Dengue (from the 24 bug bites I got in Tamarindo) Tuberculosis (One of my classmates that sat next to me found out she had it right before she came here.) and Malaria from Puerto Viejo (It is the only area in Costa Rica that occasionally has Malaria). Because of my collective diseases, I was going to immediately die and did not have to worry about the fact that I was leaving Costa Rica. Therefore I was the lucky one.

No, we were not drinking. I can't even blame it on sugar.

It was a wonderful weekend.

Poas volcano, coffee plantation, and La paz waterfalls!

So it is monday the 1st of August but I never got around to sharing about last monday so I thought I should get around to that. :) Darn school, finals, and paper. Not to mention spotty internet. It messed up my blog schedule.

Sigh

Anyway, last Monday was a school holiday. I have absolutely no idea why we didn't have school but I'm glad we didn't because I had an awesome day. I signed up for this three in one tour and toured a coffee plantation, saw the crater of a volcano and walked through five waterfalls.

The worst part of the day was waking up at five so I could be picked up at the Holiday Inn hotel at 6 in the morning. Ugh! Luckily they were nice enough to start the day off with breakfast at the coffee plantation where I got to drink enough coffee to make it through the day. Whew!

After breakfast we had the tour that conveniently ended in the souvenir shop. I ended up spending way too much money but hey, some of you are going to love your CR gifts! ^_^

Coffee Trees

Then it was back to the bus for the trip to the volcano. In our group were 12 of us from the U.S. Two from Spain, one from Brazil and one or two from Mexico. So our tour guide would say everything in spanish and then repeat it in english. I had a great time trying to figure out what she was saying before she switched to english. I could follow about 20 percent of what she said.

By the time we got up the mountain, the sun and heat had turned to cloudy and rainy. When we hiked up to the crater of the volcano all we could see was pure white. It was actually pretty funny. There were about 50 tourists, all with camera's out, looking at nothing but a block of white. No matter which way you looked you could only see two feet in front of you.  

Finally, the fog lifted and we could see in the crater. It was amazingly cool and beautiful. There is a lake in the middle that is supposed extremely hot and acidic.

Inside the crater

After a while the clouds came back so we left. We headed back down the mountain and went to the La Paz waterfalls and animal sanctuary.
There were so many animals!! It was crazy. At one point I was trying to talk this Tuscan into crawling onto my hand but he was being stubborn. He ended up chewing on my fingers for a couple minutes and then flew off. :(

It tickled

What are you looking at?

After the birds we went to the butterfly farm and there were so many! Thousands! I had like half a dozen land on me.

The next stop was my favorite . . . . . . MONKEYS!!!!! I was talking to one and it all came up and was like Hello, who are you, why are you here, what are you looking at, do your clothes taste good, can I try them? It was adorable!

Moooom, Can I keep them???

After the monkeys I went to the Snake house. For some crazy reason there was no one else there but it was pretty cool.

Everybody liked me here

One last stop before we left for the waterfalls.


Big cats!! There were two cougars!!! Woot! Woot! Go COUGS!!!!!

There were quite a few different types!

Then it was on to the waterfalls. There was a whole row of them, one after another. So cool.

All in all, it was a freakin great day!!!

Monteverde, zip lining and much much more

I wrote this all last week but the internet was being a jerk so I couldn't post it. Just be aware that this post is a week late.

So on Friday (The 22nd)  we went to Monteverde which is a cloud forest. Basically that is a fancy way of saying that the mountain is so high up and the clouds are so low that the two join together. It's very pretty but too chilly for me. I didn't really need more than a jacket and long pants but that was more than I wanted to wear. However, it was totally worth it for Saturday. I went Zip Lining and jumped on a Tarzan Swing. For those of you that don't know, Zip Lining is when you hook yourself into one of those harnesses that wraps all over your butt and then you slide on a wire that is suspended between two trees.

Don't worry. I got this. 

I went on eleven. The first few were baby ones that taught me how to brake so I didn't run into a tree but then it got fun. I went on one that was thousands of feet long where I was flying through the trees, probably about 30 feet up, looking around when all of a sudden -WOW! The trees dropped away, the sun hits me and I am flying 240 feet over the forest. It was incredible! I wish I could explain it better but I can not find the words to describe it.
Just WOW.


Then it was time for the Tarzan Swing. I stood in line for twenty minutes pretending I didn't know what I was in line for. I was like Hmmm. There seems to be a line in the middle of the forest. It must be for ice cream. This was totally ignoring the fact that I had had been looking forward to the Tarzan Swing for months. Then when it was almost my turn I told myself Oh Look! I get to walk on a suspension bridge! I love suspension bridges! Finally I started walking down the bridge towards my doom, I mean the two men, the bridge stopped abruptly over the forest, the men hooked me to a rope, I bent my knees and . . .


~Free~


        ~Fall ~


                   ~ing~




One hundred and something feet later the rope caught me and I began to swing. Freaking Awesome! I now want to bungee jump so bad but I can't find the courage. I think I would love it if they could just throw me off of the bridge. Definitely the next thing on my list of things to do!

The rest of the weekend was a lot less adventuress. A few friends and I went to a discoteca to dance for a while but the music was terrible. While the DJ was in charge all we heard was Rihanna and Pitbull. When the band played all we heard we 80's english songs massacred! The only cool thing about the place was the number of dogs chilling in the bar. At first I thought they were strays and I kept my distance but I finally noticed that they were all clean and healthy. Then I thought it was adorable. However, we couldn't handle the music. We called a cab and asked him to take us to a bar where there would be no gringo music. And he did. Me and one other girl were the only white people to be seen. It was soooo much fun!

The next morning I ended up going on a hike in the Cloud Forest National Park (or something like that) My two friends and I can not read a map so we ended up on a wrong trail and didn't make it to the continental divide but I think I liked it better that way. We saw no one else from our group and it was kind of nice. We pretended we were hiding from the dinosaurs. (Jurassic park was filmed in Costa Rica.)

Yes, the leaves are this big. 

Not knowing what I am doing is kind of working for me.

So my spanish is rather . . . shaky. I came down here to learn it and I am definitely improving but I still sound like a two year old when I try to talk. And my vocabulary is limited. Extremely limited. However, I realized today that this has it's benefits. I try out all kinds of new food almost everyday. Instead of going to a restaurant and ordering something I know I will like, I end up hunting for items that I understand. It's like playing Where's Waldo with the menu. Oh! hongos are mushrooms, carne is beef, arroz is rice. It doesn't matter if they are things that I would never put on the same plate at home, I am just excited when I know what it is I am trying to say. This has meant that I have ordered carrot juice with dinner because it was the only drink offered that I understood. And you want to know something surprising? I liked it. And I don't even like carrots much. Though when I mentioned this to a friend I was told that the carrot juice here is very different than that in the US.

Then today I decided to head to a cafe that is close to the school for lunch. Only this time I didn't have a convenient friend to come with me and translate my order. Yikes!!! So I get there and decide that I don't want any of the things that I usually get there. And I don't understand what the other things on the menu are. And I left my dictionary on my desk. And no one speaks english. Oh No! Usually this is when I would have given up and gone to the pizza place down the road. Pepperoni pizza is pretty easy to order. ^_^ But today I just started hunting through the words I did understand and I eventually found something with beef, potatos, soup and salad. I didn't understand exactly what they were going to do to the beef and potato and I couldn't figure out what the soup was but I ordered it anyway. And then when I didn't understand the drinks offered (they are different everyday) I just told the waitress to surprise me.
I ended up with a curry soup, a strange but good beef mixture in a hollowed out baked potato and mango juice. Win for the Gringa!!

As a side note, the juice here is AMAZING!!! Even just the regular bottled juice is a million times better than what we have at home. It is incredible. And it is everywhere. When you head into a corner store there are three times the amount of juice as soda or beer combined!!! And when you eat out, the drink is almost alway included and is usually some sort of juice. Yum!

Routine. Not as bad as it sounds.

For the first time in my life, I have a routine I follow in my day. And it's all because of my host mom. I wake up every single day at 6:30 because I know she will have breakfast on the table by 7. I eat a banana each day at 10 am because she always gives me a banana in the morning and at 10 I have a short break in my spanish class. Okay so my lunch at noon is on me because I get out of spanish at noon and after four hours of class I am starving!!! But dinner each night at 6:30 is back on my Tica mom and each night after dinner she makes me a cup of coffee to drink while I am doing my homework. Then I fall asleep at around the same time each night. 

It is sooooo FREAKIN weird. 

Is this what normal is like? (Minus the having someone else do all this for me?) I know that once I go home I am going to slid right back into forgetting to eat until I am starving and yo-yoing between all nighters and sleeping for 12 hours to catch up, but for right now. . . I am enjoying the hell out of it. ^_^

~Pura Vida 

Arenal Volcano

Where to Start? Where to Start? Hmmm

Well, On Friday we left for the Volcano and I have to say that I have never been absolutely terrified on a drive before. (Frightened - sure, disbelief - yes) But never heart-stopping, can't breath scared. The roads up the mountain are narrow, steep and twisty. Did I mention narrow? In the U.S. it would be considered a one lane road. Here it just means the cars would pass by the bus with two wheels hanging off the road in the mud. However, every time the bus would go around a corner, it would end up taking the entire road and would have to slow to a crawl to do so. At one point we were on a edge of a cliff with the drop on one side and the mountain on the other and this huge truck full of cows decide not to wait for us to maneuver our way around the curve and tries to slide past us. The bus driver ended up hitting the breaks and the truck did the same so we're both stuck on this hill with maybe two inches between us and the cows and neither one of us could go anywhere.

It eventually worked out but damn!

And then there were the bridges. We were lucky if they were made of concrete. We went over one plank wood bridge and the way it creaked I thought for sure that we were going down. Other ones were made of concrete but they didn't have side rails and it was raining so hard we could barely see out of the windows. I didn't find the bridges as scary as that damn cow truck but other students were squealing and hiding their faces.

Somehow we eventually made it to the Arenal Volcano and our hotel. Which was conveniently right at the bottom of the volcano.

Arenal Volcan
Smoking up a storm!

It was so beautiful there! And the hotel was huge. To get from the lobby to our rooms we had to take a shuttle. It was crazy!

And . . . there was probably 10 different swimming pools. A few were filled with cold water but most of them were hot!! I loved it! The first night I probably spent four hours just soaking in the heat! Of course it helped that there was a swim up bar! But one without the other would not have been as fun!

Really big hot tub!

 I even smoked a Cuban cigar. Just to say that I did. It was awesome. We all felt like we were in a Godfather movie! Of course it kind of ruins the image to say that we were all in bed by 11 both nights so I just won't mention that.

This is actually my friends hand but it looks cooler than mine. 

The next day we went to La Fortuna Catarata. Or in English, a really freaken big waterfall! And to get to this wonder of the world we had to climb down four hundred plus steps. That would have been hard even if they were all uniform and dry. But they were not. Some of these steps were concrete, some were cinderblocks with the holes filled with dirt, others were natural rocks that happened to be handy when they were building a way down, and there were even a few wood ones! Then, to add to the confusion, they were all varying heights! It would go from 4 inch gaps to 12 inch and back down to 6 inches. Some steps tilted forward while others tilted sideways. And they were all wet and slimy! It could have been considered an extreme sport just to make it down there in one piece! Most definitely worth it though!!

It was gorgeous! For awhile there I was so focused on getting these perfect pictures that I forgot to actually look at the waterfall directly instead of through the camera. Once I did though . . . . Wow!

And then we climbed back up the four hundred steps. It makes me feel like an old lady but my hips still ache from that climb!


We headed back to San Jose Sunday afternoon and on our way back we stopped in the town of La Fortuna. I ran into a coffee shop to escape the rain and bumped into a man I have YouTube stalked a hundred times.

Every time I couldn't sleep because I was freaking out about going to a foreign country I would log on to YouTube and watch this guy's videos on Costa Rica.

Thank God for this guy or I may have not slept for the entire month leading up to leaving! ^_^ It was cool to run into him but very random too. The internet truly makes the world a smaller place!

A cold, shopping and a midterm.

So the last few days have been a little crazy. On Tuesday I had a spanish quiz (97% baby!!) On Wednesday I came down with a cold. On Thursday I had a ten minute presentation on Ecuador in Spanish!!! And today I had my Spanish Mid-term. That's right. A mid-term. I was blown away until I realized that since my Spanish class is only four weeks long, I am half way done! My politics class is five weeks so my mid-term for that class is next week. Wow. Where has time gone? 


I am a little worried about my spanish grade because of this damn cold! I was doing great until I came down with it and then I couldn't focus on anything. In class she would ask me questions and I'd just repeat No Se, No Se until she took pity on me and left me alone. Yikes! I know I didn't do oh so great on my presentation either. I remember everything I wanted to say but then she was asking me questions about Ecuador and I couldn't remember the words I needed to reply and make sense. :( I'm going to have to kick butt once I get better and make it up. 


Oh! On Wednesday before I started feeling nasty I finally made it to downtown San Jose to the Mercado Central! It is basically a maze of little shops crammed as closely together as possible. Knick knacks, clothes, shoes, food, ice cream, butcher shops, cheese shops. It was crazy! But a ton of fun. A few friends and I ended up eating at a Soda (cheap cafe) and getting a plate full of food and a drink for like 3 dollars. It was amazing. 

We then ended up walking in the rain 6 blocks (might explain why I got sick eh?) to the artisan market. Oh man I am going to spend so much money there. It is just stall after stall after stall of hand made souvenirs! I spent all the money I had brought with me (which was only like 20 bucks) and found at least twenty things I have to come back for to get for other people!

I want a hammock so bad. I can get one for like twenty bucks but I don't know where I would put it. Hmmmm.  I am so glad that I fit a duffle bag into my suitcase on my way here! I am a genius!!!  






Oh so this afternoon I am going to Arenal Volcano! I am going to soak in the hot springs heated by the Volcano and try to get over this nasty cold!!! Whooooo!!!



~Hasta Luego!

Week in review

Hey, things have finally started happening. The only bad part is that I have been too busy to write about all the things I have been doing! I'll try to fill in the gaps though.

The last few days have centered around school and learning my way around. I can now find my way to school and back all by myself. Oh the taste of independence!

Classes have been going okay. Spanish class bounces between stuff I remember and the stuff I should remember but don't. My Politics class is interesting but weird too. Because there is only one other student, the teacher doesn't exactly lecture. Its more like a two hour discussion which means we both have to participate a lot more than I am used to.

Last Wednesday my host brother took us to the mall to see Transformers! It was fun to get out of the house and go to the mall. My housemate has a six hour break between classes so she has gone downtown twice. However, my break isn't really long enough to go to most places and not be late to class. Plus I have been studying a lot. :( So I had a ton of fun going out. The mall here is exactly like the malls at home. The food court had Mcdonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. It was hilarious. I think the only difference I noticed other than the spanish was that Mcdonalds offered fried chicken! I'm not sure why since they also have KFC's here but whatever.

No one can tell my mom this, but I haven't worn a seatbelt the entire time I have been here. Not because I haven't wanted to (The biggest cause of death for tourists here are car accidents) but because none of the seatbelts work. Not even in taxi cabs. It sucks because the driving here is insane. People speed, cut people off and the lanes are only suggestions. As in the tour bus will go into the incoming lane for a while even around corners or when an island cuts us off from the right side of the street. It's absolutely an adventure getting anywhere. I think I'm going to try to stop noticing it because there is nothing I can do about it except freak out. 

On Thursday my housemate and I decided that we NEEDED to go out and hit the town. We headed over to this Reggie bar named Raices with a friend and it was sooooo much fun. We were the only Americans there and it was really cool to people watch and just chill for a few hours. I played fooseball for the first time and found out that I have a habit of shooting the ball into my own goal. My teammate was not amused but I thought it was pretty typical of me. 

I don't have my politics class on Fridays so right after my Spanish class ISA shipped us all to the beach! We went to Playa Tamarindo and it was probably the coolest weekend of my life. We got to our hotel around 7:30 and the hotel had a free buffet and traditional dancers waiting for us. (As in they really were waiting for us because we ran a little late. It's amazing what a hotel will do for a group of a hundred Americans.) After dinner, pretty much all of us went out dancing. The hotel had a special where if we went to their club and casino all of the ladies got free tequila sunrises. There wasn't really an area for dancing though so after awhile we headed to a club named Aqua and danced until 3am. Piece of  advice, if you are going to go dancing in a humidly hot location, wear a ton of deodorant. I even put it on the back of my knees and I was still a puddle of goo for most of the night. I don't think I have ever sweated so much in my entire life. 

Dancers

Gringas taking over Playa Tamarindo

Yesterday I woke up late and missed breakfast but I went shopping for a bathing suit. (Because I am the type of person who remembers to bring it to Costa Rica but leaves it at my host family's house) Afterwords I ran into some friends and we went to this hole in the wall Tico Soda and had this huge plate of fish and rice and beans and salad and fried plantains. Oh yeah, and I washed it down with this watermelon juice concoction. So good!

Casado

After eating I realized I was late for the Catamaran cruise so I ran back to the hotel in time to hear that the group had left. I almost had a heart attack before someone told me that loading everyone onto the boat takes almost an hour. I ran down to the beach and still had plenty of time to hurry up and wait. Whew! We all had to crawl out into a speed boat that took us out to the main boat. We fit so many people on that boat that every wave soaked us. At one point I was running my fingers in the water and a girl's hat flew off and literally flew right into my hand. Everyone was amazed at my ninja-like reflexes and there was no way I was going to inform them that it was just really good luck. ^_^ 

Speed boat

Once on the cruise boat we sat around and soaked in the sun for an hour until we arrived at a private cove where we jumped in and snorkeled and swam around. I saw and touched a Puffer fish!!! It felt nubby and look terrified. Poor thing! After swimming I ate my way through another buffet and soaked in more sun as we headed back. There was a free open bar onboard and about four people manning it at all times. I had a Pina Colada and a Mojito and they were excellent! There were no mixes involved so they were a million times better than what I am used to. ^_^ The cruise ended just at sunset so we got to experience (and take pictures of) the sunset over the Pacific Ocean while in the Pacific Ocean!  

I love the Ocean!

Sunset

Oh Jeez, so later on after we got back a couple friends and I went out to this sushi place they had heard about. The food was incredible but the waitress was a BITCH. There is no other word for it. It started when one person at the table ordered a California Roll and the other ordered a Caterpillar Roll. So of course they both ended up with a California Roll. Our friend explained the mix up to the girl who brought us the food and she said she'd fix it. Well then our waitress comes barreling over to inform us that we had definitely said California Roll. She lectured us for almost five minutes about how we had made a mistake and when we tried to disagree she just got more upset. As we waited for our friend's food to arrive we chowed down on ours. Of course not long after she got her food we were done. The waitress actually removed all of the place mats and started wiping down the tables as our friend was eating. It was awkward as hell! Then to top it off, the waitress walked behind me and I felt something splash along my back. I turn around and she was holding Soy Sauce. UGH

Tico Roll

We tried to go out dancing again but after one drink we were exhausted so we gave up and went to bed. It worked out because the next morning I woke up early enough to eat this huge breakfast buffet with pancakes, sausage, Pinto Gallo, Omelets, and five hundred types of fruit. Continental breakfasts do not even come close to this hotels free buffet. I finally rolled myself out of the dining room and headed down to the beach for an hour whole body massage. I feel so young saying this word but seriously, an hour massage under a palm tree, on the beach, listening to the waves. Yeah, it was sooo totally epic. No other words do it justice.

I think this blog is all caught up now! Of course it is now eleven pm and I still have homework to do tonight. :( Oh well, it was worth it. ^_^

Wait, wait, wait! I forgot my battle scars! What? You didn't think this kind of weekend came without a price did you?

Eaten alive!

I have 17 of these suckers! Correction: I just recounted and the total is now up to 23. :( UGH

And before you ask, yes, I did use 30 percent Deet bug spray. Sadly it wore off for about 20 minutes and I got all of these in those few minutes. Such is life.

Pura Vida 

Dos Dias de Orientacion

So the last two day have included a five hour orientation for my study abroad program yesterday and a four hour orientation for my new university today. I do not hate anyone who reads this enough to describe everything they went over so I will leave it at repetitive and boring. And long.

After our orientation yesterday our program took us for a drive through tour of downtown San Jose. It is the rainy season here (Aka their winter) so it rains every afternoon. Because of this we weren't able to get off the bus and explore but I took over a hundred pictures. I went a little crazy but I enjoyed it. About halfway through the tour it started raining and it came down so hard that I had to stop taking pictures because the camera stopped focusing. For the poor people that actually look through all of my photos on Facebook this was probably a blessing in disguise. ^_^

Parts of downtown San Jose are pretty . . . um  . . .   iffy and is not a place for people to go wandering around by themselves. However, it was pretty interesting to see it from the safety of the bus.

I got this picture of the man carrying the biggest bag of plastic bottles who tried to sell me a basketball through the bus window. 

The men here try to sell anything downtown. I saw stuff either laid out or just dumped in a pile with people looking through it. I reminded me of a yard sale without the yard!

Definitely different than Pullman or Spokane! At one point I took this picture of a guy either sleeping or passed out on the sidewalk. With his dog! People would just step around them and go on their way. If it wasn't so sad it would have been funny. Maybe.

By the time we got back to our university it was pouring out. It was the last day that we had to wait for our host families to pick us up so we all tried to hide under a ledge as we waited for them. All except my housemate and I! Not that I can claim the intelligence behind this because although I brought my umbrella to Costa Rica I forgot to bring it with me to class. :( It may have been because at 8 am it was somewhere around 80 degrees and sunny. Anyway, the important part is that our host mom was smart enough to leave us one when she left the school that morning.
Our host brother came and picked us up in a taxi and we were back at our house by one with nothing to do. We waited until the rain slowed down and then we went exploring. We mostly ended up walking in circles or running into dead ends and backtracking. But we did find an ATM! I didn't bring my debit card out with us because I'm paranoid about getting robbed but my roommate did. We also saw a gas station where the attendants that pump the gas are all cute, dressed up women. It was different but cool.

We did more exploring today but we had an escort. Our host brother Jorge showed us a shortcut to the bank and took us shopping for shampoo and other essentials. The bank is much more secure than the banks in the US. When we went to walk in my housemate went first and I went to follow her in. A guard stopped me and locked the door in my face. My brain went blank as I tried to figure out why I would be locked out of a Costa Rican Bank but I was pretty sure that I wasn't wearing a stocking cap over my head. It turns out that before you can walk into a bank here you need to be screened and wanded one at a time. So bizarre.

Security is so tight here. Hopefully it works to deter crime!

When we walked over to the shopping mall earlier it started to rain cats and dogs and thunder like crazy. It was raining so hard that the water was two inches deep in minutes. I was soaked from my ankles up to my upper thighs because I wasn't wearing rain boots. (Yes I know that you bought me a pair of really cute ones Mary but I didn't think to pack them. Yes, that was dumb.) I had my umbrella with me today and I was wearing my raincoat so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. My poor housemate was wearing a white shirt and the umbrella our host mom gave her was broken.

Jorge was awesome while we went shopping too. He took us to like four or five stores and patiently held our umbrellas as we looked at stuff and tried to find what we were looking for. We dragged that poor man through rain and mud and malls. Brave man Jorge. ^_^ You know forgetting my shampoo cost me twelve dollars! My usual brand was even more expensive. Strange when Tressime costs 16 dollars!

Oh! We had our oral placement exams today. It was very intimidating but I placed into the class I wanted to get in to. I start tomorrow and have spanish from 8am to 12pm and then I have my middle eastern politics class from 3 to 5 pm. A long day but thats what I get for cramming 4 months into 5 weeks. Oh, and get this! My politics class has only one other person! That is what I call small class size. They say that they will not cancel it which is crazy to me! But good since that is the class I want. ^_^

After we got our class schedule, two girls and I decided to head to a local bar and have a beer. Unfortunately we only knew of the two bars closest to our house which were the two out of three places our program told us not to go to. However, our host brothers had told us that those were the places that everyone went to. So we decided to chance it since it was right down the street and it was still daylight. It was great! We all had the local beer, Imperial, and it was pretty decent. When we got there it was almost completely filled with Americans but by the time we left there was mostly Ticos (Costa Ricans). My housemate and I walked with the third girl to her homestay and then we ended up taking a taxi home because it was getting dark.

We have decided that since we don't want to be stuck inside our houses after dark (which because it is so close to the equator means it gets dark at 6pm!) and since I have a class with only me and one other guy that I need to make him my new BFF so he'll chaperon us around at night. All evening they'd tell me "So  you need to meet your best friend 4-eva tomorrow and see if he'll go with us here." It was great. Poor guy has no idea what he got himself into.

Well I have to wake up in 6 hours so I'd better stop this book I've got going on here and go to sleep.

My room

Estoy en Costa Rica

I am so exhausted and overwhelmed right now I can't even think straight.

I am finally in San Jose, Costa Rica! I am sitting in my new bedroom at my host families house right now trying to stay awake long enough to write about my day. I started off by waking up this morning after only two hours of sleep. Which left me cranky and stressed. However, I finally got to the airport where I dragged my heels for almost an hour trying to prolong the dreaded goodbye to Jesse. We eventually sucked it up and I was on my way!

The flight from Spokane to Phoenix wasn't too bad because I slept all but ten minutes of it. I stayed awake for the 5 and a half hour flight from Phoenix to San Jose but I had two awesome seat mates and we talked for almost the entire flight. The lady on my left is doing a research project down here in Costa Rica and the girl on my right is meeting her boyfriend here for a road trip adventure. It was a lot of fun but I was so glad to stand up by the time we finally got to San Jose. I disembarked, went through immigration and got my luggage before finally finding the people from my program. I checked in and found out that we had to wait for another flight to come in. So there we were, 25 students, every one of us excited to see Costa Rica and we ended up spending the first hour standing on the sidewalk outside of the airport. The only thing we could really see were ads for Best Western and Holiday Inn . . . In English! Go figure.

Eventually we were herded onto a bus and we set off for Veritas University. Once we got there, a lady with a clip board called my name, pointed to a lady and said "Here's your new family." The host mom starts talking to me in Spanish, I'm trying to grab my suitcase, all these people are swarming around me blocking me in. Oh man. It was crazy! Finally my host mom gets frustrated and grabs my backpack and throws it in a car. We pile in and Thank God she brought her granddaughter with her because she could sort of explain what was going on and where we were going. We drove around in circles until I was hopelessly lost and just beginning to wonder where these strangers were taking me when we stopped in front of this adorable little house with a tile patio and two metal fences all around it. I tried to explain to them that I thought the tile was gorgeous but they just giggled. I have a feeling that this will happen often. ^_^

I didn't really know what I was supposed to be doing and I couldn't understand a thing they were saying. However, they eventually asked me Tiene Hambre, which if you know me at all then you won't be surprised that I knew that they were asking me if I was hungry. I jumped all over that and then they asked me if I liked Taco Bell burritos.

So yes, my first night in Costa Rica I ate Taco Bell.

Almost there!

So in four hours I will be packing up the car and leaving for the airport. I can't wait and yet it seems like time is moving too fast at the same time. I just called my Mom to tell her goodbye and I must have told her good night and then restarted the conversation a dozen times. I was like "Bye Mom . . . . No wait, don't hang up yet!"
Five weeks without a phone sounded good a few months ago. What was I thinking?

My friends Tricia and Krystal drove down to help me pack today but we ended up going to the river and drinking beer instead. Which probably kept me sane. Not to mention it was a ton of fun. However, this entertaining day is the reason why I will be heading to Costa Rica lobster red! Tricia and I got incredibly sunburned in these bizarre patterns on our legs and my face is . . . warm. The sad thing isn't that I remembered to pack sunblock, it's that i forgot to put any on!

Oh yeah, The study abroad program I am with changed my host family. They didn't really explain why other than the family was unexpectedly unable to have students living there. Mysterious!!! However, this means that I no longer get a maid. Even though I know it is ridiculous I am still a little heartbroken. Every girl should get a maid once in their life!
Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait on that bucket list item. I suppose there is only so many things you are allowed to cross off in one trip.
I also can't find my new host families house on google map but since I will see it tomorrow I will probably survive.

Once I get my baggage and go through customs tomorrow I am supposed to head outside and wait for someone from ISA to pick me up. However,  I received an email yesterday informing us that a group of people have been showing up at the airport holding ISA signs that don't actually work for them. So now I have a picture of everyone who works at ISA in San Jose in my purse and we have a super duper secret password. I feel like I'm in a spy movie!

Well I'm going to go check my ticket information and confirm that I have my passport in my purse a million more times.

Nine days suddenly seems much too short

It's only a little over a week until I hop on a plane to leave the good old U S of A. For months now I have been trying to get ready for this. I've written list after list of things I need to do. Paperwork lists, financial aid lists, things to buy lists, things to pack lists. Hell, I've written lists about the lists I still needed to write. And I've crossed everything except packing off. But I'm starting to run out of lists to write which is why I am now starting to freak myself out. I don't know how to prepare for five weeks in Costa Rica because I've never spent five weeks in Costa Rica. And the country doesn't come with instructions.

Although I have a rough itinerary of where I will be when, I do not have a handy guide on what to expect day to day. (Day One - Terrified and won't understand a word being said. Day Five - Find a friend. Day Thirteen - Get sick from the water. Day Thirty One - Ace the final) I have been working on studying abroad in Costa Rica for over six months, but once I get there I am going to have to let go of my lists and wing it.

This is going to be interesting.

Itinerary

Travel

Arrive in San José. Meet host families.

Sat. 07/02

Orientation

Orientation at ISA main office.

Sun. 07/03

Orientation

Placement Test and Orientation at Veritas

Mon. 07/04

Classes

Spanish Language Classes begin.

Tue. 07/05

Excursion

Excursion to Playa Tamarindo. 

Fri. 07/08 - Sun. 07/10

Excursion

Excursion to Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna Waterfall. 

Fri. 07/15 - Sun. 07/17

Excursion

Excursion to Monteverde Cloud Forest. 

Fri. 07/22 - Sun. 07/24

Travel

Return to United States.                                                                     

Sat. 08/06

Adding on to the last post

So I was talking today on Facebook to someone from my program who went to San Jose early to volunteer before classes start. He was kind enough to share some advice on packing and host families but he also let me know that shipping anything to Costa Rica is a total pain in the butt! A guy down there with him thought it would be a good idea to ship some of his stuff instead of bringing it on the plane. Terrible Idea! Expensive Idea! He had a cd case with over a hundred dvd's in it and they levied a dollar per movie import tax on him. YIKES!!!


Yup, no care packages for me!

Sending letters and packages!

So packages might be a little unrealistic considering the fact that I will only be gone for 5 weeks but if anyone wants to send me a letter here is the information ISA sent me. ^_^


For letters, address them like this:

Brittany Stewart Y/O ISA

P.O. Box # 101-2010 

Zapote, San José 

Costa Rica, Centroamérica

For packages mailed through UPS, Fedex or any other non- USPS companies that require a physical address (not a PO Box) use the following address:

Brittany Stewart /ISA 

75 m al norte del Parque de los Mangos 

Edificio amarillo de 3 pisos 

Zapote, San José 

Costa Rica, Centroamérica

They also sent me page after page of information about what to send and what not to. But to shorten it up, don't send me drugs, don't insure stuff for outrageous amounts since I will be taxed on the amount it was insured for and don't describe items in complicated terms since the custom agents might not be the best at English and will hold anything they don't understand. 

I absolutely love how the addresses in Costa Rica are like


75 meters north of Mango Park
The Yellow Building with 3 stories


No street names, no numbers. That is awesome!


But Oh My God is that going to be obnoxious once I'm there!