And we danced the night away!

Ok, so I did it, I paid for the dance lessons. I had my first class yesterday and it was awesome! It was about two and a half hours long. We danced to all sorts of things. It turns out that I am pretty good at it! I picked it up quite quickly! I will show you guys my skills when I get back! I am glad I am doing it because I have always wanted to learn, also, it is a GREAT workout!

As for this weekend, I leave tomorrow!

We are going to Tamarino, which is a beach in the Guanacaste area. I am going with the same group of girls that I always go with! We figure we travel well together, so why mix it up! I will let you guys know how it was when I get back!

Until Sunday! Hasta Domingo!

Volcano Arenal, ziplining and hot springs! Fun weekend!

Hello All!

This weekend I had a great time! Once again I went out with a group of my friends to see and experience what Costa Rica has to offer! The bus ride was long, but once we made it the fun soon began! We almost immediately went to the hot springs. I was quite surprised by what I experienced there. Honestly I thought that the hot springs would be more natural, but we went to a resort that had 25 pools of different temperatures. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, just different from what I had pictured in my head. We went back later that night as well. This place also had slides! They were so much fun! They also had a buffet style dinner for us! They treated us well!

After our first visit to the hot springs, we went on a tour to see Volcano Arenal. We were lucky because we got to see and hear the volcano explode. We also went on a hike through the forest and was taken to a waterfall! It was very pretty. The tour guide also showed us ways to survive in the forest. He taught us that termites taste like carrots, special leaves can be used as bug repelant and something else, but I can't remember right now!

The most memorable thing from this weekend though is definitely the ziplining!! There were 12 ziplines to go down and one Tarazan swing! I got some good videos of it, I would put it up, but it takes too long!

I am too tired to write more, but I will resume later!

Bye!

San Antonio de Escazu

Hello All!

So today I went on a day trip with my class to San Antonio de Escazu. First our bus dropped us off at a church while we waited for our tour guide to arrive! We hung out there for a while and we took pictures with the rock wall mural across the street. Our tour guide arrived, so we went to our first destination, which was to the house of this man who makes masks. It was pretty cool! He made them so that people could get into them and appear much taller, then you dance! It is funny looking, but so much fun!! After that, we walked down the street to the house of another man who makes traditional Trapiche, which is basicly a brick of sugar made from sugar cane. He used ox's to get the sugar water from the sugar cane. It was all pretty fun!

Also, I have the opportunity to learn Salsa, Merengue and Bachata for $20 a month! It is an awesome opportunity, I am pretty excited about it! For all of you who know my best friend Matt, I am totally going to make him dance with me!!

As for this weekend, the plans are made and I will be leaving tomorrow morning at 5am! We are planning on seeing Volcano Arenal, zipline through the forest, see hotsprings....and anything else we can think of!!

I will let you know Sunday how it all goes! Until then...Ten un buen dia!

Random Thoughts...

We all got together to take a picture at the bar below our hotel. The guy in the white is not apart of my program. We met him that night; his name is Christian. He is Colombian! It turns out that a lot of Colombians have light eyes. He was very cute.

There was a smaller waterfall near the really big one. This one was easy to get into. There wasn't a strong current!

This was my view of Montezuma on the other side of the room! As you can see, there were street venders. It was a very colorful town!

This is a picture of the street perpendicular to the first street. That man on the corner had a conection with Cuba. He was selling cigars. If my dad smoked cigars I probably would have bought something from him, but he doesn't!

Sorry this is upside down....but here is a picture of the waterfall we worked so hard to get to!

Hello all -

I had intentions of putting a ton of pictures up from my trip to Montezuma, but it turns out that the limit is 5 pictures per blog! So. Here are some more pictures! If you are interested in seeing more pictures, find me on facebook. I started an album and it has a little over 100 pictures currently!

As for my random thoughts, nothing happened today that is worth mentioning, but I do want to make sure that I document what I am observing while I am here.

First of all, I want to talk about the PDA here! You can't go anywhere without seeing most everyone paired off. I don't have any issues with PDA, but if you are someone who is, you might be really uncomfortable in Costa Rica! After thinking about it, it makes sense that PDA is so popular here. children live with their parents until they are married, and sometimes even after. Of course this is generally speaking, but it makes sense that outside of the house is the only time couples get to spend time with each other.

Second of all, I was convinced that Costa Ricans don't have acne until today! When I walk to and from my bus stop, I pass all sorts of teenagers, and all of them had great skin. Today I saw a few though.

Thirdly, most floors are made out of tile. The whole has tile in every classroom, along with the houses. I like it a lot actually! The tile changes patterns depending on the house. It adds more personality!

That is all I can think of right now, but I am sure there will be more to come!

Oh yeah! I went to see "Brigada A los Magnificos" (The A-Team) - and it was awesome!! It is rediculous, but so funny!

As for this weekend, plans are in the making!

The plan is to go to Monteverde, see the Volcano Arenal, go ziplining over the forest, see some hot springs....and more!

It should be another packed weekend full of fun! I can't wait! The only problem is that I am going to have to slow down after this weekend! These things are expensive! I was hoping it would be cheaper here, but it isn't!

Hasta luego!

Weekend travels to Montezuma!

View outside my window!

At the beach

Dinner I had last week!

On the ferry to Motezuma

Alright, I have a lot to say!

I went to Montezuma, which is a small beach town, this weekend. I went with 7 other girls. It was a long trip. We met at school at 6 in the morning! We didn't get there until 2! Our hotel was very cute, and the view outside of our window was amazing! It tooked right over the beach! The beach was really rocky, so that wasn't so great, but everything else was amazing. The first day we got there we went to the beach. My friend Laurel decided to find a coconut. She found one but couldn't get it open with her hands, so she started throwing in at rocks. A group of ticos, Costa Ricans, came up to us and asked us if we needed help. One of the guys, named Miguel, stayed with us for a while. He had a knife with him, so we went along the beach and tried to find a good coconut. We never did, but it was a lot of fun trying! Miguel ended up being a cool friend while we were here. He was very nice. He lives in a tent on the beach. He is a very happy person, and fun to be around. Later in the weekend he rode a unicycle and juggled fire for us!

There was a bar right below our hotel, so every night we went there and hung out. It was Latin night the first night we were there, which was funny because we all had just taken a class on how to salsa and merengue earlier this week! We did a lot of dancing! It was so much fun!

We also decided to see some water falls. We thought it would be a nice 20 minute walk, but boy were we wrong! This was extreme hiking! It had rained a lot the day before so the rapids were really stong. Also, the path was muddy, so there were times when it was really scary. We had to hike up a mountain to get there, but all of it was worth it. I can't even describe how awesome the view was. I have pictures, but it isn't the same. The hike back got even crazier! We decided to go along the water this time instead of up the mountain. We had to cross the river at one point and that is when things got crazy! The rapids were moving quickly, so it was hard to walk across. We had three locals with us, helping us get across. In the middle of the river, I fell and couldn't get back up! I hurt my knee, it is better now, but at the time it sucked! My shoe also broke! So, between all those unfortunate events, the trip back was a bit crazy! We all made it safe and sound though!

I also want to take this time to thank some people:

Mom - thank you for the umbrella, it rains like crazy here!!

Mitchell - even though I didn't ask to borrow these things, thank you so much for your raincoat, by the way, it says women's inside of it, you should just let me have it! Thank you for letting me borrow your flip flops too, sorry, I suck, I shouldn't have just taken them. I had already packed my shoes when I realized I didn't leave any out to wear!

Charlotte - thank you for your chacos, those were actually the shoes that broke in the middle of the river, but they were awesome while they lasted, I definitely need to go buy some more!

Ashley - thank you for the shorts, it is super hot here!

3 random locals - thanks for saving my life in that river!

Claire - for planning our trip! We couldn't have done it without you!

It Rains A Lot!

Hello all -

Today has been a pretty good day! Yesterday was pretty rough though. My friend from class and I walked to the mall, but we got lost, so it took us a lot longer than it should have! It was also raining the entire time, because of this, my stuff got soaked! My new book on Costa Rica has rippled pages now, and my passport paper copies are a little smugged now. I have learned my lesson; everything goes in plastic bags! I also learned that I should carry my backpack in front instead of on my back. This way is safer, it also makes sure that my stuff is dry! I got lucky, I had my camera in my pocket to take pictures. I left the case in my backpack. When I went through my stuff to evaluate the damage, my camera case was soaked! Luckily nothing very important was ruined!

I have been going to bed at 9 every night! This is very unusual for me, but if I went to bed any later I would be miserable during school! waking up at 6 hasn't been that bad! It is a habit that I would like to keep if I can. I also get a huge meal every morning for breakfast. It is so hard to finish it all, but I appreciate it! It wouldn't be so bad, but the walk to my bus stop is far. I have to make the walk on a VERY full stomach, which isn't very pleasant!

Yesterday my class took a tour of Heredia. We walked for 2 hours I believe. Yesterday I walked more than I have walked in a while. I wish I knew I far a walked with the tour, my mall excursion and bus stop walking combined. One of my legs hurts right now because of it. I hope it passes soon because I have a lot of walking ahead of me!

Very shortly I will be going to the mall to see a movie. "La Bragada A - los Magnificos," which is the movie "The A-Team". We are going to watch it in Spanish, even though we can see it in English.

This weekend I am trying to go to the beach with friends, and maybe to see a volcano! We'll see what happens!

My First Day.

Hello all!

Today was long! I have to catch the bus at 7:20 from here on out. Today my host mom came with me to school, we missed the bus though! It wasn't that big of a deal because there was another one that that came at 7:40. We had to get off early though and catch the taxi to get there on time!

Universidad Nacional is very strict about being punctual! If I am absent one day without a sick note I am sent back home! To the United States! This is pretty funny because outside of school life it isn't that way. There is this thing called "Tico Time" which means that it is very normal to be 30 minutes late, but not at school!

I like my classmates a lot! Most are really excited about travelling, so it should be pretty easy to go places with people.

I learned that movies are half off on Wednesdays! I am totally going to see Eclipse when it comes out! I think I want to see it in Spanish, I read the book, I should know what is going on!

Also, hot showers aren't common here. That is one thing I miss! I started shaving one leg, but decided it wasn't worth it because I was so cold! Oh yeah, I am having issues with the bus system! I never know where I am so I don't know when I should get off, which has a lot to do with the fact that there aren't street signs. It also makes me nervous when I go to pay because I don't have a lot of coins on me, I only have bills. I am not sure where I need to go to get coins yet...

I have one problem at the moment. It is their winter, so pants are very common. It is my summer, so I only brought shorts! To me, it is hot enough to wear shorts, but I don't want to draw a lot of attention to myself. I think I am going to have to buy some pants. And for the record, the cost of products is about the same.

I will have more pictures to come, I just feel weird walking around taking pictures around a bunch of natives. It makes me feel very turist-y, which is what I am, but they say it isn't good to look like it! I will take picturs of the house so that you guys can see where I live now! It is great!

Until next time - hasta luego!

I Made It!

This picture was taken before I got on the plane in Nashville.

I am now in Costa Rica! The airport was stressfull for a second because I wasn't sure where my host mom would be waiting, but it all worked out in the end! When we met she have me a hug with a big smile. She is very friendly.

We took a cab back to her house. On the way there I told her about my family and she told me about hers. She has six children, two of them still live at home. They are twins! They are both women, and I am having a hard time remembering their names...and one of their names is hard for me to pronounce! Also, I would like to take this time to mention that the cab ride was a bit crazy! I had read from more than one source that traffic is crazy, and they weren't lying. Our cab driver was pretty agressive. The rule seemed to be that the more agressive you are as a driver the better!

When I got here, I got to meet her two daughters, and she showed me my room. It is very nice, I like it a lot! She then made me lunch. A lot of sources told me that rice and beans are very common in Costa Rican cuizine, so it didn't come as much of a surprise when that is exactly what I got! It was awesome!

I am not the only guest here. There are two other girls and one guy. We all came today. One is still on her way, she wont get here till 1 in the morning. It is pretty cool. Earlier, it was just Ann and I (one of the other girls), so one of the sisters, Katalin, took us to the mall! This mall had three stories, it was awesome!! I plan on going back and getting music things like that. It was a lot of fun looking around!

So far, communicating hasn't been that bad! Sometimes I don't know how to say something, but most of the time we figure it out!

Ann wants to travel around as well, so hopefully I will have a companion while I am here.

All is well - tomorrow I have to go to school, we will see how that goes!

Oh yeah, breakfast is at 6:30 every morning! Ahh! We will see how that goes as well!

24 hours till Costa Rica!

Hello all -

In 24 hours I will be in Costa Rica and it hasn't quite hit me yet. I am not nervous, but I am sure it will happen as soon as a step off that plane!

This trip is a pretty big deal to me because it will be the first time I have been out of the United States. It is also important to me because I have been working towards this trip for a long time!

I am leaving at 6am from the Nashville airport, I will update you soon!