FYI

Hey Everyone! I will be in both Panama and Nicaragua for the next two weeks. Things are great here, overall. I just want to explain my mysterious abscence =)

Odds and Ends

As school draws to a close, I feel glad that I decided to come for a year. I still have 7 and a half months left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything is going well here. While schoolwork may still be a struggle, I am learning more and more every day. Some people have gone so far as to say that I am almost billingual. While I find this a polite lie, I appreciate the compliments. Within the last month or so, many things have changed. I have become a leader in the youth group, and am in charge of my own small group for Alpha. I have also started to learn how to wind surf at Lake Arenal. I have many new friends, and have learned about the culture. I have also taken more pictures than even I dreamed possible. I find myself truly being a part of the family, as we pass through some economic situations. Finally, the water is back, but now the washer doesn`t work. But everything passes in time. Here are some pictures for you!

Funny things people have told me

1. The Little Mermaid is satanic.

2. When a 17 year old girl dates a 28 year old boy, it`s not a big age difference.

3. A girl is ready to marry once she can cook tortillas.

4. It`s possible, and normal to fit 7 people in a 4 person car.

5. Attending classes is optional.

6. Una cosita grande. ( a big small thing.)

7. People wanted me to buy weed for them at the mall, right in front of the police.

8. You don`t plan on getting married in the next 5 years??????????????

9. We are going to climb up, uphill.

10. You are crazy (directed at me on multiple occasions)

Catching Up

My host sister lost my camera. She borrowed it, motorcycled to the lake, and dropped it at some point along the road. I miss my camera so much, and it`s been less than 24 hours. I also had a bit of a disagreement with my English teacher. He tried to tell me that my answer to a test question was wrong, and that fluent English speakers ¨could not pardon my error.¨ I told him that I am, in fact, a fluent English speaker, and that he was wrong. I angrily pouted, and eventually he gave me the points I deserved. Despite this, school is actually fun here. I have made a lot of friends, and the teachers take pity on me, which is nice.
September 15th is CR`s independence day, and I am excited to celebrate. The schools march through the streets, to celebrate, and I decided that it would be fun to march with my classmates. The practice itself is hard: marching uphill in the heat of Costa Rica, but I think that the experience will be worth it. In addition to this, I am learning how to paint ceramics. I had some nice pictures of the finished product, but my pictures are somewhere in the Costa Rican grass or in a black market auction. I am having a great time, and on the 16th, I will have been here for 2 months. My host family and I are like any normal family, and I am so glad that I got placed here.

Funny Story

This morning I caught up with my friends from the U.S. One of them had a very funny story to tell me, and because he isn`t following my blog, I can tell it. My friend speaks almost no Spanish, and his first days here were very hard for him . AFS tells foreign exchange students to smile, nod, and say yes for the first few days with the family, or at least that is what my friend thought. When he met his family for the first time, he was enthusiastic and happy, even though his family seemed rather sad. He didn`t have a clue what his family was saying, so he continued to nod and smile.
The next day his host family invited him to church. He thought it was rather strange, going to churh on a monday, but he went. When he got to the church, he continued to nod, smile, and be genuinely friendly, even though the people seemed very sad and confused by his actions.
Then my friend noticed the coffin in the middle of the church and he understood. The day before his host parents had been explaining to him that his host grandmother had died, and they had invited him to the funeral. Needless to say, he will not make that mistake again.

Life and the Beach

As of tomorrow I will have been away for a month, and I would like to say that I am completely settled in. I know how to walk to school in under 10 minutes, be at home by curfew, buy things at cheap prices, and live without an iPod and cell phone for a month, what was previously thought to be impossible. Life here is beautiful. I am not sure how, but there must be five more hours in a day because there is always time for everything. My host family and I are getting along very well, and I have made friends both in the youth group and school. The people here are very friendly and I don`t find myself bored very often. 

Monday I went to visit my host grandparents and then my host aunt and uncle. With my host sister, dad, aunt, uncle, and cousin I spent 20 hours (from 2 am to 10 pm) in a hot car going from city to city so that the family could work, and finally the beach. Tilaran signifies wind and water, hence it is colder than most of Costa Rica. Hence, the majority of other cities in Costa Rica feel like an oven. I was not exactly thrilled to squish 6 people into a four person truck in the very hot climate of Costa Rica, but it was worth it for the beach.

I spent hours and hours in almost deserted beaches, and was thrilled to swim in the clear water. The water warm and the beaches are clean. There are lots of tourists in the area, and it is easy to tell who they are because they speak English. Also, by the beach are a variety of animals. There were wild monkeys in the trees and a huge spider. If the spider bites you and you are not allergic, it gives you a bad burn; if you are allergic, you die. Fortunately, the spider did not bite me, considering it was about two feet from my foot. Other than the trip to the beach, I have spent most of my time with my friends and family here in Costa Rica. I am excited for the rest of my year here and plan to update my blog when I can. ¡Hasta Luego!

School and Arenal

My first week was gerat, getting to know my host family and buying things for school. I walked to a cross with my host brother, sister, and cousin. It was a couple hundred feet up in the air on a hill, but I couldn`t resist. This week, I started school at Liceo Maurilio Alvarado Vargas. It`s a bit different from my school back in the U.S. Here, when I have a free period, I can leave the school, and I get an hour to go home for lunch. It`s really nice to have an open campus, and I think it`s worth it, even though I have to be at school by 7am. The other students in my class are really nice, and have all helped me in various ways: walking me to class, helping me with notes, and they are really inviting.

Also, my host family and I have enjoyed a lot of time at Lake Arenal, which is 20 minutes away by the family morortcycle. It is absolutely beautiful there, and I never wanted to leave. Also, I have to say, it was quite a strange feeling, sharing a lake with water snakes and crocodiles. However, my biggest foe here has been the bugs. For example, there were two very large spiders in the house yesterday. However, Costa rica is beautiful, bugs or not, and I have pictures to prove it.