This is it.

Welp friends, this is it probably the last blog I will ever write about my trip to Costa Rica. As I'm sitting here tears continue to fall down my face because I just said goodbye to all my friends. I know I will definitely see most of them again since they are from the Midwest. But, its just the whole idea of leaving and I not sure what else to do except cry.

The past 3 months have been a huge adventure. I remember coming here and being completely unsure on what I was doing here in the first place. But as the time went on, I learned that I was here to grow up and mature. While here my life changed drastically. Everything I knew or thought I knew changed and I was forced out of my comfort zone and forced to have faith in God. The past month, I've definitely gotten closer to God and gotten stronger in my faith. And I definitely can't help but think that was the point of this trip.

 

I've had the time of my life here. I've met so many new friends. I became part of a new family. I became more confident in speaking Spanish. I became independent. I went snorkeling. I attempted to learn how to swim. I went to Nicaragua and Panama. I can go on and on with the list but it comes down to one thing: I made the most out of my time here and now it's time to go back home to reality and apply my new life lessons and everything I've learned and experienced back at home.

 

Things I'm going to miss the most

1. Speaking Spanish everywhere.
2. Fruit Smoothies
3. Warm Weather & Beaches
4. My host family
5. Tico Viajero!
6. My friends
7. Triple Threat Thursdays
8. The AIFS Spring 2013 group
9. The cost of everything
10. Fruit!

I hear all the time about Reverse Culture Shock and I can't help but think I will have to deal with the same thing when I get home. I've experienced the above list almost daily that I'm almost positive I'm going to be so confused on what to do with my life when I get back home. I don't know how I've going to act or how I will handle the culture shock but I do know that no matter what, this experience will always be something I will remember and hold in my heart. This isn't a goodbye Costa Rica, This is a see you later.

Pura Vida

Spring Break Part 2: Panama

Thursday

We left Puerto Viejo bright and early on Thursday morning. We had to walk back to your hotel from the night before to meet the bus with the rest of the students from school going to Panama. We started walking and just our luck that it started to rain! That definitely wasn't too fun walking with all of our stuff in the rain. Panama was about an hour or two drive from Puerto Viejo. Once we arrived at the border we had to fill out forms on the Costa Rica side, get our passport stamped and then walk across a bridge of death to get to Panama. Luckily by then it stopped raining. I had heard so many stories about this bridge but I never actually thought it would be as bad as every described. The bridge seemed so unstable and there were some of the slats missing. As a non-swimmer, I was not to thrilled and I was super nervous the entire way. We finally arrived to the Panama side where we waited for about 15 minutes in a line to get our passports stamped. Then we got into a car and drove for about an hour until we got to a water taxi where we took to get to the island we were staying at. At the point, it started raining a little bit more and the waves were killer going across. I literally felt like I was on a roller coaster. Needless to say, we arrived at our hostel safe and in one piece. It rained the remainder of the day so we just stayed in and explored around the island.

Friday

We woke up bright and early on Friday morning. All of our group was going to the Starfish Beach for the day. Me and my friends decided to walk around to find a tour to go on to explore more islands instead of just hanging out at the beach. We found one that took us to 4 different islands for $20. We figured that was a good deal. We got a boat and were on our way. This was definitely interesting because while we were on our way, the boat driver asks what places we were supposed to go to and if he could switch up the order. Obviously, this didn't make me too comfortable but we were already in the middle of the ocean with no turning back. We first went to Isla los Pajaros (Bird Island) but we didn't actually get off the boat. In fact, we barely saw it because we were facing the wrong direction. The only thing our "guide/boat driver" said was something about some people needed to change seats to balance out the boat. There were killer waves attacking our boat so after people moved around, we left and went to Boca del Drago. There we had about an hour to eat lunch before going to Plays de las Estrellas (Starfish Beach). At the beach we got to hang out for two hours. We saw some Starfish and ran into a few of our other friends who were there all day. After we left the beach we went back to our hotel and hung out for the rest of the night. We were all really happy that we did the separate tour. For $20 is was definitely an adventure but it was well worth it.

 

Saturday

Saturday we woke up bright and early again for another boat tour. This one was just with the people from my school that came on the trip with me. Our first stop on the tour was to go dolphin watching. I was super excited but literally this was probably the most depressing 30 minutes of my life. There were about 30 boats in the area and every time a dolphin came up for air, all the boats swarmed the area. I got a chance to see a few but the pictures weren't very good because they moved so fast and weren't all in the same area. After dolphin watching, we went to Cayo Coral to go snorkeling. I got in the water in Puerto Viejo so I figured I would get in the water again. This time, I wasn't the only one who didn't know how to swim! So 5 of us had our life vests on. We got a chance to put the snorkel on too and take a few looks in the water. I stayed in for about 30 minutes before I started feeling nauseous and got out. Afterwards we ate lunch and then went to Red Frog Beach. We had to pay $3 for the beach but it was still really pretty. Some of my friends and I ate a second lunch and then enjoyed the beach. The waves were pretty strong so we basically just sat and talked on the beach. We got back to our hotel and figured it was our last night in Panama so a bunch of us went to a bar so we can dance. It was so much fun and we danced for about an hour straight before going back to the hotel and getting some sleep. I also got a chance to Skype my grandparents for a little bit when I got back to the hotel. My mom went to visit for Easter and I really miss them. I haven't seen them in about 2 years now, so it was definitely good to see them for a few minutes!

 

Sunday

We had to wake up extremely early to get back to San Jose. Because it was Easter and the last day of Semana Santa, We had to make sure we were able to cross the boarder. We waited for the water taxi for a while before we were all finally able to get on. Then we had to drive an hour to the border. At the border we got through both sides very quickly by 9:30. But, we had to wait until 11 for the driver to come pick us up. At first we didn't really care but then it started pouring raining at which point, everything got soaked and we weren't very pleased anymore. We found shelter though and finally the driver came back. The drive back was fairly quick and there was hardly any traffic. We arrived around 3 and my friend Shayna and I went to McDonalds for lunch. Talk about yummy!

 

It was an amazing trip and I had so much fun. I was really happy that I got a chance to go on my adventure for 10 days. It was much needed and I had a lot of fun! Now I have a little less than a week here and I am determined to have an awesome time because once Saturday comes, its back home to reality and I'll have to finally deal with work, school, track, and other things that I have been able to put on hold for a few month! Nevertheless I am excited to be going home and I can't believe these past 12 weeks few by!

Spring Break Part 1: Puerto Viejo

Saturday

We woke up bright and early at 7 to get breakfast. Luis said we were leaving for Cauhita which is about 30 minutes from

Puerto Viejo. We were going there to go snorkeling. It was definitely a pleasant surprise because I didn't know it was included. My first thought was cool my second was yikes! I don't know how to swim so there was no way that I was getting in the water. I didn't care what I was missing out on.

We got on the boat and I obviously planned on staying in and being the photographer for the group. However, Luis (travel agency guy that works at school) was determined to get me in the water. Somehow he convinced me and I put on a life jacket and got in. He even taught me how to dog pedal! He wanted me to put the snorkel gear on and see underwater but actually getting in the water was enough adventure for one day. After snorkeling the boat took us to an island where monkeys were to enjoy some fruit. The monkeys tried pretty hard to take some fruit out of our hands and even succeeded! Talk about funny! Afterwards the boat dropped us off at the national park where we walked back to the car on the lookout for animals. Then we came back to our hotel, napped and enjoyed each other's company for the rest of the day.

Sunday

We woke up for breakfast ad town decided to head to the beach! After walking for about 15 minutes we found the perfect spot. We enjoyed the son, napped a bit, and got in the water for a few hours. The water was the perfect temperature although the waves were pretty strong. After trying extremely hard not to get my hair wet, the waves finally won. We finished at the beach after it started getting a little chilly and came back to the hotel to hangout and nap before getting lunch.

After resting after lunch we decided to go to the beach and just hang out. We sat around talking and playing a few games. And I know y'all have all heard the saying its all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Well that's exactly what happened. Somehow I got the bright idea to run around the beach in the dark and a nice rope stopped me in my tracks. Literally. And I now have a nice little bruise under my left eye and under my lip. I'm telling you I looked just like Lil Wayne.

Monday

I woke up in so much pain from the fall last night that after breakfast I decided to stay in the hotel and just sleep. Somehow I hurt my foot as well and it hurts a bit to walk on it. Although I missed a fun day at the beach I figured I would have one day where I bummed it and it came on the 3rd day of vacation instead of in the middle.

Tuesday

Since I stayed in on Monday there was absolutely no way I was going to stay in on Tuesday as well. Tess and I met up with our friend Rachel and her friends from Spain that also go to our school. We decided to  take a bus to Manzanillo. It is about 10 minutes in bus from Puerto Viejo. It was nice to go to a different beach too. Once we arrived we walked and walked until we found a spot that overlooked the entire ocean/beach. We took a bunch of photos before finding a good spot on the beach. We sat around, ate fruit, and played cards for a few hours before coming back to our hotel. It was definitely needed after my chill day on Monday.

Wednesday

Again  I felt the need for a lazy day. The weather was unreal. There was a RealFeel temperature of 105. Of course I was dying. There's no way it ever gets like that in Chicago! We had to check out of our hotel and get a different one just for the night. We stayed at Rocking J's and I was definitely not looking forward to the long walk with all of my things in the heat! We eventually walked over and then me and my friend Rachel decided to go to an Internet cafe to get some homework done. Afterwards we sat around the hostel and just hung out before going to sleep in our hammocks and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. At last the first part of Spring Break was over and I was super ready to take on Panama!

:) Aracelis

Be on the lookout because Part 2 will be posted tomorrow!

Finally Spring Break

It's finally spring break here. I have anticipated this week for the longest! It's nice that it comes a week before I go home but at the same time it's super sad that I really only have 1 more week in San Jose and 1 more week with my amazing host mom. In a little bit I am leaving to go to Puerto Viejo until Thursday and then I'm off to Panama until the 31st. I will probably not post a blog while on my trip unless the hotel I am staying at has a computer.

 

Apologies for not writing since last week. This week has been filled with last minute homework assignments. However last night my program took all of us out for a farewell dinner. Most of us are leaving on the 6th of April but some are still staying until the ending of April. Anyways we went to this restaurant in the mountains that overlooked the entire city. Talk about beautiful! Right when we got there, we got to see a typical Costa Rican show. In the show there were about 6 dancers doing a typical Costa Rican dance from Guanacaste. It was especially fun when they pulled people from the audience. A few girls from my group got picked. Luckily I didn't because I would have definitely looked ridiculous! After the show we went to a buffet dinner. The food was so delicious and I may or may not have eaten an entire bowl of chips and salsa! It was just delicious that I couldn't help myself! Afterwards we got to take a few pictures overlooking the city before we came back home.

 

I woke up this morning and finished packing. Which by the way is extremely hard when your packing for 10 days but you can't take a lot of stuff! Needless to say I have enough clothes, etc. for 10 days in my Vera bag (which my mom bought me from home, Thanks mom!) and my book bag. I'm not really sure where the souvenirs I might buy will fit, but I guess I'll worry about that when the time comes! I went down for breakfast and my host mom basically told me to be extremely careful. I think she's a little worried because I am gone for so long and she just wants to make sure that I will be okay. So, I have to call/message her a minimum of 3 times in Puerto Viejo and 2 times in Panama. My parents will be so proud that she's having me do that (especially my dad)! Well I'm off to school to meet up with the group! I'll talk to you in in 10 days! Hope everyone has a blessed and thankful Easter!

 

 <3 Aracelis

Happy Birthday Mom

I've heard that it takes about 27 days before you actually form a new habit. I'm starting to think that maybe that's why I have such a hard time trying to update this because things don't happen everyday here. Some days, like today, I do very little and it's not as exciting to blog about especially when I don't have pictures to accommodate. Nevertheless, I planned on writing Wednesday and Thursday, I was just too tired to function. Having my mom here has really worn my out :)

 

Wednesday

Wednesday, me and my mom woke up at the crack of dawn. Literally, it was way to early for me to function at that hour. We were off for a day of sight seeing. We went to a coffee plantation, Poas Volcano, and La Paz Waterfall Gardens. I'm sure all of these sound familiar to you because I went on this trip at the ending of January with my program. I figured it would be a great "Mom" activity since my mom doesn't like beaches or anything like that. Once we got picked up we took about 2 more hours picking up the other people coming on the tour with us. Then we arrived at the Doka Coffee Plantation. This part was actually different because when I went with my program, I went to a different plantation. I thought this one was very informative because we actually got to take a tour of the plantation and see the steps that it takes before it actually gets shipped off to stores. We got to taste chocolate covered coffee beans! I don't like coffee but those coffee beans were amazing. We got to taste the coffee as well and of course mine was loaded with tons of sugar! I even bought a bag of coffee home. I doubt I will actually drink it at home, but hey, its really possible!

 

After leaving the coffee plantation, we went to Poas Volcano. This waterfall is located in a part of Costa Rica that is really cloudy so sometimes it gets really hard to actually see the Volcano. I think that is what makes the trip there so special because a person can visit 5 different times and each time, the view is going to be different and unique. This time, it was pretty cloudy and we were able to see a bit of the volcano through the clouds, but it was still pretty.

 

Finally we went to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It was raining when we arrived so me and mom bought ponchos! We looked pretty cool in those big green things! As long as it kept me from getting wet, I didn't care! We saw the animals, I got a chance to hold the Toucans again & this time I even got a chance to hold a butterfly! Me and Court literally tried for almost 30ish minutes the last time we came and it never happened! We got lunch and then went to look at the waterfalls. After a long day of walking me and my mom were so tired that we napped on the way home. Once we got back home, we went out to dinner for my mom's birthday and then went to the Casino. It was my first time so it was pretty fun but it will probably be my last time. I literally suck at playing those games! But, it was still a great experience nevertheless. We came home and literally passed out!

 

Thursday

I went on a field trip in one of my classes to the Children's museum. It reminded me a lot of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. We had an assignment to do, so we couldn't really play like we wanted to. Regardless, my classmates and I still tried to make it fun. We all want to return so we can see the entire museum and play! One interesting fact about the museum is that it used to be a prison! In the 80s (I believe) there was an explosion and somehow it got restored into a Children's Museum. It was really cool to see the old jail cells and the before and after pictures of the restoration.

 

Friday
Today was my mom's last day in San Jose so she wanted to go back downtown to the Artisan Market to pick up a few souvenirs and then we had lunch before coming back home and hanging out. It's so crazy to me how this week went by so fast! I feel like my mom just got here yesterday. Tomorrow marks 3 weeks until I'm home. That concept is pretty crazy to me as well. Regardless of how fast this is all going, I had an amazing week with my mom. It was so great to see someone from home after 2 months! Today I also got the chance to Skype my best friends from home, so I was really happy to see all of them. I really miss them and can't wait to see them all when I get home! This weekend I'm think it is just going to be pretty chill. I will probably spend it working on homework because I definitely have a lot!

Dia Uno con mi mama

Actually writing a blog post on a Monday! What has the world come to? Haha. Last night my mom's flight got in at 12:10, so I left for the airport at 12. I live about 25 minutes away from the airport so I figured by the time I got there, she would be finishing up with customs. This however wasn't the case. It took her almost an hour to get through everything. I started to get super tired but once she finally came outside I was obviously excited! We got to my house and my host mom welcomed us at the door, then we proceeded to have tea and chat a little all at 2 in the morning. My host mom doesn't speak any English and my mom doesn't really know much Spanish. Needless to say, I serve as the translator. Talk about interesting!

 

This morning we got up, had breakfast and then went downtown. We went to the National Theatre. It is int he central of downtown and it basically has been open since 1897. There weren't any tours available today, so we were able to walk around and take pictures of everything. Although a tour would have been nice to get background information on the things we were looking at, it was also nice to explore on our own and check it out at our own pace.

 

Afterwards we went to the Mercado Central. This is the same market that I went to a few weeks ago for my field trip. We just walked around and looked at the different vendors. Afterwards, we went to the artisan market. 3 times for me in the past 4 days! It was fun though because my mom was able to help my find souvenirs for some people back home. I also finished all my souvenir shopping at home! Not really sure how everything is going to fit in my suitcases yet, but I guess I'll make a way! After that, we grabbed some lunch. It was pretty good and definitely really filling! Then we went back to my house to rest and take a nap! We were both awoken by the heat! Since I have been here it hasn't been this hot at all. My host mom says that here, March and April are the hottest months and because of that there are lots of earthquakes. Go figure! Good thing I am leaving in 3 weeks because experiencing those, are definitely not fun at all! After napping, we took a walk around my neighborhood before dinner.

 

Tomorrow we don't really have big plans yet because I have class from 1-5. So we would either have to do something before or after dinner. But, we are having lots of fun and I am so glad that my mom was able to come visit!

A little less than a month left!

Another month down. Another week down. This is all going by so fast and it's hard to believe that I will be home in 27 days! Like what? I can't even wrap my head around the idea that my study abroad experience is almost over. It's back to reality in 27 days. Back to work, back to figuring out what I am going to do with my life after graduation. My time here has definitely been amazing so far and I am really looking forward to what the next 27 days has in store for me!

 

This past week has been pretty boring. I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-5, so I have more time to sleep in and actually be productive. This hasn't really happened the way I anticipate it to. But, nevertheless, I do enjoy not having Spanish class in the morning for 4 hours every day! Thursday night my program took us all out to a reggae bar. We all just sat around catching up since we don't really see everyone as often anymore. At the bar there was this weird balance game, needless to say I tried to do it and surprisingly, I didn't fall and hurt myself! It was a very fun night

 

This weekend there was a Art Festival in downtown San Jose called Transarte. My friends and I tried to find the festival on Friday. After walking around hopelessly for about an hour we gave up and just went to the Artisan market instead. I bought a hammock for $20! I have no idea where it is going to go yet in my house, but I'm sure I will figure something out!

 

Saturday, I decided to give the Art Festival another try. This time I went with my Concordia Texas friends who all went on Friday. It turns out that me and my friends were only 2 blocks away from the festival when we were walking around! The festival was pretty cool. They had a stage with performers along with lots of booth for vendors to sell their crafts. I didn't buy anything but it was so cool to look at. The most amazing vendor there, in my opinion, was a guy who made paintings with spray paint in about 10 minutes! Talk about amazing. I tried to win the piece he was auctioning off, but unfortunately, I didn't win at all. Afterwards we walked around to get food and we stopped by the artisan market again.

 

Today, I woke up bright and early to run a 5k race for International Women's day. I was excited because it was my first 5k since my freshman year of college. I ran it in about 24:50. That isn't my best time, but I think a few things could have attributed to this. For starters, the course was pretty up and down hill. Second, I didn't know the course and it wasn't marked at all, so I wasn't really able to time myself and adjust accordingly like I normally am able to do. Despite all that though, it was a great race and it felt good to be able to run something like that. After I got home, I took a much needed nap and just spend the rest of the day watching movies on Netflix. As we speak, my mom is on her way here! I'm getting pumped and I can't wait to go pick her up at the airport!

 

This week, I will attempt to post everyday after all of the activities me and my mom do. But lets be real, don't hold me to that. We all know how much of a slacker I have been when it comes to this blog!

:) Aracelis