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

I guess good things come out of making decisions at 5am.

This weekend was by far one of the best weekends I have had since being in Costa Rica. Last week was a pretty rough week for me because I was dealing with alot of things going on back home in my personal life, so I just wanted to spend the weekend with my friends doing something fun. Thursday night, I went out for a little bit with Courtney and on Friday I was so tired that I overslept and almost missed class! Needless to say, I got to class and my group performed our final presentations because it was the last day. After the skits, we received our tests back which I didn't do so well on. I was freaking out because I thought it would really bring my grade down. It didn't so I ended up with a B in the class! I'm pretty excited about that because my credits and my grades transfer back to Concordia and effect my GPA.

 

After class I met up with Sara and we grabbed some lunch. We were going to go downtown for a little shopping, but it started raining and I spent the rest of the night in bed relaxing. We randomly decided at 5pm that we would go out of town for the weekend to Manuel Antonio. We set a plan to leave at 5am on Saturday so we could catch the bus. It is about a 4 hour bus ride so we wanted to go as early as possible. When we all woke up around 4:30 on Saturday, Sara thankfully checked the weather and found out that it was raining in Manuel Antonio ALL weekend. We then decided to go to Jaco which is about two hours away. We got to the bus station and the 7am filled up so we hung out at the station for about an hour. Once we finally got on the bus, we all passed out! We arrived in Jaco and started on the search to find a hostel. After walking around for about 2ish hours, we finally settled on one called Buddah House. It was $14 a night and it was really nice. Our room wasn't going to be ready for about 5 hours, so the hostel offered to watch out bags while we went to the beach. It was such a cloudy day so I wasn't able to get any sun at all =/ After leaving the beach we went back to the hostel, showered, and got ready for the evening. We went to this cute little place called Taco Bar. The food was amazing! Afterwards we hung out at our hostel with some of the other people staying there. It was a pretty chill night.

The next day we woke up and went back to the Taco Bar for breakfast. The breakfast was to die for! We made an excellent choice going there for dinner and breakfast and it definitely helped that my hostel gave us a 15% off coupon! We headed straight to the beach for 2 hours and it was pretty nice and sunny. I got some sun and most importantly I got a few shades darker! We then checked out of our hostel and headed to the bus stop. We planned to catch the 1pm bus, but little did we know, the next available bus wasn't until 4:30pm! Since we had already checked out of our hotels, we had to basically loiter at restuarants for 4 hours and steal their wifi! Obviously we bought food but it was definitely an interesting afternoon. We finally got on the bus and headed home. It ended up being an amazing weekend! I guess good things actually do come out of making decisions at 5am.

Un fin de semana con sorpresas (A weekend with surprises)

I'm starting to think I'm really bad at this whole blog thing. I literally have been trying to write this entry since I got home on Sunday at 2pm. I just get super distracted and I keep putting it off because I know it is going to be pretty long. Nevertheless, I am finally updating everyone on what's been happening for the last week.

 

Last time I wrote, I said that I had an RA Interview last week. I didn't think it went so well because I felt like I was literally talking in circles. But obviously they saw some potential in me because I found out on Monday evening, that I did in fact get the job! I am going to be an RA next year! I am really excited about this because next May I am graduating and I think it will be the perfect thing for me to do during my senior year! (I guess it is a good thing after all that I didn't write this on Sunday because now you all know the exciting news!)




Thursday night I went out with the Concordia Texas group for my friend Nicole's birthday. It was a fun evening and I was really happy that I got a chance to actually hang out with them outside of bible study. I also got a chance to catch up with Rachel! I barely see her now that we aren't in the same Spanish class anymore. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to take a weekend trip with the CUTX group before I go home because they are definitely a fun group.

Friday, I had a field trip in my Spanish class. Okay, but 5 field trips total since I have been here. Can this get any better? I definitely don't think so. But for our field trip we went to the mercado downtown. I don't really know how to describe it other than it had a bunch of little stores/vendors that sold food, vegetables, clothes, etc. For our assignment we got into groups and were randomly assigned two fruits/vegetables. Our job was to find the fruit or vegetable and find out information on the item. It was definitely interesting because for our food we had to find guanabana and tacaco. I had never heard of either one those, but luckily most of my group members have tried guanabana so it was really easy to find and answer some of the questions. It was really interesting to learn about different foods that we don't have in the States. After finishing the assignment, my group decided to walk around downtown until it was time to get back on the bus and head back to school.

After arriving at school, Courtney and I decided to go to the gym and then get some lunch. While sitting at lunch we received brownies from a secret admirer. And of course, I'm not going to turn down free chocolate. It was probably the most delicious brownie of my life. So perfect! Afterwards it was time to get packed and get ready for the weekend. We were going on the Tico Mentor Weekend. Tico Mentors at my school are basically ticos who are mentors to the international students. They planned a very exciting weekend for some of the students so they could get to know us better, etc. We had no idea where we were going until we finally met up with the Ticos.

We ended up going to Sarchi. It is about an hour away from San Jose. It is the place in Costa Rica where artisans produce the most famous crafts like oxcarts and leather and wood furnishings. It was probably one of the most prettiest places I have been to. It was also pretty exciting because out of the students at my school, I am one of 10 that even really know it exists. We stayed at the parent's house of one of the Tico Mentors. They had a huge house. The 10 of us stayed in their guest house. It was pretty interesting but fun. The first night we got there, we just hung out by the bonfire and got to know each other better. I also got a chance to bust some of my awesome dance moves. (Not Really, but it was still a fun time) After a while, we all went to bed and to our surprise, we were woken up by roosters! When they first started making noises at 2 in the morning, we all thought it was pretty funny, but when they started up again at 6am, we were not very happy at all!

Saturday we spent the day at a waterfall. It was a lot of fun and we had a little barbecue. I hung out in the water up until I fell on a rock and got a cut on my hip and elbow. Go figure! Looks like I'm coming home with 3 battle wounds. Fingers crossed that I don't get anymore before I get back home. After leaving the waterfall, we went back to the house and hung out for the rest of the night. Sunday we went to a souvenir shop and got back on the bus to come back to San Jose.

 

Monday, I found out another piece of exciting news. I am a STARS mentor at my school where I mentor First Generation College Students. I found out on Monday, that I got promoted to coordinator. I'm not exactly sure what that entails yet but I'm really excited to see what Senior year holds. This week on Friday, my Spanish class ends. No more waking up at 7 for school and no more 4 hour Spanish classes! I am super excited and Monday can't come quick enough. This weekend also marks another month down! Its crazy to think I will be home in about 5 weeks. Where is the time going?

 

Finally, today I found out that my mom had an appointment to get her passport downtown and it is currently getting processed. She picks it up on Monday and then a week later she will be in San Jose! I'm starting to get really excited about it! This weekend, I am probably going to stay in San Jose. I think I might take a day trip to the beach on Saturday but I'm not 100% sure. So, if I do anything exciting, I will so my best to update you all as soon as I can.

 

Until then, I hope everyone in Chicago is enjoying the snow and trying to stay warm!

<3 Aracelis

Halfway Point. 45 more days until I'm home!

I'm halfway done with studying abroad. It's amazing how fast the past one and a half months has gone! For those of you who don't know, this is my first time away from home. So, obviously there have been so much that I have missed since being away.

1. Family-I definitely really miss seeing my family. I think it's safe to say that I definitely took them for granted while I was at home. Being here has really helped me to see that I miss them and that I really need to work on spending more time with them when I'm not at school or at work, etc.
2. Work- I love my job and I really work my butt off there. While it has been really nice to take this time off, I still really miss being around that atmosphere and I miss my coworkers. I'm definitely looking forward to going back in April.
3. My team- It has been extremely hard to get motivated to practice on my own. I think this is probably one of the things I miss the most because being on my team is really important to me and I really miss being able to practice with them and of course being at meets (even if they last all day and take up my weekend). Nevertheless, I will be reunited April 8. 47 more days!

Of course, I have missed obvious things like my closet and my car. But, recently I've been doing some thinking on how I can really make this trip meaningful to me and I think I finally have the answer. Costa Ricans have a phrase that they say, "Pura Vida." The literal translation is pure life but here it is basically a way of life. It symbolizes the Costa Rican idea of letting things go and simply enjoying life. Basically, hakuna matata; no worries. This phrase started to really create meaning for me and my life. Materialistic things like clothes, my car, etc. don't matter any more. The important things in life to me are my family and my team and honestly as long as I have that I'm fine. I don't really need anything else. For the next 45 days, I definitely want to focus more on trying to live my life this way. I'm going to try to not be so attached to technology and just be in the moment. (Anyone who knows me, knows that this is going to be extremely hard but it will definitely be worth it.) I am also going to try to not make a big deal out of things. I tend to really over exaggerate when it comes to certain topics, so I definitely need to work on looking at the positives in situations. Finally, I need to focus on the present and not the future. Yeah, I have absolutely no idea what my plans are for my Senior year yet, or even what my plans are going to be in planning for after graduation. But, as long as I have my family, team, and friends around, then everything will work its self out.

 

Those are my thoughts for the day! Hope everyone back home is doing good!

Aracelis

Maybe I should try to keep this updated more...

I just realized today that I haven't written in more than 10 days! I used to stay so on top of this thing last month but I think it's starting to get a little bit harder simply because I don't have that much going on these days anymore.

 

Last weekend, I stayed in San Jose and just hung out with friends. Nothing too exciting there except for I finally got McDonald's. Talk about an amazing meal. I also had an Oreo Mcflurry. It tasted pretty different because here they add hot fudge inside of it. Monday was my friend Courtney's 20 birthday. We went out to celebrate on Monday and Tuesday night for a bit. I love birthdays, so it was definitely fun/nice to be able to celebrate a friend's birthday while I was here!

Thursday was Valentine's Day and I woke up to roses and a nice card from my MamaTica! It definitely reminded me of my mom. She used to give me and my brother and sister cards & goodies all the time on Valentine's Day.  Thursday was also an interesting day because me and my friend Sara decided the day before that we were going to go away for the weekend to Puerto Viejo. We had to go downtown to buy our bus tickets. After getting all the way downtown, the bus station had just closed 30 minutes prior. Talk about a waste of a trip. We were getting a bit nervous because we were going to leave on Friday and buying bus tickets to such a popular destination is cutting it pretty close.

Friday came and Sara was able to get the bus tickets. She bought the last 6 tickets for my group of friends. Talk about lucky! We left on the bus at 2pm and since there was a big group of Americans from my school going to Puerto Viejo, the bus was full of gringos! My type of party :) The bus was definitely nothing like the AIFS trips. There was no AC and it was very packed. It seemed like we were driving forever. After we finally arrived, we had to go figure out where we were going to be sleeping. We found Rocking J's hostel. It was pretty modern and actually really cool. The first night I decided to pay $7 to sleep in a hammock. It was a pretty cool experience except for the fact that the hostel was having a party until the wee hours in the morning. I definitely didn't get much sleep that night and decided to pay $1 more to upgrade to a tent for the following night. Saturday was spent on the beach with my friends and then we went out for a night on the town. I slept a lot better Saturday night in the tent. It was a little more comfortable and a lot less noisy! We finally left on Sunday morning and we got back to San Jose in half the time. The bus driver was flying, but I wasn't complaining. I was ready to get back home to just relax for the rest of the day.

The best part of last week was 3 things: (1) I finally figured out my Spring Break plans. I am going to Puerto Viejo for 6 days and then to Panama for 4 days. 10 days on the beach the week before I come back home, I'm definitely not complaining! It is going to be perfect and I'm sure I will be pretty tan when I get back to Chicago :) (2) I found out that I am going to be a transfer JumpStart leader over the summer at school. I am pretty excited about that because I have always wanted to be an orientation leader! (3) MY MOMS COMING TO VISIT! This is probably the most exciting news of all. I am really excited because I was starting to get a bit homesick and it will be great to see her and to show her all around the place I have been living at!

This week so far:
Today I went on a field trip with my human rights class. We went to the Inter-American Court for Human Rights. It was really interesting because it is the only court in the Americas and the Caribbean that tries Human Rights Cases. The tour was half in English and half in Spanish, so I'll need to do a little more research to make sure I understood everything we talked about. But, 4 field trips in the past 44 days, I am definitely not complaining. And my field trip on Friday makes 5. I have never had so many field trips back home, so I love the fact that I get to have different learning experiences outside of the classroom to enrich what I am learning in class.

Tomorrow: I have my RA interview which I am pretty excited and nervous about. Fingers crossed it goes well! Tomorrow also marks the halfway point of me being in Costa Rica. Be on the lookout for a sups special blog just to mark the special occasion. That's all for now, sorry it took me so long to update this. I'll try to get better at this (No promises though!)

<3 Aracelis
 

Crazy last week of January!

I'm so sorry that I haven't written in a week. Before I came here and even when I got here, I always thought/said I would be the girl who blogged every night or even every other day, but as time progresses while I am here, it is becoming harder to stick to this because I have so much going on during the week. So, my apologizes in advance for how long this might end up being because after all I have to update you all on my life the past week!

 

I can't necessarily remember every thing I did last week on each specific day because of how crazy/uneventful it was. Honestly most of the days are starting to merge together. But last week was the final week of my Spanish class. Here, the Spanish Classes are Intensive which means that they are 80 contact hours, 5 credits. I basically had class from 8am-12pm Monday-Friday for the entire month of January. Because I learned so much, I decided to move up to the next level and take another Intensive Spanish class for the Month of February. Most of you probably don't know but I am a Spanish major back at home and I have been studying Spanish for the past 6 or 7 years. When I took my placement test before coming to Costa Rica, I didn't place where I probably should have because at home I never speak. I usually only speak sometimes in my class and then that is basically it. I honestly have no idea why I don't speak at home because I live with my Wela who speaks perfect Spanish. But, the class I took in January was a great review for me on the grammar basics that I definitely needed review on. Last week, is definitely when I understood why they call it Intensive. Up until last week, everything was pretty easy but I got really hung up on direct pronouns Monday. I've studied them before and I usually always get super stuck and extremely confused on this. But, I had a final and a final presentation on this topic, so that helped a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't do so well on the final because I made a really silly mistake that cost me about 15 points. Because, I have been doing so well in the class previously, I am pretty sure I ended up with a B or so in the class. I'm not 100% sure however, because I'm not exactly sure how to even find out my grades. It's pretty weird because I'm used to finding out a few days after the class ends back home. But, overall, I still did really well in the class. For my final presentation, I had to make a food and present the directions for the recipe to my class. I definitely not one that isn't extremely confident in my cooking and since I wasn't exactly sure on what I could even make here, I decided to keep it simple and just make a fruit salad. I literally have the best host mom because I asked her where I could buy cheap fruit in my neighborhood, and she basically decided to buy the fruit and make it for me. I'm pretty glad she did though, because it was probably the best fruit salad of my life. It had pineapple, strawberry, kiwi, papaya, and banana! Talk about delicious!

After class was over it was finally the weekend! I went to my friend Rachel's house to hang out for a bit and I actually ended up getting a manicure & a pedicure. Her mama tica owns a salon in their house. This experience was pretty unique and different than getting a mani/pedi in the states. But, I desperately needed one and the opportunity presented itself! But, I'm definitely looking forward to coming back home and getting a mani  & pedi from my favorite nail shop near my house. The one thing I really did enjoy was the prices. I paid 9 mil colones, which is about 18 dollars. Usually, at my nail salon, I think I pay either 30 or 40 dollars. Don't get me wrong, that is a lot to pay for a manicure and a pedicure, but they last for almost a month and they are definitely worth it! Afterwards, I met up with my friends for lunch at this amazing restaurant near my house/school. It is called GraniTica and it has the best smoothies! I actually went there twice last week and even today. I'm officially obsessed! Then, we went to Pequeno Mundo. This is a store in Costa Rica, but I can't think of any store in the States that compares to it. They sell a lot of things there like clothes, notebooks, shoes, etc. I went there looking for some more clothes. I didn't really bring that many clothes here and my mom only washes my clothes on Monday & Friday, so because I had to pack for the weekend, I just needed to buy a few outfits to have in case my clothes didn't get washed & dried in time. I ended up buying flip flops, a Forever 21 brand shirt (that literally everyone at my school has), a Target brand bathing suit and a dress. All of that cost me about $36 dollars! Talk about cheap. I forgot to mention that Pequeno Mundo sells American brand clothes there. It was definitely nice to get a chance to see some more American brands, especially Forever 21 and Target, my favorite stores!

 

This weekend was pretty nice because I had a 3 day weekend. The first Monday of every month, there are no Intensive Spanish classes because new students come to Costa Rica and the orientation takes place on Monday morning. Because of this, I decided to take the advantage and travel. I decided to go to Nicaragua! My program was going, but me and 2 other girls decided to go separately with the travel agency at my school because it was cheaper. So, we left for Nicaragua by bus on Saturday bright and early at 5am. The bus we took was called the TicaBus. I've never taken the MegaBus in the states, but it is basically the same concept. The bus ride was about 8ish hours. Crossing the border wasn't too bad either. It was pretty simple, however not very self-explanitory the first time. Luckily, we met some other Gringos who had crossed multiple times before, so we just stuck with them. The pretty stressful part was probably that we didn't really know where to get off the bus. It was probably self-explanatory to get off in the city where we were going to be staying, but because noone really told us, we were stressing and trying to decided where to get off the bus for a while. We eventually picked Granada, which was where we needed to get off anyways. After getting off, someone was supposed to pick us up from the station, but because they didn't we had to take a cab to our hotel and we basically paid too much for it, but since we were all very tired, we didn't really pay attention to the price until after we had already payed. We lounged by the pool, got lunch and then decided to take a nap for an hour or so until we met up with the girls from our program. Needless to say, the nap never ended until Sunday morning. We slept from 5:30pm to 5:30am. I guess we were super tired!

 

Sunday was pretty eventful. We woke up and had breakfast then our hotel took us on a boat tour on the Granada lake to see the islands. There are about 300 plus islands that were created from the Volcano when it errupted many years ago. It was super cool to see and probably my favorite part of Granada. We learned that many gringos own some of these islands. So, if I ever get super rich and have enough money to buy an island, I guess I know where I can go to buy one! After the boat tour we went back to our hotel and took a horse ride around the city of Granada. This was pretty sad because we were able to see how impoverished many of the Nicaraguans are. Another huge difference from Costa Rica and Nicaragua are probably the animals. In Costa Rica there are many stray dogs wandering around but they eat well because people generally feed them. However, in Nicaragua, the stray dogs are extremely skinny because they don't have access to a lot of food. It definitely made me miss my doggies at home and it hit close to home because I couldn't imagine my dogs at home not eating very much. After the tour, we had time for lunch before going to the Artisan Market in the next town. I actually bought a dress and a skirt that I'm really looking forwarf to buying. We also finally saw our friends! It was definitely a relief to see them after not being able to see them the previous day. After the market, we checked out a lagoon. It wasn't anything special but it was very pretty. We returned to our hotel to nap/shower/get ready to go to dinner with our friends. We made it to the restuarant to watch the halftime show of the Superbowl! Beyonce killed it! Nothing else needed to say about that performance other than it was amaz! We got dinner at a pizza place and I downed an entire medium pizza alone! At dinner there were many peopel trying to sell us things including a man who carved maracas in front of you with whatever you want on them in literally less than 5 minutes. It was amazing! I would have bought some, but I definitely don't have any use for maracas. After dinner we caught the ended of the Super Bowl and called it a night.

Monday we were returnning back to Costa Rica so we didn't really do much before we checked out of the hotel besides walk around town. One the way back, the ride was a little longer than expected because at the border to get back into Costa Rica, you need to show them your flight itenary of when you are leaving the country. They need to make sure that you aren't staying in the Country for more than 90 days. I guess some people didn't know that so they were having problems getting their passports stamped. It definitely didn't help that they were being pretty rude. So, we were stuck at the border waiting in the TicaBus for them to get it all straghtned out. After about an hour, we were finally back on the road and I got back home around 9:30pm. After dinner, I was extremly tired so I passed out! It was definitely a good trip. I am glad that I went, only I wish I was able to go for longer that just a day.

 

Tueday I started my new Spanish class for the month of February and my teacher is Cuban. He is really funny and super nice. He just talks super fast! It is definitely really good practice though, because not everyone in the real world is going to speak Spanish slowly. The good think about Costa Ricans is that if you ask them to speak slower, they will. They get really excited and into the conversation with someone learning Spanish tried to talk to them. Today I was feeling a bit homesick. I think it is jsut because I have offically be here a month and I've never been away from home for this long before. Also, I think I just really miss my family. Before I left, I should have tried to arrange for someone to come visit me. But, my two uncles are actually here this week staying in Puerto Viejo, so I think I'm going to try to go there this weekend so I can see them. I think it might help to visit with familiar faces from home even though I'm not super close to them. Today I also went to the Concordia Texas Bible Study. It is really awesome to get a chance to connect with another Concordia and people that have the same values that I do. It made me feel a little better because we talked about living in the moment. I think I definitely can get better with that, so for the next month, I think I am going to try to work on that and work on not being attached to my phone and thw WiFi as much. Nevertheless, I am doing great and I miss everyone back home. I hope you all are trying to stay warm! I'm not gonna brag about the weather but just know that when it gets almost 90ish here, I feel pretty miserable, almost how most of you feel with the cold and ice and snow! So, I feel similiar pain. Congrats! You finally made it to the end of this long post. I'll try to write soon so I'm not writing and your not reading as much next time!

 

<3 Aracelis