Goodbye Costa Rica

This is it, my last night in San José.  I can't believe I've made it four months, it's been an exciting, and learning experience.  I've tried so many new things to last me a lifetime--river rafting, jumping off rocks, visiting three new countries, living with a tica family, etc. 

I feel like this experience has been more than just simply, taking classes and going on awesome excursions.  At the end of four months, I can say that I've learned more in Latin America, than in my 15 years of schooling, thus far.  At first all the new things was overwhelming--the language, culture, living with a new family and making new friends.  It's a very different feeling now.  All of the new things, have become the norm--Spanish, tico time, food and San José.  So right now, I'm not just leaving Costa Rica, I'm leaving my home--it's similar to the feeling I experienced when leaving home for college my freshman year. 

All I have left here is a farewell dinner with my program, lots of goodbyes, and a full day of airplanes and airports tomorrow--it's going to be a long and emotional next 24 hours to say the least.  Otherwise in almost 24 hours from now I will be in Minneapolis! I'm so excited to get back, to see my friends, family and boyfriend.  

I feel very accomplished of everything I've done and learned in Costa Rica, I truly feel like I'm going to return back to the United States a different person.  When I say different, I mean different in a way of looking at the world and people differently, not being so quick to judge and being able to stop and enjoy my surroundings.  Here I've come to start finding what is most important to me, and I thank Costa Rica and everyone I'm come into contact here for those lessons.  I'm so grateful for everything I've experienced here in Costa Rica and the people that I've met. 

¡Adios Costa Rica y Pura Vida!

My Walk to School

One afternoon after Spanish, I was bored, so I decided to go around the neighborhood to take pictures. While taking pictures, I decided it would be a great idea to document my walk to school from my house, to show everyone back at home what I see on a daily basis.  What I see isn't anything too exciting, there's Eiffel Tower or Big Ben, but it does, show the real neighborhood in San José.

In total my walk to school is only about 5 minutes long. I'm pretty lucky considering there are some people in my program that have 15-20 minute walks.

The school across the street from my house. This is the school my tico brothers attend.

A view of my street. I walk past these everyday.

My view looking back from the top of the road. 

Little convenience store. It's owned by a single old women.

Purple House! It's the house at the end of my street, and my landmark.

Dental Office on the corner of my street.  Note the bars and the barbed wire.

I turn right onto this street. It's a pretty busy road, if you can't tell.

Costa Rica high school of Chemistry.

Dos Pinos, is a big dairy company in CR. There are little Dos Pinos stores all around San Jose, only selling dairy products. They have really good ice-cream.

Walking up the street.

A little taste of the poor sidewalk quality.

This house's yard has tons of junk for sale. They also have a few roosters.

Glass on the sidewalks is common. 

Empty lot littered with trash.

The view down the road.

Crazy intersection. You definitely have to look all four ways before crossing.

Garbage can.

Little park on the median of the road.

One of the school parking lots.

View looking back at the park.

These posters are all over my neighborhood.

Almost there!

Billboards on the other side of the road.

Light posts are typically covered with posters and advertisements.

Granizados signs. They are everywhere as well. A granizados is a snow cone.

Veritas University, my school.

The other building across the street. On the right hand side, there is a little food stand.  An older guy cooks food there every day. He sells hamburgers, empanadas, calzones, and other grilled food.

¡Pura Vida!

My Last Month.

April is my last month in Costa Rica, it's filled with lots of excitement and Spanish. I have a lot of plans so far and am excited about all of them.  I have to say, that at the end of the month I will be very ready to come home.  It's been fun, but it's almost time to go back to my real life. 

In terms of classes, I'm only taking Spanish this month.  I have it from 8-12 in the morning, Monday through Friday.  It's exhausting at times, only being able to read, write, hear and speak Spanish for four hours, but I'm learning so much.   Right now it's still a lot of review, but in the next two weeks we will be learning two new tenses--which I'm not looking forward too.  Learning grammar in Spanish isn't my thing.  In my class there are only four other students, which means not doing your homework and having an easy day isn't an option.

The next four weeks I have several exciting plans:

1. This Sunday I'm going to see Shakira in Costa Rica's new stadium.   I just picked up my ticket last week--so I'm all set, and so so excited!

2. Semana Santa (Holy Week). In Costa Rica people have a whole week off for Easter--April 16th-24th. It's a time for families to travel and visit other family members.  For Semana Santa I'm visiting three beaches in the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. Tambor is the first stop for one night, then Montezuma for two nights and Mal Pais for five nights.  I visited Montezuma in February for a weekend.  It was fun but the waves were rough and the current was strong. So I'm hoping it's not the same when I go back.  From Montezuma it's possibly to buy a day package to Tortuga Island to have lunch, boat ride and snorkel.  I'm considering doing that for a day in Montezuma. 

3. Learning how to cook different recipes from my tica mom. So far this month I'll learn how to make arroz con leche (rice and milk) it's a delicious dessert, her version of spaghetti, arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and tres leches, the best dessert around Latin America. 

4. Crossing things off my list "Things I want to do in CR before I leave." So far I've done pretty well at accomplishing the things I've wanted to see and do but I still have a few left. Such as the Botanical Gardens and visiting a near-by volcano.

5. April 30th--I'm coming home!