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!

Art Festival in Downtown San José

In my opinion San José does a really good job, at providing it's citizens, things to do during the day for a free or low cost.  There are many museums with reduced costs for citizens, their are movie theaters and actual theaters which features plays, dances and concerts, weekend festivals, concerts in the plazas, etc. In March there was a free art festival for all people, in the several parks in downtown San José. There were local artists, musicians performing for huge crowds and games and activities for children and families.

One of the activities in downtown.

I went to the art festival with my tica mom, her brother and his daughter.  It was fun to get out of the house for the afternoon, and hang out with some ticos.

First off, my tica mom's niece, Emily, is the cutest thing ever. She is three years old and is so loving.  While we were walking past all the local artist's displays, she grabbed my hand, so we could walk together.  She was just too cute. So the displays ranged from jewelry to hats that looked like witch hats--which were incredibly popular. There were so many people walking around with those hats, it was bizarre. I love local art, and I think it's so cool that San José promotes local artists.

Kids learning to juggle.

In all the parks there was some type of activity for families and children.  One whole street was lined with blow-up, jumpy things for kids. This was all for free, which blew my mind. In the US, things that are reasonably priced and free is a distant concept.  Also, there were jugglers, among other things,  teaching kids how to juggle--it was precious watching five-year-old children attempt to juggle.

My favorite thing about the day was the graffiti artists, creating their masterpieces on a wall in downtown.  My tica mom said that every month they paint over the wall, and have new artists paint their work.  I thought that was cool, that the city is promoting graffiti art and local artists.  Also, it was so neat to be able to watch guys, create their works of art in real life.  Artists able to do something like graffiti are so talented in my opinion--I couldn't even imagine creating something, that looked good and clean, with only spray paint.

I really wish that the US had things like this. I feel like since the US is the richest country in the world, they should be spending more money on things like this, which promotes US culture and family, and not war and frivolous things.  Going to a fair now a days probably costs a family of four, at least $100.00, with tickets and food alone--that doesn't include the rides, arcade games, or the purchases made in the grandstand. 

¡Pura Vida!

Panama: Bocas del Toro

Last weekend, I went to a little island off the Panama Caribbean coast.  The weekend was a full-on beach trip, where we only did beach and water related things--it was a nice change from many of my other weekend trips. Overall I really enjoyed it. I didn't enjoy it as much as my trip to Nicaragua, but I really don't think that any other place will be able to beat it.

Here are some of my highlights from my Panama trip.

1. Starfish Beach.
This was actually the only beach we visited during the trip.  We went their Friday afternoon for a barbecue lunch, drinks and to hang out, and took a speed boat from the main island to this little beach.  Underwater, near the shore there were starfish littered along the ocean floor. We were able to pick them up and take pictures--it was great.  This was the first time I went to a beach and the weather wasn't ideal.  Pretty much for the whole weekend it was overcast. Coming away from a weekend not burnt, isn't bad.  The beach was absolutely gorgeous--lot's of palm trees, clear water and starfish all over the beach.  There were two things though that really didn't add to the beach experience--gnats and sharp particles in the sand.  I was walking along the beach taking pictures, and there were points where I just wanted to take the boat, drive away, and get out of there.  I walked away from that beach, with tons of gnat bites and clear sharp things stuck in my feet, making it feel like a bee was stinging my feet every step I took.  I guess those sharp thing in the sand are common, not sure if they are common in Panama or a lot of beaches in Latin America--either way the Costa Rican's we were with didn't seem phased.

   

Starfish Beach.

2. House-Boat. All day Saturday my time was spent in the ocean and on a house boat.  We took off from the main island and went dolphin watching, snorkeling and ate lunch at a water restaurant.  The place where we spent the majority of our time wasn't an island or land. It was a dock, connecting to a restaurant built above water and a rental shack; that sold snorkel gear and kayaks. Overall the trip was incredibly relaxing.  We didn't have to go, go, go like other trips.

The big boat was ours.

3. Dolphin Watching.
While on the houseboat we stopped for 30 minutes in a pre-determined place, to try to spot dolphins.  30 minutes went by and no dolphins were seen.  While I was eating a delicious sea-food lunch on the water though a group of us spotted a fin come up above water, and continued to follow it until it was out of sight. It was exciting! Along with seeing a dolphin, there were these little fish that jumped out of the water in a whole group, and continued to skip along the water for a good two minutes.  I don't know how to describe it better than that, but basically those 5 minutes were awesome--dolphins and skipping fish.

This is where we had lunch, and docked for the day.

4. Snorkeling.
Saturday afternoon I went snorkeling in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean sea--it was wonderful.  I saw coral, tropical fish, sea urchins and tons of other marine life. Other than saying, it tired me out and I saw cool marine life, I don't know what else to say about snorkeling. You all know what it is.

5. The town of Bocas del Toro:
First off the people in Panama, or at least Bocas looked similar to southeast Asians--it was kind of weird.  Their were times that I thought I was in Thailand, even though I have no idea what Thailand looks like or have ever visited, I just felt like I was in Asia.  The town was touristy but also had some character.  The cool thing about the Latin American touristy towns, are they are unlike many of the US touristy towns.  In Latin America they are able to keep their personality, and will have lots of street vendors and local restaurants, not just stores with overpriced American goods and restaurant fast-food chains.  Otherwise the town had many tour-operating companies, restaurants, bars and hotels--a typical beach town.

One of the many docks in Bocas.

A street in Bocas.

Those were the highlights of my weekend trip! If you ever get the chance to visit Bocas, DO IT! It's beautiful and will be a lot of fun, just pack bug spray. 


¡Pura Vida!

Me on the boat, with the ocean as my background.

Starfish Beach!