My weekend in Paradise (Playa Naranjo), June 23-June 26

Well, this past weekend was the best weekend I have had yet and the best vacation I have had for a while. While Mexico was fun and all and last summer and I had fun in Cali with Amber and Denver was pretty cool- nothing can compare to the natural beauty and undeveloped land in Naranjo and Tortuga Island. Friday after our presentations were over, four of us took a bus to Baranca (Kameron, Tracee, Craig and Myself). Three others went on the same bus but took it to San Jose. When we got to Baranca we took a taxi to Puntarenas. We had some drinks and got food before we bought our tickets and boarded the ferry. The ferry was like a rocking bar. There was people dancing -old and young-, people drinking, and we played cards and had some drinks. It was a real rocky ride at some points. When we got to Playa Naranjo we had no plans or place to stay and we were okay with that. We walked off the ferry tried to get on a bus but I asked the man when to get off for a hotel and he said no this bus goes all over the Nicoya you dont want to be on it--but he said this all in Spanish and my Spanish isn't the best. We got off the bus though and walked into town. "Town" is a gas station. We saw some men and asked where to go for a hotel and they pointed left. We thought right and walked that way but decided to ask again and then we met Raoul. Raoul was amazing. He told us where to say and said he would get us a discount and it was right on the beach. He also offered to drive us and we took him up on it. We got there and it was paradise. Palm trees all over, a huge property, 2 pools, hamocks outside every room, a restaurant, the beach and a pier. We unpacked and hit the bar with Raoul who bought our drinks and played pool with the boys. We met Larry- I'll discuss him more, THE Garfield (omg he looks just like the cat!), and some other locals. We bought a bottle of some local hard alcohol and went back to swim and chill by the pool. Some of us went the wrong way to the pool and ended up in the grass but it felt like needles- Raoul just laughed because he knew we went into this grass that is like thorns-thanks for the warning!! So we swam, hung out then went to bed. When Raoul came with us to our room though he asked where all the beds were- because there were 2 rooms with 4 single beds. We had pushed them all into one room and made a huge bed. He thought we were crazy! After we slept we woke up and had an early breakfast. We saw Larry and met Thomas. We explored for a while and swam. Then we decided we wanted to kayak but the boats were not able to be rented so we asked Raoul if he could find us a cheap boat to rent to fish. We went with him and found a guy who said we could for $2 an hour...we met Travis at this time who informed us we were 6 months too early- he was building a rental shop for stuff like that. We went back and swam and waited for 3 when the guy was coming to take us but then it started to get real cloudy and storm...so we didn't get to go out! We chilled at the hotel instead and drank coconut water and ate coconut. I learned there are differnt kinds. The ripe and young ones have a meat that is like jello. The older ones that are brown are the kind of coconut we think of. We went to the bar with Raoul later and met Garfield again and saw more locals. A local was flirting with Tracee and his Polica *police* friend tried to flirt with me but I ignored him because I don't know spanish haha.....anyways he kept buying our drinks. So not only did he cart us around and chill with us but paid for our alcohol. He talked about a proptery he owned and I asked to see it so after we left the bar we went to see the house he talked about. It was so far from the road and was so secluded. The gate had 3 locks and abour 10 feet up the chain link fense ended and there was a round area of barbed wire. I told them it would be funny if he tried to kidnap us because i was like oh can we go see it....it was like jurassic park everyone said because of the fense. The house was so nice, it had a jacuzzi in the center, an amazing view off a cliff, the pillars were wood that had been carved and there was a sweet bar. The rooms needed a lil work but it was an amazing house for 325k. In the states that same house would be worth so much more! It sat of 5 acres. After that we went to the hotel and drank a lil-well we planned to but me and Tracee 'rested our eyes' and didn't wake up till the next morning. We missed the sunrise by 15 minutes. But we went out to sit on the pier anyways. We really really wanted a ride with Larry on his boat. It was our last day in paradise and he offerd to we took him up on it. He was like you want to go to Tortuga Island with us...SURE! We brought our stuff with us incase we would have to hurry to the ferry. It took about an hour to get there by boat. It is an island that is only used for day trips you can not stay on the Island. The water was so crystal clear you could see at least 9 feet down. The beach was real sand and it was amazingly beautiful and the water was warm. We left around 12:30 to make the ferry. We never made that ferry. He stopped at a bar on the way of a friend and we didn't leave till like 4. So we decided to stay an extra day because we mised our ferry and he offered to drive us back to Monteverde. He got us a room for 24$ at another hotel Maquinays. Our shower didn't work so we swam to rinse off and Larry, Garfield, Travis and Raoul all came to the hotel bar and then came out by the pool and we all talked. They had some crazy stories. Larry talked about meeting Bruce and Sting in Costa Rica years ago on one of their tours at a hotel. He said everyone went outside to meet them at their bus but he went to the pool bar and chilled and they came out and he said to them let me be the first to buy you a drink in Costa Rica...Travis lives in California and is going back pretty soon he is going back for rainy season and he lives in the grateful dead house. We went to bed and the next day LArry and his daughter took us to Monteverde which took 2 hours longer than expected. We got here and introduced them to everyone and everyone was like where were you guys...well we missed the ferry and we convinced larry to bring us back.....BEST WEEKEND EVER. My new motto is no plan is a plan!

A lil about each new friend:
Larry lives in Florida and does commerical real estate. He lives in Coco beach and used to be a surfer. He owns a place in Jaco, a farm in Naranjo and is buying more land there as well. He goes back to the states every two weeks for two weeks. He is 56 and has two daughters. He still surfs.

Rachel- Rachel is his daugher, she's from Atlanta Georgia and is vacationing for a week to see her dad. She is married and 5.5 months preggers. She is a teacher but her dad is trying to convince her to move to Costa Rica and run whatever business he decides to buy and open with her husband.

Travis- does construction here and is building houses and makin a shop to rent boats and such. He is from California like I said but owns a lot of property in Naranjo. He stays at the Gratefull Dead house in Cali. He and Larry and some others are buying up property and making a marina to develop the area for tourism. He is the youngest one of the american men like in his 30s

Garfield- is Garfield and crazy, he's got a belly but he walks around without a shirt and kinda dances. He is from Canada and does nothing really in Naranjo, I'm not sure what he used to do but now he's just a goof ball.

Thomas is crazy fit...he travels amazing distances on his bike carrying an 80 kilo pack. He said if you miss your point by two degrees you will die. He has rode cross country in Australia, Central America, Mexico to LA and other places in Europe. He said the best is in Central America because you will never go hungry and Australia was too hot. He swims a lot and does every kinda of exercise it seemed to stay fit. He used to and still deos I think sell robots for Intel.

Raoul is a tico-a wild tico his email address says. He is a real estate agent. Really nice and friendly and helped us without us asking for it. He lives at Hotel Oasis where we stayed the first 2 nites and he knows everyone.

Well I am sure I forgot some details but I tried my best to recall it all~! It was a great weekend and one of the most beauitful places I have seen! I plan to visit there again before I die!

Friday, JUNE 23

Oh wow did i get delerious last night from lack of sleep. I thought it was so funny when i kept starting out..it was a cold december morning in 1984 (I was attempting to begin my life story). I also found it quite amuzing to suggest that we just use sticky notes as labels on our board so we could go home earlier and when we talked about it just slap it on up, or for interactive use we could have them play a matching game! OH wow what a week without sleep will do to you! I also started talking about does the girl big Cameron went to see better be worth it since he left our group when we present today and eveyone was so tired they thought I was talking about the new girl who is coming here from india late becasue she just now got a visa...they were like she doens't even speak english and im like what? How will he talk to her he knows no spanish...wow to me its funny but you may have had to be there. I got home at 3ish and there was a huge huge huge spider like the size of my palm in my room, I made my mom kill it because she was up since she was sick and can't sleep well. Today I got a ride to school so I started my day off wonderfully. To be exact I was walking and a bus stoepped and asked if i wanted a ride i said sure. at the end i asked how much and he said nada and that i was something and I said no se and he said muy linda which is very pretty and he kissed my hand. I must have a way with the ticos but hey free rides! OK SPANISH CLASS! I LOVE YOU ALL

MY FAVORITE THINGS OF COSTA RICA

Ok, I decided to write a few things that I have fell in love with here, here it goes:

The sock coffee maker
Emperial
Platanas
My nalgene
FRESH milk, icecream, natilla -sour cream-, peanut butter, honey, cheese....
My new friends, Josue, Estephania, Kristi, Chen, and my host mom
Adolfo's Driving
Taberna and Moon Shiva
Salsa Dancing
music
Alone time
Friolito
Sitting on logs in the wilderness or streams
Waterfalls
Hammocks
Drinking coffee at all hours of the day
FRESH FRUIT JUICE
Friendly Ticos
saying HOLA and Hasta Luego
Singing: ole ole ole ole, ticos, ticos!
Traveling
The words: Barista, Punta, Hola Muchacho
The crazy amount of dogs that follow you everywhere - you can tell how far someone has walked by the amount of dogs following them...no joke

*the more I think about it the more I realize that I love it all! No matter how far away I am I know how great my family is! They email me all the time...they call me...they dont forget about me even when I'm not there!
Maybe I'm becoming a little less materialisitic...this is good dad! And more independent as well! Do you realize I have to make my own decisions and I knew absolutely no one before I came here. Now I'm traveling with my new friends, sleeping in someone else's house and calling it my own, and walking everywhere and everyday! It's so strange to be so far away from home and your family and to have to adjust to a totally different culture. One in which they think you are someone's bf or gf if you call them more than once in a day or if you are seen alone together. It's so strange how you can be tracked down! One thing you realize is how simple life can be if you let it and how you don't need all kinds of contraptions and belongings to live a happy life. I mean the coffee maker is amazing because it's so simple! They have real ones here too but I much rather use the sockish one. I'm done reflecting-it's 1 am and I have spanish at 8 and have to walk home still ahh I like the walk down the hill but man up it is a workout....ps. running down hill is actually hard. You have to stop yourself from going too fast and also be carefull because you are always coming upon rocks and pot holes.....ok I'm really outtie!

Thursday, June 22

This week has been crazy busy. Monday I went home for dinner then came back until 11, Tuesday I spent the night here and Wednesday nite I was here till 3 am. I am ready for the weekend! Some of us are going to Naranja this weekend. It's a beach on the Nicoya Penninsula. I am super tired, but after we present we will hop on a public bus to Puntaraneas (sp?) then take a ferry to Naranja. My family here is all sick, I'm luckily not going to be around to catch it and I haven't thus far! I don't really have much to say because I have been so busy with school. But Sunday night I went dancing with my mom, and some guy wouldn't leave my side. Well I found out later he told someone I was his gf but didn't know it yet. Well that same guy called me twice at the house--I don't know how he got the number but I think it was because it's such a small town and everyone knows my mom. So I have been tracked down 3 times in Costa Rica. I must make quite an impression! haha jk. Oh and tonight two cars asked if I wanted a ride on my walk back, I decided the first was sketchy because it was a car and the second I said to hell with it because it was a motorcyle and if he treid anything I could always hop off....but pretty much everyone here is nice. OK WORK TIME SO I CAN GO HOME EARLY!

Monday, June 19

Well nothing exciting really happend as of lately however I have some stories that made me cry I was laughing so hard....oh Chen! He's about four but he says some crazy stuff. He first off all says his mom is stupid, fat and ugly. Later he says he doesn't have parents and lives with his grandpa who he thinks is named steve. He says the craziest things like his parents died before Christ or that he walked from Chicago to Florida. Later he denies saying any of it. Or he says his dog eats people but not him becuase he tells him not to but yet his cat scares his dog...but chen your dog eats people i say...and he says what dog? I dont have a dog. He went up to a girl at the hotel and kicked her and she told her tour guide. Apparently Chen told him he had no mom or dad and was just a poor little boy. He also says he goes in the road with a can and begs for money but throws himself in a mud puddle and colors on his skin so he looks poor. The funniest thing was when the kids told him to touch the electric fense and he did and got shocked!


Also me and my mom went dancing last nite at Bar Amigos...well let me tell you I dont know spanish and dont claim to. BUT apparently the men at the bar were talkng about me to my mom and one guy that would not leave me alone all night and I danced with a lil told her and his friend I was his novia (girlfriend) but I dind't know it yet...I did think it was weird when he introduced me to his sister in law and told her to leave and his brother... and apparently the cook at the hotel said i was 'hot'...oh ticos! No wonder the kids told me not to say hola anymore to strangers.

Today I skipped out on studio for a little with my group..3 hours later me and Cameron return and everyone was like where were you? UH in the forest, duh! I sat on this log overlooking a stream and it was amazing watching the hummingbirds get like 3 feet away and the dragon flies dancing around me, I even saw my favorite butterflies just flying around with no worries. The log was pretty high up so at one point I was afraid I might fall when i was lying down on it, but luckily I didn't. I will have to get a picture of that place. I wish I could put my pictures online now but I dont have a cable to. I need to take more pictures! I have been slacking like no other. Well its studio time at 8pm....we have a project due at 10am friday then I am trying to head to the beach! FUN IN THE SUN!

June 16-18

My weekend was a lot of resting...I sure needed it. Last Thursday I got pretty drunk and then Friday was rough, my leg fricken killed. I couldn't go to the hike and camping with the rest, so I stayed home and slept and spent time with the family. I had the craziest ride of my life Saturday with Adolfo--my mom's exhubby. It was so fast and the car had no brakes and no horn. The kids also showed me where the most 'dangerous' man in Monteverde lives....and they told me not to say hola to people like I do now. Saturday for lunch Adolfo came over and ate with us--it was the first actual family dinner. I took the kids with me and Asia to Santa Elena- I think we had a good time. Sunday, I met Chen- omg this kid has an imagination. He's their cousin but lives in the States. He tried to tell me he walked from Chiago to Florida. He said he didn't have a dog then all of a sudden his dog ate people that were younger than him and the dog was 6-7-8. He also kept talking about farting when you pull your finger...he was so funny. We were supposed to go to the 'pools' but Adolfos car broke down and we stopped at the mechanics for over2 hours before giving up and going home in a taxi. We ate lunch after I got to talk to my whole family...everyone sounds good! I miss everyone though!!!! Ribs without me- you f-ers. I ran with Estepahnia to see the sunset then headed back for family din. I had a family dinner for dia del padre it was veggie and chicken lasagna, cinamon plantinas, salad and lemonade- it made me think of ambers lasagna for some reason and I miss her too!!!! Then my mom wanted to go dancing so I went with her to Bar Amigos. I met lots of ticos ---adolofo wants me to get a tico bf...oh adolfo! I danced with one tico for a while then with Anibal --he was with a bunch of people and we ran into him. My mom danced with lots of men..she's super cute! I love her....I turned down a few men but felt bad but my knee started to hurt and I wasn't drunk so I was more self concious about my dancing. I need to practice my spanish a lot more if I am going to learn. LOVE YOU ALL!

Wednesday, June 14

Hello, So I haven't done anything exciting to warrant a post but I will anways... After having a fun filled yet dramatic weekend we came back to studio and tuesday had a progress pin up. Apparently another teacher is coming today, Kameron is excited apparently he's cool. Stacey is not coming so I will be the sole Illini here. Thats okay. I met some other students the other day from Mizzou they are doing stuff with agriculture and workin on a project with the Santa Elena High School as well- somethng with there farming and dairy farm and all that. They seem pretty nice.

Josue and Estephania are fun to joke with, its an evreyday occurance--they are out of school for a month-well apparently they might move? So then they will be out of school for 6 months, I hope they dont plan to move while I am still here!!! I have been so sleepy lately, I think the lack of sleep is geting to me-you all know how I love my sleep. I have been getting a little more meat which is always good, I eat at restaurants for lunch sometimes when we are at the school and it starts downpouring- that way I dont have to walk in the rain. Last night my tummy was not feeling so hot and my mom had Estephania run to get me some Chamomile tea for the hotel and she told me just to eat rice and the chitoa or something (they only have it here and there is no english word for it - its is some green vegetable). Today I feel much better.

It rains in Monteverde everyday, sometimes more than others. Today is much more rainy and cold. I need to remember to get another sweatshirt. If anyone feels like calling me my number is 645-5090 but I am not sure on the country code and all that.

A lil history of Monteverde...In 1950 the Quakers from Alabama and settled here..they started a cheese factory that is literally outside our shacks window at the insititute. They make cheese, milk, icecream and other dairy things. The icecream is delicious and icecream can be found everywhere here- they are big fans of it. My family gets homemade peanut butter, yogurt and milk from some lady we live by. I love the peanut butter and am a fan of the yogurt with granola and honey for breakfast. Today I could not for the life of me get the honey out and then they thought of microwaving it--soooo smart! My family has a washer and dryer but most families do not have driers. In fact, even though they have a dryer everything is always wet. Good luck feeling dry. For the first time since I was here I was dry when we went to La Fortuna but then during the week I am back and smell like mildew. The locals are called Ticos, but they are not as freindly as you would think. NO ONE offers rides anywhere here even though they always drive past. A taxi costs about $5 no matter how far in town you want to go or how many people you have so it sucks to be alone. Our studio is a wood barn type building it's real primitive. Our desks are boards on top of saw horse stands. I have a lot of pics but I can't put them online becausse I didn't bring a cable and my memory stick won't fit in the computers here. I hope to get a collection of everyone's pictures before I leave. The locals love to say PURA VIDA- which means a lot of things litterally pure life, but they say it in response to how are you and everything else. Que Mope and then hitting fists is a common thing too. I think Costa Rica's dialect is a little differnt from other spanish countries but I am not sure? I never took spanish before but pollo (chicken) is said with a J sound like Poyjo..and llama is like jama...Yo is like Joe. I am learning SOME spanish but when I get home I forget what I learned at school. I have learned to sing Sponge Bob, square pants...well I better go I need to find a way to dry out! MUCH LOVE

My weekend at Arenal (La Fortuna), June 9-11

Friday was sweet, we started out at Spanish class at the institute then wen to bar amigos for the costa rica v germany futbol game. The place got crazy loud when costa rica scored. I was a big fan of number 9, but we lost :(

After that we went back to the Institute to work and then I had to skip a lecture for Josue and Kristys graduation. I was a proud sister and yelled when there name was called, who cares if people stared. After that me and Mariposa (Dan the 45 year old) hurried back because we were leaving for Arenal at 6pm.We all jammed into a van and headed towards Arenal (the active volcano)

It took around 3 hours and we were ready to get out. We got there and our hotel rooms were little cabanas, we had a lil drama over room situations because out of 10 of us -3 didnt drink. So 6 of the 10 wanted to party and the others wanted to go to bed right away and well Mariposa drinks but was being a bum. So because Asia can´t be in the same room as guys we had a problem and had to get another room. Anyways it ended up being the 5 maryland people and me in a room with two double beds. 3 to a bed sweeeeet. So we drank and killed like 3 bottles of all differnt things and then went swimming, Craig took some kewl pictures of that and then us with the volcano in the background. I learned a lot of new drinking games and we all bonded. The next day(Saturday) we hiked to another waterfall. The volcano is soooo big you can always see it and apparently we are ultra lucky because some people stay for 15 days and because of the clouds never see it...At night its sweet to see the red lava flow down the .Anyways so we hiked to the waterfall and I died. I actaully was so hot and sweaty I was getting cold chills and I could not feel my face! The decent to the waterfall was like 800 meters of nothing but stairs and this waterfall was so powerfull you could not swim near it. We swam downstream before the rainstorm. Then went back up and walked down to find food. Some stragner asked me to carry his camera in my bag up to the top but I couldn´t see him the whole way up and felt weird about it. Luckily he found me! We went to Lunch-dinner at a sweet place on the way back down, but we were so wet we felt horrible for getting their nice chairs so wet. The place was not fromiliar with fajitias apparently because we recieved no tortilla shells so we asked and they said we don´t have any, do you want bread? What is a fajita then if you have no shells?So we walked back, took a nap and then went to Tabicon for the hot springs.But decided it wasn´t worth the money and came back to drink. I for sure fell asleep like 2 hours after we were back but on the way back we saw the red lava from Arenal at night which is such an awesome sight! So the next day we swam, layed out, and packed up and went into town. It was sooooo hot compared to Monteverde!! We shopped a lil and then went back by 4 to catch our van. I sat bitch between Kam and Cam- my group for our project. Thats who I sat with on the way and ended up sleeping in between those nights too, apparently I fell alseep both nights before anyone else....I do like my sleep. We got home late on Sunday and I got hugs from my host mom and Josue-- he ran up to me as soon as I got home and told me he missed me. I found out that an American student is missing because they were stupid and went swimming at the beach during a rain storm! dON´T Worry I am way smarter than that, I wouldn't go off swimming in a rainstorm. Or go off without a substantial amount of people with me, I am friendly though and people keep saying not to say hola to everyone...I'll work on it

Friday, June 9

Hey everyone! So yesterday was horrible, we were without water since Wednesday night when I wanted to brush my teeth and shower. The next day no water...I went to school and came back expecting it to be fixed but it was not. So then I ran back to the institute to get a shower becasue I was gross from not showering and walking around all day. I had a dinner for Josue's graduation at the hotel right next door...I got meat! It was fun, he was shy and imbarrassed to introduce me so I just kept waving at him the entire nite until I went home and called up people to go out. We all went to Tiberna or something like that. It was me Cam, Kam, Craig, Heather and Tracee and of course Mariposa(Dan). We are all going to Arenal this weekend which is an active volcano that you can see and at night the lava is so pretty as we hear. There are also hot springs which is like a natural occuring hot tub like water. We are taking a van and then staying in two hotel rooms- pack em in! I'm pretty pumped for this, I want to get my sis Jenni her book! Yesterday though we also made sufficient headway on our group project. We went to the Santa Elena High School and took measurements, GIS locations, and stuff like that. We hope to get done before everyone so we can not come for the last two weeks. Our group is pimp- we are designing the master plan for the High School. Kameron is pretty much amazing at everything....so I have faith we are gonna rock this project. Ok it's pouring out! I have to go to graduation for Josue and Kristy at 4 then we leave for Arenal from the Institute at 6...I'll be back Sunday at like 8 pm so I'll blog next week. HUGS AND KISSES

Wednesday, 6-7

Hello, sorry lately I have been busy with school from 8-5 and then I go home and eat. I started Spanish class two days ago, that is going well. I have a lot of french running through my brain so its hard to get that out and remember the spanish vocab. I haven't really gone out since the weekend. One night some of us met up for pizza and then I hung out with Kameron and saw his house. The people here are so nice. I play cards always with my brother Josue and Estephania- my sister. Uno, Swap, and a lot of other games. Me and Josue joke a lot, he's so funny yesterday he wore a fohawk to school. I tried to make him take it down but no luck. They tried to only speak to me in spanish last nite but that didn't last too long....Unfortunately when I went to brush my teeth and take a shower there was NO WATER. NO AGUA! I don't understand how they have power but no water. So yeah no shower for me, I bet I smell today! My email sucks, I just got emails from last Friday-this Wednesday yesterday. I dont know what it wrong with it. I better get my butt to spanish class, so much for being early. I will tell you a lil about my project that me Kameron and Cameron are doing in another post. MISS YOU ALL! MUAH!

Domingo, June 3 San Luis Catarata

WOW, the hardest walk of my life. I thought I was going to die. I woke up in Anibal´s house because we spent the nite there because we went out and were gettin up early to head to the Catarata (waterfall). Asia and Anibal came into my room but because I didn´t sleep in PJ pants I didn´t get out of bed. Later,Asia was like I wondered why didn´t you get up, I laughed and told her why. So I got to hold Anibals nephew and play with Fabion (his other nephew).Then we took a taxi to the Institute. On the way to his house the night before we took 2 taxis and one to the bar. Anyways...Saturday morning we met and started towards the waterfall. The road was totally downhill for a long ass while. I thought that was a good thing but no you have to walk in a way to keep from falling and so my shins and knees killed. One point, Cameron climbed down- I don´t know how he survived it. So we all walked on the road, it was horribly steep and I dind´t want to think about the walk back. Once we got to the falls there was about an hour walk through trails to get to the place to swim, it was uphill most of the way. Real rocky too, I got super tired and didn´t know if I could make it. One part you had to climb down a cliff of sorts but there was a rubber rope thing. I was impressed I did it. Once we finally got there, we were wet from walking through streams. I got in as soon as I could get out of my boots and pants. I already had my shirt off because it was so bloody hot and my swimsuit was on. So the water was icecold. And I was freezing, but it felt good so I did not care at all. The water pressure was insane. It was so pretty, I felt like I was finally in the jungle. We stayed and swam and ate but then it started pouring so we started back. On the way back out there was like 5 people who went ahead and others who followed. It was me Tracee, Cameron, Kameron,and Asia.Dan was ahead of us but dropped way back and I dont remember when. So we all walked. Cameron was being nice and waited for us. It was so slippery from the wet rocks, I am surprise I didn´t fall and break anything. We got out of the trail and back on the road and started walking. We stopped at this place that was a ¨guest house¨but really just a tin roof pavilion. We ate a pineapple there then more walking. UPhill. Cameron got on the back of some truck and hung by the wheel on the back of it. Fucker...haha jk. Finally we came to this lil resort looking thing that was the University of Georgia station. It was sweet way better than our wood school house looking thing. We got some coffee and decided to call cabs because the walk would take 3 hours back and it was slippery as hell. I saw this guy we met the night before (in the taxi)he was from England and we chatted it up a lil. Then we took taxi´s and came to the institute to hang out. I was sopping wet, my shoes were squishing water and it was misserably cold. We all left about 6 and I went home showerd and said yes I am hungry as soon as she asked. My mom made potatoes, broccoli and white rice. Ehh...not exactly what I was expecting. Where are these damn beans they speak of? Then me and Josue and Estephania played uno with her mom´s friend. I won the first time. Then Josue was compètitive with me and we joked a lot. I call him Friolito which is a popular soap opera here and his favorite show, he hates being called that. He started calling me friasta or something which means little strawberry but then just stuck with Strawberry shortcake the rest of the nite. We make faces at each other and then started making random animal noises, all the ones I knew of and more. I went to bed after a while and planned to sleep in. oh remind me when I get back to make trail mix, Cameron bascially thats all he eats here and I finally tried it and it´s amazing. After eating no meat at my homestay I might be like him by my return and it not it´s still a good snack. Well I´m outtie, until next blog...

Friday, June 2

So, I met my host family last nite. It´s kinda like a OTH of sorts. My mom- Eugina is divorced. Has 3 kids and one adopted daughter who is 11. The adopted daughter is actaully Eugina´s sister in law. And the rest of my kids aunt. It´s Eugina´s ex-husbands siste, who´s mom died. They watch tv 24-7, Friolita is there fav. So lots of people live there. Her sister is mute and then her freind stays there as well. Cori is another homestay who leaves Wednesday. She provided me with lots of helpful info and an outlet to talk. Without her I would have been in my room all night. My family doesn´t eat much meat..this is gonna suck!I need interaction so I might be out a lot and not with my family since they dont talk really. When we met our host families there was this adorable girl she was 6 or 7 and absolutely beautiful. I wish she was my sister. Cameron got the family that babysits her, apparently his family thought we were engaged I heard this morning from everyone. They asked how many kids we had or something? Kinda wierd- someone said they think if your with a man alone it means your a couple but I have not been with him alone so I dont get it. My favorite term- I dont get it. I will be using that a lot. Today we had a lecture on women and gender in Monteverde . I forgot they don´t allow abortion or other things like that in different countries. Tomorrow we are going to San Luis to the waterfalls. Tonight we are going out! OOOH so that Italian I met on the plane...came to Monteverde. I got a call today on the Institute phone and I´m like aww my dad really always finds me even when he´s in China....to my surprise the guy from the plane tracked me down and called me and came and wants to hang out....wierd. Two phone calls in weird places- I´m gonna be known as the girl who gets tracked down and called no matter where we are.....ok we´re outtie going to the school and municipal building. Surprise We are walking.

Last Night at the Station 5-31

So, yesterday was the last day we had at the station in the woods. Today we move in with our host families. We spent the majority of the day at the Institute, went to Santa Ellena for the bank and store. The bank is insane. You have to only take money and your id and lock the rest in a locker. The gaurd has a shotgun and you have to pass through this glass cage to get in. One by one, I was in like at least a minute and started to worry that it wouldn´t open, its literally a glass box. Then you had to follow the line to get in. After town we went back to the station where we were staying and instead of taking a nap, I went with Anibal, Asia and Kameron on a hike. The trail was sooooo steep. I fell on my ass in my sweat pants- I just thought we were going on a walk and wore tennis shoes not my hiking boots. So i was sweating horribly, wet from falling and my breathing was uncontrollable. LUCKILY, I made it back, I wanted to pass out. We ate dinner that was delciouso and played rummy. Then Cameron was gonna go to the bar by himself and me and Kameron went with. So, Cam, Kam and moi went to the bar. My legs for sure will be in shape soon!
Oh I found a beetle (large on) in my shoe after i had it on and felt something...they aren´t kidding about checking shoes first. Today a spider came out and I scremed! After the bar we came back and talked in the kitchen area.
Anyways ....I am *TRYING* to like beer...The icecream and everything is amazing here. The institute is sooo close to the cheese factory so I will probablygo everyday. Icecream is less than a dollar for this thing the size of sour cream-maybe even bigger. I hate collonaos!! They are heavy when you get change and there is one that is 5 collonaos which is less than a penny in american money. No extreme adventures yet. I think we are going to the water falls this weekend and then for sure Arenal soon. I want to see it erupt at night sooo much---by the way Arenal is a volcano that erupts several times daily. It´s almost lunch time, SO I will quit rambling. My new classmates have already realized I don´t shut up.