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