The trip winds down...

Amazing how fast 6 weeks can fly by! I know I have been a negligent blogger, but not too much has happened over the last week or so. Well, I did get engaged, but I'm not going to blog about that! Telling the story in person is oh-so-much better! After that little tease, I will continue with my trip to Volcano Poas, which is not NEARLY as exciting. :) Hannah and I decided to be adventurous and take public transportation to see the crater of a volcano about an hour from here (aka 2 hours in these slow buses). We got up bright an early on a beautiful, clear Saturday morning and walked to the nearest bus stop by the Mega Super grocery store. Of course, I ran into the store to use the bathroom, and the bus passed by the second I left. Fortunately, another bus came by 15 minutes later, so we were still ahead of schedule. We picked up the second, direct bus in Alajuela, and from there, it was another 2ish hours to get up to the volcano. By the time we got there, we were so ready to be off the bus and taking pics of the crater. Unfortunately, as so often occurs high in the mountains, a huge cloud coverage moved in, and when we got to the edge of the viewing area, all we could see was a wall of white. Talk about a great view...so glad we paid ten bucks for that! Fortunately, there was also a lagoon nearby that was beautiful and, go figure, this side of the mountain was completely sunny! At least we got some good pics there! I had to BUY a picture of the actual crater. Oh, well. We're off for our week of travel on Sunday, and we plan on seeing Volcano Arenal during the day and night. Pray for good weather!!!

My week with Tom and Mrs. R!

Whew! I seriously did not have a spare minute to blog this past week! I was too busy partaking in crazy adventures with Tom and his mom. I'll break it down by day and give a brief summary of each day...
Wednesday: They arrived! The Lord was totally watching over them as a very friendly Tican helped them navigate the bus system to find me. We spent the afternoon walking through San Joaquin and then I headed back to Heredia with them to "couch surf" for the evening. They stayed with a guy named Lance who is actually from Minnesota. He was super friends and accommodating, and Mrs. R and I even had a mattress to share (Tom slept on an air mattress).
Thursday: We woke up a 4:30am to grab a taxi for Alejuela where we could pick up the private transportation to go whitewater rafting. We had beautiful weather and rafting was a blast! They fed us a typical Tican breakfast before we left (omelets, gallo pinto, potatoes, fruit, toast, and coffee), and we ate a ton, knowing that we had a long day ahead of us. We rafted for 3.5 hours (18 miles) on level 3 and 4 rapids (it goes up to level 6). The level four rapids were awesome and a bit scary at times. Mrs. R was knocked out of the boat once when we hit a rock, but the guide saved her before I could even turn around to help. I fell once as well, but fortunately it was into the boat rather than out of it. In the areas where the water was calm, we jumped out of the raft to swim and take in the scenery. We saw gorgeous waterfalls, indigenous villages, and plenty of flora and fauna. Needless to say, by the end of the trip we were pretty whipped. They fed us lunch back at the base (fajita meat, rice, beans, salad, fried yucca and plantains, pasta, and pico de gallo) and brought us back home. It was the perfect bday gift from Tom and his mom!
Friday: We took a bus to Monteverde right after I got out of school. We arrived that evening and stayed in a cute hostel called "Sleepers." It's a family-owned place that served us breakfast in the morning and helped us plan all of our activities for the next day.
Saturday: Tom and I went extreme zip-lining. WOW! It was incredible. I was freaking out before hand since I have a tough time with heights, but this was seriously one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Some of the zip lines literally stretch from one mountain to another over a valley. It was surreal to look down and see cows that looked like the size of cat. I couldn't believe that I was that high in the air being supported only by a cable and a harness. We also did a Tarzan jump from the top of a tree. That was insane. You had a momentary free-fall before the line kicked in and you started swinging. I was super proud of myself that I sucked it up and faced my fear of heights. I firmly believe this is the best was to see the cloud forests in Costa Rica :) That night, the three of us went on a night hike. We saw some crazy insects and interesting birds (which were sleeping). I have some pics that I will post eventually.
Sunday: The biggest waste of our lives ever. We jumped on a private shuttle that was supposed to get us to Manuel Antonio, a very famous beach and nature reserve, in four hours (way less than a bus). Unfortunately, the bus broke down two hours into the trip, and we sat at some stupid rest stop for SIX HOURS while our bus driver tried to fix the bus. He ended up calling in reinforcements who took 3 hours to get the "part" that was needed. Then, after all that, another bus finally came and picked us up. Needless to say, we missed the nature reserve and didn't get to our hostel until 7:00pm. I felt the worst for Mrs. R and Tom as they only had one week here. What a wasted day! Luckily, we did see crocodiles in a river on the way, and Tom and I saw a monkey from the hammock at our hostel.
Monday: Happy birthday to me! We spent my bday on the beach after having breakfast at my favorite coffee shop (Milagros). I ate banana pancakes with macadamia nuts, and they were the best pancakes I've ever had in my life. Naturally, I came home a bit sunburned, but it was the perfect bday. I'll relate more stories later because I'm running out of room. Now you all are least somewhat up-to-date!

My first weekend away!

Well, I'm officially a seasoned traveler of Costa Rica...okay, that's a huge exaggeration, but at least I left town this weekend! Two other girls and I took a bus to Manuel Antonio for a weekend of sunshine and partying on the beach. What did we get? Two days of rain. Here's how it went down. We left San Jose at 2:30pm on Friday, thinking that the bus ride would be about two hours. Yeah, try three and a half. By the time we arrived in Quepos, a small beach town, it was pouring rain and we were starving. We found one of the few restaurants we could afford and had dinner (I ate a chicken sandwich again, not too creative, this one). After dinner, we checked into our hostel, Mar y Luna, to change our clothes and clean up a bit. The owner of the hostel was a sweet, little old man who gave us a room with three beds for 10 bucks a night. The room was a bit rough, but clean, and we had our own bathroom. After freshening up, we headed out to Wacky Wandas, a corner bar on our street. As fortune would have it, we met two very nice men, who were both about 30, who proceeded to buy us all of our drinks and our entry into a nightclub down the street. For three girls who didn't bring enough money along, this was quite convenient. Was it a bit strange that two 30-year-old men wanted to hang out with three young girls? Probably! Fortunately, they were perfect gentlemen and even walked us home later that night. We saw them again the next morning, but by that point we had decided that we were going to stick with people our own age for the duration of the trip. We parted ways amicably. After a late breakfast Saturday morning at a cute cafe with amazing coffee, we jumped on a bus to Manuel Antonio to visit the national park. We had to pay $10 to enter into the park, and unfortunately, it wasn't quite what we expected. The day was a bit overcast, so the animals were not very active. We didn't see any monkeys :( but we did see a sloth climbing up a tree, a boa constrictor curled up in a tree above our heads, three different types of lizards (BIG ones), and some beautiful butterflies. The park ended right by the beach, so we spent the next half-hour in the ocean jumping in the waves and being pelted by the afternoon rain storm. Soaked and exhausted, we headed back to our hostel to rest before dinner. Naturally, we headed back to the same, affordable restaurant for dinner. I ordered a chicken burrito and Marie ordered a chicken quesadilla. Interestingly enough, they were identical. We both had chicken with black beans in a tortilla. The only difference was that her's was flat and mine was rolled. Nice. After dinner we walked around town, stopping in a small coffee shop for dessert of pina coladas and tres leches cake. Needless to say, both were amazing (although I swear the lady used half the bottle of alcohol in our drinks. I could barely swallow it). Still tired from our night out before, we retired a bit earlier to our hostel to turn in for the night. We had to wake up early Sunday morning to catch our 8:00 bus back to San Jose, so our adventure was somewhat short lived. There are more stories to tell, but that's all I have time for right now. I need to look over my vocab before running to class. I'll try to write again soon!

Jenna once again proves her "Americanness"

And the hits just keep coming! Last night I had my first opportunity to play soccer here at CPI. One of the workers asked if any of us students would be willing to go to an indoor field to play against the kids participating in CPI's soccer camp. Of course, I volunteered right away! I figured that some other students would be playing too, and it would just be a big ol' party. Not so much. First of all, I came back to school last night only to discover that I was the only student volunteering to play. I had to ride to the field in a bus with 5 other male teachers/workers/random people, all of which spoke fluent Spanish very quickly. They then informed me that we were playing high school-aged students and that the girls were pretty good (note: I'm already sweating by this point). I got to the field where there were two other rec teams playing. Wow. These were like 40-year-old men who were playing like 20-year-olds. I seriously started fearing for my life. These guys were intense! I was worried that our game was going to be this nuts and that I would not only make a fool out of myself, but that I would also die from a hit to the head. Fortunately, when I was on the brink of panic, my friend Makeba showed up. Her bus came to school late, so they brought her over separately. Whew! At least now I had someone with me who doesn't eat, sleep, breathe soccer. Better yet, two female employees from the school showed up a few minutes later, meaning that Makeba and I wouldn't have to play the entire hour (two girls had to be on the field at all times). With all of this female support, I started feeling pretty good about the game. One of the female employees and I started on the field first, and within the first 2 minutes, I tripped and ripped up both of my knees on the nasty artificial turf. Nice. I had black, slightly bloody knees for the duration of the game. Now, I won't say that I was the worst on the field, but I was up there! I tried to tell myself that I was rusty, but let's be honest. It was the Latin Americans vs Jenna. I didn't have a shot! I did get better as the game went on, and I still had a blast so it was totally worth it. I'm hoping that I get to play in a few more pick-up games while I'm here to brush up on my skills.
Apart from soccer, life is pretty routine here. Classes are a bit too easy this week, so I'm hoping that next week the intensity picks up. My speaking continues to improve, and I feel much more confident communicating, so I know that I'm still learning everyday. Right now I'm off to walk Hannah home and later this evening it's off to the mall! By the way, I'm currently boycotting rice and beans...aka I'm only eating it for 1-2 meals a day rather than all three. For lunch I splurged on a huge chicken sandwich and LOVED it! I fear I'm more American than I care to admit...

Weekend update

I learned something important this weekend: I can only dance in the United States. A group of students went to a Latin dance club this weekend, and we might as well have had "American" stamped on our foreheads. It was all pairs dancing salsa, cha-cha, rumba, and whatever else they do here. Furthermore, when guys actually asked us to dance (I witnessed this but never actually agreed to dance with anyone), they almost immediately ended the dance claiming they wanted to "dance with someone who knows how." Yeah. The 5 songs that were American music? We tore those up...while everyone looked at us like we were crazy, loose women. So not exactly an ideal club experience. Still, it was super cool to watch the couples dance. Saturday morning, Hannah, Makeba, and I went to Cafe Britt for a coffee tour. That was super cool to see, and apart from being ripped off by the taxi driver, we had a great time! The driver who dropped us off and picked us up charged us for the time in between the two rides as well. Oops. The school suggested him, so we blindly thought we'd be okay. Live and learn! At least it was only a couple of hours and not the entire afternoon. Saturday evening I went to the Catholic church with Hannah and her family. That was very interesting. The priest was quite old and would have been hard to understand in English, so you can imagine how tough it was in Spanish. I prayed silently for most of the service. The church was packed, but the girl next to me was texting...I feel like many of the people were cultural Catholics rather than actual practicing Catholics, but it's not my place to judge. Hannah said that the other preacher was much more animated last week, so I'll give it another go this weekend. Sunday was very quiet. I went plant shopping with my mama and papa tico and spent the rest of the day sleeping and watching TV. Sometimes I feel like I act more like an American here than at home...except here I eat a lot more rice and beans...hasta luego!

Not for the faint of heart....

First off, I apologize for skipping a day of blogging. I could tell that Iara was very upset ;) Yesterday was a bit nuts, and I didn't exactly have time to blog. The day started out normally. I went to cooking class after school (we made some awesome veggie-meat mix to put in homemade tortillas) and then walked home before our usual Wednesday night outing to the mall and movie theater (Wednesday nights movies here are cheaper). After my short nap at home, I headed back to school on one of the main routes I take. However, the end of the street was blocked off by police officers and people were milling about. I figured there had been a car accident, so I turned around and took a parallel side road instead. When I got back to school, I asked if anyone knew what was up. Turns out there was a break-in/shooting at a the shoe store on that street. Yeah. Talk about freaky! This road is literally 5 blocks from school and on my usual route! Needless to say, I spent most of the night at the mall and watching Transfomers 3 worrying about dying on my way to school the next morning. I prayed a lot last night for comfort and safety, and God, in all His goodness, gave me an incredible sense of peace this morning. I walked to school without fear or incident. As a side note, I also starred in the movie Homeward Bound today (and we all know how much I loved that movie...), as I walked to school with a pack of homeless dogs. No joke. I walked like five blocks weaving in an out of a dog-gang. That honestly scared me more than the shooting...Anyways, back to the crazy story, I found out today that this was not some random robbery. It turns out that the three men entered into the house/store when it was closed and didn't actually rob it. Killing the three women within was likely premeditated because they  had silencers on the guns. Clearly, this was some sort of revenge, not just a random act of violence that happened during a robbery. Therefore, since I'm pretty sure I haven't ticked off any Ticos, I'm not too worried about my safety ;) Still, I was a bit shook up. This kind of thing never happens in San Joaquin.
On the bright side, I tried something new and super good last night at the mall. I ate a dessert called "arroz con leche" or "rice with milk." It basically tastes like rice pudding, but it comes in all sorts of flavors. I had a cone of it filled with vanilla-oreo and cappicino flavored rice-milk. It was delicious! Also, Hannah and I shared some of that amazing popcorn again last night. Food-wise, the day was a success!

Yaaaaaaay for new friends!

Yesterday I finally made a new friend who isn`t leaving in a week! Here name is Makeba and she's from Las Vegas (she's even heard of Faith Lutheran). She is going to be at the school for the next five weeks, and we hit it off right away. She's a dancer/gymnist, so we were shakin' it during salsa lessons today. Which, by the way, is super hard. I could do the steps solo, but with my partner (Hannah) things got a bit rough. Still, it was fun to dance a bit, especially since I just found out via facebook that my dance studio back home CLOSED for good! I don't know the entire story, but apparently I will not be subbing there next fall (mom, do some investigating on this one). Therefore, I must soak up the dancing here as much as possible. Hannah and I plan on practicing before next week's lesson :) Additionally, I've started streching and doing some basic ballet in the mornings in my room while listening to the Spanish version of MTV. It's so great to dance to music along with super-attractive, scantily-clan Latino women like Shakira. It's great for the self-confidence boost in the morning. Oh, and just an update on the food here (since I'm such a junkie), breakfast is the best meal of the day, followed by "la comida del descanso" or "the food of the break." For breakfast today, I had two pieces of crusty bread with cheese baked in with avacado and eggs. Soooooooooo yummy! Here we spread avacado like butter on bread, and it's an awesome alternative in my opinion. At school around 10:00 we have our 20 minute break during which we have coffee, pastries, and the most delicious watermelon and pineapple you have ever tasted. These two meals make my mornings wonderful :) Also, yesterday was the first time that I tried plantains cooked in a bit of oil and covered in cinnamon and sugar (or in my house, splenda...they're a low-sugar couple, how perfect for me!). It was "muy rico" or "delicious." My papa tico makes juices as well, although his latest (guayaba y limon) is a bit sour. Still, like he says, "totalmente natural." I was placed with the perfect family! How's school? It's going fine. I work hard during class and speak as much as I can, but I have a reeeeeeeeeeeally hard time motivating myself to do homework at night. The Spanish progams with English subtitles on my TV (which constantly emits a high-pitched whistle when it's on) are simply too enticing...I'm working on that...