Week #1
¡Hola!
Sorry this has taken so long to write! I don't have regular Internet access or time to actually sit down and write so I'm taking a break from the beach today to write about my week in detail. This post won't have pictures because I forgot my camera, but I'll have them up tomorrow for sure!
Day 1 (Sunday): My Arrival
So I woke up
at 3 am and left home
at 4:45 am . My flight was
at 9 am and I made it through airport security with about an hour and a half to spare. I got upgraded seating during the flights and with that came breakfast ( total cereal, fruit, yogurt, and soft drinks). I got to Houston around
12pm and I met up with my roommate and we got subways for lunch ( I wanted a chicken parm sandwich but they didn't have Tomato Sauce so I had chicken breast with provolone cheese...next time I'm having Panda Express!) we waited at our gate the whole time and met up with the rest of our group and
at 5:20 pm we started boarding. The flight to Liberia was fine; when we got to Liberia there was thunder and some turbulence. We made it to our host family fine and then we all went to bed; my room has a fan (yay!).
Day 2: Flamingo and Class
We started the day by going to Flamingo beach and swimming; the waves were huge and I drank a lot of salt water that day! After swimming we went to take a placement test for our classes. I guess I didn't use enough past tense during the interview so I got placed in a preterite class. ..oh well; it's nice review! After class we went to the beach again! I think I got really bad chaffing because of all of this swimming so I'm going to try not to swim that much anymore.
Day 3: volunteering
Today we started our first volunteering activity at a government day care. That day we painted the ceilings a pale grey color and this day really helped me decide on my contest idea for EF Tours. For those of you that don't know, EF Tours is a school and group tour company that goes around the world. Every year they have a global citizen contest and this year they're taking the winners to china (again, for those of you who don't know me, I love Asia) the theme is for profit business that make a global impact. I'm thinking of using this experience as the basis for my business idea! :) anyways after this activity we went back to school, ate lunch, and went to class. After we went to the beach again!
Day 4:
I believe today we went to Conchal beach. The beach is made up of broken up sea shells and the ocean is really calm. We swam for an hour or so and then some of us rented a banana boat and had some fun! After the beach we went to a restaurant and I had some Spanish fried chicken with some fries (yum!) we went to class and the beach after and then home :)
Day 5: Volunteering
So today we went back to the government daycare and painted the walls. I both rolled and painted and I think we all did a great job! After this we went to eat at another restaurant and then went to classes! We went to the beach again and then to a restaurant called the money bar to have some snacks. We went home and went to a delicious gelato shop after (I had choko chip!) then we went home and enjoyed the day.
Day 6: Tamarindo
Today we got up a little earlier to make the 30 min drive to Tamarindo Beach. Here we had surf lessons (really fun, but very hard to master!) and then we shopped a little bit (me a lot, I bought a lot of souvenirs from walking salespeople) and then we went to lunch at a place called Fisch. I had spaghetti with Meat sauce; it was really good!! After this we went back to school for Spanish class and then down to the beach before heading home.
Day 7: Rincon de la vieja
Today was a big excursion day (around 1 hr and 45 mins) to Rincon de la Vieja; a volcano/ national park. First we went Zip lining and everyone there was so nice. All of the guys who helped us could tell I was Spanish because of my hair ( it's really curly) and asked me where I was from, called me their sister (typical thing to do in Spanish speaking countries ) and I even got a few winks ;) (Normal gestures in Costa Rica for guys haha). Next we went horse back Riding. I really love horse back riding! This is the first real time that I've gone without someone leading me, and it was so much fun! I didn't know the name of my horse, so I just called him Blanco, because he was white, and he really liked to eat grass because all he would do in the beginning was eat. We really connected though and he ran really fast, just how I like it, and we made it to the end of the route without difficulty. Next we took a bus to river tubing. We hAd to wear sneakers for this part, so my shoes unfortunately got soaked, but it was really fun. The rapids were huge and really strong but I didn't fall off of my tube surprisingly! All of the guides we really helpful and we got a banana at the end. Next we took a bus to the mountain lodge where we had lunch. It was buffet style so I had white rice, pasta, chicken, tea, and some chocolate cake. After we went home where I found out that our host mom had to babysit her nieces, so we'd be sleeping at another house. This house was ridiculous! It was up a large hill and had views of the ocean! It was two stories and had a pool and hot tub :) we didn't go in the hot tub but we ate dinner quickly and went to the center of town to have a bonfire, but that didn't happen because it turns out the town's school was putting on a dance. My roommate and I didn't end up going because our host mom set a time for us to be home, so we walked back up the hill and went to bed. If you didn't know, a lot of houses in Costa Rica don't have hot water and don't have good plumbing so you have to put the toilet paper in the trash can. Well this house had hot water and good plumbing :) I took some pictures that morning.
Day 8: Playa Danta
Today we went back to our host mom's house to have breakfast and then we went to our meeting point to head to playa Danta which was 10 mins from town. I didn't feel well so I just relaxed at the surf shop and talked to the shop keeper who was from Colorado. After the beach we went to an Italian restaurant called Marco Polo and I had pasta again ( it was really good, but I didn't feel too hot so I didn't enjoy it that much). After this we got dropped off at the center of town, at this point I felt awful, but the Rest of the group wanted to walk to the beach near our house and I didn't know if our host mom was home, so I had to go with them. I sat on the beach while they swam and then we went home around
3:30 pm. Here I told my host mom that I didn't feel good and that I wanted to sleep, so I went to my room and went to sleep around
4:15pm. I slept off and on, but in total I slept around 16 hours!
Day 9: School (Today!)
So I slept for 16 hours...hrm
my muscles didn't hurt in the morning anymore but I'm still a little tired, so I'm taking it easy today and just blogging instead of going to the beach! I know we are going to eat lunch
at 12pm at a restaurant called Marie's. ill have class today and then go somewhere close to school so I'll blog about that tomorrow at some point!
My thoughts so far:
I'm pretty much used up everything here; it's just how I imagined Puerto Rico to be so no surprises. I'm not missing my family too much since I can talk to them pretty regularly, and I'm really loving the climate and people here! I love my little host sister and host brother and also their cousins (who are from Michigan)!
That's all for now! Pictures tomorrow :)
