My Adventureous weekend in San José

This past weekend I stayed in San José. Thursday evening was the start of my weekend. I decided to stay home, talk with the host family, Skype my real family, and relax (catch up on sleep). The next morning I woke up around 10am and did homework all day (Que Chiva!). But then after hours of homework I headed to the biggest mall in Costa Rica, located in Escazu. It's called the Multi-Plaza Mall. At the mall we explored the stores. They had a forever 21 that had two floors. We ate at an Chilis, I felt like we were in the United States again.

After the mall, I once again had a relaxed night where I caught up on my TV shows, talked to my host family and relaxed. Sometimes it's good to just do nothing haha. The next morning, Saturday, I woke up on the earlier side because the group was heading to San José for the festivals. We got to the main city and realized the festivals were scattered and were a bit small. Instead we just walked around and went souvenir shopping! It was a fun day :) The weather was absolutely beautiful! We also ran into the amazing cake shop where all their cakes had Disney themes!

That evening I got home and my host mom told me my host sister was having friends over for game night. She told me they would be playing Cranium and Pictionary in Espanol of course. I invited my good friend Dani from my trip to join me while we played the games. The other night was by far one of the best nights I have had in Costa Rica. I actually interacted with  Ticos and their friends. I also made a friend who plays soccer nearby and I plan on joining her this Tuesday!Everyone was so competitive while playing (including me of course). This game night reminded me of my friends and family at home! I always host game nights with my friends. My host parents joined in the games, my host dad even played on a team! I truly lucked out with the amazing host family I have received! They are so welcoming and I feel at home here :) We played until 12am and then people started heading home.

The next morning I was so tired... I woke up around 9am. The morning went by fast with homework and eating. The next thing I knew it was 2pm and I needed to head to San José to see Saprissa vs La Liga partido! The game started around 4:30. This was supposed to be a good game because these teams were number 2 and 3 in the division. The game itself was a little slow. Neither of the teams won, but it was fun watching all the fan react to the game. Everyone was energetic and they  sang many cheers I couldn't understand. To me the game went by pretty quickly. It has been so long since I've watched soccer games and I miss it a lot! I also miss playing a lot too... so hopefully this Tuesday I end up playing some soccer!

Overall I had a great weekend :) I can't believe I only have one month left here in Costa Rica and then I am off to the U.S.!

Montezuma luego Santa Teresa!

This past weekend eight of us headed to Santa Teresa to enjoy the nice beach weather. We left Friday morning and stayed until Sunday evening. Before we went to Santa Teresa four of us, Lizzy, Jess, Sarah and I went to Montezuma to enjoy the caratas (waterfalls). In order to get to Santa Teresa and Montezuma one has to take a three to four hour bus ride to Puntarenas in order to board a two hour ferry over the the Nicoya Peninsula. Once we got to the Nicoya Peninsula we took a two hour bus to Cobana and from there a 30 minute bus ride to Montezuma. There was a lot of traveling that day. Once we got off at Montezuma, we headed straight for the waterfalls!Before we got to the waterfalls, there were streams where family and friends would hang out and swim in. We also saw plenty of wild life as we hiked towards the waterfalls. We mainly saw different types of birds.

There were three main waterfalls. We had to hike a bit to see the first one. No one was allowed to jump off the first one because anyone who did...well didn't survive. But it happened to be a popular spot to swim.

Next we hiked up the mountain using tree trunks to hold onto to head to the third waterfall. The third waterfall was where we were able to jump off  and swim around. Hiking up the mountain was scary. For one there was little to hold onto and we hiked vertically up. If you fell backwards... you were probably a goner. We hiked for twenty to thirty minutes or so until we came to the third waterfall! There were drop-offs as we hiked down towards the waterfall. I am not the best with heights so I was pretty horrified the whole time.

After spending all morning at the waterfalls we headed to Santa Teresa to meet the rest of the group. We stayed at a Hostel that had an Israeli owner. Surprisingly there were many Israelis in the area that owned hostels and restaurants. The first night Alexis and I had to stay in a tent which was so fun! The rest of the group stayed in the bedrooms in the hostels. The hostel was nice and mellow. It seemed that most people were there to relax and surf. The hostel itself was decorated with many paintings. I loved walking around and checking out all the art work.

 The next morning we woke up early to head to the beach. At the beach we surfed and walked along the sand and swam in the ocean. Dani and I kept walking down the beach and found a pool like area within the ocean where we swam. Later on we ended up swimming in a real swimming pool at the hotel we ate lunch at. That night we had a communal dinner which Dylan and Dani helped make! We had tacos which were so tasty :) The last night we were at the hostel we went to a full moon party which was really fun! We got to hangout with other tourists and locals. We went to a giant bond fire on the beach and listened to mellow music.

San Valentín

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays because while growing up my mother would always get very into the festivities. She would buy us heart shaped candy and clothing that related to Valentine's Day as well. Of course the best part of Valentine's Day was receiving and giving notes from and to my parents and siblings.

This is the first time I have celebrated Valentine's Day outside of the States. I can say that I definitely missed my mother's packages for the celebration of Valentine's Day, but luckily I have such a great group of people I am sharing my study abroad experience with, that they through a celebration here!

The group decided to celebrate on Thursday the 13th because the group was splitting up for the weekend. Some of us headed to Montezuma/Santa Teresa, while others stayed in San Jose to visit the nearby Volcano Poás.

Anyways... SO we celebrated Valentine's Day Secret Santa style. Everyone got a name and had to buy a gift for the person. I got Alexis and bought her, her favorite snacks, QUE CHIVA! My friend Kristin had me and she got me my favorite snack... OREOS. Wow I was happy. We celebrated the event in Alexis's basement (where we usually end up hanging out as a group). Even though the celebration was small, it was still so fun and meaningful! We really have gotten to know each other on this trip.

Time is definitely flying and I can finally feel how fast time goes. I only have 38 more days left here in Costa Rica! Before I felt like I was here forever, but now I'm realizing there's so much I want to do in so little time!

Anyways the trip is a blast so far and I recommend to everyone to at least travel abroad once in your life. You'll end up seeing things in a different perspective :D

Segundo tiempo en Tortuguero

This past weekend was my second time back to Tortuguero! I love going to Tortuguero because we get to stay at Lirio Lodge where we sleep in very nice tents.The best part of sleeping in tents is telling scary stories... but unfortunately no one wanted to hear any :/ Lirio Lodge is located along the canal. The only way to get to the hotel is by boat. The hotel is considered eco-friendly and sustainable. They collect rain water to use for their toilets and they use a minimal amount of electricity at night.

Once we arrived at Lirio Lodge we enjoyed pasta for lunch, right before our hard work. Later that day we headed to the local school. This school provides for eight students between the grades of 1st to 7th. The school is very small and there is only one teacher for all the students. This year they expect to have double the amount of the students in the classroom. At the school, we cleaned the classroom. There are many bats that live within the classroom and their feces can make the children very ill. We also added decoration to the area by scraping the trees and painting them over. (Honestly I was hesitant to participate because I learned how bad this was for the trees in my prior classes :/)
Overall we helped clean up the school and make it more presentable for the first day of classes that started today!

At the lodge, a lot of us enjoyed using the kayaks that were available to us. While in Tortuguero we saw many different species of birds as well as many other animals including frogs, monkey and chickens!

 The next morning we woke up to go to the turtle conservation site. One of the main differences between this time and last time was, it was hatching season of the baby turtles this past fall so we got to measure and help the baby turtles go out to sea. This season is unfortunately not hatching season so we didn't get to help out any baby turtles. At the turtle conservation site, we got a thorough biography about all the turtles they rescue and try to protect during the year. It's difficult to protect the turtles because the volunteers have no protection. There is no law enforcement such as policemen protecting the volunteers from poachers. At times protecting the turtles can be dangerous.

We headed back to San Jose around 11am. On the way we stopped for a delicious lunch. I had casado con pollo...mmm que rica! Y nosotros fuimos a una tienda de helado! Me encanta helado galleta, y obviamente yo comí mucho. Cuando yo regresé a mi casa, yo fui a dormir por tres horas!! Y a cena, nosotros hablamos sobre Aliens... que chiva :)

Centro Dibá Y El Museo de los Niños

This morning I went to my volunteer site with Centro Dibá. Every Tuesday we head to Parque Del Este to go on walks with the students. The park is beautiful. There are many trails and tons of trees and nature throughout the park. Today was a great day because one of the students gave me one of the bracelets she had made. She is so sweet, and I love to talk to her. At Centro Dibá I spend most of my time talking to the students in Spanish. Last year at Centro Dibá we mainly played card games and colored pictures(which was still very fun)!

After volunteering, we headed back to ULatina to eat at our favorite restaurant Aroma y Sabor. It's a fun little restaurant that sells affordable food. After lunch we got to go to El Museo De Los Niños. This museum is so fun to go to because it's all hands-on and you can touch or play with whatever you want. I felt like a five year old again, it was great :)

Museo de Los Niños used to be a prison. It's very interesting that it became a children's museum. The facility itself is pretty large. It's three stories high and contains a huge courtyard. The museum is located in a prime area because it has a great view of the whole city.

We went through the whole museum. The first part of the museum told the history of Costa Rica. It told about how the Indigenous people and the Spaniards met and how their cultures later became mixed.

As we went through the museum we headed through many different "salas" that included space, forests, animals, casas, and more. The main reason why we can to the museum though was to see the medical section. There we learned about the body which included bones, muscles, organs and the skin.

 

We went through most the museum and got to pick up some basic Spanish words, which is always a good thing.

Que mas... we went into a "slanted house" where we had to use railings in order to stand and move around. That was pretty cool!

Today was a great day overall. 

Hasta Luego