Random stuff...

It has been quite a while since i have been able to come online and the next time i come on will be longer still so i am going to just state some random stuff that i have experienced and learned here. Last post I talked about opportunities i have had here and wow has there ever been opportunities. last Tuesday we got to talk to a man named Otton Solis who ran in the last presidential election and is the presidential hopeful for the next race in a year. What an opportunity to talk to him and hear what he had to say about the US and Costa Rica. I also got to talk to the fry of one of the best private schools in Costa Rica which was amazing!!

I have been realizing how amazingly blessed I am. I not only have a roof over my head and 3 great meals a day but i have a wonderful family and friends at home and great family and friends here in Costa Rica. Things have been going so amazingly great and I have been learning so much! Costa Rica is even starting to feel like home. A while ago we went to a sustainable farm (which was awesome by the way!) and on our way back to our Lasp office we drove through Moravia which is where i live. I couldnt help but think i was driving through home. It was such a great feeling.

This weekend I went on my first weekend trip apart from the huge group to La Fortuna which is where the Volcan Arenal is. Megan our friend Alonna and me went together and stayed at a hostel called Gringo Petes. It was cloudy and rainy most of the time but we still had an amazing time! We went to an amazing waterfall and we got to see part of the volcano and (coolest of all) we got to hear the rocks/lava falling from the volcano. we even got to go into a natural hot river near the volcano! What an amazing expierence!

This week we are ending our language class at a school called ICADS and next week we are ending our LASP core seminar. Its hard to belive the first part of the semester is almost over! It has really gone really fast! I was talking with my host mom this morning at breakfast and she agreed the time has gone really fast and she laughed about how nervous I was when I first came. Now i feel so much more comfortable around my family and i feel way more comfortable just breaking into Spanish and even asking directions. funnily enough in the last couple weeks I have had to do taht quite a bit. My friend Aleta and I got lost last week coming home because our bus took a different route but thankfully it was still light and we just turned it into a fun adventure. yesterday I went with a couple other students to the province Heredia for an interview at the university and we ended up getting lost coming back because no one knew exactly where the bus station was to get back to San Jose. It ended up being really fun!

The foods here have been sooo amazing! I honestly used to not like beans and refried beans were not so great and now i look forward to having beans (which is good since we have them 2 to 3 times a day). This morning i had my favorite breakfast which was hot refried beans on toast! it is sooo good! The foods here are just so good and though i miss foods from home I know i will miss foods from here. Lately I have been longing for cooked vegetables and Fried Plantains. Oh yum! I have even been drinking a bit of coffee which is really good here (though i put in quite a bit of cream and sugar).

I have loved every moment I have been here so far! I have been making great friends and getting to know family and professors better while i have been learning a different Culture and different Langauge! What a great opportunity this is! I thank God for the relationships and expierences I have had!