Winter? Yeah, right.

 Studying, papers, presentations.... that's pretty much been my life since I returned from the beach on Sunday.  My host sister has been studying all the time too!  I don't think I really started studying until at least high school (and even that is debatable. haha)  She has had 4 exams in the past 2 weeks...I saw the material that she had to know for one of the exams, and it was like 20 pages of notes!  Thankfully, she will be on her "mid year break"  starting Friday!

Last night, we had a mini photo shoot with my mac.  

 

Here, the kids start the school year in February and have a week break for Easter.  After that, their next break isn't until July!  She has 22 days off starting Friday, so that will be nice.   After she goes back, her school year will end in December and her summer break is December-January.  Funny, right? 

Right now, it's actually "winter"  in Costa Rica.  The literally use the word "invierno"...except it's nearly 80 degrees every single day.   It does get down to about 70 at night every once in a while, but it's never cold.  Apparently, the Ticos do think it is cold, however.  One evening when we were going out, Elena was wearing long sleeves and long pants... Before we left the house, her mom told her to put on her coat because she would get sick if she didn't.  Meanwhile, I was wearing a skirt and short-sleeved t-shirt because it still felt warm to me.  haha.

Even though it's not cold, it does rain here  A LOT.  If you leave the house without your umbrella, you're in trouble, because there's a good chance that it will be raining when you're walking home.  You'd think that with all this rain that the Ticos would wear shoes and clothes that are made for walking around in torrential downpours every day.  NO.  They dress up to go anywhere.  Women are almost always in high heels.  Casual wear involves wearing jeans and a nice shirt, and Ticos never leave the house in any type of workout clothes or lounge wear unless they are actually on their way to the gym.

Another thing that took some getting used to is how people just stare.  In America, you look away when somebody realizes you're staring at them, right?  Here, no.  They just keep blatantly staring.  I assume it's because I'm a foreigner...and when there's a group of us Americans, we might as well just have a flashing neon sign on us saying, "Stare at us!" It happens absolutely everywhere I go.  It starts at the bus stop in the morning and doesn't stop until I get back to my house in the afternoon.  It's like having 100 staring contests every day.  I used to just pretend like I didn't notice them staring at me... Now, I just stare back. haha. Every once in a while, they will say, "buenas" or smile....but mostly, it's just staring. Haha.

This post has been all over the place, but I haven't really done anything exciting in the past few days.  This weekend, the plan is to head over to Manuel Antonio National Park.  I'm hoping to see at least a few monkeys, and maybe a sloth or two. :)