Field trips!

So, as a part of our program involves day trips to areas that are educational and semi close to Heredia.  Last week, we did two of these field trips which both were pretty fun! 

On Tuesday of last week, we went to an archaeological site and National Monument, Guyabo in Turrialba...It used to be a cattle farm, but in 1850,  the farmers were digging and stumbled upon the remains of an ancient civilization! To get there, we went on the windiest road I've ever seen.  By the time the bus stopped, we were all about to get sick.  The civilization itself is really amazing...It was built around 1000 B.C. and abandoned sometime around 1400AD...(This means it was built around 3,000 years ago, ya'll.) The aqueduct there is STILL WORKING!   The guide told us that the aqueducts that are built now only last about 40 years.  Also, there is a road that is made out of stones and is a two feet thick that goes all the way to Turrialba (about 30km!) The whole civilization is thought to be about 500 acres, but only 23 acres have been uncovered due to lack of funding.  Many Costa Ricans know very little about their indigenous people.  They are very few here and are mainly found in very small communities in the mountainous areas.  The only downside to the day was when we got stuck in San José traffic on the way home.  Instead of getting home at 4, we got home at 6.  It was a very long day. 

Our second field trip was on Wednesday to Escazú outside of San José.  First thing, we rode in the vans up these windy country roads.  Eventually, we get out in the middle of the road. The bus stopped because the rest of the road was too steep, narrow, and gravely to make it.   There, two guides start telling us that we'll be walking up the mountain and that it would take about an hour.  One guide would go in front, and the other would be in the back with the stragglers.  Um, one hour up the side of a mountain?  yes.  It was ridiculous....and I was not feeling so well that day. (sniffles and such) BUT, when we FINALLY  got to the top, I felt like I was in the Sound of Music.  You know, that part where she's twirling and singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music!"  It was gorgeous.  From there, we could see the entire Central Valley of Costa Rica.  I felt like I was standing on top of the world, literally.  After taking about a billion pictures and doing every cliché pose ever made, we all sat down to eat our snack while the guides told us a little about the area. 

After about an hour, we started our descent which took about 45 min.  Waiting on the side of the road were a man and two oxen pulling a cart.  These "carretas" are a national symbol of Costa Rica and were used in the 1800s and early 1900s to haul people,  rice, and other things to sell.  We actually got to ride in the cart!  haha.  It was definitely an experience.  They took us up the road and then turned around for a total ride of about 5 minutes. It was fun, but semi scary since you felt every single bump in the road... and trust me, in Costa Rica, these aren't scarce.  

Later, we were treated to lunch with marimba music followed by a mask making class. Masks are used in Costa Rica for celebrations in parades and such.  These masks don't just cover your face, though.  They sit on your shoulders and then extend about 3 feet above your head!  He brought a few extras and several people from my class tried them on.  All of a sudden, they turned on the music, and everybody started dancing. haha.  It was like a celebration right there. 

After mask making, we went to a place where they turn sugar cane into sugar!  First thing, we saw a piece of machinery that said Chattanooga, Tennessee!  Chelsey, the other girl from UT Knox, and I took a picture with it!  Basically to make the sugar, they have to put each sugar cane individually into the machine (powered by oxen)  which squeezes out the juice.  Then, they put it into a huge pot where they have to cook it.  After that, they put it into molds where it cools and hardens.  

The last part of our day involved going to look at the damage done by the landslide last year.  If you google Escazú, the first thing you'll probably come upon is the landslide.  It was caused because last november, they had an insane amount of rain which caused a side of the mountain to literally just fall off.  Twenty-three people were killed, and the damage still looks so fresh.  The rocks that fell off the mountain have just simply been pushed to the side of the road.  Some of these rocks were enormous!  We also passed what was left of a house that was directly in the path which had been almost completely destroyed.  All that was left was the kitchen wall which was beautifully decorated.  It was so sad to see. 



We still have one field trip left on Tuesday to a coffee plantation... so far, the field trips have been pretty awesome. :)

Manuel Antonio!

I'm sorry that I have not blogged in so so long!  There's so much to catch up on!  I'll start off by talking about my wonderful weekend trip to Manuel Antonio National Park and Quepos.  As usual, we got a bright and early start Friday morning when we met at the school at 6:30am.  We took a bus to San Jose, almost missed our stop, but got to the Coca Cola Station in plenty of time to catch the 9am bus to Quepos-Manuel Antonio.  At the bus stop, we met a girl from Montreal who was backpacking through Costa Rica for three weeks by her self!   She had just gotten into San Jose and was just starting her journey.  The coolest part was that I got to speak a little bit of French with her!  Of course, it wasn't easy since I have been in hardcore Spanish mode for the past month, but it wasn't too bad. :)  After a 3.5 hr bus ride, we finally arrived at our Hostel (Backpackers...12 dollars a night).  We immediately changed into our beach gear and caught the local bus to the public beach.

Public Beach

The public beach was a lot nicer than I expected with waves that were so strong they could knock you down if you didn't have your feet firmly planted in the sand. haha.  We laid our stuff down and when we looked up, we saw a sign that said, "Peligro, Lagarto" (Danger, Alligator) in a swampy area separating the beach from the rest of the land...it looked pretty suspicious.  The sign was facing the beach, however, and it was hilarious to watch people wade through the waist deep water in order to get to the beach, turn around, see the sign, and freak out.  It was basically our entertainment for the afternoon.  After sun started to go down, we went into the town and looked at the shops...Touristy cities in Costa Rica= ridiculously expensive.

Don't feed the monekys!

Day 2, we went into the National Park!  The park was so wonderfully undisturbed.  It was like walking right into the middle of the jungle.  The main attraction of the park is the wildlife.... We saw monkeys, sloths, lizards, birds, crabs, and tons of crazy looking bugs!  The big trail in the park is the one that leads to the private beach.  This beach was easily the prettiest beach I've ever seen in my life.  But really, it was breathtaking. 

Manuel Antonio

*Side note:  I just had a battle of epic proportions with a scary looking bird sized moth in my room.  I won. :)

Beach in Manuel Antonio

When we were walking out of the park, we saw a sloth right off the path at eye level!  Sloths only ever come down from their tree once every week to use the bathroom.   They're super slow, hence super vulnerable.   Anyway, it was so cool to see a sloth so close up!  It was an awesome weekend, and it will be hard to top.  The only downside was that we had to take the public bus like 6 times over the course of the weekend.  Oh well... It was only about 50 cents each way, so it wasn't too bad.  I'll have to continue with my blogging tomorrow afternoon.  I'm so tired. 

Sloth!

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. :)

Puerto Viejo & Rocking J's

This past weekend, I traveled to the beautiful Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo.  The town was amazing!  It had a very laid back authentic feel to it, and the people were so genuinely nice.  In order to get there, we had to take a bus to San Jose and from there take another bus to Puerto Viejo.  All together, we were on buses from around 7:30am- 2pm.  I didn't really mind the long bus ride, though, because the views were incredible.  I just couldn't stop looking out the window long enough to get bored. 

Entrance to Rocking J's

  We got to Puerto Viejo around 2pm on Friday afternoon, and took a taxi to our hostel, "Rocking J's."  We knew about Rocking J's because some other girls from the program had gone there just last weekend.  It is run by Americans, and people from all over the world stay there.  I heard people speaking all kinds of different languages.   This place is like nothing I've ever seen before and probably will never see again.  At Rocking J's, everything is covered in either mosaic tiles or paintings.  They actually provide their guests with art supplies if they want to leave their mark on the place.  The sleeping arrangements are the funniest part, though.  The cheapest option (which we decided not to do)  is to sleep in hammocks  for $4 a night.  We decided to splurge and pay $7 for a tent. Haha.  Anyway,  this place has so much character, and the people that stay there have even more. 

Our lodging for the weekend

The first thing we did when we got there was change into our bathing suits and check out the beach behind the hostel.  The views were amazing, but the water was full of coral which was only fun to swim in for about 30 minutes...until we kept getting injured.  There was one place where there was a crater in the coral that was really fun to swim in.  After that, we went down the road about 15 minutes where we found a gorgeous sandy beach.   (This beach is where we spent most of the day Saturday.)

I was definitely not prepared for the craziness that is Rocking J's on a Friday night. They turned on the music at 7:30pm, and didn't turn it off until after 1am.  Here are just a couple of the ridiculous things I witnessed on Friday night... 1. There was a guy walking around on stilts dressed as Jack Sparrow with a bottle of rum in his hand.  We actually had a conversation with this guy toward the beginning of the night in Spanish, because Jack doesn't speak English. haha.   2.  There were crabs everywhere...just crawling around.  I'm sure there are more things I could mention, but I'll save those stories for later.   Most of my group only stayed up until around 10:30, because we were all so tired from traveling all day long.  I still don't know how I was able to fall asleep with the music as loud as it was, but I didn't have too much trouble. 

Stacy and I

Beautiful Beach in Puerto Viejo on Saturday night

Saturday morning, I woke up at 6:30 because other people were getting up, and it was getting pretty loud.  As soon as I went downstairs, I smelled marijuana, which we hadn't really stopped smelling since we got to Puerto Viejo. It's just part of the Caribbean lifestyle there.  So anyway, we  spent most of Saturday laying on the beach and playing in the HUGE waves in the ocean.  But really, I've never seen waves this big in my life.  Every single wave almost knocked me down, and a few actually did. Nobody from my group went out further than waist deep because we would have been sucked out to sea in a matter of  minutes. Crazy, right! We all got a little sunburned, but nothing too bad.  After we were done going to the beach, we went into town to try and find some food, because the food at Rocking J's was ridiculously slow, and kind of expensive.  We found this cute little restaurant where I had some wonderful Nachos Caribeños (made with plantain chips).  Then, we saw a place where they were doing hair wraps, and Stacy, Sarah, and I are now currently sporting them. :) 

Olivia and I

Overall, It was an incredible weekend.  I have to admit, though I was pretty excited to get back to my Heredia home where I could take a clean shower and sleep on a bed. The only down side was that when I got back home on Sunday afternoon, I had to write a paper I had been putting off for a few days.  I had to stay up until 1am to finish, (which is actually late for me here, folks) but it's over...at least until I have to write another paper for next week.  If only this could be "Study Abroad"  without the "Study" part. 

A few of the girls in the group.  There were 12 of us in all that went. 

Perdónala

So, We watched this video in class, and I thought it was hilarious.  If you speak Spanish, enjoy. :) If you do not, I'm sorry. :/

SOLISTA
 No querría con Ester seguir viviendo
 lo que hizo ya no puede perdonarse;
 que se vaya, no me agrada estar sufriendo
 ciertas cosas no deben olvidarse.

 CORO
 Perdónala, perdónala.
 Es dulce, te fue fiel, es una dama
 Perdónala, perdónala
 Seguro que aún ella te ama.

 SOLISTA
 No querría con Ester seguir viviendo
 lo que pude perdonar lo he perdonado;
 esa tarde cuando ya se estaba yendo
 confesó que ella nunca me había amado.

 CORO
 Perdónala, no obstante.
 Regresa a aquellos besos como miel,
 Ester te fue leal, te fue constante,
 y toda la vida te fue fiel.
  

 SOLISTA
 No querría con Ester seguir viviendo,
 nuestra vida fue amarga como hiel.
 Esa tarde cuando ya se estaba yendo
 confesó que ella nunca me fue fiel.

 (Y... ¡dale!)

 CORO
 Compréndela, ten calma,
 fueron sólo veinte hombres hasta ayer.
 Y piensa que en fondo de su alma
 esa muchacha es una dulce mujer.

 SOLISTA
 No querría con Ester seguir viviendo,
 ya no puedo perdonar a esa muchacha.
 Esa tarde cuando ya se estaba yendo
 me persiguió por la casa con un hacha.

 CORO
 Tolérala, es solo una muchacha,
 conviene que unos días no se vean.
 Las mejores parejas se pelean,
 y casi todas se persiguen con un hacha.

 SOLISTA
 No querría con Ester seguir viviendo.
 Mis amigos nunca fueron de su agrado;
 esa tarde cuando ya se estaba yendo
 opinó que eran todos unos vagos.

 CORO
 Olvídala, debes olvidarla
 De esa bruja por fin te liberaste;
 pero cuéntanos antes de olvidarla
 qué fue lo peor, lo que no le perdonaste.

 SOLISTA
 Lo último que hizo fue tremendo;
 eso sí que no puede perdonarse.
 Esa tarde cuando ya se estaba yendo...
 decidió quedarse. 

El cumpleaños de Elena

Today, Elena turned eleven! Per her request, we had pizza for dinner and a pink peace sign cake. :)  The party guests included her mami, papi, abuela, and me.  I also experienced my first, "He's about to kiss me on the cheek, what do I do!?!" moment when Elena's father was saying goodbye to everybody.  Haha, I definitely wasn't expecting that.

 Tomorrow is our first exam... We're basically being tested over the subjunctive, por v para, imperfect, and indirect/direct objects.  Hopefully I'll do well since I've already had all this stuff at UT. 

Oh my, how quickly plans change.  So, I said just last night that we were going to Monteverde this weekend.  Turns out that we will be going to Puerto Viejo, a beach on the Caribbean coast.  There's quite a large group going, so I hope that it will all work smoothly with the buses and such.

By the way, the bus system here is awesome.  You can get anywhere you want to go in Costa Rica for less than 5 dollars.  There are buses absolutely everywhere, and all you have to do is figure out the system.  Great, right? 

Well, I must go study my night away.  Hasta Luego!  I'll blog again when I return from Puerto Viejo! 

Una aventura en Barva

A fútbol field in Barva

Sunday, I didn't really have any plans, so a couple of the other girls in the program and I decided to go walk around Barva...It's a small city on the outskirts of Heredia about 1km north of my house.  It is  a historic town with some of the houses dating back to the 1700's!  Anyway, it was a very relaxing and fun stroll around the city.  We also talked to an older Tico man who was walking his dogs in the Barva Park.  He was talking about how he lived in Miami for  few years, but hated working with the Puerto Ricans.  He continued to bash the Mexicans, Nicaraguans, and Guatemalans. Haha.  Anyway, it was fun just having a conversation with him.  Here are some pictures of Barva: 

La Iglesia de Barva

Mandi and Kari

So,  Yesterday, I had my first experience with trying a new food that I absolutely did not like.  It was called "Sopa Negra,"  and it had frijoles, peppers, cilantro, and I don't know what else.  I genuinely tried to eat it for about 15 minutes, but it was definitely not my favorite.  Eventually, my host mom noticed that I wasn't really eating it, and they fixed me an omelet.  I tried to finish, but I just couldn't.  I think it was the cilantro that I didn't like.  Other than that, the food has been awesome.  I've had plantains, rice, and beans cooked in every way you can imagine.  Also, the vegetables are always fresh and so so good.  Tonight, I had the best burritos of my life.  They were fantastic!  I have noticed that the Ticos don't really drink much water.  They drink a lot of juices they call refrescos, and coffee.  When I asked for water to drink the first day, they were super surprised, but it's definitely my preference.  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As of right now, my plans for this weekend consist of going to the beautiful Monteverde and Volcán Arenal.  (Mom, you can click on these links to see pictures. haha)  Hopefully, all the plans will work out.  Right now, I think that there are either 4 or 5 of us wanting to go.  Anyway, I must go to bed.  This whole class at 8am thing has turned me into a "Bed at 10:30" kind of girl.    ¡Buenas Noches!