Finishing the Semester....

Week of June 2

This week was my last week of class! Since I had already turned in two of my papers, all I had to do this week was take two exams, turn in a paper, and do a presentation.  It sounds like a lot but surprisingly it wasn't too bad.... although the paper that I wrote for my philosophy class was 22 pages. But thankfully, after I turned that paper in on Wednesday morning, I was officially finished with my semester at La Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica.  Very proud to say that!

Wednesday was my friend Savannah's birthday so my friend Colleen and I went to her house to have lunch and cake. Then we went out that night to celebrate!

On Thursday, the whole study abroad group went to one of our director's house for a goodbye party.  We had really good food and shared some of our favorite memories from this semester.  It's making me sad thinking about leaving! But I am pretty ready to go home.

I spent the entire weekend with my "home base" or my 3 best friends here, Sarah, Colleen, and Emily. We went to both of our favorite malls, Paseo de las Flores in Heredia and Plaza Lincoln in San Jose.

We went to a Mexican restaurant and wanted some chips and queso. So from the description on the menu we thought this dish would be that......nope literally melted cheese and tortillas. AMERICA WE NEED YOU!

But it was fine, because then we got these. One of my last legal drinks for 7 more months!!

Now that I have finished all of my school work, I want nothing more than to be home.  My experience here has been absolutely incredible but also extremely difficult.  I had never been away from home for even close to this amount of time....not even when I'm away at school.  So being away for 20 weeks in a developing country was definitely not easy.  Despite the difficulty that I have faced during this semester, I am still so so happy that I came. I would not change any part of it.  But at this point I feel that I have gotten everything out it that I'm going to get out of it.  I've been here for 4 and a half months now and I've completed all of my school work. At this point all I want to do is go home.  So I decided to change my flight to just 4 days earlier, June 12. Now I'll have 4 extra days at home to see all of my friends and family and to readjust to life in the United States before I head off to Columbus for the summer the following week. I really so love it here. But as terrified as I am to actually go home and readjust, it's time....

Guanacaste

Week of May 26

This week I finally made it to the seventh and final providence of Costa Rica, Guanacaste! My goal was to make it to all seven and I barely made it.

This week I turned in two papers and made two presentations! If you told me before I came here that I would have to give a 30 minute presentation in front of the class I would have probably cried.  But now, I could do it without even thinking twice.  That's actually what I did in my Spanish class.  I wrote a 15 page paper, threw together a PowerPoint the night before, and without any preparation, gave a 30 minute presentation in class. I cannot believe how far I've come!

After this crazy week, five of my friends and I went to the beach.  We went to Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste.  The bus ride was super long, about 6 or 7 hours, but we survived!

On Saturday, Emily, Ximena, and I ran the Delta Pacific 5K. There were so many runners because the prize for winning was a plane ticket to the United States. Unfortunately none of us won, but we did have a lot of fun. A kilometer of it was on the beach! It was very difficult but sooo pretty!

It was so nice to have a relaxing weekend and escape all of the schoolwork. Although it was really sad to leave the Costa Rican beach for the last time :(

Now back to reality......I still have 2 exams, a paper, and a presentation.

Too much trabajo!

Week of May 19

This week school got very real. Before this week, I did some homework each week, but I never had any big projects.  But all of that changed very quickly.

Within the next two weeks I have:
-4 essays
-3 presentations
-2 exams

It's been a crazy week/weekend! My days have basically consisted of waking up, going to class, going to the french cafe across from the university and working on homework until it's almost dark, then walking home. And that's about it....

Here's a picture of my friend Colleen that perfectly describes the week....

But this weekend, we went out to reward ourselves for our hard work! 

I am so ready to be done with school!!!

Montezuma

Week of May 12

This week was just a normal week of classes, same old routine. But this weekend my friend Emily and and I went to Montezuma! I had been wanting to go for a while now, so I'm so happy I finally got to go. We took a speed boat from Playa Jaco to Montezuma which was only about an hour. The bus ride is normally 6 hours.

It was so beautiful! The beaches were gorgeous and the water was so blue.

We stayed at a nice (nice for us) hotel called El Sano Banano, or the healthy banana. It had air conditioning and everything!

During the whole weekend we just alternated between the beach and the pool. It was paradise.

Montezuma has definitely taken the number one or two spot on my list of favorite beaches in Costa Rica.  I wish I had longer here!

A Relaxing Week in Heredia

Week of May 5

Time is going SO FAST! I can't believe I have only 5 weeks left!

This week was a very relaxing week.  I just went to class and hung out with my fam in the evenings.  This week I only had class on Monday and Tuesday because this Thursday was the changing of powers from the old president to the new one so all public employees got the day off.  Hmm America should take some notes.

On Wednesday I taught English to he kindergartners again.  I love going there! They are all so happy to see me whenever I come. Whenever I walk in they run up to me and attack me with hugs and say "Teacher Lauren! Teacher Lauren!" They also love to show me all of the work they did during the week on the days that I'm not there. They are so cute, I'm might take one home with me :)

Later on Wednesday, my friend Savannah came over to get her nails done by my host mom. She just hung out alllll evening with us and it was so fun.  My host mom taught us the Spongebob theme song in Spanish.  I bet the neighbors were thankful for that.

On Thursday morning, Savannah and I went to the pool.  It was very nice but sunshine is limited in these winter days.  After the pool I went to central park and read...........I swear I'm not lying. I really did that. By myself.  Then I met Sarah for lunch at our favorite restaurant Spoon! They have the best sandwiches, salads, and frozen cappuccinos!

Thursday night, I went to the other English class that I teach.  My friend Emily and I were the taste testers of the rice krispie treats that the students made. Rough job.

After English class, Savannah, Amy, Adam, and I went out with the two guys that run the English program that we help out with.  They taught us all how to dance the different Costa Rican dances they do here.  Everyone here is just born with dancing abilities. Us Americans are not.

Friday, Savannah and I went back to the pool with Amy and Adam this time.  There was lots of sun day thank goodness! After the pool we got some ice cream at our favorite Colombian ice cream place.

Later, Savannah, Sarah, Emily, and I went out for pizza and then they came over to my house to watch a movie!

Saturday was the Costa Rica Summer finals for soccer. Saprissa V. Liga.  A couple of us went out to watch the game. My host family are huge Saprissa fans so naturally I had to root for them....and they won!!!!

This week was a much needed week to just enjoy Heredia :)

Rio Celeste & La Fortuna

Week of April 28

This week was a lot better than last week! Still having some frustrations, but it's all good :)

Monday was my host grandpa's birthday so we had a party for him with a bunch of family over which was crazy and fun!

Here's my host mom wearing a note that says "Lauren is my favorite white person".... I may or may not have made her wear it.

On Wednesday, I thought my kindergarten English class. Love them! 

This weekend Sarah, Colleen, Emily and I went to Rio Celeste.  It's really close it La Fortuna which is where our group trip was this weekend.  But we didn't have class on Thursday so we went a little early to squeeze in this extra trip.

On Thursday, we stayed in a cool hostel for the night and just hung out in the town of La Fortuna.  It is a super small town but it's very pretty.  It is the town that surrounds the Arenal Volcano. 

Most of Thursday we spent walking around and trying to negotiate prices with tour companies and taxi drivers on how much it would cost to take us to Rio Celeste the next morning.  We finally acted uninterested enough at this one company and they gave us a ridiculously low price :)

On Friday morning we went to Rio Celeste to do the hike.  We were warned at the beginning that it was pretty muddy because the rainy season has begun. 

It was about a mile and a half to the waterfall and it was gorgeous. It is naturally that beautiful blue color.  

We kept walking and encountered the start of the mud.  The pictures I took really doesn't explain how much mud there was.  At one point we were calf deep in mud.  

So we decided to turn back.  Mostly because we were on a time schedule because we had to get back to meet up with the rest of our group which were coming later that day. 

When we got back to La Fortuna, we went to the hotel that we were staying in that night with the group.  It was SO nice.  It was just a bunch of little cabins. So pretty! And there were hot springs which were amazing.

My roomies!

Later Friday afternoon we went on a boat ride to see the volcano.  It was very cold on the water. But the views were definitely worth it!

Friday night we had pizza (yay) and hung out in the hot springs. So relaxing.

Saturday morning we went to the Arenal Volcano National Park.  We got to hike pretty darn close to the volcano.  But you can't hike the actual volcano because it's still an active volcano.

Even though it was my second time seeing this volcano it was still has fun and amazing.  It's so beautiful and all of the landscaping in the entire town of La Fortuna is just beautiful!