It's been a long week

Wow sorry I havent been posting very much lately. The wifi at my new house it less then alright so I can't blog while I am at home unfortunately. Also, I don't really like carrying my laptop with me to and from school either not only for saftey reasons, but also because it just make me that much hotter haha!

Anyways! Time to fill everyone in on my first field trip to Jaco--

The day started off with everyone meeting at USAC (my school) at 8am sharp saturday morning. I woke up planning on bringing my GoPro with me to video the events but when I turned it on in the morning I discovered that it was dead... :-( Other then that everything ran very smoothly on the way there. Once we got to Jaco, our first activity was ziplining!! Even though I had done it before I was still a little nervous on the first zipline. It was such a rush and a much needed getaway from Puntarenas! All of my classmates enjoyed themselves and we were having a blast. Although, once we were finally done, everyone was starving! USAC had made reservations at a buffet style resturaunt, but once we got there they said, "Welcome to Jaco Pura Vida and basically we dont care that you made reservations get in line like everyone else" hahaha. Luckily for us though, the line was very short and we got our food in no time. It was actually delicious. I got beans and rice (of course), carne, and pasta. By the time we finished lunch it was about 1:30 which was about an hour behind schedule as we were supposed to be leaving Jaco at 3:30 to head back home. Seeing as we still had one stop on our schedule (the beach) it didn't give us much time. We were all sort of bummed that we didn't have more time for the beach but we figured two hours would be enough time. Little did we know our time would get cut even shorter with the next turn of events.....

Before we even made it 10 feet from the place we ate at, the bus driver announced that we had a flat tire. No problem he said, it will only take 10 minutes to fix! He must have meant 10 minutes tico time, because we didn't pull back onto the road for another 45 minutes... Which meant we got less then 2 hours on the beach. I'm not going to lie, I was feeling pretty bummed as I was really looking forward to spending some time on a nicer beach seeing as our beach here in Puntarenas isn't the cleanest. Even though I was bummed I decided I will be much happier to just expect the unexpected and not to fret the small things!

Beach in Jaco

Rather then shells being on the beach, there was a bunch or coral

I've found that on the weeknd I get a bit more homesick because I'm not around my english speaking friends from school as much. I know it's better for my language skills, but it's hard not to long for just a small conversation in english! So by Sunday night I was definitely looking forward to school in the morning! On sunday (I think) we had a huge storm, and some much needed rain! Like i've said in my earlier posts, this is one of the dryest "rainy seasons" they've had in a long time. During the storm, I heard thunder louder then i've ever heard before! It was awesome, but also made my heart drop at the same time. It rained so hard that the roads also began to flood!

Aftermath of hard rain

Yesterday, half of the students went to immigration to apply for our extended visas since we will be in the country for longer then 3 months. Our director told us it shoudn't take more then 3 hours so I didn't think I needed to pack a snack. And for some people that was the case... But yup, you guessed it... It wasn't the case for me! I was the 3rd to last person called and was at immigration from about 8am to close to 1pm. You can say I was pretty grumpy and hungry. But what can solve grumpiness when nothing else can? CREPES! Luckily there was a crepe shop not even two blocks from immigration so me and two other friends decided to treat outselves. And boy was it a great choice.

BUT, while on the topic of food I also have to talk about my not-so great expirences with it thus far. So like I said in my earlier posts, anyone that knows me at all knows I am a pretty picky eater, and that I eat little to no meat. I've come to find that a meal without meat here in unheard of so i've definitely been on the struggle bus. The first night in my new home I got a meal that was right up my alley... Arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and I was super happy! But to my dismay, the next day for lunch I got some sort of mystery meat with cooked fruit (wtf) on top of it. Saying I didn't like it was an understatement. Since I was new to the home and didn't want to upset my host mom, I ate almost the entire thing. I almost immediately regretted it because I had an upset tummy for the rest of the night. I was hoping that it was just a one time thing that I wouldnt like what I was served turned out to be a short-lived hope once dinner came around. I was served some type of rice with raw looking pork in it. Still not wanting to upset my mom, I finished my plate without mentioning a word of my dislike for the food. (Meanwhile our director is telling us that if we don't like something we should tell our parents even if it may upset them) Two days ago when I was served pork once again, I finally took the advice of my director. I told her very awkwardly and guiltily that I really don't like pork. She understood, although I could tell she wasn't over the moon about it. I felt bad, but i'm very glad that I was honest.

The pork that I couldn't manage to eat. (Tuna salad was pretty good though!)

Okay enough about food...

I'm very excited/nervous to announce that I will be taking a surfing class while I'm here! Our first "class" is a weekend long stay at Jaco beach where we will leave saturday at 8am and stay in a hostel overnight and return at 5pm Sunday. I am super excited but soo nervous too. If anyone knows me, they know that my biggest fear in the world is sharks. But I figured I had enough courage to leave my country and fully immerse myself in a different language, that I could try and overcome that fear as well! Wish me luck and pray that I actually make it in the water... haha!

Last but not least, I talked to my advisor today about doing an internship through the elementary school here and i'm waiting to hear back if it is full or not. I am really hoping it's not because most days I am done with class by 11am with nothing else to do the rest of the day. Not to mention I'm an ed major so I would love doing it and it would look pretty great on my resume!

Well until next time!

Pura vida