Manolo Chollos

We had our actual last day of our spanish medical class with teaching and review for our final today. after class we had our weekly meeting at the ISA office to update us on things thats been going on throughout the week and upcoming events. we had a huge down pour yesterday afternoon. as much as it rains every day this rain seemed different in way. partially because it a hard rain and partially it seemed refreshing. i love a good rainfall like that, especially when I can take a nap or when i sleep at night. we waited around the office for a while until the rain let up so we could walk home.
lunch was a surprise for us when we got back to the house. Emma had made hamburgers and homemade french fries for us! the hamburgers were actually not that bad; tasted a little different but overeall we all enjoyed it throughly. we even had the vanilla caramel icecream for dessert afterwards.
later we had to get ready to go to our fairwell dinner given by ISA. we went to this really nice restaurant up in the mountains about 30 minutes away from San Jose. I can't remember the name of it exactly, but the road was so narrow and extremely steep. i was trying to not concentrate on that since we were on a huge bus. everyone looked so nice all dressed up and it was the first time everyone in the entire group spent an outing together. we got off the bus and had to walk down a slightly steep gravel road and then followed a stone pathway of steps to the restaurant. our group had one whole section to ourselves. the area was enclosed by glass on three sides overlooking the entire city of San Jose while the other side was exposed to the outdoors and uncovered patio. the patio led to the backyard of the place and a huge wood railing that created the boundary for the top of the mountain we were on. the city looked beautiful against the dark sky all lit up by bright lights. its as if we were in heaven looking down and seeing a city be completely transformed. the dinner was in the form of a buffet style and had the typical costa rican foods. the chicken was really good and an excellent flavor to it. as i waited for other people to finish their dinner, i looked outside the glass next to us at a big table of ticos that were having dinner and drinks. as i watched them i felt like i was wactching one of those european movies that followed a close group of friends that meet at a small intimate restaurant thats shared as a favorite by them all. the kind of restaurant that creates the best memories and conversations, stories, arguments and pictures. the kind where a few bottles of wine are split and the time passes so ever quickly but doesn't seem to phase anyone. i wish that our culture in the states appreciated those little things in life more. the company of family and friends and having chats and meeting for h'ordeurves and wine. we are just so preoccupied all the time with money, and complaints about our job or school work, or bills, that we forget that those things would be eased if once in a while we took a small dose of company and laughter and talks.
after dinner, there were a group of dancers that performed a mini show of dances that pertain to the culture of Costa Rica. we all gathered around the patio as they performed and later included some of us in their dances. i got pulled up and danced twice. everyone was in such a good mood and enjoying the festivities. afterwards, the song macarena came on and all of us decided to take it upon us and do the line dance. i havent heard that song or done that dance since I was probably 8 years old. we even got some of the locals to join us. we took pictures and danced and conversed with one another. it seemed like at that moment not one of us had a care in the world or worried about anything.
the dancers brought out a piece of birthday cake so we could sing "happy birthday" to our friend Alice. It was her 19th birthday and afterwards she got in a mini cake fight with some of the girls. this was one of the best nights that we have all shared here in Costa Rica. a group of us decided to go this place called Jazz Cafe. it was such a great place! there was a live jazz band and tables surrounding the band and two different bars with great mood lighting. it was such a relaxed atmosphere. the band was really good and played for about an hour. it wasnt very crowded but I really enjoyed listening to the music talking with a few people and having a cocktail. we didnt stay out very late since I had an exam this morning. i couldnt go right to sleep though when i got back home so i decided to read a chapter of my book. im going to have to go search for a new book this weekend since i will be done with this one in about two more chapters. the week is almost over but there will be much more to blog about im sure by the weekend. hasta pronto...

Mañana es Para Siempre (Lunes y Martes)

I didn’t sleep very well Sunday night. I had a lot of very vivid dreams all night long. I woke up a few times too forgetting where I was. I heard a lot of voices when I finally woke up for the day. I wasn’t sure who all was in the house. Went to the kitchen for breakfast and Emma was back along with one of her sons, her daughter, her granddaughter, and Luis; a full house was here to help her which was relieving to see. Emma looked good for falling again. She was wheeling around in one of those black office chairs that swivels. I felt better than I had been but still not back to normal. Went to school anyway, which felt like the longest walk of my life considering I didn’t have any energy at all. It was the beginning of our last week of our Spanish class. The other ISA group which isn’t in the medical Spanish leaves Saturday so this is there last week. We stayed at Veritas all day since we had our afternoon class too. I tried to study for our test we had Tuesday, but of course the internet was there to distract me. We got out of the second class two hours earlier because we reviewed for our test and went over one more type of parasite. I’m glad I had the extra time to skype and catch up on some things while we waited for the shuttle.
It seemed like everyone was getting sick in our group. People were dropping like flies. There are apparently many different types of flu going around, and one guy even ended up with a bacterial infection because of the rapid climate changes that we experienced in Manuel Antonio. At dinner, we watched the same show that we always do. It is a Costa Rican soap opera that is called Mañana es para Siempre. The first time we watched it, all three of us felt that it was really silly and a bit strange. The more I watch it, the more it grows on me though. The theme song that plays at the end gets stuck in your head and Luis always sits right up next to it and sings along, or rather attempts to sing along with it. Tuesday was test day and I hadn’t really studied much for it. It was a lot of information on different types of parasites different classifications of worms and the diseases that they cause along with all of the symptoms, treatment, prevention, etc. It started to get confusing after looking at it for so long. The test itself was relatively short; two case studies and a matching section and a short answer. It wasn’t very easy either, more tricky I would say then anything because all of the parasites cause generally the same clinical symptoms. I decided not to go out since I was starting to feel on the better side. I didn’t want to push it. We also had plans for Wednesday night too so I wanted to save my energy for that. Ashley and I watched with Emma the show after dinner again and talked to her about hamburgers and French fries for about 20 minutes. I read through their newspaper and looked for any soccer games that we could go to or concerts that would be happening while we were still here. I didn’t stay up too late. I did read much more of my book than I intended too. It is just soo good that I cant put it down and part of me doesn’t like that fact that I’m reading it so fast because it’s the last book the the series so I am not ready for it to end.
Oh let me just go completely off subject and include one thing that I still have a hard time trying to understand that I haven’t fully adapted to yet: not being able to flush toilet paper down the toilets. It’s a second nature thing for us Americans, but we can’t do it here. With all of the money that they spend on universal health care, wouldn’t you think that the government would find it necessary to update their plumbing and sewer systems so that people could flush toilet paper instead of having to put it in a small trash can that sits next to the toilet? It just seems much more sanitary and you would think they would agree here, but I guess not. Thankfully, none of us has stopped the toilet up yet or caused it to overflow, but it is only a matter of time. That is one thing I look forward to getting back home is flushing toilet paper again. Hasta pronto…

Manuel Antonio y El Gripe

Friday morning I woke up feeling awful. I was achy, stiff, headache, sore throat, you name it. Had to give our presentation too, which I sounded awful and couldn’t talk. After, we watched another movie. After class, a group of us decided to go to our pizza place for lunch before we left for the beach. We barely got back in time and by the time I got on the bus, there was only one seat left. Guess where it was….oh the very last seat in the back of the bus. The one right by the bathroom and the air conditioner is blasted right over you and you can’t lean your seat back and there’s barely any leg room. Lets just throw in the fact that I wasn’t feeling any better, actually feeling worse. Luckily there was this huge space in front of a seat where the emergency exit was so I just decided to lay on the floor and sleep the whole way to Manuel Antonio. We were supposed to go to the national park Saturday morning which has sandy white beaches, and monkeys, etc. well, the one weekend we get to go to the beach and there is sun out I get the flu. I didn’t see any of Manuel Antonio because I could not get out of bed all weekend. I haven’t felt that bad in a very long time, not to mention there was no tv, or internet or my cell phone. All I could do was sleep which is all I did. Everyone else came back to the room with sun on their faces and tans while I looked like Casper. Ginger ale was my best friend all weekend. Finally, we got back Sunday late afternoon and found ourselves alone. Emma had to go back to the hospital at some point because she fell again and really hurt her leg again. Luis was there, but we couldn’t understand him. It was really kind of awkward, because we didn’t know what to do or how to communicate with him since there wasn’t anyone there that could help us or let us know what he was trying to say. I found HGTV on the television watched it for about an hour and then decided to go to bed early. Luis probably talked out loud to himself for about 2 hours and when he talks he doesn’t whisper. We felt so bad for Emma, and we didn’t want her to worry about us. We just hoped that she was okay. We really hoped that she would be back in the morning, in ways we missed not having her at the house. Hasta pronto…

¡Vamos! (Jueves)

Today our morning class and a few of the other classes all piled in a van to have a field trip. We all thought that we were going to go to the herb market since we had to give presentations on medicinal plants Friday. Our teacher wanted us to try to bring a small sample of the plant into class. Our first stop was at this old church. We didn’t know until we got inside that it was the famous church of the virgin of los angeles. The whole church was built around this rock that is part of a famous legend. The legend basically is about this little girl going out into the woods to get firewood and on the rock she sees this doll. She decided to take it home with her because it was so beautiful and put in a special box. The next day she went to do the same thing and saw a doll on the rock that looked just like the one she found before. She was so excited that she found another one so that the other one could have a friend. When she went to put the doll in the box with the other she saw that it was empty. The doll kept reappearing on the rock and today the people of costa rica pray to the virgin of los angeles to cure sickness and pain and for miracles. The church is beautiful and inside the bottom of the church the original rock appears and cases with gifts that people have donated and given because the virgin had answered their prayers. They feel like they need to respect that and give something back in return. There is a fountain of holy water where we saw many people waited to fill up many water bottles. I did it too.
Every year on August 2nd, in the city of Cortago where the church is, thousands of people gather and make a huge pilgrimage to this church. It is considered a huge holiday here, but last week the minister of health canceled the pilgrimage and festivities because of the swine flu pandemic. So because of this many people started their piligrimages early. We went to the “fresh market” so to speak next, and I wasn’t a fan but it was interesting to see. Many of the boys got these huge tortillas with what it looked like cheese filled inside of them but none of them could eat it all and others didn’t like. Kacey and I took their leftovers and decided to give it to all the stray dogs that we saw. We ended up buying Costa Rican soccer jerseys to wear for the game right before we had to head back to San Jose and right before we got to the van we saw two black dogs that looked so hungry. We tried to throw a piece to them but they didn’t take to it. I man was sitting not too far from them and clearly he was homeless and he only had those dogs and what he was wearing. I had the girls hold my stuff and I took the bag of left over tortillas and told him it was for him and his dogs. He was very gracious and I could tell he was avery hungry too. I felt like I had accomplished something good by doing that even though I shouldn’t have gone up to him.
In the afternoon a small group of us went to el museo nacional. It’s the national museum of costa rica. The building itself was once used as the fort for the Costa Rican Military before they abolished it in the late 40’s. with all of the history classes that I have had in the past year it all came together and it was interesting to see pictures and be in a place with the history of costa rica that I had read and learned about back home. It wasn’t a very big museum but full of information. We decided that we would take the bus back to Veritas because we actually walked to the center of downtown and didn’t know it until after we left the museum. On the way to the bus stop a girl, Lynette who is one of the assistants for ISA, and I talked for a long time. She knows very little English and is going to be a professor. She has a little girl who is 5 and lives on her own. Shes very young herself, only 25 years old but one of the nicest people I have met here. I love talking to her because she is patient when we talk to her in Spanish. I learned a lot about her in the little time we spent together. When we were on the bus just about back to Veritas I looked out the window and there was a group of men standing and surrounding a man who was sitting down on the sidewalk. There is no telling what he did or didn’t do, but one of the men completely kicked him in the face. The poor man was getting beat up and nobody cared to do anything about it. That was something I was not expecting to see, nor did I care to see. It was a little shock to see that driving down the street, not what I am used to for sure.
We had to hurry up and get ready because the big game for the gold cup was on at 8. Usa played Honduras before and won. All of us in our house and the girls down the street their mama tica her son and daughter, and emma’s grandsons went to this sports bar restaurant place to watch the costa rica vs mexico game! It was by far one of the most fun nights we had out. It did seem a little weird though being with a mom and young kids who were 16 and 17. I just felt like it was wrong for me to be associated with them out in public. We all had so much fun though. The whole place was crowded and cheering like we cheer when we watch a football game with a group of people on tv in the fall. Out of the whole place we shared a big table with a group of México fans. So if the ticos didn’t hate us enough for clearly being American lets add Mexican fans to the list. After the game we went to Castros for the typical Thursday night outing; Great way to end the night. Hasta pronto…

Plantas Medicinales (martes y miercoles)

In our tropical diseases class yesterday afternoon, the doctor that teaches our class started out by teaching us how to make the general assessments of the patient. They take the personal information first, and then ask about the family history and their personal health history. After that they ask the reason for their visit and the specific details of their symptoms. We learned how they go in order for the general exam starting from the top of the head to the neck and the face their eyes, and ears. Also, the specific places they listen to when the patient breathes on their stomach and back which could signify certain things or lead to a proper diagnosis without having to more than what is necessary. One interesting thing was when they examine the pupils depending on what color the eyes are could signal a potential tumor or in babies if the color is a whitish color it could signify I think i if I can remember correctly she said a congenital birth defect. It was pretty interesting but very slow. Then she had two volunteers to pretend to be the doctor and the other the patient. The last part of the class we discussed different types of tuberculosis. I feel bad sometimes for our teacher because she’s really nice and the whole class is in English which I commend her for, but sometimes the students are not patient with her because she doesn’t speak very loud. I hope one day that I can be as fluent as her with my Spanish. We went to a new bar last night called Al Saltans, which was a hooka bar too. Of course we get there and I forget my ID, but he just asked me my birthday year and he was like ok. It was mostly a bar for the locals. They had this guy start rapping a song in Spanish who knew who he was. He appeared to be a local trying to make it big in music. It was interesting to watch but we were all like ok enough of the locals. We didn’t stay out long and right after we left we were told that they had a dance off and a man with torches doing tricks. It was not my favorite place so far but it was interesting to go to a new place. Today in our morning class we were obviously way ahead with the lessons so we talked about different types of plants that could be used for medicinal purposes. This is what our next presentation is on Friday. We get to work with a partner. Kacey and I received the topic of marijuana for medicinal purposes. We have to prepare a 5 minute presentation that discusses the uses, advantages, disadvantages for the uses and give recommendations for good uses for it. It will definitely be interesting. We are going to have Emma bake us brownies for the class on Friday (without weed) in them as a little joke for our professor considering he brought that up today when we talked about it. We also had to write the summary of one of our favorite Disney movies and tell the class to practice our uses of the preterite and imperfect tenses. I chose Beauty and the Beast.
We’ve covered so many things in the past 2 and half weeks of class. For example, we have learned how to interact with Spanish speaking patients, interview them take vital signs, describe symptoms of sicknesses, investigate the symptoms presented by the patient, ask about how the illness started, describing the illness, ask about family medical history, perform a physical examination, order lab exams analyze the exams from the lab with the patient, diagnosis the patient, prescribe medications, give recommendations and suggestions, prepared a talk to give to young children about first aid skills and how to interact with the patient in a hospital situation. When I stop to think about it all, it’s kind of overwhelming considering how much we have done and haven’t finished yet. The time here is going by so fast that it’s hard to believe it is almost over, well about half way done. Alice, Ashley, and I decided to head to the mall known as the Multi Plaza on the other side of San Jose. This side was much more modern and much cleaner looking and nicer all around. The mall seemed to be relatively new and we were somewhat in aw about how much we felt like we were back home. We found this grocery store called alto mercardo and we were really excited because for the first time we found a grocery store that was as close to an American grocery store as one Spanish speaking country could possibly get. Well, I wanted to see if they had any wine that I could at least recognize to take with me for this weekend. We were in for a surprise because we turned the corner and there it was like a shiny new must have sports car on display with the yellow spot lights on it was a whole aisle of nothing but great wine, champagne, liquor and beer. We were like kids in a candy store. I think I was more excited to find good ol Jim Beam and pino grigio today than when I turned 21. We were in heaven and couldn’t contain ourselves. I’m sure that the employees watching us thought we were annoying stupid Americans but to be honest I really didn’t care. The imperial beer which is the beer of Costa Rica is just not doing it for me anymore. I cannot wait to have a really good steak and a glass of cabernet and a great homemade salad. Not having ranch dressing on hand has been very difficult to cope with. Tonight as I was getting ready for bed and writing this blog I heard this strange little noise over by my bedroom door. What I feared the most was trying to crawl around my room. A huge cockroach that was bigger than the huge palmetto bugs that we have in South Carolina. He had the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a cockroach. I threw my shoe at it and went to the kitchen calling Emma’s name to tell her about my new roommate. She brought spray and kicked it out of my room into the hall and then swept it away. I shouldn’t be surprised to find bugs in the house because they don’t have air conditioning. There really isn’t a need for one because it doesn’t get too hot so they just leave windows open. I am tired of having flies around us at the table pretty much every meal though. It’s getting pretty old. I am just not a fan of insects especially in the house. I cant complain though because our laundry has come back to us the exact same day that it is washed all of it pressed and folded neatly on our beds. I am very surprised that Emma has a dryer. I have come to the conclusion that Emma and her family must be doing pretty well since they all have a masters or PHD in their field of study. Her stove and refrigerator are all new and her house is a very good size. I also think she receives money in the form of a disability check because of her son and her grandchildren have all attended private schools. I also have to say that having every meal prepared for me has been nice. I haven’t had 3 meals cooked for me every day of the week since high school. She really has done a good job as treating us like a part of her family. Up until now, she has always had boy students live with her. I think she is really excited to have us girls, a nice change from what she has been used to. Overall, the week has been a really good week. Hasta pronto….

Las Leñitas

We had one of the best lunches at one of the local restaurants! It’s right around the corner about 2 blocks from the university. It was like really good Mexican food but with a Costa Rican twist. We didn’t go home until after our last class since its not a really long break. We were supposed to have a test Tuesday on tropical diseases but she changed it until next Tuesday. Thank goodness because I haven’t really been in study mode. That class was pretty interesting because the teacher who’s a primary care physician showed us some you tube videos with doctors performing surgery on a patient to remove a specific type of worm from their small intestine. Then another type of worm in a different video out of a person’s anus, not the most pleasant video to show before people eat dinner. Some people decided to go out and at first I was all for it, but then I just wanted to watch a movie and get a good night sleep.
Hoorah!! Today my care package from my mom came!! I got some more snacks and a hoodie that I def needed!! I was so happy! It def made my day!! Thanks mom!! In class this morning we talked about medicinal plants and different herbs and home remedies that local people use here for different sicknesses etc. one activity we went around the university and asked different people what homemade remedies they used for ex: allergies, asthma, eye infections, a cut, a stomach ache etc. one employee that works in the little cafeteria told me that when he has a cut sometimes hell put coffee grains on it. Not sure what it really does, but it must help heal it faster. Other people will put june bugs with milk in a blender and drink it once a month for allergies, or they will put it in their cereal. I think that is just ridiculous! I would never do that!! It was very interesting to say the least. For lunch we decided to try this pizzeria that we see everyday walking to and from class. We got the super grande pizza and it was so delicious!! Really cheap too! Six of split this gigantic pizza and we were all so full afterwards! I got my pizza fix until after I get back. We are most likely going to try this new place called saltans tonight for a little while. Hopefully it will be pretty fun and not sketchy. I really find it hard to believe that this has been the start of my third week here. It really is going by so much faster than I expected it to be. I haven’t gotten home sick yet which I’m surprised, but I do miss home and the little things that you wouldn’t necessarily think to miss. I hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all. If you have skype then you can search for me! My skype name is erin.cota and just add me! Or email me at cota@mailbox.sc.edu , Im on skype almost every day for a while!! Hasta pronto….

Los Lagos e La Fortuna

I woke up 5 minutes before the taxi arrived at 5:30 to take us to the ISA office. I obviously was sleeping good because I turned my alarm off and that hasn’t happened here once. Thank goodness I had everything ready to go. We left promptly at 6 in the morning and headed off for La Fortuna. We stopped like 2 hours into the trip to look at these artistic shaped hedges and then had breakfast in this little restaurant. Got the pancakes and they were delicious. When we got back on the bus after looking at the hedges and the church, we headed off and about 3 minutes into the bus moving, we heard from the back of the bus that one of the girls wasn’t on the bus. I would’ve freaked out but she seemed relatively calm for being left behind. It was not as warm as they had told us it would be. Thank goodness for a rain jacket. We arrived at La Fortuna around 10:30 -11:00. Checked in and made the hike down the mountain towards the beautiful waterfall. There were two one smaller than the main one, but really cool. We all went swimming in the main waterfall. The water was absolutely freezing!! We didn’t care, it was actually really rough though and all the rocks were slippery so it made it hard to hold on and stand on. Went to another little swimming hole around the corner but there were little fish and I didn’t feel like getting all the way in again. Now the walk down there was nothing, but the hike back up was no joke. The path was soo narrow and extremely steep steps. Im not gonna lie that I was out of breath a few times heading back up the mountain. It would suck if you were a smoker trying to make that journey back up the hill and it was raining too. We stopped in the little town of La Fortuna for lunch and it def poured while we were there. We went to a little local restaurant and they had little personal pizzas, so I had to get one! While we were eating, there was this little stray dog that was walking around the restaurant. It looked so sad and pitiful that we gave it a bunch of nachos. It was picky though because it only wanted the meat not the chips. There are a lot of stray dogs in Costa Rica. A lot of people have dogs too. Almost every house we pass on the way to school has a dog behind their gates in the area like their garage. Most of them are small dogs. About two hours later we arrived to Arenal. It was chilly and we had to check in. the place was a resort and spa. It was extremely nice. The rooms were huge and we actually had a tub instead of a stand up shower. The beds were really comfy. The rooms were spread out through the resort it was like a plantation or a little community. We had to take a shuttle pretty much everywhere except the restaurant where we ate. The food was excellent!! Before dinner, my friend Alice and I decided to have a trip to the spa. We got a great deal! We got a massage, a mini facial and a wrap for $75. We were not about to pass that up. They def do things a little different in foreign countries let’s just say no one is modest at a spa. They gave us these really good fruit cocktails afterwards and Alice and I decided to have a photo shoot in the dressing room to capture our experience! After dinner, we all went to the hot springs at the resort . it felt so good to be in hot water and relax. They had pretty fast waterslides too which was fun! The only thing though is that It closed at 10. I didn’t stay up late because I was exhausted! Sunday was a day of relaxation basically. Slept in, had breakfast, then later lunch, and got back on the road to San Jose. Wish we could’ve spent the whole weekend at Los Lagos, but it was fun to experience it for at least one night. Wish we could’ve seen the volcano but with it being soo cloudy we didn’t get to. I Ended up going to bed at 7:00 Sunday night after dinner. The whole weekend wore me out, one of the best by far though. hasta pronto...

¡SI SE PUEDE!

On the way back into san jose right now, and words cant even explain how I feel right now. Im like floating on a cloud happy as can be. Today has been an amazing day! I first woke up this morning after being able to sleep in until 7 for the first time being here. Ashley had to knock on my door and tell me breakfast was ready. After I was awake it took me a minute to remember just exactly what I was going to be doing today. Emma made us pancakes for breakfast and they were awesome! Two days in a row with good meals. There must be something in the water shes drinking…but she can keep on drinkin it, I will not stop her. I Got to school early to review for my first exam. Today we had our first patient interview. Our professor had different people pretend to be a patient and we had to be the doctor. We had to take personal information in the form of a sheet of paper that would be found on a patients chart. We had to take their blood pressure, their pulse, height and weight. We then asked them what their reason was for their visit and in the end give them a recommendation for what they should do. I made an A so I was pretty excited about it! Our teacher is so awesome! He makes the class so much fun and exciting! One thing down one more thing to go! A few of us went to grab a bite to eat before we set out on our adventure! I was a little sad though that I couldn’t be with Bishop for his 1st birthday! Caitlyn or Mom please get him a big doggie treat for his birthday!! At 1 this afternoon, 16 of us set out on a bus about an hour away from the city. I started to feel a little bit anxious knowing what we were about to do! When we finally got outside of the city we stopped at this little house place where we pretty much signed our lives away! Around the corner off a dirt path there we saw it! The bridge that awaited us where we would Bungee Jump!! All of our reactions were the exact same! “Whoahhh!! That is insane!” Yes! I am so proud to say that I bungee jumped this afternoon!!!! This jump was off a 265 feet bridge over the Colorado river! This is one of the highest bungee jumps in the Americas!! We were the last group to go so after seeing about 10 people go I was super stoked and ready to go and do it! They put the harness around you and then put huge weights on your ankles. They help you stand up on the platform then have you walk out on a tiny little yellow platform that’s kinda of like a plank! My heart was pounding and I was shaking. I have no idea what got me off of the platform into the air but they counted from 5 to 1 and before they got to 1 I screamed and swan dived into the air. It was the most unreal amazing indescribable feeling ive ever felt in my life. It was over before you could say even one word, probably 10 seconds or less. The rope catches you and pulls you back up. I spun like one of those trapeze artists spin in the air on the rope. You were just swinging upside down back and forth for a few minutes. I kept my feet flexed the whole time while I was swinging because I was scared my feet were going to slip out of the weights. The hardest scariest part was trying to find the long white crane type rope that they send down for you to grab. You have to grab it and attach it to your harness so they can pull you back up. I felt like it took me forever to grab it and get pulled up. You end up being pulled upright just like youre sitting on a swing. I finally understood why everyone couldn’t speak after they came back up from jumping. You just sit there back safely on the platform while they take it off with this big happy look on your face speechless. You really cannot describe how it feels; bigger than any adrenaline rush or high you could feel from any type of drug. It was such a great feeling and I still feel like that. Im so proud of myself that I didn’t even turn around or second guess it before I jumped! Not one person in our group backed out! It was scary but so amazing at the same time! Mom, im sorry I didn’t tell you before hand, but I knew you would’ve freaked out and would have found some way to keep me from doing it! I know you would have been a nervous wreck if I told you beforehand. Emma and I said a prayer before I left to keep me safe and I’m back safe and sound. But guess what! The company that we bungeed from gives us a video! So I’m going to get to show you and everyone else at home! I can’t wait to show it to everyone! It really was one of the best experiences in my life so far!! Hopefully, I will try to post pictures of my trip here so far. We leave for Arenal tomorrow at 6 am and will be back Sunday night. I am looking forward to relaxing in the hot springs all day tomorrow! Hasta pronto…

El Castros

Gave my presentation today and it went really well. He said I talked and pronounced everything very well and didn’t read any notes! My talking was very smooth and clear. This was the first time I had felt some what comfortable talking in Spanish for a presentation. Lunch was amazing! I cant actually believe it! We all ended up having seconds! Emma cooked a lasagna and it was actually better than the stuff ive had at home! Didn’t make it to dance class tonight but we def made up for it at Castros. Castros is a place in San Jose that’s a bar/dance club. It was so much fun! Our whole group ended up going and hanging out together. There was a karaoke place upstairs which wasn’t as fun as the dance part downstairs. There was a pretty good size dance floor! A few of us started talking to a few local ticos that were about my age, maybe a little older! I was very excited because they had bought a bottle of bourbon at the bar so I felt at home since I was able to have a bourbon and ginger! It had been way too long. They all had perfect English but I tried to talk them in Spanish instead. They told me that they start learning English at age 4 and depending on if you go to a public school or private school determines how much of it you learn. The kids that attend private grade schools learn much more English and take classes in high school such as math, biology, chemistry, etc in English. The one guy Danny and his friend work and go to UCR (university of costa rica) they’ve started a web design company. They said that they are not fond of the kids that attend the university Veritas where we are because theyre very preppy snobby people who think they are much better than everybody else. I can definitely see where he sees that because that university is private and very expensive. All the kids are very well off that attend there. Danny asked me to go dance with him once and since I love to dance I didn’t say no. we started dancing meringue which was so much fun. I really wish that our culture had dances like that where it was common for everyone to dance the salsa, meringue, cha cha etc. I looked around while dancing not knowing what I was doing but danny was really good and was a great leader. I felt like I held my own in the mix of all ticos. Of course I was the only blonde American girl dancing with all the other locals for those dances! I haven’t had that much exercise dancing since dancing every day in high school. We all had such a blast and everyone ended up dancing by the end of the night! None of us had our keys so we had to wake up Emma at like 2 to get in the gate. She wasn’t mad but we hated to have to wake her up. To sum it all up the night was a blast and we made it home safely! Hasta pronto…

Love at First Sight

The end of the day yesterday turned out to be well. It hasn’t rained in a few. Actually not sense I bought an umbrella. Of course that would happen when I’m actually prepared. We stayed on campus after class for a while so we could all catch up on email and life back home before returning back to our house for lunch. we don’t have internet here at the house so we take full advantage of our breaks during class. We only had about an hour for lunch and to get stuff done at the house before our afternoon class at 4. I had lost Franklin (my electronic dictionary) and was really worried I wasn’t going to be able to find him. Franklin has been a life saver in all of my Spanish classes I wasn’t sure I would know what to without him, but one small panic attack later Franklin was found safe and sound in a bag that I had overlooked. I forgot to mention that I had about an hour long conversation after lunch with Ralf (one of the grandsons) I asked him what age kids could start driving here, what he was taking in school, how long of a break they get, etc. he asked me about how our cell phones and the cell phone companies work at home because here there’s only one cell phone company and it is really expensive to have a cell phone. He was amazed at all the different options we have. The little things like that reemphasizes how different things are but also at the same time are the same.
Today, Tuesday began like any other morning I’ve had here so far. Woke up at 6 and got ready then met in the kitchen around 7 to eat breakfast and talk to Emma about the plans for the day. Well I definitely was not expecting what was about to be told by my roommate. I guess I should start out refreshing the fact that our senora Emma has a 33 year old son Luis, who lives with her that has down syndrome. Well, like I said before he’s nice and means well but still has the mental age of about a 10-12 year old. Apparently, Kacey had come downstairs to take her shower around 6 and you have to go around a little hall to get to our bathroom which is off the kitchen. Well off the other side of the kitchen is a relatively good size back porch that is separated by a sliding glass door. Well the glass door had been open and Kacey had just turned around the corner at the exact same time that Luis was standing on the porch naked. Yes, naked! Butt ass naked! She saw him and he saw her!!! I think she must have been frozen for a few seconds trying to process what was taking place at that exact moment and then darted into the bathroom. she stayed in there much longer because she wasn’t sure if he would still be out there! Now, she told me this story while we are eating breakfast when Emma and Luis both are around. Of course she had to whisper it and I had to refrain myself from laughing but I just cannot even imagine. She said that it was so awkward and could not even make eye contact with him. Well, the story gets better. The girls that live 2 houses down came to get us earlier than usual. We couldn’t help but let them in on the incident while in the living room and we also told Ralf about it too. He thought it was hysterical and we all gave her such a hard time. Well at this point, Kacey had disappeared. It wasn’t until we were out of the house, when she said that Luis pulled her onto the porch and made her sit down to tell her that he liked her clothes and liked Miami and loved her! It just kept getting better and better. Lets just say we didn’t come home until much later than we have been tonight. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Hasta pronto….

SICKO

So today in class was pretty much the same in the morning. Breakfast was not good. I was expecting it though. When I took a shower this morning I picked up my sponge and there was this huge insect in it. I didn’t know what it was but it def woke me up! I have to give a mini presentation on Friday and I got the topic of swine flu. I have to give the definition, the symtoms, causes, preventions and possible treatment. I think it’s going to be relatively easy. In our second class today we watched the movie called SICKO. It’s a documentary by Michael Moore addressing the issues of Americas health care system and those who actually do have insurance and the problems of the insurance companies and the realities and things that they try to hide from the public. It was very interesting to watch. He also traveled around the world to the UK, France, and other countries who have universal health care and interviewed different people (citizens, Americans who live there now, doctors, patients, workers of the hospitals, etc) on their points of view on the subject. It was really sad to me that there are so many Americans such as the heroes of 9/11 that are not given the health care or treatment caused by volunteering or responding to the tragic event. Many of them now have different types of chronic lung diseases and disorders and the government has not helped them or the insurance companies have found reasons to deny them the coverage for the care/treatment they need. Michael Moore took some of these people that he interviewed down to guantanomo bay to make a point that they want the same health care and treatment that those of Al Quida or the worse prisoners are getting by being there. They actually get better health care then many Americans do. So they ended up going to a hospital in Havana and got treated for free and helped them diagnose problems that for years they have had. They did not address any of the disadvantages to socialized medicine which made me a little angry because there are problems with every type of system. Afterwards we had an open discussion as a class and then the doctors that teach our class gave their opinion. Im still not quite sure what to think of everything. It is such a difficult subject and a lot to process, but I am glad im getting an insight from physicans who are a part of a system like that and what its all about. Many people had very strong opinions and I just wanted to take it all in and listen to everyone. I did not give my opinion, which im not absolutely positive how I feel about it. Hopefully Tuesday wont be as intense. Hasta pronto…

Monteverde 2

Sunday we walked to the cloud forest and had a couple hours to hike and walk around to see the national park. It is really big and theres no way we would see the whole thing. Some people saw monkeys, I didn’t but all in all it was an incredible view. It really did seem that we were in the clouds. I definitely got a workout. By the end of the day we were all pretty exhausted. We left for San Jose after lunch but got stuck for about 30 minutes on the mountain because there was a huge bike race going on and the bus couldn’t get around the parked cars on the side of the road. I was able to get about half way through my book that I bought last Wednesday and I had to tell myself to put it down. We got back before dinner and to our surprise our mama tica had a lot of visitors. A little overwhelming I must admit. One of her sisters had came to visit, and her son. Also, later her older brother and his wife along with their son stopped by too. Apparently our mama tica has 8 brothers and sisters in her family. Her older brother Alberto was so cute and his birthday is Wednesday and Hes going to be 80 years old. He looks pretty good for is age too. Later before I went to bed, Kacey and I played a few games of Uno with Emma’s grandson Ralf and his friend Miguel. I had them start teaching me some slang words that younger people use. It was a great weekend, but I was glad to be back at the house in a strange way. I think it was because I was getting into a routine and getting used to how the days would go. I didn’t stay up late because I had to get up early for class. I do miss everyone at home. Hopefully nothing too exciting has happened while ive been gone. Hasta pronto….

Monteverde

Friday in class we watched a movie called Mar Aldentro (inside the sea). It was about euthanasia. For homework we were supposed to look up information about euthanasia and the different laws of it in different countries. We weren’t sure why our teacher had us do this or why we were even talking about the subject. The movie was apparently based on a true story of a man I n spain who wanted to end his life because living as a quadriplegic was not living to him. He was in an accident that caused him to break his neck and had been like that for 26 years. They took it to court but in the end they denied him the right to have assisted suicide. He ended up ending his life by drinking potassium cyanide in secret. We left for Monteverde(green mountain) around 1 in the afternoon. It took us about 5 hours by bus to get there. I really don’t know how the busy was able to drive up the mountain around the sharp corners in the dark. We stayed in this hotel about a 20min walk from the national reserve (the cloud forest). The hotel was called el hotel villa verde. It was a cool place to stay but it was really cold there. We had a fire made while we had dinners. The food actually was pretty good. I was able to take my first real hot shower without feeling guilty about how long it was since I left home. We didn’t have heat or air conditioning though. Saturday morning we were all up bright and early and went to this place to do different activities. Most of the people did the zipline through the forest, but im doing that when Emily comes down here so I decided to go horseback riding. I really enjoyed it. There was a small group of us that went, and went all through the forest on off trails. It was soo muddy that I was really glad I didn’t wear anything good. Of course I get the smaller horse to ride since I was the shortest one there. His name was Bronco, and he was def a stubborn one. He liked to be the leader and would try to bite another horse (tonka) when he would try to pass us. The trail was so beautiful and we got to take some cool pictures. I really enjoyed the experience. Afterwards we went back to eat lunch and then some of us decided to take a bus to the town to see what it was all about. There really wasnt much of anything; A few souvenir shops that had the same things. We were told to try the ice cream, because the town was founded by a group of Quakers back in the 40’s. they wanted a place to live and work without war and a simple life so they chose costa rica because they had just abolished their army shortly before that. The night was really relaxing and we were able to hang out with different people from the group so we could get to know each other better. There were some young kids that lived at the place we stayed at and they were obsessed with the song soulja boy and even knew the dance.

GWOW!!!

Went to bed pretty early last night, I was really tired from all the festivities that took place. Class went well and went by fast. We had a meeting today, which we have every Wednesday to talk about the upcoming excursions and announcements. We’re going to Monteverde this weekend which is in the mountains about 5-6 hours from here. There is no cable or internet but there is electricity which is nice. Im excited to get out of san jose and take pictures. I haven’t been able to take pictures yet because im afraid someone will take my camera since the city is kinda of sketchy. A group of us decided to go back downtown to get a few things after the meeting. We ate lunch down there and ended up getting separated from each other. Ashley my roommate and I went and ate somewhere different then the other 3 girls. To be honest, we really just wanted an American meal in case that would be the only chance. So we had pizza hut. And it was def good. I finished my book “eclipse” which is the 3rd book to the twilight series finally and wanted to find the last book to have for this weekend and read while im here. Well about 4 hours later, multiple book stores later, and many times asking the same question I finally found it. The bookstores carried the book but it was only in Spanish. The only ones they had in English were the first books to the series. So we ended up in this one book store and they had one copy, but it was reserved for someone and part of a set. I was willing to pay for the whole set because we had been everywhere and that’s all I really wanted. Luckily the lady told me about this one place which is like a department store. It was the last place we went after we finally found it. We must have walked by this place at least 5 times not knowing they had a huge book section. And well, good news they had my book in English! I was soo happy. I also had to buy an umbrella because a rain jacket just doesn’t cut it. The one day that I had an umbrella it did not rain. That would happen though.
Tonight we got back for dinner and our tico moms son in law was at the house and they were fixing dinner. I had the longest conversation straight in Spanish that I can think of and im pretty proud of myself because I did actually really well. Im starting to feel much more comfortable speaking Spanish and not afraid if I mess up which is really cool because ive only been here for 5 days so far. We talked about everything. Emma (our senora) was telling her son in law that I don’t like anything and I eat like a bird, etc etc. somehow we got on the subject of me having to drink diet coke at least once a day and I tried to quit but it gave me bad headaches. She was so sweet she sent her grandson Daniel to the store around the corner to buy a big thing of diet coke. And for once we had something I liked; Mashed potatoes, rice, and pieces of meat kinda of like a beef brisket but not as good. We were all pretty tired tonight so we’re all going to bed early. I do miss sleeping in my own bed where its completely dark and all of my squishy pillows. Here I only have one pillow and a thin sheet and cover. Its been okay though. Oh yeh and its weird not having Bishop in the bed too. Hopefully he won’t forget me while I’m gone. Yo tengo mucha cansada. Hasta manana mi familia y mis amigos…

El Primer Dia

Today was the first day of class. We have our medical terminology class, taught in spanish from 8am til 12pm. And then on Mondays and Tuesdays we have our class about costa rican health care systems taught in english from 4-8:30. The professor in the morning class is really nice and very funny. He makes the class fun and he kinda of reminds me of mr. magoo. I feel like im def going to learn a lot that will benefit me down the road. The other teachers are both doctors. One is a primary care physician here in san jose and the other is a resident in neurology. Its great that we have them for the costa rica health care system class bc we have their insight on universal health care and can gain more detailed information about health care and other things related to it than if it were just a regular professor. Tonight was our tico brothers birthday. His name is luis manuel and he turned 33. Luis has down syndrome and attends a special school throughout the year most of the day. I want to say that he has the mental age of between an 8-10 year old child. He has to wear hearing aids as well, and its hard to understand him but most of the time we can figure it out. Hes such a sweet guy and hes very helpful to our tico mom. We had a fiesta for him with cake and icecream and soda too. We sang him happy birthday and he was so excited to have everyone there to celebrate. Also, today after class and when we went home for lunch they had CNN on the tv broadcasting Michael Jackson’s memorial service. It was really interesting to see the affect on the people here in costa rica. I was able to skype today and talk to my mom which was great. I think she was really amazed at how it worked so we could see each other and talk at the same time. Its hard not having a cell phone or the internet at your fingers at all times but im adjusting. Im sorta of glad that we don’t have internet at the house because then I would most likely be on it at all times instead of talking to my tico family. Hasta pronto…

Sorry it has taken me a few days to post something new. Weve been pretty busy here adjusting to our schedule and all. Sunday we went to al central de san jose (the downtown of san jose) we’re only like 10-15min by bus from there and its very cheap to take take the bus. Only 175 colones which is like not even 50 cents. We walked through one of the markets which had pretty much everything and anything you could want. Your typical foreign country market I guess you could say. My roommates Kacey who is from West Virginia goes to Elon and Ashley is from Kentucky and goes to UK have given me the nickname “Bulls eye” because it doesn’t matter where we go we always attract attention or stand out because ive got blonde hair which screams “you are different, aka your american!” when we were walking in the market, I passed two men who were working and they said “ hello” La Rubia (blonde) and then Barbie. Of course kacey started to laugh and I didn’t hear it but it was funny. The only words that guys know here to say to american girls are hello, wow, and beautiful. We think its pretty funny. Sunday night was the first meal that I actually finished completely and wasn’t hard for me to eat. It was just chicken and potatoes. Im def trying the food that my senora makes but none of it has been great. We went out with some of the people in our group to have a drink Sunday night. We went to this place called el cortel; Not really my scene, very americanized and many people too. It was funny though because in the cab I asked him if we could listen to music and the first thing we heard was steve miller band. Not what I was expecting in costa rica. But I didn’t complain. Hasta pronto….

los ticos y los gringos

I forgot to mention that when I got off the plane saturday and went outside to find the person picking me up i was bombarded with taxi drivers! i kept saying no, but of course they would ask me if i needed help or if i needed a ride. finally a woman working for some company asked who was suppost to pick me up and my brain had to switch to spanish. It took me a few seconds to realize that i was now in a spanish speaking country. but all is well. she contacted the person for me and i waited another 20 minutes. on the way to the house where im living i saw fireworks in the distance which was pretty cool to see on the 4th of july in a foreign country.
the person told us the president or someone with high level authority hosts a party all the time on the western side of san jose. the catch is you have to be an american to go or even be invited.
it was definitely dark on the drive to the house, and i was starting to get a little concerned about where this place was. every where i looked the buildings looked old and dirty and every house had bars surrounding it; some even with barbwire. i thought ok i think we might be in a bad part of town or were lost. but the part of san jose was really sketchy. it turns out thats how all the houses and businesses are. as soon as i walked in the house everyone in the family was so excited and my roommates were excited too. they thought i wasnt ever going to get there.
Kacey is from west virginia but goes to Elon university and Ashley is from Kentucky and goes to UK. we get along very well and all have some trouble understanding our senora. we all played a game of pictionary (in spanish) with her two grandsons: Daniel is 14 and Ralf is 16. and they both look like the Jonas Brothers. so weve nicknamed them Jonas. yesterday we got out of orientation and said yall better hurry home bc its about to rain. of course i didnt have my rainjacket and between 3 of us we had one umbrella. it rains the same time every day. about 1:00 in the afternoon until about 4:00. it also is not very warm here. gets chilly very easily. i went to bed last night around 9:30. i was so exhausted and had to get up really early this morning.
today ive been up at 6:45 am, for the past two days now. we had our first orientation yesterday and then this morning we had our oral placement exam at 8:30. I did better than I thought I would. I placed into intermediate level based on the conversation I had with the professor that interviewed me. I am defintely okay with that so Im not in a class thats way over my head. weve got a small break before they take our group to downtown san jose to go to the bank or look around and just get familiar with the city. i think tonight we might go have dinner and a few drinks at an american bar for one of my roommates friend's birthday. it might be a little nice to be at a place where there arent a lot of ticos around. thats what the costa rican people are called. and they call us gringos. everyone has been extremely nice and very helpful and welcoming. our first classes start tomorrow and im a little anxious about it. but i know that its going to be a great class and i will learn alot. hasta pronto vez....

Bienvenidos

Yo estoy aqui en Costa Rica finalamente!!!! I arrived last night into the San Jose airport around 8:30. The flight was full and i sat next to a teacher/ director of a university in a city here called manuel antonio. He was very helpful and gave me some advice. It was really great to talk to him about what i was there for and what i intend to do with my Spanish. He gave a really great quote: he said "doors will be closed if you don't speak english". he is very right. he gave me his information so if I had any questions I could contact him. We watched the movie Hotel for Dogs, which was actually really good family movie. I highly recommend it if you are dog lover! I will have to continue this in a little while...Im at the university at the orientation where we took a break and now were about to start again! So many things still to talk about. until next time...

Leaving on a Jet Plane

In Columbia airport now waiting to leave for houston. Got up early to finish packing and of course i felt i overpacked as ususal but. It is weird leaving on the 4th of July, no fireworks but its okay im costa rica bound!! being at the gate theres a group of people that are going to costa rica too. we actually all go to usc together but theyre going to Heredia, Costa Rica which is actually like 10 miles away! so well def hang out together! getting ready to board the plane! next time i will writing from costa rica!! until next time...