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…