Viva la Vida

I would dare to say that in terms of grammar, I learned essentially nothing new. I didn't learn how to conjugate some new tense, I didn't learn a general rule for how to format a sentence accurately, I just didn't really learn a new part of Spanish grammar. Even more, I would claim that though I did learn a good amount of new words, for the most part, I was very comfortable with the words I heard said around me, and so my learning wasn't really focused on the vocabulary.

But in all honesty, I can do those in class. Yes, its not optimal to do so, and its much easier in a Spanish-speaking environment, but if a Spanish class teaches you something, its the formal grammar and vocabulary of Spanish. So, judging by the fact that these areas weren't where my learning was focused, I would say that my past Spanish classrooms have been pretty successful. The Spanish classroom that is Costa Rica, however, functions a little differently.

So I arrived, and my family would speak to me relatively slowly. When they finished asking me a question and had to talk to each other however, it was more or less gibberish. Their words flew out of their mouths as water flows out of a wide-open faucet, or so it seemed. And I started with my speech being relatively slow as well. We were more or less testing each other. I was asking my family if my English accent wasn't so bad that they couldn't understand me and whether my sentences were actually comprehensible. My family was asking me how fast they could speak before they lost me in their verb conjugations and “ñ's.” The answer that we seemed to get was that my Spanish was definitely one that could be understood, and that my family can speak at a medium pace for my understanding.

For me, that meant that it was time to speed up. So slowly over the next few weeks, I began to try to just spit out what I wanted to say as fast as I could before I lost too much accuracy. And it worked. Little by little, I could feel my Spanish speeding up, and the fact that my family understood me only helped me build confidence to keep trying. At this point, I am pretty happy with how I speak Spanish. No, its definitely not perfectly fluent. No, my words don't flow like the water of a faucet, but that faucet is definitely opened wider than it was before I came to Costa Rica, and its opened wider than I expected it would be.

But a conversation in Spanish is two parts: speaking and listening for the response. So in order for my speaking to improve, I must've been doing an equal amount of listening, and in the middle of the program, I had this strange moment. My host sister and mother had begun their own conversation while Julia and I sat at the dinner table, and though I always tried to keep an ear open, usually my ear didn't catch much. Somehow, though, I had followed their whole conversation. And as the next couple weeks went by, I realized it wasn't an accident. Though I couldn't speak as fast as they could, my mind had learned to keep up with their conversations. Yes, there were points I missed, but the main concepts were definitely there. I also recognize that I was very used to their voices and their rhythm of speech by this point, so it in general is easier for me to follow what they are saying than someone I just met and heard their voice for the first time, but regardless, it's definitely been a noteworthy milestone.

Even more invaluable, with the knowledge that my Spanish was understood, I could begin to express myself. I could begin to put sarcastic, sad, whiny, complainy, whatever tone I wanted on what I said. In Mexico, when I tried, these tones were often lost in translation as a result of my less developed Spanish. Here, with the confidence that I was understood, I could begin to change up the way I used the language to match more who I was. In other words, this years trip allowed me to develop my Spanish “voice,” something quite invaluable.

The extent to which I love a good bus ride here is ridiculous. When we get on, and everyone is groaning about the fact that we will be immobilized in a chair for the next four hours, I am smiling with anticipation to relax and just spend endless hours with my eyes on the scenery and my ears towards my friends, or the movies playing in the background, or an album on my ipod. I can take in Costa Rica, and considering at this point we have driven all over, I would dare to claim that I have at least laid my eyes on a great portion of Costa Rica. These drives are honestly magical. My view will be obscured by bushes and trees and all of a sudden they'll open up to some spectacular landscape of rolling mountains filled with endless greenery and the occasional quaint home. Otherwise, if we're simply in the middle of the city, mountains are visible on all sides of us as a general rule, mountains caressed by clouds and a gradient of green.

And then there's Heredia, our humble home away from home. In Heredia, you can be taught about Costa Rica in general. Like how cars have the right of way here instead of pedestrians, and that these drivers are maniacs, but there's not a crash or accident to be seen. They are safe in their danger. You are taught about the general Costa Rican way of life, of “Pura vida!”, or “Pure life!” It means, it's all okay, life is good. It's used to accept an apology, as a goodbye, as a hello, as a reminder, that indeed, life is good if you let it be. And this is indeed the personality of the locals here. Its not exactly like Mexico, where everything is relaxed and laid back, its more of an environment where everything is happy, and everything is and always will be okay.

On my walk to school, I follow along a railroad track, often being forced to walk on it since there isn't always a place to walk next to it. There's no bar that comes down when the train comes. There's a couple red lights that might light up if you catch them at the right time if a train is coming, but they're awkwardly placed, and the people who need to see them in the moment and do is few. What alerts you to the train is the honking. When approaching an intersection, the train will endlessly blow its horn to tell cars to either cross the tracks or finally hit reverse. But if they don't do so in time, it's not a big deal. The train slows down, and I've even seen the train stop as it waited for a car to move.

Walking the streets, little things even like the pedestrian walk signals are interesting. Instead of a simple hand for stop and a person for walk, the person actually walks. The pedestrian lights here are animated of a person walking or jogging. And the street performers. They perform in the streets. Literally. They will walk out on to the road where the cars are stopped in front of a spotlight and perform while they wait for the light to turn green. Timing their performance so they have enough time to collect money just before the stoplight turns green. I've seen it all, unicycles, tricks with sticks of fire, it's like a circus on a quaint little intersection.

Walking to school at a certain time of day, the aroma of that which is Costa Rica is so sweet. Walking along the railroad tracks, tracks that criss-cross Costa Rica and link it together, the landscape opens up before you, mountains and valleys are spread out before you, beckoning you to explore, beckoning you to stay a while and enjoy it.

“President!” Emily exclaimed, soon followed by “Vice prez!” from Greg's side of the bed. We were settled on my bed in the hotel room again for a few rounds of cards, no surprise since it had turned into tradition over the past few weeks. What was unusual, however, was Brandon's voice after a round of President to ask if we could learn how to Salsa after the next round. A sort of random request, that I assume had something to do with the combination of our stories from Friday night and knowing about all the salsa classes I took last year in Guanajuato.

Julia found some random Latin music on her ipod, which we proceeded to not really use since its difficult to start learning Salsa to music, as the beat doesn't have any flexibility and when you're learning something like a turn, its good to slow it down for a minute so that you are really able to grasp how to do it.

We began in a straight line, learning how to do the basic step, Emily sitting out because she hates dancing. Moving our feet in the standard fashion, we all counted eights to dance to, creating our own rhythm and our own sort of music, if you could call it that, our feet forming the beat. Brandon, focusing on the counts, struggled to keep still on four and eight, wanting to keep on moving, but before long he got it, just in time for us to try it with each other, which just made it more confusing. Greg paired with Julia while I paired with Brandon as I gave tips to my friends as I remembered little things that would help them in their quest for the knowledge of salsa.

As the comfort level increased we moved onto turns, and by now Emily decided it was time for her to join, Maybe salsa dancing isn't so awful. And so Julia took a break and we got Emily comfortable with the step. What followed was the attempts of everyone to learn the basic turn in Salsa, but before long, while everyone was practicing it without partners, we finally got the hang of it, and then we tried to put it together with partners. Julia took up practicing with Brandon and I let them try it out for a little bit before complicating it farther. The hardest part seemed to be for the guy to keep up the basic step as the girl stopped to do the turn.

I couldn't grab onto anything. I was just falling and falling. Granted, there was some resistance, but not enough to give me any sort of security. It didn't matter how much I squeezed my hand around the rope, it just burned my hand through the glove, and there was still at least 100 feet of the 160 foot drop left to go and I had no control. So I twisted and turned myself down the cliff wall in front of me to the yelled explanation of the guides above and below me of what I should be doing, though to my knowledge, I was already doing it... I guess I wasn't...

Today in Arenal, we awoke early to go either canyoning, that is repelling down waterfalls and canyons, or horseback riding around the volcano next to our hotel. I opted to go canyoning and after a bus ride and a hike up some mountains, we began to descend, vertically. Our first drop was the biggest and was next to a huge waterfall. A 160-foot-drop, it obviously wasn't flawless, but still was extremely fun. We were instructed to put our left hand on the part of the rope above us, and the right hand was what stopped our fall and was to go on the rope next to our hip, releasing and gripping to adjust our rate of fall. For some reason, I just couldn't pull the rope tight enough to stop or slow down and soon enough, I think the guides began to stop and start me in rhythm with my attempts to push off the cliff wall.

At our next attempt, we were to face an 80 foot repel. The first 40 feet were to be free fall, and then you had to repel of the wall behind a waterfall. “I'm going to be able to hold on this time!” I told myself. And I was right. As I turned around to plunge backwards off the ledge, I sturdied my hands on the roads and pushed off, released my hands a little bit and begin to swing back... right to the ledge. I hadn't dropped a foot. So I tried again and just landed right back on the ledge, again, even after making an effort to almost completely release my hands. Finally, on the next try, I combined releasing my hands with wiggling my body to coax the rope into slipping through my harness. I dropped right below the ledge and then got caught again. “Show me your hands!” the guide said, asking me to completely remove my hands from the ropes, but I hadn't heard him, for I finally had gotten the hang of it and was busy getting ready to start repelling off the waterfall as my sneakers flooded and water splashed everywhere.

We had a few more canyons to repel down, one of which was the the plain old dry cliff, with no waterfalls to be seen, but a good one to make sure you've really figured out this whole deal with the ropes. The last one went down another waterfall, but the second to last one was definitely the most challenging. The whole time we had been following a single river that cascaded over various cliffs. On the last repel, we were repelling off the wall behind the waterfall the whole time. This part of the waterfall began with a 45 degree angle, so this time, instead of hopping off a ledge as usual, you essentially just walked backwards until you were being completely held up by your harness and then repelled from there. The water was particularly strong here and there were also walls on either side of you, meaning you were either in the waterfall or repelling ungracefully from side-to-side.

I would say this topped the charts of the best activity we did in Costa Rica. I got to learn something completely new while exploring Costa Rica in a new and challenging way.

There were murmurs, murmurs between my host father and the woman organizing karaoke. Something about “El Primer Millón,” the song I jokingly said I would sing. I didn't pay much attention to it through, our family was going crazy with the karaoke, almost monopolizing the microphone as all of our cousins, parents, brothers, and sisters took their turn. Suddenly, however, the microphone was passed to me as I was introduced as singing “El Primer Millón” to the surrounding observers at the club we were at. As I pulled Mariela towards me to help me out, the song begun and we fought our way through the rest of the song, trying to push the microphone towards each other instead of ourselves, laughing into the microphone as we saw the ridiculousness of the situation. It was like the blind leading the blind, I'm not perfectly fluent with Spanish, and this was a relatively fast song, and Mariela didn't know how the song went. Somehow, it worked out though.

At the beginning of our stay in Heredia, our family had played with the idea of taking Julia and me out dancing with the family. As our stay began to draw to a close, I brought it up again with my family. We hadn't been able to go before because we were always gone for the weekends, but having this past Friday free, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to go. So we gathered together our family for the night and asked Olivia for permission, who, knowing she really shouldn't, told us we could go as long as we got back by eleven (which of course we wouldn't) and as long as she could come along as well to supervise (and dance).

We drove far into the mountains to reach our destination, and when we finally got to the club, we could see the city of Heredia and San José glittering behind us. Somewhere on a mountain in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, we found ourselves at our final stop. Magali and Jamie joined our family for the fun, as well as Grace and her roommate: girls I'm not really familiar with.

“No, no, no, no, no. The foot first goes back!” “Bien, bien!” our dance teacher instructed us as we experienced our first dance class in Costa Rica. We began with the simple one, two, cha, cha, cha step, a dance similar to the basic salsa step, but with an added pep in the step in the middle. Our method was to first learn the step individually, and then combine into partners to try and put the male and female parts together.

Before long, we moved on to what I believe was called the Rumba, and later the Meringue. During the Meringue dance, we all got to feel a little bit like ducks as we essentially waddled around the dance floor in order to swing our hips the right way. Regardless, this seemed to be a favorite among us. All of us picked it up pretty quickly and had fun practicing it. Once we got the hang of it, our teacher even showed us some new moves to add on the dance we learned.

Even once we got to school, my classmates seemed to still have their heads in the dance class, as they took time out to demonstrate for the teacher what they learned. Though we didn't spend a lot of time in the class, I'm sure we'll remember some dance steps to bring back to the United States with us.

Our morning's activity today was a visit to the Museo de Cultura Popular, the Museum of Popular Culture. We started the day off by cooking these delicious coconut cookies, that I'm sure would make my (real) dad's mouth water, and then proceeded onto to explore the museum. Though I don't know if I'd really call it a museum. I have a feeling that this mostly happened simply because we didn't have a great guide, but I'm not really sure what the museum was about.

Our guide began by explaining to us that this was not a museum of tangible objects, but rather a museum of smells, touches, experiences, etc., which seemed to make sense at first when you looked back at our experience of cooking the coconut cookies. All too soon however, I lost him. There were some pretty cool things that he showed us, but it seemed to be a random hodge podge as we walked around a field with a building in the middle of it.

One of the first things he showed us was this plant that grew these fruit-like bulbs, that looked a little like mamones chinos, that if you broke open, you would find small berries that had a red dye in them that people used for clothing and as make-up. Well, that cleared up the question of whether or not there was blood on his pants, we figured it was just the red dye. He also showed us how to know when a coffee bean is ripe for picking.

Next, he set us loose into a house with all of it's doors and windows closed and told us to open all of them. All of them were barred with a bar that came up and off of two supports on either side of the opening, which meant that when I tried to open a door in pitch black, the bar obviously fell and crashed to the ground. In response, the guide himself came crashing through the door I somehow managed to open to make sure everything was alright.

The house was a bit random as well, but some artifacts he brought out were cool. One was a ceramic doll with the number 13 and a horseshoe on the side. In American culture, this would be considered unlucky, but in Costa Rican culture, the number 13 is lucky, and the horseshoe as well. The moral of the story was that it all depends on perspective. This was followed by a can that was similar to a watering can, but the spout went downwards instead of up. We learned that this was to help bathe babies and pregnant women in the olden days. The last artifact was a wooden egg, which is apparently used for darning socks and by putting it in their nests, making chickens think they already laid an egg and responding to this by laying more.

Then, quite abruptly, the tour ended. It was interesting, but the concept of the museum, as the museum claims to be itself, was just a little too intangible for me.

Yesterday, the LPI group headed on over to the pool, which is located in something called El Palacio de Los Deportes. We spent our time swimming and just laying around, since the water was absolutely freezing cold. We're working on a scavenger hunt during our stay here, and my group agreed that I would make matching friendship bracelets for everyone, so I worked on the bracelets (I finished the last one today, now the question is if I should make one for myself...). We missed all the global impact students as well as the two-weekers, but there was nothing to be done.

Later yesterday, I tested my luck with my phone. While I was at the beach this weekend, we at some point put our things too close to the water, and as the tide got higher, our stuff got washed up and soaked in seawater (which is most of the reason why everything was soaking wet after our trip, and the fact that it started pouring after our trip to the beach). My camera somehow made it through barely wet, without being in a ziplock bag or anything. My phone, however, was not so lucky. Drenched with sea water, after I disassembled the phone some and dried off the surface, the inside of the screen started to fog up with water vapor after I took a hair dryer to it at the hotel. I kept drying the phone until the screen stopped fogging up. However, I was still not convinced. I didn't want to try running a current through the phone while there was salt water hidden inside, so I left the phone without a battery until I got home. I asked my host father to let me borrow a few handfuls of rice, and he helped me bury my phone within the dry rice, so any remaining moisture would be absorbed. I left the phone like this for a couple days, as I worried about the salt water. It'd be one thing if it was freshwater that had flooded my phone, but the salt from the water had the potential to be much more harmful. Most people say if you go as far as to drench your phone in salt water, you should first wash it out with freshwater to remove all the salt. I was too nervous to do that though. When I got home that evening, however, I risked turning on my phone, and to my absolute delight, it worked. Whether or not the rice helped, or I got most of the moisture out myself is unknown, but regardless, I'm not complaining.

Our plan for when we woke up was to go to the beach, again. So, with our belongings still damp with salt water, we piled onto the bus to Manuel Antonio, a different beach from yesterday. We were hoping to do about an hour of hiking followed by about an hour of swimming, though we were leaning towards staying out of the water since yesterday's beach experience was still soaked through our swimsuits.

Once we got there, after a long walk through the forest, we reached the beach, which was absolutely gorgeous and pristine. There was no way we were going to miss out on the opportunity to swim on this beach. The waves were calm, and the point at which they tended to break was close to shore, allowing us to essentially play in completely calm waters.

Too little time passed before our group was called together to start heading back. We only had an hour or so there, which was a shame. The group that went on a hike told us we should have gone on the hike, though we adamantly told them they should have gone swimming.

Just as we were about to leave, a pack of wild monkeys and a couple raccoons came out of the forest and started to steal beach dwellers' food and belongings. They were really close to us to the point where if we wanted to we could touch them. A guide popped up and started telling us a little bit about some of them. One that we found was sick, probably from cancer. This occurred because he was exposed to too much flashes from cameras, which make the monkey go blind. The experience was very surreal and cool. The monkeys acted very human-like, and it was interesting to see them in their natural habitat – in a way it actually made them more real.

After another shower and lunch, we were off to return to Heredia.

From the dolphin tour yesterday, we were dropped off at the beach. The waves were high because of the recent storm, and the beach was extremely rocky. Regardless, Emily, Greg and I braved the rocks to find a sandbar that was out a little deeper into the ocean. Emily, who had water shoes at some point even gave me a piggy-back ride to avoid the stinging of the rocks. We spent a majority of our time jumping the waves.

After going home and washing off, and washing off all of our stuff as everything was soaking wet, we went to have dinner at El Avión, a restaurant in a plane. The plane they used was a WWII cargo plane that got shot down in Nicaragua, and in the year 2000, the restaurant bought the remnants for $3000 to remodel into the restaurant. It was hard to imagine when I first heard of it, but indeed, it was an army green plane sitting on the side of the mountain. Under the wings is a further extension of the restaurant, which is where we ate our meal for the evening.

The early riser catches a glimpse of a dolphin, or so we hoped as we grouped by the buses waiting to take us to the port to sail off in search of dolphins. As we drove alongside the port, we spotted a boat with a slide coming off of it. Cries arose from our group of, “A slide? Please, please, please let that be our boat!” And as we were directed onto our home for the next few hours, indeed, the boat with the slide was to be ours.

The boat was great. We were served lunch and snacks on it and it had a great front. This front had these mesh nets stretched over the water in front of the boat so that you could lay down. I spent most of my time on the boat in these nets on my stomach with my head towards the oncoming wind, mesmerized by the water.

Soon, we stopped for snorkeling in a little inset on the coast of an island. As we donned the provided goggles and fins, we excitedly jumped into the water with saltines in our hands to feed the fishes. Unfortunately, we weren't on any sort of coral reef or anything and were just in the middle of water. There were no fishes to be seen until we released our precious crackers, at which point blue and yellow striped fishes began to whirl around us. At some point, I swam away from the group a little bit so that I wasn't bumping against my peers and released my saltines. The fishes were right in front of my face and it was quite entertaining. If I stuck my finger out, they would think it was food and bite it.

Once we got back to the boat, we finally got to play with the slide. You lay down on it with your feet first and there's a sharp drop that sends you flying over the ocean some feet behind the boat. Afterwards, people started experimenting with how they went down. Everyone swore by the method that involved laying on your back and going into the water head first, and once I tried it, I swore by it too. Going in this way allowed your face to avoid the water, though more often than not, your swim suit bottoms tried to avoid their rightful place around your waist.

Once we got back on the boat, we rode around for a little bit, but the weather wasn't conducive to sailing, which was necessary to find dolphins since this way the motor doesn't scare them away. As a result, we didn't have the opportunity to view the animals we came for, though usually this company is known for finding dolphins. Overall, the boat itself and its luxuries were perfect, but the activities that we did could be improved.

After our long bus ride into Manuel Antonio yesterday, we finally arrived at the five star hotel Olivia had been endlessly telling us about. It was rainy and foggy, so we couldn't really get a good feel for the general positive atmosphere for the place, but still we were a little bit disappointed. The rooms were less impressive than the ones at Monteverde. Furthermore, though my room looks out onto a general area of the hotel, most of our peer's rooms look at the porch of a room across from them.

We've mostly attributed this to the different atmosphere of the hotel. Monteverde had a much more serene feel to it, while El Parador, the hotel we're staying at, is much more of a tropical atmosphere. You can see the ocean from some parts of the hotel which is nice. There are also lots of statues and fountains around the hotel, and their pools look nice. Of course, I understand how lucky I am to be staying at a hotel of this quality, but we've been told that this hotel was supposed to be so much better than the last one we stayed at, which was amazing. So its simply a result of high expectations.

We also went ahead and ate dinner at the hotel yesterday, which was of acceptable quality. Again, nothing stupendous for a five star hotel, but not bad. Afterwards, Emily, Brandon, and Greg congregated in our room for some card games. We passed the night with Euchre, President, and Durak, and before long it was time for bed, and though Julia and I couldn't figure out how to turn of one of the lights in our room for a while, we finally did get to sleep.

This morning, the majority of our group headed out to see the Harry Potter Premiere. Greg, Emily, Brandon and I, however, headed over to downtown Heredia at 8:00am to see what entertainment we could find. And of course, the first entertainment we found was pigeons, for which we spent half an hour looking to buy bread. Finally succeeding we allowed ourselves to be fascinated by the swarms of pigeons that flew at us at the first drop of a crumb.

To continue our morning we made our way down to the market, this time with the intent of purchasing some sort of food. We began with mamones chinos, this strangely spiky fruit that we'd seen our peers eating for lunch. It's small enough to comfortably fit in your hand and is of a dark red/pink color. We bought a quarter pound (about 6 mamones chinos) and each of us cracked one open. On the inside was something that looked similar to a lychee. There is a seed on the inside around which you have to eat, and it is absolutely delicious. It is such an intensely sweet and soft flavor, if that makes sense.

Our next round was blackberries, or moros. In the market they sell this mixture of small just ripe blackberries and unripe ones. Once we finally got to try them, after doing a good rinse and such, they were extremely tart, but regardless tasted like candy. Emily went on to purchase a mango and avocado. The mango was essentially butchered so that Emily could eat it and the avocado was eaten hummingbird style. Emily poked a hole in it and started digging it out with her fingers. She also bought a guanava, but when she broke it open it wasn't yet ripe. We knew we were safe eating these though, as we'd talked to our host parents before hand to check. We also purchased these sweet, hard circles from a bakery for our snack. They were very similar to the Russian Bubliki I love so much (if that's the right name for them?)

In general, the food here has been amazing and unique. This morning I tried this spaghetti egg pancake food. I think it was essentially spaghetti with an egg omelet around it to make a sort of pancake. On my first night I tried this amazing black soup with egg and last night in particular was delicioso. It was a sort of yuca dish. Yuca is a lot like potato and it was this sort of lasagna like dish, but without the pasta part, leaving just yuca, meat, and cheese. As for the drinks, just like Mexico, most everything is freshly made. Ice cream is equally amazing, I've especially come to love blackberry (moro) ice cream. I've tried strawberry juice, guanavana juice, among many others, and there will be many more to come.

After our new experiences with the children's museum, we finally went to our first traditional museum – El Museo Nacional. The museum began with a walk through a butterfly room. Though it wasn't as impressive as the one in the InBioParque, it was still beautiful. In the InBioParque, there were a lot of butterflies in a very small amount of space. Here, there was a large amount of space which was tastefully covered with vegetation and a relatively small amount of butterflies, which made encountering one that much more special.

As we moved through the museum, there were various artifacts from Costa Rican history and their descriptions, classic museum design. Apparently, throughout Costa Rica, round balls of cement like material have been found in all different sizes, ranging from being the size of me to being small enough for me to pick up without exerting too much effort. They have yet to definitively figure out the purpose of these balls. There are many theories that fly around. One suggests that they were just for decoration. Other theories suggest that they were used as a method of keeping track of time and date, which was important for growing crops and keeping track of the rainy seasons and such. Often they were found arranged in lines to make angles or other formations.

Once we got to the basement of the museum, the style changed. In the basement was various rooms that the army of Costa Rica used (back when they still had an army). Though I don't remember for sure, apparently the building used to be some sort of headquarters for the leader of Costa Rica, and the army stayed in the basement. There was a hallway with small rooms stemming off. There wasn't a door covering them and the graffiti on the walls was the original graffiti from the soldiers who stayed there. These rooms were used for people they held hostage or for soldiers that needed to be punished. They would only have a wooden box for a bed and few other luxuries. Another room contained the bathrooms of the army men, which at some point were built over to display more artifacts in a museum that owned the building before El Museo Nacional. Another room involved the cafeteria and another the showers. Just a walk back through the butterfly room and a step over a couple of the famous balls and we were off to school for the day.

Another life goal has been accomplished. I finally got to be inside a bubble. This morning we visited El Museo de los Ninos, or The Children's Museum. This museum is inside a building that was once a prison that fell into disuse after a war. There was talk about knocking the whole building down until the idea came along of turning it into something society needed – a children's museum. The museum presents information about almost everything. You can find information that ranges from how a body works ranging to how light works. Of course, there are also exhibits that are more purely just for enjoyment.

One exhibit that caught my eye was the bubble exhibit, of course. This is where I finally received my experience of being inside a bubble. There was a circle in which you stood and pulled up a metal circle around you that had been dipped in bubble fluid. There was also large bubble wands that allowed us to create the biggest and longest bubbles I've ever seen, which is something else I've always wanted to do – make huge bubbles.

In another room, there was a wall onto which you'd lean and turn on the light. The wall was glow in the dark and after a minute or so, you would turn off the light and your shadow would be semi-permanently stuck on the wall, until the next light application. We called these magic shadows. Another exhibit featured a house that was on an angle with the ground. It produced odd, dizzy feelings in everyone since our brains told us we were supposed to be standing up straight, but we had to stand on an angle to actually keep our balance. It was very cool.

All the Costa Rican woman here wear these original hair clips that sort of work like a ponytail holder and sort of work like one of those large hair clips. I finally found one for 50 cents at The Children's Museum, so I got it. But I think its smaller and more fragile than normal, so I'm still on the lookout, but I definitely like how it looks. Whatever it takes to make me feel more Tica!

The ziplines provided endless fun for us. As we moved on, the ziplines kept getting longer and longer, and more and more people needed guides to help them get across. Some simply refused to or weren't able to stop without having the assistance of the tree trunk in front of them. Others got in trouble for releasing the grip of either of their hands to take pictures or videos as they flew across the sky. I was all set as I strapped my GoPro to my head and zoomed on.

The last couple ziplines were the most spectacular, as they were the highest, giving us an amazing view of the mountains below us. These ziplines were long enough that they gave you time to relax and stop thinking about braking in time. You could stop and smell... the greenery. In all honesty though, the air there was something different. In Monteverde, the air felt extremely fresh and just smelled amazing. There were moments where we all just stopped to breathe, and just breathe.

As a grand finale to our zipline experience, we got a chance to go on the Tarzan swing – a mix between a bungee jump of 120 feet and a swing, similar to the Dare Devil Dive at Six Flags Great America. You had to walk out on a long bridge which at some point just stopped, and you were attached to a couple ropes and would jump from there. The wait was filled with anticipation, since as you watched the people in front of you, you would see the person on the bridge, on the bridge, on the bridge, and then gone. Suddenly, without warning, they would disappear, and we were all waiting for our own turn to do just the same.

I finally got out to the platform. I was one of the first of my friends to attempt the jump and any of my friends who already did it were way ahead of me in line. And there I was, on the edge. “Las dos manos aqui.” …This is all I can hold onto? “Bend your knees.” “What?” “Bend. Your knees. Bend.” ...Umm, Okay. And then without further warning I was essentially shoved off the edge. I managed to scream for the first half second of the drop and then my stomach fell behind my body, leaving me breathless. Finally the rope caught, and I swung above the tree tops to catch one last glance at the green mountains that I got to marvel at on the ziplines.

On Saturday, we all stumbled out of our beds at 5:30 in the morning, falling into the bus one after another to drive down to Monteverde, a town in the mountains of Costa Rica. This town was originally founded by Quakers from the United States who were seeking a safe place to build their community. This city now produces amazing dairy products and boasts lush rainforests through which you can find many a canopy tour (ziplining). Some years ago, National Geographic covered this city and discovered that it was a great city for Quetzal bird sightings, so many tourists and photographers started to visit the city. The roads leading into this city were not paved back then, and because the residents of Monteverde wanted to keep the town the same, a sort of private, secluded city, they petitioned to not have the roads paved, even though this was the plan. The same unpaved roads that wound up the sides of the mountains were the ones on which we entered.

The first thing that struck us was the endless rolling mountains of green that stretched out before us as we drove. The expanse seemed endless, and pictures didn't do it justice. We were scheduled to stay at a 4 star hotel for that night, and as we drove up to the resort worthy hotel, we couldn't believe that this didn't have all five.

The rooms were absolutely gorgeous and pristine. The pillows and blankets were super fluffy, there were carpeted floors, and the bathroom sported both an oversize bathtub and a spiffy shower. This shower filled the bottom with water, so your feet were standing in water while you took your normal shower. The room also had rocking chairs to pull out on your balcony/patio, depending on what level your room was on. We got the ground floor, which was preferable as people would congregate outside and it was easy to just go out and meet up with them.

What was particularly amazing was the view. A look out your window brought you face to face with the same rolling, gorgeous, green mountains we saw as we were driving. The view was breathtaking, and I spent all my free time sitting outside, either on the rock outside our room or on a rocking chair, as did other members of our group. No matter how many photos we took, it wasn't the representation we wanted of the spectacular view.

We woke up at the crack of dawn today to drive down to the Pacuare River to brave the rapids that made it into the top five rivers for white water rafting in National Geographic. At six o'clock in the morning, our bus departed from the university, and we all settled into our seats for the two hour drive to the lodge where we would have breakfast before our departure.

After changing, we loaded the buses again to drive to our final destination at the beginning of the river. We donned our life jacket and helmet, and I donned my video camera, attaching it to my head. We were given the basics of the controls of the raft, and even practiced rescuing people if they fell out of the raft (practice accomplished by pushing members out of the raft and then rescuing them).

Quite soon, we made our way out onto the rapids, warming up with Class I and II rapids and then later advancing to Class III and Class IV rapids. Somewhere in the middle of the run, we stopped by a clearing of rocks for lunch. At this clearing there was a cliff which everyone took the time to dive off and into the water. The fishes in the water weren't too shy to nip at us either. Greg was holding his hand above the water and a large fish with teeth jumped up and bit his finger.

Afterwards, as we were finishing the run, we went through a place called “The Two Mountains.” This was a particularly beautiful part of the rafting trip, as we floated between two mountains. However, a large electric company is looking to build a dam here. To do this, they need to turn the river into a lake in this area. This work will be done in about six years, which is a real shame, since the beauty that was there was incomparable to any other.

Throughout the whole trip, vegetation surrounded us. There were also calm parts of the rafting when we had the opportunity to jump off the raft and swim around as we floated down stream. The three hour rafting trip was nothing short of a roller coaster of a ride. As we paddled, we observed the Indian Reservation to our right, and even saw some Indians. There were also lodging stations for multi-day trips from which came camera flashes from visitors taking pictures. Maybe one day I'll be taking the picture as I wait for my own rafting trip to continue for the second or third day.

After every rapid, we celebrated our survival and success with a “high five,” which included raising our oars into the air together and yelling “Pura Vida!” So, here's an oar to you - “Pura Vida!”

Our morning excursion today was a trip to the Biodiversity Park in San Jose. Officially titled INBioparque, this park houses a sample of the biodiversity of Costa Rica. There is a representation of most of the types of environments in Costa Rica, and within these live various plants and animals that appear in the actual Costa Rican counterpart. As we were shown, this park houses a research facility that studies all the various species. Their main focus is insects, plants, and mushrooms, though they study other biodiversity as well. They've discovered hundreds of species over the past few years, and 78 in the last year alone. Even at this moment, they have tons of species that they discovered, but have not yet named, so this year will be a full year for them as well.

The park's story concerning mushrooms is an interesting one. In Costa Rica, the people really only eat one type of mushroom – the ones they put on pizzas. Through the park's studies, they know that there are many types of mushrooms that would provide a great type of nourishment for people. On top of that, mushrooms are extremely easy to grow. As a result of the combination of these factors, the center is trying to spread the word and convince the public to grow mushrooms for themselves and so that Costa Rica can have a mushroom exporting business.

As we explored the park, we saw various animals ranging from fish, to frogs, to white-tailed deer, to snakes, to crocodiles and turtles, to iguanas. We also saw a great variety of plants. One plant we saw was one we once tried to grow in my freshman year biology class. If you touched it, the leafs closed up. My favorite part was probably the butterfly emporium they had. The butterflies were absolutely beautiful and there were so many. If you spread your arms out like an airplane, they would consider sitting on you, and a lucky few got to have a gorgeous butterfly atop their arm or their hat. I, however, did not get my butterfly experience until after I left. The saying goes that if a butterfly settles on you, you get seven years of good luck. Does settling on my backpack count for at least three and a half?

The schedule just said Team Building. We were given no other clues as to what was going on. Were we going to do trust falls? Do a human knot? We had no idea what to expect, but what we definitely didn't expect were Costa Rican men with sticks that have feathers and attached to either end.

On Tuesday we all gathered together at the university to become more “united.” As we walked onto a sports field which included a worn down basketball court, we were told to throw our backpacks against a tree and then come to be divided into teams. We were divided by which program we were with: Summer 2 (green team, my team), Global Impact, and two week.

Our first activity involved us holding hands in various confusing ways and passing a hula hoop over the whole group without letting go. I was put at the front of the line, and when the whistle blew to begin I climbed through the hula-hoop, and though I planned to let go, my mind never really connected with my hand, and I continued to hold the hula-hoop, which pretty quickly developed into a winning strategy. I would move with the line holding the hula hoop up for my teammates to make it easier for them to pass through. The people behind me were kind of forced to be pulled along with me as I did this. In the first round, we finished before any of the teams had gotten even halfway, and in the second round all the teams tried to mimic our strategy. We still were faster and more efficient, having gotten practice in the first round. Lots of high-fives were passed around for our accomplishment.

Our next challenge was to flip a member of our team over in various ways while she was holding water and to have the water not spill, followed by a challenge to stand up and sit down while all of us were hanging onto a rope that was tied in a circle. There was also a contest to see who could build a sort of bridge over an imaginary river with blocks faster and another to carry a tennis ball using strings from point A to point B. The ultimate test we did was we were given a man made spider web and through each hole we could have only one person pass. There were just enough holes for all of us. Being one of the lighter ones, I got to be hoisted in the air for one of the holes that was higher up and essentially got to experience a little bit of crowd surfing – though that life goal still doesn't count as accomplished.

This morning, we had to be at our activity for the day a little later than usual, at 10:00am in the morning. So my friends and I took advantage of this spare time to wake up early and walk around Heredia for a while. We took a similar route to the one we took during our tour, and just spent some extra time enjoying ourselves and taking in our surroundings. We ended at the market with the intent to buy something, but we ran out of time.

We returned to the university to have an art class, where we were given three dimensional wall hangings of a typical Puerto Rican house to paint, with assistance and help on how to do it well. In the end, all of ours turned out better than originally expected, which was a welcome surprise, and we were allowed to add a pre-made figurine to it, which ranged from a small dog to a woman carrying a pot.

Over the past few days, we've been battling with the people at the mall who sell cell phones. Every day we came back looking for a phone line or a cell phone, the process seemed to become more difficult. Finally, today it worked out. I received a local service plan for extremely cheap which is activated by a new SIM card I had to put in my phone. This will allow me to more easily and cheaply contact my friends in Costa Rica, taxis, or directors in case I need them. My other friends got cell phones, so now we can all communicate more efficiently.

And random fact of the day: For the past couple days I have been furiously scrubbing at my feet. Its extremely muddy here because of all the rain, and my feet have been dirty wherever my sandals weren't. Today, looking down, I realized it wasn't dirt/mud. It's a tan. For the last two or three days, I've been trying to scrub my tan away.

When I received my information about who my family was going to be, I was told I would have a host mother, father, brother, and two sisters. My actual family, however, is bigger than this. They forgot to mention another brother and another sister. These siblings popped up because of their association with my immediate siblings. The extra brother is the boyfriend of Mariela, my 18-year-old sister, and the extra sister is the girlfriend of Eric, my 17-year-old brother. Over the weekend, they spent most of their time at our house.

Surprisingly, there wasn't that sort of awkward dynamic between the parents and the boyfriend/girlfriend of my siblings. They were treated exactly as family. It was Eric's girlfriend's job to wash down the place mats we used for dinner every day she was here. The parents would ask the boyfriend/girlfriend to go retrieve something from the house and they would know exactly where it was. They would sit at the dinner table with us and help set the table, and were just in general completely integrated into the family.

When we are just all spending time together, they sit on the couch with us and watch television, or just talk to everyone. I don't know how long these relationships have actually been going on, but there just seems to be a much smoother integration into the family which is a bit of a contrast I feel to the United States. Though a relationship may be supported in the U.S. by the family, and the family may approve, there's never fully a sense of “He/She is part of our family,” which is very apparent here.

Julia and I walked to the University for the first time today. It's about a half hour's walk, but this is how long it takes just about everyone to get there. Our oldest sister walked us and there was a large group of our peers both in front and behind us. We agreed that we would walk with a couple of our friends tomorrow morning.

We received a tour of the University today and in general talked about what was going on this week. Today was placement test day. They divided us up first by program. The 2-week students, the Global Impact students, and the Summer 2 students were all divided up. Next, they divided us up by level. Each of us then had to take a placement test to make sure they had guessed correctly where we belonged.

Our classrooms are actually in the mall next to the university, which is a bit strange. Supposedly, those are the best classrooms La Universidad Latina owns, so no complaints there. We take two classes, one in grammar and another in conversation and culture. Our grammar teacher seems to be really laid back, while our Conversation teacher has a very inflexible plan about how the next few weeks will go. My class is made up of five students, and together we've decided to work on the LPI scavenger hunt, where students go around and essentially find out what there is to experience in Costa Rica and then do it. We call it the Reta, or the challenge.

Slowly as the group gets to know each other the pieces are beginning to fall together. We are starting to get the hang of life here. We still have a lot to learn, but we're getting it.

The first night, while my roommate was busy getting physically sick and dealing with stomach pains, I was busy with my own bout of homesickness. My roommate went to bed early to try and feel better and I was left awake alone, working on my blog. I was fine; I had no worries or qualms then. It started when I finished writing and it was time for me to get ready for bed.

I had left the light on in the bathroom for no logical reason to be completely honest. Our bathroom has a window leading outside which essentially works like those rigid hanging curtains some people have where you pull a string for them to turn left or right to let more or less light in from the outside. What this means is that it is pretty easy for a bug to get inside our bathroom, and therefore our room as well. Since it was nighttime, our light was one of the few the bugs could find, so fly to it they did. When I got into the bathroom there were at least 10 moths banging themselves against the uncovered light bulb, and more were flying in along with the occasional mosquito.

Occasionally they would settle down, but if I produced any sort of air current by moving, they would start buzzing in circles again. Not really a pleasant experience if an insect doesn't really fall under the category of being your favorite type of animal. As I moved through the bathroom, I stayed low to the ground, doing my best not to disturb the annoying moths.

When Julia and I arrived at the house, our host family showed us how to use the shower, but somehow, I just couldn't get it right. I could not get the water to be any warmer than freezing no matter how long I waited, or which way I twisted the knob. So at some point I just jumped in and out to douse myself in the Lake Michigan worthy water and repeated the process after I soaped up. I was cold, kind of miserable, and felt a lot like our chihuahua did after it poured rain and he was stuck outside. I kept thinking, “what went through my mind when I decided that Costa Rica was right for me?” and “I only have to jump in that shower twenty-eight more times, twenty-eight more times...”

Today, though, I made an effort to make adjustments. I avoided turning on the bathroom light completely if possible and asked for additional help in figuring out the shower. Hot water is possible! It works differently than in the United States. Here, showers are very much just a mechanism of cleaning yourself. They are not a place for relaxation or reflection. The way they warm the water is different as well. They use a sort of “on-demand” hot water system. Above the shower head is a sort of box. When one turns on the water, they also turn on the box. Water runs through this box before coming out of the shower. In this box is a set of coils that heat up. As water runs over them, the heat is transferred to them. As a result, the less water you use, the warmer the water, since it has more exposure to the coils. The more water you use, the colder the water, so it ends up being a sort of trade-off.

The moths ceased their spirals around my head, and the water ceased to be cold, all before the week has even begun.

There's a mall right outside of our university, complete with various stores that are similar to those in the United States, but with different names, as I believe I mentioned before. A walk down a single long street brings you to the center of the city. You must be careful as you walk, however. In order to accommodate for the endless rain that pours during the winter here (and it is currently winter), ditches are built between every road and sidewalk (where there is a sidewalk). Cars also have the right of way here as opposed to pedestrians, which is definitely something that will take some getting used to with some helps from the tugs on my shoulder from my friends.

At the center of the city, we found a park adjacent to a church, complete with street vendors and an incredible amount of greenery. There was also a plaza filled with statues. The statues are all by a single artist who was a drug addict and used art as a way of recovering. We also found a pool and a sports stadium which we are looking into to attend an event.

Towards the end of our day, we were driven down to San Jose to visit the San Jose campus of our university to have general orientation along with the ISA students. Along the way, we quickly discovered that Costa Rican ads are just not the same as those in America...