COSTA RICA (week 3)

Week 3 already?

Sunday, May 23, 2010:

I had my first experience with a cockroach this day. I had just started using the bathroom when I glanced over at the door and was greeted by a HUGE cockroach. Now if you know me at all, you'd know that I can be quite a girl when it comes to bugs, and this time was no different. I immediately stood on the toilet and squirmed as the cockroach made it's way down toward the doorknob. Knowing I would be stuck in the bathroom the rest of the night if I didn't move fast, I flew open the door before the cockroach reached the knob and ran straight into Kate's room. Laughing at my crazyness, she decided to have a look for herself and became equally grossed out. Our solution? Knock on our Tica sister's door...she's used to cockroaches, right? Obviously not enough, because she yelled for our mama Tica who was already sleeping, and she ended up being the one who killed the sucker. As much as I hated seeing the cockroach, it was definitely a hilarious moment we were all able to share, which I loved!

Monday, May 24, 2010:

My Oral and Written Expression professor is always thinking of fun ways to help us get a better grasp on the Spanish, and to practice commands, he invited 5 of us to his house to cook a variety of delicious foods. In order to save money and avoid making a fool of myself, I decided to bake some brownies, which turned out to be awesome! I was impressed with how everything turned out, actually. We had gallo pinto, sushi, guacamole, strawberry vinaigrette salad, mini sandwiches, mini pastries, and of course, brownies.

My professor!

All the food!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010:

Our cultural activity for the week was the best one yet. We visited the museo de los niños and had a blast! It was nice forgetting about the stresses of school and acting like a kid for a couple hours.

Playing dress-up!

"High-five Mr. Colgate!"

What's a children's museum without a swing set?

I loved how the museum was a castle!

After we were finished with the museum, Angie, Kate, Price, and I went to get smoothies from a place Price discovered. A smoothie sounded delicious, but unfortunately my smoothie wasn't at all what I expected. I was feeling adventurous and decided to order what I thought was a tomato, pineapple, and plum smoothie. Sure that probably doesn't even sound very appealing to anyone but me, but what my smoothie turned out to be was even less appealing! "Apio" is the Spanish word for celery, and the rest of the group and I thought "apio" was the word for plum. So while I was aiming for a smoothie that tasted like V8 splash, I was left with a smoothie that tasted (according to Kate) "like grass." Somehow I managed to drink half of it in hopes that it would taste better, and it never really did. Hah! At least it's a funny story to tell!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010:

Kate, Angie, and I decided to see another movie, and "Dear John" was really the only thing that stuck out to us. I had mixed feelings about seeing this movie, because originally I thought it didn't look very good, but I was pleasantly surprised. Channing Tatum wasn't his usual ghetto self, and I loved Amanda Seyfried! The movie also had an unexpected twist. I love unpredictable love stories. However, watching a chick flick made me miss Luke even more. :(

Friday, May 28 - Sunday, May 30, 2010:

For our third excursion, we headed to the relaxing Manuel Antonio after classes on Friday. We weren't stuck on the bus for too long, which was nice. When we arrived to our hotel at around 4:30, we unpacked our stuff and headed straight for the beach. Although this hotel wasn't as nice as the others, the beach was incredible! There weren't a lot of people and it was so peaceful. We decided to walk the beach and explore the shops until we were hungry for dinner. We went to a restaurant across from the beach and the food was awesome. I ordered pesto and a bottle of coke. I wish I would have ordered the fish, though, because it was delicious! After we ate, Kate and I hung out in the hotel room, and I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants dubbed in Spanish! It was pretty entertaining.

Manuel Antonio at it's finest!

Or is this it's finest?

Angie and me at dinner!

Pesto!

Saturday and Sunday I literally spent the whole day on the beach. I decided not to participate in any extra excursions to just take a weekend to RELAX. I have no regrets. I woke up early on Saturday and was able to see the most beautiful rainbow. We spent the rest of the day laying out, boogie boarding, and swimming. The waves in Manuel Antonio were SO powerful. I couldn't even keep my balance most of the time. We also spent a little time swimming in the pool. I was sad when the sun started setting, but dinner was delicious, once again. I ordered fajitas and they were the best fajitas I've ever had. Dinner was also pretty entertaining because a TON of monkeys surrounded our restaurant. After dinner, we went to get snacks from the store and then a bunch of the girls chatted in the room for the night. We woke up early the next morning to eat breakfast, and we were supposed to go on a tour to the National Park, but the group left without us! It was kind of a bummer, but Angie, Kate, and I ended up having some good Jesus time on the beach, which is better than any tour of any park!

Rainbow!

Yay for pretty backgrounds!

Jumping for joy because Manuel Antonio is BEAUTIFUL!

Boogie boarding!

Coconut milk!

Monkeys!

Puerto Viejo is our next excursion, and I can't believe it's our last one. My time in Costa Rica is coming to a close! I'm excited to spend the next 2 weeks taking advantage of every moment!

As always...

PURA VIDA!