So much has happened since my last post that I don’t even know where to begin. Last weekend we went on a field trip to Café Britt (a coffee plantation) and Volcano Poas. It was so much fun! The tour of the coffee plantation was really funny and pretty. Then we had lunch on our way up to the volcano, the food was so good! In fact I have really enjoyed everything I have eaten here! (Except for papaya that fruit is NASTY!!) The volcano was so cool!! Of course right when we got to it my camera died so I didn’t get to take that many pictures, but I’m just going to steal some from others. It was pouring and the night before I had lost my umbrella while we were out (me lose something?! What a surprise!) So I only had my “waterproof” jacket to keep me dry. After about 10 min I realized the jacket I had bought strictly for Costa Rica wasn’t that waterproof and by the time we were back on the bus I was soaked and freezing! But it was so beautiful up there and we were able to hike a trail which was so much fun, I only wish we could have had more time to explore (and that I had a umbrella haha)
That Sunday was the last day of the festival in Barva and we went out with a bang! My friend Amber’s hermano was having a party to celebrate so a group of us went over there. We had good food, good drinks (including moonshine) and good company. The best part was that his house was the last spot of the parade, so we had hundreds of kids running around in masks hitting whoever dared to stand in the streets, a live band that came up onto the porch, dancing, and tons of warm rain. It was so much fun, we threw out bags of jello for the kids and “special” jello for the adults and then I decided to be daring and go dance with everyone in the streets, it was so much fun, but I did get hit 4 or 5 times by the pig bladders and smelt so bad afterwards!
During the week I only have class from 8-11 so it is basically like a weekend every day. A group of us went out to ladies night on Monday and danced the night away, the next day instead of school we had a field trip to San Jose.
In San Jose we visited the National Theatre, Museum of Gold, and the Central Market. Of course once we got there I realized my memory card wasn’t in my camera so once again I don’t have that many pictures (I’m really bad at this!) but I’ll steal some pics from others so everyone can see. The national theatre was gorgeous and a group of us are planning to go back to watch a show. The museum was ok, the first floor was really lame, but the second and third floors had tons of gold and stone sculptures which were really cool. The central market was really interesting as well. It was hidden inside this HUGE building and we weaved in and out of stores that had everything from backpacks, fresh meat (chicken feet, fresh) to souvenirs. I didn’t want to buy anything and my mom is nice enough to pack me lunch every day but I did decide to have a chocolate milkshake and sit with friends while they ate. As we were driving back my friend Morgan was trying to take a picture of a building in San Jose from outside the window on the bus and a man ran up and grabbed it from her hands and ran off! It was so scary and she got really shaken up but she was ok, and while it sucks that she got her camera stolen at least she wasn’t hurt in the process.
Wednesdays we always play soccer at a local gym for an hour. We must be so funny to watch because only a handful of people have ever played before and half of those people (including me) haven’t played in YEARS!! But since we all pretty much suck it’s still really fun and a good workout! Carlitos (one of the USAC people) told Jules and I that there is some local camps for volleyball coming up so we could go and play with local Ticos. I’m so excited to play!
After Wednesday I didn’t do much, while we don’t spend much time in the classroom we do get hw and if you put off the hw (like I did) it piles up by the end of the week, so all day Thursday I worked with others in my class on hw. We are reading a 4th grade level book in Spanish and it is SO hard!!! It’s funny that we can’t even handle a book made for kids that are 10.
This weekend 30 of us are traveled to Joca for the weekend, a local beach. I heard it was dirty from a lot of people but I actually didn’t think it was bad at all and I ended up having an AMAZING weekend. We got there in the evening on Friday, 8 of us had decided to use a different hostel then the rest of us so we said bye to everyone and set off to find ours. When we got there it was really run down with broken windows, then we realized it was closed down and we thought we had gotten ripped off but luckily we had a number to call and found out that we were actually staying in some ones house who has a side room with 8 beds, a couple showers, and a kitchen. The people we stayed with were a couple of hippies Hungary and the states and were living the life in Costa Rica, no job just surfing and allowing travels to crash at their place for ten dollars a night. They were actually really cool and fun, they had a pool so we took full advantage of it swimming until we went out. Then we went to a local club sang some karaoke and then hit up a club with dancing and danced the night away. The next day we decided to spend it at the beach, we were able to rent boards from the people from the hostel for 5 bucks and just laid out in the sun, it was really relaxing. Right before we left Lyndsey and I saw a group of ticos boxing with gloves on and I convinced her to box me, it was so much fun! We went out again that night and sang karaoke again, I was caught on video haha. Sunday 4 of us decided to rent ATVS and go up into the mountains, it was so pretty up there and so much fun. I actually remembered my camera so I finally have a good set of pictures, they are up on facebook. After we grabbed lunch and headed home, it was an amazing weekend.
Oh and one last thing here is a list of things I have learned since being in Costa Rica:
1. 500 colones = 1 dollar, while some things are a lot cheaper (taxis are like 4 bucks) other things are way more expensive, (cheapest umbrella is 14 bucks and cheapest hairdryer is around 100!)
2. The beer to drink here is Imperial and I have to admit it is pretty damn good.
3. Pedestrians don’t have to right of way…ever… so if you don’t get out of the way, you are going to get hit.
4. With that being said we are constantly sprinting across the streets because we are scared of getting hit and it’s one of the easiest ways to pick out a gringo. Other ways? We wear backpacks, we constantly look lost, and of course when we open our mouths.
5. Cars are constantly honking here and I’ve figured out the reasons why, they either honk to say, “Get the hell out of the way”, “go ahead and cross,” “thanks”, or most commonly “you’re a gringa.”
6. Men are constantly whistling and making comments at us gringas walking by, because they think it’s a compliment and they find it amusing that we can’t understand what they are saying (I can’t wait till I can.)
7. Some Costa Rican’s will try to rip you off because they think you are rich, I have been overcharged twice in a taxi, but haven’t wanted to get into a heated debate so let it go.
8. Most ticos are extremely nice and helpful, I think they appreciate that we are ballsy enough to go into a country that doesn’t speak the same language and try to learn it.
9. I am really considering looking into teaching English abroad. I have met tons of people from all over the world that are doing that here and even though I have only been here for two weeks I can really see myself enjoying something like that.
10. I met someone from the states that got his masters in business from here, you can take the classes in english or Spanish and the program was started by Harvard in the 60’s. Found my grad program???

That’s it for now. I know it’s long but I think I’m going to have to resort to a few long ones every once in a while instead of a lot of short ones since I don’t have internet at my house.

Pura Vida,
Sierra

Pura Vida!

I’m finally in Costa Rica! The flight was long a grueling with a lot of challenges. We were told that we were getting our visas in Costa Rica but the person checking me in wouldn’t let me board without one or a plane ticket back within 90 days!! So luckily we found out it could be refundable and my mom was nice enough to put it on her card for me so I could get on the plane!!! I didn’t run into any other problems getting into the country but I couldn’t sleep at all so by the time I landed in Costa Rica I had gone 24 hours with barely any sleep. Luckily the excitement of being in a new country gave me some energy.

As soon as I had grabbed my luggage my host family picked me up and took me to their place. Felipe had painted a sign with my name on it, it was so cute!!! Felipe is my hermano, he is ten and so nice, we like to play cards with each other. My mama’s name is Celia, she is very nice and provided me with my own room and bathroom and it constantly feeding me!! I finally learned to say I'm full, so she understands that I don't need any more food! My hermana Carla is 31 and nice, I haven’t talked to her much yet but she makes sure I know how to get around town and what taxis to use and so on. No one in my family speaks any english so right now I’m having a very hard time communicating with them, but it's been fun trying to figure each other out.

Our first night out was so much fun, we had a huge group, around 20 of us, and we went to the local bars and watched futbol and drank cervesas. We had a local tico (one of the hermanos of a classmate) show us a couple bars, the Ticos are very nice here and really funny!

I also have been running in the morning (surprisingly) but its so hot and humid with a TON of hills here that after a 25 min run i'm literally dripping in sweat!! But it is so much fun exploring the city on my own and learning my way around the town, (no I haven't gotten lost surprisingly! Luckily in Costa Rica every house is completely different from the next) Oh and by the way all you men out there that make fun of women for not knowing street names and only knowing landmarks, in Costa Rica they don’t have ANY street names they only know how to get places by landmarks!! For example an address for a house would be something like, Santa Lucia, 500 metros (blocks) este of the orange trees 200 metros norte from the school, the blue house. So we know what we are talking about when we go by landmarks not street names!

There is also a crazy two week long fiesta going on right now in Barva (a suburb of Heredia) where people wear masks and try to hit people on the streets with pig bladders while everyone runs away, its kind of crazy but so much fun to watch. I actually got hit once, which was kind of gross but cool that I was apart of the festivities.

Every night they have live music, parades, fireworks, and some many other things to do it has been amazing. Tuesday night a group of us went out and enjoyed the festival and then went to a near by bar. We met local ticos that could speak english and we hugn out all night! I even met my future husband (he just doesn't know it yet) Don't worry mom he is a keeper, he owns a bar, real estate, speaks four languages, can dance, plays the guitar and sings, is really funny, and very cute! I fell in love. Too bad he has a girlfriend :(. I'll win him over by the end though haha!!

Well thats all for now! It's hard to write on here becuase I only have internet at the school and it goes in and out but i'll try to keep this as up to date as I can.

Hasta Luego!

Sierra

P.S. it takes way to logn to upload pics on this thing so check out facebook for pictures

It's Here!

I leave tomorrow for Costa Rica! I can't believe it is actually here! I feel like it would never get here and now that it has I feel like I'm so unprepared and not quite ready! Hopefully I have everything I need and haven't forgot anything!! By the way you think Skylar's room was bad check out mine!

13 days!

Alright so I'm the last one to post and yes Skylar it was because I couldn't figure out how to do anything on here, hence the e-mail Brandy had to send us on Facebook to explain.

So I leave in 13 days!! Ahhhh! So excited!

With that being said I just have to talk about my last night in Chico, since it is the town all three of us are leaving.
Since it was my last night in town I decided to go out with my friends Jeff, Chase, and Haley. We started out at Buck Night at Rileys. All drinks are $1 so needless to say we were able to get drunk fairly quickly and decided to head over to 90's night at La Salles and this is where our night became interesting. Chase had reached a point of no return by the time we had reached La Salles so while we danced our asses off to Backstreet Boys and TLC, Chase danced and tried to get on every girl in sight. After watching him make a fool of himself at the bar we decided it was time he went home.
The 3 of us wanted to stay out though so we flagged down a cab forced Chase into it (which was no easy task) gave the cab directions and 15 bucks to drop Chase off. We then continued to the next bar. The next couple bars consisted of shots, beers, and more shots, or at least that's what Jeff and Hayley had, I decided to chug water instead, until we were kicked out since it was 2am and the bars were officially closed.
The three of us decided to walk through campus on our way home which resulted in Jeff and I racing and losing Hayley and his flip flops. While I tried to find Hayley I told Jeff to find his shoes but instead Hayley found him, his shoes and then me. Jeff then began to yell at me telling me I had left him which was pretty hilarious.
Instead of dropping Hayley off at her apartment which we walked right past on our way home we decided we should have a slumber party at Jeff's but when we got to his apartment Jeff realized he didn't have his keys. I began pounding on the door hoping Chase would wake up and open it but after ten min, Jeff remembered he had a key in his wallet (good job Jeff).
Once we got in we ran to Chase's room to wake him up only to find out he wasn't there! (Remember we had sent him home in a cab earlier that night)
The next couple hours consisted of all three of us calling everyone we knew to find him as well as his phone over and over. (I called around 80 times no joke) After calling the Oroville Jail and hearing that he wasn't there we decided to give up and if he hadn't shown up by 8 the next morning I was going to call the police.
At 7 I am woken up to a still drunk Chase, with one flip flop on, a t-shirt torn to shreds and a very large scratch on his stomach. Chase had woken up naked on the floor of an empty apartment and only realized he was in the wrong place when he peed in the toilet and there was cleaner in it (the no furniture thing wasn't a tip off?) When he walked outside he realized it wasn't even the right complex!!! He had no idea how he had gotten there but it sure made the morning after an interesting one for all of us!

With an goodbye like that I cannot wait to see what is going to happen in Costa Rica!
P.S. Sky I'll post in green :)