7 días más/Pensamientos Finales

In exaactly 7 days, I will be home! I can not believe it!

My heart is really torn about leaving...I am just as excited about going home as I am sad about leaving here. Bittersweet. But I am so, so, so happy with the way that I took advantage of my time spent here. I have no regrets looking back (although I still have a lot of work to do with my Spanish)-I saw, learned, did so much. I do think it could be very easy to be here for 4 months and see only the surface of the country, as did a lot of people in my study abroad program. I feel sad for those people because they won't look back on their time here with the same appreciation that I feel. I think that my study abroad experience will have a lot of influence on how I approach different situations throughout my life- studying here was one of the best decisions I could have made, and it was a decision that I almost didn't make.

Since starting university, I had always envisioned myself studying abroad somewhere in Europe, so when it became clear that Europe wasn't really an option for my area of study/bank account, I had to decide really really quickly what I was going to do. I decided on Costa Rica with a little push from my friend James and my Dad and because the study abroad office told me that I should, but I barely did any research on it before coming here. All I knew was that a lot of people come through here on cruises and stuff, so I was envisioning  a tropical paradise full of beaches and sunsets and resorts and stuff. To be honest, I really wasn't that excited about coming here. I was nervous and scared and not looking forward to it and I just had to keep telling myself that those feelings were good, that I shouldn't fight them, that it was necessary to push myself outside of my comfort zone.

Costa Rica is sooo much more than a resort/cruise destination, as you can see if you look through the rest of my blog and talk to me after I come home. The people, history, places, and lifestyle in this tiny little country have taught me an indispensable amount, and I have taken away more than I think I could have taken away in another study abroad program. Costa Rica was the absolute perfect fit for where I am in my life right now, and it has set me up for a future of exploring the rest of Latin America (once I have the funds..) and continuing to learn the language.

I won't be able to say for sure how this experience has affected me until I have re-adjusted to my life at home after returning, but I know I have at least gained an appreciation for Latin American culture and have definitely grown up quite a bit in the short time that I have been here. Living in a place where no one understands me has helped me to understand myself more. Does that make sense? English can be hard for me now.

Either way,
Pura Vida

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Things I will not miss about Costa Rica:
-Rice & Beans
-Car exhaust in my lungs

-Being whistled/yelled/stared at
-Bugs
-Dogs being mean and loud
-Language barriers/not being able to communicate exactly what I feel
-People not understanding what a vegan is
-Internet that cuts out every 5 minutes (1st world problems, I know)
-LMFAO/Latino's have the worst taste in music/no live music anywhere
-Missing my friends and famil


Things I will miss about Costa Rica:
-Speaking in Spanish
-The incredible biodiversity/everything everywhere being beautiful
-Being considered exotic (also known as: never having to buy my own drinks)
-Traveling every weekend, always to somewhere amazing
-My friends from my program/Tico friends
-The beautiful weather of the Central Valley
-Tropical fruits (pineapple will never be the same again after these 4 months)
-Knowing time here is limited=truly savoring every moment
-Tico Time/Pura Vida/Never having to worry about time or schedules or generally being responsible
-Being able to travel cheaply/ do everything cheaply
-Being tan
-Stray dogs in the dining hall
-Awesome public transportation to everywhere in the country

-Meeting new and interesting people everywhere
-Latin dancing
-Los Ticos/The most wonderful people in the world

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This past weekend I saw a Leatherback Turtle (the largest turtle in the world-this lady was about 6 feet long!) laying her eggs under the stars on the Caribbean beach of Toruguero. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen-I had tears in my eyes as I watched her carefully take time (2 hours!) to find the right spot, dig a hole, lay her eggs, and then cover them up and camouflage them so that they are all protected. Only about 1 in every 1000 eggs ends up surviving to reproductive age, so the chances are slim of even one of her 80 eggs becoming an adult.

It is not yet full-on laying season so we were very lucky to be able to see this. Danielle and I think we have good animal karma, being vegans and all, so I would recommend a vegan cleanse or something if you ever plan on coming to a country with amazing wildlife like Costa Rica, just to be safe... =)

We weren't allowed to take pictures or anything, but for your reference, this is a leatherback turtle

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Until I leave:
-Three days ago we went on a field trip with my bio class (all 3 of us) to a beauuutiful nature reserve about an hour outside San Jose. The woman on the reserve has faced a lot of discrimination in her fight to keep her property and conserve the wildlife there, and her story was incredibly inspiring.
-Yesterday I gave a 10 minute presentation about el veganismo for my Conversations final! My Spanish has improved so much since being here, and being able to do that made me feel awesome! And my teacher didn't know much about veganism and she seemed really interested which was pretty cool. Definitely going to miss that class.
-This weekend, Danielle and I are gonna have our last BFF getaway to the beach and this national park where we are hoping to see some wild scarlet macaws. Vamos a ver! It's gonna be a sad sad day when I say goodbye to that chica
-I am TERRIFIED of packing up all my stuff because I am sure there are cockroaches hiding in some of my nooks and crannies. alskdjfaklnsdflkasnf
-I will very likely be going through a rollercoaster of emotions, stay tuned! See you all soon!!


Also, special shout out to mi Mamá and Ed, who are in Spain right now! Hope you are having an amazing time and I can't wait to see you next weekend =)


Y finalmente, una foto de mí con un bebé latino (el sobrino de un amigo):

Parece bien, verdad?! Tehe

I probably am not going to update again before I leave, so next time you hear from me will be in person!

Nos vemos muy pronto =)

La mejor semana!

I know I've said this before but it's really true-every weekend here gets better and better. Except not anymore because this past weekend I am 100% sure can not be topped.

Last week was a really fun week. I think we are all starting to get freaked out about how soon we are leaving (less than 3 weeks! Gasp!) so we are trying to enjoy every moment of being here. We went out a few times last week, culminating in going dancing Thursday night which was, as always, a blast.

Then came the weekend that we have been planning for months!!! Danielle, Austin, Jade, me, and Patrick & Julian, our 2 new friends from Austria and Australia, left Friday for Mastatal, a small, secluded and completely undeveloped little farming town of about 80 people, 3 hours away from San Jose. It was by far the most beautiful place I have been to in Costa Rica, probably because it is so incredibly undeveloped (my Tico friends in Heredia had never even heard of it). Just nature being nature with some cows thrown in.

The only street in Mastatal

So many people envision Costa Rica as just being one big expanse of beach and resorts, myself included before coming here. While there is that presence, Costa Rica is so so so much richer than that. Not too many people think of this when they think of Costa Rica:

Que linda!

We were in Mastatal to volunteer for the weekend at La Iguana Chocolate, a cacao farm that produces their own chocolate. It is run by an incredibly sweet Tico family, and relies completely on volunteers to function. They fed us 3 delicious meals + 4 pieces of chocolate a day (with vegan brownies one night!!!!!!!!!!) in exchange for helping them with the process. Right now they were preparing for the rainy season so while the girls helped shell Cacao beans, the boys dug some trenches to soak up the rain.

Volunteer area

View from the shower!!

Cacao beans ready for being shelled

Hard at work peeling cacao beans

Cacao pod growing-I learned so much about the chocolate making process!

To be honest, we only really put in about 2 hours of volunteer work. There were a lot of volunteers this past weekend, about 15 of us from all around the world, and not too much work to be done, plus on Sundays they don't work. So instead they showed us alll around the area. Throughout the weekend, we went on 3 absolutely magnificent hikes to different rivers, waterfalls, amazing views, etc etc, all of which have barely been affected by humans. Like I said, most beautiful part of Costa Rica I have been to.

Everyone at Iguana Chocolate was awesome, from the volunteers to the Tico family to the Mastatal locals. They took us out one night (about a 20 minute uphill walk to the nearest bar) where I got to practice my Spanish skills with Juan Luis, the Tico padre of La Iguana. I actually spoke in Spanish a lot this weekend-I am almost done my Spanish studies here so it was very reassuring to know that I can carry on some conversations.

Some of the volunteers-repping the US, Austria, Australia, Spain & France! 

Mikael and I-this kid was so ADD but so funny

By Sunday, we decided we weren't ready to leave so we decided to skip class Monday and stick around. So glad we did!

Volunteering at la Iguana Chocolate reminded me so much of Ionia (the place I WWOOFed at last summer in Alaska). I really, really, really didn't want to leave. But I am very certain I will return some day. I even talked to one of the sons there, Jorge, about sometime coming back to be the volunteer coordinator there.  The whole weekend I was seething with envy of Stephanie, the current volunteer coordinator.


17 more days! What!?


I can not belieeeeve how soon I am going to be back in the states. While this freaks me out in every way, I am beginning to feel ready to come home. I am coming off about 4 or 5 absolutely incredible weeks, some of the best of my life, so I feel a little as though my work here is done for the time being. While I have big plans to come back to Central/South America in the next few years (either to WWOOF, teach English, travel, or a mix), I am missing all of my friends and family a lot and can not wait to see everyone again.


Before I leave, I will make a list of things about Costa Rica that I will miss (it will be a long list), but here are some things I miss about home:

-Friends/Family
-Food. Today was Panera. Yesterday was Busboy's and Poets. What I wouldn't do for some tempeh...and really for anything other than rice and beans. Oh and Chai lattes. And anything my mom makes. And my Dad's/Linda's portobello mushroom burgers. And Chipotle (but I have big plans to cover that one during my Dallas layover) Mmmmmmm.....
-Being able to drive places any time I want
-Friends/Family
-The Food Network
-Not being whistled/hollered at every second I am moving/not inside
-Not being afraid of cockroaches every time I open any door in my house
-Actually there aren't too many things I miss but friends and family take up a very very big section of my heart so it's a big deal!

PANAMA! and this week

Hi everyone! I am procrastinating a looot of homework and thought I would update on my Spring Break in Panama and this past week which were both wonderful!!

Panama
We went to Bocas del Toro, Panama, a group of islands off the Caribbean coast of Panama, not too far from the Costa Rica border.  The Panama-Costa Rica border is this super old bridge that you feel dangerously close to falling through the whole time you are walking it. Sketch!

But Ray Lewis was crossing the border with me so I felt safe

This Panamanian guy had no idea what he was wearing

Bocas was beautiful. We spent most of our time on one of the more secluded islands, Isla Bastimientos.

Day 1: Hike!
We went on this pretty long and pretty difficult but amazingly beautiful hike through the jungle and beaches to the highest point of the island. At the top there is a Finnish woman who runs a chocolate and coffee farm. We bought vegan chocolate coconut truffles that were the most delicious thing I could have eaten after 3 hours of hiking in the muddy jungle. Next to her property there is this restaurant where this European guy cooks you Thai food from local organic vegetables. He only charged us $10 each for 2 amazingly delicious courses and a coconut cocktail!

The beginning of the hike

Delicious truffles!

View from the Thai restaurant

Danielle and I with our free cocktails!

Day 2: Kayaking and snorkeling
Our hostel was awesome (and only 7.50 a night!) and had all of these activities that we could sign up for. We decided to do the kayaking and snorkeling tour that went through the mangroves and to this really small Panamanian village on the island. Eating at the village was really cool because we were able to support the local economy there and it was really interesting to see how the Panamanians live. Panama is a lot poorer than Costa Rica and there are a lot more small villages like that.
The kayak trip was a tonn of fun and snorkeling was sooooooo cool!! We saw so many cool marine communities and sweet fish! Such a good day!

Our kayak group!

Kayaking through mangroves

The restaurant that we ate at in the small village

Starfish!

Touching this cool jiggly sea thing

Day 3: Bike ride to caves!
We changed location to go to the main Bocas island for the final 2 days of the trip. The main Bocas island is a little more touristy but very cool. When we got there, we rented bikes and went on this long beautiful (and hilly!) bike ride up to this cool cave. We didn't go too far into the cave because the bats were flying at our faces and we were not into that. At one point during the bike ride, it started pouring down rain which was really really really cool.

At the entrance to the cave

Later that night we went out. The bars in Bocas are so cool. They all have big holes in the middle of their decks where you can swim around, and one that we went to had a swing where you could swing into the ocean! Awesome.

Day 4: Playa Estrella

Our last full day in Panama we went to Playa Estrella, or Starfish Beach. We got some sun there and snorkeled a bit. There were so many starfish in the ocean, it was awesome!!

Panama is a desktop background

After we left Panama, Danielle and I spent a couple of days in Puerto Viejo, the Caribbean beach town in Costa Rica that we went to on our first weekend. Since it was Semana Santa, all the Ticos were spending their vacation there! It was so different from the first time we were there and it was almost all foreigners. 

This past week

This past week in Heredia has been so much fun! It's not always a blast here but this week certainly was. Wednesday was independence day so we didn't have class, so Tuesday we all went out downtown to celebrate Kate's birthday. It was super fun. And then Wednesday we went to an international soccer game-Costa Rica vs. Honderus!! It was awesome! There were a lot more people than la liga game we went to a couple months ago and the crowd was loco.

Saturday morning, me, Danielle, Catherine, and 2 guys we met in Puerto Viejo from Europe/Australia went to the Braulio Carrillo national park, which is the closest park to San Jose.

Some history on the Braulio Carrillo National Park: Before the 70s, the only road that went from the Pacific side to the Caribbean side was a really long road that went along the south side of Costa Rica, along the Panama border. The government wanted to build a road that would cut through the center of the country, but that would involve destructing a lot of natural forest habitat. Environmental lobbyists agreed to let the road be built, but on the condition that all of the area around the road remain protected-no turning it into agricultural land. So Braulio Carrillo is this giaaaant protected area of a million different kinds of habitats, however there is a highway that goes straight through it. 

There are a few hiking areas in the park, and we spent the day hiking around. It was unbelievably beautiful, probably the prettiest hike we have done in Costa Rica. So green and untouched and different and absolutely full of life. The noises of the birds and insects were so loud, it sounded like someone was playing  "jungle sounds" sleep music on full blast.

This tree was giant!!!

El rio sucio: The river is colored this way because of deposits from volcanic minerals

Next weekend=WWOOFing on a chocolate farm!! Can not wait =)

Pura Vida!

The past 3 weeks

Sorry everyone!! It has been a really long time since I updated this. I wrote a whole post last week and then it all got deleted and I haven't had the energy to re-write it.

I leave for my second spring break tomorrow and I have a lot of stuff to do before I leave so I'm gonna keep it short!

HILLARY AND MAHILA VISITED!
I was so so blessed to have two of my BFFs from home come to visit  me during their Spring Break. It was wonderful! We went to Montezuma and did some awesome cliff jumping into waterfalls and stuff and had awesome friend times. They went to La Fortuna for a couple days while I was in class and when they came back we went to La Festival Internacional de Arte in San Jose and then they left! Their time here came and went waaay too fast but I was so so so happy they came and they rated their trip a 10/10 which is all I wanted!

At the bus stop in San Jose. 

Exploring Montezuma with the best people ever

Montezuma Waterfall

Jungle beach! Playa Grande

At la FIA-saw some really cool bands from the Caribbean and from Peru. Fun timez

TEATRO NACIONAL

We went to the Nacional Theater in San Jose to see an orchestra, and then went out dancing afterwards. Both were very quintessential Latinoamerica experiences. Such a blast!! Dancing is so fun. I did a Merengue with Carlitos, our dance teacher, and was spinning around so much that I lost all recognition of space and time. Too fun.

Some chicas and Blake before the theater & dancing 

LA FORTUNALast weekend was the final planned USAC trip. We went to La Fortuna, where Arenal volcano is-it's one of the most active volcanoes in the world!

The first thing we did was go to the Baldi Hot Springs, which is basically a resort (it was on the Bachelor once) where they pump in water from the natural hot springs that are heated by the thermal activity of the volcano.
The "resort" aspect wasn't my favorite-I would have rather gone to the real deal hot river. Hill and Shmahi went there when they were in La Fortuna and said it was awesome! Can't really complain about spending all day in a 4 star resort though I suppose.

Baldi Hot Springs

The second day that we were in La Fortuna we went on a hanging bridges tour and hike around the forest that surrounds the volcano. It was suuuch a beautiful hike. The forest was so lush and beautiful and the hanging bridges were pretty sweet.

FIA

All week in San Jose was la Festival Internacional de Arte. There were concerts every night, artisans selling really beautiful stuff, and lots of cool vendors, information booths and activities. We went back for the last day of the festival and spent the day there walking around and then saw Alan Parsons at night who I had never heard of before but apparently is some classic rock guy from the 70s. 

La FIA

Me Catherine and Jacki waiting for Alan Parsons
'

OTHER THINGS

-So I'm going to the Caribbean side of CR and to Bocas del Toro, Panama until next Sunday! Very very excited. Won't be able to be reached probably until afterwards.

-My friend Miguel told me today that my Spanish has improved a lot since we first met in January! Score!!!

-I worked out with two of my guy friends here a couple days ago and STILL can barely walk from how hardcore the workout was. Might not be doing that again because walking is important.

-BUT went to yoga last night and Andres helped me stretch my legs. Yoga in Spanish makes me laugh sometimes but I don't know why.

-I have a new roommate, Jacki, because Charlie my old roommate is crazy and ended up going back to the US. Which is wonderful because she was NUTS and Jacki is normal and my friend and we trade massages (what more can you want from a roommate) and go to yoga together.

When I get back from Panama, I'm going to have less than 5 weeks left in Costa Rica. I can't believe how fast this semester went!!! I am going to be really sad to leave but I will also be really excited to see everyone at home. Danielle and I have some awesome weekends planned before then though =) =)

Ok I'll update again in a couple weeks!

Love,

Rachel

PS here is a video of Mahila jumping off of the highest waterfall we jumped off when they were here-45 feet!!! SO COOL! Really really really really cool. And scary. But safe I promise!!!!!!!!!

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UPDATE--
With lots and lots of help from my mom, I have been told that I have a "solid, in place" spot in the Department of Natural Resources in Annapolis this summer!! Only about a mile from my house, I am so excited =) Applying for internships while abroad is not fun!