This week was really wonderful. My classes are all great (minus the Tropical Plant class that I switched for a Conservation Biology class) and I am feeling comfortable with the language more quickly than I thought I would, which is so exciting. Everyone in my program is very serious about learning as much Spanish as they can before they leave, which is inspiring. It is nice to be here with people who are on my level in terms of getting an educational and cultural experience here along with a social experience.
Most days consisted of some combination of exercise, class, cooking, doing homework, and hanging out with new friends. There were some standout events though:
Wednesday at 4 we met up to play soccer. I am just getting over my soreness now-it was an hour of basically sprinting up and down the little indoor field (with no real idea of what I was doing). It was so much fun, though! I even scored a goal in the second game =) I want to play more than just once a week.
After soccer some of us went to a bar that has a 2 for 1 margarita special every day from 4-8 and we got yummy frozen margaritas and hung out for a while. Such a sugar overload, though!
On Thursday, we went on a field trip with our Spanish class to San Jose to go to the Central Market (where we were bought delicious Costa Rican empanadas), the National Theater, and the National Museum. There was also a "Hippie Market" of artisans selling jewelry and other crafts. I will post pictures once my battery is charged on my camera.
I wasn't crazy impressed with San Jose but it was a nice break from class and I got to learn a lot about Costa Rican culture. Thursday night was my first dance class which was fun-I was already able to use what I had learned when we went out this weekend which was cool.
Saturday was the best!! Despite having to wake up really early after being out the night before, we had one of the best days I have had for so long. Jaco is a beach town on the Pacific side, about 2 hours away by bus. The drive was so beautiful-it was nice to get out of the city and into the beautiful scenery that Costa Rican is known for. Once we passed through the Central Valley (the area of Costa Rica in the center of a ton of mountains-where we live in Heredia) it became so hot (the coasts are like 10x hotter and more humid than the central valley) and the bus essentially became a sauna. I was very happy to get off of it when we got to our first destination-ziplining!
Holy crap-ziplining was awesome! Again, I will post pictures soon, but it was amazing. They basically drove us to the top of a lush, forested mountain and we ziplined all the way back down to the bottom-I think it was 15 or so different stations. It was the best combination of things-fun, breathtaking, invigorating. I could not wipe the smile off of my face the entire time. And all of the Ticos who worked there was so nice and so much fun and made the experience even better.
After ziplining, we got lunch and then went to our second destination, a "crocodile tour" on the San Jose river. Our group took up about half of the tour boat, and just as we were about to set off for the tour a group of like 20 Costa Rican bros (a persona I didn't know existed until now) piled on with a huge cooler of beer. They were spending the day traveling around for one of their Bachelor parties. So essentially what was going to be a relaxing tour of the river looking at wildlife became a frat party of sorts between their group and ours. Not relaxing, but pretty entertaining as they were all very nice and funny and actually very intelligent (opposite of their American counterparts-generally speaking of course). And we got to see lots of wildlife! Crocodiles, iguanas, awesome birds, horses, giant herds of cows. At the end, the tour guide jumped out of the boat to feed this GIANT crocodile-it was awesome.
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EDIT: My mom wants me to clarify for anyone who doesn't understand (because she misunderstood and thought I was being racist haha) that a BRO is equivalent to a frat-guy personality)
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We returned to the sauna-bus and made our way home. I came back, made dinner, took a muuuch needed shower, drank some tea for an energy boost and then went to meet everyone at school to go to a club for our friend Danielle's birthday. The club had an open bar for only $6 cover-it was wild! Almost our entire program went which was soo much fun. It was a great night....until the previously posted Cockroach Saga that made it impossible to sleep soundly. So here I am, only 4 hours after I went to sleep, blogging about my week.
I keep having these moments where I remember where I am and can't believe it! It is so surreal to be spending such a long amount of time here. The first week here was so wonderful and I can't wait to see what Costa Rica has in store for me for the next 4 months!
Ciao!
Rachel
PS This song is too much fun
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