leaving Grecia...

so i've spent the last three and a half weeks here in Grecia, Costa Rica. it is absolutely beautiful. sometimes when i am walking around i half to slap myself (figuratively) a little bit because i forget to be in awe of my surroundings. Grecia is considered the "campo" or country of CR, although it is still a decent sized town. we are surrounded by farmland (coffee and sugar cane for the most part) and mountains (and sunshine). 

aside from the physical aspects though, relationship-wise and what-i'm-doing-wise, Grecia has been a lot different than my San Jose and Nicaragua experiences. our program here has been connected in every way to an evangelical church--our families attend there, they organize our work, and we take classes there. the people at the church are awesome--extremely friendly and welcoming--but it has been interesting adapting to different styles of worship and organization as well as different beliefs. if you want to know more about these differences, come ask me in person when i get home--i would love to share.

I have been living with a single woman who has three sons out of the house, so it has just been her and i. although i love her and appreciate her very much, because it was just the two of us it wasn't the most exciting of times living here. however, it has also been a good thing, because i feel as though i have developed a deeper relationship with her than with my other families--we have had a lot of chances to talk about our lives and our faiths and discuss (sometimes argue) over our differences in beliefs.

i also spent a few days a week working at a pharmacy (they changed me from the bank). this was incredibly boring and by far the worst part of being here--because i know nothing about medicine and cannot really talk about medicine in spanish, there was really nothing for me to do there. i had to walk a thin line between looking friendly and not wanting to appear as though i actually worked there.

last week was semana santa (holy week), so we had part of the week off and my mom took me to visit her sons on the coast. i got to spend two days at the beach, although i felt a little awkward being the non-family member. i put pictures on facebook of this trip if you are interested.

now i am heading back to my san jose family for a few days, then off to panama for an indigenous island for a little over a week, and then back to the states! in two short weeks i will be home in grand rapids--so crazy. it will definitely be a bittersweet goodbye.

love you all and will see you soon!

Rainforest! Nicaragua! Beach! Love!

a lot has happened.

i went to the cloud forest for a weekend and it was great. i hiked a bit and saw a lot of great trees. there was also a bakery with the best baked goods ever. delicious. mom, you would have appreciated this part: bakery in the middle of no where. it made me miss chocolate chippers. if you all stalk my friend reegis on facebook, he has some great pics from this weekend...and from all of our events actually. check it out.

after the cloud forest, we headed out for nicaragua where things are hot and the food is salty. we spent three days in managua, the capital city, visiting sites and listening to speakers, before heading out to el puro puro campo (which basically translates to the pure middle of no where). in order to get there, i had to take bus, boat, truck, and horse. once there i stayed with another host family; i had two sisters and a lot of cousins that hung around. the most difficult parts were the food ( a LOT and really fried and salty), the language as the nicaraguan accent is quite a bit different than costa rica, and the rooster that crowed underneath my bed all night long. the great parts were: my crazy uncle who loved to chat, the church, the simplicity of the life (food from the earth!), bathing in the river, and the love of my family. overall it was a very difficult experience but very rewarding. after the campo, we spent two days in granada, a really touristy city, which was a great contrast, but was fun to back with the group.

once back in costa rica, a small group of us met up with peggy and spent a few days at the beach which was awesome. although the best part was the ride back in which we met two girls from isreal who ended up needing a place to stay. we obviously offered them a bed at peg's and got to chat with them a bit which was cool. talk about a crashing of cultures!

now i'm in orientation for the next part of our adventure...this weekend i am moving to a small town outside of san jose called grecia. there i will be living with yet another host family and experiencing more of a complete spanish immersion. i will have language class two days a week, and will be working in a bank (yes a bank) doing i don't know what the other two days. i am excited for the small town atmosphere, but nervous about meeting a new family, working at a spanish speaking bank, and not being able to talk english much at all. pray for me in all of this.

i hope all is well back at home. i love and miss you all!

una semana más...

it's been a while since i've posted on this thing, so i feel like i owe it to you all to fill you in. (or to just my mom, if she is the only one that reads this thing...still worth it, just for you mom).

i'll start with the exciting stuff. my birthday was on friday, and i celebrated it with some of my friends from LASP. we went out for dinner, and then to this free salsa concert in the park. i guess the singer is like a really big deal, and i actually went up on the stage with few others to show off my salsa dancing ability (which, i assure you, is very high). last night my parents threw me a birthday bash at our house; i invited some of my friends, my costa rican sister invited some of hers, and a lot of family was there too so it was quite the group. the funny thing was that all of my friends showed up in sweatshirts and jeans while my sisters friends were wearing slacks and dresses. wupps. but the evening was very fun...my dad gave a very touching speech about what a great addition i am to the family, so i felt greatly appreciated as well. 

last weekend i went the beach with peggy and three LASP students. we stayed in a hostel right on the beach for really cheap, just the way we like it. during the day we visited this national park where we were able to make our way to a beach where there were only about six others. it was great. the weekend before last a big group of us students joined in a soccer tournament in a smaller town outside of san jose. it was really fun because i actually got to play on the costa rican team. though i was a traitor, i didn't regret it because i joined the winning team. so my weekends have been full, and definitely a lot of fun. 

school has also been very good, and it is continuing to get more challenging and interesting. i finished up my last week of language class last week, and this is my last week of our core seminar coming up, so i have a lot of work to get done. we've had a lot of great speakers over the past few weeks, and we also payed a visit to a sustainable farm and the US embassy. they are definitely throwing a lot of differing opinions on our plate, and it makes it difficult to know whose right and whose wrong, but we've been trying to process it together. when there are so many problems, it is hard to know which is the best way to show love. Even if we had the capability of making great changes in our world, nothing is ever a perfect fix. so these are just some of the things us little college students are trying to wrap our minds around.

life is rich, exciting, and beautiful, and i am grateful for the opportunity i have here to learn and grow. in a week i leave for nicaragua!

Learning, Loving

hello friends, family, lovers.

it is currently getting late and i have to write a paper in spanish for tomorrow. this is me procrastinating. don't worry mom--i always get it done.

this past week has been absolutely great for me. we didn't have school last friday, because my whole LASP group took a trip to Limón, the poorest area of costa rica. we went there to "research" the relationship between poverty and racial/sexual discrimination by interviewing random people on the street and listening to talks. we also spent a day at the beach which was glory. it wasn't sunny, but we played a big game of ultimate on the beach and it started to rain. i loved it.

i still love my family, but i think i might be in trouble for not spending enough time at home. oops. and i feel like i am making some good friends from my lasp group. there are a few girls who are really cool and easy to talk to.

the only downside (slash upside) to everything right now is that i have a ton of school work to do for the next few weeks--but the school work is really interesting, it's just in spanish so it takes forever. but i truly do enjoy everything we learn, even though sometimes it is hard to take it all in. we are learning about latin america "crisis" (economically, socially) from a lot of different standpoints, all of which make me realize that i have been rather ignorant as far as US foreign relations go. but don't worry amigos, that is all being remedied right now! yay!

explanation of pictures:

1) Melissa and I at the beach near Limón (Caribbean)

2) my friend Ellen and I at a beach on the pacific side

3) my mom and sister, Sussan, and I in our kitchen

4) Peggy and I after we dominated a game of fútbol in our skirts

5) the outside of my house

estoy tuanis!

hello all...

tuanis is slang here in costa--it is the same as saying estoy bien or i am doing well. just so you guys get the lingo that i´m throwing down.

right now i am in an internet cafe where i came with the intention of doing research, but instead have been skyping for the last hour and a half. i am also making plans with the one and only peggy ray to see each other tomorrow...life is good.

this past weekend was absolutely amazing. on saturday my sister, aunt, cousin/fellow lasp student, and i went to a beach along the pacific coast. it was blazing hot there and we just relaxed and layed out all day. don´t worry mom, i wore sunscreen. we stayed until the sunset, and it was pure glory. hopefully i will be able to post pictures soon.

yesterday, i went to this huge month-long festival outside of san jose called palmares. my family and i (eleven of us) piled into a big van and made the excursion together. it wasn´t exactly my cup of tea--lots of crowds, the spinny rides that make you sick--but i still had a great time with my fam. i think i am starting to be able to understand them better, and i can tell that they definitely really like me. we have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs together.

today marks the beginning of my second week of school. language school is going well. at first i was discouraged because i was put into a lower level than i wanted to be, but now i´m okay with it because we basically just talk the entire time anyway en español. i feel like i really am learning a lot. we also have a core seminar class, in which speakers come in and talk about religious, social, political, and economic issues. this class is only twice a week, but i think it is going to be quite interesting.

i am starting to get to know the other people in my program pretty well, and they all seem like quality people. this weekend, the whole group (of 47), is traveling to a city on the atlantic coast called limon. we are spending a lot of time interviewing locals, and also a day at the beach...so i am pumped.

i miss you all a ton...it really has been hard to adjust here; harder than i anticipated. i hope everything is going well in the homeland, and i love you!

ciao!

esta es mi vida?

so basically i just finished my week of orientation, which was pretty fun though sometimes aggravating. on our first night, we stayed in a really beautiful retreat center and the next day we met our families. my family is absolutely amazing. i have a sister named sussan who is 19 and we share a room. i also have two brothers--jeffrey and julio, who are 18 and 16 accordingly. my parents are the nicest and friendliest people ever. the only problem for me is that i can't really understand what they are saying unless they speak quite slowly. luckily, sussan is very good about this. i believe we are becoming fast friends despite our limited communication ability.

one difference i noticed here is that you always show your love through physical affection. every greeting is accompanied by a kiss on a cheek, and if you are asking someone about their day, your arm is always around them. i rather like it, because i know i will never be starved of physical affection.

the second day i was here they sent us out in groups of three into san jose to do a scavenger hunt. of the three girls in my group, i was the most proficient at espanol, which left us in a very tight spot as far as figuring out what we were doing. because we didn't have the addresses of any of the places we were expected to find, the only way we could go about this hunt was by asking the locals. we managed somehow and it turned out to be pretty fun.

though i think i will be the awkward gringa for a while when i'm here, i really am starting to love it. i think the other students in my program will be awesome and so is mi familia...and i can already tell my spanish is improving.

right now, i am with my dear, dear amiga, peggy ray, and it is absolute glory. we went to church together, where we had a beautiful view of the mountains, and then we played futbol with some ticos (costa ricans). it was awesome. i really can't believe this is my life right now.


i love you all and miss you and i hope that i can post pictures soon.

hasta luego.

estoy aqui!

i am here and i am safe! my family is great. i have a sister who is 19 and we share a room, and she is very good at explaining things.

i will post more very soon...hopefully with pictures!