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!