Hola! Sorry for not posting last night... we went to the dark knight rises at a theater here and it didn't get over until 12:30. It was fun though! The theater was WAY nicer then I thought it would be. We had reclining chairs and they had waitresses walking around taking orders for drinks and snacks. It was very relaxing! :) Plus, the movie was AMAZING! I just wasn't expecting it to go that late...we had to get up earlier this morning to go volunteer at the orphanage. That was fun, too! Except it didn't last as long as they thought it would. So we got done early. However, it was probably a good thing because I had a presentation that I wanted to practice before class :)
Above is my host family! Not all of them...just my tico parents and my roommates :) I feel so blessed to have been able to be a "part of their family" this past month. They made this experience even better! So picture left to right--me, Kathleen, Erica, Emily, and Victor. Unfortunately it is very hard to get everybody else here at the same time for everybody else in the family... but I will definitely remember them forever :)
This is the wall we painted at the orphanage!
Some of the little kids wanted to help, too! :)
Above is a painting one of the Art professors did at the orphanage :) Since we went after everybody else we didn't have that much to do. Only a few touch ups and second coats. In addition, the only time that everybody who wanted to go could go was this morning but almost all of the kids are at school in the morning. So we weren't able to play with the kids as much. But that's okay, I'm still glad we were able to go and help out a bit. They were so thankful. :)
So I am officially done with my Spanish for Health Professions class here. I cannot believe how fast this trip went. I really enjoyed my class and my professor. Plus! I did way better then I thought I was going to do in the class! :) Except I think Concordia is doing it as a pass/fail credit... bummer. I am just so happy that I will be able to communicate with future patients if their native language is Spanish. I always felt bad for the patients (when I volunteered in Pre/post op) when they spoke a language different then english and the doctors weren't able to communicate with them. So they'd be prepping for surgery--probably really scared and sometimes confused with no one to talk to. They always had to wait for the translator to come and it varied on the time it took for them to get there. SO I'm happy I'll be able to help some patients :) I still need to learn more technical vocabulary (I didn't learn all the diseases and whatnot) but I can communicate for the most part and explain to them what the doctors/nurses are going to do, etc. YAY!
Tomorrow is a holiday here in Costa Rica again! This holiday is more interesting though. Here is a link to a news article that explains it: http://www.ticotimes.net/Current-Edition/Top-Story/Millions-expected-in-annual-Costa-Rica-pilgrimage_Friday-July-27-2012/. But basically more than 2 million "pilgrims" walk 22 kilometers between San Jose and the colonial capital of Cartago to honor "La Negrita" which is Costa Rica's patron saint. Supposedly they all gather there tonight and there is a huge service at the Basilica Nuestra Senora de los Angeles. Our program director said that at about midnight they light up the Basilica and it's "Amazing". So I'm hopefully going to go. We still haven't figured out the details because we won't be able to walk the full 22 kilometers to make it there by midnight... but I think it'll work out. :) But I'm excited because everybody keeps saying it's a great once in a lifetime cultural experience! :)
Well, that's it for now!
Pura Vida!
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