bungee jump video

Here's my bungee jump video! I finally got it so I wanted to post it :) I sure do miss Costa Rica... Pura Vida!

Day 28: last day in Costa Rica

Hola! Well, today was my last day in this amazing country! It's very bittersweet going back home. I have had so many great experiences, made lots of memories, and good friends. I will miss it so much. However, I will always remember my time here and will always live by their motto: Pura Vida! AND I'm definitely coming back someday!
So today was a great day! My roommate Emily and I went rappelling on a waterfall called los Chorros. It was so much fun! I'm so glad I did it. Then we wondered around San Jose for a bit before coming back home to a fantastic last dinner here: aztec soup (definitely making at home). Then I strategically packed my suitcase and watched Mulan with Emily :) It was a very good last day! Here are some pictures from yesterday and today:

Here are my "tico dogs" the one on the left is Suba and the one on the right is Rayo--I love them :)

pointy thing we found while wondering around Cartago

the ruins we found wondering around Cartago. 

Pretty church we found in Cartago

here's the pilgrimage in Cartago--the end point the basilica 

you can see how long the line was to get inside the basilica 

view of San Jose from the restaurant we went to last night

Costa Rican dancers at the restaurant

they were so much fun to watch

Sam, Emily and me in front of the gorgeous view! 

river we had to cross to get to the waterfall today

trekking through the rain forest :)

pretty little pool at the top of the waterfall

this is Erica repelling down the waterfall--you can see how tall it was (120 feet)

my awesome school--Veritas University! 

beautiful sunset on the mountains

Well, I suppose that's it for my journey in Costa Rica... I had an amazing time like I said above. I cannot wait to come back! To those who are thinking of coming to Costa Rica--do it!!! It is such a beautiful country with awesome people. Trust me, you will love it! :) I feel so blessed that I had the opportunity to come here and to have met the people and do the things I've done. Thank you Costa Rica for a great time! I will never forget you! :) 

PURA VIDA! 

Day 27: Cartago and the Farewell dinner!

Hola!
This post is going to be short and sweet because I need to get up in the morning... but TOMORROW IS MY LAST DAY! It's so bittersweet. I'm sad to be leaving this gorgeous country yet excited to get home and sleep in my big comfy bed :) AND to eat a big ol' hamburger :) Today was a good day... very busy once it got started. My roommate, Emily, and I ended up taking the bus to Cartago (which we later learned was a smart thing to do because people who walked were complaining haha) but that was an adventure in itself--finding the bus. We asked about 10 people before we found the bus stop for Cartago. Then when we got to Cartago we weren't prepared at all! We figured there would be a big line or crowd of people we could follow to the basilica. Nope. So we wondered around Cartago for awhile trying to figure out where it was. We later learned that the bus dropped us off on the other side of the city and that was why we couldn't see the basilica or the big crowd of people. Anyway, we eventually found it and it was gorgeous! Lots of people! Plus, there was a fair! So that was fun to walk around--compare it to the Minnesota state fair :) It was actually pretty similar but just very condensed into this one big square and there were no rides or games. Just lots and lots of food. Which we found wonderful! :) I will post pictures tomorrow. Then  we had an another adventure trying to find the bus back home... but we eventually did (we might have gotten a bit lost... :) ) We got home had to change and freshen up quickly and run back to school because we had our farewell dinner tonight! It was a lot of fun! We went to this restaurant up in the Mountains so it had a GORGEOUS view of all of San Jose. Plus, it had delicious food and dancers. So all in all it was a pretty good day :) It's hard to believe my trip is almost over. Tomorrow I decided to do one last fun thing--rappelling waterfalls! So I'm pretty excited about that. When I get back I promise to upload pictures of today and of the waterfalls!
Buenos Noches!

Day 26: orphanage, last day of class, and a bit about "dia de la virgen"!

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! 

Day 24: A little more about Manuel Antonio!

Hola! So I tried real hard to get the video to post...tried several different ways. It just didn't want to post I guess. Sorry about that. So here's some more pictures instead from my weekend! These are from the public beach that was just across from our hotel. We went to it on Sunday. It was a little cloudy...but it's still beautiful! 

There was this dog ^ who wanted to be with his owners so badly it was so adorable! You can see him trying to follow his owners in the second picture above. They were going surfing. So he would try to swim out there but the waves were too big and strong so he would come back to the beach. Then he'd try again...

And again...

and again...until one of his owners (the little girl below) came back. He was the happiest dog ever when she came back ashore. It was just too cute to not try to capture. :) I had to take pictures. I'm such a dog lover. However, if you were there you would think it's adorable also. We found a log to sit on and sat and watched him. It was fun.

We also watched all the surfers! They were amazing to watch! The waves were perfect too. Especially for beginners. A storm was brewing and you could tell the tide was a little higher then normal. This weekend it just down-poured in quite a few parts of Costa Rica I guess.

Cause when we got home my Mama tica immediately asked us if we had heard from Erica or seen her. A flood was in Turrialba this Sunday and no transportation was going out or in there. (Erica went to Puerto Viejo again with a friend from home who was studying in Turrialba) So Erica called Kathleen asking her if she could pick them up because they took a bus to the wrong city, and also asking if her friend could come home with her since her friend (Brittany) couldn't go back to her host family in Turrialba. Well, I guess Kathleen couldn't understand her or something and they got disconnected. So she was worried about them ( I was too for the half an hour we were home before Erica showed up) but they showed up all safe and sound and soaked. :) In conclusion, it rained a lot in Costa Rica this weekend. Locals were happy since their "rainy season" has been pretty dry. They needed the rain. It just caused some issues. :) But it was all good, and we got to meet Erica's friend because of it. 

This was our hotel room this time around! Not as bad as in Puerto Viejo. Much cleaner. 

And this is the little friend who scared Sam while she was walking to our room :) Just popped out at her! It was pretty funny. Well, I suppose I should talk about today, too! Today was good... just a regular school day. Except I had my final test today. Which i hope went well... we'll see! Then we watched some Olympics and did homework! I have a presentation on Wednesday on a medicinal plant that they use here in Costa Rica! I'm pretty excited for this one. However, we still haven't decided on which plant we're going to use. It's in between a Guanabana and Chan. We'll decide in the morning. :) Tomorrow is going to be a busy day though! We're having a pizza party through our program CEA to discuss with each other our experiences and whatnot. Then I have class even though we took the test already... but we're hopefully going to go to the health fair that students are putting together for tomorrow for a little bit. Then CEA also organized a movie night for us! We're going to the new Batman movie at the theater in San Jose! So I'm pretty excited for that! I've only heard good things about it. 

Well, that's about it for now! 

Buenos Noches!