Wednesday: Kelsey, Hope, and I had to give a presentation in our Spanish class. We ended up being the class group to go, and Hope made a comment about how she was glad that the group was so small. Then a class of about 22 Tico students walked in, got chairs, and sat through our presentation. We were SOOO nervous!! Afterward, none of them clapped or even smiled at us, which made us feel even more embarrassed. In class, we had a long discussion about why the Tico students kind of ignore us and were kind of rude. We came to the conclusion that they are probably just intimidated by us/are just shy people in general (because Veritas is primarily an art and architecture school, and they are not known for being overly outgoing). The school had the Crash Party for all the students here, Tico and International alike, in the evenign. We ate, listened to music, talked, and watched some awesome dancers. It was kind of fun, but not many people were dancing. I walked home with Kelsey, Bridget, and Brennan. We literally had to walk 20 minutes to drop Kels off because she lives so far away, but we always walk in groups at night.
Thursday: During the break between my classes, 7 of us went with Kelsey to get her nose pierced. We all walked to San Pedro mall. Hope and I were a little upset because we couldn't go in with her, but she did fine. She came out and her nose wasn't red at all. She talked to the piercing guy about how to clean it then walked over to us. She looked at us and said, "I feel a little dizzy." Then she started to sway and her legs buckled. Luckily Hope and Ben caught her and moved her over to a bench. She couldn't hear us when we told her to sit down, but we finally got her to. The piercing guy ran into the store and brought out some sugar for her to eat and some alcohol to sniff to wake her up. Everyone was really worried, but 5 minutes later she was fine. She didn't really remember anything, though. Just to be safe we got her some ice cream (and maybe some for ourselves).
Friday: Had a midterm exam in my Spanish class. I think it went well... after class it was trip time! We loaded the bus for Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean Coast, at about 1. We had been told it would rain all weekend, so we packed a little for that. We stopped at a rest stop to grab a snack and use the rest room about halfway through. Then we got stuck in traffic behind an accident. We literally did not move even a mile for 3-4 hours. We were on the bus for around 9 hours that day.... Then when the bus did start moving, some girls had fallen asleep across their seats (because everyone had stood up to stretch and talk with other people when we were stopped) so I didn't have a seat. I had to smoosh in with 2 other girls, and one guy stood the entire second half of the ride. When we got to Puerto Viejo, it was dark and rainy. We were a little scared, not going to lie. It just looked shady in the dark. It was about 9:30, so we grabbed some cena (dinner) and went back to the hotel and talked before going to bed.
Saturday: We woke up and it was POURING. I heard it when I was sleeping, and I thought someone was taking a shower. So we had to go out in the rain and find this restaurant where we were eating breakfast. Then we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to a cacoa farm, where and indigenous woman and her daughter make organic chocolate, cocoa butter, spices, and other things. She took us through the process of making chocolate, and also told us about the indigenous way of life. Random fact: When the Bre-Bre women were pregnant, they couldn't be touched because the baby was pure. When it came time for them to give birth, they would go into the jungle (yep, where there were giant snakes and jaguars) to a banana hut that they had made and give birth. All alone. In the middle of the jungle. With jaguars. And snakes. And stay there for weeks until the shaman would come to perform a cleansing ritual. WOW! After we hung out there for awhile, we drove back to Puerto Viejo (stopping to take pics of a sloth in a tree). We grabbed some lunch and walked around on the beach, where there was black sand. It was way cool. We also picked coconuts and smashed them against a tree, then drank the coconut water. Some random creepy guy came up to us and wanted pictures of him with the three blondies. At first I thought he was offering to take a picture of all of us girls, then he pulled out his camera and looked confusidely at us. It was weird.... After the beach, we showered and got dinner, then found a great crepe place for dessert. It was SO delicious! We walked on the beach, talked, and just hung out that night.
Sunday: It's sunny today! We spent time at another beach near Puerto Viejo. It was fun, but there wasn't much room to swim because the rip tides were so strong that most of the beach was sectioned off. Some of the boys tried to surf, but it was so much harder than at Tamarindo. We were there all morning, then returned to the hotel, rinsed off, grabbed some EXCELLENT Jamaican food and some delicioso organic helado (ice cream). Then we rode the bus home. I talked with Ana a little after I got home, and skyped people for awhile.
Monday: Whew, almost caught up. Today Spanish class dragged on and on. We "learned" aka reviewed, the future tense for 3 1/2 hours. That's just a little too much for our brains to handle. But then, get excited, we had our first girls bible study! It was a lot of fun to talk/hear about people's life stories and our spiritual journeys. We talked about what we wanted out of a bible study and we all wrote down prayer requests, and one girl prays for another the rest of that week. We are going to meet every Monday for lunch and girls bible study. A random guy came up to us and complimented us on what we were doing. He is here from Texas and teaching some classes, but he is also doing research on what the best way would be to start a church down here for indigenous people. It was kind of interesting that we were all there at the same time, and I hope we can help him. I'm just really excited because it will be some good Christian fellowship and will help us all learn from each other and grow together.
That's all for now! This should be a fun week (I won't wait this long to update again) and this weekend brings a trip to Poas volcano on Saturday and white water rafting on Sunday!
Pura Vida!
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