Week 15

Lujadoras on the side of my presentation

This week I returned to the Pacific Coast many times. The first was on Friday when my group went to Tarcoles to take the fishing tour. I did not go since I have done that many a time and I got to visit my host family!!!!!! I missed them a lot so it was really fun to get to surprise them. My host mom started screaming "My daughter! escaped from the city!!!!" I was very very happy but when it came time to say goodbye we were all tears again. I did manage to get their address this time so now I will at least be able to keep in touch. After Tarcoles I went to try my hand at surfing in Jaco and try out their famous tourist nightlife. In terms of the nightlife, I would rather not do that again, we got into all the bars free and the drinks and music were great but there was a lot of prostitution going on around us so we left to night swim in the ocean before the party really got started. The ocean was incredible. There must have been a phytoplankon bloom recently because every time a wave crashed it started glowing electric blue.  We watched it for hours. The next morning, I did some very important shopping and then headed to the beach for surfing. Surfing is terrifying, we had beginning boards that are really good for catching waves and the waves were great for surfing however, balance was very tricky. When I felt myself catch a wave I would try to stand up as fast as possible but inevitably I would tip forward and summersault into the wave only to be stuck under water for around 15 seconds as the wave passed over my head. It was pretty freaky. I did manage to surf on my knees once without falling but after a particularly scary wipeout in which my board hit me in the back of the head, I decided I had had enough of surfing for a while. We returned to San Jose that night.

On Sunday we went to the Museo National de Costa Rica which was fun but pretty small in comparison to the museums I am used to, it only had 4 exhibits but all were very well planned out and I ended up learning a lot about pre-columbian costa rican culture which was nice.

On Monday I returned to Tarcoles for the last time to give my presentation to the fishermen. We set up the overhead on the beach and I got to present to about 50 people in spanish which was a challenge. Culturally it is not considered rude to shout questions or random comments in the middle of a presentation so I had to walk around constantly answering questions while explaining my slides multiple times. It was way out of my comfort zone but after completing it I feel much better about my spanish ability and I don't think I will be as nervous for any presentations in english in the future. After my presentation I said goodbye to my host family and the ocean for the last time, more tears but we formed a plan for my return and future life in Costa Rica which I hope to follow. I also promised that they will be a part of my wedding which they seem to think will be much sooner than I do.

Me being caught off guard by a question during my presentation 

The last couple weeks

 I've been pretty busy lately so I think this post will be mostly pictures. So we shall start where I left off. I don't really have words for what leaving Tarcoles was like, in the last week I realized what an incredible experience it was and tried to soak up every second I had left. My host family took me to Punta Leona on the boat my last day to enjoy the ocean, and the morning I left I walked down to Playa Azul so I thought I was going to have some sort of closure on the whole experience. I did not because when my bags were packed we had to tell the little kids I wasn't coming back and my host mom started crying and telling me that all her children are always welcome in her home and I started bawling and my older host brother dragged me to the bus stop. It wasn't pretty. But I am proud to say I didn't miss a single sunset on the beach, looking back on it I got to live somewhere really really awesome for 2 months, I got to have little brothers, dig for clams at night, and be surrounded by piles of burning garbage and poisonous things. But it also hit me that I do not have very much time left here so I went into doing things mode. So we started with rafting the day after I returned to San Jose. Very very fun I recommend it. Then on that wednesday I went with my SJ host family back to the pacific to fail at surfing (my surf board was taken away and I was given a boogie board because I was embarrassing my host brother). Then on Thursday 11 people from my program and I went to the Caribbean. The Caribbean of Costa Rica is very different from the rest of the country but the main difference I noticed was that they but coconut in all the food. I am a big fan of this. We stayed in a hostel that was more or less a tree house and snorkeled over coral reefs. It was a very good weekend. Then on Sunday we went to a soccer game and I must say that the stadium is pretty genious. Because fans get so excited and then aggressive during the games you are not allowed to take in, any sort of bottle, coins, electronics that have throwable batteries, food, or excessive keys. So they make a lot of money when everyone has to turn in their change and then nothing in the stadium can be sold for less than 2 dollars because that is the smallest bill. But from the soccer game I saw in which no one scored, I think all these restrictions are necessary. It was a truly tico experience in which the cement bleachers we were standing on started shaking from the thousands of people jumping on them for the entire game. Then on Tuesday we went to Volcan Irazu so I have officially been to all 5 active volcanos in Costa Rica. On Friday I return to the Pacific!

Soccer Game!!!!!

Rafting Group

Cow

Rafting

Rafting

Snorkeling

Fishy

Volcano