Food

This post is going to be mostly about food, but I also wanted to comment on how ridiculous school is. I didn't go to school on Friday or Monday, and I didn't miss anything. Yesterday, I went to school with the intention of staying until 1 when I would leave with my friends for their dance competition. I ended up hanging out with them all morning while they got their hair and makeup done, and we left earlier than I originally thought at 11:30. Today, I went to school planning to leave at 11:30 because my class had an exam that I don't need to take. I got to school and thought it was weird we weren't going to math, so I asked about it. My friends said the teacher wasn't there so we didn't have to go. Another 45 minutes later, they told me the English teacher wasn't there either. It was now 7:45, and I wasn't scheduled to have class until 9:10. At 9:10 I would have music then orientation (we literally do nothing, and we only have it 40 min per week), so I decided it would make more sense to go home then to stay at school for an hour and a half doing nothing when I would only be waiting for music class. While waiting for the bus, I played Uno with my friends. It seemed kind of funny to play Uno with people who actually spoke Spanish. Tomorrow, school normally starts at 1, but there is an exam at 1, so I don't have to go until 2:30. I am pretty much never in school at this point, but everything should be more normal starting next week.

Onto the food. A typical breakfast is gallo pinto (beans and rice) with eggs and bread. I used to prefer my eggs scrambled, but I now really enjoy huevos fritos cooked thoroughly.

This breakfast was given to me at orientation, but it's pretty typical; although, my family gives me way more food than this. I am always stuffed! There are a lot of cool fruits here. I will definitely miss them when I return to the United States.

Mangustan

Granadilla

Mamones, my personal favorite

I have also really been enjoying trying yummy drinks! There is a cafe that we go to all the time called Cafe Delicias, but I just tried a new one called Valley Coffee which is way better!

Capucino Frio con Sirope Vainilla

 Cafe Shiver, YUMMM

Pina Colada

As you can see, pretty much everything is delicious! Unfortuantely, this means I need to start working out while I am here (: Everything is good here in Costa Rica, and I hope all is well with all of my readers!

Observations

I ended up not going to school Friday or Monday, so I had a really long weekend! Life here has become extremely normal, so I'm not going to go into detail about what I have been doing. I am mostly hanging out with friends, reading, watching tv, or using the computer. Luckily, in two weeks, I will be able to start travelling without my family! This is a really good thing because my family can't afford to go anywhere with me, so I haven't really had the opportunity to explore. Since I don't have anything too interesting to talk about, I'm just going to make a list of observations and things I miss. I hope you enjoy!

• Taking a cold shower is like diving into a cold pool, you just need to do it quickly and get it over with.
• I saw my first frog today, and it was HUGE; however, this was okay because I've been here for a month, and this is the first time I've seen a frog.
• I haven't seen a sloth or a monkey yet ):
• Taking the bus is frustrating because there is no schedule, so you often end up waiting for 30 min, but sometimes it only takes 2 min. It's very unpredictable.
• I miss the freedom of having a car, or even someone in my family having a car.
• Rice is eaten with almost every meal, but at least twice a day.
• I actually have to make my bed in the morning.
• Our clothes dry on a line after being washed, so it is not uncommon to find a bug in your clothes.
• Half of the shows on TV are in English because my family has cable.
• People don't get bills in the mail. They just go and pay where they owe money.
• It rains EVERY DAY, and when it rains, it rains hard and for a long time.
• Dirty toilet paper is put in the trashcan, not in the toilet.
• My shower here is disgusting, so I have to wear my shoes.
• I also have to wear my shoes in the house or else I will "get sick". At least that is what my host family says. I still don't understand why.

Never in School...

Life here has been good. I´ve been homesick the past few days for some reason that I can´t quite put my finger on. I was totally fine last week, so I thought I was done with the whole homesick thing, but I guess not! I think being homesick is just a normal part of being on exchange. I now speak fluently, but I don´t understand fluently. It´s still better than nothing! I didn´t have school last week on Wednesday, Thurday, or Friday. I hung out with my exchange friends a lot, but on Wednesday, I hung out with my friends from school. At first I had a really hard time understanding them, but eventually it got easier. We went to El Tenedor to get pizza, then we went to McDonald´s to get ice cream. These people love McDonald´s! It´s nice to feel like I have friends at school. Sometimes I feel like I annoy them because I pretty much follow them around, but they invite me to do stuff with them outside of school, so I guess I don´t annoy them too much.

I got a package from my parents filled with American food and new flip flops. This was perfect because I miss American food, and my shower here is disgusting, so I have to wear flip flops in the shower. (If you want to send me a letter or package, ask for my address. Shipping on packages is crazy, but I love cards!) There is actually a lot of American food here. Costa Ricans love Oreos and Rits crackers. It´s also really easy to find Pringles, Jif Peanut Butter, MMs, and Skittles. I was shocked to find Munchies in the supermarket. They are definitely my favorite snack for traveling. It´s nice to have all of that American Food here, but it kind of goes to show that you can never really escape the US.

Sunday I spent a decent amount of time studying for my math exam that I took Monday morning. I feel like it was easy, but I could be wrong because everyone else in my class said they thought it was hard. On Monday, I realized we are in the very end of the second trimester at school. This is a great thing because it means I don´t need to take any more of these exams! Because of that, I also don´t have to go to certain classes until after the exams. It definitely takes a lot of stress off of me since I don´t need to prepare for the exams.

Today is Mother´s Day in Costa Rica, so I don´t have school! We´ve just been hanging out around the house all day, and we made brownies. I think we are going to a Mother´s Day service at church later. This will be my first time in a Catholic church. I´m kind of excited because I think it will be interesting, but I´m nervous because I don´t know what to expect.

Five more months here, and I´m looking forward to exploring Costa Rica!

Birthday and More

I am officially 17! Unfortunately, that doesn't really mean anything here because I could already see R rated movies here. My birthday did not start out as I had hoped it would. I ended up crying for about two hours straight because it was my first birthday without my family. I had already been missing my family a lot, so the fact that it was my birthday just made it a lot worse. I was still crying when it was time to go to school, so my family and I decided that I didn't need to go. We went to a feria and bought lots of fruits and vegetables. We bought mamones, granadillas, and another cool fruit I don't remember the name of. After that, we bought food and supplies for my party. We then went home and decorated!

Birthday Cake

Decorations

All of my exchange friends (minus Jakob, missed the bus) came to my party, and some of my family came. It was lots of fun. We played Wii and we danced. I'm not a huge fan of dancing if it's not to popular songs (I can't dance any other way), but I was a sport, and I tried to learn. My birthday ended up being pretty great, even though it started off badly.

Saturday morning at 4am, my host sister, host brother, brother's co-worker, and I got in the car and left for Puntarenas. It's only a three hour drive if you're in the car, and I slept the whole way. Puntarenas is gorgeous! My host sister and I stayed with her boyfriend and his family. They were all nice and welcoming, but I've realized that it takes time for me to understand new people. I think it's because I have to get used to their accent and how quickly they speak. Anyway, we went to the beach for about an hour. Going to the beach in Puntarenas was nothing like going to the beach in the US. Here, you only take yourself, because you can't leave your stuff on the beach when you go in the water. Luckily, I didn't really want to go in the water, so I was able to bring my music, camera, and a towel. I enjoyed myself, but it was not what I had been expecting. 

Puntarenas

After the beach, we drove up a mountain in Miramar to some restaurant. I ordered nachos, and it was honestly the smallest order of nachos I have ever seen. It only had four chips, so luckily it was only 400 colones, or $.80. The drive up the mountain was beautiful, but the drive back down was just a little frightening. The drive back down was dark, and it was extremely foggy, so you couldn't see where the next curve was. I was pretty relieved when we made it back down to the bottom.

Mountain in Miramar

We took the bus home Sunday, and taking the bus takes much longer. First we had to get from Miramar to Puntarenas (40 min). Then we took a bus from Puntarenas to San Jose (1.5 hours). In San Jose, we had to take a taxi to another bus station to catch the bus to Perez Zeledon. We bought our tickets at 2:29, and the bus left at 2:30. We were extremely lucky to make it (3 hour bus ride)! When we finally got home, all I wanted to do was sleep.

Monday and today were just like any other day of school except today I got to leave at 12:10 instead of the normal time of 3:10, and I don't have school for the rest of the week. Today was the first time I took the bus home from school alone, so I was really proud of myself when I knew my stop and said "parada" at the correct time. I said it really loudly, but the bus driver  managed to not hear me, so we went past my stop. Luckily, I only had to walk about 300m to get back to my stop. When I got home, I hung out for a little bit, then took a nap. When I woke up, none of my family was home, but a family friend was here. I'm pretty sure she's kind of like my babysitter because she came over the other day when my family wasn't home. I don't understand why because I take the bus everywhere by myself, and I'm often home alone after school. Oh well, it's just something I don't quite understand. I speak much more quickly without thinking about it now, so in some senses I feel like I'm already fluent, but then I talk to someone new and realize I can't understand anything they say. Luckily, I understand my host family and friends from school really well, and that is what is most important.

I've been in a pretty good mood this week, so hopefully this is the start of everything getting easier!

Updates

I realized that all of my posts have been really long since I arrived. Because of this, I will try to keep this one a little more brief. My second day of school was infinitely better than the first. I still wasn´t able to understand my teachers, but I had English class, and I really like that teacher. I was able to hang out with the people that I liked, and that made the day a lot better. We had a ton of free time due to teachers not showing up, so I was glad I had friends. After school I hung out with Annika, Julie, and Caroline. I ate a BigMac for the first time and it was delicious!

Yesterday, I didn´t have school, and I don´t understand why, but I´m not questioning it because I don´t mind not having school! Caroline came over for a little bit to hang out. I had school again today, and it was pretty good, but it was really long. I was supposed to have 5 classes, but one of my teachers didn´t show up again. One of my classes was for 4.5 hours. It dragged on for forever. I was really happy after math class because I understood almost everything my teacher said. I feel like I am truly starting to make some good friends. Two of my friends speak English really well, and I asked how they learned, and they said TV and music. I think it´s really cool, however, I still speak in Spanish with them.

I don´t have school again tomorrow because it´s a national holiday. It´s great because every day of school this week feels like Friday. I also only have school on Monday and Tuesday next week, so I will have a 5 day weekend next weekend. My birthday is Friday, and I am very excited! I´m looking forward to starting to do some adventerous things here. I miss my family and friends as I had expected I would, but all is well here!