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!