Surfing and Osa

Sorry it's been so long since I've written in here. I never felt like I had enough to say. I've done a fair amount of things lately, so I'm just going to write about the things I remember. The weekend of the 6th, I went to the beach for the day with my family, some family friends, and Eva. I'm glad I went, but it was frustrating because we were being taken from beach to beach keeping us from enjoying one. However, all of the beaches we went to were beautiful.

On Monday, I went to San Jose to do fingerprints for my visa. We went to Escazu on Monday to hang out, then really early Tuesday morning, we went to the police station to start the process. There were about 40 of us from AFS, but thousands of other random people. I figured it couldn't be like that every single day, but after asking a few workers, I was assured that it is typical. We arrived around 6:45. The first person to be done from AFS finished around 10. I wasn't even able to go in until 12:15. and I didn't finish til 12:45. We finally left at 2:30, and we were all starving because you couldn't eat until you finished. I would have left at 12:45, but none of my friends were done, so I waited for them. Some of the AFS groups from other days finished at 11 and 1, so my group was extremely jealous of them. At least I got to hang out with my friends!

The next weekend, I went to the beach with Eva, Melanie, Caroline, Annika, and Julie. On the bus ride back from the beach the weekend before, Eva met a surf instructor. Eva, Melanie, and I took lessons from him. It was only $14 each for over two hours, and it was so much fun! Surfing is not easy. I never thought it would be, but it was harder than I had expected. I stood up once, but I wasn't able to ride the wave in. Eva stood up a few more times than me, but also never rode a wave in. Melanie had done it before, so after the second wave, she stood up and rode it in every time. Either way, I had so much fun, and I hope to do it again.

This past weekend, I went on an optional AFS trip to Osa and Corcovado. It was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever been. Friday I went to San Jose. I went to see Ted with Annika and Julie, then I met up with Hans, Ryan, Tieta, and Raina. We had a great night. The next morning, we woke up at 4:15 so that we could leave at 5 and head to Osa. We spent about 5 hours in buses, then we spent another hour and a half in a boat. Once we arrived, we were able to enjoy the beach until it got dark. There was a lot of rain during the weekend, and unfortunately, this was the first time I've forgotten my umbrella the entire time I've been in Costa Rica. We were split into two groups, and on Sunday, my group went for a walk through the Corcovado National Park. We took about a 30 minute boat ride to get there. All of the boat rides through the ocean were so much fun because the waves were huge. About 40 minutes into the walk, I started to feel sick. I felt really dehydrated, but after eating, drinking, and taking a nap, I didn't really feel any better. Later that day, I started to have allergy symptoms with a fever. The next day, my group went to Isla del Cano to do snorkeling and enjoy the beaches. I didn't want to stay at the hotel even though I was sick because I didn't want to miss anything. While snorkeling, I saw a shark, a sea turtle, and lots of fish. When we got back on the boat, we saw a mom and baby whale, and we saw a lot of dolphins. It was really awesome. We then went to the beach, and I started to feel more sick, so I napped while we were there. Once we got back to the hotel around 3, my friends went to the beach, but I went up to my room to rest. I then got the worst headache I've ever had, so I went on a search for AFS volunteers, a few hours later, someone finally found one and sent him to my room. Even though I wanted to go to the doctor that night, the volunteers were convinced I had the flu, so they said I didn't need to. The next morning, we headed home. Once I got home, I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis. I'm just glad I trusted my instinct and went to the doctor. Now I can't go to school again at least until Monday which is bad because I have exams to make up. Hopefully everything will work out!