Volcano Arenal

Obviously from the title, we went to Volcano Arenal this weekend! And it was AWESOME!! We stayed at the nicest hostel that Costa Rica boasts. It had like a little hammock area, a nice pool, restaurant, and the rooms had A/C! Too bad no one else on this trip appreciated A/C, or that would have been awesome. We went to hot springs heated by the lava of the volcano, called the Baldi Springs. They had a ton of different springs all at different temperatures. The hottest was 109 degrees, and the lowest wasn't really too cold but it was still great.

At Baldi, they had these slides that went into a less hot swimming pool. There were 3 slides: slow, fast, and very fast. Being the little daredevil I am, I immediately jump into the very fast. Oh. My. Gosh. So it seems there's probably no regulations on safety in Costa Rica. It was one of the scariest/coolest moments of my young adult slide history.

After the Baldi, we went on a hike around the volcano in the rain forest. It was legit! I saw spider monkeys! And we swung on a vine in the rain forest, just like George. When the hike was almost over, we reached this awesome view of the volcano where we heard the tragic story of how this part of Costa Rica found out they had a volcano right by them. A whole village died in the volcano's first blast in 1968. It was a pretty intense story.After the hike, they took us to try to view the volcano spew out lava rocks at night, but unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy so we couldn't see. Instead, we skipped rocks and wandered around the area.

They took us back to the Baldi to eat a dinner buffet before going back to the hostel. It was insane crowded. AND every time we tried to sit down they freaked out because we were sitting in the wrong place. Joe Nixon stated, "This is stupid" as he chomps down on some lettuce. We also met another American there, though less pleased to be in good ol' CR. She was a little upset she was having rice and beans again.

Today we drove back with our amazing driver whose name I can't say. But he was the sweetest little man in the world with Jesus pictures all over his van, cool cat.

I just took a 3 hour nap, and ate a soggy Quiznos sandwich. It was marvelous.

Pray for: my teaching this week, patience with BVS, and being intentional with spending time with the Lord.

PS - I've been here for a month today, no kidding.

Pura Vida!

Alright so Tuesday I went on a field trip with my kiddos in 8A. We went to a Chinese fair in San Jose. It was pretty cool, they had music, books, chinese chess, and a national champion ping pong player set up shop and showed some of our kids some moves. Unfortunately the 8A students tired quickly and thirty minutes before we are supposed to leave, the students decide they're bored and want to go to McDonalds. Mrs. Van der Laat says alright so we head off to McDonalds. It was sort of surprising that we would leave right in the middle of a field trip, but that's the way they roll at Blue Valley. Pura Vida.

We had meetings yesterday after school. I think I'll never understand the purpose of staff development meetings, they always seem somewhat silly to me. I went to a meeting about classroom management. It was interesting and some funny guy had something to say every five minutes. Afterwards, we went to the Multiplaza to watch a movie. Needing a little comfort from the good ol' USA, I sneak two double decker tacos from t-bell and a can of dr. pepper (gold in this country) into the movie theatre. We watched Invictus, and it was awesome..

While watching Invictus, I thought about how cool Morgan Freeman is. I even decided to myself that BAMF should no longer carry the negative connotation it has but it should mean Beautiful As Morgan Freeman. Tell me what you think.

This blogging business is hard to keep up with..

So it's been a week. For all you avid readers just waiting for my posts, i apologize.

It was a pretty crazy week. We went to Manuel Antonio this weekend and hung out. We played soccer on the beach with some ticos and American boys. I got the usual sunburn, it was a good time. We ate at at place called Daiquiris. It looked awesome, but their food sucked.

The next day, it was time to leave and it was hot and humid. And I really really hate being sweaty unless I'm at camp war eagle. I mean I really really hate it. So I was pretty miserable a large part of that day so we can forget that.

Today, I gave my 6th graders a test, and I got some remarkable answers to some questions. They're somewhat inappropriate, so message me and I'll tell you.

On a more serious note, the Lord has been good in Costa Rica. I met some people who really have a heart for the Lord that have told me about a few mission opportunities that I can check out while I'm here, so pray for those things please :)

Well... i think that covered a week. I'll try to write again oh so soon.

Monteverde

So it's been a few days since I posted, so here we go.

This past weekend we decide to hang out in the rain forest in Monteverde. So we order a crazy expensive bus, drive on horrible gravel roads, are scared out of our minds that we will be murdered in the woods, and arrive at our hotel late at night.

Since we're cheap students, we're all sharing two rooms for 4-5 people including the boys. Kristen and I decide to take one for the time and say Joe and Jon can stay with us. Well. Have you ever heard of the saying if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all? Joe hasn't. He is a hate machine. Just kidding, actually we were the best roommates EVER!!!

So the whole point of the going to the rainforest this weekend was to run in a race on Saturday morning. I think this is a brilliant idea, I may not be a runner but I'm completely convinced I can do this. Well after a mile and a half of only hills, lots of polluted air, and my out of shape sides aching, I realize real fast I'm far from capable of doing this. So instead Vanessa and I end up on the walker's 5k road. But I still finished a race in the rainforest, so pura vida!!

After the race, we go grab lunch and prepare ourselves for the canopy tour. A van pulls up to take us and we meet two travelers: a really nice girl from Australia, and a German whose name was never clear. Let's call him Hans.

We all go to the canopy tour, and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life!! I've never done anything that cool. It was surreal being that far up on the air on a little wire. The workers were funny, the land was beautiful, it was amazing.

After the canopy tour, we go out to the Treehouse restaurant to celebrate Kristen's birthday, it was awesome. And then we met up with our new found friends at a place called Amigos for a little while. But apparently our transition to Costa Rica has made us old, because we were all home by 11.

Yesterday we returned to our homestays and prepared for school today... which of course is not near as wonderful as the rain forest..

1st day of kiddos

So yesterday was the first day with the kiddos. I thought I was going to be more excited about meeting the student body all that. Don't get me wrong, they make the school day more lively. I was just under the impression since this is a private school, the kids would really want to learn and have good behavior unlike the kids in the states.

not true

But honestly the first two days have proven to be overwhelming and challenging. But I do feel it's a good thing, I mean sink or swim right? I taught my first class the first day of school while being monitored of course. Those sixth graders were a little out of control. They just talk so much here. I thought kids in the states could talk, these kids could talk to a brick wall, no joke...

My favorite part of the day was seeing the parents pull up in their BMW's, Range Rovers, Saabs, etc. The wealthy in Costa Rica are pretty legit. A kid got in trouble for having a watch that had a cell phone built into it with texting and the internet, insane.

Today we went to the Multiplaza and watched Sherlock Holmes with Spanish subtitles. It was awesome.

Big gulps huh? Welp see you later.

Pray that I'll be intentional and have boldness through the language barrier.

Love ya'll

No Way San Jose

Alright so yesterday we decide we should go visit the capital city, San Jose for the day. Even though many teachers and locals said it wasn't worth it, we got on a bus and headed that way.

Well turns out, San Jose is the worst. It was dirty, crowded, hot, humid, people were honking like crazy people. It was stressful. We aimlessly walked around since the central market was closed because of the election for a few hours. We finally just ate lunch and got the heck out of there. We actually ran to a bus.

After going onto the old highway and being on a bus far longer than necessary, we arrive in Santa Ana. Ready to get off the bus, we're prepared to pull the cord at the next stop. Well Colby thinks we can get off at another stop because the driver will loop around. Colby is wrong. So a mile or so away from the original bus stop, we get off the bus, and walk to the Santa Ana homestays. Some kid gave me a LAURA flag, I kept it as a souvenir.

The rest of the afternoon we just hung out in the courtyard, with very philosophical conversation. We came up with all of us being characters on the The Real World: Costa Rica.

At the end of the day, I went back to my homestay in time to hear Costa Rica announce their first female president ever, Laura Chinchilla.

And the Saints won.

Pura Vida!

It's been a few...

Hey friends.

So it's been a few days since I wrote, but mainly because sometimes the weekdays get a little boring and I just choose not to write about them.

Wednesday after school we all went to hang out at the Multi Plaza. We watched the movie Up In the Air in English with Spanish subtitles. As a result, I learned 3 cuss words in Spanish, including the f bomb. Not that I'm going to use them obviously, but I feel like I needed to know what they were.

Thursday I went to school like the norm. the whole clan went out to eat at an italian place on OSU's dime, it was delightful. Hawkins yelled a lot and refused to eat cheesecake with fruit on top. High maintenance much?

Friday we had a swim party, it was ballin'.

and then today..... WE WENT TO THE OCEAN!!!! It was my first time and it was awesome. I got in the water and swam around, went on some walks, had fish casado, finished Redeeming Love (which was AMAZING), and then we headed home.

While at the ocean, I kept being told I should stay in the shade because of my fair skin. But turns out, I wasn't sunburned that bad in comparison to others. So yeah deal with that.... but when I got home I realized I was burned a little more than I thought.. whoops.

But I officially love the ocean, weekends, and Costa Rica.

Give me prayer requests if you have them, love.

Orientation Shmorientation

So today was our first day at Blue Valley for new teacher orientation. I can confidently say I don't like sitting through meetings in any country. BUT the school is really cool and the faculty seems to be very welcoming.

I have yet to actually meet my cooperating teacher, but luckily I think I will meet her today. I sadly don't really have much to say about today. It's sort of just been long, and it's been hard not really seeing anybody since school. I hope my home stay can be at home more often in the evening as the semester progresses, I feel like I'm in house arrest haha.

But God is good, so I shouldn't complain. I started getting into Redeeming Love, talk about a sad book when you're already out of our element. GEEZ.

I really feel like all of my posts are really sporadic with little organization...

Welp see you later :)

Living the Good Life

What a rough day in Costa Rica...

We woke up at 9, had breakfast made for us at the hotel, and then sat by the pool for most of the morning.

In the afternoon I went to Blue Valley and met my family. Escazu is so much different than Santa Ana! It's so urban and americanized! My family lives in a legit gated community with a pool. It's so much different than I expected.

Though it's nice that they have more in common with me than I thought, I'm sad I'm missing out on a lot of culture. But I'm pumped about getting into the school, and of course weekends!

Amazing quote from Kristin today:

"Perhaps that is the whole point of faith; that we follow God faithfully when nothing makes sense anymore." - Extraordinary Faith

Love ya'll.