Craziest Weekend Thus Far

So once upon a time, the roomies (Kristen, Joe, Jon, I) decide to go to Liberia for the weekend. We get on a bus and head out. After four hours we arrive, and the hotel we booked is right across from the bus terminal. Perfect right?

The place is also a bar, and locals, not tourists, are enjoying beer and karaoke. The hotel guy shows us to our room, which we paid $8 per person for. We quickly figured out why. The room is the size of a walk in closet with 2 bunk beds and no bedding. We laugh it off and have a good time hanging out that night.

Deciding we wouldn't stay again, because we're crazy, we decide to just go eat breakfast at McDonalds and take a one hour bus ride to the beach, and then go back home.

We buy tickets for the 10 AM bus to Playa Flamingo that should take an hour. The bus arrives an hour later, and the bus ride takes 2 1/2 hours. WOW, really CR?

So we get off at Playa Flamingo. We see water, we see beach, but no people. None. So we start walking. We look like death: sweaty, dirty, and just miserable. We find a ritzy resort with tennis courts, beachfront, pools, you get it. We ask them for a deal, they're not having it, and send us to another resort.

The next resort, we're desperate. We pitch our best sale, and they take the bait. $25 per person for one night only. SO we spent the evening and next morning swimming, hanging out with iguanas, and just having a good ole time.

At breakfast, an iguana charged me. I probably shouldn't have provoked it. Lesson learned.

We saw a man hopping down the huge hill our resort was on with a blood soaked towel around his leg and leaving puddles down the street. It was sick.

We then got bus tickets to return to San Jose. It's supposed to be a direct 5 hour bus ride. We left at 2, and arrived back at 8:15, of course.

11 days.

Costa Rica: FYI

So I'm getting to the point where I absolutely suck at blogging. I think mainly because I don't really like just writing what I did in a day. Here's why: typically it's not THAT eventful, and you don't want to to read that anyways. So therefore, I'm going to leave you hanging from now on for a little bit, and then when I've decided it's time, I shall unleash wisdom from Latin America upon you. It's time.

So I've decided to share with you kids some likes and dislikes of mine in Costa Rica. Anybody have a preference which one I start with? .... ok good. let's start with likes.

In Costa Rica, I like...

1. The weather. Because it's awesome. I know that every day after school I can wear athletic shorts and a tank top. I do not have to be concerned a snow storm may show at any time. It's just nice!

2. The chill atmosphere. Nobody is in a hurry anywhere. If you're late, it's not that big of a deal. They get over it, because they're probably late too. Run out of time to do something today? Psh, do it tomorrow, next week, whenever.

3. Torta Chilena & Chocolate Tres Leches Cake - these little desserts have changed my post meal life. We all know that I don't really have a sweet tooth. For these two desserts to have blown my mind the way they did is a BIG deal.

4. Easy to travel. I can see Pacific in less an hour, and the Atlantic in about 4. That's crazy. I've never even seen these oceans from the US! You can just travel around the country without a car if necessary, how cool.

5. Blackberries and Pineapple - Costa Rica has great fruits, really a lot of them are awesome. But blackberries (moras) and pineapples (pinas) are by far and away the best. They honestly taste DIFFERENT here. How does that happen? I don't know. God smiles upon Costa Rica's fruit.

6. Rain forest. I don't think I really have to explain how awesome this is. We don't have them in Oklahoma, and they provide awesome entertainment like waterfall rappelling and canopy tours. 2LEGIT2QUIT.

7. Taxi drivers - They are a hoot. They let me practice my Spanish without laughing at me and they get me from point A to point B. And if you get lucky, they'll say something incredibly inappropriate or crazy.

So I'm not saying that's all the good stuff, I'm sure there's more. BUT I feel it's time we moved to the not so great stuff...

I dislike...

1. Cost of living in Costa Rica. You may think oh it's a developing nation, it'd be awesome and cheap to live there. FALSE. They have unreal taxes and have to import a lot of things, not cheap. I love the taxi drivers, but their meters jump so bad it's not even funny. No taxi costs the same, and they're always trying to rip you off. It's the worst.

2. They are ALWAYS late. Obviously I said this was also sort of a thing I like; it's a two sided coin. You can't count on anybody here. They may be late, or just not show up at all. I'm punctual and I hate it.

3. Public Buses. YES they do get me to the various places I want to go. But they're disgusting. The drivers drive like maniacs. People look at you like they want to kill you. Not so great.

4. All the food I love in America that they try to imitate. Their typical dishes of Costa Rica are awesome and different. I wish they'd just stick to them. Every time I go to a restaurant and order something other than their typical dishes (they only have two so it gets old quick) they completely butcher it. It's shocking how bad they can actually make pizza and spaghetti. shocking.

5. Rude ticos. I am glad they love their country, I am. But telling me that I'm a stupid gringo from the stupid USA just ticks me off. I've never once told anyone here that the U.S. is superior. Never. But they will tell me all the time how much better they are, SPECIFICALLY because they don't have a military. But what if someone attacked little Costa Rica? Whose military would they need to come take care of it? Yep.

6. DIRTY. Costa Rica is so dirty. When I was preparing to come here, I heard how eco friendly Costa Rica is. Lies, it's all lies.

7. This is my last one, since I ended on 7 on likes as well. BUT it's a big one. For some reason tico men think it's appropriate to yell at women and demean them however they'd like. I'm not a fan. Every day I either walk or run a few kilometers down the street. I get so much crap. Today, I actually decided to count. On a 30 minute walk, I was honked/waved at 10 times, whistled at 4 times, and two men that I walked by actually had the audacity to mentally undress me all the while knowing I know what they're doing. It's disgusting.

So yeah, there's some likes and dislikes. I'm sure there's more, but eh. Pura Vida!

Oh Glorious Day

So today was Easter. It was weird being in a different country, with no family and just students from my school. But to be honest, I hadn't put a ton of thought into my potential emotions or anything up until Good Friday.

When I woke up that morning, it was weird because it was as if this whole Holy week (Semana Santa) was different, more meaningful than it ever had been. On Good Friday I was more aware and shaken by the sacrifice Christ had made for me than I have ever been. I went on a walk that morning trying to just wrap my head around that incredibly selfless sacrifice. I kept thinking about so many things I have done since being a Christian, since knowing this love, that have been a deliberate disobedience to Christ and his call in my life. But it made me incredibly grateful. And I think in some very miniscule small way I could finally identify with sacrifice on Good Friday. Being away from home for so long has been hard. And when I'm honest with myself, I see that it's been a tough experience. And sacrificing not being at home for this time is NOTHING in comparison to what Christ had done. I was just really incredibly overwhelming grateful.

One really great experience that tops many from this trip was doing communion with JJ, Caitlin & Joe via Skype on Good Friday. It was awesome to be able to observe such an important element of my faith with a believer here in this experience with me and of course the best of the best at home. I was extremely blessed to have gotten to do that, and can't imagine ever forgetting it. It was incredibly special, even if it was grape Gatorade.

But lucky for all of us, Good Friday isn't the end of the story, so it's neither the end of my blog. It just wouldn't be right.

So this morning, we went to church at International Baptist Church. It was exactly what I needed. The Lord had prepared that time for my heart. That church came ready to celebrate the resurrection with complete joy and surrender to Christ. It was amazing to join in with them. Even though I've been there few times and will probably never be there again, I was with my family of believers, rejoicing in the victory over death Christ has for us. It was really amazing.

All of us students got together to do lunch afterwards. We made great American food, enjoyed each other's company, and it was a good way to end the first Easter away from home. Now, 27 days from the U.S.A.


'Till He returns, or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I stand.

PANAMANIA

So it's been awhile since I've posted, shocker.

But for Semana Santa we went to PANAMA!! And to be honest, it was just alright. Don't get me wrong, I had a BLAST, but Costa Rica as a whole has been a better experience.

Here are the good things:

- Panama uses U.S. dollars. I love them, they make sense to me. Colones are ludicrous.
- Panama is also incredibly cheap in comparison to Costa Rica, which was really nice.
- A local from the hostel took us to some horse races and then to like a local hang out right by the stadium. It was really chill and just different from what we're used to. Lots of fun. At this little event, we met this strange guy we called ol' red at our hostel. His life story was a doozie, and he looked like a redneck. Nice guy though.
- We went to a baseball game! It was really cheap, and a lot of fun!
- I saw the Panama Canal! I mean it wasn't a big monumental moment in my life, but I still saw it. And I'm still wondering why we gave it back. Ships pay $250,000 to get through that thing. I have the solution to the U.S. economy: get back the canal.
- One day we snuck into a resort to swim and relax. The resort even called a taxi for us thinking we were guests, it was legit.
- It was just a little more like the U.S. At this point in the trip, a little U.S. feel goes a long way.
- Not having to go to school is just legit, no matter where you are.

Ok, so the not so good things:

- Traveling to another country via land is the worst idea ever. We were at the border over 3 hours both ways. Latin America doesn't understand efficiency, it makes me crazy.
- Travleling on a bus for 16 hours is also not recommended. It's just pretty horrible, especially when a French girl leans her seat into your lap and traps your legs, boooo.
- Panama isn't near as beautiful as Costa Rica. The beaches were sad, basically like a lake. Good thing we found that resort to sneak in, we were basically in hades for an hour or so.
- Panama is HOT. It was so hot... oh gosh I was hot.

Good spring break trip, all in all.