How time flies when you're... completely submerged in a foreign culture

Last night on the beach in santa teresa
me and pulga
probably after a violent galloping session
piglet following a dog, absolutely precious.
Kevin and Andrea following our guide
Santa Teresa Beach
Our hostel
Our hostel kitchen
flowers in a downtown market
the university
With our zip lining instructor
Flowers on the walk from the tree back to the hostel
Andrea and Chris higher up than me
The view looking down
Me climbing
Andrea climbing the crazy tree
Andrea and I at the bottom the the tree
Cows along the million mile walk
The Bar at Chanchos
Andrea and I with our hard earned drinks
Cabina in Cahuita
Reggae Bar in Cahuita
Chris fixing the stupid pink bike
Hammock at the cabina in cahuita
Black sand Beach Cahuita
^ My class minus Molly M and Keith

            July? Seriously? Well those of you hanging out on the edges of your seats waiting for the latest installment…I hope you moved on.

            I’m going to try and deliver a chronological update but we’ll see. Well, scratch that, I can’t remember one bit what I did more than 20 days ago exactly. But here are the important notes:

1.     We finished classes. Thank goodness. Half way through we had to start going to class at 8am instead of 9 because with the schedule the way it was, we weren't going to be in class for enough hours to qualify for the ones needed at KU. So we started that and it really wasn't bad at all. During that extra hour we just did activities or played games or just had light-hearted conversation. We had about 6 papers due ranging from a paragraph to 4ish pages and I did well on them, A or B on all. We also had 3 in class presentations and one debate for the conversation chunk of the grade. I did one presentation over Laura Moriarty, Chris and I did a group presentation over why KU is the best college ever, the debate was over war...and my final presentation was with Chris and Marcy over the importance of being bilingual. I got a 92 every time...at least it didn't get worse? Therefore, i ended up with an A in both classes and am quite pleased to be adding 6 hours of A to my GPA. 

2. Cahuita. Three weeks ago we went to the Caribbean coast to a little town called Cahuita. It was an interesting little town, dead because of the rainy season, and very Rastafarian.  We had made a reservation at a place called Cabinas Algebra, and the lady told me that there was arranged transportation from the bus stop to the cabin. So we got into the bus station and had lunch and waited around for the shuttle or van or what have you. After about 30 minutes a little scrawny man walks up to me holding a sign with my name and the cabins name on it so we followed him to the parking lot...to a 2-door -1980-something-maybe Honda civic-maybe saab on wheels. There are 5 of us, PLUS him, 2 of us males over 6 foot WITH luggage... That was cozy. 

We got to the cabin and the lady made us fresh fruit juices and while talking to her we realized that they were not Costa Rican, or Latino, or American... they were German. Angry Germans. (We needed you Emily). She got snappy with us for not really talking to her much despite the fact that we had no idea what the hell language to speak to her in. So we chugged the juice and went to our cabin. It was cute, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and 2 baths with a huge porch with two hammocks. We lounged around for a bit, hammocks are heavenly, and wandered to the beach. The sand was black! and there was absolutely not a soul in site in either direction on the beach. After confirming that the beach existed we decided it was time to eat and chris, Kevin and I decided to go into town the the grocery store to get stuff to make in our handy dandy kitchen. The guy at the cabin had mentioned earlier that they had bikes we could borrow free of charge, so we inquired about said bikes and he led us to the garage. There we 3 bikes, perfect, 2 blue 1 pink, perfect BUT the pink one was the tallest...not so perfect for Chris ha-ha. Anyways we headed out and about 5 minutes in Chris' chain came loose. So he fixed it, hands covered in oil and we proceeded on, only to have it happen again, fixed it, and then... it broke into pieces. Poor pink bike. So Kevin decided to walk it back and Chris and I carried on, only to have my chain come loose twice. Chris was able to fix it both times however. So about 25 minutes later we arrive at the grocery store, soaked in sweat and oil. The store was about 15 degrees hotter than outside so we were miserable. Chris tracked down a sink and I tracked down dinner. Ended up with pasta, cheese, bread, peas and carrots and i cant remember what else, and a well-deserved bottle of Cahuitan Rum and juice to pair with it. We rode back, downhill the whole way and put the groceries away and headed to the beach. It was pouring but we swam anyway and it was a ton of fun (no lightening). Went back, cooked dinner, which turned out delicious, and showered, got cleaned up, drank the rum (sick. wrenching stomach aches from the sweetness) went out in search of better entertainment, found a Reggae bar with sweet music and ended up eating more instead of drinking due to the wretched rum. Spent the whole second day on the beach in the sun. We all got fried. It was rough. All in all, good weekend, our first one away without supervision went well, we all survived and made it back home to lay in our beds, covered in aloe, lesson learned. 

3. Monteverde. A week after Cahuita we went to Monteverde, which is north and in the mountains/rainforest. This time, without a plan; no reservations, no activities planned, nothing. This was a good idea. seriously. We got off the bus in the middle of town and were greeted by a man saying stay in my hostel stay in my hostel. So we did. It was a really nice little place with a tourist info center in the front that sets up all kinds of activities for you. And when we got off the bus he was saying 10 dollars a night and by the time we paid it was 5 bucks a night. Glorious. So we settled in and asked the guys working up front what there is to do at night there and all fingers pointed towards Chanchos, a bar not too far from our hostel. We walked there, walked too far, walked back and went into a tiny little whole-in-the-wall joint with chill music and lots of tables and chairs and a space made into a dance floor. Erick, one of the guys at the hostel, told us to go up to the bartender, Chancho, and say he sent us and get  a free shot. Turns out everyone gets a free "welcome shot" but we'll let Erick think he's cool. So Andrea and I are sitting at the bar, take our welcome shot that tastes like a blueberry slushy, and are talking to Chancho who speaks english quite well. Then he asks us if we want to come back behind the bar and DJ for him because it is getting busy and he is the only one working and we said sure! Well in a matter of minutes, "Hey Molly, can you grab those gentlemen their beers, they're 1000 collones each." So... I did, and kept doing, all night, beers, mixed drinks, shots... and Andrea took the money and he gave us free drinks all night for helping. It was a blast and how many people can say they bartended in a foreign country? I know 2. Soooo after that we went home and went to bed. 

The next day we went to the store and got stuff to make breakfast, made it, ate it and had zip lining appointments at 10:30 but they gave our spot away to a huge group and we were postponed until 1:30. So we decided to go out in search of this tree that the other half of our KU group had found the weekend before. Its an ancient tree in the rainforest that another parasitic tree has over hundreds of years hollowed out by eating its insides. The parasitic tree is similar to a ficus (sp?) tree and makes basically a ladder inside the tree. (Don't worry, I'm adding pictures incase you all are lost). So we asked the guys at the front desk where it was and he basically described a simple 15 minute walk with one turn. He forgot to mention it was straight uphill THE ENTIRE TIME. It took us an hour and i've never been so tired. So of course we get to it, and have to climb it despite the fact that my legs no longer work. So we started and Andrea flew up it and i started after her, only to freak out and go back down. I made Chris go in front of me so that I would know where to step. We made it up and sat on top of the rain-forest. It was amazing. We could see so far, and the ground was so far away. We were filthy and covered in dirt and you have to climb the tree barefoot. So we just sat up there for awhile making it worth all the effort and it definitely was. So we made our way back down and out of the forest to commence our hour long walk back. It was nearly harder to walk downhill being that was trying to control a pair of spaghetti with feet. AND then, it started to pour. It felt amazing but created a lot of mud. We made it back, semi-rinsed off and headed out to meet the group for zip lining. We took a shuttle to the site and had to wait out the rain, or actually the lightening. It finally ended but it was freeeeezing. So we started and the first one was just for practice and led directly to the second, which was longer, and fun, but then, THEN, we had to HIKE to the third. My legs no longer functioned at this point and it was awful, and there were 14 cables. It was worth it I can say now, but i just wanted to sit down and never get up at the time. But we did all 14 cables, including one that was a repel straight down and i still dont know if i was in control of my speed or the guy at the bottom or gravity but it was terrifying. After that we hiked yet again to what they call the Tarzan swing...basically free falling off of a ledge, into the rain-forest with a rope around your waist. And the guys were like Ok, we're pushing you on 3. yeah right, thats what the ear piercing lady said, and all the doctors with their shots, So i was dreading 2, they pushed on 1. It was the craziest feeling ever. Well, we survived that and went back and passed out for the best nap ever. Then we shopped and ate and shopped and showered and ate and went to a bar called amigos, which was okay, we weren't behind the bar or anything...

We left the next day and prepared for the last week of school! 

4. Going out in San Jose

Andrea and I went out a couple times downtown San Jose and it was a lot of fun. It is definitely fun on a Monday night when you're the only two girls for miles. Didn't pay for a thing, but don't worry mom(s) we used our heads, made some friends, danced a little ethnic jigs, turned down a lot of invitations to dance ethnic jigs, and went home in taxi at a reasonable time.  

5. Shopping downtown 

We went shopping on the main street behind the university the day we "graduated". Ate cheap pizza, got some fun stuff, enjoyed being free from school. We also went downtown the next day with Chris and Kevin's host mom and she showed us where all the cheap spots are and wouldn't let us buy anything until we had compared all the prices, so we're going back today to do our final purchasing. 

6. Pick-pocketing

Friday after our graduating and pizza eating and shopping I was feeling quite pleased with the world. oops. Chris and I were getting on the bus at the stop we use every time to come back from school or shopping. The bus pulled up and a man was in front of me and motioned as to let me go in front of him, standard gentleman move, thought nothing of it, assumed Chris was right behind me, got on the bus, walked to the back, sat down, looked out the window and saw that Chris was still outside the bus. He was behind two girls and one of them had dropped something and he was helping them look under the bus and behind him, was the same man who let me go in front. So still naive and happy i sit waiting for Chris. He finally gets on the bus and sits down and says holy crap, i almost just got my wallet stolen! He had felt it move so he put his hand over it and left it there until he got on the bus. Then he told me that the two girls in front of him, like the man who let me pass, were all wearing black, and that they were acting weird, and that the one lady got on the steps to the bus, then changed her mind and walked back down, forcing Chris backwards into the man, who apparently then tried to take his wallet, failed, then the second lady dropped all of her change, which is what i saw, forcing Chris to bend over for the man's second opportunity to take the wallet but chris' hand was still on it. Mission failed, none of the 3 got on the bus and I stared at that man sending him the evil eye as the bus drove away, STILL too stupid to check my purse. Chris and I thought we had come out on top of this situation, 2 americans not owned by professional pick-pocketers. WRONG. I got home, talked to my host mom, changed into comfy clothes, decided to take a nap, went to get my phone, my iphone, out of my purse to use as an alarm clock. you guessed it. Gone. Long gone. No mystery as to where either. Luckily he didn't take my wallet and especially surprising that he didn't take my camera that was side by side with my phone. Good day turned bad real quick. 

So that was Friday, and that night we tried to go out to celebrate being done with class, and went to a jazz cafe with great live music, had a glass of wine but couldnt take it, i was too mad. And Andrea was in a terrible mood as well because the ATM ate her debit card and she had no money. We went home and went to bed just happy for the day to be over. 

7. Santa Teresa. Sunday we left super early in the morning to go to the pacific coast. We went by taxi to the bus, bus to a ferry, ferry to another bus which landed us in Santa Teresa. I was looking forward to the beach erasing my terrible mood but it didn't start off too well. Chris had been sleeping on the bus with his camera on his lap, stood up, walked out of the bus and it had fallen off. He went back less than 10 minutes later to find two guys cleaning the bus and they hadn't seen it. yeah, right. So still downtrodden, we went to check out the beach. beautiful, white sand, not black and the waves were pretty big. We went and ate and I had a delicious fish sandwich. We played in the water for awhile then the boys went and got stuff for dinner and we ate then went to bed pooped. The next morning we got up to go check out the beach early because the waves were supposed to be huge. They were, the beach that was about 500 feet wide the day before was now nearly non existent and was COVERED in surfers. We were too scared of the waves so we just laid out for awhile. Then Andrea wanted to go to the bank to see what she could do about getting money off of her dad's credit card since she no longer had her debit card, but Chris and Marcy had already walked to the bank earlier and it took them about 45 min each way...so, Andrea and I rented a 4-wheeler. It was only 10 bucks more to rent it for 24 hours than 7 hours, so we did. it was a blast we rode down to the bank, had no success with the money plan, ate at a really good restaurant, found some dark chocolate which is rarer than rare here and were happy. Went back to the beach played around, laid out and just relaxed. We made some more food, watched a movie ate some popcorn, it was a good evening. The next morning, we got up early to go horseback riding! We were really excited. We met them next to the beach and picked our horses, mounted them and started riding. No instructions, no helmets, no rules. My horse was Pulga, which is spanish for flea, because she was the smallest, quite appropriate for me, I thought... turns out Pulga has napoleon syndrome; she wanted to run, she wanted to be in the lead, she did NOT want to listen to anything I wanted. So I got quite the beating from that, my legs were too short to properly stay in the stirrups so i was gripping on with the tops of my feet, which now have raw spots, and i also couldn't stand up in the stirrups like everyone else to give my legs a break, because my legs were already completely straight while sitting down.. Oh well, it was a ton of fun and i can say in galloped on a horse on the beach of costa rica. We went back, changed and headed back to the beach, got some more sun and then went back to eat. Lounged around, packed and said goodbye to the beach because our bus was leaving the next morning at 5:15. Took the same rigorous set  of transportation devices as before to get back, slept as much as possible and arrived back to San Jose, sore as can be, but pleased with our final vacation for the trip. And now! the 3 hour plane ride will seem like a breeze compared to 5 hours or more of traveling sans AC, efficient space and my bag at my feet due to fear (legitimate fear) of thieves. 

So there, that was the last leg of my trip in a nutshell. It took me about an hour and my alarm clock is just now going off to wake me up even though i've been up for 2 hours because the sun comes up at 5:30 here, and the world is all up by 7 and are not afraid to let everyone know it. Oh well. Pura Vida. 

see you all the day after tomorrow!

 

 

A Costa Rican guide to umbrellas

So I cannot believe I have not mentioned anything about umbrellas, their rules, their names and the homeless men that attack with them...

Women: have sombrillas, which are meant really to act as shade (sombra in spanish is shandow) they are normally very bright colors or patterns and are dainty. Mine is black.

Men: have paraguas, which are meant to block the rain... and should be black. only. Chris has a bright yellow raincoat. Guess how many days it took him to buy a black umbrella...

Anyways, last week we were walking to school; Chris, Kevin, Kate and I, and we crossed a very busy street and had to run for the last stretch because the light turned green. As we reached the other side of the street, which was also the front gate of the University, a drunken-looking man with very matted and balding hair, a long black trench coat, fingerless gloves AND a black umbrella began flailing his arms and yelling at us. Not sure why he was so angry, but as we got closer, he took a huge whack at Chris with his umbrella. He missed and nailed the iron gate of the University entrance breaking the handle off of his umbrella, unfortunate thing in the rainy season. Unfortunate yet well-deserved. 

Anyways, we have now seen this man numerous times EVERYWHERE. And Kate and some others later found the afore-mentioned umbrella handle. So that is a fun little inside joke/terror of ours. 

Went and saw a movie today in the theater. Duplicity. It was in english with spanish subtitles. Very very good movie. Too bad if you see it in the states you wont be able to get admission for four, popcorn for four, drinks for four and some candy for the equivalent of...17 bucks!! I love Costa Rican prices. It looked like this though 10.600 colones. So we always feel like we are spending tons and tons of money but really the amounts are so small. The US should make their's the same, people would maybe spend less. A candy bar costs $.79 or 360 colones. which are you going to buy. me too. 

I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday, time is flying and i love it and hate it all at the same time. 

Gave my presentation today, it went surprisingly well. I bought candy to pass out as rewards for correct answers for a Q&A session after the presentation and therefore, everyone loved my presentation :) However, being that they answered my questions correctly means they listened. everyone won. 

Well i'm off to bed!

much love

Molly

Sloths and Tucans and Bees, Oh my!

HOLA!

So i decided to wait until Tuesday to write so that my terrible Monday attitude didn't come through to all of you... or the few of you, whichever. 

This weekend was quite eventful and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Friday we didn't do much got out of school and walked around a bit, I think, I can't even remember. I stayed in that night and early Saturday morning a few of us went into the center of San Jose to explore. 

We took a bus there from the Outlet Mall, which has become our group meeting place. How American. Anyways, we took the bus to San Jose and got out and walked to the Museums, or Los museos. $5 entrance fee to see 3 museums, the coolest on was this one of all the money and gold history in Costa Rica. Very interesting. Pictures will explain better. We were there for awhile and then left to have lunch in a tiny little cafe where we once again had very cheap and very delicious food. After this we set out in search of el Teatro Nacional... or the national theater. a.k.a the place where my wedding will take place. It was the most beautiful place i've ever seen. I'll post pictures when my camera is back in commission. We got a tour in spanish and thankfully understood it. The place was amazing and was apparently where JFK was a week before he was assassinated and you can see from one of the balconies the Catholic church he attended when he was in San Jose. I didnt quite catch all of it but apparently there is some new theory about a conspiracy related to his death that took place in San Jose, google it for more details because I don't know them in english. 

Saturday evening we went to a Mexican restaurant (ha) to watch the Costa Rica vs. Trinidad/Tobago soccer game. good time, good food, good friends, 2-4-1 beers. Costa Rica won, all around successful day. 

Didn't go out Saturday night either because we had to get up very early Sunday for a 3 hour van ride to La Fortuna to go to the Arenal Volcano or Volcan Arenal. Along the way, we stopped at the house of the mother of one of our directors so that she could get her swimming suit... This was over 2 hours into the drive and we all wanted to stretch our legs. An ongoing obsession on our trip has been sloths. We all want to see a sloth. So, Zaida, our director, told us that back in the backyard of her mom's place was a tree that a sloth is usually in. So we wandered back there in hopes of seeing a sloth. So there I was scanning the tree for the little guy when all of a sudden i hear a bunch of commotion and turn around to see everyone going nuts. I didn't know what was wrong, even the dog was rolling around on the ground going crazy, then everyone started to run, so I started to run, what ever it was i didn't want to be in the back... Then i heard the zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Taking in to consideration that never in my life have i ever been stung by a bee or wasp and the fact that mosquitos don't prefer me, i decided to walk along with about four others. guess who didn't get stung, definitely not the flailing targets. I guess i'm not sweet enough after all. Well the ones who felt the wrath felt it good. Ross got stung next to his eye and on his arm, Jessica in the middle of her chest and on her hand, which is now  comparable to an inflated plastic glove... and the others got them in misc. places, including Zaida who said she had never before been stung so badly or so many times. Needless to say we didn't see the sloth...

Battle wounds iced up, we got back in the van and completed the journey.

We arrived after the bumpiest car ride of my life to the most fantastic buffet of my life. I ate entirely too much. Who cares. I waddled down to the locker rooms but my stuff away and we went to explore the 18 natural hot springs at the resort. They ranged from 86 to 103 degrees. Can you say heaven? And we saw tucans! We spent hours and hours going from pool to pool, spending a lot of time in one with a jacuzzi on the side and on one with a slide! Exhausted we gathered and boarded the van for the ride back. On our way out of the resort they stopped the van because Zaida had called down to the guards to ask them to look for sloths and to let us know if they saw one. They did! It was waaaay up in a tree but we saw it! And hooray for zoom! Finally content well, maybe some still bitter about the bees, we headed home. We exchanged stories on the bus basically of all the things our parents wouldn't be proud of, BUT that we've learned great lessons from... 

Got back into Sabanilla at 8 and came home and had no room for dinner after the buffet. Then, the power went out. That was interesting, but really no different than in Kansas. Things just get a lot more boring. They came back on within the hour and I passed out.

Monday was rough. Back to school. I discovered that maybe the waterproof digital camera didn't quite have the strength to endure the hot springs... it's in a bag of rice right now in attempt to dry out whatever got too wet... fingers crossed please. 

Got homework, did it, bought some plantain chips, ants infested them, ate finally, stomach didn't like it, tried to sleep, couldn't, tried to do more homework, slept. Set an alarm, ignored it. slept for 9 hours. Woke up, showered. Went back to bed, alarm went off. Happy Tuesday. 

Today was much better. sorry for the dreary paragraph. Bought more plantain chips, ate them all at once so that the ants couldn't. Got some homework done, discovered skype so i can now video chat. Mom, good luck. ask Ben. 

I'm currently typing a presentation for tomorrow over my favorite book, The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty, turns out its better than i thought for such presentation since she is from Kansas and the story takes place in Kansas. How perfect. I can talk for 5 minutes over that easily. 

Well that's all for now, pictures later when camera is free from the rice.

Molly

bailamos el swing criollo

Buenas

The discoteca adventure was a success. Nearly the complete opposite of a night out in Lawrence I must say. There were 8 of us who went so we took two taxis. The taxi drivers here would win every racing video game you could throw at them. In addition to a lack of street signs, I have yet to see a speed limit sign. There is no police jurisdiction over the traffic... Very thrilling, very scary. 

We arrived, walked in and the layout was interesting. There was a staircase leading upstairs to a very chill, dark and smoky bar with karaoke...costa ricans singing Journey...yeah. Inside the door to the left was where we stayed. There was a bar then a lot of tables with place settings and then a huge dance floor. We sat at a table and had a waitor who collected money after every drink. No such thing as a tab here. Had a couple imperials, which is the beer of Costa Rica. Good, tastes like Bud. It was Andrea's birthday and I wanted to buy her a shot... straight liquor or nothing here. No mixed shots. And what was the cheapest? tequila. She hated me, and then wanted another. ha. 

Chris finally managed to get us girls one by one onto the dance floor and it was a blast. We just tried to watch and copy everyone else. We had fun, so who cares how ridiculous we looked. 

We left around 11:15, which is so early, but we went out at 8:30, and we all had class this morning early early. It was a lot of fun...and once again, NO TIPPING. its fantastic. 

Ironically, today in class we learned all about the type of dance invented in Costa Rica; el swing criollo. It is an imitation of American swing to cuban music. Not similar to swing at all though, but they were inspired by it. We watched a video of it, very interesting. 

At the end of class at 1 it started to rain... and didn't stop till 8:30 and it was coming down in sheets. obviously i didn't wait until 8:30 to come home... all of us were soaked to the bone. It was fun though, rain here is so much more pleasant than rain in Kansas. 

I'm staying in tonight because the guys are having a "guys night" with their host brothers and therefore we are male-less to go out. And we're all to scared since we all live separately and would have to be alone inevitably at some point in the night. Got my homework done however and learned me some verbs. 

Tomorrow we are going to down town San Jose to visit some museums and shop then return to Sabanilla in the afternoon to go to a bar to watch the futbol game. I don't know who they're playing but we have jerseys!  

Had chicken soup for dinner. It had pears in it! and a whole drumstick that you basically either just let soak and then pick up and eat, or stab at it with your spoon till the meat falls off. I'm terrible at eating here, I make a mess every time. Especially with rice. Oh well, at least I eat everything that she puts in front of me, which makes her so happy because the last kid wanted chicken and papas and rice, separate, never mixed, and only apples and store bought juice. what an idiot. 

That's all the excitement (and not so exciting) for now.

OLE OLE OLE TICO TICO

Day 3 of class complete! 

On a more exciting front, three other kids and I went to the USA v. Costa Rica game. It was amazing. We took a taxi from Sabanilla to the stadium and bought jerseys for the equivalent of 9 bucks and then got tickets for like 22 bucks each and pizza and pop for 4 total. SOOOOO much cheaper than if we went to the same game in the US. 

The crowd was insane. So into it. The solid concrete bleachers were shaking hard enough to throw someone off. The US played horribly in comparison to Costa Rica so we were pleased we were wearing the Costa Rica jerseys. Call me a traitor, whatever. It was fun. Took a taxi back, again cheap. 

A little about the taxi systems. Only ride the nice looking red ones with yellow triangles on them. There are taxi piratas that take you to God knows where for God knows what. Therefore we were quite picky in our taxi choices. 

Tonight is one of the girls' birthdays and we are going to Castro's which is a discoteca. we will see how that goes. I dont know the protocol for attire or anything... 

I actually have lost interest in typing. more later.

Day 2

Buenas!

I just got home from my first day of class. We had class from 9-1 with a 30 min break for lunch. Today was a little different because we were all in one room with one teacher with no true set curriculum because there were a few complications setting up which students are in which classes, but it was all figured out today. So tomorrow and everyday until the end will be a day of 2, two-hour long classes from 9-11 and 11-1 with a a break in there somewhere. 

The class room is about the same size as KU's regular classrooms but each desk was a little station with side walls and an audio recorder thing. I do not know if we will be using them but they're there and are in the way of putting a notebook down in any normal fashion. The teacher's name is Ericka and she is very nice and very funny. 

We wandered around today after class in the area surrounding the campus, which, by the way makes KU look TINY! It is huge and there are no street names here. And if there are, no one knows them. And the people are terrible at giving directions. Anyway, we managed to find our way from the Kansas office to the "letras" building that our classes are in. We went into the outlet mall... tacky tacky tacky. We quickly left and went to a restaurant called el Buffalo. very different from Buffalo Bobs. thank the lord. There were 9 of us and our total for every one was 16,000 callones which is the equivalent to $32! CHEAP!! we all had full meals too. I had arroz con pollo which was delicious, spare that is strangely came with french fries... I do not know if it is the same everywhere, but at this restaurant, the waitress took our order and then brought the ticket and we each paid even before we got our food. I guess better safe than sorry! 

Then we all were perplexed by the issue of the tip... do we leave one? is it rude? is it optional? how much? i think we ended up leaving 700 callones which is like ~2 dollars, so... it was either a terrible tip or a spectacular one... i shall google it. or ask my family.

Then two boys in the group, Kevin and Chris, who live very close to me, and I  rode the bus back to our town and went to Mas por Menos, which is the grocery store and wandered around and i bought some of the fantasic salsa that is soooooo fantasic here. i put it on everything. Then the three of us walked to their house (they are one of two houses with two KU students) and checked it out then went to the internet cafe across the street from their casa. 

Chris walked me home, and now i'm sitting in my bed on the internet, which seems to only exist at certain times so if I am every chatting with any of you and suddenly disappear... that is why. 

So ironically, the internet just left me. And i am finishing this out but will have to save it until later when the internet returns...

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica!

5.31

I am officially sitting on my bed in what will be my home for the next 5 weeks. However the bed I’m sitting on is only temporary because the family I’m staying with is hosting another kid from somewhere (would know where if I would have asked him or if the host mom knew, but he doesn’t speak any Spanish…) so he is in what will be my room until Thursday. I’m writing this on Word right now because as expected, there is no wireless internet, so I’ll just have to zip drive this little blurp over to the internet tomorrow.

The second leg of the trip was a little bit more annoying than the first. Another girl from the program, Amber, and I were on the same plane both legs and had a 4-hour layover in Dallas. We ate, and then ate some more and sat and sat some more because our backpacks were too heavy to lug around wandering. Our flight was delayed some 45 minutes or so and we arrived to San Jose a little over an hour late. The flight wasn’t too bad; they served dinner; chicken with pasta and salad and a perfectly spherical roll. Watched Marley and Me, which, now that I think about it, may be the last American movie I see for awhile?

I sat next to a guy, Matt, that was from California headed to Costa Rica to surf for two months. He writes iPhone apps for a living, interesting guy he was. He was canceling his cell phone service as the plane was taxing onto the runway. That was entertaining because he had to put his phone down every time the flight attendant walked by resulting in several “I’m sorry I did not understand your request, please choose from the following options”, which made the process only so much longer. I thought I was last minute setting my plan up two days ago.

We landed, made it through customs, got our baggage, wandered outside, encountered the director waiting with a sign with a jayhawk on her sign, got on a bus with 6 other kids in the program and drove around dropping everyone off one by one all over San Jose and the surrounding areas.

I am Sabanilla. My host mom here is Laura, and she and I had a 30-minute conversation, which, much to my amazement went very smoothly. I sensed a lot of relief from her as well. And if it went as well as I would like to think, what I understand is that breakfast is at 7:30 in the morning and we need to be on the UCR campus at 8:30. To do what? I have no idea. So I am going to bed, in a twin bed with Noah’s Arc sheets :). The walls are painted green in both this room and my permanent room, which makes me quite happy. My window is open, sans screen, and I’ve got lots of winged visitors… better get used to it I suppose.

Adios

Step one: complete

I'm sitting in the airport waiting to board at 12:45. I made it to the airport, checked my bags, got my boarding passes, passed security ( was reprimanded for not putting my sunscreen in baggy...) and am now in the terminal eating a snack pack of carrots, cheese and grapes with a thing of ranch. Good combo KCI... however I dipped a grape in ranch which was unfortunate. The completion of  all these things is quite the accomplishment for me because I have quite the embarrassing track record when it comes to flying. hi mom. 

I have no idea what the plan is for this trip: where i'll be staying, with whom I'll be staying, how I'm getting to school, when school starts. I know everything about the Puebla trip and nothing about this one but it's kind of exciting I suppose. 

adios

molly

Plan C

Hello,

So a week from today or i guess technically yesterday, I leave for Costa Rica. Plan A was Mexico (hence website address) Plan B was Barcelona. Neither of those worked due to world-wide pandemic panic and lack of interest, respectively. 

My plan is to keep this little page updated as often as possible mainly for myself to have a solid recollection of the trip (and while also having a 3D journal, electronics seem to steal my attention). 

So follow along if you wish.

Molly