¿Que Tal Mae?

Hey Guys!!! Sorry I haven´t written in like forever!!! But I will take this time to recap a lil bit about the things that have been going on! Well Last week Laura and I finished our last week of classes in San Jose, it was super hard and some days I just got so frustrated that I kinda gave up, luckily I did make it through the week, and came out with a B in the class!!! Now a B isn´t an A but for how hard this class was and how much I disliked the teacher and her criticizing remarks, I am thrilled with a B! So to celebrate our last week, at least for a while, in San Jose, a group of students and a couple of workers from the school went out dancing. We went to this little village looking area called El Pueblo, where there were like 12 different dance clubs with different music in each one. What a blast!!!!! It was so great to just let loose and dance with my friends! Saturday came around and my host family went to an ocean town, but I was too tired so I stayed home for a lazy day with Laura. We started out the morning with me making egg sandwiches and cutting up fruit for breakfast, then we sat around watching ¨Big Fish¨ with spanish subtitles of course, later we decided we were starving so we went to the corner store and picked up Costa Rican style Macarroni and Cheese and hot dogs!!!! The mac and cheese was amazing, sooo good, but the hot dogs were super disgusting! I don´t think I will ever again buy hotdogs in costa rica unless they´re oscar mayer´s. After our dinner at my house, we headed to Laura´s where she packed for Manuel Antonio for about 2 hours. Crazy I know!!! Sunday we had to wake up early and my papatico Carlos took us to the holiday inn where we caught our bus to Manuel Antonio!!! With all the crazy busses we had been on to and from different destinations, we decided that with all our luggage and everything to opt for a Private bus, which also cuts down the time of travel about 2 hours. We arrived late in Manuel Antonio, which sucked because our new Mamatica was waiting for us for about an hour. After we got all settled into our new rooms, we took a little tour of the beach and the city with our host mom and host brother Carlos, 14. Later that night we had dinner, family style, and that´s where Laura and I realized what a great situation we had been put into. Our Mamatica is an AMAZING cook!!!!! Everything she has made us has been fabulous! I know once I get back home I will miss her cooking sooo much. Anyways the rest of the week was pretty uneventful, we met a bunch of new students Matt from London, Shawn from South Carolina,Rafael from Switzerland,Megan from Colorado and Sarah from Minnesota State University Mankato!!! Learned a 2 new verb tenses in spanish, went to an event with the bulls where everyone is in the arena and tries to run from the angry bull, I watched but did not participate. The weather here is amazing! Most days its in the upper 90´s or 100´s and usually its not too bad, but today i´m dying! The weather is sooo hot! So needess to say I´m going to the beach today! Oh yeah that´s right, I´ve been here for 7 days, and have been to the beach 7 times! Every day since i´ve been here I´ve been to the beach, it´s pretty amazing, I love it!!! Well I will try to get some pictures up soon, and try to write more frequently but it is a little difficult i´m just soooo busy with the beach! Love you all!!!

Santa Ana!!!

So i have come to the realization that I really only have time to blog about once or twice a week. I will try to work on getting better about this! Today Laura and I discovered that because our classes run for 2 weeks, we are headed for Beautiful Manuel Antonio this SUNDAY!!!! Which is a week or two, not sure, earlier than we had originally planned, so needless to say we're freaking out just a little bit! This week was pretty fun! Being that it was Valentine's Day on wednesday we had a "Dia de Amistad" or friendship day party. For this party Laura, Kathrin (a girl from switzerland) and I made Flan. It was super tasty! Never have I made or tried it before but it turned out really well. Our party consisted of food, valentines cards, music and some of the students had to present on the history of Valentine's Day. Friday Laura and I traveled about a half hour away to meet up with our friend Agnetta, who we met through another friend Kristine in Tamarindo last weekend. We met up with her at a mall near her house and then traveled back to San Jose where we went to a club, yes I know this sounds bad but it's what people do here... So we went to a club, where I proceded to be a good girl and didn't really drink anything... This club was probably the coolest I have seen in Costa Rica, the music was great, the people were all costa ricans, and there were beds with 4 posts and everything in the outside patio area of the club! it was super cool! Agnetta slept over at my house in our spare bedroom and in the morning, saturday, we ate breakfast with my host family, which was pretty fun. Agnetta knows very very little spanish so it was funny to watch how both her and my host family reacted to them only speaking spanish and her speaking minimal spanish. Pretty Funny to be apart of. After breakfast my host mom's daughter Carolina came over with her brand new baby girl Amanda who is only 5 days old!!! Being that I love babies I was ecstatic!!! SO CUTE!!!! Saturday afternoon we went to our nearby mall and hung out at laura's house.... Our plan for valentine's day originally was to chill in San jose, watch movies, eat cookies and pizza. Well last minute we changed our idea... we decided we wanted to continue hanging out with Agnetta so we traveled to her house that she lives in with her mother. THis house is gorgeous!!! it looks like a hotel! So needless to say we had a good time. Her mother is also amazing and it seems like everytime we blinked there was new food brought out for us. It was great! So while at her house, we watched movies, went to the market, sat by the pool reading magazines, and eventually did end up ordering pizza. It was the best valentine's day ever!!!! This week should be interesting, being that we're leaving for Manuel Antonio on Sunday... Tomorrow i'm making wild rice cassarole for my host family and laura was invited also so she's making an apple pie. Should be pretty tasty! Also Laura and I have been anxiously awaiting the movie "He's just not that into you" and it came out here on friday so we're hopefully going to see that this week. Add in our oral presentation, compositions and final exams and we have a full week!!!!! Miss you all!!!! much love Ash

Hola Pedro...

Recap of the last week:
This week at school was pretty intense. I had a composition on juvenile delinquency due on Monday, an oral presentation on the health system of Costa Rica on Thursday, an in class composition on the pro’s and con’s of the internet and video games for young adults and children also on Thursday and Friday concluded the week with a final exam, both written and oral. So for those of you skeptics who think all I do is sit on the beach, soaking up the sun, with a tropical drink with an umbrella, I’m here to tell you that’s not all I do, at least during the week anyways. In life outside of school this week, things were pretty mellow. Laura and I went to the movie Bride Wars, or La Guerra Novias on Wednesday, as it’s half off in the theaters. This weekend Laura, Ashley from Boston, Stephanie from Switzerland and I went to Tamarindo to visit Kristin a former student from our school who is now studying in Tamarindo. We took a bus 7 hours to the Pacific Ocean. On the ride I realized I definitely experience some motion sickness, not bad but enough that my stomach felt creepy! We met up with Kristine at the bus station and proceeded to check into our hotel/hostel Chocolate. Here we stayed in a dorm type room with another woman named Tiffany, a 37 year old woman, who currently has no job, and enjoys drinking and making out with Tico liquor store employees. I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone as interesting and yet sad as Tiffany. After checking into our hotel we headed to Kristin’s friends house where they were just finishing up a bbq. Here we were introduced to many people from Germany and Switzerland. It was interesting listening to the Swiss-German they spoke. Of course I didn’t understand any of it, but it was interesting nonetheless. We left the house and went to the local hotspot Monkey Bar, which was super lame. There were tons of people, super loud music, and it was just crammed. Not my idea of a good time at all! We left shortly after arriving and headed back to our hotel where we proceeded to go to bed. Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the beach to meet up with Kristin. The sun was super hot and the water was freezing due to the wind, but the beach was absolutely gorgeous. While sitting on the beach for a while Laura realized there were a bunch of boats in the ocean and was informed by Kristin that they were tour/party boats and that she had, just the week before, gone on a boat for a 5 hour tour which included drinks, lunch, snorkeling, and a great view of the sunset. This was exactly what Laura had wanted to do for her birthday so we all decided that, for Laura, we would cough up the money and go on the boat. It turned out to be the best decision ever. The boat was beautiful and the people on the boat were super fun. They ranged in age from 19-later 60’s. It was great! After our amazing boat tour we, showered and went to dinner at a pizzeria. You wouldn’t think Pizza would be popular in Costa Rica but there seems to be a pizzeria everywhere you look. After dinner we met up with Kristin and went to the local hotspot for the night, Babylon which was much better than the Monkey Bar the night before. Here the group I was with proceeded to get drunk, while I chose not to participate. I was questioned many times as to why I wasn’t drinking, as to which I responded that I didn’t need liquor to have fun. Babylon was super fun and the music that they played was awesome for dancing. I had a blast! Sunday we woke up, a couple of the girls with hangovers, and we headed to find our bus. We ate breakfast and ordered smoothies, which were fabulous and took another 7 hour bus trip home. All in all the weekend was fabulous. I had a blast!

Lessons Learned

Leaving my family and friends and being put in a completely different atmosphere has made me really discover who I am and has helped me learn many new things, I thought I would share these things with you!
1. First off I realized that although I haven’t had a chance to find a church, God is very much with me everyday. From the first day I got here and met both my host family and new friend Laura I realized how much God really looks out for me. He knew that without these people I never would have survived this long in Costa Rica. God definitely has been working on my behalf.
2. This weekend I realized what I don’t want my life to turn into… This weekend, a couple of the girls from school and I went to Tamarindo, a tourist location on the Pacific Ocean coast. Here we stayed in a hostel with another woman, who we discovered was 37. Throughout the weekend, this woman became everything in life I strive not to be. She had no problem being naked around strangers; she was single, seemed to have no connection with her family or any friends to speak of and was basically a vagabond traveling from place to place partying, getting drunk, and cussing up a storm. It was really sad to see this really nice woman who seemed to have no real sense of self worth or meaning.
3. I realized that apparently I’m semi-allergic to sand??? Every time I’m at the beach the sand ends up in my swimsuit and I have a rash on my rear! Not good!
4. Since being in Costa Rica I have come to understand that I truly am a control freak, which I can confidently say I got from my mother! I have learned that when it comes to making decisions, being in control and maintaining control is super important. On the other hand when it comes to dancing with a partner it is essential to relax and give up control and be led by your partner .This has been a struggle for me. It’s something I’m working on.
5. When it comes to food I have found that you can’t knock it until you’ve tried it. I have been introduced to a whole new world of foods that I never would have known whether or not I liked unless I tried them. So far I have found that I do not like papaya and that my new favorite fruit is passion fruit( maracuya), los gatos are an amazing treat, guanavana, although it looks like a slimy white thing is actually quite tasty, and agua dulce is super tasty.
6. While still talking about food, I have found that Chocolate is a not just a want in my life, it’s a need. Here in Costa Rica I stumbled upon the most amazing chocolate covered almonds called Vizzio’s and they’re to die for!
7 Moving on I have found that there really are some pretty dumb Americans, and that I want to strive to be as different from them as possible.
8. I learned that in East Germany women have no problem with going topless in restaurants or just on the streets. Apparently I’m told it’s pretty normal there...
9. I have put out of my head the notion that Minnesota drivers are horrible. Compared to Costa Rica, Minnesota drivers are amazing. The way people drive here makes me soooo nervous and fearful for the lives of both drivers and pedestrians. It’s a crazy world on the streets here.
10. I have learned that no matter how much sun I get, how beautiful the Ocean is, how hot the weather is, and how awesome the food is, Costa Rica isn’t home. Minnesota with its 4 complete seasons, including the frozen tundra will always be home for me!

Weekend!!!!

Weekend!!!
Friday was a fun day! I had class where we did a quiz and celebrated yet another week of graduations for those whose last day of classes it was… Friday evening Laura, her Mamatica and I went to dance class where we improved on the Cumbia and Salsa. After dance class Laura and I met up with Andrea, from school, to get ready for our night out…. We went to Tao’s a restaurant/bar near our house where we were going to meet another Ashley before our final destination Castro’s a dance club in San Jose. Tao’s has quickly become our favorite place to go. We have eaten there a good number of times and now the waiters, hosts, and bartenders all know us and greet us by name. It’s nice to come into a restaurant and have the workers excited to see you and know exactly what you want and bend over backwards to help you out. It’s great! The guys at Tao’s are awesome! After meeting at Tao’s we took a Taxi to Castro’s. There we met up with some classmates from school and danced the night away! This night I decided to try something new and went without my glasses. I have noticed that when we go out to a restaurant or dance club the guys are more apt to ask the other girls I’m with to dance rather than they are to ask me, so I decided to experiment a lil bit and go without glasses. My theory was definitely right. Right away when Laura and I entered the door, the man at the door couldn’t stop looking at me. He commented right away at house gorgeous he thought Laura and I were and later into the night he was asking me all kinds of questions on if I had a boyfriend and blah blah blah…. This wasn’t the only guy who took interest in me. There were 3 different men who asked me to dance. 2 turned out to be complete creepers and the third, who really wasn’t creepy at all and just wanted to dance, I told him I couldn’t dance well. I have noticed that here in Costa Rica, men have a tendency to be much more upfront about what they think and how they feel. They have no problem with entering your personal bubble and informing you on how beautiful they feel you are. They have no problem with holding your hand even if they don’t know you. One man went as far as to say that he loved me, after about 2 minutes of dancing. Let’s just say I was completely creeped out and ended that dance early. Castro’s was definitely an experience to say the least. The people there are amazing dancers and it was awesome just to sit back and watch them. Saturday morning I was going to go the beach with Andrea and Ashley from school, but was so exhausted from the night before, I actually felt pretty sick and decided against it. Later in the afternoon I met up with Laura, who convinced me to go with her to Palmares, which is a big festival in Costa Rica. My host family, teachers and pretty much everyone I know in Costa Rica were constantly talking about how much fun Palmares is and encouraged me to go. My host mom’s daughter, who is married with kids, was telling me how hot the guys were there! So I decided to go… We took a “party bus” which turned out to basically be a nice Coach bus with pops and Juices on the bus. Nothing Crazy or anything as you normally assume with a “party bus”. The main reason for taking this bus was that it gave us VIP passes to 3 or 4 dance clubs, that held Puerto Rican performers. Palmares was super fun! The dance clubs were fun but packed with people and the music was pretty awesome too. All in all palmares was super fun. It kinda reminded me of a sort of State Fair experience after dark, with nightclubs and dancing and music groups. Sunday, Laura and I went to a hotel bar to watch the Super Bowl! It was unbelievably difficult trying to find a place that was playing the game, but we found this beautiful hotel that played the game in English thank goodness! I love the Spanish language but when it comes to watching football I wanted English for sure! I was kinda bummed that Kurt Warner and the Cardinals didn’t win, but was happy that it wasn’t a blow out. I hate those!