This past week I have been working and helping out with the kids because Mrs. Blanco is still in the US.  I have enjoyed takign them to painting lessons, picking them up from school, making dinner, and putting them to bed.  It is an interesting experience because it is a lot of experience!  They are extremly well behaved so it is never hard.  I have made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with honey and banana, scrambled eggs with jam and cheese and toast, and ramen noodles for dinner !  I really need to learn some new dishes ! 

Tomorrow I am leaving for Drake Bay in Puntareanus.  There I plan on going scuba diving to Isla de Cano for a few days.  The island is supposed to be one of the best places in the world for scuba diving according to some websites.  I am very excited.  drake Bay is 12 miles from Corcovado national park and I want to get there too for a day.  I need to be back by monday for work.  I am going by myself so it will be an adventure for sure !   I am soooo thankful for having these amazing opportunities and such a positive family here that will let me go all the time! I am having a blast.  God is good. 

Last weekend Ingrid, her Brother, her friend, the 2 kids and I all went to San Jose.  We first went to a women's clothing store that her sister works at.  It was pretty neat because it looked like it was straight out of LA or something ( I have never been to LA).  It had  dj there and they were giving out free red bull.  Then we went to another mall and I bought some jeans, I only brought one pair here.  The stores are pretty cool and look really european, and they are expensive ! Then we saw "una noche en el museo 2".  Then her brother took us out for Chineese food. 

On sunday after church we went with Ingrid and her family to a small town called Orossi nearby that sits on a river tucked away in the mountains.  We ate at a really good restaurant that served fish from the river.  That was my 3rd fish to eat here that was came on a plate with head, tail, eyes and all.  I am getting introduced to all kinds of new food ! 

This past week I went to work everyday and started going to the gym at a University here in Cartago.  I have started going to a spinning class (stationary bikes) and I love it.  The instructors have been extremely helpful getting me set up on my bike, apparently it is obvious that I don't know what I am doing.  They yell "vamos! vamos!" all through the class adn there is loud techno-dance music playing.  It is such a rush, and difficult. I really want to do it when I get back to the states. 

I have been taking taxis and buses around Cartago and into San Jose.  Its pretty neat, It's kinda a rush not knowing exactly where I am going and not having my dictionary there or a native speaker to help me with my spanish.  Tonight I took a bus to San Jose and went to a mall there for a little while to unwind after work.  I made it fine by myself and am feeling more confident to travel around here. 

The Church I go to here is amazing.  I enjoy the worship here more than anywhere I have gone before.  The worship alone lasts one hour, and the service lasts 3 usually.  I can understand about 30-45 percent of the sermon usually and I am happy with that.  My listening/comprehension abilities have improved the most I think.  My speaking next.  I find that I can usually follow what people are talking about closely, but responding is a little harder.  My vocabulary and speed though have definitely increased a lot. Also, I am not so tired and worn out at the end of the day from speaking, I think I am getting used to it.  

Gullermo got the wireless internet working at the house on my computer now so that's great.

So, I found the list of different things here in Costa Rica that I made at work the other day. Here are some of them:

1 Most all students work full time too, like all the people I work with go to class at night.
2 Rat-tails and Euro-mullets are popular hairstyles.
3 Beyonce sings in Spanish here! The pople at work didnt know if she spoke spanish or not so I guess she is pretty good.
4 Most people wear jeans or khackis everywhere , no shorts. I am by far the most underdressed person at work with shorts and sandals on usually
5 All women greet other men and women with a kiss on the cheek, evertime. Strangely enough, I am used to this and do it without hesitation! lol
6 you can buy eggs in a plastic bag at the grocery store with no container at all !
7 It gets dark about 6 pm and light about 5 am
8 most people brush their teeth at work, after lunch.


I got back from Panama on wednesday and worked the rest of the week. Mike, Mason and I went to a quiet little town in called Boquete. It was a 10 hour bus ride from San Jose. The ride there was okay but the Panama Border was no fun. It was confusing and the bus just drops you off on one side and you get picked up on the other side with little to no direction of what to do in between or where to go.

In Boquete we just hung out and explored the town. Mike and Mason went on a coffee tour but it was more money then I wanted to spend so I just went to some art shops and this private, free, huge, garden and walked around for a while by myself. The town was really cheap, I bought breakfast one morning for 2.80 (they use US dollars in panama) and got eggs, ham, 1 pancake, and coffee! Boquete is apparently a very popular place for retirees to go and so there were a lot of big houses in the surrounding mountains. I think because of the perfect climate and cheap prices. I decided not to go to Panama City with Mike and Mason and just came back to Cartago instead. I didn't want to take the 20 hour bus ride from Panama City and San Jose, or go to a hot crowded city. I am spoiled by the perfect, cool, weather here in Cartago and Boquete and I really didn't want to go on a bus with no air conditioning for that long. The Panama Canal would have been cool to see but I was excited to get back to Cartago for a weekend with no plans or visitors, the first yet for me.

So I got back to Cartago and worked the rest of the week. I got in a nice routine of running in the morning before work, going to work and coming home for luch, then relaxing and reading in the evengings. Everyday for lunch and dinner we eat at the house some type of homemade, fresh dish. Beans and rice are a common favorite and I have not gotten tired of them at all. We have lots of fresh salads, vegitable plates, and juices or smoothies. Last night for dinner we had a really good chicken soup made by Ingrid. The food is one of the best parts of being here. I am trying to learn some of the recipies so I can make them back in Arkansas. I did get to use some of the skills I learning on thursday mornings making breakfast in Arkasas the other morning. I made omlets for everyone, 9 in total I think. They seemed to like it.

Yesterday Ingrid went to join a new gym at a local university here in cartago so I went and joined it too. It is pretty nice. Last night I borrowed her bike and used my headlamp to ride to the gym. it is 10 mins away by bike. I am learning my way around the city pretty well by now. It is still intimidating though because of the lack of streeet names or signs. You have to completely rely on remembering landmarks which are usually just little stores on corners. I just keep thinking that if I get completely lost, like when I go running in the mornings, I can just get a taxi back to the Jumbo and then walk to the house from there. the Jumbo is a big supermarket that most taxi drivers know.

At work, one entertaing part is listening to some of the guys try to say certain English words. The guy who works in front of me, Andres, is learning english and is pretty good. He is always turning around and asking me how to say something. Yesterday he was trying to figure out the different pronunciation of "were" and "were". It was so funny. All the people at work are so nice and friendly with me. I enojoy talking with them and walking to the pulpuria, the corner convience store, just about everyday on our breaks.

Some things I have noticed that are different in Costa Rica :

Food here is all fresh.  They have fruits and vegetable I have never heard of down here and eat them all the time.  Also, cows are not naturally fat like they are in the States, here most are extremely skinny with like a foot of kin hanging everywhere

Security guard is probably the most popular profession.  We ate at a fast food restaurant probably as nice as a steak and shake, and there was a armed guard at the door.  They're everywhere, at just about every parking lot.

Families are extremely close.  Mine here eats 3 meals a day together, all 3 kids work with the mom, and all live at home until they get married.  It is neat.

People are very hospitable when entertaining you at their home.  I had a cool time doing karokee at one house last week, not joking.  MArk and I sang a Michael Jackson song. 

I actually wrote down a lot more things but I forgot the list at home. 

Last week I heard from Mike Hinds and Mason Kirksey who had been planning on making it to Cartago on thier month long trip through Central America.  They were headed for Monte Verde, Costa rica before heading to Cartago.  When I told Mrs. Blanco this, she suggested that I go meet them there! -  just an example of how cool she is.  So, that night I made plans and figured out how to get there by bus.  I was able to get of work too which was great. 

That night,  I was told of dangerous San Jose is and several stories of people they knew who had gotten "harassed" there, to say the least.  After all those stories and realizing that I had no idea where I was going, I was getting pretty nervous.  I was thinking how my spanish was not good enough probably to explain to a bus driver that I was lost and needed help to get home.  I also realized that I had never been to the bus stop in Cartago either, much less the one in huge San Jose.  I almost chickened out going and didn't get much sleep!

Wednesday morning at 4:30 am I got up and headed for the bus stop in Cartago.  I ended up just having a taxi take me there because I didn't have a clue where it was.    I got there and got on the hour bus ride to San Jose.  Once in San jose, I grabbed the first taxi I found and told them I needed to go to the " Parada a Monte Verde".  They knew where it was luckily and I got there in a few minutes.  I bought the ticket for the 5 hour ride to Monte Verde for less than 5 bucks.  The ride there was beautiful and I had no problems.  -- On the bus, I met two girls from Canada who spoke french and talked with them for a while.  I played a song by a group called flight of the concords that is in French and is really stupid.  They thought it was hilarious.  Robert, I thought of you when this happened and I wanted to tell you about it! 

I arrived in Monte Verde about 15 min before Mike and Mason and we met without any problems.  We got a hostel for only 10 bucks a night that was pretty nice actually.  Monte Verde is a beautiful city in the mountains famous for its Cloud forest. It is clean and safe, pretty much exclusively for tourists.  The first night we walked around for a while and got coffee and desert at this little place that had an amazing view of a sunset out over the mountains. 

The next day we got up early and did a canopy, zipline, tour.  It was 16 lines and last about 3 hours.  The longest was 1 kilometer long and you rode it for about a minute!  It had amazing views of the mountains and the ocean off in the distance, we were so high you could see  the coast.  It was a great time but a little scary because of the lack of stress put on safety considering what we were doing.  For example, you swing on the line and hold on to the back of the line wearing leather gloves the entire way.  You are in charge of slowing yourself down at the end of the line!  If you let go, you would start spinning around and if that happened we were instructed to grab THE BACK OF THE LINE to stop us, but to be careful to not grab the front as this would most definitely cut your fingers off from the pulley.  I can only imagine spinning around in the middle of the air and trying to grab only the back of the line, hanging hundreds of feet in the air.  It was a rush! 

The next day Mike and I went to the Nuboso Forest, or cloud forest.  It is a rainforest/ jungle that is partially covered in clouds as you get higher.  It was really neat to look out and not be able to see anything more than 10 feet in front of you.  The continental divide ran through it and we hiked up to it.  They plant life was more than anything I had ever seen by about 10 times.  It was so extremely think with plants on top of plants on top of trees, covered by moss, with flowers on the moss... 

We made it back to Cartago yesterday with no problems.  Mike and Mason got to talking and invited me to continue on their trip with them to Panama city.  They have one week left before going back to the U.S.  I thought about it and asked Mrs. Blanco what she thought and it is working out for me to get off work again to go!  So, on Monday we leave for Bocata (spelling) Panama and then to Panama city to see the Panama Canal.  I am pumped!  I will get a 20 hour bus ride from Panama City by myself to San Jose.  

 

Last night Mike, Mason, Ingrid (Mrs. Blancos niece who lives with us)  all went to see Terminator last night at the mall.  IT was fun and I got to drive!  Ingrid is extremely nice and cool, I am looking forward to getting to know here more on while I am here.  My family here is pretty much perfect and I couldn't ask for anything else from them.  I am really really appreciative of all that they are doing for me.  

Spanish is going good and I am really learning a lot.  My conversation is improving the most.  Last night I had the most comfortable conversation with Karla who lives next door.  It was the first conversation I had that I was not really thinking about what I was going to say before saying it.  It was by no means fluid, but a lot closer than ever before.  

I will write more when I get back from Panama 

Shout out to Seth, I "drove" by Powderhorn Colorado and Gunnison at work the otherday and I thought of how you are there!