Hola todos!  This past weekend one other girl and I went to Jaco.  It's the closest beach to San Jose.  My travel group is shrinking a lot because all my friends have gone home and the new people go to the same places we've already been.  But oh well.  Several people told me before we went that Jaco wasn't that great, that it was dirty and just not nice.  And after being there, I say: I disagree 100%!

So I went with low expectations, but instead I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a small little town with lots of shops, and apparently a tourist destination because we saw a lot of (white) families and kids and stuff.  The hostel we stayed in wasn't that great, but it was right down the street from the beach.  When we went Friday it was in the afternoon so the waves were really big and it was kinda cloudy.  Oh yeah -- there was this guy who worked on the beach selling surf lessons, and after I told him I didn't want to surf like 10 times, he proceeded to follow us to where we were sitting, talk to us for awhile, then when we had nothing left to say (aka I was ignoring him) he continued to just sit right next to us, for about 5 full minutes...not talking...just sitting...it was suuuper awkward and I just wanted to be like, "ok, you can go now..." So he finally left, but found us again the next day and I pretended to be asleep so I didn't have to talk to him.  So creepy and annoying.

Besides that, the beach was great.  It had soft sand even in the water, and the water wasn't as strong as other places so we could actually swim without being knocked over, so that was lots of fun.  We went in the morning on Saturday so it was quieter and calmer.  We had great weather Saturday morning (it usually rains in the afternoons) so we got lots of sun.  Friday we went to town and shopped...I found a tank top that I'd been looking for so I was happy, and then we got ice cream and contemplated goin out but we're pretty much senior citizens when it comes to bedtimes now, cause we're tired at like 8:30!  Probably because we're all used to the sleep schedule now, go to bed early and get up early!  So anyways, we were boring and just went to bed.

Saturday we headed back because Maximo was having their monthly international party.  It was really fun and I made lots of tico friends because most of them were the English students at Maximo, and their teachers.  After the Maximo party ended we all went out to the bars and it was super fun.  And, as it turns out, when you add alcohol, everyone's second language abilities improve haha!  So it was a crazy night and pretty entertaining. 

Sunday was really boring because I stayed home and all my roommates were gone because they were still on their weekend trips.  So I slept in, and was going to go to the pool in the afternoon (apparently there's a pool here, I haven't found it yet) but it started raining so that plan failed.  Anyways it was lonely!  I had been planning to stay home my last weekend to explore downtown and do my shopping, but after stayin home one day I don't want to do that anymore, and besides I'll have time to do all that before I go in like one day.

I have my last week here free because my school goes on break, so there's no classes.  I wanted to travel a little further but don't know if that's gonna happen cause it's hard to find someone to go with because they all still have their volunteer stuff during the week.  So I think I'll end up traveling part of the week with someone, then coming back and maybe I'll see about doing a different placement just for a couple days.  I just know I'll need something to do cause sitting at home is super boring!

Soooo that's all I can think of for now...everything else is going well!  I miss home!  But I know the time will go by fast and then I'll be at home for 2 days and be bored again haha.  Ciao :)