Hola todos...I am officially back home now!  I took pictures with the kids and got some really cute ones :)  I'll miss them, they were great.  Friday night, my last night, a group of us went out...we got to meet up with the guys we met in Tamarindo too, so that was really fun.  I'll miss all the friends I met during my time there lots...it's too bad everyone lives so far away!  Saturday I packed up and waited to go to the airport.  My first flight left 30-40 minutes late, so I had less than an hour to get through immigration and customs, re-check my bag, and get through security again!  I got to my second flight with about 20 minutes to spare.  My luggage didn't make the trip though...but it arrived today so not too bad!  Good to see everyone again.

Also I'm already experiencing a bit of reverse culture shock...when I go to the bathroom I still feel like I'm doing something wrong when I throw the toilet paper in the toilet haha...and it's great to eat some different kinds of food too! 

All in all, a successful experience I'd say...adios Costa Rica, y pura vida!

Hola todos!  Yesterday with the kiddos we made little paper dolls where they could decorate them with clothes, eyes, hair, etc. and they turned out really good.  After that we played with balloons again (back by popular demand) and also had some small board games to play with them like tic tac toe and chutes and ladders, but miniature.  I felt bad when we left cause one of the little kids didn't want us to leave and he was crying as he was waving good-bye.  Poor little guy!  On the bus on the way back we saw a ton of people coming out of a church, and then figured out it was a funeral procession when we saw the hearse, and lots of people walking along behind it through the streets.  Que triste.  :( 

Today the daycare was closed because they had an annual conference to attend in San Jose.  So I slept in a little bit, went to the gym, and did most of my shopping for all of you guys!  I think you will like all your presents...!  I gave some food and money to a few homeless people too, because I would always pass them every day on my way to work and I feel like I know them now...a small difference, but still something.

I'm going to miss speaking Spanish haha...I just don't want to lose what I've gained here!
Tomorrow will be the last day with the kids and I'm going to try to take pictures with them too.  Going home is bittersweet!
Hasta el sabado...Mama y Brian, les vere en el aeropuerto!

Hola todos!  I’m officially done teaching at Carmelo now that the school is on vacation during my last week here.  The goodbye was uneventful, but I got my teacher’s e-mail so we can all keep in touch.  The kids were really sweet and said, “we’ll miss you!”  but I’m sure now they’re enjoying their break too. 

Friday we headed out to Tamarindo, it’s a beach on the far side of the northern peninsula—so pretty far, the bus took about 6 hours.  When we arrived, we started walking around to find a hostel and ran into some Maximo people that had come a day before us, and so we stayed the same place as them and it was really nice.  We had our own Maximo group, plus a girl the other Maximo people had met and introduced to us, plus 3 people from our bus that decided to stay with us too, so we had a nice little group to hang out with.  Tamarindo is kind of like Jaco in that it’s a little more developed and has more of a nightlife, like a little more touristy than other places.  Friday night we all went out…it’s really nice cause there’s always a bar that has some kind of deal for the girls (aka free drinks) so it works out really well when we don’t have to spend lots of money!  Afterwards on the way home we ran out on the beach but sadly no one wanted to go swimming…hehe.

Saturday we headed out to the beach.  It was SO pretty…the beach was really big and wide and not very crowded, and the water was shallow really far out and soft sand and everything.  And, the water was the calmest I’ve experienced yet in an ocean—smaller waves and not very strong.  It was so nice cause it was super hot so the water was great.  After a while a few of us joined a game of frisbee on the beach…I was in heaven.  I think at that moment, I might have been the happiest person on earth.  (Sidenote to Brian and anyone else who’s interested: I wanna play frisbee when I get back…ahh I miss it!)  Sadly we had to leave the game to go eat lunch (silly food gettin in the way of my activities).  After food we looked around the shops on the way home and headed back to the hostel.  At night we went out again to a different place and danced and got into all kinds of shenanigans…haha. 

On the way back to the hostel we passed by a really nice hotel (definitely far out of our price range), which we noticed had a lovely pool with fountains and everything…it looked rather inviting, so we strolled in and helped ourselves…hehe.  It felt awesome, and no one questioned us—probably the only time looking like rich Americans worked in our favor.  All was lovely until we noticed everyone else was wearing wristbands, then I felt really self conscious haha.  But I didn’t feel that bad, cause it was a little bit of luxury for us after all the rest of our time here being…well, less than luxury.  So for one afternoon I experienced the rich people tourist side of Costa Rica!  It was really pretty and we had a great time.

Sunday we headed back out to the beach aaand…SURFED!  Ahh it was SO much fun.  It was better to learn here because the water was so much calmer.  I’m so glad we did it.  It was a lot easier than I thought it’d be, I think because of all the previous water sport experience (thanks Ozarks!).  Everyone told me I looked like I could be in the movie Blue Crush haha so I guess I looked like I knew what I was doing, even though I ate it a few times pretty good too.  However, the sun was very intense and the surfing kinda did me in…I got a lil crispy.  I’m not red though, but it did hurt for a bit!  I can’t even remember the last time I got burnt enough for it to hurt…oops.  Anyways I felt super cool bein a surfer for a little bit and now I’m sad we don’t have surfing anywhere remotely close to home.  The surfing instructors kind of have a reputation of being creepy but our instructor was awesome and really nice so I had so much fun and didn’t want to leave...probably would’ve stayed out there all day if I could!  (Although my skin is probably glad that didn’t happen).  Sadly we only had about an hour and a half cause we had to catch our bus home.  But it was a great workout and I slept a lot on the bus!  So all in all, a fantastic last weekend trip to end my time here.

When we got back home, we had 4 new roommates.  One girl who’s been here a couple weeks and was moving houses, and 3 older people—a teacher, and a couple from Canada.  I feel smart again because they don’t know much Spanish so I do some translating sometimes too.  I feel really lucky that I’ve had awesome roommates during my time here (and by roommates I mean people who are actually in my room, not just my house).  They’ve all been close in age to me and are good friends now.  And I’ve been lucky to have an amazing host family too!  Good food, good people, good experience.

Happy (belated) 4^th of July to everyone back home!  Save me some fireworks!  I wore red, white and blue during the day to be patriotic and last night a big group of people went out to the bars here to celebrate.  There were actually quite a few people out for a Monday night so it was really fun.  We danced the night away and one of the bars had the movie Independence Day playing…we may have even done a U-S-A chant at some point…(but a little bit discreetly so everyone didn’t hate us).  You meet some interesting characters going out…like the man who, after telling me he was 30 years old, asked for my phone number (no), my e-mail (no), and was so drunk he kept repeating himself over and over until I finally just walked away after trying to escape like 10 times.  It’s funny too cause when you’re out a lot of times guys will say, “hello,” as if that one English word is going to draw you to them or something haha.  Sometimes I wish people (people meaning natives) would just speak in Spanish because I can understand them better than trying to figure out their English accents!

My new volunteer placement is a daycare called Rayito de Luz.  It’s about an hour away, except we have to take more buses and they’re more expensive haha so I’m glad I’m only going for a few days!  The kids are really cute and sweet, but also very active and I’m always exhausted when we leave.  I’m definitely happy I wasn’t doing this the whole time—it’s not too structured so we just play with them, but it’s not too bad cause there’s a big group of volunteers there and not too  many kids.  Most of the kids are like 3-6 years old, with a few older and younger than that.  It’s sad though because when the person from Maximo was showing us around on our first day he said that it’s a poor neighborhood, and most of the kids live with a single mom and lots of siblings, and not the greatest home situations…abuse of all types is common.  I don’t know the kids’ individual stories but they seem just like happy, normal kids.  They’re pretty funny though—one of the girls was teaching me a new word and I guess I wasn’t saying it right because the other girl sitting next to us calmly explained to her, “it’s because she’s from another country so she can’t say it like us” hahaha so they are used to all the volunteers messing up their language and lucky for us, they still talk to us all the time!  So it’s fun—they love it when we spin them around, and I already got a drawing from the first day from one of the kids.  The daycare itself could use some help though…they have a lot of random (probably donated) toys, and the outside area has some play equipment but it’s a little sad looking…most of it is probably too small for the kids, and the swingset simply doesn’t have swings on it.  But today we played with balloons, and sure enough, that entertained them for hours!  So they are really cute and while they wear me out, it’s a little sad I won’t have much time to get to know them and all.

My time is now winding down here…while I am ready to have some comforts of home, I will miss some things about both places!  Besides the people and the places, I think I will really miss speaking Spanish.  It’s so convenient that I am surrounded by people here who understand when I speak but at home it’s just not the same!  While there are places to speak Spanish, I won’t have this good of an environment for it (like where people know that I’m learning and are patient, I get personal instruction, etc.)…I just don’t want to lose what I’ve gained during my time here.  Hasta el sabado…chao!

Some of my 4th graders at Carmelo

The hotel / pool we crashed

Yet another postcard moment...

Basically, I'm a pro.