I´m still alive!

Hi everone at home!!

I´m sorry it has taken so long to update this. We went on a long trip last week where there were times that I didn´t even have running water, let alone a computer (I´ll explain this later), and when I came home my family´s internet was not working. Luckily a team of tico techies fixed our internet today and I can blog again! It´s a good thing too because I thought I was going to have to go to this store where you can pay to use their computers and internet, located right between the man who sells raw meat from a cart and a store where, as far as I can tell, you would only go to if you´re looking for a nice place to get robbed. I´m very glad it didn´t come down to that.

I think the last thing I told you all is that we were going to watch the Costa Rica vs. US soccer game. We did end up going to watch it at a bar in Alajuela, once agian with my 65 year old teacher and almost my entire class. We were all hoping that the US would win, but less than 2 minutes into the game Costa Rica scored and we never came back. It was a little bit disappointing, but I did learn a couple of things: one, Costa Rica plays soccer pretty well for a country about 1/50 the size of ours and two, mozarella sticks are served here with jalepeño, NOT green pepper...I learned this lesson the hard way. Thankfully, the waitress was nice enough to bring me a very large glass of water once she finally stopped laughing at me.

That weekend we got to go to another volcano. I won´t go into much detail aout this part because there´s a lot of other stuff to cover, and also, I think you guys get the point that Costa Rica is very pretty, that we see a lot of nature, and that they make me hike a lot. I will say though that the crater we saw was throwing off enough gases to make the whole place smell worse than Gary, Indiana and that the muffins in the gift shop were to die for. On the way home from the volcano, we stopped in Sarchi and Grecia. Sarchi is home to the world´s largest carterra (basically a giant painted wagon). That probably does not sound very exciting, but, oddly enough, it does mean that I have now been to two towns that boast the world´s largest some kind of wagon (the other of course being the world´s largest covered wagon in Lincoln, Illinois, which is driven by a 20 foot tall replica of Abraham Lincoln). We also stopped in Grecia, which is known for the frequency that it has earthquakes and also for its church made entirely of metal to withstand those earthquakes. Overall, it was a pretty good trip.

When I got back, I had to study for midterms. It was a pretty long day of studying with of course the occasional break to watch (and, I admit, sometimes dance with) the Spanish music video channel. If you happen to be looking for some fun Spanish pop music, my little sister and I really like this song by Fanny Lu, I think it´s called ¨Tu no eres para mi¨. The girl who sings it is kind of like Britney Spears after Justin Timberlake, but before Kevin Federline.

The day after we finished exams, we left on a 5 day trip for Amubri, a BriBri indian reservation. We left at 4 in the morning, and after bus ride around, over and through the mountains, a short trip in a canoe, and a bit of walking, we finally arrived at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Whie we stayed at the reservation, we slept underneath a mosquito net on very thin foam pads, showered (when the water was working) in a little stall behind the school building, and ate rice and beans for almost every meal. It was roughing it like I had never roughed it before. On Thursday and Friday we spent a lot of time with the kids going to classes, running around, and, of course, playing futbol. The kids were pretty nice, even though one called me a giant, and they all gawked at me when I put on my sunscreen (I don´t think any of them have had to wear sunscreen a day in their lives, let alone SPF 55). For most of Saturday and Sunday we helped to distribute all the clothes, towels, toys, and everything else that we brought to people living at the reservation. A lot of people were really grateful and my teacher said that some people walked 4 or 5 hours to receive some of the things we brought. Overall, it was a good experience that (although this maybe sounds cheesy), heightened my awareness of all the opputunities I have and the comfortable life I have both here in Alajuela and the United States. On Monday we came home, and I have to say I was very happy to not have to sleep under that net with 30 other sweaty people who had eaten 3 meals that day that included beans.

I think that pretty much brings us up to date! Today we are going to a coffee plantation and next weekend we finally get to go to a beach!! I hope everything at home is going well!! I´ll see you all in less than a month!