6/13 Projecto

7am and tropical ecology class is driving us to a farm somewhere, except it wasn't really a farm at all... it was a mountain where we planted a whole bunch of trees.  I thought it was a little strange because we were on a mountain full of trees and I'm not sure why it needed more but that's ok, never too many trees I guess.  It was fun though, got all dirty and in touch with nature, fresh watermelon, pineapple and sugar cane when we were done too!  Our major project is due tomorrow but my partner is MIA so we're working on it late tonight.. bad plan but oh well, not a whole lot I can do.  So we worked on it from 5-630pm and then had dance class from 7-9pm.  It was insanely fun though, I know most of the steps we do now so it makes everything go much faster. Usually though Casey is my partner but half of our class left early so there weren't enough people or something and so one of the instructors came over and said he would dance with us and switch off.  We danced salsa, my favorite, and it was so much more fun than I ever thought possibly.  Hes basically a professional dancer and he leads so well that I didn't have to do anything but spin when he pushed me in the right direction.  I have never had so much fun dancing in my entire life lol even later on, he dance with both me and Casey at the same time! I didn't even know that was possibly haha  SO exhausted when I got back but that's pretty normal.  so my partner (for ecology) came back to my house after dance and we worked on the project for a couple hours til we couldn't stay up anymore. going to bed late and waking up early is probably the worst habit ever hahah ohh well

Tortuguero 6/12

Breakfast was at 7:30am but we didn't have to leave until 9am but of course we had to get up or else we didn't eat til noon.  We napped til it was time to leave and took a 30 second boat ride to the other side of the river.  There were only 7 of us, which was so nice, and we were at a biological reserve for an investigation for our Tropical Ecology class. Have to identify 5 flowering plants, 5 fruit plants/trees, a fallen tree that left a whole in the canopy, and a dead log... there's a lot more to it than just that but in summary that's good enough.  So we step off the boat and this guy walks up to us and no one, absolutely no one expected him to be speaking English let alone with a British accent. It was so refreshing though, in the strangest way and he was so nice, he asked us all if we had already eaten breakfast and if we'd like to sit down for a little. At first we all thought he was Australian until he said that it was "Brilliant!" and figured out that he was definitely British.  We walked around the site and he stopped to explain random plants, trees and animals to us, all of which was so interesting!!  We saw a bunch more little strawberry poison dart frogs and a lot of mosquitoes and ants, but other than that it was all plants.  I never thought I'd be so interested in the biology of plants but everything he was saying was just so interesting and he was so passionate about it all that it made it so much fun!  He helped us finish the investigation portion of our project and sent us on our way.   Lunch was at noon and I didn't get through more than 3 bites before I felt really sick so I went back to the room to lie down.  I fell straight asleep and didn't get up until it was time to leave at 1pm.  Back onto the boat and then to the bus for a couple more hours.  The rode was so bumpy though and the only seats were left in the back.  Everyone was a little motion sick and it didn't help that I was in the last seat.  But I made it home, still had no appetite but I think I just needed sleep.  Skyped with Jordan for a while :) and then hung out with Deivy for the rest of the night, it was a lot of fun, that kid keeps me so entertained.   Apparently hes going to be in a play sometime in July, either the 2nd or the 9th and I really hope its on the 2nd so I can go, but it was so funny because when he was trying to explain to me what he was talking about he put on a bandanna, aviators and a big sideways hat and with the straightest face looks at me and says "Yo, yo hey baby whats up?"  and then burst out laughing, I guess his character is kind of a thug hahahah didn't go to bed til super late, which wasn't the smartest idea but I was just having so much fun!! :D

Tortuguero 6/11

We set an alarm that night for midnight but apparently it was really set for noon, so we didn't get up to go find sea turtles like we meant to. oh well.  breakfast at 7am and then off to our anonymous hike.  We followed two dogs, some guy and a boy through the woods to a trail that was straight up.  Our hike was not hiking it was absolute tree climbing. Luckily I didn't have anything but my water bottle or I would have been dying.  Each step was above my hip and so you had to look around for trees that didn't have living creatures or spikes on them to grab onto and hoist yourself up.  After about an hour of intense climbing we made it to our destination.  It was a little outlook spot that displayed the ocean right next to the river.  It was beautiful but I would never do it again.  Everyone was literally dripping sweat, I have never felt that way in my entire life.  It was strange though because it wasn't from the heat, there was just so much humidity that you didn't even feel hot you just would stop moving and accumulate so much water from your body.  It was pretty disgusting.  Showered, for the millionth time (the humidity and heat there was just to much that after every activity showering was necessary) and then had some more free time for the beach.  Lunch that day was the only truly edible thing we'd had so far.  Pasta!!  I have to say the foods I miss the most here are pasta and chocolate, and I'm not usually a chocolate person.  There are a lot of sweets here, in the food just not the same kind, its hard to explain but the sugars here are just so different from the ones at home.  Still good, but I miss the flavors.   Anyways, then we went for a two hour boat ride to find animals.  No crocodiles, just some spider monkeys, lots of lizards, birds, and little turtles of course... but overall it was a lot of fun cruising around in our little boat.  Dinner and then we were promised cake for some girls birthday, needless to say we were really excited about cake.  They threw a whole big party at the bar with balloons, masks, and even a pinata.  the cake was pretty awful, but the candy in the pinata was ok, so it made up for it.  It was filled with peanuts, little chocolates, and honey candies (similar to werthers).  My mask turned my face blue though because I guess the color drained into my skin and it took forever to get out!  and of course we had another fight with a spider but this time we handled it on our own.. it was pretty intense though to be honest. :P  We went to bed pretty early again because we were just so exhausted.  Set an alarm for 2am for a turtle hunt but when we woke up it was pouring.  Stayed in bed and slept til breakfast.

Tortuguero 6/10

Friday: Left the school at 6am and wanted to sleep forever.  Stopped for breakfast at 8am at this little diner shack (all meals included that weekend- which explains why they were what they were...).  Rice and beans and plantains, not too bad then got back on the bus for another hour or so, not really sure but the road there was SO BUMPY!  finally made it to this little restaurant with a bathroom and then hopped in a little boat for an hour to get to our hotel.  We saw this sassy iguana (sassy because if you've ever seen one walk- it's sassy) and several other lizards, butterflies, and birds, all of which I identified with my lovely laminated wildlife guide (lol thanks mom and dad).  10:30 we pulled up to our boat dock and the hotel grounds looked gorgeous, flowers and trees everywhere.  We were greeted by a Cayman (looks like a little crocodile), and a tiger feathered bird (SO COOL).   50 m away from our door was the beach and the river was just on the other side.  Basically we were in the middle of no where.  Apparently though, its not an island, its just at the tip of a peninsula.  Expecting the best of our adorable little cabins Casey and I found our room number and jumped into what we hoped was not serious.  Because we like to be optimistic however, we decided oh its not so bad, this will be great!  small room, two beds, bathroom, one bug net, one sheet, and two microscopic towels.  Pura Vida! OH and lets not forget our rusty old fan, that thing was a life saver.  The beach sand was darker than what we're used to and much hotter too, the water was the perfect temperature but the sand dollars made it difficult to stand in. At first they were really cool, everyone was like: hey these are sand dollars wow that's awesome! but pretty soon it turned into: I CANT GET THEM OFF MY FEET it was creepy they would suction on and just crawl around! ugh so gross.  We walked around and explored the area for a bit until lunch at 12.  The food overall was horrendous. absolutely awful.  but it was the only thing around for miles so that was it.  At 2:30pm we hopped back on the boat and headed to the town of Tortuguero, which apparently is a 25min ride.  It was a little town with nothing more than souvenir shops.  We literally walked to the end and saw nothing but tourist attractions, so we bought ice cream :)  One the boat ride back we saw some Spider Monkeys swinging around in the trees and mono congos (or howler monkeys) right when we pulled into the dock.  There was also a pretty cool tree full of Opendula birds (black with bright yellow tails) and they make the strangest noise, but I kind of enjoyed it.  We had some time til dinner so we walked the beach and sat until the sun went down, watching crabs and collecting sand dollars, getting covered in black sand (just me for some reason..) dinner was gross I don't even want to talk about it.  We went to bed relatively early and had a little slumber party and talked for awhile because it was far too hot to sleep.  I was just so afraid something was going to crawl onto me in my sleep because the rooms just were not secure at all.
More later, I need sleep :)

6/9 Rummy and Kittens

Today in Spanish class we played all sorts of games, some were better than others.  For instance, the gigante-enano game was absolutely terrible.  It was like Simon Says and when she said enano you would crouch down, and gigante you would stand up.  My legs were so sore from dance classes last night that I couldn't keep up with her switching between the two and ended up answering the most questions because of it, but oh well I guess that's just more Spanish practice for me!  Pictionary was a lot more fun though, I love games like that, charades is my favorite!  After class I hung out with Deivy for a while before I headed over to Casey's house for dinner and cards.   On our way there I found 3 kittens!! at first I was so excited but I didn't want to touch them because I don't know if they have any diseases and also I didn't want their mother to abandon them because of me!  It was really kind of sad though because they were all alone in the street.  I was trying to keep them off the road but they kept running around and playing.  Finally we were walking away because there was nothing more we could do and two cars were coming!  I desperately tried to go back and keep them to one side of the road but two of them ran into the middle playing together and it was SO CLOSE!  I wanted to cry those poor things, I hope their ok :(  When we arrived at Casey's house it was Casey, Richard, her family and I and we had chalupas for dinner, which are fanastic! fresh avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, chicken and frijoles on a hard tortilla. yum!!  We played Rummy for two hours before I was ready to pass out hahah but it was a lot of fun.  Her host brother Armando likes to scare us though, and every time he would walk in the room he'd yell or throw something on the ground and we'd all scream lol and even though we only live less than 10 minutes away her mama tica made us take a taxi because of the dark.  Oh well, its a cheap taxi ride, worth being safe :)
I'm leaving at 6am tomorrow for Tortuguero so I'll update when I get back! Have a great weekend everybody!! :D

6/8

Slept in til 9 today! I'm just always so tired! Busy life of Costa Rica.  I was supposed to go to walmart today to get some necessary clothes items for dance class, but I couldn't get a hold of my friend because she doesn't have a phone (which is awful because shes always lost!) So instead I went to a nearby store with my friend Emily and bought some leggings and ended up just borrowing things.  I met her family and  her pets and they all seemed very nice but she lives with two little girls and honestly I don't think I could haha they were screaming the whole time!! Dance at 7pm and this time Alicia (my friend without a phone) decided she wanted to come too so I told her to meet me at my house so we could meet up with everyone else.. except I kind of gave her the wrong directions. lol I realized it ten minutes later when she wasn't showing up and it was a little past 6 at this point and thats when it starts to get dark.. So I literally sprinted through the town looking for her following the incorrect directions haha and couldn't find her anywhere. woops. So ran back home, my family was just so confused because I couldn't explain it, or remember the word for lost but then at the last minute she was on facebook. thank goodness she at least made it home.  So we met at the school and met everyone else for dance class.  It was a lot of fun, Casey and I are salsa masters, we're always partners because there are way too many girls and not enough guys, which is really ok with me, cause they always try to tell you that they're right, even though they're doing the steps wrong. so Casey and I make an excellent dance team!  Its funny because our two friends from the Dominican are always talking about dancing but they're kind of awful.. and we're really not that bad :)  Surprising right?  My feet are killing me still though, this class is beating me up, in the best way possible.  I truly love it!! can't wait to get home and show everyone my new moves ;)

6/7 ¿Qué Pasó Ayer?

Had lots of homework to do today so I got up really early to finish it all, and I'm just so exhausted.  Class at 11 and 2, tropical ecology was more or less boring, mostly because he talks to fast and I don't understand any of the scientific terms he uses in English never mind in Spanish.  Spanish class wasn't too bad except there's this terribly annoying girl that joined our class, so now its just three of us in a little tiny echoing room.  We had to improvise stories in a circle and every time we passed the ball someone else would continue the story, which was interesting haha and we also play this game where two people describe a word to the third person and they have to figure out what it is.  I love that game and I'm pretty good at it too, it reminds me of charades or something :)
After class, a few friends and I went to the mall in Heredia to see Que Paso Ayer (The Hangover 2- which in spanish literally translates to: What Happened Yesterday? hahaha)  We bought ice cream from this awesome place called pops and snuck it into the theater, because honestly movies are just better with ice cream.  It was a pretty funny movie although everything was almost exactly like the first one.  Gio and Katy (daughter and son in law) were home when I came back and we talked for a while and everyone talked about how my spanish has grown by mountains lol yay!