10 everyday things I've learned to live with since I got to CR

My keys left behind in Tamarindo were returned this morning. They were shipped off and made it here in less than 24 hours ! Que dicha ! I got soo lucky and I will be sure to guard these things with my life UGH . Me and keys have a love hate relationship. but any how I'm very happy that they are here and don't have to worry about them any more and also wont have to pay to replace all the locks in the house. Meep !

So I was sitting around on my lunch break and thinking about things I am not coping so well with here in Costa Rica , now that i've been here almost an entire month.

1. 2 minute showers.. such a struggle. especially when I want to wash my twinky- fro ! aka hair ugh. 
2.  putting things in our community fridge next door and then they go missing ? .. but really though. 
3.  I am always breaking something or am tripping .. I am lucky if I get home with out a cast * knock on wood * 
4.  There isn't always going to be wifi.. when my wifi at home is malfunctioning I want to go crazy .. #firstworldprobs 
5.  Laundry .. I swear I loose a pair of socks every time & my clothes are line dried making them crispy
6. Don't take laxatives for no apparent reason ... you WILL wake up at 3 am with a stomach ache and an urge to go to the bathroom. not so great.  & Dont FLUSH toilet paper.
7. Ticos dont walk .. they stroll .. so slow . 
8. no spanish music .. anywhere.. ever.
9. American fast food chains  are EVERYWHERE.. Quiznos, McD's, Popeyes, BK  everything. I don't want that shit !
10. Condiments are a big deal...when there is no chile / hot sauce or Lizano sauce for my food... My heart is sad. 

There it goes , 10 things that I have learned , or have learned to live with .. I'm not complaining.. I just wanted to illustrate that everything isn't perfect & I've had to adapt to my surroundings. 

Sayings that I have learned that I try to incorporate into my everyday convos : 

Que chiva ! = how cool 

Que Torta! = what a disaster/ problem 

Mae = My friend .. my nigga 

Que dicha= how lucky

Pura vida.. obviously !

Vas a llorar? = not that serious

diay ? = oh why ? 

O sea ,Ciao ! = Swerve my niggaaaaaaa ! lmao I'm having too much fun .

Our next stop this weekend is Monte Verde ! where we will be visiting the cloud forest !  we will be doing a Canopy tour// zip-lining. which is known as the best around ! yay.  I was very interested in riding ATV's but kinda on the fence about it, I guess I will wait to do it else where on my adventures. 

My list of places to go expands like every day .. currently trying to strategically plan cost effective trips to Panama & Nicaragua. Figure I'd take advantage of being in Central America and go visit both since there neighboring Costa Rica . I am very much looking forward to that. Cant wait ! 

In  my eternal 4 hour spanish class today I developed a list of places I want to visit , came up with a list of about 25 countries ... and counting. Oh sighs ! What is a travel-loving-girl like my self to do ?  

My top 5 destinations at the moment are :

• Spain 
• Colombia 
• Greece
• Portugal
• tie between Brazil &Italy

Just incase you were wondering ....

Bella Loves home ! 

She gets along pretty well with Luna & sofia, I have this theory that she thinks Luna is her mom.. but they play fight all the time, it's real cute. She's still trying to get accustomed to using the bathroom its left a few surprises around the house. But shes just a puppy who can blame her! she's also discovered how to go up and down the stairs, so occasionally we find her upstairs lingering in our rooms ! and we have to shoo her away. Cammie already found a poopie underneath her bed uh oh

Beach Bummin in Tamagringo

Hotel Tamarindo Diria- Gorgeous!

On Wednesday I lived my first earthquake experience, it wasn't anything drastic like walls crackling and things falling but I was awaken at 1 am by my bed and room SHAKING. I was just laying there like ohhh shooootttttt ! what the heck is going on! It was only a few seconds, but to say the least it was pretty scary. But I won't lie I'm waiting on my next one lol.

Friday Our spanish class went to the market in the city.
 I honestly don't like the city. Down town San Jose has WAY to much going on for me.
 its dirty and theres cars, and trucks, and motorcycles and I just get frazzled in the matter of seconds and Theres shops galore The little market is like a maze.. it has everything in there. There are food stands, florists, meat markets, vegetable and fruit stands , clothing stores, souvenirs ! EVERYTHING! I get lost just walking through there.. like did I walk through here already ?

@ Sharky's W. Anabel & Bri

This weekend we went to Tamarindo beach, which is located on the pacific coast ..meaning that it is very far from San jose. Took about 5-6 hours to get there. To put that in perspective of  exactly how LONG that was we managed to watch 3 movies !
Tamarindo is very americanized for tourism , so its called "Tamagringo" which I totally attest to, because everything is in english & in dollars. *sighs* For the most part sometimes it feel like i'm back home-- minus the freezing cold weather. but we made the best out of what was there we went to the beach and the pool rockin our awesome Pura Vida Mae "bro shirts". We didn't do any excursions this week because there wasn't anything that really grabbed my attention. There was surf lessons and a catamaran. Lets just say we did a lot of laying out and napping in our rooms. By night it was time to figure out what to get into.. Saturday night we went to a bar called Sharky's which was hosting  Ladies night, which means girls drink for free. which isn't a big deal because the mix some bottom shelf lq and orange juice and there you go ! eww. and to top it off the music .. ohh my goshhh help me ! I don't know how much longer I can cope with the english 24/7 music in central america..
but long story short Tamarindo was nice.. but nothing special .. I have many other places on my "must visit" list and now Tamarindo is checked off of it.  Its always a bus adventure on the way back, we got stuck at the back of the bus which was not cool ;[ but we survived.

Lets just say now I've mastered Subway Surf on my iPhone ! Oh & to top it off I somehow managed to forget my house keys on my nightstand at the hotel ... soo now I'm trying to make arrangements with the hotel to get them mailed to me .. Sighs* I have the worst luck with keys ! but overall it all went well we are off to MonteVerde next weekend, which will be the last of our ISA planned excursions, the luxurious hotels and pre planned weekends will come to a close </3 bitter sweet.

I came home yesterday clearly distraught about my keys .. and Cammie told me she had a stomach ache so I graciously offered her a chewable pepto bismol.. all was fine and dandy .. until she woke up this morning with a black tongue, yup ! a black tongue .. apparently its a common side effect? .. sorry ?

Ps. I bought a much needed hooded zip up hoodie today ! happy times !

Sunset @ Tamarindo Beach

Ciao !

La vida es ...Bella

So yesterday was an ordinary Tuesday , went to class , sent TEN post cards.. which cost me about 7  dollars ? I believe. It was pretty exciting, I'm sure that all the people that receive one will be quite happy. If you would like me to send you one , just drop a hint , but don't get to comfortable because I'm on a budget peopllllllleeeee! lol

When I got out of class Monse was in the back yard playing by herself, she asked me to play. So I did the big sister thing and played with her and let her boss me around. I learned that I have lost any talent i had for the hoola hoop, but its alright!

Any how, yesterday was also an extremely special day !

After our class at 8 pm we were all sitting around eating dinner, having conversation as usual. yesterdays topic of choice was baby names ... Suddenly my Tico dad goes " aww look at this little puppy on Facebook ... she needs to be adopted".

We have two dogs that have already been rescued so my Tica mom rolled her eyes at the thought of rescuing another one. of course I jumped in "lets go get it" .. so My Tico dad called the woman who had the puppy and told her we'd come see it. After dinner we drove over to her little market , where she already had two rescued  dogs & three rescued cats.

Her son brought out the puppy , and it was a joint moment of "AWWWW"
A little chocolate , green eyed puppy , sitting on the steps , shaking of fear. It was so precious, we all knew immediately that we couldn't leave it behind ... Monse liked the dog , because at home she only has two big dogs.

The puppy was bought earlier that day by the woman for 5000 colones (10 USD) off some drug addicts that clearly were in no condition to care for her.

We had first chosen Lola , as her name .. but we finally agreed on Bella. Bella "La Bella" she's perfect ! and now our family is the biggest in Zapote haha . 6 Chicas, 1 Chico (Max), Monse, Mama y Papa & 3 doggies! Que Dicha !

Today was Sharon's 22nd birthday so during spanish we took a 1 hour "recess" and went to a coffee shop up the street. Which was a nice little break from our dreadful 4 hour class. Surprisingly enough we are over 1/2 way done, next week will be our last week of "intensive spanish" month. I won't be having morning classes any longer ! but even more surprising is that I have already been here for half of a month ! Two 1/2 weeks ! 17 days !
But every day is a new page,  in this tico book of mine & I try not to take the simple things for granted, like learning a new slang word, or learning how to walk some where besides the San Pedro Mall ! or falling into a hole in your back yard & ripping your jeans ? haha .
   Today We took a roomies trip to a craft market in Down town san jose .. which is really a touristy location where you will find every souvenir possible and vendors hounding you about their " good price". The one thing I know is make 0 eye contact .. just smile briefly and act like your alliterate! its the only way you'll make it out alive ! lol but its  only about 10-15 minute walk away which was a cool little adventure. Me & Anabel got some cool beachy - "Bro Shirts" that we will be sporting this weekend to Tamarindo this weekend.

Resort Swag : Arenal Excursion

Resort Swag 24/7

This weekend we visited Arenal Volcano. 

It was very long and whindy bus ride up there, but upon arrival it was evident that it was well worth it. Our Hotel was a massive resort with coi fish ponds, water slides , hot/thermal pools ... we had to take a shuttle from our rooms just to get to the lobby or restaurant. The view from our back porch was miles upon miles of vegetation and the volcano was in plane site. It was perfection.

It was pretty cloud so you couldn't see much of the volcano , but you could get the idea. 

From our back door @ the Hotel Los Lagos

Horse back riding actually had me scared shitless the whole 1 1/2 ride . I've never been on a horse so I was like WTH is going on .... gripping the saddle & reigns/ for my life. My legs are sore from enduring the horse galloping to the top but I don't regret it. Once we got to the top we were directly across from the volcano and it was breath taking. So Horse back Riding in Costa Rica can be checked off my list .. not really my thangggg! 

At night we would go to the hot springs and there was a wet bar .. and where theres a bar you know theres drunk people ! being college kids you know people couldn't resist showing up to the hot springs buzzed. People were riding down the water slides face first, flipping off decks and making out. 

Oh lord , is it fun to sit around and watch drunk people act a fool ! lol 

Saturday night Brittney, Anabel & I decided we had had enough of watching people get shit faced by the pool and we went into town ( La Fortuna) to go to a club called "El Establo". Of course the natural touristy thing to do was to show up at 10 pm when the place is empty , as if our neon yellow wrist bands from the resort didn't already give it away!

Our "dancing friends"

When we finally got inside there was this older woman GETTING DOWN! she could shake it ! she definitely had to be stripper or some kind of dancer in her past life ! But This place was a blast , beer was a dollar ! the music was great & we even got on stage to dance with other ISA students. There was an old man who also was channeling his inner Michael Jackson because his hips did not lie ! he had a thing for Anabel .. but  she managed to escape haha ! 

 I have also developed a new fancy for another CR beer , called Rock .. it took me all night to realize that there are 3 types of Rock : Regular, Limon & Golden Monkey *which is my fave* but Overall Good night. 

On Sunday we visited la Catarata Rio Fortuna .. it was all fine and dandy until we had to go down approx. 400 steep stairs !  when we finally reached the bottom we took our fair share of pictures, and went swimming. The water was freezing but I couldn't believe I was that close ! It was awesome. The waterfall was very pretty , the rocks not so much. Then came the time to climb all 400 steps back to the top : the ultimate challenge. I was panting , thank god I brought some water.. that goes to show that I'm out of shape ! but Anyhow, Arenal was a splendid excursion. 

The stairs of death !

Next week we will be venturing off to the pacific coast to Tamarindo beach! Can't wait. 

Gringo Take Over 

Photo cred. To Anabellaaaaa

Discovered Jumbo imperiales @ the bar !

Showing Luis from Tico Viajero some love 

You may think that food makes you happy .. but you don't know the true meaning of happiness until you eat in Costa Rica . Everything is just great AHH! Today we got food at Don Rolo's food cart in the court yard , and it was mouth watering. I got a platano empanada w. cheese and bean filling. ohh sweet god ! so delicious.. who every crafted that thing is a food genius ! I have found happiness in tico food and batidos! me and Anabel have mastered walking to el mall san pedro in record time ! each time trying a new batido at our fav. place ! 3rd floor of the food court "Bati2". Today the lady who took our order was CLEARLY the new girl because she was struggling... but ill let it slide because my smoothie was deelish. 

Today in my Documentary appreciation class we were talking about Semiotics.. AGAIN! this has to be the 3rd consecutive semester i'm learning this ish.. and unfortunately by now its not engraved in my lil brain ... but aside that we watched a BBC documentary on ocean wild life, which obviously is always entertaining ! 

fun fact : a blue whales heart is the size of a car  see.. I was paying attention! My professor for that class is awesome , so passionate and his english is flawless. 

Reserved my spot on the horse back riding excursion at Arenal ! can't wait ! 

Tomorrow is thursday you know what that means ! Ladies night :]

Las Chica At Los Profesionales 

Fly high

After arriving from Jaco me and Anabel were the only people home , all the other girls were on excursions. So sunday we went out with the family to a local park called " el parque de la paz". there are tons of hills and when you reach the top you can see for miles in every direction , very nice view.  The sky was the perfect kind of blue and the kites danced in the wind.The breeze and the sun were a prefect combo for this sunday afternoon.  we hung out got ice cream, flew kites and caught some sun rays .. one too many * Anabel got sun burn ;[ . 

I flew my first kite .. it then shortly tangled with someone elses and landed in a tree.. but no one else needs to know that part. 

My tico dad also was a hero on sunday! 

this little boy (4 yrs old)  was rolling down a hill way too fast and hit the concrete when he got to the bottom.  He helped him and his parents by making sure he was okay until an ambulance came ! 

This week the ticos began school at Veritas, they actually blend right in. They remind me a lot of like .. MASS ART students... i mean it is an art & design school so that exactly is what they are.., art students lol.  My tica mom is a Communications prof. @ university of Costa Rica and she was explaining to us over dinner how hard it is to study here. Either you go to a private school and pay a shit ton of $$ or go to a public one and BUST YOUR ASS! But the amount of money we pay in the states for school is like 5 x what you would pay here... its really crazy. probably about $7000 for a bachelors degree. Thats alot by costa rican standards.. but culturally if anyone could get their hands on a 7000 dollar bachelors degree we'd all be happy. 

Today I had my dance theory class were we learned about a costa rican dance/ version of Swing dancing. they call it " swing / or suin criollo". We watched a documentary on how it was prohibited in the 40's and how its grown over time in a dance adapted by the costa ricans. Then we got to learn the steps ! fun time ... as usual. 

This weekend we will be going to Arenal Volcano! meeep ! exciting. We will be staying at this massive hotel , with hot springs and pools and butterfly gardens :] they also will be taking us to see a waterfall called "la fortuna" which is supposed to be awesome. They have optional excursions so i will be horse back riding up close to the volcano. I'm really looking forward to it all. 

Its also such a relief that this weekend, and the few upcoming ones this month are all planned for us , because after the Jaco incident . Ive had my fiar share of personal trip planning haha.

Ps. I saw my first humming bird the other day walking to the park with Megan ! so cute .. & I got a new pillow! #AMEN 

Blowing bubbles at the top of the hill

Living young ,wild & free

Veritas had a BBQ for all the international students. It was a nice time , except for the fact that we learned that they defne bbq here much more lightly then we do in the states ` they served very little food so we were all still hungry. I was upset! lol but they had tons of music and free beer.. no complaints there!

They had these drumming bands & dancers come preform ! it was awesome ! They're called "Comparsas" The dancers and drummers dress in colorful costumes and dance and sing. I enjoyed it a lot, and at the end they did a huge conga line.

Comparsa drummers 

At Los Profesionales

Later a bunch of students went over to "Los Profesionales" which is like the popular "college bar", its about a block away from Veritas. It was packed and all we know how to order is Imperiales... which i don't really care for because Imperial taste good & is about 2$. You can tell this bar likes to cater to the internationals because they have there walls covered in pictures of students with the bartenders .. our housemates have a goal to get on that wall ! :] They also play alot of english music .. which i'm not a fan of .. especially when they throw on 50 cent wanksta .... ummm ? lol I requested Promise - Romeo Santos .. and the DJ didn't even have it ! Why did I come to Costa Rica if they're only gonna play english music ? that drives me nuts. Cameron & Megan woo'ed the Local tico guys at the bar and I had to be "that friend" that steps in with my spanish & cockblock . It was great haha They were trying to walk us home and there is no way in hell were gonna let them know where we live .. don't need tico stalkers !


For the weekend Me and Anabel took a trip to Jaco beach .. which was very "sudden & unplanned" to say the least. When we arrived the bus station we realized 3 things ...

1. I didn't have a bathing suit 
2. we didn't know where we were sleeping 
3. we didn't have enough money to survive an entire weekend away from home.

One may ask WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING? .. quite frankly I do not know .. maybe we were overly excited? lol 

Luckily we had a friend coming to Jaco Saturday morning who was able to pick up my wallet at my host home. Ashley saved our lives !

In the mean time we needed to find a Hostel that suited our budget, we located the Jaco inn which charged us $12 / night  ! it was like angel voices singing when we found a place to stay because our worries were starting to make us nervous & we were just about ready to head back home on the next bus.

#hostelprobs

Once we were settled into our rooms, we went to explore. on the way out we were informed of a fun fact : that our hostel had gotten broken into the night before .. GREATTTTT! 



So me and Anabel slept with our wallets and purses that night haha. but the place really wasnt sketchy , its just shiet that happens.That night in Jaco we went out to look for something to do, we got some Gelato & went to a few bars but all the bars play english music. & that really grinds my gears... We were at Club Orange for a while which was good, but it wasnt great..
so we wanderd off to this place down a sketchy alley way called "El Recreo" where it was all locals & spanish music for daysssss.. we had found "home" lol . Me & anabel had a blast , danced and drank a few imperiales. After a while we decided to return to Club Orange--- where the bartender told me We shouldnt have gotten to El Recreo, because we could have gotten killed. once again  .. GREATTTTT! 

Delicious Gelato 

Anabel & I at Club Orange

So we called it a night and headed back to Jaco Inn.. when we arrived we had roommates who were two Swedish backpackers who were 19! friendly gals .. very interesting.

All in all we decided to only stay one night in Jaco , we caught the evening 6:30 bus back to San jose on Saturday with our new adventurous pal Mason who also attends Veritas with us, he is from Oregon. We had seen all that there was to see in Jaco . 

Jaco beach  is a top destination for surfers & backpackers 

Turn on the Lights

Estadio Nacional

Yesterday I went to my first .. and very likely the last Soccer game in Costa Rica en el Estadio Nacional. Its a beautiful & huge stadium. Its very new , because China gifted it to Costa Rica in 2011.
  Fun fact : What it costs to light up the stadium for one night is the equivalent of what it costs to light up all of San Jose for a week ! 

 This game was a special game because all the proceeds go to Cancer research, it's called "90 minutos por la vida" the 4 best teams in CR play against each other in honor of kids with cancer.
Laura, Cam & I went with our Tica Family. Monse had her little soccer jersey on ! it was too cute .We had our first train ride which was quite alright, the amount of people was abundant, sooo many people came out for a wednesday! but apperently most soccer games in san jose are wednesdays and saturdays. Everyone represents a different team of their preference because there are many in Costa Rica for each province.. My Tico dad roots for "la Liga" .. I dont really know what that means, except for we clap when they score lol !

In the last quarter the power went out .. THREE TIMES! You'd expect every one to freak out .. but its usual for them, they all take out their cellphones and turn on music and its just one huge party ! There were even fire works, Ticos don't let anything get in their way of a good time.

Me and Anabel had Lunch at this wonderful little soda , called Grani Tico (look them up on facebook <3) . The owners are SOOOOOO nice & hospitable. And they are  afforadable and delicious. Me and Anabel are determined to try one of everything on the menu , including the Batidos ... which are my new addiction ! they are soooooo good. They are fruit shakes with natural/local  fruits and milk or yogurt . they are so original and fresh tasting. With lunch they served us a fruit juice called "mora" which is blackberry .. with water ... thats all. and it was great ! I love that things here are so home made and natural. The happiness we felt in our tummies when we left that place was un-real.

The Movie Theater we located @ the Mall !!

In our time here we have made a walking / excersise pact,so we take a walk/ adventure around the area. There are many hills and what not so its pretty intense. Yesterday we walked to the mall which is about a 20 minute walk where we got batidos, yumm. The fruits all have crazy names in comparison to what were used to in english.. so Anabel has made a list of the fruits she likes.. Shout out to google! haha

 We also are trying hard to blend in and seem like locals so we always "walk with a purpose" as they taught us in orientation.So far its going well, obviously because were hispanic and speak spanish very well we want to find other local places we can "walk with a purpose" to.  Thank goodness I memorized how to get to the mall, because I am yet to figure out how to decipher a map !

I received my first call on my little nokia rental ... it took me and Meg about 5 minutes to figure out how to use the converter that came with it -_- (foreigner probs).. but im a smart & witty girl so I figured it out.

My flower collage that Anabel has been waiting on.

I love taking pictures of flowers .. as you can see thus far :]