The week of lasts....

October 7, 2008: Tuesday
So, this week was the week of “lasts!” Tuesday = last Seminario Base speaker at LASP. Don Stam has been a missionary in Costa Rica for over 50 years..yeah! He was hilarious and just gave us some good advice about living here and about traveling to Nicaragua. Wednesday = ICADS oral presentations..yikes! Haha we all freaked out a little bit, but I know we all did fine. =) After class on Wednesday we headed to the HUGE mall called Terra Mall to watch a movie (The Contract). The movie was eh, okay, I mean, we basically just went because Wednesdays are half price, which pretty much means $5 for a movie in a SWEET theater with popcorn…so not too shabby! After we get back from Nicaragua if we have time we’re going to hit up the VIP Cine which has LA-Z-Boys to sit in! No joke! And you can order awesome food there (think crepes, sushi, steak…yeah). =) Anyways, it was a really good time, Mackenzie, Chelsea, Kayla, Sam, Andrew Brauer and I all went together. We had a blast eating some delicious Pop’s ice cream (I got banana dipped in chocolate and nuts..yeahhhh). While we were sitting there Andrew said something really nice, and funny to me! Haha he told me that I remind him a lot of his mom, or at least how he thought his mom must have been when she was younger. It was just a really nice thing for him to say, cuz I get the impression he’s one of those guys that really loves his mom. Anyways, it was nice, made me smile! =)

Thursday = our LASP seminario base presentations! Yikes! =) My group was the US/Latin American relations group (my paper was about Nicaragua/US relations). We decided to do a skit, and it worked out REALLY well! We were pumped! =) All I can say now is if you want to hear some interesting music you should listen to “Amerika” by Rammenstein. Good stuff, we used it for our presentation/skit. =) So Thursday officially wrapped up seminario base! Whew! 6 credits in 6 weeks = a crapload of homework that I’m glad I don’t have to do anymore. =)

Friday = our last day in ICADS! =( Que triste! We had a “graduation” ceremony, where the ICADS staff handed out certificates to all of us, it was really cute! =) Andrew Brauer spoke to the ICADS staff on behalf of us students, and it was hilarious; he translated “You’ll be in my heart” by Phil Collins (think of Tarzan) into Spanish, and then sang it to end his little speech. It was great, I got part of it on video. =) We had cake afterwards, ate lots of food the awesome ICADS people made us, and just hung out for a while! It was wonderful bonding time together! =) Friday Jasmín made me go back to the market with her, and so I ran into my “novio” again. Ugh. =) Haha he didn’t remember my name, but he remembered that we had talked, unfortunately! =) No, it wasn’t really that bad, it was fun! Haha Brian was with us, and he asked Brian if he was my boyfriend, and when Brian said no he was like, “ah, good, because this girl is my other half!” Ay yi yi…what am I going to do? =) Ha ha.

We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo..you could’ve come too, too, too
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Saturday was hangout in San Jose day, because the LASP staff recommended that we not do any traveling this weekend since we will need to rest up for the apparent exhaustion that Nicaragua is going to bring us. Gulp.
After a good morning of shopping with Jasmín (I bought purple shoes..they’re awesome), we had some delicious lunch with Christie, Ashley and Eleya. Delicious meaning, I bought a crunchwrap at Taco Bell because I was craving some (this is the first time, I swear!) and then paired that with an awesome fruit salad (pineapple, watermelon, papaya, red jello, cookies & cream ice cream, and raspberry sauce) YEAH! On the way Jasmín and I ran into Kasey, Chauncey and Craig, and they kindly informed us that they were heading to the zoo, and invited us along. Of course, we took them up on the offer! It was basically $3 to get in, and we got to see a Jaguar, 2 Lions, some birds, some weird Costa Rican animals =), and of course monkeys! I seriously thought one of the monkeys was going to throw its fruit at us, it just looked really ticked off when we were looking at them all. I think it would’ve made a good story, but no. =) We had a blast just goofing around; Jasmín and I wanted the Jaguar to move from its post, so we started running back and forth in front of the cage so it would be interested. Apparently we do not look very tasty to Jaguars, because it didn’t work. =) All in all, a really good day! =)
I suppose I should let you all know now that I will not be on the internet for the next two weeks. We are going to Nicaragua, leaving on Monday, the 13^th, and coming back to San Jose the 24^th, and we then have FALL BREAK until Tuesday the 28^th! Woot! I am really, really excited for Nicaragua, though I know that it is going to be a very challenging experience at the same time (it’s one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere). We take a bus to Nicaragua (10-11 hours on Monday). Then the group will be spending a few days together in the capital, Managua, and then we will be spending an entire week with host families in different areas all around the country. My group will be staying in a marginalized area, I don’t know by what city yet. This will be the first time that LASP has placed students in this town, and so we will definitely need your prayers as we live in a place that’s a little more dangerous, and as we are the first students for the families living there. Don’t worry; I will have Chauncey in the same town as me (the biggest guy in the group, who is also Latin American in appearance, both pluses). Just pray for our hearts to be fully opened, even when it’s hard, pray for safety, and pray for the families that we will be living with. After the full week with our families, the group will be back together in Granada, and then we will head back to San Jose, which begins fall break.
For fall break, I will be going with a group of girls to Guanacaste, the province with all the beaches. =) We are going to start out in Playa Coco (I think) and then who knows what from there. =) Pray for safety once again, especially from the sun. =)
Life continues to be amazing in San Jose, though it is sad to be ending the first part of this experience: in Nicaragua we will officially be halfway done. Yikes. I am going to really miss my host family here in San Jose, they have been an unbelievable blessing to me while I have been here! Ah, I can’t even think about it right now, I’m already about to cry. Pray for them as a family, as their dad continues to live and work in Panama and can only come home once a month. I can really see god at work in my family here, they are such buena gente, I can’t even imagine this experience without them!
Well, if you’re still with me, thanks a lot for reading this ridiculously long update on life. =) Dont forget to check out pictures from ziplining and other events on flickr.com (see my last post for instructions) =) I love you all so much and just want to keep saying Gracias, Gracias, gracias for your thoughts and prayers and all support! I can never thank you all enough! Con todo mi amor y el amor de Dios.

Nose piercing and a new love....

FOTOS: Top: Teatro Nacional in San Jose, my nephew Aaron at the Childrens Museum, Mural at LASP, view walking down the street to spanish classes at ICADS:: *********I tried to put them onto a slideshow on this blog, but it didnt work, so if you would like to see pictures from Costa Rica, look on flickr.com, in the box where it says search type in Laurita1986 (make sure you have selected people as the search field or nothing will come up) and then you should be able to see my pictures!********

October 5, 2008- Sunday!
Okay…so how do you like this title? Tell me, did it freak you out? =) Sorry to disappoint, but I am not the one who got my nose pierced. That would be my friend, Jasmín. =) Haha I had to make your heart race just a little bit at least! We hung out on Sunday afternoon/evening and I went with her to the mall so she could get her nose pierced. I can’t say I didn’t think about it, but when I watched them do it to her I thought, well, maybe not so much, even though she told me it didn’t hurt. =) We had a great time, then ate a delicious supper at Pollo Campero: we had the best ice cream I have had here so far: que rico!

He encontrado mi “otro mitad”
October 6, 2008-Monday!
Translation: “I have found my ‘other half’”: boy, I am just doing really well with freaking-you-out titles this week. =) Today Jasmín and I were hanging out again after ICADS (Spanish classes) and we decided to head to the market so I could buy some stuff for you people. =) We saw our Nicaraguan friend Donald again, so we caught up with him for a while because it had been a long time since we interviewed him! Then, I was looking at some stuff from another vendor, a young guy, and we were just talking prices and then he just apparently decided he wanted to flirt with me because I can speak Spanish. It was weird, I didn’t really know what to say, but it was hilarious. =) After I decided what to buy, he asked if I wanted to buy an Imperial (beer brand here) t-shirt, and I made some sarcastic or funny comment, I can’t really remember, and then he said “ahh, pienso que he encontrado mi otra mitad.” Jasmín and I just laughed, I mean, really hard, because I don’t think we really knew what else to do! Haha And then when he found out my name is Laura, he began singing this song that is very popular in Spanish, that goes, “Laura no está, Laura se fue, Laura se rompió mi corazón” (Laura’s not here, Laura left, Laura broke my heart). So, we walk past him as we are leaving the market, and he is singing this song to me. Sooo ridiculous! =) Hahaha We basically said, “Ciao amigo!” and we were gone…Qué lástima, I don’t even know his name, and unfortunately, he was not really that cute…=) Hahaha not to mention he was quite overly aggressive, so I think I’ll have to pass on that one…but Jasmín is wanting to go back to the market on Friday…ahh…so perhaps I’ll have another story to tell after then! =)

Feliz Cumpleanos a mi!

So, sorry this blog is so kind of behind with the dates that I’m posting it on, but I have not been having a lot of time to get to the internet café, so I am just typing up the blogs on my computer and then posting them when I get time to hop on over here to the café. =) Just consider that your disclaimer for the day.

Mi cumple (birthday: Oct 1) was AH-mazing. =) I had 3 pieces of cake that day, if that gives you any idea of how amazing it was. Hahaha. My sister made a chocolate cake with frosting and peaches on top, which was delicious, and we had sopa azteca (basically salsa/soup with avocado, white cheese and tortilla chips…YUM!). My whole family sang feliz cumpleaños to me, I think my host nephew Aron sang it about 10 times (apparently it’s his favorite song). =) My family is so great, I am just loving hanging out with them and getting to know them better all the time, I can’t believe we have such little time left together! Even Spanish class on Wednesday was awesome; we talked for the entire 4 hours! No worksheets, just talking / arguing. =) There was definitely “yelling” or should I just say “raised voices” (it made things more fun, I think that’s why). =) We talked about pacifism, which we were sort of divided on (me and the teacher and then the two guys) because the guys thought it was a good idea but didn’t necessarily see it as being a realistic option, whereas, for me, I am just hardcore about peace and nonviolence, and so is our teacher, Carina. So it was a really good (obviously, long) conversation that just led more into talking about religion, faith, and how we can live out what we’ve been learning here. Very good times! (And don’t worry; we’re all still friends even after all that). =)

My birthday present to myself was the Juanes concert on Thursday night, which was also unbelievable! It didn’t rain all day, which was pretty much a miracle. Then when we were waiting in the futbol stadium for the concert to start (our seats were awesome by the way) it rained a little, so we bought ridiculous 2000 colones ponchos ($4) and then, of course, it stopped raining. Well, until Juanes’ second song: then the rain really came down. =) You would think that it would stink to be at a concert when it was raining, but if you ask me, it just made it even cooler. I mean, we were at a Juanes concert, outside, in Costa Rica, dancing and singing along with thousands of Ticos…yeah, the rain just made it even cooler. =) Plus, Juanes, being rained on, is just even hotter than normal. =) Hahaha. We had a really fun group of 9: Kasey, Ryan, Greg, Me, Jasmín, Lesly, Caroline, Lima, and Katie. It was definitely some awesome bonding time together! =) Juanes even saved my favorite song (Nada valgo sin tu amor) for last...it was just awesome! Only crappy part: not allowed to take cameras! Luckily I had not brought mine, mostly because I just didn’t want to risk it being stole, and so when we got to the gate we found out you weren’t allowed to have them when they patted one of the guys down and told him he wasn’t allowed to bring it in. C’mon Juanes, seriously: we can’t even take your picture? Well, we could’ve, if we had snuck in our cameras like some other people...but that would’ve required prior knowledge that they were not allowed. =) So sorry for all that wanted to see pictures, I wish I had some to show you!

Friday night (Oct 3) we had movie night #1 at LASP to celebrate the October birthdays. We watched “Be Kind, Rewind” with Jack Black, which was mas o menos (okay). We were asked to invite ticos, so I invited both my sisters and they both came, but they were the only ticos. But it was still awesome! =) I loved being able to hang out with them and have them meet some of my classmates/friends from LASP. When we got home that night Ale and I sat in our room and had some awesome girl bonding (aka: we talked about boys). =) It was good to really have a conversation about life, not just, “oh, how are you? How was school? Blah blah.” We really bonded, and it was just (as Tony the Tiger would say) Grrreat!

I can’t believe we only have one week of our “first phase” left here, it has gone by SO fast! Almost 6 weeks (on Tuesday, Oct 7). Whoa. =) We leave on Sunday the 12^th to head to Nicaragua for 12 days, which is also really exciting! I’ll let you know more about that before I leave hopefully. =)

Thank you all again for your continuous prayers and support, I can really see the effects here in Costa Rica, as life just continually gets better and better here, I am just having the best time of my life here and I could not be doing this without such amazing love and support from all of you! *Big hug from me!* Muchísimas gracias! Hasta luego mis amigos. Con amor, Laura.

Ziplining! Woot!

Wow, wow, WOW…I don’t even know where to begin about my weekend! I suppose I’ll just go in order. =)
FRIDAY
Well, let me begin with a “funny” story. It’s funny now at least. =) We had “lots” of time between the end of Spanish classes at 12, and when we had to be at LASP at 2. So Mikayla and I decided that we would just take the bus to San Jose and then head to El Carmen for our LASP stuff. We made it into San Jose fine, and of course it had started raining by that time, as it does everyday. We got out our umbrellas and rolled up our pants (soooo Gringo-ish! Haha) and then proceeded to walk through San Jose to the next bus stop. Well, in that process, it began pouring gatos y perros, and by the time we got the bus stop we were drenched (we even had umbrellas) and the wind started blowing the rain basically straight at us, and it even hailed a little! Needless to say, that was a first! We were totally and completely drenched, I mean, water was soaking through my umbrella..yeah, it was bad! But very very memorable! =)
So, Friday afternoon/night we had our group Camino Espiritual (Spiritual Journey). All 56 of us (or so) were given about 3 minutes each to try and just explain a little about our faith journey or a part of our life that makes us sort of who we are now, or to talk about something we just wanted everyone else to know about us. It was amazing to hear everyone share such distinct stories about themselves, and yet I felt that I could relate to every single person there in a totally new way. I really felt like it brought us all together and helped us to be able to look at each other in a different way, sort of wiping away all of the prior thoughts and feelings we had about the other people on the trip. Some good tears, and some even greater bonding (and some cardboard-ish pizza that actually tasted good)..hmm, doesn’t get much better. =)
As I was packing up that night for Monteverde, Greg called my house to let me know for sure the details of where to meet. My sister Ale answered the phone, and before handing it to me she said, “Laura, its for you..it’s a boy!” in English, and Greg overheard her. So of course when I started talking to him he was like, “oooo, It’s a boy it’s a boy!” and I told him my sister had said that, and he told me to ask her if she wanted to hang out some time: well, I did, and boy oh boy did she turn red!! =) hahaha and she said no =) it was definitely an awesome memorable moment with my sister, and we’ve been bonding over it ever since, because I continue to tease her about it and tell her that I’m going to show her some good pictures and hook her up. =) haha I love it.

SATURDAY
This is the other really awesome part of the weekend. =) Probably the most awesome weekend so far! On Friday I decided to head to Monteverde with some of the other people in the program: Christie, Jasmine, Bethany, Kasey, and Greg and I. We had to leave EARLY on Saturday (I woke up at 3:50 am…yeah) because the bus left San Jose at 6:30 in the morning and we had a 5 hour drive to make it to Monteverde. So anywhoo, we made it to the bus stop on time and all that, had a good drive there (minus the fact that some of us had to use the bathroom like crazy and we only had one 15-minute break in that 5 hour span..yeah, for real). Once we hopped off the bus this guy came right up to us and told us he’d take us somewhere to stay, so we just sort of walked along with him, whatever, we didn’t know where we were. Luckily it ended up being the best place ever: $6 a person per night hostel, really nice (for a hostel I think, I don’t know, it was the first time I’ve been in one!), and they gave us awesome advice about food, what to do, everything. It was sort of raining when we got there, because it was basically the afternoon, so we shelled out $15 and headed to Selvatura where we spent a few hours walking up in the cloud forest on suspended bridges. G-oooor-geous! We saw some howler monkeys in the distance from the one bridge after we heard them howling or whatever for about 10 minutes before we got to the bridge. Don’t worry, I have it on video. =) Hahaha. That evening we met up with one of Greg’s friends, Danny Mack, who is in a biology program in Costa Rica, and they happened to be in Monteverde until Sunday. Actually, he is from Columbus and even knows Colt Cunningham and Kelsey Seipel, who I go to college with. Weird little world we live in! Anyways, we ate at this sweet ($$$) restaurante with a live tree in the middle of it: soo delicious! After that Greg’s friend headed out and we all just went back to the hostel and hung out in the guys’ room for a while, being ridiculously loud and having an amazing time bonding (don’t worry, we weren’t disturbing anyone..it was basically us and maybe 2-4 other people on the second floor). After a while we were all completely whipped, so we headed to be in order to get ready for Sunday…yeah =)

SUNDAY
7:30 AM we hopped into a little microbus/van and made our way to Aventura Park where we went ziplining!! Only $30 to zip around the cloud forest for 3 hours! I know, you are probably shocked to be reading this if you know me, since you know I am afraid of heights. =) I was a little nervous before we got there, but once we were strapped into the harness, I was never afraid again! It was amazing really, I was really surprised. There are 14 total ziplines there, and they were just…wow, I don’t really even have words to explain it. We would leave from a platform up in a tree, zip through a space between a lot of trees, and then suddenly it would open up and we were out over all the trees below us, in the clouds and just able to see all around us. It was completely unbelievable to be surrounded in such a way by God’s amazing creation! Definitely one of the coolest things I have done in my life! =) There were two times when I must be honest and say I was terrified: 1) we had to do this “rappel” where we were on a platform and the only way to get down was to step off the edge of it, hanging in the air, until the guy pulled on our rope and we just slid all the way down to the bottom. Needless to say, I definitely had to scream on that one. =) but it was amazing, I just told everyone sitting there who had already done it that screaming just made it more fun. =) Scary part #2…way scarier: the Tarzan Swing. Basically there is a clearing in the trees, and we climbed stairs to the top of this really tall platform. They strapped us in, and then pushed us off the edge of the platform: you basically feel like you’re falling straight down until the rope catches you and you swing way out into the clearing: sooo amazing (after the initial heart-stopping drop) =) it was amazing! After the Tarzan swing the last two ziplines came up, and they were by far the two best of the whole day. The very last one was the longest and highest…just being out in a “canyon” I guess you could call it, hanging above all the trees on a zipline, just you and the wind..it was so gorgeous and just unbelievable. Put it on your list of things to do. =)
When we headed back after that amazing time on Sunday, we ate at a restaurante called Morphos, recommended to us by the awesome hostel guy. We were all completely starving, since we had only eaten two small pancakes for breakfast at a little soda (aka restaurant-sort-of). I ordered a hamburger, and it was the HUGE-est hamburger I have ever eaten in my life. I mean, we’re talking: two beef patties, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cheese, avocado (sounds weird, but it was totally wicked awesome) and the thing was probably a good 8 inches in diameter (no problem!). =) After lunch we chilled around the hostel for a while, and then made our way to the bus (which we almost missed because we thought the bus left from right in front of our hostel. Thanks again awesome hostel guys for showing us that we were wrong.) I got back home around 8 or so, and did a little unpacking while I caught up with my host sisters on their weekend of graduation dress shopping for Alejandra. Then, even though I was exhausted, we all watched the movie Get Smart, which was a lot of fun to have some good re-bonding time with them and catch back up. =)
So, all in all, not too shabby of a weekend! =) This week is insanely busy, and so this is probably one of the only updates I’ll give for a while, which is probably good because it’s so insanely long. =) I am getting pumped for my birthday on Wednesday, and Thursday is the big Juanes concert! Ahh! =) I hope that all continues to go well with each one of you reading this, thanks for keeping up with me for such a long time. With much love and much missing of you. =)

Con todo el amor en mi corazón.