Santa Elena

Sorry I didn’t get to post last night! I got back to the bungalow at like 10 and was too tired to get out of my room and go sit in the freezing cold to get wi-fi…. By the way we don’t get it in our bungalow.  Which sometimes does suck but it also kind of makes it so that I’m not attached to the computer.  But anywayssss….

We went to Santa Elena yesterday which is about a 30 minute drive from the campus and it was EXTREMELY bumpy.  But we got there and basically did tourist shopping.   There was a restaurant that had a tree literally built inside of the restaurant and it was sooo cool!!  And then I tried this fruit that looks reallyyy weird and nothing that we would ever see but you bite into it and the inside of it is like a clearish egg.  I can't remember what it's called though.  I also saw the high school which is really interesting because it’s mostly an outdoor time thing.  Meaning that there aren’t any halls.  It’s basically a line of classrooms on one side and a line of classrooms on the other sideAnd it’s like a career high school.  But there are only 2 pathways.  One is tourism (like guides) and Aurora (my professor’s daughter) and Paula (my professor) never told me what the other pathway was but the school has paths so that they can practice tourism.  The school is the picture right under this.

We also went to the grocery store and I bought Costa Rican Cheetos!! They remind me of Angie and Victoria!! Miss you guys!! J But the small bags are called Twis Ters and the bigger bag is called Chirulitos.  Those are more like pretzels because they are harder than cheetos but they aren’t as spicy as hot cheetos.  I haven’t tried the Twis Ters yet tho.  I also got to try mora which is blackberry juice! It’s REALLY good!!

I also forgot to write this the other day but Paula was telling me that a lot people come here to study and end up falling in love with a Costa Rican.  It’s usually a well grown, professional woman and a Costa Rican man.  There was actually a girl that I met named Alexa (24… I think) who came here as a naturalist and was here for I think 2 months and fell in love with a taxi driver named Alex.  And now she lives here and they’re building a house.  She came here as a naturalist a year ago and Alex has 2 kids from a previous marriage.  So I thought that was interesting and Paula actually did almost the same thing.  She came here to teach for a year and then met her husband a month before she was supposed to leave and she ended up staying for 10 years and had Aurora.

My professor, Paula, actually reminds me of my Uncle Greg because she is so fascinated with all of these bugs and plants.  Literally every time we see a plant or bug anywhere she picks it up and explains the whole background.  She’s an amazing woman because she knows sooo many “factoids” or “side notes” as she calls them.  We actually went on a hike today because class ended early so we had free time and me, Lauren, Kara, and our professor all went.  It was sooo pretty!! We saw a female pack of coatis with juveniles which is apparently REALLY rare because the males are the travelers while the females are more of the family keepers and stay with the kids at the home.  Paula freaked out and was like “Oh my fucking God this is so rare! Sorry for the language but this is crazy.  I’ve only seen this twice in my life including this one.”  It was actually hilarious and really cool to see but it was only there for a short time because by the time we had our cameras out they had already left but Kara got a picture so whenever I get it I’ll put it up.  (And yes mom we have already decided we’re creating a snapfish account for all of our pictures!) We also saw an agouti which is like a huge guinea pig with longer legs in the front.  It’s known as “agouti with a booty” because obviously.. it has a large butt.  We also got some pretty pictures on the outlook areas on the trail where you could see off into the mountains and everything and it was truly beautiful.  Words and pictures and videos can’t even describe how beautiful this country is.

Later on in the night we had dance lessons with Giovoni and learned the Merengue, Colombian Country dance, and one other one but I can’t remember the word.  We had lessons because we’re going to a dance on Saturday! I’m sooo excited J But by the end of lessons Lauren and Aurora started doing karaoke and then everyone was up singing “Call me, maybe” and “Boyfriend.”  Which was hilarious because Isabel (one of the 8^th graders) could rap the whole song.

Well we have our first day of teaching today! So I’ll hopefully be posting later on tonight! Love you all.

Pura Vida