Mi Familia Tica

So it's about time I posted some pictures of my house and family here in Costa Rica! First, here are the three of us Americans who live together: Brenda, me, and Jessica.

Brenda is from Maryland and her parents are from El Salvador, so she's fluent in Spanish. Jessica is from Washington and speaks Spanish at the same level I do.

We live with our tico (Costa Rican) family and three other students who are from various areas in Costa Rica: Jonathan, Daniela, and Tiffany. We don't see them much, they have a lot of school work it seems and prefer to keep to themselves.

My tico family consists of dad, Romeo, who works as a waiter downtown and rents apartments to families; mom, Beatriz, who has her hands full with a baby and three-year-old but is always in high spirits;

month-old brother, Isaac;

three-year-old sister, Mariana, who loves to play and has an attitude at least twice her size;

and fifteen-year-old sister, Tiare, who is in high school and studies English.

We live about two blocks from the university in a very nice yellow house. It features a small garden just inside that white fence and a larger one in the courtyard around back.

The family lives upstairs and the students downstairs in our own rooms. I got the one closest to the courtyard!

We all share common areas like the kitchen, which gives away Beatriz's love for cows;

outdoor living room, featuring a covered dining table and couch;

and BEAUTIFUL courtyard with a wall-sized mural, hammock and a variety of tropical plants.

It was a little hard getting to know the family at first because there are so many students here, but I really feel settled in now. Tiare and I complain about our school work, and Beatriz keeps me filled in about everything from what kinds of vegetables she cooks with to Isaac's bowel movements. I love to step in and hold him when she gets tired, and I even got Mariana to eat all of her lunch today!

Monteverde

Last weekend my program's excursion was to Monteverde cloud forest. We took the bus out of the city and up into the mountains, sometimes on one-lane roads. But the views were beautiful!

We stayed at an amazing hotel, but unfortunately I didn't get to explore much of it because I was sick. The rooms were great though, with the most comfortable beds! I watched Ratatouille in Spanish and saw a piece about Colorado on the travel channel - imagine that! Plus each room had a balcony facing west for prime sunset views.

On Saturday afternoon a few friends and I took a stroll through the orchid garden up the hill from our rooms

where we saw great plant life and shockingly beautiful views.

On Sunday we went into the Monteverde National Park to do some hiking. There were so many people on the trails that we didn't see many animals, but it was amazing to be in such a green place!

We hiked to the continental divide, which runs through the park,

and went to an overlook where if you looked to the left you could see all the land that drains into the Atlantic Ocean,

and to the right to the Pacific.

Overall a wonderful weekend - I can't wait to get out of the city again!

Volcán Arenal y La Fortuna

This past weekend my program had an excursion to the Arenal Volcano. We stayed at a resort called Los Lagos which featured a butterfly garden,

crocodile farm,

hot springs, water slides, and wonderfully  beautiful grounds.

Unfortunately it rained all weekend and we never even saw the volcano because it was so cloudy. But I enjoyed the time to relax and experience all the resort had to offer. I went for a run in the rain, spent time unwinding in the hot springs and got an adrenaline rush from the water slides - they were REALLY fast! We also went into the town every day for lunch and window shopping, and ate well at the included breakfast and dinner buffet.

On Sunday, we all went to La Fortuna waterfall, a 230 foot torrent of pounding water.

The hike down (and thus also the hike back up!) was steep, but the scenery was beautiful. And it was easy to see why all the rain was necessary!

The water falls so fast and hard that if you went directly under the stream it would crush you and the waves and currents were so big that you couldn't swim too close, but we tried anyway.

Also, there was another, smaller waterfall about a hundred yards away that you could actually stand under.

It was amazing to be underneath it and look up at the water falling down on you from so high. I couldn't get enough and didn't leave the water until we had to go back to the bus. We all piled in for a very wet ride back to San José.

Un Paseo por San José

A week ago today I headed into the city to do a walking tour from my guide book. It was really cool to walk around the city by myself and try to get my bearings. The tour included things like the zoo, which was closed but had a beautiful mosaic wall out front;

el Castillo de Moro, built in 1925 for the Archbishop Don Carlos Humberto Rodriguez, inspired by Moorish design and constructed with extravagant details;

a series of beautifully painted tiles depicting the Costa Rican culture and economy;

la Casa Amarilla, bequeathed to Costa Rica by Andrew Carnegie to serve as the Pan-American Court of Justice, which now houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

the Legación de México, a restored neoclassical stone building;

and several parks including el Parque Morazan,

el Parque Espana

and el Parque Nacional.

The parks are really cool and different because the city is dirty and bustling and loud and crazy, and then right in the middle of downtown are these tranquil, green parks with all kinds of tropical plants. It's a nice contrast because one block you're in the city, the next in the park, and then back to the city scene again.

On the way home from my adventure I took the wrong bus and ended up in a neighborhood I'd never seen before. I felt stupid and a little frightened at first, but then I found a cab and made it home with no problems. Just another part of the experience!

In Costa Rica there's a saying that they use as hello, goodbye, it's all good, be happy, nice to meet you, etc. It can mean anything really: Pura Vida.