Well folks, I'm back! Which means the end of this blog, at least for now!
I quit blogging there at the end, for some reason this website became very hard to access through my crappy internet connection so I didn't have the time or the patience to figure it out!
Quick recap of the last month or so...
I had a great trip to Panama where we saw beautiful islands, enjoyed the authentic hostel experience, and saw the Panama Canal, then I discovered my love of whitewater rafting and ancient ruins in Turrialba, CR with Deanna and had a very adventure filled trip to the Osa Peninsula in CR, also with Deanna (this involved waterfall rappelling with a guide named Scrappy, hitch hiking, delicious chocolate, and the craziest roads you'll ever see.)
If you want the full stories, just ask :)
I decided to change the name of the blog from "adventures in Costa Rica" to "Adventures Abroad" after traveling to Nicaragua and Panama, and decided I might as well keep this blog for when I begin my next adventure. I'm not sure when that will be, but I plan on traveling the world before I die so sometime in the future, expect more crazy adventure stories from around the world.
As for now, I'm perfectly content to live it up in the US for awhile :)
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Monday, August 2, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Dinner and a Ballet
Hola amigos!
This weekend has been pretty interesting. I stayed in San Jose for the third weekend in a row, but this weekend everyone else did too! On Friday night they had a ballet at the National Theater for $10! It was "La Sirenita" which translates to The Little Mermaid. I forgot that ballets don't have words but I guess that was a good thing because I didn't have to try to translate in my head. We did however have to read the program that was in Spanish to get some idea of what was going on even though we know the story. The ballet used a screen with images projected on it to tell most of the story but the way they used it was kind of hard to follow. We kept waiting for the prince to show up, but he only did on the screen. There wasn't a single male ballerina in the whole thing! After only about a half hour it was intermission and we were all surprised because not much had happened yet. Then we realized it was time for the switch to land to take place and figured that was why and the second half would be longer, only it wasn't! It was maybe an hour total and if I wouldn't have read the program I would have been lost! I did like it though, and we had fun getting dressed up and going!
Saturday, Kathleen and I finally decided to make dinner for our family. They've been wanting us to for awhile we just don't have time during the week and we're never both here on the weekends. We made Chicago style deep dish pizza, those pickle rolls with ham and cream cheese (which we've found out we're the only two Americans in our group that know what the heck those are!) and chocolate chip cookies! Everyone loved it and wanted to know how to make our ham and pickle things, they couldn't believe they were that easy! We ended up taking Deanna some of the pizza, a cookie, and some pickle rolls (because when we told her about the pickle rolls she thought they sounded disgusting) and she loved the pizza too! It did turn out really good, we made the dough ourselves and Kathleen even made the sauce too! And we measured everything for the dough by eye because they don't have measuring cups. Also they didn't have a pizza pan so we used glass pans. One of the glass pans already had a chip in it, and we ended up cracking it in half, oops! Our host family wasn't mad though. The pizza was supposed to go in at 500 degrees, but the oven only went to 300 so we cooked one in there and one in the toaster over which did go to 500 because both pans wouldn't fit in the tiny oven anyway. Only once we were putting the pizza on the table did we realize the numbers on the oven are in Celsius! But it all turned out ok because the pizza tasted great! I don't know how Mari manages to cook anything in that kitchen. The sink and stove and oven are all tiny and there's really no workspace, it's nuts! We also had to use a wine bottle for a rolling pin because they didn't have one. The only crazy part was we spent $60 on the ingredients, but it was for 8 people. Some of the people are supposed to chip in and pay us back for some of it, I really hope they do! We got a bag of mozzarella cheese for 9000 some colones....wait for it...that's about $16! Cheese is crazy expensive here, I miss it sooooo much! Dill pickles also weren't cheap, we've also missed them!
Anyway, our cooking adventure was successful!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
This weekend has been pretty interesting. I stayed in San Jose for the third weekend in a row, but this weekend everyone else did too! On Friday night they had a ballet at the National Theater for $10! It was "La Sirenita" which translates to The Little Mermaid. I forgot that ballets don't have words but I guess that was a good thing because I didn't have to try to translate in my head. We did however have to read the program that was in Spanish to get some idea of what was going on even though we know the story. The ballet used a screen with images projected on it to tell most of the story but the way they used it was kind of hard to follow. We kept waiting for the prince to show up, but he only did on the screen. There wasn't a single male ballerina in the whole thing! After only about a half hour it was intermission and we were all surprised because not much had happened yet. Then we realized it was time for the switch to land to take place and figured that was why and the second half would be longer, only it wasn't! It was maybe an hour total and if I wouldn't have read the program I would have been lost! I did like it though, and we had fun getting dressed up and going!
Saturday, Kathleen and I finally decided to make dinner for our family. They've been wanting us to for awhile we just don't have time during the week and we're never both here on the weekends. We made Chicago style deep dish pizza, those pickle rolls with ham and cream cheese (which we've found out we're the only two Americans in our group that know what the heck those are!) and chocolate chip cookies! Everyone loved it and wanted to know how to make our ham and pickle things, they couldn't believe they were that easy! We ended up taking Deanna some of the pizza, a cookie, and some pickle rolls (because when we told her about the pickle rolls she thought they sounded disgusting) and she loved the pizza too! It did turn out really good, we made the dough ourselves and Kathleen even made the sauce too! And we measured everything for the dough by eye because they don't have measuring cups. Also they didn't have a pizza pan so we used glass pans. One of the glass pans already had a chip in it, and we ended up cracking it in half, oops! Our host family wasn't mad though. The pizza was supposed to go in at 500 degrees, but the oven only went to 300 so we cooked one in there and one in the toaster over which did go to 500 because both pans wouldn't fit in the tiny oven anyway. Only once we were putting the pizza on the table did we realize the numbers on the oven are in Celsius! But it all turned out ok because the pizza tasted great! I don't know how Mari manages to cook anything in that kitchen. The sink and stove and oven are all tiny and there's really no workspace, it's nuts! We also had to use a wine bottle for a rolling pin because they didn't have one. The only crazy part was we spent $60 on the ingredients, but it was for 8 people. Some of the people are supposed to chip in and pay us back for some of it, I really hope they do! We got a bag of mozzarella cheese for 9000 some colones....wait for it...that's about $16! Cheese is crazy expensive here, I miss it sooooo much! Dill pickles also weren't cheap, we've also missed them!
Anyway, our cooking adventure was successful!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Friday, May 21, 2010
Earthquake
Ok, so as some of you have probably already heard from the form of my facebook status or mom's (which apparently caused a bit of a panic back in Robinson) there was an earthquake here yesterday! I was laying on my bed on my computer and my bed started moving, at first it felt like there was someone underneath my bed trying to scare me then I realized my clothes were swinging back and forth in the closet!
It wasn't near as bad as the one that woke me up in the middle of the night in Illinois a couple of years back, and it didn't scare me at all! My host family freaked out though, Kathleen didn't even feel it! Everyone made a huge deal out of it but I thought they were being kinda silly!
Turns out it hit off the pacific cost of Costa Rica and was actually a 6.3 quake! We only felt slight shaking though and as far as I've heard it didn't cause any damage or anything, so no need to worry, I'm just fine!
Tonight we're going to watch a contemporary ballet of The Little Mermaid at Teatro Nacional! I'm really excited and I'll tell you guys all about it soon!
Love,
me
It wasn't near as bad as the one that woke me up in the middle of the night in Illinois a couple of years back, and it didn't scare me at all! My host family freaked out though, Kathleen didn't even feel it! Everyone made a huge deal out of it but I thought they were being kinda silly!
Turns out it hit off the pacific cost of Costa Rica and was actually a 6.3 quake! We only felt slight shaking though and as far as I've heard it didn't cause any damage or anything, so no need to worry, I'm just fine!
Tonight we're going to watch a contemporary ballet of The Little Mermaid at Teatro Nacional! I'm really excited and I'll tell you guys all about it soon!
Love,
me
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Inauguration, Taco Bell, and a movie!
Hola!
Today was the inauguration of the first woman president of Costa Rica! Since we happened to be here for this moment of history we decided we had to go see it in person! So on the first day we've had to sleep in for months, we got up early and went to the huge park downtown where they were holding the inauguration ceremony. We had to take the bus to downtown San Jose then catch another to the park. We figured the one to the park would be crazy busy but we got on the first one that came and it wasn't even packed. We got to the park and the people who were directing us where to go kept telling us different directions, finally we found a really nice girl who asked us where our tickets were. We didn't have any, they were free I think they were just on a first come-first served basis of what color section you got to sit it. She could tell we were confused so she just told us to wait there and brought us back three tickets in the red section! Turns out we lucked out with that cause the red section was pretty close and we actually got seats! There were also free hats/visors on our seats! They were handing out free umbrellas too but I didn't manage to get one, too bad because we were forced to sit and back in the sun for hours and none of us even thought to put on sunscreen. Suffice it to say, I have the worst sunburn I've even had in my life. My whole front side is a nice shade of tomato red, and even the tops of my hands are burnt, and my face as well. During the inauguration there were all sorts of tipical Costa Rican performers, dancers and an ox-cart with real oxen on stage and the huge "gigantes" which are like big puppets with people inside and it was really cool! I have pics up on facebook! The sung the national anthem and everyone chanted for the out going president and there were people there from all over the world, presidents, princes, and princesses and they all got introduced! I thought it was amazing, but my host family didn't seem to like it too much (they watched on tv.) I guess they thought all the performers and stuff was in bad taste and it stayed too far from tradition, but they're old so maybe that's why I liked it and they didn't!
After the inauguration, we figured again that the buses would be crazy and it'd take forever to get out so we left a little before it actually ended (but everyone else did too!) and were surprised to find the bus we needed just pulling up so we got on! We were starving so when we got to San Jose we decided to try McDonald's here for the first time just to compare but it was packed so we went to Taco Bell instead. I ordered a chalupa, and they asked if I wanted a combo and I said yes but since the sign said combos came with fries I asked for nachos instead. Apparently chips and cheese nachos you normally would expect from taco bell don't exist but they do have french fries. Also, I forgot a Taco Bell combo includes a taco so I ended up with my chicken chalupa, nachos supremes (with beef) and a beef hard taco (we also think they don't have soft tacos for some reason...) The really funny thing is they gave me the nacho supreme for the same price as a regular combo! I picked the beef off and it was all good, way more food than I wanted but it turned out ok cause it looks like I'm not getting dinner for some reason, but I'm not really hungry anyway!
After the Taco Bell experience, we came home and rested for awhile and applied aloe to our sunburns then decided to go see Bounty Hunter at the nearby mall. They have movies in English, subtitled in Spanish so it was great and cost less than $4! We took a taxi there because it was dark and needed to take a taxi back. I wasn't worried about this because there are always a ton of taxis near the mall. When we got out a lot of the taxi drivers were out of their cars and talking and there was a group of younger ones that was joking around and told us it'd be 2000 colones to take us where we wanted to go. Since we've taken taxis from the mall a couple times before we knew it was actually around 900 and they're supposed to have meters so they don't normally tell you how much it will be ahead of time unless you ask. They were also calling us all sorts of names and whistling and stuff so we were a lot freaked out, told them no and walked back into the mall. We also didn't see any ticos taking these taxis so we weren't exactly sure what to do, we had to take one of them! So we waited for awhile and headed back out, and on the other side of the mall there were taxis and none of the drivers were yelling or anything so we got one of those with an old driver and he took us home and charged us the correct amount! I was really scared for awhile cause we almost had no other choice than to take the sketchy driver and over pay. Lesson learned, taxis at night are not the same as taxis during the day especially if you're taking one from that mall! But, I was also reminded that there are a crap ton of taxis are if you look you're likely to find one that you like, there were literally probably 20 or more taxis around the mall!
Now I'm exhausted and sunburnt like no other so I'm going to attempt to find a comfortable sleeping position, we'll see how that goes!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Today was the inauguration of the first woman president of Costa Rica! Since we happened to be here for this moment of history we decided we had to go see it in person! So on the first day we've had to sleep in for months, we got up early and went to the huge park downtown where they were holding the inauguration ceremony. We had to take the bus to downtown San Jose then catch another to the park. We figured the one to the park would be crazy busy but we got on the first one that came and it wasn't even packed. We got to the park and the people who were directing us where to go kept telling us different directions, finally we found a really nice girl who asked us where our tickets were. We didn't have any, they were free I think they were just on a first come-first served basis of what color section you got to sit it. She could tell we were confused so she just told us to wait there and brought us back three tickets in the red section! Turns out we lucked out with that cause the red section was pretty close and we actually got seats! There were also free hats/visors on our seats! They were handing out free umbrellas too but I didn't manage to get one, too bad because we were forced to sit and back in the sun for hours and none of us even thought to put on sunscreen. Suffice it to say, I have the worst sunburn I've even had in my life. My whole front side is a nice shade of tomato red, and even the tops of my hands are burnt, and my face as well. During the inauguration there were all sorts of tipical Costa Rican performers, dancers and an ox-cart with real oxen on stage and the huge "gigantes" which are like big puppets with people inside and it was really cool! I have pics up on facebook! The sung the national anthem and everyone chanted for the out going president and there were people there from all over the world, presidents, princes, and princesses and they all got introduced! I thought it was amazing, but my host family didn't seem to like it too much (they watched on tv.) I guess they thought all the performers and stuff was in bad taste and it stayed too far from tradition, but they're old so maybe that's why I liked it and they didn't!
After the inauguration, we figured again that the buses would be crazy and it'd take forever to get out so we left a little before it actually ended (but everyone else did too!) and were surprised to find the bus we needed just pulling up so we got on! We were starving so when we got to San Jose we decided to try McDonald's here for the first time just to compare but it was packed so we went to Taco Bell instead. I ordered a chalupa, and they asked if I wanted a combo and I said yes but since the sign said combos came with fries I asked for nachos instead. Apparently chips and cheese nachos you normally would expect from taco bell don't exist but they do have french fries. Also, I forgot a Taco Bell combo includes a taco so I ended up with my chicken chalupa, nachos supremes (with beef) and a beef hard taco (we also think they don't have soft tacos for some reason...) The really funny thing is they gave me the nacho supreme for the same price as a regular combo! I picked the beef off and it was all good, way more food than I wanted but it turned out ok cause it looks like I'm not getting dinner for some reason, but I'm not really hungry anyway!
After the Taco Bell experience, we came home and rested for awhile and applied aloe to our sunburns then decided to go see Bounty Hunter at the nearby mall. They have movies in English, subtitled in Spanish so it was great and cost less than $4! We took a taxi there because it was dark and needed to take a taxi back. I wasn't worried about this because there are always a ton of taxis near the mall. When we got out a lot of the taxi drivers were out of their cars and talking and there was a group of younger ones that was joking around and told us it'd be 2000 colones to take us where we wanted to go. Since we've taken taxis from the mall a couple times before we knew it was actually around 900 and they're supposed to have meters so they don't normally tell you how much it will be ahead of time unless you ask. They were also calling us all sorts of names and whistling and stuff so we were a lot freaked out, told them no and walked back into the mall. We also didn't see any ticos taking these taxis so we weren't exactly sure what to do, we had to take one of them! So we waited for awhile and headed back out, and on the other side of the mall there were taxis and none of the drivers were yelling or anything so we got one of those with an old driver and he took us home and charged us the correct amount! I was really scared for awhile cause we almost had no other choice than to take the sketchy driver and over pay. Lesson learned, taxis at night are not the same as taxis during the day especially if you're taking one from that mall! But, I was also reminded that there are a crap ton of taxis are if you look you're likely to find one that you like, there were literally probably 20 or more taxis around the mall!
Now I'm exhausted and sunburnt like no other so I'm going to attempt to find a comfortable sleeping position, we'll see how that goes!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Update!
Ok everyone, I know you're not gonna like this, but instead of returning to the States June 26th as originally planned, I will now be returning July 24!
This is because mom, Hayley, and Shelby won't be getting here until July 17th and staying through the 24th. Since I really, really want to go to Panama and visit the canal before I leave Central America and it takes more than a weekend to get to the canal and back I needed to stay past my original plane ticket for June 26th and since it costs quite a bit to change it I'm just going to stay here until I leave with them!
So I'll be going to Panama for about a week after school gets out on June 25th and I'll be there for my birthday! Then depending on who I can find to do things with I'll either travel around CR, or find a place to volunteer at for two weeks here in San Jose!
My host family said I can stay with them longer, so at least I've got housing figured out!
It cost a lot more than I wanted to change my ticket so now my budget is squeezed really tight, but I guess I'll figure it out.
Hasta luego,
Me
This is because mom, Hayley, and Shelby won't be getting here until July 17th and staying through the 24th. Since I really, really want to go to Panama and visit the canal before I leave Central America and it takes more than a weekend to get to the canal and back I needed to stay past my original plane ticket for June 26th and since it costs quite a bit to change it I'm just going to stay here until I leave with them!
So I'll be going to Panama for about a week after school gets out on June 25th and I'll be there for my birthday! Then depending on who I can find to do things with I'll either travel around CR, or find a place to volunteer at for two weeks here in San Jose!
My host family said I can stay with them longer, so at least I've got housing figured out!
It cost a lot more than I wanted to change my ticket so now my budget is squeezed really tight, but I guess I'll figure it out.
Hasta luego,
Me
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Dancing and Nicaragua
imeHola!
So last Thursday night we had a CEA social which wasn't very conveniently timed because Deanna, Yolanda, and I had to leave for Nicaragua at 4 the next morning and the social didn't start until 9 pm, but since we had transportation and all we decided to go and just not sleep at all that night!
For the social, we went to a discoteque called Castro's and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun! It was a bar/dance place and I actually danced (I know you're all shocked!) A nice tico tried to teach me merengue, but I am not very good and ended up accidentally elbowing some poor tica in the head, I felt horrible! She wasn't too mad though so it was ok! I really can't do the whole spinning around thing. Anyway after Castro's I came home and barely managed to stay awake until 3:50 when I needed to meet Yolanda, Deanna, and Katrina at Veritas to catch the bus for Nicaragua. We got there in 2 minutes and then felt like maybe we had a bad idea, we didn't want to be late but being there early standing alone on a street in the middle of San Jose with big bags and our passports on us didn't really seem like a good idea..... Luckily, the driver got there a little after we did and we got on and were good to go!
The ride to Nicaragua took forever and we stopped multiple times to eat/bathroom breaks but every break took FOREVER or we would have been there much faster. We had to get out and stand in a really long line to leave Costa Rica, then we got to get back in the van drive for a little bit and get back out to enter Nicaragua. For some reason here, we only had to give our passports to the driver and he went and took care of it for us and then an official came and gave us our passports back. We were really hesitant to let our passports out of our sight, but we couldn't really do anything about it. It all turned out perfectly fine though because I still have my passport in my possession!
Once we got to Nicaragua we went to Laguna de Apoyo (Apoyo Lagoon) and it was beautiful! I really felt like I was looking at a huge painting or something and not real life! Then we got to shop around for a little and Deanna bought a dress (it's a big deal for her!) After wards, we finally got to our hotel (which was not the hotel we thought we were going to stay at but was amazing anyway so we weren't complaining!) It was in a huge old colonial house and had tons of corridors and what not. We think we somehow ended up in the nicer rooms cause they had air conditioning, hot water, and no bugs! My bed was really comfy too and we figured out how to work the safe so our passports were safe the whole time!
The next day we went to the New Markey in Masaya and it was a world of it's own. We got there and there were tons of people everywhere trying to help you find stuff but probably wanting paid and beggars and street vendors and it was all overwhelming. We were also like the only northern americans there so we stood out like a sore thumb! We really felt like we shouldn't get out of the car, but once we got out and got over our shock and started shopping it was a really cool place! They had leather sandals for $5! I only got one pair though, because apparently 8 is a really big size here and not many people had it!
Then we went to an old fort that had been turned into a prison and toured the cells, which was really depressing. They had torture cells and cells where they was absolutely no light and all the cells held so many prisoners I'm not sure how they all fit. Apparently there was another level of the prison we didn't get to go to that was even deeper but still held human remains, I'm sure glad we didn't have to go to that part!
Then we went to Managua which I'm still not really sure why and got dropped off at this huge mall that had us feeling like we were in NYC in the States. All the stores were expensive and the food court had Quizno's, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. In Nicaragua there are like the rich places and the poor places and there's a huge difference between the two. After lunch we went to the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral which had been destroyed by an earthquake so we couldn't go in. In the new cathedral, there was a double wedding going on.
After that, we went back to our hotel and then went exploring down the road for awhile. None of us were really hungry so we left our tour group and found a little cafe with great smoothies and chocolate cake! The next morning we got a horse and carriage ride around Granada and then toured the little islands of Lake Nicaragua in a boat. While waiting on the boat we were ambushed by street vendors but they had a lot of cool stuff and we all spent too much money! It doesn't make you feel bad to buy from the street vendors though because you know they need it more than you do! They had cute keychains for $1 and all kinds of jewelry from $2-$6. I bought a necklace and they threw in a free bracelet! When we got back to our hotel two very nice ladies had set up camp outside selling beautiful shoes, I bought 2 pairs because they actually had my size! The ladies were so nice we couldn't help but love them and we wanted to get more so we looked for them the next day too!
The way back was pretty much hassle free. We got to the border at the same time as two public buses so because of that we had to get our bags searched and had to wait for all of them to get theirs searched first. We got our passports stamped right away and waited forever. Our driver said normally the agents don't make their passengers get their bags checked cause they come through so often but since the buses were there we had to do it too. The check was a joke we had to open our bags they guy peered inside and then said ok. They didn't even check the van to see if we left anything in it. I'm pretty sure Katrina's words were "I could've had a baby in there and they would have never known" and Yolanda was like "yeah, a baby with cocaine in it's mouth."
Our travel agent here at Veritas had originally told us we'd leave early morning and get back by 2 pm so Katrina, Deanna, and Yolanda were all planning on going to class in the afternoon (I don't have Monday classes) but we didn't end up leaving until noon and we got back at 11:30pm. According to my host family it shouldn't have taken nearly as long but oh well!
All in all, it was a great trip and pics are on facebook if you'd like to see!
hasta luego,
Chelsey
So last Thursday night we had a CEA social which wasn't very conveniently timed because Deanna, Yolanda, and I had to leave for Nicaragua at 4 the next morning and the social didn't start until 9 pm, but since we had transportation and all we decided to go and just not sleep at all that night!
For the social, we went to a discoteque called Castro's and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun! It was a bar/dance place and I actually danced (I know you're all shocked!) A nice tico tried to teach me merengue, but I am not very good and ended up accidentally elbowing some poor tica in the head, I felt horrible! She wasn't too mad though so it was ok! I really can't do the whole spinning around thing. Anyway after Castro's I came home and barely managed to stay awake until 3:50 when I needed to meet Yolanda, Deanna, and Katrina at Veritas to catch the bus for Nicaragua. We got there in 2 minutes and then felt like maybe we had a bad idea, we didn't want to be late but being there early standing alone on a street in the middle of San Jose with big bags and our passports on us didn't really seem like a good idea..... Luckily, the driver got there a little after we did and we got on and were good to go!
The ride to Nicaragua took forever and we stopped multiple times to eat/bathroom breaks but every break took FOREVER or we would have been there much faster. We had to get out and stand in a really long line to leave Costa Rica, then we got to get back in the van drive for a little bit and get back out to enter Nicaragua. For some reason here, we only had to give our passports to the driver and he went and took care of it for us and then an official came and gave us our passports back. We were really hesitant to let our passports out of our sight, but we couldn't really do anything about it. It all turned out perfectly fine though because I still have my passport in my possession!
Once we got to Nicaragua we went to Laguna de Apoyo (Apoyo Lagoon) and it was beautiful! I really felt like I was looking at a huge painting or something and not real life! Then we got to shop around for a little and Deanna bought a dress (it's a big deal for her!) After wards, we finally got to our hotel (which was not the hotel we thought we were going to stay at but was amazing anyway so we weren't complaining!) It was in a huge old colonial house and had tons of corridors and what not. We think we somehow ended up in the nicer rooms cause they had air conditioning, hot water, and no bugs! My bed was really comfy too and we figured out how to work the safe so our passports were safe the whole time!
The next day we went to the New Markey in Masaya and it was a world of it's own. We got there and there were tons of people everywhere trying to help you find stuff but probably wanting paid and beggars and street vendors and it was all overwhelming. We were also like the only northern americans there so we stood out like a sore thumb! We really felt like we shouldn't get out of the car, but once we got out and got over our shock and started shopping it was a really cool place! They had leather sandals for $5! I only got one pair though, because apparently 8 is a really big size here and not many people had it!
Then we went to an old fort that had been turned into a prison and toured the cells, which was really depressing. They had torture cells and cells where they was absolutely no light and all the cells held so many prisoners I'm not sure how they all fit. Apparently there was another level of the prison we didn't get to go to that was even deeper but still held human remains, I'm sure glad we didn't have to go to that part!
Then we went to Managua which I'm still not really sure why and got dropped off at this huge mall that had us feeling like we were in NYC in the States. All the stores were expensive and the food court had Quizno's, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. In Nicaragua there are like the rich places and the poor places and there's a huge difference between the two. After lunch we went to the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral which had been destroyed by an earthquake so we couldn't go in. In the new cathedral, there was a double wedding going on.
After that, we went back to our hotel and then went exploring down the road for awhile. None of us were really hungry so we left our tour group and found a little cafe with great smoothies and chocolate cake! The next morning we got a horse and carriage ride around Granada and then toured the little islands of Lake Nicaragua in a boat. While waiting on the boat we were ambushed by street vendors but they had a lot of cool stuff and we all spent too much money! It doesn't make you feel bad to buy from the street vendors though because you know they need it more than you do! They had cute keychains for $1 and all kinds of jewelry from $2-$6. I bought a necklace and they threw in a free bracelet! When we got back to our hotel two very nice ladies had set up camp outside selling beautiful shoes, I bought 2 pairs because they actually had my size! The ladies were so nice we couldn't help but love them and we wanted to get more so we looked for them the next day too!
The way back was pretty much hassle free. We got to the border at the same time as two public buses so because of that we had to get our bags searched and had to wait for all of them to get theirs searched first. We got our passports stamped right away and waited forever. Our driver said normally the agents don't make their passengers get their bags checked cause they come through so often but since the buses were there we had to do it too. The check was a joke we had to open our bags they guy peered inside and then said ok. They didn't even check the van to see if we left anything in it. I'm pretty sure Katrina's words were "I could've had a baby in there and they would have never known" and Yolanda was like "yeah, a baby with cocaine in it's mouth."
Our travel agent here at Veritas had originally told us we'd leave early morning and get back by 2 pm so Katrina, Deanna, and Yolanda were all planning on going to class in the afternoon (I don't have Monday classes) but we didn't end up leaving until noon and we got back at 11:30pm. According to my host family it shouldn't have taken nearly as long but oh well!
All in all, it was a great trip and pics are on facebook if you'd like to see!
hasta luego,
Chelsey
Monday, April 26, 2010
Montezuma
Hola!
This weekend we went on our last included CEA Excursion to Montezuma!
To get there we rode in the bus for almost 2 hours, had to wait on the ferry for almost 2 more, rode the ferry for about and hour and a half and then drove for about that much more! All in all, we were traveling for 8 hours! We left after class at 1 so we didn't get there until 8! We got to our hotel, checked in, and I got to be in a bungalow room with Emily! Our bungalow was pretty sweet, except for the animal droppings on the bed and in the shower....and the fact that there was no air conditioner and it was the hottest place I've ever been in my life! Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep between the heat, the howler monkeys the first night and the horrible storm the second night!
We went to dinner at a cool little pizza place and then since no one but me wanted to go back to the hotel, I went to the bar with the others. I ended up sitting outside on the beach with one of the other girls and it was a good time! The next morning we got up ate breakfast and walked to the Montezuma waterfall! It was quite a hike to get there but it was awesome! At this waterfall you could swim right under it and the pool it made was perfect for swimming and was so deep you could jump off the rocks from just about anywhere! We spent a lot of time there and I loved it! After the waterfall we headed into town, got lunch at the grocery store and then caught a bus and headed to RainSong, an animal sanctuary! There they had three baby howler monkeys we got to play with that had been orphaned...they were sooo cute! They also had a baby parrot that was adorable! Deanna, Kathleen, Claire, and I were the only ones that went but we were really glad we did! The bus ride there was pretty cool too because it was all locals and they all knew each other and were treating everyone like family! Since we weren't exactly sure where to get off several people helped us and one girl even told the driver to stop there for us! Once we were done and waiting on the bus stop we got to see several guys chop down a tree that was right beside a house by climbing up it (this is a straight palm like tree) and wrapping a rope around and then whacking it with a machete. It was an interesting experience as well! After that we went back and got in the hotel's pool, which was amazing!
The CEA advisor who went with us (Lisa) and our driver (Randall) and his friend (Leo) were there so we got to practice our Spanish and learn sayings!
We learned the equivalent for dude "mae" which guys use like every four words so it's really hard to understand, and that they call guys microwaves when they flirt with a girl all night and then ditch her (we learned this because Leo is a microwave.) Emily also learned how to say "check it" in spanish (asi es la vara.) It was a lot of fun! The next day we went to breakfast and then hung out in the pool again until lunch. It's hard to swim at the beach near our hotel because there are a lot of rocks, some of the people walked 20 minutes to a better beach but the waves were insane and there was a lot of seaweed and yucky stuff because of the crazy storm the night before. Then we got back on the ferry, and I thought the first ferry was big but this one was huge! We sat on the top deck and it started raining and the floor was flooded and we were getting soaked, so close to the end we finally decided to go inside and low and behold there were a ton of seats and there had been the whole time! These seats were cushioned and really nice and it was air conditioned in there. The whole time everyone on the top deck just assumed it was full down there and we were all wrong! We all got soaked anyway getting off the ferry and getting onto the bus so we all had to change on the bus so we wouldn't get all the seats wet! Pretty much everything we had with us was wet. I hung so much stuff up in my room to dry when we got back that I didn't have anywhere to put anything else! The rainy season has definitely begun...right now it's raining and it has been for hours!
Today, Deanna, Yolanda and I went to Mall San Pedro in order to use an ATM that would give us dollars. For some reason, we have to pay for our Nicaragua trip with dollars. I guess the colon-Nicaraguan money exchange rate is so messed up that they don't except colones to exchange there or something. So we got to the mall and found the ATM and had a crap ton of US money on us, I had $500 in my money belt because I was holding Deanna's for her too! We haven't seen US money for so long that it felt like play money, which was really weird! We also found a Taco Bell next to the mall and decided to go there for lunch! It was amazing and tasted just like back at home! Apparently Taco Bell has fries now so I ordered a "fiesta fry" for Yolanda cause we thought that was the fries with the meat and cheese and stuff on them but turns out that's just plain old fries! It was an interesting experience because at that Taco Bell instead of calling your number they call your name and when they asked for mine I told him and he was so confused. Chelsey is a really rare name here! I was expecting them to call my number because they have such problems with my name when I heard the guy say Chelsey? is a voice that was like what the heck is this name? It was pretty funny!
Anyway, all in all we had a good weekend and a good Monday!
Thursday I have my final for Intermediate1 Spanish and then Friday morning at 3:45 AM we're leaving for Nicaragua! We won't be back until late Monday afternoon so you probably won't hear from me until then or Tuesday!
Ciao chicos! (I know ciao is Italian but don't tell the ticos that, they think it's Spanish!)
~Chelsey
This weekend we went on our last included CEA Excursion to Montezuma!
To get there we rode in the bus for almost 2 hours, had to wait on the ferry for almost 2 more, rode the ferry for about and hour and a half and then drove for about that much more! All in all, we were traveling for 8 hours! We left after class at 1 so we didn't get there until 8! We got to our hotel, checked in, and I got to be in a bungalow room with Emily! Our bungalow was pretty sweet, except for the animal droppings on the bed and in the shower....and the fact that there was no air conditioner and it was the hottest place I've ever been in my life! Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep between the heat, the howler monkeys the first night and the horrible storm the second night!
We went to dinner at a cool little pizza place and then since no one but me wanted to go back to the hotel, I went to the bar with the others. I ended up sitting outside on the beach with one of the other girls and it was a good time! The next morning we got up ate breakfast and walked to the Montezuma waterfall! It was quite a hike to get there but it was awesome! At this waterfall you could swim right under it and the pool it made was perfect for swimming and was so deep you could jump off the rocks from just about anywhere! We spent a lot of time there and I loved it! After the waterfall we headed into town, got lunch at the grocery store and then caught a bus and headed to RainSong, an animal sanctuary! There they had three baby howler monkeys we got to play with that had been orphaned...they were sooo cute! They also had a baby parrot that was adorable! Deanna, Kathleen, Claire, and I were the only ones that went but we were really glad we did! The bus ride there was pretty cool too because it was all locals and they all knew each other and were treating everyone like family! Since we weren't exactly sure where to get off several people helped us and one girl even told the driver to stop there for us! Once we were done and waiting on the bus stop we got to see several guys chop down a tree that was right beside a house by climbing up it (this is a straight palm like tree) and wrapping a rope around and then whacking it with a machete. It was an interesting experience as well! After that we went back and got in the hotel's pool, which was amazing!
The CEA advisor who went with us (Lisa) and our driver (Randall) and his friend (Leo) were there so we got to practice our Spanish and learn sayings!
We learned the equivalent for dude "mae" which guys use like every four words so it's really hard to understand, and that they call guys microwaves when they flirt with a girl all night and then ditch her (we learned this because Leo is a microwave.) Emily also learned how to say "check it" in spanish (asi es la vara.) It was a lot of fun! The next day we went to breakfast and then hung out in the pool again until lunch. It's hard to swim at the beach near our hotel because there are a lot of rocks, some of the people walked 20 minutes to a better beach but the waves were insane and there was a lot of seaweed and yucky stuff because of the crazy storm the night before. Then we got back on the ferry, and I thought the first ferry was big but this one was huge! We sat on the top deck and it started raining and the floor was flooded and we were getting soaked, so close to the end we finally decided to go inside and low and behold there were a ton of seats and there had been the whole time! These seats were cushioned and really nice and it was air conditioned in there. The whole time everyone on the top deck just assumed it was full down there and we were all wrong! We all got soaked anyway getting off the ferry and getting onto the bus so we all had to change on the bus so we wouldn't get all the seats wet! Pretty much everything we had with us was wet. I hung so much stuff up in my room to dry when we got back that I didn't have anywhere to put anything else! The rainy season has definitely begun...right now it's raining and it has been for hours!
Today, Deanna, Yolanda and I went to Mall San Pedro in order to use an ATM that would give us dollars. For some reason, we have to pay for our Nicaragua trip with dollars. I guess the colon-Nicaraguan money exchange rate is so messed up that they don't except colones to exchange there or something. So we got to the mall and found the ATM and had a crap ton of US money on us, I had $500 in my money belt because I was holding Deanna's for her too! We haven't seen US money for so long that it felt like play money, which was really weird! We also found a Taco Bell next to the mall and decided to go there for lunch! It was amazing and tasted just like back at home! Apparently Taco Bell has fries now so I ordered a "fiesta fry" for Yolanda cause we thought that was the fries with the meat and cheese and stuff on them but turns out that's just plain old fries! It was an interesting experience because at that Taco Bell instead of calling your number they call your name and when they asked for mine I told him and he was so confused. Chelsey is a really rare name here! I was expecting them to call my number because they have such problems with my name when I heard the guy say Chelsey? is a voice that was like what the heck is this name? It was pretty funny!
Anyway, all in all we had a good weekend and a good Monday!
Thursday I have my final for Intermediate1 Spanish and then Friday morning at 3:45 AM we're leaving for Nicaragua! We won't be back until late Monday afternoon so you probably won't hear from me until then or Tuesday!
Ciao chicos! (I know ciao is Italian but don't tell the ticos that, they think it's Spanish!)
~Chelsey
Monday, April 19, 2010
Volcan Arenal
Hola amigos!
This weekend I went on my third CEA excursion to La Fortuna, Costa Rica to see the La Fortuna waterfall and Arenal Volcano! We stayed at Baldi Hot Springs Resort and it was amazing! We left San Jose a 7 am Saturday morning and made a quick stop in Zarcero, where there is a pretty church with a beautiful garden in front of it. Then, we went onto La Fortuna Waterfall! There were 500 some steps down to the waterfall but it was well worth it! We swam in a little part a little way away from the actual falls because it's dangerous to swim too close to the waterfall! I didn't want to it looked like it would hurt if it hit you! The water was absolutely freezing but once we were in for awhile it wasn't bad! The climb back up was killer but we made it, though my calves are killing me now! After the waterfall we ate lunch in the town of Fortuna and went and checked into our hotel! It was a resort so it was really nice! It was at a hot springs and they had 22 different pools with different temperatures! I couldn't stay in the hot springs very long because I felt way too hot but they had cool pools too! The hotel had a pretty nice view of the volcano, but we were disappointed that we were on the wrong side of it to see the red rocks coming down at night. Sunday morning we drove to the other side and could see the rocks coming down though! We could see the smoke from everywhere! It was so cool and I just kept looking, I couldn't believe I was looking at a huge volcano! Pictures are posted on facebook!
All in all, it was a great time! This coming weekend we're going to Montezuma which is a beach and a waterfall so expect another update next week!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
This weekend I went on my third CEA excursion to La Fortuna, Costa Rica to see the La Fortuna waterfall and Arenal Volcano! We stayed at Baldi Hot Springs Resort and it was amazing! We left San Jose a 7 am Saturday morning and made a quick stop in Zarcero, where there is a pretty church with a beautiful garden in front of it. Then, we went onto La Fortuna Waterfall! There were 500 some steps down to the waterfall but it was well worth it! We swam in a little part a little way away from the actual falls because it's dangerous to swim too close to the waterfall! I didn't want to it looked like it would hurt if it hit you! The water was absolutely freezing but once we were in for awhile it wasn't bad! The climb back up was killer but we made it, though my calves are killing me now! After the waterfall we ate lunch in the town of Fortuna and went and checked into our hotel! It was a resort so it was really nice! It was at a hot springs and they had 22 different pools with different temperatures! I couldn't stay in the hot springs very long because I felt way too hot but they had cool pools too! The hotel had a pretty nice view of the volcano, but we were disappointed that we were on the wrong side of it to see the red rocks coming down at night. Sunday morning we drove to the other side and could see the rocks coming down though! We could see the smoke from everywhere! It was so cool and I just kept looking, I couldn't believe I was looking at a huge volcano! Pictures are posted on facebook!
All in all, it was a great time! This coming weekend we're going to Montezuma which is a beach and a waterfall so expect another update next week!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Isla Tortuga and Volcan Poas
Hola!
This weekend we had our first two official (planned for us) CEA excursions! On Saturday we went to Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island). We had to be at the CEA office to leave at 5:50 AM! When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find a charter bus waiting on us! It had air conditioning and comfortable seats and even a movie on the way home! We were super excited because we were expecting the Tico Viajero Expresso (the travel agency on campus) van that we took throughout Holy Week that has no air conditioning and I have to sit in the backwards facing seat every time with Deanna because we're the only two that don't get carsick facing backwards. Anyway, then the bus picked up a lot of other people and we went to a place and ate a yummy breakfast, then rode the bus for about 2 hours and then got on a boat! The boat ride to the island was about 2 hours as well but it was a big boat and had chairs out on deck we sat in and we got to see dolphins! We got to the island and swam and laid on the beach, had a wonderful lunch, and then took the boat and the bus back to San Jose and got to see the sunset on the boat.
This morning, we had to be there at seven and rode for an hour and a half to Volcan Poas (Poas Volcano) stopping at a coffee plantation for 20 minutes along the way. I was super excited to see my first volcano, but my excitement came to an end when it started raining. By the time we got to the volcano it was so cloudy all you could see was a wall of white. It literally looked like you could just walk into nothingness. They said there was also a lagoon at the park, which we hiked uphill forever to and turns out, we couldn't see it either! The park was pretty though, I just really wanted to see the volcano! The little coffee shop did have an amazing donut that I got though! And the gift shop had Harley Davidson t-shirts, I thought that was weird but they were all huge and cost $51, needless to say Dad didn't get one! After the volcano, we went to Colinas de Poas Canopy Tour (Hills of Poas Zipline!) We got to do another zip lining tour and it was amazing! Although it was misting rain the whole time, it was a lot of fun! The other zip line we went to in Monteverde was more adventure like because it had the tarzan swing and the rappel and a swinging bride and the superman style but this one was a lot more calm and there was a 79-year-old lady in our group who did the entire thing! When you zipline you wear gloves and there's a leather piece on your dominant hand that allows you to stop yourself, at Monteverde we had to stop ourselves on every line but here they had automatic stoppers that you hit and stopped you but you still sometimes had to slow yourself down a bit. Since the lines were wet, my glove was not working at all to slow me down so thank goodness they had the stoppers! After zip lining we had an amazing lunch, and then returned home!
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend and I really don't want to go back to classes tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
This weekend we had our first two official (planned for us) CEA excursions! On Saturday we went to Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island). We had to be at the CEA office to leave at 5:50 AM! When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find a charter bus waiting on us! It had air conditioning and comfortable seats and even a movie on the way home! We were super excited because we were expecting the Tico Viajero Expresso (the travel agency on campus) van that we took throughout Holy Week that has no air conditioning and I have to sit in the backwards facing seat every time with Deanna because we're the only two that don't get carsick facing backwards. Anyway, then the bus picked up a lot of other people and we went to a place and ate a yummy breakfast, then rode the bus for about 2 hours and then got on a boat! The boat ride to the island was about 2 hours as well but it was a big boat and had chairs out on deck we sat in and we got to see dolphins! We got to the island and swam and laid on the beach, had a wonderful lunch, and then took the boat and the bus back to San Jose and got to see the sunset on the boat.
This morning, we had to be there at seven and rode for an hour and a half to Volcan Poas (Poas Volcano) stopping at a coffee plantation for 20 minutes along the way. I was super excited to see my first volcano, but my excitement came to an end when it started raining. By the time we got to the volcano it was so cloudy all you could see was a wall of white. It literally looked like you could just walk into nothingness. They said there was also a lagoon at the park, which we hiked uphill forever to and turns out, we couldn't see it either! The park was pretty though, I just really wanted to see the volcano! The little coffee shop did have an amazing donut that I got though! And the gift shop had Harley Davidson t-shirts, I thought that was weird but they were all huge and cost $51, needless to say Dad didn't get one! After the volcano, we went to Colinas de Poas Canopy Tour (Hills of Poas Zipline!) We got to do another zip lining tour and it was amazing! Although it was misting rain the whole time, it was a lot of fun! The other zip line we went to in Monteverde was more adventure like because it had the tarzan swing and the rappel and a swinging bride and the superman style but this one was a lot more calm and there was a 79-year-old lady in our group who did the entire thing! When you zipline you wear gloves and there's a leather piece on your dominant hand that allows you to stop yourself, at Monteverde we had to stop ourselves on every line but here they had automatic stoppers that you hit and stopped you but you still sometimes had to slow yourself down a bit. Since the lines were wet, my glove was not working at all to slow me down so thank goodness they had the stoppers! After zip lining we had an amazing lunch, and then returned home!
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend and I really don't want to go back to classes tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Semana Santa
Hola!
I've just got back from a 10 day long adventure during Semana Santa! Semana Santa here is the Holy Week before Easter. Pretty much everyone uses it for vacation, so we did too! As soon as class got over last Friday we left for Puerto Viejo! It's a really cool little beach town on the Caribbean side. We went to this really beautiful beach and there weren't even that many people there! The town also had lots of cool (and cheap!) souvenir shops and a really amazing ice cream shop where they had pumpkin ice cream! We also went to Cahuita National Park where we got to snorkel! I thought it was fun but after Deanna saw a shark I was done! I didn't see it but I saw lots of cool fish! Unfortunatley, Holly's mom is the only one who took her camera on the boat and it later was either stolen or lost so I have no pictures of the adventure. We were in Puerto Viejo from Friday to Monday and Monday morning early we left for Tortuguero! We were told all the places we were going were beach towns so we were pleasantly surprised to find Tortuguero was more of a jungle adventure! I probably would have never decided to go there on my own (I'm sure it was expensive) but it was included in our holy week package! Tortuguero is an island and there are no roads, so we had to take a boat to get there and to get around while we were there. We stayed at a really nice resort called Evergreen and all our meals were included, and they were delicious! They also had a really cool turtle shaped pool with a waterfall but I didn't get to swim because the pool closed early and we didn't have time. Monday night we went to the turtle museum because Tortuguero is one of the main turtle nesting spots here, too bad nesting season is in July :( But we saw where they normally lay their eggs and a video on them. Tuesday morning we got up early and had a boat tour down the canals and saw lots of cool animals and plants. Then we had lunch and had a short (way too short!) walking tour of the jungle. It was really cool though because our guide took some amazing pictures for us, Yolanda and I went with the English guide because we wanted to learn and didn't think we'd catch it all in Spanish, and lucked out with a good photographer for our guide! After that we had a packed car ride back to San Jose where we spent the night in our home stays and left Wednesday morning for Manuel Antonio! The hotel there was also nice and had a pool that I actually swam in! There, Kathleen and I went to Manuel Antonio National Park and saw a bunch of monkeys and a snake that had just eaten a frog. We went to the beach too, but there were so many people we didn't stay long. They also had lots of souvenir shops there and Kathleen and I found these really cool indian wrap dresses that you can wear a billion different ways! Then, we left Manuel Antonio for Tamarindo, quite possibly our least favorite spot of the trip. We really didn't like our hotel there, it wasn't very clean and was infested with ants and lizards. The shower was so nasty we didn't use it. The pool was very nice though and we spent most of the day at it, then went to the beach to watch a beautiful sunset! We came back this morning and unfortunately both Holly and Kathleen woke up sick. They think it must have been the cookies they ate at Subway last night because that's the only thing they both ate, I felt really bad for them because they had to suffer though an almost six hour long car ride in the crazy heat with no air conditioning. Hopefully they'll feel better soon!
New pics are up, check them out!
Chelsey
I've just got back from a 10 day long adventure during Semana Santa! Semana Santa here is the Holy Week before Easter. Pretty much everyone uses it for vacation, so we did too! As soon as class got over last Friday we left for Puerto Viejo! It's a really cool little beach town on the Caribbean side. We went to this really beautiful beach and there weren't even that many people there! The town also had lots of cool (and cheap!) souvenir shops and a really amazing ice cream shop where they had pumpkin ice cream! We also went to Cahuita National Park where we got to snorkel! I thought it was fun but after Deanna saw a shark I was done! I didn't see it but I saw lots of cool fish! Unfortunatley, Holly's mom is the only one who took her camera on the boat and it later was either stolen or lost so I have no pictures of the adventure. We were in Puerto Viejo from Friday to Monday and Monday morning early we left for Tortuguero! We were told all the places we were going were beach towns so we were pleasantly surprised to find Tortuguero was more of a jungle adventure! I probably would have never decided to go there on my own (I'm sure it was expensive) but it was included in our holy week package! Tortuguero is an island and there are no roads, so we had to take a boat to get there and to get around while we were there. We stayed at a really nice resort called Evergreen and all our meals were included, and they were delicious! They also had a really cool turtle shaped pool with a waterfall but I didn't get to swim because the pool closed early and we didn't have time. Monday night we went to the turtle museum because Tortuguero is one of the main turtle nesting spots here, too bad nesting season is in July :( But we saw where they normally lay their eggs and a video on them. Tuesday morning we got up early and had a boat tour down the canals and saw lots of cool animals and plants. Then we had lunch and had a short (way too short!) walking tour of the jungle. It was really cool though because our guide took some amazing pictures for us, Yolanda and I went with the English guide because we wanted to learn and didn't think we'd catch it all in Spanish, and lucked out with a good photographer for our guide! After that we had a packed car ride back to San Jose where we spent the night in our home stays and left Wednesday morning for Manuel Antonio! The hotel there was also nice and had a pool that I actually swam in! There, Kathleen and I went to Manuel Antonio National Park and saw a bunch of monkeys and a snake that had just eaten a frog. We went to the beach too, but there were so many people we didn't stay long. They also had lots of souvenir shops there and Kathleen and I found these really cool indian wrap dresses that you can wear a billion different ways! Then, we left Manuel Antonio for Tamarindo, quite possibly our least favorite spot of the trip. We really didn't like our hotel there, it wasn't very clean and was infested with ants and lizards. The shower was so nasty we didn't use it. The pool was very nice though and we spent most of the day at it, then went to the beach to watch a beautiful sunset! We came back this morning and unfortunately both Holly and Kathleen woke up sick. They think it must have been the cookies they ate at Subway last night because that's the only thing they both ate, I felt really bad for them because they had to suffer though an almost six hour long car ride in the crazy heat with no air conditioning. Hopefully they'll feel better soon!
New pics are up, check them out!
Chelsey
Thursday, March 25, 2010
I hate ATMs
Hola!
I'm posting a quick update to let you guys know that there won't be any updates for the next 10 days or so. Tomorrow after class we're leaving because it's the start of Semana Santa (Holy Week) The whole town of San Jose virtually shuts down I guess and everyone travels so our program arranged a trip for us! We'll be going to two beaches on the Caribbean side, coming back and spending a night at our homestay then going to two beaches on the Pacific side! We'll get to see monkeys and learn to surf and snorkel and all sorts of fun stuff! Expect lots and lots of pictures to be up the first week of April!
As to the title of this post, I really do hate ATMs!
They have an ATM not too far away that's part of a bank, but I hate to use it because it's just like this little booth off the side of the street clearly marked that's it an ATM. I feel like when I walk out of it I'm putting a target on my back saying "Rob me I have my credit card and a bunch of cash!" I figured out a solution to this problem, there's an ATM at the school. Well today the ATM at the school worked perfectly well for Kathleen then told me "Insufficient Funds, would you like to continue?" Knowing I had plenty in my account to cover it I was confused and hit no. We think maybe the machine had insufficient funds, but I had to go to the scary ATM which wouldn't give me as much as I wanted but at least now I have cash for the week! I'm going to try to use the one at the school again tomorrow before we leave, maybe it'll work better because I won't be getting very much. I'm just scared of running out of money while we're gone! It's a very unlikely possibility, but you never know! :)
Anyway, now I should probably review for my final in my Spanish class tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
me
I'm posting a quick update to let you guys know that there won't be any updates for the next 10 days or so. Tomorrow after class we're leaving because it's the start of Semana Santa (Holy Week) The whole town of San Jose virtually shuts down I guess and everyone travels so our program arranged a trip for us! We'll be going to two beaches on the Caribbean side, coming back and spending a night at our homestay then going to two beaches on the Pacific side! We'll get to see monkeys and learn to surf and snorkel and all sorts of fun stuff! Expect lots and lots of pictures to be up the first week of April!
As to the title of this post, I really do hate ATMs!
They have an ATM not too far away that's part of a bank, but I hate to use it because it's just like this little booth off the side of the street clearly marked that's it an ATM. I feel like when I walk out of it I'm putting a target on my back saying "Rob me I have my credit card and a bunch of cash!" I figured out a solution to this problem, there's an ATM at the school. Well today the ATM at the school worked perfectly well for Kathleen then told me "Insufficient Funds, would you like to continue?" Knowing I had plenty in my account to cover it I was confused and hit no. We think maybe the machine had insufficient funds, but I had to go to the scary ATM which wouldn't give me as much as I wanted but at least now I have cash for the week! I'm going to try to use the one at the school again tomorrow before we leave, maybe it'll work better because I won't be getting very much. I'm just scared of running out of money while we're gone! It's a very unlikely possibility, but you never know! :)
Anyway, now I should probably review for my final in my Spanish class tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
me
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
the weekend and class
Hola!
This weekend was a blast! We had lots of fun at the International Art Festival and on Sunday my host parents took me and Deanna to Cartago. First we went to eat at this really cool little place, I don't remember the name but it had an AMAZING view (pics are on facebook check them out!) Then we went to the town of Cartago which is famous for it's huge church which was beautiful. Then they bought us ice cream at this little homemade ice cream shop there. It was sour cream and strawberry which they're known for and it was surprisingly delicious!
Tomorrow I have my last presentation for this Spanish class, which is telling how to make something! My host mom and the maid picked picadillos de chayote for me to make. I went and bought the ingredients and was excited about making it but figured we'd make it after supper because I have to take it to school tomorrow. When I was finished eating supper, Mari (the maid) told me to come to the kitchen and to my surprise she already had it made. I was a little upset because I couldn't figure out how to explain to her that I was supposed to make it, or at least help! She had my host mom explain the recipe to me because I had to write it using commands and now it's made and I didn't have to do a thing.
I feel so lazy I never get to do anything and all they do is feed me. I've ate so much in the last couple days I think I'm going to explode. I haven't really even needed to eat lunch all week because I'm never hungry. They just keep shoving food at me and then when we think we can't possibly eat anymore they bring out a surprise dessert! It's a bit ridiculous but I now understand why the entire family is so huge. Especially my host mom, all she does is eat, sleep, and sit in her chair. Don't get me wrong though, they're very nice and generous people.
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
This weekend was a blast! We had lots of fun at the International Art Festival and on Sunday my host parents took me and Deanna to Cartago. First we went to eat at this really cool little place, I don't remember the name but it had an AMAZING view (pics are on facebook check them out!) Then we went to the town of Cartago which is famous for it's huge church which was beautiful. Then they bought us ice cream at this little homemade ice cream shop there. It was sour cream and strawberry which they're known for and it was surprisingly delicious!
Tomorrow I have my last presentation for this Spanish class, which is telling how to make something! My host mom and the maid picked picadillos de chayote for me to make. I went and bought the ingredients and was excited about making it but figured we'd make it after supper because I have to take it to school tomorrow. When I was finished eating supper, Mari (the maid) told me to come to the kitchen and to my surprise she already had it made. I was a little upset because I couldn't figure out how to explain to her that I was supposed to make it, or at least help! She had my host mom explain the recipe to me because I had to write it using commands and now it's made and I didn't have to do a thing.
I feel so lazy I never get to do anything and all they do is feed me. I've ate so much in the last couple days I think I'm going to explode. I haven't really even needed to eat lunch all week because I'm never hungry. They just keep shoving food at me and then when we think we can't possibly eat anymore they bring out a surprise dessert! It's a bit ridiculous but I now understand why the entire family is so huge. Especially my host mom, all she does is eat, sleep, and sit in her chair. Don't get me wrong though, they're very nice and generous people.
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Friday, March 19, 2010
Amusement Park & Festival of International Art
Hola!
Today was an amazing day! First of all, for class we got to go to the Amusement Park! Well we got to go to the antique village at the amusement park and do a scavenger hunt for stuff about the country but my class got to go with the other classes so I had Holly, Emily, and Yolanda in my group! After we finished we had a little time left and Holly and I really wanted to ride the roller coaster, we had twenty minutes so we figured we had time. We got all the way on the ride and they asked for tickets, which of course we didn't have so we ran to the front, got tickets (it's like the carnival you get a wristband or tickets per ride) and got to ride it just in time! It was pretty cool and had a couple of upside down loops but was really short!
Afterwards, I came home to find that I now have internet at my homestay! After lunch, Emily, Holly, Yolanda, Deanna, and I went to FIA (Festival of International Arts) and met up with Holly's tico friends! Her friend Andrea (who speaks English) helped us take the bus there and showed us around the park called Sabana which is Costa Rica's largest park and also where the festival is at! We got to see a lot of cool performers, including Romeo and Juliet in Spanish/Italian (we couldn't understand but figured out it was Romeo and Juliet) but the cool part was for most of the play the performers were on really tall stilts and dancing and running and everything! There was also a concert which we sat by a tree and listened too, there were so many people we couldn't see but we had fun talking! I mostly listened but Holly's tico friends like to joke around and we had a lot of fun.
At the festival, I had my first churro and it was really good but the I have discovered the best ice cream treat in the world! They take a pineapple, cut the top off and hollow it out and fill the bottom with pineapple chunks and banana chunks and then put a scoop each of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream and then chocolate and whip cream and a little umbrella sticking out of the pineapple! It was AMAZING! Pictures will be posted as soon as I get them from Emily!
Anyway, I'm going to bed now and I do not have to be anywhere at 8 tomorrow so I can sleep in for the first time in 3 weeks! :)
Today was an amazing day! First of all, for class we got to go to the Amusement Park! Well we got to go to the antique village at the amusement park and do a scavenger hunt for stuff about the country but my class got to go with the other classes so I had Holly, Emily, and Yolanda in my group! After we finished we had a little time left and Holly and I really wanted to ride the roller coaster, we had twenty minutes so we figured we had time. We got all the way on the ride and they asked for tickets, which of course we didn't have so we ran to the front, got tickets (it's like the carnival you get a wristband or tickets per ride) and got to ride it just in time! It was pretty cool and had a couple of upside down loops but was really short!
Afterwards, I came home to find that I now have internet at my homestay! After lunch, Emily, Holly, Yolanda, Deanna, and I went to FIA (Festival of International Arts) and met up with Holly's tico friends! Her friend Andrea (who speaks English) helped us take the bus there and showed us around the park called Sabana which is Costa Rica's largest park and also where the festival is at! We got to see a lot of cool performers, including Romeo and Juliet in Spanish/Italian (we couldn't understand but figured out it was Romeo and Juliet) but the cool part was for most of the play the performers were on really tall stilts and dancing and running and everything! There was also a concert which we sat by a tree and listened too, there were so many people we couldn't see but we had fun talking! I mostly listened but Holly's tico friends like to joke around and we had a lot of fun.
At the festival, I had my first churro and it was really good but the I have discovered the best ice cream treat in the world! They take a pineapple, cut the top off and hollow it out and fill the bottom with pineapple chunks and banana chunks and then put a scoop each of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream and then chocolate and whip cream and a little umbrella sticking out of the pineapple! It was AMAZING! Pictures will be posted as soon as I get them from Emily!
Anyway, I'm going to bed now and I do not have to be anywhere at 8 tomorrow so I can sleep in for the first time in 3 weeks! :)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Liga vs. Saprissa
Hola!
I went to my first ever professional soccer game last night and it was a blast! The two teams playing (Liga and Saprissa) are the two biggest rivals in Costa Rica so I was expecting an intense game, they take their soccer very seriously here! There were a ton of people there. The game was in Saprissa's stadium but Holly, Kathleen, and I and a few other people decided to support Liga! We bought jerseys for less than $9 it was awesome! Everyone else rooted for Saprissa, which I almost rooted for just because their jerseys are purple, but all my teachers and everyone says Liga is way better so I'm wearing my red and black Liga jersey today! Unfortunatley, Liga lost but it was a good game! Saprissa only won by 1 goal, which happened to be the only goal of the game. During halftime there was a fireworks show that was way better than Robinson's fourth of July show ever thought about being! Plus they set them off from right outside the stadium and we were sooo close! When the Saprissa players came out some of the fans set off fireworks from the stands too. I told Deanna I loved fireworks and she said "Me too, especially ones that disregard public safety!" Everyone was singing chants and we really wished that we knew the words! Apparently there are two groups of the hard core fans who have to be separately bused out of the stadium because they get so vicious but I didn't see that last night. Most of the crowd was pretty calm, we figured out it was because both teams weren't playing very good so there really wasn't much to get mad about? I don't know they looked pretty awesome to me. Also, Saprissa was winning and the majority of the crowd was rooting for them! I was glad it didn't get violent because I was afraid to be wearing the losing teams jersey if it did! Walking back to our bus was a little scary because there were police officers everywhere, on horses and on foot and some of them had on like full body armor and were carrying big sticks, it was intense. I'm pretty sure Emily took a picture, if she did I'll steal it from her facebook! I'll have pictures up on facebook hopefully tomorrow! (I still don't have internet they said Tuesday now they're saying tomorrow but with tico time this could mean Wednesday, ugh!)
I'm staying here in San Jose with my host family this weekend, Kathleen is going with the winter group to Puerto Viejo but we're going there during Semana Santa and I've already paid so I'm not paying to go again. I think Ileana and Carlos are going to take me to the mall on Saturday, not sure and to Cartago on Sunday where there's a really pretty old church and apparently a really good ice cream shop! There's also a huge world art festival going on here in San Jose this weekend so we're going to that as well!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
I went to my first ever professional soccer game last night and it was a blast! The two teams playing (Liga and Saprissa) are the two biggest rivals in Costa Rica so I was expecting an intense game, they take their soccer very seriously here! There were a ton of people there. The game was in Saprissa's stadium but Holly, Kathleen, and I and a few other people decided to support Liga! We bought jerseys for less than $9 it was awesome! Everyone else rooted for Saprissa, which I almost rooted for just because their jerseys are purple, but all my teachers and everyone says Liga is way better so I'm wearing my red and black Liga jersey today! Unfortunatley, Liga lost but it was a good game! Saprissa only won by 1 goal, which happened to be the only goal of the game. During halftime there was a fireworks show that was way better than Robinson's fourth of July show ever thought about being! Plus they set them off from right outside the stadium and we were sooo close! When the Saprissa players came out some of the fans set off fireworks from the stands too. I told Deanna I loved fireworks and she said "Me too, especially ones that disregard public safety!" Everyone was singing chants and we really wished that we knew the words! Apparently there are two groups of the hard core fans who have to be separately bused out of the stadium because they get so vicious but I didn't see that last night. Most of the crowd was pretty calm, we figured out it was because both teams weren't playing very good so there really wasn't much to get mad about? I don't know they looked pretty awesome to me. Also, Saprissa was winning and the majority of the crowd was rooting for them! I was glad it didn't get violent because I was afraid to be wearing the losing teams jersey if it did! Walking back to our bus was a little scary because there were police officers everywhere, on horses and on foot and some of them had on like full body armor and were carrying big sticks, it was intense. I'm pretty sure Emily took a picture, if she did I'll steal it from her facebook! I'll have pictures up on facebook hopefully tomorrow! (I still don't have internet they said Tuesday now they're saying tomorrow but with tico time this could mean Wednesday, ugh!)
I'm staying here in San Jose with my host family this weekend, Kathleen is going with the winter group to Puerto Viejo but we're going there during Semana Santa and I've already paid so I'm not paying to go again. I think Ileana and Carlos are going to take me to the mall on Saturday, not sure and to Cartago on Sunday where there's a really pretty old church and apparently a really good ice cream shop! There's also a huge world art festival going on here in San Jose this weekend so we're going to that as well!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monteverde
Hola!
I went zip lining this weekend and it was AMAZING! We went to this place called 100% Aventura and it was so cool! They had 9 lines, a rappel, and a tarzan swing and we got to do the last (and longest line) superman style! It was sooo much fun! I was terrified of the tarzan swing and the superman style one but after I did it, it was amazing! There are videos and pictures on facebook! Anyway it was a nearly 5 hour bus ride to Monteverde from San Jose and the trip up was uneventful except for the part where we overslept and almost missed the bus. That was probably my fault as Kathleen came home and couldn't get her key to work at 2 and I didn't want to wake up at 4 to wake her up so she could take a shower so I gave her my alarm.....didn't think that it wasn't a very loud alarm and it didn't wake her up. So at 5:30 Emily and Yolanda were yelling outside our window (we were supposed to be at the bus station at 6) So we got dressed and ready in record time and ran down the road and Emily caught a taxi and we got to the station...only it was the wrong one! But a nice tico that worked there helped us get another cab and explained to him exactly where we needed to go! So we made the bus and all was well! We got to the hotel and explored the small town then ate dinner at the Tree House restaurant which is a restaurant built around a tree! It was kind of expensive but I'd found it a long time ago on a yahoo list of the coolest restaurants so we decided to go!
The ride back was more eventful. At the stop at the airport a couple got off and I wasn't paying much attention until I heard yelling in Spanish and some lady cussing out the driver in English and realized it was our bus that had the problem. Apparently the lady had put her bags under the bus on the driver's side which I guess by law here can't be opened until the final stop so if you're getting off before then you have to put it on the other side. I'm pretty sure that lady didn't speak Spanish and said she was going to San Jose so they put them on that side since the last stop was San Jose-the airport isn't actually in San Jose. Anyway she got the police involved and got her bags, holding us up for at least 30 minutes. Then we got back and it was dark and all the taxi drivers line up and then take you to where they parked because there's like no parking really close and we got a pirate taxi so we refused to get in because it was a black car and legit taxis here are red with a yellow triangle on the door. So we finally found a taxi driver and on the way back there were a ton of drunks and prostitutes and crazy people in the street and the driver almost hit a girl and then some guy jumped in front of the taxi and started juggling oranges but he wasn't good so they kept landing on the taxi. Finally, we all got home safe and sound! Suffice it to say, I never care to see downtown San Jose at night ever again!
All in all, it was a fun trip despite the little mishaps!
Love,
Chelsey
I went zip lining this weekend and it was AMAZING! We went to this place called 100% Aventura and it was so cool! They had 9 lines, a rappel, and a tarzan swing and we got to do the last (and longest line) superman style! It was sooo much fun! I was terrified of the tarzan swing and the superman style one but after I did it, it was amazing! There are videos and pictures on facebook! Anyway it was a nearly 5 hour bus ride to Monteverde from San Jose and the trip up was uneventful except for the part where we overslept and almost missed the bus. That was probably my fault as Kathleen came home and couldn't get her key to work at 2 and I didn't want to wake up at 4 to wake her up so she could take a shower so I gave her my alarm.....didn't think that it wasn't a very loud alarm and it didn't wake her up. So at 5:30 Emily and Yolanda were yelling outside our window (we were supposed to be at the bus station at 6) So we got dressed and ready in record time and ran down the road and Emily caught a taxi and we got to the station...only it was the wrong one! But a nice tico that worked there helped us get another cab and explained to him exactly where we needed to go! So we made the bus and all was well! We got to the hotel and explored the small town then ate dinner at the Tree House restaurant which is a restaurant built around a tree! It was kind of expensive but I'd found it a long time ago on a yahoo list of the coolest restaurants so we decided to go!
The ride back was more eventful. At the stop at the airport a couple got off and I wasn't paying much attention until I heard yelling in Spanish and some lady cussing out the driver in English and realized it was our bus that had the problem. Apparently the lady had put her bags under the bus on the driver's side which I guess by law here can't be opened until the final stop so if you're getting off before then you have to put it on the other side. I'm pretty sure that lady didn't speak Spanish and said she was going to San Jose so they put them on that side since the last stop was San Jose-the airport isn't actually in San Jose. Anyway she got the police involved and got her bags, holding us up for at least 30 minutes. Then we got back and it was dark and all the taxi drivers line up and then take you to where they parked because there's like no parking really close and we got a pirate taxi so we refused to get in because it was a black car and legit taxis here are red with a yellow triangle on the door. So we finally found a taxi driver and on the way back there were a ton of drunks and prostitutes and crazy people in the street and the driver almost hit a girl and then some guy jumped in front of the taxi and started juggling oranges but he wasn't good so they kept landing on the taxi. Finally, we all got home safe and sound! Suffice it to say, I never care to see downtown San Jose at night ever again!
All in all, it was a fun trip despite the little mishaps!
Love,
Chelsey
Friday, March 12, 2010
Grey's night!
Hola!
I hope everyone is having a good week! Mine has been great! Last night, our host family let us have Holly and Emily over for dinner and a Grey's Anatomy party! Ileana's brother came over too and we all had a lot of fun! Unfortunatley the Grey's that came on at 8 was a rerun, so Ileana's brother took Holly and Emily home and then at 9 a new Grey's came on! I love it how they have it in English here! Anyway, last night was a lot of fun! Tomorrow, we're going to Monteverde and zip lining! I'm super excited! We have to take the bus at like 6 am tomorrow and we'll get there at like 10, then we're leaving again at 6 on Sunday morning but they said that'll be plenty of time! Apparently, Monteverde is the best zip line in Costa Rica, we're going on another one later but it's in a different type of forest and apparently isn't as cool! Plus, Luis got us a good deal! I'm really excited but I'm not too sure about how the whole bus at 6 is gonna work out! I guess we'll find out tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
I hope everyone is having a good week! Mine has been great! Last night, our host family let us have Holly and Emily over for dinner and a Grey's Anatomy party! Ileana's brother came over too and we all had a lot of fun! Unfortunatley the Grey's that came on at 8 was a rerun, so Ileana's brother took Holly and Emily home and then at 9 a new Grey's came on! I love it how they have it in English here! Anyway, last night was a lot of fun! Tomorrow, we're going to Monteverde and zip lining! I'm super excited! We have to take the bus at like 6 am tomorrow and we'll get there at like 10, then we're leaving again at 6 on Sunday morning but they said that'll be plenty of time! Apparently, Monteverde is the best zip line in Costa Rica, we're going on another one later but it's in a different type of forest and apparently isn't as cool! Plus, Luis got us a good deal! I'm really excited but I'm not too sure about how the whole bus at 6 is gonna work out! I guess we'll find out tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
Chelsey
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Host Family Update
Hola! Well not much new has happened in the last couple of days. Yesterday after class we went to the National Museum and the Artisan Market, which was really cool! I wanted to buy everything! Also, yesterday our host mom asked us to stay with her for the full four months instead of just the one like we were supposed to. We couldn't say no, they're wonderful people! Our only real problem is they don't have the internet, but they said they'll get it so that's great! Hopefully, we'll have it soon and then you all will get much more regular updates!
Hasta Luego,
Chelsey
Hasta Luego,
Chelsey
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Jaco
Hola!
We just got back from Jaco Beach and it was awesome! It was about a two hour bus ride and we stayed at a condo that someone from CEA owns! All the guide books said it was like the worst beach in Costa Rica but we all really liked it! Now we're looking forward to the next beach we go to because it can only get better from here! I managed to get back without getting sunburnt, but I don't have much of a tan either, oh well! Pictures are posted on facebook....
here's the link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150847&id=557884442&l=1dfebc0ecc
hasta luego!
We just got back from Jaco Beach and it was awesome! It was about a two hour bus ride and we stayed at a condo that someone from CEA owns! All the guide books said it was like the worst beach in Costa Rica but we all really liked it! Now we're looking forward to the next beach we go to because it can only get better from here! I managed to get back without getting sunburnt, but I don't have much of a tan either, oh well! Pictures are posted on facebook....
here's the link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=150847&id=557884442&l=1dfebc0ecc
hasta luego!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The beginning of class
Hola!
Classes have begun! I'm doing pretty good in my class and I understand my teacher perfectly! Probably because I'm in Spanish 102 for the third time! I have a problem of putting everything in present tense when I speak so they think I don't know the past tense. It's just hard for me to think when I'm speaking! The weather is still amazing and I'm loving it! This weekend, we're going to the beach! Luis in the international office found us a hotel for $15 a night and the bus ride will be like $6! I'm super-excited. Also, next weekend we might be able to do a service trip next weekend if they'll let us come late after class, it's similar to Habitat and we'll be building houses, I really hope we can go! My host mom also wants to take me and Kathleen to a church she says is really pretty! I'm having a great time and I'd write more but my laptop is about to die!
TTYL
Chelsey
Classes have begun! I'm doing pretty good in my class and I understand my teacher perfectly! Probably because I'm in Spanish 102 for the third time! I have a problem of putting everything in present tense when I speak so they think I don't know the past tense. It's just hard for me to think when I'm speaking! The weather is still amazing and I'm loving it! This weekend, we're going to the beach! Luis in the international office found us a hotel for $15 a night and the bus ride will be like $6! I'm super-excited. Also, next weekend we might be able to do a service trip next weekend if they'll let us come late after class, it's similar to Habitat and we'll be building houses, I really hope we can go! My host mom also wants to take me and Kathleen to a church she says is really pretty! I'm having a great time and I'd write more but my laptop is about to die!
TTYL
Chelsey
Monday, March 1, 2010
Orientation
Hola!
Today has been good! We had orientation this morning and took our placement tests. I think mine went ok, I probably won't get the level I was in at USI but I'm okay with that. After one month, I will pick up a lot and then I'll learn much faster! I finally got my money exchanged today and we're going to go to a store later called pequenos mundos which apparently has everything for really cheap! yay! I feel rich now but I really still don't have that much more money, it just looks like it! I find out later today what class I'm placed in and classes start tomorrow, I'm excited!
Today has been good! We had orientation this morning and took our placement tests. I think mine went ok, I probably won't get the level I was in at USI but I'm okay with that. After one month, I will pick up a lot and then I'll learn much faster! I finally got my money exchanged today and we're going to go to a store later called pequenos mundos which apparently has everything for really cheap! yay! I feel rich now but I really still don't have that much more money, it just looks like it! I find out later today what class I'm placed in and classes start tomorrow, I'm excited!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Hola!
Well I made it to Costa Rica! I had a few issues at the airport, but it all worked out! The flight from Chicago was a little late getting to Charlotte and I just made it to the gate in time to board, then they told me I couldn't board because I was staying longer than 90 days and I didn't have a visa. Finally, they let me on the plane but said I could be sent right back if they asked me when I was coming back. Fortunately, no one asked and I made it through immigrations and customs with no problem! Everyone here is really laid back and all we have to do is leave the country for 72 hours and come back in after 90 days, they said students normally go to Nicaragua or Panana anyway and I'm totally up for that so it's no problem!
Everyone is really nice and I'm having a great time. My host family has a maid that pretty much does everything for us so I'm a little weirded out by that, I like doing things myself :) Our host mom and dad are really nice! I don't remember who joked about my gift for them being chocolate and said I'd probably give it to a diabetic, but they were right. She still likes it and they thought it was very good! They've been to the US and have pictures from when they met Jimmy Carter. I guess my host mom's dad was some kind of political something but she has pictures with all these senators and people from the US from way back who I have no idea who they are.
Today we got a tour of San Jose and went to a coffee plantation called Cafe Britt. It was really fun! We also got our CEA orientation, and Maggie (the housing coordinator) let me and Kathleen (my roommate) see the room we'll be staying in starting next month. It was a lot of fun, we have the rest of the day off and our host family isn't home so I think we're going to go shopping later, which is good because I need to get regular sized bottles of shampoo!
My host family doesn't have internet or a computer so I'm at the Residencia right now which we're allowed to come to and use the computers, so updates may be sporatic for this first month. The housing coordinator thought they said they were going to get internet, so maybe i'll have it soon, all the other host families have it I guess.
Tomorrow, we have orientation at the university and I have to do the oral interview for the placement test, here's to hoping I don't screw it up too bad! We'll be having our Spanish classes M-F from 8-12 so I should be getting pretty good by the time I get home!
I'll try to update again soon and get some pictures posted as soon as I can! Our host dad said we have to be careful when traveling with our laptops because his son's was stolen but I will probably bring it hidden in my backpack to the residencia so I can upload some pics!
~Chelsey
Well I made it to Costa Rica! I had a few issues at the airport, but it all worked out! The flight from Chicago was a little late getting to Charlotte and I just made it to the gate in time to board, then they told me I couldn't board because I was staying longer than 90 days and I didn't have a visa. Finally, they let me on the plane but said I could be sent right back if they asked me when I was coming back. Fortunately, no one asked and I made it through immigrations and customs with no problem! Everyone here is really laid back and all we have to do is leave the country for 72 hours and come back in after 90 days, they said students normally go to Nicaragua or Panana anyway and I'm totally up for that so it's no problem!
Everyone is really nice and I'm having a great time. My host family has a maid that pretty much does everything for us so I'm a little weirded out by that, I like doing things myself :) Our host mom and dad are really nice! I don't remember who joked about my gift for them being chocolate and said I'd probably give it to a diabetic, but they were right. She still likes it and they thought it was very good! They've been to the US and have pictures from when they met Jimmy Carter. I guess my host mom's dad was some kind of political something but she has pictures with all these senators and people from the US from way back who I have no idea who they are.
Today we got a tour of San Jose and went to a coffee plantation called Cafe Britt. It was really fun! We also got our CEA orientation, and Maggie (the housing coordinator) let me and Kathleen (my roommate) see the room we'll be staying in starting next month. It was a lot of fun, we have the rest of the day off and our host family isn't home so I think we're going to go shopping later, which is good because I need to get regular sized bottles of shampoo!
My host family doesn't have internet or a computer so I'm at the Residencia right now which we're allowed to come to and use the computers, so updates may be sporatic for this first month. The housing coordinator thought they said they were going to get internet, so maybe i'll have it soon, all the other host families have it I guess.
Tomorrow, we have orientation at the university and I have to do the oral interview for the placement test, here's to hoping I don't screw it up too bad! We'll be having our Spanish classes M-F from 8-12 so I should be getting pretty good by the time I get home!
I'll try to update again soon and get some pictures posted as soon as I can! Our host dad said we have to be careful when traveling with our laptops because his son's was stolen but I will probably bring it hidden in my backpack to the residencia so I can upload some pics!
~Chelsey
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Ok so four days left! I'm entering freak-out mode! Anyway, I thought I'd update people on what's going on!
I'm leaving from Chicago at 7:40 AM on Friday and should arrive in Costa Rica around 2:30 PM! I'll be living in a homestay for the first month with another student from Chicago and then we'll both be moving to the CEA dorms for the last three months!
My cell will not work in Costa Rica so please do not try to call/text. If you need to get ahold of me email, facebook, or skype! I should have access to the internet at the university, probably not at the homestay but I will have internet once I move to the dorm and I'll check everything regularly!
I'm leaving from Chicago at 7:40 AM on Friday and should arrive in Costa Rica around 2:30 PM! I'll be living in a homestay for the first month with another student from Chicago and then we'll both be moving to the CEA dorms for the last three months!
My cell will not work in Costa Rica so please do not try to call/text. If you need to get ahold of me email, facebook, or skype! I should have access to the internet at the university, probably not at the homestay but I will have internet once I move to the dorm and I'll check everything regularly!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Welcome to my blog!
Hello! The countdown has begun...10 days until I leave! I will be updating this periodically throughout my 4 month stay so check back often! Here I'll write what I've been doing and post links to pictures!
To check out the program I'm going on go to... http://www.gowithcea.com/programs/costa_rica.html
To check out the program I'm going on go to... http://www.gowithcea.com/programs/costa_rica.html
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