Days 8,9,10

Why hello all!

So I just wanted to inform you that I talked with Sandra about a homestay and she said I could! In fact, I will be going to one who supposedly is super awesome. One of my newfound friends had her and said that her homestay was the best part of this experience.
I move Sunday, so i'll be there for two weeks. Unfortunately, that means no wifi :( Oh well, I am here to improve my Spanish, not my typing speed.

On other news, classes are going well although I missed all four today. I was completely and utterly sick. YUCK! Plantains are so much worse than bananas (i'm alergic to bananas) and I spent most the day sleeping/sick. I'm FINALLY starting to feel better.

On a better not, I received two things for my transfer leadership council. One being an email verfifying my attendance at the leadership retreat this August. After quickly replying I would be there the magical person on the other side of the computer said she would send me more information about where/when/what later.
I am SUPER excited! I remember attending the leadership retreat for OCCC and well, that was the start of my networking maddness. I absolutely loved every moment and meeting all the wonderful people, many of whom I am now good friends with.

As for the other thing, my parents skyped me and said I recieved a letter from Rep. Colby Swartz congratulating me on being accepted into the Leadership Council. I know those are generic (because every time I make a paper he sends me one) but it is still nifty he sends those. As an updated edit...I was in the paper, The Edmond Sun! I would paste the link but Blogger does not allow copy/pastes. Not even the shortcut ways that programmers use...grrrr. I found it by googling it though :)



So for these days where I really didn't do much, I think I will give tips for future CR travlers.

Tip 1: Bring an umbrella.

Tip 2: Even if you don't drink, go out! You will meet a lot of students and learn more about them when you are in a different atmosphere.

Tip 3: Don't go to the store and only by food you recognize from home. How can you experience the CR food if you constantly by food that you can by at home?

Day 7 - Surfing

First off I made a video, but I give up on it loading. "Happy bday to you, happy bday to you, happy bday dear crazy clutzy silly niece of mine Caitie-did, happy bday to you!"

So today I surfed. Well I actually fell a lot but I did surf! Mellissa, Stephanie and myself took a lesson from a guy named, Johnathon. He is a friend of one of the students. This surfer lives in Costa Rica and I beleive works at the Restraunt FT's.

So if anyone is reading this that will attend EF Tamarindo, go to the restraunt by Kelly's Suf Shop and ask for Johnathan. He is hard to miss because his sunscreen is blue and he covers his face with it. He only charges $25 for about a 2 hour lesson. That is the cheapest price you will find anywhere.

I just wanted to post this because it was on a windowsill and pretty. :)

Accomplishment Day 7: Surfing a Costa Rican wave!

Day 6 - The beach

I am proud of myself today...I worked out! I did this lovely thing called, extreme climbing. It is either 215 or 250 stairs and the hike to get there is all uphill. Wow, it was intense. A lot more than I thought it would be.

Heres some of the stairs:

And here is the view:

Fyi, a pretty view does NOT make exercising any easier. In fact it is slightly the opposite because you find yourself wishing you were there on the beach.

After the stairs and class I went to the beach with Stephanie and Mellissa. We had a lot of fun playing in the ocean and just chillen on the beach. It was great. Anyone think there is a chance Oklahoma could build an ocean? I mean we build lakes, surely we can tackle this!

This would be the beach...oh yeah!

Accomplishment Day 6: Swimming in the Ocean

Day 5 - Going Out

So today I met some new people.

First a group of people that are all siblings. We wen't to the store and got some groceries. They told me about the smoothy stand that will give you fresh fruit as part of a fruit salad. Which, was AMAZING. Frest strawberries and pineapple, life couldn't be better. That and I realized that I am a lot like the girls, which was nice. They also told me about homestays and recommended I switch. Guess I need to talk with Sandra Monday.

When we came back the Wed. salsa lessons were being held. Apparently they were a no-go yesterday. I am not the greatest at salsa, but it is a lot of fun!

Heres a pic of Andy and one of the girls salsa dancing.

Today was a great day. Just like back home in College. The more things your involved in, the more people you will meet and bond with. One way to accoomplish this is going out at night.

Tonight we went out to several places. First to Beach Access (pictured below,) then stopped by another place to say hi. After that we went to the VooDoo lounge where the music was definately ment for the tourists.

At VooDoo there was fire dancer there trying to get some money, it was EXTREMELY cool...or I guess hot. I have a video, but Blogger is killing me because it will not let me upload videos. :( I'll have to figure out another method a bit later.


We started to go to Pacifico but decided to return to the VooDoo. It was a ton of fun.

Granted, a group of us only stayed till a little after midnight. When you have class the next day, that really is the way to go because you can always go out another night and stay as late as you want then.

The walk home was great too. I'm not sure why the adventure of going to a place or returning is always so fun with me..but it is :) Between Stephanie nearly loosing her shoe and then myself nearly loosing the battle of my shoe vs. the mud I was stuck in, it was a fun way home. I won by the way.

Also there were a couple guys guiding our way, at the begining, with flashlights. When I got stuck I was telling Stephanie to stop and help me. Well..the flashlight guys started to come, thinking I was hurt. It was incredibly funny. Luckily I found my shoe and quickly walked away. :)


Accomplishment Day 5: Experiencing the night life.

Day 4 - Tortugas

Why hello!

Today I switched professors. Please hold your gasp, it is not like America. You are not stuck with one professor or class because it is who you must have. This school is amazing, if the class is too easy/hard or the teacher instructs in a way that is not suitable for your learning style, you can switch!

For me, the teacher was a bit too easy and I wanted more of a challenge. I realize I am in the middle of paradise but I am here to learn and to hopefully become fluent. Okay, so I know the last one is a bit far fetched but my goal is to become a few steps closer to that by the end of my stay.

This brings me to another point..location. Although I absolutely LOVE my roommate, living on campus and wifi internet, I am thinking of switching to a homestay. I feel living in a homestay would force me to speak Spanish more. LIke most things in life, what you put into something will determine what you get out of it..and I want to get a lot out of this experience.

Okay I'll stop blabbing on, now onto my evening of tortugas (turtles.)

After a two hour bus ride which included practically driving through mini-rivers, we arrived in the pouring rain. Helpful bit of advice, don't wear jeans when it is raining. Also...know ahead of time if you will be here during the rainy season.

These turtles were pretty cool but I must say the journey of walking to them and returning was well... an adventure! Crossing the water, which was up to my knees, walking on the beach in the dark trying to avoid rocks, tree branches and turtles was interesting. The return was even more exciting when the water rose another couple feet and was a lot stronger than I expected.

The picture is the drenched us. Mellisa, Myself and Stephanie!

Okay, back to the turtles. Did you know they lay about 170 eggs at one time? So, I tried uploading a movie, twice, and then a second picture...all with no luck. Next time dear friends, next time.

Accomplishment of the day: Asking a tico (Costa Rican native) questions about a subject I know nothing of..and them understanding and replying! :)

Day 3 - Class

Today I had my first day of classes. I absolutely love my class with Edwin! Today we learned realistic vocab. and then created a small scavenger hunt using what we learned. It was awesome creating the clues and then using the other student's clues to find schocolate. Yes, we got free chocolate. :-)



Between classes I went for a swim with Andy and then other students joined us and we chatted about the school and the culture here. It is interesting and beneficial to talk with students who have been here a week or more because they inform you on where to go and where is cheap.



Here is a pic. of the iguna we saw while swimming. It was maybe 10 feet away.



After classes I signed up to see Tortugas (turtles) tomorrow and this amazing trip that isn't until next Saturday.



Okay...just ate an awesome dinner! I love sharing cooking duties along with splitting the cost of food.

Some gal just invited us to watch a movie downstairs..so adios amigos.



Accomplishment Day 3: Understanding the instructors..they only speak spanish.

Day 2 - Orientation/Beach

My Norwegan (sp?) roommate showed my Austrian roommate and myself the shortcut to one of the supermarkets. It wasn't open yet...although we walked in and started grabbing things because it looked kind of open. Luckily, their nice and let us put it back. We walked across the street instead to a small stand (Tamarindo is covered in stands) and I ordered in ESPANOL.

Orientation was today there are like 16 or so that just began. We learned a bit about the school and also the area but I think the coolest part was that about four of us formed a little group. Mellisa, Stephanie (Austrian roommate), Andy and myself. We kind of hang out everywhere together now. It's awesome! From the beach to the stores to ordering smoothies and whatever it was I had in Spanish..i'm lovin' it. Now if we could all just be on the same schedule so we could do the activities and trips together.

So from what Mellisa and Stephanie said, it looks like I tested into Intermediate Spanish; group B. It goes A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. The final one is when most people take the Cambridge test, they said. So I am either 2 or 3 away from mastery. SWEETNESS! With this course I am supposed to advance a level every 4 weeks. Guess how long i'm staying FOUR WEEKS! :)

After making dinner with Stephanie, i'm just tired...this blog takes FOREVER to load and classes begin tomorrow at 8am. I have four 80minute classes...IKES!

Pic of the day is me at the beach before we went shopping.

Accomplishment Day 2: Make new friends.