Back in Iowa

I woke up this morning at 7:45 am. It would be 6:45 am in Costa Rica, which is what time I'd wake up to get ready for class. I need to stop waking up that early! I slept awesome in my bed. I had breakfast with Mom and Dad. We had scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, homemade bread with Guava jelly that I brought home, a banana, and chocolate milk. I love American food!

Dad already assigned me some work to do, so I better do some of that today. I also have to do laundry and unpack. Later I'm going over to Cody's new house and he's grilling hamburgers. I have been craving a hamburger for a month! :) And I think I'm going to make Snicker salad. Oh how I've missed Iowa food.

Things I missed about the US:
- Being able to flush toilet paper
- The people, family, friends, Cody, and Cubby
- Good meat
- Chocolate milk
- Harry Potter
- English
- Water pressure in showers
- My bed
- Not having to put on bug spray before going to sleep
- No cockroaches, bugs, spiders, lizards, etc. in my room
- My cell phone
- Cooking and baking
- Not having to wear 100 SPF sunscreen to walk around the neighborhood

Things I liked about Costa Rica:
- Laid back atmosphere
- Spanish
- The culture
- My mama tica
- The mountains (my favorite)
- The excursions
- Exercise, sometimes (walking up mountains a lot...)
- Healthier food
- Cheap movie theaters
- Fresh bread and jelly
- Fresh pineapple!
- Fresh fruit drinks
- Pura Vida (it means happy and pure life, a good life)

It was a great experience and I'm so glad I went! I would like to visit Costa Rica again for a vacation. There were a few places that I wanted to visit but I ran out of time. I will be back, Costa Rica! My favorite excursion was by far rafting. It was so much fun. The good thing is, I can go rafting in the US! I will definitely be doing that again. It was a very fun month, but of course I'm glad I'm home. Thanks for following along with my blog! :)

Back to Iowa - 6/4/2012

I got up this morning at 4:45 am, but I didn't sleep very well because I was so nervous for the flight, customs, leaving, etc. I got my bags and stuff together then went out to the table to say bye to Argelis. She made me coffee and gave me crackers for breakfast. We sat at the table for a while and talked until the taxi came at 5:30 am. She walked me out and said bye to me. I got a little teary-eyed, but I was ready to go home.

It took about 30 minutes to drive to the airport and it cost about $30. I walked in the airport, paid my $28 tax to leave the country, changed my colones to dollars, then went to the American Airlines desk and checked in. I was allowed to have a 50 pound checked bag. My bag weighed 49.5 pounds. :) Next I went through security. Longest line ever. Security to travel overseas is heavy-duty. Before I got on my plane, everyone had to be scanned with the hand-scanner and then everyone's carry-on bags had to be checked.

After that, I had an hour and a half until my plane was supposed to leave, so I ate some breakfast ($6 for a muffin and orange juice) and walked around the shops.

The flight went well. It took about 3 hours and 45 minutes to get from San Jose, Costa Rica to Dallas, Texas. On the plane, we watched the movie We Bought A Zoo on the TVs. It was a pretty good movie. We also got breakfast. I had some french toast, a croissant, orange juice and some pineapple. It was plane food... enough said.

I saw highways and interstates from the plane window in Texas. That's something that's not really in Costa Rica! My flight landed around 1:30 pm (Iowa time). I had to pick up my checked bag, go through customs again, re-check my bag, and go through security again. I had about an hour until my second flight left, so the first thing I did was get an Aunt Anne's soft pretzel with soft cheese. Yum!!! I also turned on my cell phone right when I landed. It hasn't been on for a month! It feels awesome having a phone again.

My plane home went well, too. It was a really small plane and it only took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to get to Cedar Rapids from Dallas. I looked out the window of the plane and saw corn fields! I never thought I'd be that excited to see fields again. When I got off the plane, there was a big sign of "Welcome to the home of the Iowa Hawkeyes" with the I-O-W-A flags on it. Welcome home!!! :) I went down the escalator and Mom was standing there waiting for me. Dad and Cubby were waiting in the car with a Diet Dr. Pepper. So nice to be home!

Right when I got home, Cody came over and we had dinner. We had cured porkchops, fluffy mashed potatoes, homemade bread, corn, cole slaw, chocolate milk!, and mom's homemade rhubarb crisp and ice cream. I was in heaven... so good. I had to help a little bit with the dishes, too. I got spoiled in Costa Rica because my mama tica did all of the dishes, cleaning, and laundry!! Back to real life, I guess! I showed some pictures and watched TV, then went to bed. I missed my bed! I slept AWESOME in it.

Last Day in Costa Rica - Sunday 6/3/2012

Today is my last day! I slept in for the first time this entire trip. I slept until 8:30 am. When I woke up, I packed so that I could have the rest of the day to do stuff. For breakfast, I had bananas, watermelon, scrambled eggs, cheese bread, guava jelly, and coffee. It was a great last breakfast! Bethany, Argelis and I all ate together. It was nice getting to talk to Argelis before I left!

After breakfast, Kaydee, Bethany and I went to San Pedro Mall. We paid $3 to see the new Snow White and the Huntsman movie with Kristen Stewart. It was actually really good! I liked it. The movie theater was FREEZING, though. I think I got frostbite. It's better than being hot, I guess. After the movie, we just walked around and stopped in some shops.

When we got home, I packed some more and picked up my room. For dinner, we had rice and chicken, tortilla chips, refried beans, and some kind of juice. I always like the rice and chicken. Sara, Bethany, Argelis and I were the only ones that were home to eat dinner. Everyone else was out of town. Argelis usually never eats with us because there is no room at the table, so it was nice being able to eat with her!

After dinner, Bethany, Sara and I went to a little store near the house and bought some ice cream. I got something called Trits. It's a little ice cream sandwich with a grahm cracker cookie around it. It was really good! Then we went back home, I finished up my packing, said my goodbyes to Sara, Mario (who had just gotten home), and Bethany. I went to bed around 9:30. Carley and Angela came home around 10. They knocked on my bedroom door to say goodbye to me, but apparently I was sleeping through all of it! So I didn't get to say goodbye to them, but at least I can Facebook them and say bye.

Argelis and I.

Carley, Sara, Angela and I at dinner. This was a couple of weeks ago.

Saturday 6/2/2012 - Isla Tortuga

This morning I woke up at 4:30 am. So early! For breakfast I had a bowl of fruit loops and some coffee. Argelis sat at the table with me to eat breakfast because she called a taxi for Kaydee and I. Kaydee came to my house and we left at 5:30. The taxi took us to the Holiday Inn downtown San Jose. It took about 15 minutes to drive there. When we got there, there were a lot of tourists waiting at the hotel for the Bay Island Cruise bus, too, so I felt a lot better once I knew that it wasn’t a scam!

When the company bus got there, we paid on the bus since our professor made the reservations for us. It cost us about $78 each. It’s a great price for a great day! It took about 2 hours to reach Puntarenas, which is on the Pacific coast. From there, we got off the bus and went onto a boat called the Great Bay's Princess for 2 hours to get to the island. It was sort of like a small yacht. The first level was only for the staff, the second level was air conditioned with the bar, tables, and bathrooms, and the third level was the pool and tables.

There was also a group of 4 guys that played music the entire trip. They didn’t really sing, they just sang sounds like “ba da da dum.” But I enjoyed it! We also got fresh pineapple and watermelon, ceviche (gross), and fruit/water juice.

When we got to the island, we paid $12 for snorkeling right when we got there and went snorkeling. There was a really big group, probably about 25 people, so it made snorkeling terrible. Everyone grouped together and I kept getting kicked with flippers! And the water was really dark, so we couldn’t see any fish unless they were at the surface. The fish we did see were all the same type of fish, too. Overall, snorkeling wasn't that good. :(

When we got back from snorkeling, we ate lunch. We had rice, chicken, fried fish, salad, potato salad, champagne, green beans, and carrots. Then, we walked around the beach and took a lot of pictures and then swam in the ocean. The water actually wasn’t that cold. I heard that the Pacific Ocean was colder than the Atlantic Ocean, but it wasn’t that bad! The floor of the water, though, was all rocks. It kind of hurt, but at the same time it was like a massage for my feet.

It was a very nice and relaxing day (after snorkeling). On the way home on the boat, it took another 2 hours to get to land. This time, we sat on the front of the boat on some lay-out chairs with a group of young girls that are also studying abroad. We also got to watch the sun set from the boat over the mountains. It was beautiful. I took pictures, but obviously the pictures don’t do it justice.

On the bus ride home, we got to watch the movie Flicka on the TV’s. When we got home, the bus dropped us off at the Holiday Inn. There was a POPS Ice Cream shop right next to the hotel (how convenient)! So of course we stopped and got ice cream before we went home! I got brownie dynamite and it was delicious.

When I got home, I ate dinner. For dinner, we had Chinese take-out again. I didn’t have any of the noodles with the nasty sauce this time, just the rice and the rangoons. Bethany, Sara and I also watched part of the movie Elektra in Spanish. I didn’t catch most of the words, but it was still fun to listen to Spanish. I went to bed around midnight.

Last Day of School

It seems like I've been here forever, but it feels like just yesterday I wrote my "First Day of School" blog! Today for breakfast, we had gallo pinto, scrambled eggs, coffee, bread, and that blackberry jelly again. No fruit this morning!

Today in class, we got our final exams back and our final grades. I got 100% in the class! :) Then we watched a movie called "The Whore and the Whale." They watch very interesting and inappropriate movies in this country. The movie was really bad. We watched it in Spanish with English subtitles. During the movie, I felt my desk and body shake. I thought that my professor or Jack, who were sitting next to me, was kicking my chair on accident. Turns out, it was a tremble!!! Like a small earthquake! After the movie, my professor asked if we felt the tremble. I had no idea it was a tremble at the time. But I felt it and I was so excited once I knew what it was! Now I can say that I've felt the earth move. It was such a weird feeling.

After class, I got money out of the ATM for the last time. I also talked to Victor for the last time. He can't take me to the airport on Monday morning, so I'm going to have to take a taxi. My plane leaves at 8:30 am and I'm leaving the house at 5 am.

Bethany, Carley and I went to a smoothie shop nearby (not the green building) and I got a strawberry banana smoothie with some ice cream. It was good! We also stopped by the bakery and got a quick calzone-type thing with ham and cheese which was our lunch.

We went home and rested for about an hour, and then went to the artisan market one last time and got some souvenirs. After the art market, I stayed home and rested. I still didn't feel that good after yesterday's McDonalds, and I had to get up really early the next morning. After dinner, I rested some more, then Kaydee, Grace and I all went to the bar Los Profesionales. The "Gringo" bar. It was a lot of the students' last night, so almost everyone was there. I was there from about 9:30 pm - 10:45 pm. It was nice saying goodbye to everyone. But it was such a weird feeling knowing that I will never see them again! When I got home, I went straight to bed.

Final Exam

This morning for breakfast I had pineapple, coffee, scrambled eggs, bread, and blackberry jelly instead of guava jelly. I didn't really like it. I wanted my guava! :)

In class today, we celebrated Bethany's birthday that was yesterday, and Raychael's birthday that is tomorrow. Our professor brought us a chocolate and strawberry cake with coffee. It was so good! Our teacher is so nice. A few days a week, too, she leaves class for a couple minutes and comes back with pieces of candy, like butterscotch, cinnamon, rootbeer barrels, or mints. After eating cake, we reviewed the homework and she taught a quick lesson on the history of Latin America.

Next, we took our 30 minute break and then took our final exam. It was comprehensive, so it covered all of the verb tenses. It had 4 parts of fill in the blank and write sentences. Then, we had a 150 essay about what we think the world would be like if something were different. We had to pick a scenario, and I chose if there was no internet. I said that it would be good because people would need to be more intelligent because they couldn't rely on the internet for all of the information and that there would be more personal relationships. But I said life would be more difficult because work and school would be harder, traveling would be more difficult, it'd be harder to have relationships with people that live far away, etc.

After class, Brandon, Bethany, Chelsea, Raychael and I went to San Pedro Mall to hang out for a little bit. We ate at McDonalds and I had a chicken sandwich and fries. Note to self: don't eat McDonalds in Costa Rica. I got really sick from it. An hour later, I was at home in bed. I'm feeling a little better now, but still not the best. I rested today for about 5 hours. I took a quick nap then laid in bed and watched a movie that my professor gave to me to watch. It's called the Motorcycle Diaries. I watched it in Spanish with English subtitles. It was pretty good! It's about 2 young men that travel South and Latin America to study leprosy. It's just about the lives of the people in America in the 1940s and 50s. I guess it's a real story, too.

For dinner, we had potatoes, beef, and rice and beans. Then tonight, some of the roommates went to McDonalds to get ice cream after dinner. They asked me if I wanted to go along, and I said I'd had enough McDonalds for today..

No homework tonight! I am officially done with my 4 week Intensive Spanish class. It was a great class. I learned a lot and had fun! It was a great experience studying abroad. I am definitely going to miss the small class size! You just can't beat a class of 6 students.. I learned so much because of the more one-on-one teaching style.

Men in Black 3

This morning for breakfast we had froot loops, bananas and pineapple, coffee, bread and jelly. Today in class, we finished the class presentation and I also gave my Salsa presentation. It went really well. At the end, Raychael and I demonstrated how to dance the Salsa. We made the 4 other students in class do it, too. It was fun!

This weekend, I want to do something since it's my last weekend, but most students are leaving the country on Saturday and some others want to go somewhere for the entire weekend. I only want to be gone on Saturday so that I can spend Sunday here with the family and packing. So I asked my professor if she had any suggestions, and she recommended Turtle Island. There's a company that takes care of everything for you for an entire day for about $80. I'd be gone all day on Saturday, but for some of the time I'd be on a boat and then at the island for a few hours. Kaydee and I want to go, so we asked her how to make reservations. Apparently we had to call the company and make reservations. But, neither of us have phones and the people would talk WAY to fast for us. My teacher was super nice and called the company for us on her cell phone and made the reservation for us! So this weekend we're going to Turtle Island :) Hopefully it's fun!

After class, we were supposed to have that ambassador meeting, but no one showed up. Instead, Kaydee and I went to San Pedro Mall again. We ate lunch at Wendy's because we only had a little while until Men in Black 3 started at the theater. The movie was in English with Spanish subtitles, and it cost $2 to get in. It's cheap Wednesday! The movie was actually kind of funny, even though I haven't seen the 1st or 2nd movies.

Then I did some homework. I had 1 page of homework, a written essay portion of my final exam tomorrow, and then I have to study for my exam tomorrow. My professor said it was easy and it's mostly just application. My written essay was 200 words about a how Japan's population is decreasing and they need more workers. Apparently, to get more workers, they built human clones that are robots. Weird!

Tonight for dinner we had spaghetti, salad, and home-made chocolate cake with ice cream for Bethany's birthday. The cake was delicious! But the spaghetti not so much. Their beef just has a funky taste to it..