La gringuita en Costa Rica!

Heyyyy all
Well it's my first Monday without classes and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself! Haha but it's nice not having any plans. This weekend was very relaxed, it actually rained every day for at least a little while! GASP! Haha On Friday I wen with a few friends from school to a beach a few kilometers south of Samara. We rented these old school one speed bikes and made our way to Playa Carillo. It's an absolutely gorrrrgeous beach, only palm tress lining the beach. It's very peaceful. We hung out there for a while and had lunch, then we went a lto this marshy area where we had heard there were some crocodiles a little ways down the beach. We were able to catch a glance of one crocodile chillin' out in the shade, giving us the death stare. They are creeeepy. He had absolutely no desire to entertain us and kept disappearing every time we were about to take a picture. O well.
So anywho, moved out of my homestay on Sunday and into a hotel room with my friend...well boyfriend... haha yes, more on that some other time i suppose... aaand moving on. we'll be in the hotel only until tomorrow when we'll move down the road to stay in his bosses new house that's being redone. We'll help work on it for the time I'm here, so we can live there for free! Just painting, cleaning etc. It's a really cute house just a little ways away from the beach.
I can't believe I only have two weeks left. It's going to be really really hard to leave now... But I know I need to get back to the states before I get completely attached here.
Not much else to write really... thinking of everyone as hopefully spring is arriving for you guys, finally!!! keep sending emails and checking in. Love hearing from everyone:o)
Love to all
paz.amor.felicidades

So once again I kind of stink at writing in here. But let’s just say it’s because I’m enjoying myself too damn much!! These two weeks have been quite the roller coaster ride. My first week I was feeling super, super homesick. I think the whole new homestay, crazy hot and humid weather plus not liking my classes really caught up with me and I really wasn’t feeling all that great. So in proper Emily fashion, I made a quick decision and decided to change my flight to come home two weeks early. The idea to head home early started with a GREAT invitation from Sarah, my boss at Gigunda Group to join in on a new program that GGI has in the works called “Make a Mess.” She’s invited me to come out to Chicago and help manage this new project out there, and the plan was to open up shop mid-May. But after a few changes occurred, the plans were changed to delay opening until September. So now I’ll head out to Chicago after a summer at home (which I’m pretty excited about anyways!).
And nowww, after finally sort of finding my niche here in beautiful Samara, I have nooo desire to head home in 5 days! I just changed my flight agaaaain to head back on the 19th of May. Haha o well, I just can’t seem to make up my mind. Thank god for tax returns is all I can say! Hehehe
Classes have been… eh, ok. I really don’t like my teacher, and I can’t have a different one apparently because there aren’t any other teachers for my level. Boooooo So that super stinks. But I’m learning a lot and I have really developed a love for speaking Spanish! It actually fun for me now:o)
This past weekend I went with a few friends to a town called Monteverde. It’s this gorgeous town set high in the mountains in a national reserve park. It’s so incredibly beautiful with the forest just as far as the eye can see. We did a canopy tour on high wire zip lines on Saturday and that was soooo much fun. I love those high ropes course in the states, so this was right up my alley. The very last line is nearly a kilometer long, stretching out over the beautiful valley below. Well on this line one of the guides asked if anyone wanted to go upside-down. Well, duh, I said yes. IT WAS SICK!!! I hooked it backwards and just laid back facing towards where we were going. It was so crazy! Super, super fun. Later that afternoon we took a horse back tour through the forest and it was so peaceful and beautiful. The guide also let us gallop on the horses which I had never done! It was a short trip, but I’m glad I got to check it out.
So now I’m back in Samara, and very happy to be here:o) I actually missed it for the two days I was gone! Already attached I suppose, haha
Well I hope everyone is doing just great. Thank you for the emails, and I hope everyone is enjoying following along (even if I don’t write that often!!).
Lotsa love to everyone.
Paz.amor.felicidades

O my goodness, where to start! It´s only been about a week since I wrote, and I have so much to talk about!!
So first there´s my week in Dominical, learning to surf! Um that place was AMAZING. I completely understand why my Lonely Planet guide book said it was a place people end up getting stuck in; by the end of the week I did NOT want to leave. I was singing a different tune my first full day there though. After wandering around ¨town¨ which took me, oh approximately 15 minutes, I went back to the hotel and tried to decide what to do with myself. I was sitting on my bed, thinking to myself ¨What the HELL are you doing here, alone, knowing no one with no clue what to do for a week!?!¨It was a minor mental crisis, but of course that changed within like two hours when I had my first surf lesson! I met up with one of the instructors from Green Iguana (the surf camp), his name is Junior, and we headed out to the main beach of Dominical. We spent the first 20mins or so talking about the way the beach is set up with the two sand bars and how that creates a sort of dangerous rip tide. Then about the whole jumping up onto the board, blablabla, good stuff! So then we headed out into the surf and I would lay on the board alllll ready to catch a wave and when a decent one came along, Junior would push the board for starters to help with my paddling (a good thing seeing as I have the arm strength of two year old) just so I could get the feel of jumping up on the board and getting my balance. We spent a couple hours just working on balance and all that good stuff, and I was flippin´ exhausted by the time we finished up. I also made the maaaajor mistake of not drinking a gallon and a half of water before hand, so I was uber dehydrated and nearly passed out. But over all a good first lesson!
The next day I had lessons with 4 other people and that´s when the real fun started. We all got along great and the whole lesson everyone was joking around and encouraging each other and all. And then, in proper American fashion, we taught the surf instructors the ¨That´s what she said¨ saying from The Office, and it was pretty much the funniest thing everrrr. They´re numbers three and four that I have spread the ¨That´s what she said¨ love to. Anywho, classes went great for the whole week. By my last two days I was able catch a wave or two on my own, but my arms were EXHAUSTED and felt like they were going to fall out of their sockets. The last two mornings I went to yoga class as well and I´m pretty sure I ended up being more sore from that than surfing as well… haha One hell of a week though. The most beauuuutiful sunsets, fabulous company and gorgeous Tico surfer boys. Siiiigh, I think I´ll have to go back some day…
But now I am in Samara, living with a new homestay family. They own a restaurant and it looks like I´ll be eating breakfast and dinner there everyday. Which is nice, but I guess I won´t be eating with the mother or father since they´re always working. Right now there is another woman living in the homestay as well who is a teacher for a high school group that is attending the school , but she will only be here for one week. I definitely lucked out with location though, I´m only a five+ minute walk to school (oh, by the way, a walk where I am forrrced to stroll down the beach to get to the school building!). Plus, my room is really more like an apartment. It´s attached to the house, but you have to go outside to get to it, but I´ve got my own bathroom at it´s bigger than my other room, it´s really nice! So anywho, I think I´m definitely going to like it here in Samara. Tomorrow I´m planning on renting a surf board after class to see if I can catch a couple waves on my own. We´ll see! This week I also need to find out about the volunteer opportunity with the after school program here in town. Hopefully I´ll be able to join in on that as well!!
Alright, well hopefully it won´t be so long in between entries next time, so it won´t be such a novel:o) I hope everyone´s enjoying reading along though! I´m missing the states pretty crazy, that´s for sure, but have no fear, I´m enjoying it to the fullest fo´ sho´. Hehe
Lotsa love to all!
Paz.amor.felicidades

Lots to catch up on!! I had some problems with this stupid website last week so I didn’t get to post at all.
Where to start… Well! Last weekend I went on a trip to the town of Montezuma, Costa Rica and um, I’m in lovvvve. That place is INCREDIBLE. It’s this crazy laid back hippy town on the southern tip of the Penisula Nicoya (Pacific side). A bunch of little hotels and cafes right on the water, and the main street is lined with vendors selling some of the most gorrrgeous handmade jewelry I’ve ever seen. I got a pair of turquoise (surpriiiise) earings for like 4000colones, which is just about $8! These things would sell for like $30+ bucks in the states. Love it.
At night evvvveryone in town heads to this beachside bar called Chico’s. Both nights we were there, there were fire thrower/dancer people and they were redonculously amazing. Of course my pictures don’t do it justice at all, but o well. Chico’s is super fun. They’re either playing latino music and all the girls are standing around waiting for some Tico hotshot to come sweep them off their feet and onto the dance floor. After last week, I have decided I need to go to more of the dance classes offered at school. *ahem* Oy… haha But Saturday night they played a ton of reggaeton music and the dance floor was packed. It was great!
Saturday during the day we took a boat out to this beatiful island, Isla Tortuga. The boat ride was horrendous, it seems like it’s kind of an art to drive through the waves out to the island, but I don’t think our driver was much of an artist; we got SOAKED. Haha and the ride back was so jarring I’m pretty sure I’m an inch or so shorter now after that spine compacting debacle. But it was totally worth it, the island was incredible and we got to go snorkeling! We saw a ton of fish and I even dove down to see a small shark with her two babies! Very cool. Only problem we ran into wasn’t discovered til later when all us girls were back at the hotel… We all forgot to put sunscreen on the backs of our legs while we were snorkeling… Needless to say, we all had some crazy sunburned booties. OUCH. Hahaha silly gringas.
Before we left on Sunday we hiked out to a waterfall outside of the town. It was so pretty! There was this lil lagoon at the bottom of the falls where we all went swimming. A friend from school, Kelly, and I climbed up this rock about 10feetish up and jump; then we attempted to scramble up the rocks under the cascades where we both won some impressive bruises and I got a loverly scratch on my already badly sunburned thigh. But it was fantastic! We also got to see some howler monkeys and I got a video of the most redonculous sound they make. It’s wicked creepy!!!
Classes are going well. My teacher this past week was muuuuch different than my first. Very serious and not nearly as much fun as Samuelito, our teacher from last week, but we learned a lot… I am doing an “Intercambio” with a Costa Rican student who is currently learning English at the school. We’ve met twice now for about an hour each time. We speak Spanish for half an hour and then switch to English for the last part. His English is definitely better than my Spanish, but we have fun attempting to decifer what the heck the other is trying to say.
This weekend was INCREDIBLE. I just got back a little while ago from NICARAGUA! We took a trip to Granada, Nicaragua for a few days, and I am just amazed by that country, even if I didn’t get to see a whooole lot. Granada could not be more different from Heredia, CR if it tried! It’s such an old city, and it’s just down right beautiful. Most of the buildings are colonial and just so perfectly old world Central America. Granada is this crazy mix of old and new, and I’m not quite sure who will win out, but it makes for an interesting scene! The streets are a mix of honking cars, horse drawn carts and families of 3 attempting to fit on one simple bicycle; internet café’s on many corners and old women haggling in the streets over fruit prices. We went on a tour of the city when we first arrived; unfortunately we were all so exhausted I don’t think we took in much information. But our tour guide gave us a laugh, unintentionally though I think… She busted out into song every once in a while and we all just sorta stood there and stared. Haha and then she showed us around this archipelago of islands in Lake Nicaragua and proceeded to give us a chuckle with a few more attempts at these ridiculous operatic songs. But the islands were gorrrgeous, a lot of them have been bought and have houses on them now. And it’s soooo cheap!! Imagine owning your own island in the states, it would be soooo expensive to even buy; these things were selling for like $250,000. Craziness. Pretty sure that’s what I’ll be saving up for ;o) hehehe. Friday we went to one of the active volcanos and hiked around that for the good part of the morning. It was pretty incredible! The main crater had smoke coming out of it and it smelled like assssss from the sulfur, but I got some awesome pictures!!
The hostel we stayed in was wicked cool too. Got to meet some awesome people and everyone was just chatting about all their adventures and everything. Three girls in the group we went with are New Englanders and go to Northeastern, so I got along great with them and had a blast. We made friends with some adorable Australian surfers…(ahem… be still my beating heart… hahaha) and a huge group of us went out to a bar on Friday night where we all sat around a big table and played a huge game of “Big Booty” (the not so camp apropro version where we opted for inapropriate hand signals instead of numbers) that had us laughing absolutely histerically. All in all it was a pretty incredible weekend if I may say so!!
So this is my last week in Heredia, and it’s a little sad. But I am so CRAZY, REDONCULOUS, SUPER EXCITED for next week when I go to Playa Dominical on the southern pacific side of the country for…. SURF CAMP!! Yaaaaay!!! I absolutely cannot wait. Hopefully I will make Dad proud! Haha then he and I can catch some waves back home Eastside:o)
Ok well I promised Sebastian (the grandson) that we would play xBox again. He kicks my ass everytime and I can hardly understand what he wants me to do as he jabbers in Spanish at me the whole time, but it’s a laugh!! Hopefully I will be able to post this entry as long as the website decides to be nice. I hope everyone is doing great, I miss you guys!!!! Lotsa love to all
paz.amor.felicidad

"Back tooo schoool...back to schooool....hope I don't look like a foooool"
Haha first day of classes at Intercultura and I love it! It's a great little building set about five blocks up and four over from my house. It's built around this adorable open air court yard with lots of benches and tables etc. The sun was out in full force today so it just looked beautiful! I'm in an upper-leve intermediate course, much to my surprise...but it was a great class, only 3 students including me so it's a lot of just talking and having normal conversation. They took the new students out on a tour today and we got to walk around the city and see some of the markets and stores that we might need. Their "Central Mercado" is fantastic, I love it already. Tons of fresh fruit, lots of "sodas" (simple bar stool restaurants with set menus), FABULOUS! Then I went to my first dance class! I learned the merengue today. Ay carrumba! It's pretty much the easiest dance for girls since all you gotta do is bend your knees in time so your hips sway and the guy leads the way. haha But if the guy has no idea what's going on, well you're screwed and you just end up bouncing back and forth from one leg to the other. It was wicked fun though. I spent most of our free time with a wonderful girl named Marilese who's from Holland! We also hung out with another new student James who is from New Zealand! It was so cool hearing them talk about their homes and whatnot. Anyyywho
Sunday was a fun day too. I went out with one of the sons and a few of his friends and girlfriend, who is from Colorado. After Saturday, and struggling allllll day trying to talk to my host mom and just feeling so frustrated, Sunday was a welcome relief hanging out with some younger kids who spoke English. I'm going to try to speak Spanish more with them from now on, but a day of joking around in English was just what I needed! We went to this sports club where Courtney (the girlfriend) and I just hung out by the pool and chatted for a while. After that we decided to go grab some food, and you'll never guess where. HOOTERS. I kid you not people, my first Costa Rican restaurant was Hooters. I haven't even been in the states! haha o well. But here it's really strange because it's legit a family restaurant. There was a four year old at the next table! Oyyy Los Ticos son locos. Oh yes, and even after I said I was going to stick to walking around here, we spent most of the day in the car and this guy was an even crazier driver. I came to find out that the Costa Rican way to approach an intersection is to lay on the horn a few times before (maaaaybe) slowing down a bit and blowing through the stop sign. I guess the honk equals "WATCH OUT! HERE I COME!!" haha yea, thank god for the "o shit handle" in cars....

Ok well I must run and do my homework. HA!
Thanks for all the emails and comments! Lotsa love to everyone
paz.amor.felicidad.

I made it! After a wicked long day being stuck in the Boston airport and then Miami (both flights were delayed...) I fiiiiinally made it. The family Im staying with is very kind, and I adore the mother (Maria). Shes got a housefull of kids and is divorced, but shes really patient with me when Im attempting to pull words out of my...ya know? She didnt even get offended when I asked her if the guy that drove us home from the airport is one of her sons, when hes actually her boyfriend.... Ooops... Ya shes cool thankfully. Hahaha O well, the first of a ridiculously long list of things Ill screw up.
It takes me upwards of a full minute it seems to compose a full sentence, and even then I still sound like a 5 year old. I probably look like one too, all I do is smile, point and clap whenever I get something right it seems. Haha I need to work on that.
School starts on Monday, and its super close to the house, just a few blocks up and over. So thatll be a nice walk in the morning. Hopefully getting into classes will give me a little more purpose for being here so I can eventually stop asking myself the one thing thats constantly ramming me in the head: WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE?! Ya, right now Im having a difficult time remembering. Haha O well I just have to find my lil niche in this redonculous city of Ticos and their TERRIFYING driving. I tried to be real cool about it when Maria drove us around today, but inside I think I lost my heart out my ass a few times. I think Ill stick to walking while Im here.
Ok well I hope everyone back home is doing just great! The only thing I ask is for you to send some positive vibes my way! Hehe
paz.amor.felicidad
peace.love.happiness

Love to all!

PS its like 70 here! bwaahahaha