Me voy hasta dos semanas...

I'm coming home two weeks from today. Goals before I leave:

1-Go to Nicaragua
2-Become totally fluent
3-Run for President of Costa Rica as a write-in candidate

Last week was Semana Santa which is a week here where all the Catholics do stuff every day and everyone else goes to the beach. I don't know if it's disrespectful to just say they do stuff. If you feel like it is, you can look it up on Wikipedia and be more informed and norant(opposite of ignorant?)

So I went to Panama with all my friends from school. We had a blast. This is all the girls.

Also last weekend I went to a volcano with Julia. Apparently it's the second biggest crater in the world. But that could be a lie...check Wikipedia.


Kelly: I'll be in Murray probably May 10.

Cinderella dressed in amarillo

Last week we had culture day at school. The teachers taught us to dance and play some kids games. I of course couldn't dance at all but dominated jump rope.

A couple weeks ago I met my friend Julia and some of her friends at a beach house in Guanacaste. It was a really long beach with huge waves. We had to walk a few miles from the house every day but (being three gringas) we got rides most of the time.


This beach trip felt a little different for me. We had been at this really cool coffee shop for about half an hour when I suddenly just said, "I don't like it here." In this shop, no one spoke spanish, it even said, 'open' on the door. That's not terribly uncommon at the beaches or even in the city but it began to really bother me. There was absolutely nothing tico about this place. Everyone thinks of Costa Rica just as the perfect beaches and take away the culture. Going to the beach is bittersweet.

Go...or stay

The man formerly known as Saul had a mission. Go from town to town and share this experience, share this life you´ve been given. Share the life-changing revelation that is Jesus Christ. In hindsight his purpose is quite clear. Go. Go to the ends of the earth. Go to your neighbor.
And yet we know that he spent a lot of time in jail. I wonder how he must have felt there. After the initial excitement and checking off my bucket-list of getting arrested...I would have felt useless. But he wrote letters. The best he could do. No matter where we are we can be used by God and learn more about Him and this life.

Inspired by words from Ju... to EJ.

La conocì en el bus

Last Wednesday I saw Slumdog Millionare (amazing) and then had to catch a bus to downtown San Jose to meet Julia for coffee. I met a girl that helped me get on the right bus and ended up talking with her a while on the bus. I ended up inviting her to coffee and she spent the evening with Julia and I. It was really cool and she and I are going to get together to practice language together. She's from Nicaragua.

This weekend I went to Playa del Coco and went scuba diving. It was really scary, especially Saturday because there was little visibility but Sunday was really cool. I saw tons of cool fish, some sting and mantarays and go stung on the face by a jellyfish. Friday night was the best though because I met a group from Denmark and played soccer with them for an hour or so. Me encanta futbol.

Here's a cool pic of an island we saw. Looks like a monkey!

La Gringa!

My friend Julia from SAMBICA is in CR this semester too. We met up Sunday and went to church with some friends of mine. I enjoyed the service because many of the songs were American praise songs with the words switched to spanish. It was nice to know what I was singing to the Lord. After the service there was a picnic. We shared food and the men played soccer. I desperately wanted to play but had on a dress and nice flip flops.
Julia and I decided to be bold and try to speak with some of the Ticas at the picnic, we were excited to be invited to play soccer with them. Still a bad idea but I tied a jacket around my waiste and went for it. At one point someone on the opposite team stopped the game and brought to everyone's attention the fact that all girls over the age of 10 had left my team aside from me. It was a bunch of people my age against "Los niños y la gringa" (kids and the white girl). But no one on the other team would switch to the bad team. I spent the rest of the game hearing "La gringa! A la gringa!" and trying to encourage my team of niños with the little spanish I have.