Trabajar todos los dias

So now that I´m no longer following the male ATAP worker around during my internship, I´m actually starting to rather enjoy it. It is tedious at times, but on occasion I get to administer vaccinations (which I´m totally not suppose to do so perhaps posting about it on the internet is a bad idea) and take people´s blood pressure. I consider the fact that I, a dance and literature major at a liberal arts college, now have the ability to do these things totally amazing. Honestly I´m truly amazed with myself. I´ve recently started coming out of my nervous little shell. I went to the cold forest this past weekend, which was by far the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life, and there I road a horse through the mountains, in the pouring down rain, and climbed over rickity bridges to get to this absolutely breath taking waterfall. It was like no experience I´ve ever had in my life. Looking back, I can´t believe I even did it. It just seems like something timid little me wouldn´t be up for. Neither does vaccinating someone though.
I´m also starting to feel more comfortable just generally living in a foreign place. I like taking the bus in the morning and watching all the men, dressed up for work with their fancy belt buckles and umbrellas, get on and off at the stops.
I´m afraid, though, that I´m isolating myself from the group some. I am not planning to go to the big party in the city this weekend with the rest of them. I haven´t been very interested in going out to bars with them in the past. This weekend I plan to go on a yoga retreat with at least one other woman I know here and I´m hoping that I will be able to round up a few people to go to the movies with me friday night. It is my birthday after all and I´m really hoping to be able to see Dark Knight in spanish. For some reason the idea of watching a movie here friday night, in the language that I´m trying to learn just seems really pleasant to me.
Well its time for class now.
Hasta Luego

Costa Rica, part 2

So I'm writing this blog really fast before my Spanish class begins. It is turning out to be much harder for me to stay in touch than I ever expected, simply because I'm soooo busy. I'm working in an EBAIS here, which is kind of like a free clinic, and I'm taking spanish classes and attending lectures in the evening. I'm getting use to doing things like taking the bus and going into strange people's houses to educate them on health and I'm learning to find my way around the city.
Last weekend the program shipped us all off to the beach, which was both amazing and kind of messed up. My friends and I almost got robbed and managed to poison ourselves with DEET bug repellent. Other than that though, we had a great time. We are going to a cloud forest this weekend, which I'm hoping will be really relaxing since we have been going like crazy this past week. We have been constantly busy.
I had to be sent to see a counselor a couple days ago since I am kind of having a hard time, but I've realized that if I just set small goals for myself and take things slowly, things are much easier.
The stuff I'm learning is really interesting, but I do think I'm experiencing a bit of culture shock. I am definitely homesick, as much as I keep thinking to myself "I totally love this country."
Exciting news though. At the beach, I saw a shit ton of monkeys. They came down out of the trees and hung out right next to my head!! I have some pictures that I'll post whenever I get the chance.
Gotta Go now. Peace.

Costa Rica

Estoy en Costa Rica ahora. I made it here alright, despite 20 hours of traveling, a plane with broken brakes, needing to change flights, and arriving hours late. I was totally freaked out the whole way here, but I was picked up at the airport just fine and taken to my homestay with no problem. My mom here is named Vicky. She's the sweetest woman ever. She is this short little woman in her 60s with short hair that she dies dark red and she wears black all the time. Her house is filled with color though. She is a painter and the entire house is covered with her paintings which are absolutely beautiful and filled with color. She's painted the door of her room and the walls of her garden in the back of the house which is absolutely beautiful and makes things feel really warm and welcoming. She has the best attitude. I only just met the man that lives with us last night. He had been in the country with his wife but he returned last night and I was introduced to him. He is so young. He's like 24. I had read this in my email describing my family but for some reason I still pictured him as being older.
Today is our first day of spanish classes at the institute. We've spent the last couple days getting oriented and walking around San Pedro. Carlos, one of the assistants here, has been our tour guide. He's our age and we all feel like he's probably got the shittiest job, but he's a totally sweet guy and really helpful. (I may have just the tiniest crush on him.)
We walk everywhere here, at least so far, which is great. The institute is about a 20 minute walk from my house. It use to be a private residence of a really rich couple so the place is beautiful, but really oddly laid out. Apparently this couple that lived here modeled, so the house is covered in mirrors. Weird. The address of the place is really only for the international students, it's basically useless. None of the buildings have addresses or numbers. Postage and directions are done with land marks, and estimation of the distance from them, the left or the right and a description of the building (usually).
Everything is really green here because it rains every afternoon. It's a warm rain though so it isn't so bad. Things appear a little underdeveloped at first glance, but they really aren't lacking in much. Things appear to function pretty well, just at their own pace.
So so far so good for me. Next stop on the trip, Nicaragua. Thats not for a couple more weeks though (like in a month) so I will continue to write about Costa Rica until then.
Hasta luego!

Address

So while I'm in Costa Rica my mailing address will be at ICADS institute, so for those of you who feel like mailing me (and I really would appreciate it) the mailing address they've given us goes something like this:
Student Name
C/O ICADS
Apartado 300-2050
San Pedro de Montes de Oca
Costa Rica, Centro America


So I'm leaving in 2 hours for LAX and I'm scared out of my mind. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me and reassured me. The next time you'll hear from me I'll be in Costa Rica!

Leaving Friday

So today is Wednesday and I'm leaving Friday. That means I have very, very little time left in the states. I'm starting to get a little panicky about that. I talked to Heather (one of the women who is going on the trip, and the only one in my session that I would really know at all) and that calmed me down a bit. It was nice to talk with someone else who was going and to hear their excitement about it. It also made me terribly nervous though because I couldn't help thinking how much more prepared than me she sounded and what an experienced traveler she was. I've driven into Mexico with my ex-boyfriend before, she's flown to Europe and been left without a single person to come pick her up or who she could get in contact with. (Of course she did travel with someone and I'm traveling there by myself so it's a little different, but I still feel kind of lame having never even been on an international flight before.) Her flight arrives after mine so we decided worst case scenario, I just hang out in the airport and wait to meet up with her when she arrives. That made me feel better. Still she has all her shit in line. She knows exactly what she is taking and just has to move her folded clothing pile from its designated area into her suitcase. She has a pair of hiking boots for when we go to the rain forest, a rain jacket, and she has determined that she is taking her computer and is armed with a list of reasons why. I still only have a general idea of what clothes I need to bring. I have never owned hiking boots or a rain jacket, and I keep getting contradicting information about bring a computer (if it's advised, if I'll be in need of one, if I'll even really want it) so I have no idea what I'm doing about that. I thought I had at least decided to leave my computer here, since electricity is suppose to be so expensive in Costa Rica and it is so uncertain how much internet access we will actually have. The institute is suppose to have computers with internet access available to us, so I thought I had decided to just take my chances and try to use those as much as possible. Now after talking to Heather, I'm not so sure. Aaaaah. I have all of these decisions to make and I need to be all packed and ready to go within a day or so!