hello dominical

woke up this am at 4 since i went to bed at 830pm last night. for $15 i got a stay in the school guest house, a HOT shower, laudry with a DRYER, tv, internet and breakfast. at 10 i called a cab to take me to my bus that left at 1030, of course there is an accident with the road shut down and a parade with a bunch of firefighters. so my 10 min drive became 27minutes and i get there just in time. everyone has told me to get to the bus early so i can put my stuff in the very back so it is less likely to get stollen, so great its probably going to be stolen except for the fact it weight 5000 pounds. 3 hours on the directo bus that stopped a few times for who knows what since it was in spanish and i got to san isidro where i was told to find a cab but there was some guy standing there with my name on a piece of paper...this school does everything for you. he tells me something in spanish and all i get is that there is a problem with the roads....i can stay in san isidro for the night or drive to where there is a mud slide, walk across and get another cab....that is exactly what i do, whats a little mud on my bag?. we pass the mile of cars stopped because of the mud slide and drive to the front, some guy walks up to the car i am in picks my bag up and carries it across the mud slide that is just now almost cleared and the big trucks driving across it are sliding all over. it was definetley ¨a little mud¨, it was up to my ankles, i was slidding trying to stay standing and not be hit by the sliding trucks crossing one at a time. so here i am in dominical, my very clean clothes are now muddy...but it is not raining here, it is very underwater which is not normal. and i dont really know how much spanish i have learned that is anygood outside the classroom, or anyconversation with a teacher....maybe i should stay longer

adelante, atras, alto!!

those are the 3 words i learned while white water rafting yesterday, i told the guide spanish only since everyone else spoke spanish...so here it goes all the safety instructinos in spanish, hope i did not miss anything. i got forward, backwards and stop and sit on the floor. but when it came to left side backwards and right side forwards the guide just laughed at me. its hards to think, translate and do while i am trying to stay on the boat. unlike guides in the states, we did not have to carry the boats or do anything. halfway thru we stopped, flipped a boat over and the guide made us tacos, or what i call burritos. it was a lot of fun.

goodby turrialba...

the last of my days of turrialba were wet until the last day that was beautiful.

i got a 20 dollar massage that was to say the least not the best i have had, but it was only 20dollars and my momma tica thinks that was expensive so now i probably am the spoiled american.

i spent another day in the hospital with the doctors and nurses. there is a room for sick pt to get ivs and if they dont get better then they get a bed that looks ancient, and btw grossmont all bedrails were down. nurses get paid 1000 dollars per month and work 6 8hour shifts a week, i am pretty sure that is around $5 per hour, but to rent a house is 200 a month.

i walked across the nun bridge that goes from the town to the nunnery, if that is what it is called.

feliz dia de accion de gracias....

for cooking class this week i decided we were going to have an american thanksgiving....so that is what we cooked with Betty tonight and it was very good. Turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie and vanilla icecream. The pumpkin pie was not just any old homemade pumpkin pie it was the best homemade pumpkin pie ever. and we listened to country music during dinner....i am the only one that likes country but Betty had her daughter in law make a country dc because that is what she thinks we listen to on thanksgiving because it is american. im am soooo full so i went on a walk with alex and ended up here at the cafe de internet.


no new news...it is still raining.

panza llena, corazon contento

i can see the mountains and volcanoe, almost. there is hope for sun. i think i am forgetting english as i try to learn spanish and it is making it very difficult.

costa rican fact...to get rid of a migraine just put your feet in a bucket of ice water

day 6 or 7 of rain

If you know me well, you know i do not read.....i read 2 books in the past week, and am on my third, sarah also left me with some of hers so dont worry i will have plenty to read. i tried to rent a movie but i am not a resident so there were some i can choose from that I could buy a 3 dollar copy, accidental husband it was. i dont think it is out i theaters yet and dont know how they have it here. so me and sarah sat on the couch and had hot chocolate and popcorn and watched a movie that was not even that good.

the news on tv showed the town puerto viejo i was at last weekend with perfect weather and people are now taking boats in the street to rescue people from their houses because there is so much water...i guess i choose a good weekend to go. all my clothes are wet here, with constant rain, 94% humidity and no clothes dryers everything is just a little damp..its time to go shopping.

week 4 of class, private class for me which means i have to pay attention and cant just pretend i get what Alice the instructor is saying or ask the person next to me when i start daydreaming. this will be the week i become fluent! I can order from a restraunt and am told i speak very good spanish, i can explain to a cab where i want to go...but when it comes to everyday conversation i am like a deer in headlights.

sarah went home yesterday and i am now the only sara. there is another girl alex who is from canada and is here for 1 week of school and 2 months of travel. yes it did cross my mind, i could do that too...but no i cant because i am going to israel jan 6 and should probably come home first.

what i learned today...a food even grosser than lengua is ojo and it has the consistancy of flan.

rain rain go away. por favor

It has been raining for 1 week now and i think I am done with it now. There is a big storm on the caribean side where i was last weekend and the rain is hitting turriabla also. So with all the rain the rivers are too high to go rafting in today and probably tomorrow so i will try again next weekened. but there is absolutely nothing to do now. this town is based around rafting, canyoning, horsebackriding and hiking...i feel like i am in a big mud puddle, my pants are wet up to my knees, but so are everybodys. so what to do now....try to entertain myself on the internet, watch spanish music videos and soap operas and eat icecream....oh ya i might try and learn some new spanish words, maybe read a book.

fact{ in cali i keep bread in my oven, in costa rica they keep papayas in the oven.....btw, i do not like papaya

dia fria

yesterday afternoon I went to hangout in the local turrialba hospital...they have nothing there. Our patients complain that they have to be in a room with someone else, in this hospital each room has 10 to 12 beds in it, and they do not look comfortable. the er has a room where people sit to get iv fluids, no beds..the ambulance only has a driver...and from what i found out from joe who crashed a motorcycle a few weeks ago and got an ambulance ride from it is that they dont really stap you in a gurney so every turn you fall out. there is a room for cpr that looks ancient. there is a sterile operation room that we walked into...i guess not so sterile. next off...labor and delivery. me and sarah changed into some very large scrubs and went to watch a lady have a baby....no iv until after, no monitor for baby or mom, no pain meds and no screaming.

today i have been very cold all day...costa rica is not supposed to be cold. after class I went canyoning. i repelled down 4 waterfalls, peed in one...sorry if someone was down there, a few ziplines between the trees...yes very close to them, my hands are cut up and across a wobbly bridge.

costa rican fact....IT DOES GET COLD HERE

i saw my life flash before my eyes...

12:12 last night i wake up feeling like I am in a hammock, maybe I am just dreaming. Nope it happens again. An earthquake, probably the strongest longest one I have ever felt. I sat in bed listening to the house moving and thought <´what if the walls cave in?] good thing they didnt. I guess it is not uncommon for earthquakes here, no wonder the roads are so messed up and uneven. my mama tica said the house is strong and she trusts it, so i guess i trust her. the earthquake was 6.7 in panama i was told.

it is cold and rainy here. 2 days ago it was hot and humid. cant this town just compromise and have sandiego weather. What I have to look forward to: pops icecream everyday, clean laundry, canyoning and whitewater rafting!

costa rican fact: i think the icecream shop uses dry ice for the serbert because it steams a lot more than normal and makes my tongue really cold.......yes i know that sounds really dumb, but it is true.

to be honest...

this is the first time i might kinda be bored...or maybe it is the first time i have nothing to do and should sit down and study some grammar, but instead i found a computer...can i say that i hate grammar. so i will probably go home, eat dinner and watch music videos in spanish...that is studying right. i did not do anything today but it is a day I will NEVER forget. thats all.

fact of the day...i have tried it and tried it and tried it again, costa rican pizza is no bueno. i will take rice and beans anyday over the pizza

turialba

i had my first day of class today, they are seriously in the middle of trees and i am very distracted by the lizards, birds and squirrels.

I am a little uncomfortable in this town, it is much larger, no one speaks any english (but i guess that is why i came) and there are bars on many of the houses...not mine. odilie says it is a safe town and i am going to believe her. i went to 3 banks today, none would give me money....what have i done wrong?

what do stay at home moms do all day, especially if there kids are 20+? Cook and do laudry i guess. I was getting home sick from the food here but odilie made stirfry as i would call it with fresh veduras and it was one of the best meals i have had. then we sat and watched spanish music videos and talked for awhile...

fact of the day...costa ricans definetly dont speak the same spanish i do, or they just dont listen....i am speaking spanish, what dont they understand.

he said sara, but i think it may be you...

I convinced sarah to come scuba diving with me, sarah and sara is getting very confusing. As sarah got a quick scuba lesson i fried my self on the beach and talked to some canadian guy who is traveling for a year, said he only thinks he will need 20,000 dollars, so if i dont come back i will be doing the same. Then the adventure began. the divemasters who were also from canada speaking french now really confusing me with the languages (canadians all move to puerto viejo i decided) loaded everything onto a small blowup boat with a motor which i thought was going to take us to a larger boat...nope that was our boat, and it was the roughest day in the ocean they have seen in 9 months. so off we went sitting on the side of a river rafting type boat with a motor. the ocean was not that perfect calm caribean i always imagined, but it made it fun and i almost flew off a few times.

We arived at the first dive ¨the garden ¨ and in we go into the 84 degree water, a little nervous since it was my first dive away from home. 20minutes at 20 feet and it was awesome, scott the dive guy was very imppressed i did not kick the reef at all. then onto the next place ¨the wall¨ 30minutes at 60 feet. had some trouble going down with my ears but i pretended to be patient and not freak out and i made it down. there were tons of bright colored fish, jellys, crabs, coral and 3-4 foot long puffer fish. no sharks:) at least that i saw. i learned very quickly while swiming thru a coral cave that if you touch the coral it cuts and hurts, dont worry i saved my life by holding pressure to my finger under water ans stopped the bleeding...that actually kinda looked neat under water. i then entertained myself by blowing air rings in the water. it was a good trip and cant wait to possibly go again in 2 weeks on the pacific side.

I had the best pumpkin icecream which i think will be the closest i get to thanksgiving this year....so who wants to have a late thanksigving with me in december or january? please?

then the vaction ended. sarah, monica, jennifer y yo packed up the car and started our 3 hour drive to turrialba where i will be staying for 2 weeks. lets talk about the driving here some more, or the people riding bikes and walking. just walk into traffic without looking, you are invincible and a car will just jump over you. people are crazy here, people just stop on the side of the road...or sit on the side of the road, or walk right down the center...why? i dont know. but we made it with out killing anyone or any dog.

we arive to turriable expecting a town like la fortuna but a little larger and feel we will be able to find where each of us are staying.....no the directions to my house was detras de la estadio # 9 and monica and jenny were #8. ok i need to find the stadium, should not be that hard. and sarahs was by some bar. so we find the bar and then go to look for the house number but houses do not have numbers. ok then we try to find the stadium and end up at a gas station after asking for directions one time. the guy at the gas station thinks we are looking for someother town and we could not understand anything...btw gas here was $70 for half tank, so stop complaining. we drive around and i go ask someone else, she understands me and i understand her and we find the stadium. now we have to find behind the stdaium, that could be 4 ways. i get excited and see a #7 on a house and ring the door bell and the lady looks at me like i am crazy, ok i went to the wrong number but it was also the wrong side of the stadium, she tells me where ¨detras¨ is and we drive down the street and there are no numbers on the houses, so logically we decided we can count 8 and 9 houses in. as we drive back around some ladys are waving at us by the 3rd house. finally we found someone who does not think we are all crazy and i find where i will be staying. costa rice definetely needs some adresses.

i am staying with odilie and she is really nice and she understands my spanish and i understand her most of the time, other times i just nod and smile. it is different this time because she does not understand any english at all like the last place i stayed.

then off to bed i went by 9pm, talking in spanish is tiring and i need a lot more sleep. I got an awesome wetsuit tan line today, and my first tan for months and it only took a few hours.

la dia perfecta

The caribean weather is perfect, no rain and lots of sun. the hotel is perfect...i can see the water from my room, there are turtles swimming in ponds and hamocks in the trees. yesterday we all woke up around 8..ya for sleeping in.. and came down to breakfast. I sat at a almost private beach, read in a hammock and swam in the perfect temperature water.

then off to a chocolate massage i went and now my skin is as soft as a baby and i love it. the massage was in a little hut open on one side to the jungle. there were lizards all over the place and monkeys probably looking in.

after the massage we got in our car and drove to MAxis, a restaurant recommended to us by a few people. the ride there wAS BUMPY. A Few yards of paved road with many pot holes then a few yards of gravel road....but there were no curves so it was not as bad as the montain roads...jenny learned to drive like a local, passing everyone and swearving around the pot holes in which you cant see the bottom. maxi´s was the best food i have had the whole trip, fish, chicken, steak and very very large shrimp shishcabobs. then to bed i went.

I am now waiting to be picked up to go scuba diving for the first real time.

costa rica fact: the sun here is really hot

vacation #2.. caribean

2nd week of school donrne!!! went to some hanging bridges over the forest. went to tabacon spa and sat in the hotsprings for 3 hours....gorgeous with waterfalls and swim up bar, then off to karioke till 2 in the morning, i guess me and jenny were having fun. so class today not so fun...i was exhausted. ...we learned what not to say and other fun stuff that is useless but fun. then goodbye la fortuna....

and now the next ¨;reta;...aka adventure. me sarah, jenny and monica rented a car and drove 6 hours across costa rica to the caribean on some awesome roads...directions i found states....find road to limon, road has no middle divide, use headlights, use legal gas station there, follow road 2 hours towards puerta viejo and banana azul hotel is 1.5 km from town. good luck to us and we found it after multiple attempts when we got to the town. once again i cant drive...all cars are manual. it is a 13 room bungalo on the beach...mosiquito nets and all, hammocks all over.

costa rica fact....mix tomatoe paste, sugar and bbq sauce together and u get spaghetti sauce that makes me want to vomit

que rico!!

when i come home will someone please get sushi and chicken parmesean with me. please????!! why do they eat rice with spaghetti, rice with mac and cheese, i just dont get it. ketchup and mayo on salad...gross. Well I can never go wrong with icecream!

I went to a spinning class last night at the gym here..did not understand much. the teacher wore a black spandex jumsuit unziped down the front and danced to english techno while we worked out. they sprint almost the whole time with no resistance, kinda weird but it is soo humid it feels like you work really hard.

monteverde vacation from school...

I took a vacation from school and made my way up to monteverde cloud forrest with sara joe andre and patricia this last weekend. lets talk more about coasta rican roads...they suck. we took a boat to what i would call one of the worst roads i have been on..what cali guys would go off roading on is what we drive on in vans. all the people of the town have quads and dirtbikes. there was one point the van could not make it up the hill so we had to back down and try again. 3 hours later we arrived and went on a 2 hour hike thru the forrest, it was cold and wet...we literally were in the clouds- everyone went back to la fortuna but me and sarah styed the night. we decided to walk to the cheese factory that a tour guide said was 20minutes away so one we go. 20 minutes up a very steep hill we muct be there...nope 2 hours later we get there and there factory is not running and there is a small cheese stand.

when we finally made it back we went on a night hike thru the jungle and saw lots of gross bugs, terantulas, snake, a sloth. then off to dinner in a tree, yes in a tree..and the most expensive meal i have had. 15$ for a salad, but it was not rice and beans. then off to bed we went. exhausted from hiking thru the muddy puddled roads for hours.

yesterday morning we woke up...i and got breakfast....it was my first bed and breakfast experience ever and it was not bad. then off to zip lining 45mph thru the cloud forrest. it is the longest zip lines in costa rica and it looked like you were flying thru white out conditions. it was a lot of fun, much better than in mexico. by the end we were covered with oil from the lines and very wet. then back to la fortuna we went, but this time i was able to sleep on the 2hour ride down the bumpy road.

and here i am trying to download all my picts to a website but it is all in spanish and i have to download the program first and i keep freezing the computer. good luck to me;)

costa rican fact: traffic is usually due to cows and horses.

i swam with crocodiles !

lsat night aguas termales aka hotsprings were awesome. our class went and there was a very big lightening storm. everytime there was lightening it lit up the volcano and in between we could see the glow of the volcano. lightening her is much brighter than anywhere else. i did not make it to karaoke after 2 hours in the hotsprings.

i finshed my first week of school and the teachers made us chilli reaños. muy rica

its been raining non stop and hard with thunder and lightening since noon. i went kyaking down peñas blancas river after class, of course no rain there. i saw some monkeys, iguanas, birds and some cocodrilos. I went off a rope swing into the water and of course 5 minutes later or less we see a very large crocodile get into the water and go under my kyake.

i then had some hot chocolate which here is sugar free real chocolate, i made sure to add my own then had some cactus and guanabana icecream which is one of the best things ever in a cafe with iguanas just hanging out in the trees.

costa rican fact: eating pineapples is killing the jungle

oh ya...dont where white shirts here

i went bungee jumping!

I sit in class and stare out the window watching people bungee jump every so often...of course i have to do it and it was awesome, not off a bridge or anything but they only have that in 1 or 2 places here. At the top getting ready to jump the guys are talking in spanish to switch the set up, left to right and right to left. me and joe look at eachother like we are now both goign to die and they do not know what they are doing. we did it anyways and no i did not die, i still leave that for a car to do.

yesterday afternoon i went with sarah and robyn to los vernados cavernas that are way better than anything in the states, except that they bats kept getting way too close. pretty much it is a bunch of cave with a river running thru it that i walked thru, we had to fit thru some pretty small spaces, do some climbing and some crawling. there were many large, and i mean large spider that eat bats. we came out muddy and wet but it was a lot of fun.


I just got back from the town orphanage, we took the ambulance there. I told the guy i used to drive one and he wanted me to drive...small problem, all the cars here are stick shift and i only do automatic. it would have been fun.
and let me tell you about costa rican roads....they are horrible

costa rican fact: if i want to look like a local, i need pants and shirts that are 2 times too small

election day...

-saw a sloth and its baby
-heard am iguana taller than me fall from a tree
-saw a crocodile chase the iguana in a pond
-spoke some spanish
-ticans want obama to win, we will see soon
-really could go for some sushi now, not gonna eat it here
-the birds come out at 5 here and are very loud, kinda reminds me of that horror movie the birds
-it did not rain today!!
-I did have gallo con pinto (rice and beans) y huevo for breakfast, what a surprise

costa rica fact-- monkeys do not eat bananas, only when they are in jail (the zoo)

first day of class...

I know a lot more spanish than i thought, just not enough to put the words together right. i was started intermediate level (i am not so sure about this) with 2 other girls that are also nurses from denver. 4 hours of class went by this morning very fast and there was no daydreaming and doodling for me (i knew it was possible) since it is very interactive. no english is spoken at all by the teacher.

Last night sarah and i took a trip to the valcano to see the lava flowing, was not that impressed. on the way we stopped at a local spot hot spring which was awesome and i cant wait to go back. it was like a hot tub in the middle of the jungle. the hot spring has a slide like slide rock in AZ that goes thru a bridge, so the first time i pretty much trusted that the locals knew what they were doing and that i would not die. you slide down this flat rock in the river that goes into darkness with steam. at the bottom you can jump off a ledge and let the waterfall massage your back. the hot spring was called chollin which i believe means bruise, and let me tell you i got a few of them from there.

I am sitting here wasting some time before i get a $25 massage with reflexology, i love this place. then off to dinner with the family and drinks with the school.

costa rica fact-people do not have the right of way even at crosswalks or stop signs, if i die here it will be by a car.

esta in arenal

the fun begins..nadia habla ingles!!! the bus stops and tells me it is my stop and sarahs is next. we look at eachother and say there is no way we are getting off in seperate places. we get off and no family is there to meet us and no one was answering the emergency numbers so we decided to walk and find our families ourselves...did not work. An hour walk walk with 60pound bags over mud and rocks in 80 degree humid weather we now were drenched in sweat. we returned to where we started and and spoke with the only english speaking person in town. finally a call went thru and the families were able to find us.

at the house immediately a large homemade meal of rice and chicken with white sauce was made and we talked for awhile, did not realize how much i actully knew. from what i understood she had two daughter 13 and 19, sometimes i just nood and smile and act like i know what is going on.

FYI¨-im sporting the charger gear and no one here cares.

la isla tortuga

woke up at 530 am to take a bus 2 hours to a boat that goes to la isla tortuga....went kyaking, and hiking, had lunch and read on the beach...yes i opened a book. the plan was to snorkel also but the sun did not decide to come out, though it still was quite warm, there would not be much to see. there was a crazy girl on the trip that definetely put me back thinking i may be at work, making out and yelling at her girlfriend, upset that she did not get to sit where she wanted too... she needed some ativan in applesauce. got home walked back to my place and as soon as i got home it started pouring rain, at least it sounds like it. Last time it rained it sounded like a big storm from inside and when i went to look it was just sprinkling.

what i learned today: everything cost money, you need the bathroom-that will be $1. you want to hike $3.