Tuesday, June 23, 2009
It's hard to believe it's our last week in Costa Rica. I wish I could stay longer. It's so peaceful here. Some of the others were asked what they missed most about the states. Most of them, if not all of them said nothing. Besides family, I miss potatoes. They don't really do potatoes here. I don't miss the traffic or the fast paced life. I like tico time - it's so much slower and you get to sleep a lot! It's still like I'm on Charlotte time though, because they go to bed around 8 here, which is 10 in Charlotte. And we get up 5 or 6 something, which is 7 or 8 in Charlotte. It took a lot of getting used to being here, but it'll take time getting used to back home, too. If I run into someone, I know I'll say, "perdon, lo siento," a couple times and get dirty looks out of it. It's weird because we speak Spanish so much here and I'm used to it. I still slip a thank you in there sometimes, but back home I'll be saying gracias to a cashier who thinks I'm crazy.
Last night, my mom and I talked forever. Turns out she didn't want to be a host mom anymore, but Odie begged her. She'd had bad experiences with her other "kids." She said she'd try it out for two more weeks and see how it went. But it's not like I have a lot to do to make up for the others because from her stories, I'm doing a lot better! I forgot to write it, but when I came home Friday, there was a gift bag waiting for me on my bed. The tag read, "Para: Sarita, con mucho carino de su familia tica." Sarita is my name here. It's like a loving name, almost like a pet name I guess. I'm sure you can figure out what it says, "For: Sarah, with much love from your host family." Inside was a cute little change purse. I was lucky because I came home that day with sunflowers for them that I bought at the market. And last night, my grandma handed me a bag with a cute t-shirt and a super cute keychain with a frog on it.
Today Jim, Laura, Jennifer and I went to see Volcan Poas. The four-monthers saw it a couple weeks ago. We had to leave early because if you get there late, you probably won't see the volcano because of all the clouds or even the steam. When we walked up there and saw the crater of the volcano, I just couldn't believe it. It was really pretty. There was so much steam spilling out of it. We took lots and lots of pictures of it. After we visited the volcano, we took a new trail leading to the lagoon, where the old crater was. Hiking back to the parking lot was a pain and took a really long time. We had to keeping taking small breaks because we couldn't breathe with us being up so high. After going to the souvenir shop, we went out to eat at this really fancy place. Jennifer said it would be perfect for a wedding because it was so pretty. It was at a like, trout farm. They catch the trout and then cook it up for you. This place was also another place to zip-line. There was a really bad earthquake in this town on January 6 and it ruined a lot of things, so they couldn't catch fresh trout for another 15 days. After leaving the restaurant, we headed back home. We had already missed all of class, so we all just went to our houses.
Oh yeah, did I ever tell you it rains here daily? Well it does. At least during the winter. And they only have two seasons. I'll let you guess which ones. Just a couple facts I forgot to include.
It's hard to believe it's our last week in Costa Rica. I wish I could stay longer. It's so peaceful here. Some of the others were asked what they missed most about the states. Most of them, if not all of them said nothing. Besides family, I miss potatoes. They don't really do potatoes here. I don't miss the traffic or the fast paced life. I like tico time - it's so much slower and you get to sleep a lot! It's still like I'm on Charlotte time though, because they go to bed around 8 here, which is 10 in Charlotte. And we get up 5 or 6 something, which is 7 or 8 in Charlotte. It took a lot of getting used to being here, but it'll take time getting used to back home, too. If I run into someone, I know I'll say, "perdon, lo siento," a couple times and get dirty looks out of it. It's weird because we speak Spanish so much here and I'm used to it. I still slip a thank you in there sometimes, but back home I'll be saying gracias to a cashier who thinks I'm crazy.
Last night, my mom and I talked forever. Turns out she didn't want to be a host mom anymore, but Odie begged her. She'd had bad experiences with her other "kids." She said she'd try it out for two more weeks and see how it went. But it's not like I have a lot to do to make up for the others because from her stories, I'm doing a lot better! I forgot to write it, but when I came home Friday, there was a gift bag waiting for me on my bed. The tag read, "Para: Sarita, con mucho carino de su familia tica." Sarita is my name here. It's like a loving name, almost like a pet name I guess. I'm sure you can figure out what it says, "For: Sarah, with much love from your host family." Inside was a cute little change purse. I was lucky because I came home that day with sunflowers for them that I bought at the market. And last night, my grandma handed me a bag with a cute t-shirt and a super cute keychain with a frog on it.
Today Jim, Laura, Jennifer and I went to see Volcan Poas. The four-monthers saw it a couple weeks ago. We had to leave early because if you get there late, you probably won't see the volcano because of all the clouds or even the steam. When we walked up there and saw the crater of the volcano, I just couldn't believe it. It was really pretty. There was so much steam spilling out of it. We took lots and lots of pictures of it. After we visited the volcano, we took a new trail leading to the lagoon, where the old crater was. Hiking back to the parking lot was a pain and took a really long time. We had to keeping taking small breaks because we couldn't breathe with us being up so high. After going to the souvenir shop, we went out to eat at this really fancy place. Jennifer said it would be perfect for a wedding because it was so pretty. It was at a like, trout farm. They catch the trout and then cook it up for you. This place was also another place to zip-line. There was a really bad earthquake in this town on January 6 and it ruined a lot of things, so they couldn't catch fresh trout for another 15 days. After leaving the restaurant, we headed back home. We had already missed all of class, so we all just went to our houses.
Oh yeah, did I ever tell you it rains here daily? Well it does. At least during the winter. And they only have two seasons. I'll let you guess which ones. Just a couple facts I forgot to include.
No comments:
Post a Comment