One Wild Week

Well, it's been a little over a week since I've last blogged so I thought it was about time. Last Sunday, a group of us went to a place where they had some hot springs. They had 20 different pools with temperatures between 90 and 150 degrees. There were 3 water slides that emptied into a pool. They looked like normal water slides, but were hands down the fastest slides I'd ever been on. One went straight down. Once I hit the water, I skidded about 15 feet before coming to a stop. Our tour guide took us on a little safari tour through the jungle. We drove and saw a few birds, but nothing more. This concluded our weekend and it was back to school on Monday.

Monday I was informed that everyone was going bungee jumping on Wednesday. I had to decide if I wanted to go or not. If I didn't go, I knew it would be something that I would regret, so I went. We were driven to the bridge on Wednesday. We began to walk onto the bridge and immediately looked down. About 300 feet below was a river that, from this height didn't look like much, but was probably pretty large. I was the 4th person in our group to jump. They strapped me in, and told me to get onto the platform and put my toes over the edge. Everyone counted down from 5, and I jumped as far as I could. The 3-5 second free fall was probably the most exhilarating thing I've ever done. I bounced about halfway back up, and dropped again. A crane pulled me back up, and it felt amazing to be back on land.

Thursday after class, we headed for Manuel Antonio. My friend Phillip told me that Manuel Antonio had recently but rated as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Expectations were high. We arrived in Manuel when it was getting dark on Thursday. We were a little confused about where our apartments were, so we just started walking. We past a hotel and met an American woman that walked with us for about 10 minutes to show us where our rooms were. We got settled in, went out for dinner, and called it a night. The next morning was time to hit the beach. Upon arrival, we were a little disappointed. The beach was pretty rocky. Only a small strip of it had grayish sand. We got in the water, the waves were massive, probably 7-10 feet all weekend. Friday we spent all day on the beach, body surfing, boogie boarding, throwing a football/frisbee, and hanging out. Saturday morning, Phillip, Justin, Mason and I went on a little fishing trip. Our taxi driver pulled up to the shore, where a little pink boat was waiting on us. We got in, wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. We were about a mile off the coast the whole time. We got completely soaked on the ride to our fishing spot. The water was fairly warm but the air was freezing. The first hour and a half were pretty boring. No fish, just sitting and waiting. Justin and Phillip got motion sickness. The waves were probably 10-12 feet tall. We were constantly bouncing up and down. Phillip caught the first fish, a jack, a pretty good sized fish. I had a monster on my line that I reeled in for about 3 minutes. When he got about 15 feet from our boat, he got off. I was so mad. I didn't see him but I knew he was huge. Everyone got their turn catching fish, Mason, Justin and I all caught needle fish. They were about 2 feet long and extremely skinny. Not long after, it was time to go. Our boat passed the beach where we were supposed to meet our friends, so we asked if our guides would drop us off at the beach. Our driver said the closest they could get was about 40 meters. We said we'd give it a shot. He pulled in as close as he could. We turned around and it looked like a wave was about to swallow our boat. Somehow, it didn't. The guide told us to get out as quickly as possible. I had a bag of things that we had to keep dry. We jumped out, me holding the bag above the water, and started swimming as fast as possible. Luckily, no waves broke on top of us, and we made it to the beach safely. The rest of the day consisted of enjoying the beach. We went out to dinner, and then a few of us called it a night. I went to sleep around 9:30, and woke up around 8:30 this morning. It felt glorious. Today we came back to San Pedro. It feels good to be home.

Only two more weeks of school. It is crazy that we are halfway done with classes here. Two weeks from today I will be flying back to Atlanta to meet up with Brittany. I am really excited to be back, but I'm enjoying every minute of being here.

Costa Rica: Pure Vida

With living abroad, there are chances that one must decide whether or not to take. One of those chances is eating at an "American" restaurant. The guys decided to go to Taco Bell Thursday for lunch. It is right next to campus and looks delicious. It was, hands down, one of the best meals I've ever eaten at Taco Bell. However, I regretted it later. Let's just say that I had some stomach problems and anything I ate went straight through me. I got up Friday and felt pretty bad. Didn't want to go to school. I ended up going but felt pretty weak and didn't want to do much. We went to Walmart for lunch. I couldn't hardly eat anything. My host mom walked me down the street to the pharmacy where i got some medicine.

Also on Friday, I had a 20 minute Spanish group presentation in my Conversation class. Luckily I had my new friend Mandi, and also Tyler and Kristin to talk with as well. It went fairly well if I must say. Friday night, I had to eat mashed potatoes for dinner while Justin and Mason had some wonderful food. I also couldn't drink any milk that night. Sad day.

Today was the trip to Tortuga Island. It was definitely the highlight of the trip so far. We got up at the 5 a.m. to make it to school by about 5:45. We left the school around 6:15 for a 2.5 hour bus ride to the coast. The drive was beautiful! We drove through all kinds of mountains to get to the Pacific Coast. We got to the coast and ate breakfast at a restaurant right on the ocean. Then we boarded a boat and headed for Tortuga. The ride to the island was gorgeous. We passed tons of mountains that were right off of the shore. Beautiful scenery everywhere I looked. We got to the island and it was perfect! I jumped in the water as soon as I could. Within about 3 minutes of being in the water, I feel my right arm starting to sting really bad. After a few minutes of stinging, my arm begins to break out with red bumps on it. I realized that I had been stung by a jellyfish. I talked to our tour guide about what to do. I've always heard people say to urinate on a jellyfish sting...well, i'm not really sure I wanted someone going on my arm. They ended up rubbing some sugar on it and it went away within the hour. The bumps are still somewhat visible but much better. We had lunch on the beach, played some volleyball, rode a banana boat, and finally went for another swim. Within about 5 minutes of the second swim, my other arm starts stinging. I looked down and saw a tentacle-like substance on my arm, pulled it off as fast as I could and got out. Another sting. This time, I knew exactly what to do. Got some sugar, rubbed it on, and it felt better within the hour. Shortly thereafter, it was time to leave. The boat ride was about an hour and a half, then another 2.5 back to the school. Had dinner at the mall and then finished off with the first warm shower in about a week and a half.

On the boat ride back to the shore, I spent some time enjoying creation and the Creator. I kept seeing the beautiful contrast of the mountains next to the ocean. I can't imagine that being an accident. I wish I could've been there in the beginning when God spoke the world into existence. From nothing, into this earth. I'm in awe that nature obeys His words. Just like when Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples wondered who He was that even the winds obeyed Him. I'm excited to open up to Acts 4 tonight to read about Peter and John before the Sanhedrin court. Peter: "For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." I want this to be my attitude about the Gospel, that I can't help but talk about what I've seen or heard. Unfortunately, I don't think I could say that right now. Could you?

Costa Rica-Day 6

Well I have been in Costa Rica now for almost a week. I am loving every minute of it. Sunday we went on our first excursion. First we saw an active volcano, and a little lake kind of next to it. Later that day, we went to this zoo/waterfalls. The zoo had lots of birds, butterflies, monkeys, snakes, cheetahs, etc. The waterfalls were beautiful as well! The park had a buffet that was SO good!

Monday came around, and reality set in: time for class. I went to my first two days of Intermediate Spanish 1 and I didn't learn a thing. I was a little disappointed to say the least. My professora was very nice, but she mumbled alot and what we were learning I knew by heart. I went to the language office and switched into Conversation and Composition. I went to these classes today and loved them. They will be much more challenging but i will learn so much more from them. They are both in all Spanish, so they will be pretty tough.

For the 4th of July, we went to a little restaurant/bar where the bartender told us there would be fireworks shot off. Our group all ordered a dessert or something and waited for the fireworks. People started showing up, but the fireworks never did. I'm pretty sure the bartender just said that to get people there. It worked. Well played, Bryan.

On Monday, some of the guys that we hang out with bought a membership to the university gym. We are trying to work out at least a couple days a week. Today after class, we went to eat lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and then went to the gym for about 45 minutes. Afterwards, we went to the mall in order to see a movie (Wednesdays, they have 2 tickets for the price of one). Unfortunately, all the movies within 2 hours were sold out. We ended up just shopping and walking around the mall for a couple hours.

On Saturday, I am going on a school sponsored cruise to Tortuga Island. I have no idea what we will do once we get there, but we can horseback ride, kayak, snorkel, play beach volleyball, or just bum around on the beach. Sunday, a group of us are going to this resort/spa place. I'm not too sure exactly what is there but I hear it will be fun. Apparently The Bachelorette was filmed there...must be important. Monday will be "back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool."

Adios

Life in Costa Rica

I figure blogging will be a good way for people to read about my Costa Rica trip, so here goes:

I arrived here Thursday night after an hour delay in Atlanta. I got to talking to the girl next to me on the plane. Turns out, she is from Sweden and is going to work at an orphanage right outside of San Jose for three weeks. We exchanged emails and went on our ways. Once I got to San Jose, the study abroad folks, students and directors, were waiting on me. Shortly after I arrived, we all got on a bus and went to meet our host families. I'm staying at a house with my roommate, Justin Young. Our mom is incredibly sweet. She does speak English so I was very happy. She has helped out quite a bit with working our way around the city and speaking Spanish. Friday we had cultural orientation at school from 2-4 p.m. It was the normal do's and don'ts of orientation. Justin and I got back home and walked down the street to the local market. The public transportation system here is very simple and useful. We have ridden the bus almost everywhere we've gone. Riding the bus costs 200 colones, which is about 40 cents. Friday night, our group from Ouachita, new friends Phillip and Claire, and our Swedish friend Amelie went to the movie theater in the local mall. The movie costs us 1800 colones, which is only about $3.50. I'm sure we will be seeing several movies while we are here. Justin and I rode a taxi for the first time Friday night. Quite an experience to say the least. We rode two taxis, neither of them spoke English. I couldn't communicate with the first one, so he called someone who spoke English and translated for us. The second taxi ride was more successful. We were dropped off just a block from our home. Life is simple. I love Costa Rica. Here are a few things I've learned about life in Costa Rica:

-Never leave home without an umbrella. Ever. It rains every day.

-Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. You will get run over.

-Learn to love rice. It is served with almost every meal.

-Public transportation is a good thing.

-In order to learn another language, sometimes you have to sound like an idiot trying to communicate.

-Take advantage of every opportunity. Time is limited.