Milking a cow...never though THAT would happen

PUPPIES!

Feeding sheep. It felt so cool!

Giving cows milk

The farm

I'm really bad at updating this. But my Mom has started to threaten me. So, here I am.

Today I went to a farm. Well, we all went. It was mostly a dairy farm. I wasn't especially excited at the prospect of touching cows- but I had no idea how cute baby cows were! I don't know what happens to them when they grow up...but when they're small theyre so cute! I wanted to take one home. I got to hand feed lambs and baby goats and play with tiny puppies. I also milked a cow with my bare hands and then drank fresh cow milk! Didn't I was actually going to until it was happening.

My spanish is much improving. I just need to suck it up and start talking to more people so I can practice...I just get so embarrassed.

I took this from Carlos Brenes' facebook to put on here.
The back row is Graham (with his arm up), Andy, Enrique (QuiQue), Wendy (sort of a therapist...), Andres(weekend mentor), Diane(she does all the office stuff. she's great...everyone likes diane!), and Carlos. Then Me, Steve, and Sofia (yoga)

I try to to what i say i will.

[so, i told some people i would update this tonight. I like them. So here it is :)]

Tuesday:

I don't do much of anything on Tuesdays. I tend to mostly sit in the bottom floor of my apartment (i turned it into my art 'studio'.) and do animation. I like having that space to draw and listen to music knowing that I'm not bothering anyone and they aren't bothering me either. Today i finished a drawing that I had been working on for a while. Its something I did for a friend of mine. I don't know how i feel about it, as only one person has seen the final version yet.

These are the boys i live with, two nights ago. It was VERY funny (also extremely out of character for each of them.)

I learned a new word in Spanish yesterday: alma. it means soul.

Tomorrow when the sun is out I'm going to take pictures of my room and apartment to put up.

Goodnight :)

...Wednesday?

i only update this thing when i have something worthwhile to post. but then i realized that i rarely have anything groundbreaking to report. so i decided to give the whole daily monotony thing a shot. (i don't think i spelled that word right, but apparently...)

wednesdays are pretty good for me.
gym and then time to not rush, then to gustavo's house with steve, or sometimes alone, to have painting class. i never want to go but i'm always glad i went. today it rained all day. i guess i shouldn't be surprised. this IS costa rica. there IS a tropical climate. this IS rainy season. but anyways. today was, for some reason, especially enjoyable. gustavo is finally not making me copy someone elses paintings. this new one is of my imagination, but i guess i got hung up somehow on the whole huge fruit thing. this one is a huge orange, inside of a house. and i got to try airbrushing for the first time. it was really hard to control.
i cook lunch on wednesdays. i don't mind cooking. today i baked a cake, as lunch was being grilled and i want nothing to do with that. but i recieved no complaints- and i helped with dishes and cleanup anyways.
then spanish class. i like spanish class- a lot, really. my spanish keeps getting better, and i am slowly (very slowly) learning to be less embarrassed to speak a little bit of it to people other than my spanish teacher.
then we come back home, do a house group that mostly involves in finalizing weekend plans. This weekend we're going to the movies friday, paintballing and go karts saturday, and the farmers market sunday for the amazing papusas and, in my opinion, the best juice i'd had yet in costa rica.
after group dinner is cooked, we chill, and then have a group with the doctor.

day to day isn't too terribly exciting.
oh- and today we had to throw away all of our rice because, for some reason, there are worms in it. how disgusting is that? (its also a little bit funny)

last weekend i went to vermont to see the kgs graduation. it was a fun trip. it was also very relaxing to be part of an english speaking majority. i especially liked being able to order food in english :)

Obras del Espíritu Santo Photos

three of the children (kindergarden aged)

The staff lined up the children when i asked if i could take pictures. It was very sweet of her, considering I couldn't have asked on my own.

The play room

The play room

The play room.

They have lots of toys, but almost everything is broken.

Its been a month.

waterfall we passed while rafting

Gogreous campsite

rafting gear

Joey (this was our tent)

Pacuate River

At least I never pretended to be good at updating this. :)

So last weekend was one of our 6 week trips where we go away and have an adventure of some sort for the weekend. This time it was white water rafting the the Pacuate river. I was so scared but I ended up having a great time, even though i was one of the only people who fell out of the raft and into the rapids. That just made it more...exciting. We camped by the river on Sturday night in the nicest campsite I have ever been in (and I've been in lots of campsites). Sunday we rafted more and then drove back home to San Jose.

Rafting was such a great expiriance, I woul definately do it again (despite how scared i got). It was gorgeous; the river took us through rainforest and past waterfalls and cliffs.

Every Thursday I spent my morning at Asociación Obras de Espíritu Santo (AOES), an organization stated by one catholic priest in 2000. Its a really impressive organization...they work in one of the poorer areas of San Jose (it's called Christo Rey) doing everything for the people. They give them food, have a clinic...all sorts of services. The reason I go there, though, is for the daycare/orphanage they have. Its for kids without parents, of course, but also for children of single mothers who have to work, children being raised by Aunts, Grandparents. Its fun and TIRING to go there and play with the kids, but I like it. I love playing with the kindergarden aged kids, and I like working with the babies, too. Its helping a lot with my spanish because no one there speaks english except for some of the volunteers (they get volunteers from all over), so to communicate with the kids and staff I have to use a combination of charades and Spanish. The website is http://www.obrasdelespiritusanto.org/, but of course it's in Spanish.

Happy Fourth!

This is me (tanner!) when my parents came up last weekend.

This is that strawberry piece, finally finished.

Today we went to Jacó (a surf/tourist/beach town about 3 hours away) to surf and swim and tan. It was a good way to spend a Saturday. As usual I attempted to tan, and I think it's even working!

I am utterly incapable of updating this frequently.

I'm not finishing the Nicaragua trip in much detail. We were in Grenada for a day and then drove home to San Jose and basically all collapsed.

Lately I've been kept really busy between Spanish class, bellydance, art, computer animation, and community service. I was going to a center for menatlly handicapped adults, but they're now on a three week break, so last Thursday I went to Foundation for the Hungry. I think this coming Thursday I'm going to the orphanage, something I've been wanting to do very much.

We are deep into winter, and the rain is getting dreary.

Some Nicaragua Pictures

A bunch of surfer boys live in here. Its the only building on the beach.

Volleyball!

The beach at sunset

Joey and Steve cooking in our makeshift kitchen

Nicaraguan music at our coffee break in Grenada. I looked like I was about to pass out...which is pretty acurate.

Our beach

Lago de Managua

Grenada

Grenada

Grenada

NIcaragua Trip Installment 2

On Sunday when we woke up pretty much right after we ate, we went into the ocean for a swim, then we waxed our surfboards and had a 5 minute lesson from Carlos that consisted of him saying "This is how you pop up, and when you fall off come up with your hands on your head for protection. Go for it."
And we did. All of us went into the ocean and attempted to surf. Carlos and Dunia were swiiming around giving one on one help, which I accepted. Dunia helped me for most of Sunday.
Our day was spent swimming and surfing, only really coming out of the water to eat.

Monday was more or less the same, but with several pick up games of beach volleyball with us, Nicaraguan surfers, and a european tourist. I played a full game to 30 points, and even though every time i touched the ball the other team seemed to get a point, it was really fun. I surfed less that the boys did on Monday, but i did do a lot of swimming and reading in the beach, and i was enjoying myself. But then I fell asleep and woke up with my face feeling hot...I decided it was minor, but that night washiong my face was super painful- It should have been a sign.

Tuesday was our last morning at the beach. Only Steve surfed, the rest of us sat around and broke down camp and complained about our sunburns. Mine was terrible- I won't go into graphic detain for everyone's sake. Late morning we got into the van and headed for Grenada, a colonial city about 2 hours from San Juan del Sur, where we were. Grenada is a GORGEOUS city. Well preserved, and with far less grafitti than anywhere in urban Costa Rica. We found where we'd be staying, showered, ate a little food, and collapsed until it was time to go see more of Grenada. We went to a spot that lots of people go to, both Nicos and Tourists. It overlooked Lago de Managua.
I'll continue later.

I haven't posted on this in a long time for several reasons, two of the biggest being:
1. Terrible internet in Curridabat in general.
2. 5 days in Nicaragua

I have a lot to say and a lot of pictures to put up so this will definately happen in installments.

So, on Saturday the 13th at 6am we packed up the car and began our drive to Nicaragua. We have to leave the country every three months; the process to get student visas requires, apparently, a country stay of more than 6-8 months, so we leave every 90 days when the passport tourism visa runs out. This out of country trip was to Nicaragua to go to a beach, camp, and learn how to surf. We had two people that are not usually with us along to teach os surfing, Dunia (i have no idea if thats how you spell it) and Carlos. They were both really nice.
The drive was supposed to take 6 hours. It ended up being more like 13- and the border crossing took more than 3 hours. We declined an offer to bribe the officials who check the cars, and it was our belief that that set us back at least an hour.
When we finally got to the beach it was far too dark to see anything and we set up tents and went to sleep amongst huge amounts of crabs, hermit and regular.
I woke up at 4am to the evilest noise i have ever heard on my life. I was in a tent by myself in the dark in a rainforest in Nicaragua. But then i remembered howler monkeys, and i convinced myself that that was what it was. When we woke up the next morning one of the boys put it the most accurately- "I heard satan this morning."
I am in no way exaggerating.

I will begin Sunday tomorrow.

Exotic Plant from Lankaster Gardens

Las Ruinas in Cartoga

A view of Costa Rica from the drive to Irazu Volcano

An orchid from Lankester Gardens

Más fotos

This is my latest work in progress. Its not an original idea, by the way. My new painting teacher told me I couldn't do my own stuff, i had to copy someone elses. Weird logic. I guess i was spoiled with the art teacher i had for the last 2 years of highschool.

This is my bedroom.

This is Kacie. We share an apartment, and since she's the only other girl, we have spent a good amount of time together.

Kacie and I put sid inside a sweatshirt. I don't think he liked it very much at all...

Kacie and I tried to make cupckaes. They were kind of ugly...It should be noted that none of the boys we lived with had a problem eating them, anyways.

Sunday

Today we went to the feria. Its the farmer's market here, but it isn't much like the farmer's markets at home. It's much more...authentic. We got this weird fruit there on reccomendation from the other girl here, Kacie. It actually tastes really good. It's called Lychee.

I have also put in a picture of Sid, the dog that lives in our complex.

Thanks to Beth...

This was Beth's idea, that I make a blog to keep everyone up to date on the goings on in Costa Rica. I don't know who will even look at this, but why not, right?

So, here we go.

The picture, by the way, is something I finished painting about a week ago. Its called El Pulpo. I know that I can do better. I hope to show that soon.