I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! It didn’t really hit me that it was Thanksgiving until the day of and even then it was a little odd. I got to FaceTime both my family and Jeremiah’s. My family was in the middle of dinner so I got to (sort of) feel like I was right at the dinner table with them! It was really nice, but also really hard to not actually be there. When I FaceTimed Jeremiah’s family they were playing games like always so that was another great tradition that I got to pretend I was experiencing! Obviously they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but since my school has such a large international program they hosted a dinner for international students! It was really cute. They had great decorations and a photo booth set up and even traditional food for us including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and pumpkin pie. The only bad thing about it was I think they underestimated how much Americans can eat on Thanksgiving because they ran out of food pretty quickly and a lot of people were still hungry afterward! I was fine luckily, and enjoyed my meal. It was also really nice to be with all of my friends who were also missing home and to enjoy each other’s company and experience Thanksgiving a little bit differently this year. I am thankful for so many things including Jeremiah, my family, his family, my friends old and new, my education, my opportunities to travel, experiencing Costa Rica, and of course God’s grace!! Thanks to all of you who are a part of my life!
Another thing I did this week was I tried a couple of classes at my gym! If you know me, you know that this was pretty exciting for me. They were in Spanish but just like any gym class back at home, so I’m definitely planning on keeping up those classes until I go home.
On Friday my host sisters, Valentina and Dilanna, finished up their school for the semester and so they had a class party at a place called Parque Diversiones. It’s an Amusement Park! That’s literally what “Parque Diversiones” translates to as well actually. So my host abuela and I took them to school where we all got on a bus to the park. The first couple of hours we were in a big room where the kids played games and ate. Then the rest of the day everyone could go around the park freely. So for the majority of the day I just followed them around and watched them ride things. The park is definitely geared toward little kids, so it was fine. Also my host parents and Marcello came around noon so then my whole host family was there! Toward the end of the day my host dad and I went on some of the bigger rides that the girls couldn’t go on so that was really fun! They had a couple of roller coasters that I really enjoyed, and overall I enjoyed the whole day because it was totally unique and unexpected to experience an amusement park here!
One of their friend's who spent the day with us is on the left.
My host mom and me!
Saturday my friend Stephanie and I went Downtown again to finish up our souvenir shopping. So yes, I have finished my souvenir shopping! Yay! I’m pretty excited about what I got everyone too! We ended up spending most of the day Downtown, then after dinner Stephanie came over to my house and we watched a movie. So that was a really nice (and successful) day.
Sunday, Ashlyn and Stephanie and I met up in the morning and started by walking to the fruit market in Zapote, our neighborhood. I had wanted to see it and I’m glad we went! So much fruit for really cheap! My host mom typically gets all of her fruit for the week there and I can see why! After that market we went Downtown where we came across a random parade going on. So we watched that and found our way to a pop-up market that they have Downtown every Sunday with everything from the usual souvenirs to shoes to food to jewelry. Then we found the bus station for Cartago, which is about 45 minutes outside the city. Cartago is a small town that my host dad recommended and we had heard other good things about. So we got lunch there and then explored the ruins of one church (I believe the oldest church in Costa Rica), which were actually quite beautiful and went in and around some of the other cool buildings in the town.
So much fruit!!
Part of the parade.
The church ruins.
Another nice building, an art museum I believe!
With my free mornings throughout the week I have actually been quite productive, reading, applying for jobs, and even started some test prep for the GRE I’ll take next semester! I’m also sleeping in a bit later and having good conversations over a longer breakfast with my host family. So far I’m really enjoying the extra time!
Only three weeks left here in this beautiful country but I have some fun things planned for the next two weekends! Stay tuned!
Pura Vida
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