A Weekend With It All

Two weeks ago I started to feel pretty ready to go home... And now all I can think is, "I'm already going home in five days??" It's pretty crazy how quickly the time has gone. Though I'm very ready to see my family and not eat rice and beans again for a long time. 

First, a sad thing.. I lost my Keens last weekend!! I am so sad, which is silly since they're shoes. But I left them on the bus on the way home from Montezuma. I set them on the floor next to my feet because they were wet so I didn't want to put them in my bag. I knew I was going to forget them there, and I did!! At least it wasn't a phone or wallet.

Tuesday my friend Justine and I went to the gym together and then met up in the afternoon to go to this cafe together. It's really cute and delicious and I can't believe I discovered it at the end of my time here!

On Wednesday I gave my last presentation in my PT class! So all I have left is a final project presentation on Tuesday for my other class! This is by far the easiest finals week I've ever had! Also on Wednesday I walked around the city some in the morning. I realized that I can walk to the Artisan market from my house, so I did that and bought a couple of last souvenirs! I think I said before that I was done buying souvenirs, but I actually did have some more things to get. So now I'm officially done! Wednesday night my friend Stephanie came over and we watched a movie, which was nice! She's evidently become my movie buddy! 

This doesn't have to do with Costa Rica, but on Thursday Jeremiah and I celebrated our five year dating anniversary! Five years has flown by, but it's been filled with some amazing memories. All of our marching band memories, starting college, road trip to Florida, all of our Disney trips, becoming members together at our church, Europe, visiting in Costa Rica, and so much more! I am so thankful that he's in my life and can't imagine life without him. I love you, Jeremiah! On Thursday we had a FaceTime date since we couldn't have one in person! 

Friday I went on a nice long walk through he neighborhood in the morning, met a friend for lunch, and in the afternoon learned how to make tamales!! In Costa Rica they only make Tamales in December as part of a Christmas tradition. They make a ton and eat them all the time in December! It was a very long process. We were making them all afternoon. We had these huge sheets of banana leaves in the kitchen that had to be cut into squares and cleaned. One person put the main flour mixture (I wasn't shown what all was in it, I just saw them put a lot of flour in the big pot) and some orange doughy mixture on the banana leaf. Then I would add  pork, carrots, sweet chili, peas, and cilantro on top. Then the next person folded the lead up and the last person tied two together with string. Once they were all prepped like this we had a huge pot outside with boiling water that we put the tamales in for 45 minutes. Then they were good to eat! They were quite good! But really filling. One was good enough for me! It was really fun participating in the tradition. The whole family was there plus a couple extra people all helping prepare them!

Saturday morning I was up bright and early for an amazing day!! I went rafting and had so much fun!! Two of my friends and I met at the school where we were picked up by the rafting company at 6:30 am. It took about 2.5 hours to get to the river. We were provided with breakfast before driving another thirty minutes to where we would start to raft. On the whole thirty minute drive we were given instructions and safety procedures... Needless to say I was getting a little nervous with all of the instructions to remember! At the river we got all of our gear and then did some practice in our raft before moving anywhere. Then we were off! We were constantly being told "Forward! Stop! Forward Hard! Stop! Backward!" And so on from our guide who was situated in the back of the raft and guiding us in the right direction. There were six people plus our guide in our raft. The three of us, plus two women from The Netherlands and one guy from England so we had a very mixed boat which was cool! The rapids were Class 3 and 4 out of a scale of 6. They got pretty intense at times! Sometimes our guide would shout "Get Down!" And we'd all crouch down in the center of the raft as water came crashing in the raft and we slid over a huge rock. It was so much fun!! No one on our boat ever fell out but we were with three other rafts and they occasionally had people fall out. That was a big concern of mine so I was glad it didn't happen! There were also times on the river where it was calm and we could hop out and swim next to the raft. And we also stopped for a lunch break at one point on the river too. In total we were on the river for about four hours and I had a blast the whole time. Plus it was beautiful scenery the whole time too! Saturday night once I got home I was wiped out so I took a shower, had dinner, and that was pretty much it! Oh and my host mom made me some delicious hot chocolate. 

So Friday I got a cold and this morning, Sunday, it wasn't too great (rafting probably didn't help!) so I didn't have anything planned but my host family decided to go to Puntarenas and I tagged along! I thought I was done with the beaches here for this trip but evidently not! So I used the Pura Vida way of getting over a cold and just laid on the beach all afternoon! Literally I think I laid on the beach for four hours snoozing on and off. I was really tired! But it was really nice having one last full day just spending time with them and enjoying the beach. 

This weekend was the perfect last weekend here. It combined all of the best aspects of my time here. Friday, learning about the traditions and culture with the tamales, Saturday exploring the adventurous side of Costa Rica with friends, and Sunday spending time at the beach with my host family! So now I only have five days left here, how crazy!! See you soon family! 

Pura Vida