Lifting the Pedal Off the Metal

Lots has happened since Hannah's post about our engagement two months ago! Crazy to think we've already been engaged that long.

We officially decided on a date in late May of 2017, and actually, we just booked our venue on Thursday! It's a beautiful little place in downtown Mesa called the Landmark. It used to be a restaurant; in fact, it's where the rehearsal dinner was held for Hannah's sister and brother-in-law's wedding five years ago. They recently converted it to a dedicated wedding venue, and because they're so new, their price was really competitive compared to other venues we saw. That, combined with the fact that we loved the look and feel of the place, made it impossible to pass up! We certainly visited enough venues to know what we liked - try 11 venues, 10 of which we saw in the last two weeks. It was a lot of work, but pretty enjoyable. We only get to do this once, after all!

That's possibly the biggest step in our wedding planning, so we're feeling good. All that took place over the last two weeks, so what all happened in the two months in between? One word:  CHAOS.

The final six weeks of my undergraduate education can best be described as "pedal to the metal." My thesis and capstone (the two biggest projects of my undergrad) both culminated within a month of one another. Just a few days after proposing to Hannah, I sat down and spent about 20 hours writing the 70-page first draft of my thesis paper. Another 20 hours over the next couple weeks brought me to a 96-page thesis - far longer than I ever expected, though my director was actually pleased by this! And I think it worked out better for me, anyway. He's the Dean of Engineering, so he works 60-hour weeks, and since my thesis was that long, he didn't have time to read it with the extreme thoroughness required to propose a bunch of edits! My actual defense went quite well, too. Overall a successful project! When I turned it in to the Honors College I got a sticker.

A sticker.

Whatever, I'm not bitter or anything...

Capstone also turned out successfully. We designed and fabricated a prototype of an automated medication sorter and dispenser. It was a huge project:  the six of us probably put collectively over 1000 hours into it over two semesters. Yet despite all the frustrations along the way (and the less than adequate instruction in the course), it was an enjoyable and rewarding experience - mainly because I got to work with five of my closest friends! On the last day of classes, we presented our project to a board of accreditors who determine whether the project satisfies their criteria for deeming ASU's engineering program sufficient in producing industry-ready engineers. Afterward, we got to show off our prototype to friends and family, which was particularly rewarding.

The #BestTeamEver, looking quite dapper, and our prototype

Were those the only two projects to deal with, I think the semester would have been manageable. But I had projects in two other classes as well, plus it was crunch-time for fabricating our robot in the underwater robotics club I'm a part of. So, yeah. Pedal to the metal, all the way till the end. But all my class projects were successful, and our robot turned out pretty good, too, so it's easy to look back positively on it all now!

The robotics team and our robot

And of course, graduation was the perfect end to it all. I went to an awards reception last Monday, then to the Honors convocation on Tuesday, and the Engineering convocation on Wednesday, then celebrated with family Wednesday evening. It felt like one big, long celebration! Amidst those celebrations I also found out I got a job as a Graduate TA this fall, which will cover my graduate tuition for the semester and earn me a pretty solid stipend! Needless to say I felt pretty blessed this week. Now I can finally slow down and relax before I begin my internship with Stryker a week from Monday!

If there's one thing I've learned this school year, it's that friends mean so much to me! Going through the most challenging year of my life alone would've left it at just that - the most challenging year of my life. But because I was able to go through it all with friends, because we were there to support each other and commiserate about the challenges, it was also one of the best and most rewarding years of my life so far.

Probably the biggest news unique to Hannah is that she's now living in a townhouse with two of our friends from our church small group! It's been a really great experience for her so far. I think she's especially enjoying the independence of it, even more so than dorm life. For the first time in her life she gets to cook for herself, pay her own rent, and most importantly, live with friends! She's also gotten a great start on her thesis, which, if she hasn't mentioned it before, is about the mental toughness of pole vaulters. She'll defend it late this fall, and I can't wait to see what she's learned!

I think that covers all the big stuff from the last two months. If not, Hannah will have to follow up with her own post after me. Things have been so busy, I wouldn't be surprised if I forgot to include something!

Here are a couple other miscellaneous photos from the last couple months...

A camping trip to McDowel Mountain with my Capstone team and our significant others

My last performance with the ASU trombone choir - the National Anthem and Fight Song at an ASU-UA baseball game

Engaged!

Well it is about time for an update! I have missed writing this blog for awhile! I had gotten into a good habit of writing, but once school started back up I lost it! Anyway, we're back and hopefully at least a little more consistent. 

Seeing as this is the Jeremiah and Hannah blog, I suppose we should share our biggest news for us as a couple in the history of this blog! We are engaged!! Yep, you read right! 5+ years of dating and we are taking the next big step in our relationship. Needless to say we are both very excited! 

So how did he propose?? Saturday, March 5th was the start of our Spring Break so we had planned a day trip up to Sedona. We have been going hiking more often and really enjoy being outside so I was unsuspecting. We planned to spend the day there, do a couple hikes, and get something to eat in town after. We went on our first hike and found one geocache. In case you don't know what a geocache is, basically it is a box or "treasure" that has coordinates associated with it that you have to enter in your GPS system to find. They're all over the world and have log books in them so you can log that you've been there. Our first hike was beautiful! We circled a big rock formation called Chimney Rock and then reached the top of a plateau with an awesome view. Then we headed over to our second hike called Airport Loop, which literally loops around the  Sedona airport. That was a nice long hike and on our path were a few geocaches that Jeremiah had researched. We couldn't find our first three geocaches which I was getting very annoyed by! So we put in the fourth and it ended up being close by a really nice view point. We climbed around the area and actually weren't able to find this geocache so we took a seat on one of the rocks and we're just enjoying the view. Suddenly Jeremiah pointed to a pile of rocks that was a little out of place and was like, "Do you think that's it over there?" I looked and said I didn't think so! He insisted that we at least look on our way out and it's a good thing we did! Inside the geocache I first pulled out a small puzzle and crossword book and kind of laughed and said, "it's like they know us!" Because those are a couple of things that we enjoy doing together. Then I saw some Disney pins and a music thing and thought it was a little strange... But I went ahead and signed the log book and other people had signed it too, so that wasn't out of the ordinary. But then I found a photo album in there... And that's when I knew! The photo album had pictures with a kind of story along with them. The last picture/part of the story told me he had a question to ask me and to turn around. He was behind me while I was looking through the geocache, so I turned around and he was ready! He said some of the nicest things I've ever heard and then asked me to marry him! Clearly, I said yes with no hesitation!! I was emotional and in shock and excited all at once! It was hard to focus on what he was saying! The ring is absolutely beautiful, he picked out the perfect one for me, honestly. He had an idea of what I liked, but picked it on his own. He asked my dad for permission but no one else in my family knew, though some of them suspected it might be very soon. My dad also helped with the next part of the day too! After we finished our hike out, we got back to his car and in the trunk were outfits for both of us as well as makeup, a brush, a straightener, everything I need for a nice dinner! He had picked out an outfit for me and my dad brought him the outfit from my room without me realizing it! So we got ready and drove back to Scottsdale where we went for a very nice, very delicious dinner at Fleming's Steakhouse! It was the perfect end to the night. On our drive back we FaceTimed all of our families who were all very excited for us. I have been very hopeful that this would happen soon, because I can't wait to get married to Jeremiah! Also, we're both pretty excited about the planning part! 

So... Did I know it was coming? Like I said, I was very hopeful it would be soon. However, I'd written this day off in my mind because of a few things. One, Jeremiah has had his busiest semester yet so I was sure he wouldn't have the amount of time he wanted to plan it. Second, I didn't think he'd ever been to Sedona and knew he wouldn't propose in a place he wasn't certain about. Also, I figured I would be able to tell if he was acting a little off the day he was going to propose, but he was completely normal all day! So I wasn't expecting it and was very surprised and happy when it did happen. He knew what he was going to do since mid-November and has actually had the ring since Thanksgiving! And he has been up to Sedona twice, the first time to plant the geocache with his brother and just the weekend before we went to make sure everything was set. I didn't know because he told me he was doing other things. I knew he wouldn't do it somewhere he wasn't familiar with! Also, it did cross my mind that it was odd that he had our day pretty planned out, but he plans everything so really that wasn't out of the ordinary. Anyway, now you know way more than you probably ever needed/wanted to about how he proposed! 

Lots of emotion and it was very windy!

We always seem to be building to something on this blog, so we will keep that going by keeping readers up with our wedding planning progress. So far, we've just had fun talking about things we'll get to plan for, but haven't made any concrete decisions. Our first big thing is choosing a date, which we have tentatively picked out... But next blog we'll probably know for sure.

In other news, this semester has certainly been a crazy one for Jeremiah. He is in his final semester of undergrad, so that means wrapping up with his thesis and capstone. Those are two very large projects that he can explain more about next time he posts, but the finished products are going to be so worth it. He also has some very challenging classes this semester, including a couple grad level classes to prepare him for his Masters in one extra year next August-May. 

My semester has been very good. I feel like I've got a pretty good balance going, between school, work, and everything else. I've got some challenging classes, work at Gammage, and another new job at Ideal Physical Therapy as a clinic assistant! I started a little over a month ago and it has been a great learning experience. I am so happy I got the position because I think it will really help prepare me for PT school too! 

One thing that has been really great this semester for both Jeremiah and me is our "community group" through our church. It's a small group that meets every Thursday night, and right now we're going through a book called Jesus the King by Timothy Keller. I highly recommend it! It is something we both look forward to and it's been great to establish ourselves more in our church community. A huge thank you to Jeremiah for pushing me to join the small group with him, because I was resistant at first! Another thing that has come out of this group is a housing opportunity. I was originally planning on being a Community Assistant in the dorms again, but it turns out two of the girls in my small group were looking for a third roommate for their townhouse in Tempe. I never imagined myself living off campus so it was a very tough decision, but the opportunity seemed too perfect to pass up. So now I get to live with two awesome, like-minded girls and experience cooking and cleaning for myself before getting married! I move in in April and I can't wait for the new experience! 

My nephew Luke Matthew Lucas was born on February 17th! He's so cute and such a great baby! I am so excited for Heather, George, and Madeline for the newest addition to their family and our whole family! If you want to read even more about him go to thegeorgeandheatherblog.blospot.com

I'm currently in Provo, Utah visiting one of my very good friends Marsie! My friend Morgan and I flew up to visit her for a few days. It is beautiful up here and so great to spend time with two of my best friends! 

I think I've covered most of the big things! Life has been very full and exciting recently, so thanks for your patience in getting this post up! 

-the future Mrs. Dwight (crazy!!)

Happy New Year!

First off, I finished up a video of my trip to Costa Rica! It is pretty long, so prepare for that. It was all taken with my GoPro camera and gives you a taste of some of my adventure over the past three months! Enjoy!

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soW7q6F5eas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! It has been so great being back in AZ! I arrived in the afternoon on the 19th and hit the ground running! My days have been filled with family, friends, and fun. Cheesy, but true! The evening of the 19th we celebrated Christmas with my whole family. My brother and his family left for Georgia for two weeks on the 22nd, so we wanted to celebrate all together. We had some delicious food and opened presents. And with three kids running around there was the usual chaos, which I had missed! 

The 20th we went to a Christmas/Cookie Decorating party that we go to every year. It is always so nicely done and this year it didn't disappoint! I also had dinner with the Dwights for Mr. Dwight's birthday. It was great to see them all and spend time with them! We also watched the Cardinals game in the evening and they won! The AZ Cardinals are now 13-2, hoping for the Super Bowl this season! 

The 21st was my grandma Clark's 80th birthday! My mom's two siblings flew into town to surprise my grandma as well. She was very surprised! We had a nice dinner for her with the whole family and family friends of ours, the Mosers. 

The 22nd I went to dinner and a play with the Dwights. We went to see "A Christmas Carol" at a local theater. It's a tradition with his family around Christmas time and the play was great as usual!

The 23rd I went to see Star Wars with my parents and Jeremiah. I had only seen one Star Wars movie before this, but Jeremiah gave me a run down of the plot. I ended up following for the most part and enjoyed the movie! 

On Christmas Eve we went to the 3:30 service at our church. It was a great service. I love Christmas Eve service, especially when we light all the candles and sing Silent Night. It's such a great celebration and important to remember. After church we went over to the Mosers for appetizer-type foods like we usually do. That was really nice! But I couldn't stay long so I could make it to the Dwight's house for a delicious dinner with the whole family. Then we went to other church service with his family which was again, very nice! Then we went back to their house for dessert and presents! I think I've mentioned it before, but it's a Swedish tradition to open presents on Christmas Eve. That has always made it easy for Jeremiah and me to celebrate with his family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas Day. It was a great night with his family! 

Christmas Day I was up early and Jeremiah came over followed by Emily and then Heather, George, and Madeline. We had a yummy breakfast, then opened stockings and "fun bags" from my grandma. Then we opened presents! We had saved presents from my parents for Christmas Day. It was a great morning! After that we quickly started prepping and cleaning for an early Christmas dinner. For dinner Emily's friend, Courtney, and a guy my dad bikes with joined us! It was nice to be able to share in the celebration with them since they couldn't be with family. The dinner was delicious! I definitely enjoy Christmas dinner more than Thanksgiving dinner. So many of my favorites on Christmas! So Christmas was a bit different than normal, without some family and with a couple friends, but it was just as great. In the evening, Emily, Courtney, Jeremiah, and I went to see the movie "Joy" which was pretty good! 

In the days since Christmas Jeremiah and I have gone bowling with his family, spent time with friends, taken Madeline to Chuck E Cheese, helped Heather and George with a big Lucas family Christmas party, gone on a date, and many more things. It's been a great week and a half! We are on our way to Disneyland with my parents for the New Year! Excited to celebrate in the happiest place on earth! 

We want to wish a happy new year to everyone and hope everyone had a merry Christmas. Don't forget to check out the video of my trip! 

And even though I'm back in the U.S.- Pura Vida! 

Agridulce

This is certainly an "agridulce" or bittersweet goodbye. I am so excited to get home and see everyone and be in the comfort of my own home, but there are so many things I'm going to miss in Costa Rica... It feels odd that I'm coming home really! Twelve weeks flew by! 

First off, this past week I wrapped up my classes. I got straight As, yay! I also had a field trip in one of my classes this week. We went to Hospital Mexico which was the most open and least advanced of any of the hospitals I've visited. We toured the hospital and we were just walking in and out of places, even into the ICU and were just staring into patients' rooms! It was a little strange, and I felt a little intrusive, but no one seemed to care at all! 

My Conflict Resolution and Healthcare Class

Outside of wrapping up a couple classes I went to the gym with my friend Justine a few times, started packing, and did some shopping with friends wrapping up their souvenirs. I also tried to spend as much time as I could with my host family. They made me some of my favorite meals this week, which was so nice! 

Wednesday afternoon I met my group of friends for lunch. Most of us got lunch from a little French cafe by school and then we all went to a nearby park to eat. Thursday night with the same group of friends we met at a restaurant called El Gaff for dessert and drinks. It was the last time I would see most of them so it was a great chance to hang out all together, take some pictures, and say our goodbyes. I have been really fortunate to make such good friends while I've been here! Unfortunately we're all from different states, but we plan on seeing each other at some point in the future. At the very least we will stay in contact via social media! I am so glad I met all of them here!

The whole clan!

Ashlyn and me

Friday my friend Stephanie and I walked around Downtown. She had a couple more souvenirs to buy and I picked up a gift for Valentina and Dilanna for Christmas, princess notebooks and stickers! They were always wanting to draw in my notebooks so I think they will like them! 

After lunch on Friday I had to say goodbye to my host family.... They were leaving for a party that was a couple hours away and we're going to stay the night there. So I had to say goodbye which was much harder than I anticipated it would be! My host mom started crying, which made me start crying! It's hard because I don't know when/if I'll ever see them again. I hope to, and we'll at least stay in contact, but who knows. I also had to say goodbye to the girls who I don't think knew that I was leaving for good. That was also really sad. Again, I am so lucky that I got so close to them in such a short time. 

After my goodbyes with them I met my friend Justine at a cafe close by where we sat and chatted for awhile which was great. She has a boyfriend in AZ and is planning on applying to PT school in AZ so I will likely see her again! Then my friend Stephanie came over to my house and we watched some Modern Family for awhile and then had to say our goodbyes. She is the best friend I've made here, so she was another hard goodbye. But I'm certain I'll see her again at some point! 

I spent the rest of the evening getting things ready to go. Then I went to bed really early because I was up at 3:30 this morning! We arranged a shuttle through school which picked me up right outside my house at 4 am. That was nice to not have to worry about anything! I made it through to my gate smoothly and my suitcase was under 50 pounds! A miracle! 

Now I'm sitting on the plane left to reflect on the past three months. All I can think is how grateful I am for God's perfect timing. I had originally planned on studying abroad Spring of 2015, but I'm so glad I didn't or I wouldn't have met the friends I did or had the host family I did. I wouldn't have travelled with these friends or perhaps would have gone different places... It just worked out perfectly thanks to Him! I am also so glad that, besides small relatively harmless sicknesses here and there, I was healthy and safe the whole time. I did not lose anything but a pair of shoes. I learned a lot of Spanish. I tasted some awesome food and got a little less picky! I had way too much rice and beans. I ziplined, rappelled, rafted, hiked, Tarzan swung, danced with locals, swam in the Pacific and Atlantic multiple times, Catamaran cruised, snorkeled, swam in Hot Springs, watched the sunset over the ocean... I am so grateful for all of these opportunities and would gladly do all of them over again! Jeremiah- I'm adding another trip to Costa Rica to our list of future trips! 

Studying abroad was the best decision for me. I will now highly recommend it to anyone! Maybe Costa Rica isn't for everyone, but taking a semester to study abroad is a once in a lifetime opportunity full of learning experiences! I learned about a new country, a new culture, and about myself too! Can you tell I'm happy with my semester?? Thanks to everyone who kept up with my experiences. Not only here but in Europe as well! It's going to be hard adjusting back to the rigors of regular classes and work, but I'm excited to get back to that routine. I am really looking forward to 2016. It's going to be tough but I think it'll be great. 

Pura Vida!!!

Because I'm a Contributor, Too

Well I've been reading Hannah's posts every week since she left for Costa Rica three months ago, but it wasn't until recently I remembered this is OUR blog. And though my semester wasn't full of beaches and rainforests and monkeys and "pura vida," it was still a semester worth talking about. So now I'm gonna talk about it.

My last post was August 3rd, at which point I was only halfway through my internship with Medtronic! The last 6 weeks wrapped up really well; I successfully completed my projects and delivered solid presentations to both my department and all the other interns, hiring managers, etc. On my last day the internship coordinator informed me that they'd like to bring me back for another internship next summer! In fact, they were hoping I could continue part time during the school year, but unfortunately I couldn't accept that due to my overwhelming workload at school.

As it turns out, I won't be working for Medtronic at all next year. Though they did come through with an offer, it wasn't in the department I'd been hoping to move into. And, conveniently, after more than 5 hours of cumulative interviewing, I also had an internship offer from Stryker (another medical supply company based in the Phoenix area). Stryker's offer was in their research & development department, which is an area I've always wanted to go into because it means I'm more likely to be doing "cutting-edge" work. Plus, they offered me more money than Medtronic, and it's a good opportunity to "try on" another company before I finish school! So I accepted Stryker's offer, and I have to say, it feels good to already have something secured for next summer heading into my last semester of undergrad!

The last four weeks of my Medtronic internship overlapped with the first four weeks of school, meaning I was more busy than I'd ever been in my life for that month. Thankfully my class schedule was pretty conducive to working during normal hours. Still, I often got to work at 6 am (sometimes earlier) and didn't get home from class until 6:30 pm, only to begin hours of homework that kept me up past midnight. It was exhausting.

Just two weeks after I cleared that hurdle, I was rewarded with a trip to Costa Rica to visit Hannah! She and her family and I had an awesome time, even though I could only stay for a few days. We visited the beach, ate delicious food including some cool fruit I'd never seen before, took a day trip to the cute little city of Arenal, and [most of us] went zip lining and rappelling! Yeah, I broke my arm on the first zip line and had to climb my way out of the forest through pouring rain, but you've heard all that before. Once they pumped painkillers in through the IV and gave me a bottle of oxycontin, I was good to go. Overall, it was a really neat trip. I loved what I saw of the country, and I hope I get the chance to go back some day and give zip lining another try! Best of all, I got to see Hannah for a few days amidst her twelve weeks abroad.

It was easy to keep a positive attitude while I was experiencing a foreign country, but once I got home, reality set in. I was gonna have to get through the rest of the semester with only one fully functional arm - and not even my dominant one. Thankfully my family and friends really stepped up to make it easier for me! At home, my parents made all my meals for me, and at school, my friends took notes for me in all my classes. Still, it's been really challenging and frustrating at times, dealing with my injury. I can't practice trombone, I can't exercise except for the stationary bike at the gym, and just about everything else simply takes more time than it normally would. I'm desperate to get my brace off so I can start PT and get back to normal life, but last Friday I learned it'd be at least another month before that happens.

It's tough to keep my spirits up, but good things have come out of it. I've gotten a lot better at accepting help from others, I've developed gratitude for my normally healthy physical condition, and - best of all - I'm basically ambidextrous now! Just two nights ago I bowled a 122 using only my left arm!

In other news, I've been keeping busy at school working on my senior capstone project - the culmination of my engineering degree - and my honors thesis. For capstone, my friends and I have teamed up to design and prototype an automated pill dispenser that we hope could bring a lot more independence to folks that would otherwise require 24-hour in-home care. It sure sounds good, right? I hope we can pull it off! And for my thesis I'm studying the aerodynamics of baseballs. So pretty cool stuff, but I'm definitely looking forward to completing both this spring.

In the end, it was probably my most challenging semester to date. But I ended up with the grades I wanted, so I think I handled the challenges well! And grew a lot more because of them.

And now there's less than 48 hours till Hannah gets home! Saturday is gonna be amazing. Star Wars at the IMAX theater in the morning, then we pick up Hannah at the airport, and then we celebrate an early Christmas with Hannah's family since Brian and Terrisa are leaving for Georgia the next morning. It'll be a great way to celebrate her return.

Here are some pictures to highlight a few other things I didn't already mention:

Nathan's and my Halloween jack-o-lantern. I'm quite proud of it, as you can probably tell.

A Star Wars music concert performed by the Phoenix Symphony. It was Brian's idea and a very fun evening!

The ASU vs UA game (aka Territorial Cup), which ASU dominated! #NoPityForTheKitty

The annual Warren-Hobson Thanksgiving Hike up Usery Mountain.

A picture that sums up my weekend in Beaver Creek, CO, with Hannah's family. I couldn't ski because of my arm, but I clearly still made the most of my weekend.

Said "so long" this week to Heather, a close friend of mine since junior high. She just finished her electrical engineering degree and is headed back to the east coast to start law school!

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

Cumpleaños en Costa Rica!

I'm 21! I celebrated my 21st birthday here on Thursday which was unlike any birthday I've had for a number of reasons, but I felt honestly lucky to have the unique experience of celebrating my birthday here. As I was thinking about my year as a 20-year-old I decided it was the best year yet! Obviously traveling abroad not once, but twice, this year is high on that list! I'm looking forward to 21 because I have a feeling it's going to be just as good. 

These weeks somehow continue to fly by! Wednesday I celebrated my birthday with my friends by going out to dinner. We went to a place called Wok & Noodles a short taxi ride away. It was a cute place and really delicious! Since it was my 21st, I did order a drink called a "Maracuya Colada." Maracuya is Spanish for Passionfruit, and it was a delicious drink! I haven't had much at all to drink even though it's been legal for two and a half months here and for four weeks in Europe just because it hasn't really interested me (or tasted very good to me!) but I had to since it was my 21st! I figure I've been saving money and calories that way too! Anyway, I got Pad Thai to eat and we had a really nice dinner together. My friends paid for me which was so nice! I really scored with the friends I've made here! 

On my actual birthday I started the morning early for a volunteer activity with a group of ISA students. We walked Downtown and handed out food, clothes, and blankets to the "habitantes del calle" or homeless people. It was really awesome! I hadn't done a volunteer activity in awhile and I always love volunteering. Everything went great there except for one man who got really angry because he thought we took a picture of him and so he chucked his juice at a guy in my group! No one was hurt but it was certainly a little scary seeing how angry he got! That was the only issue thankfully. After that we rode the bus back and I met my friend, Stephanie, for lunch. We went to the French Cafe I've probably mentioned before and got their yummy pesto chicken sandwiches. She also bought my lunch and she had bought me a Coke Zero too (she knows how much I love coke zero and I don't get it very often at all here!). How nice was that? 

After lunch I had my one class that day which I now like to call my "arts and crafts" class. We do a lot of creative activities, group games, and even started class on Thursday by dancing as a sort of "stress management" activity. I'm not complaining! It's a very fun class and I don't mind going to it at all!

I then went home for about 30 minutes and checked on all of the kind birthday messages and emails and posts on social media. I have so many wonderful people in my life!! Then my host parents picked me up and took me over to my host dad's parents house for a small birthday party! It was just more of his family and we had delicious burgers while we chatted and then a delicious tres leches cake complete with candles and singing! It was so nice of them to truly treat me like part of their family. Oh and they bought me a cute shirt for my birthday too! It was also very unique to get a rendition of happy birthday in Spanish this year! 

After the party I FaceTimed both Jeremiah and my family. They are all (including Jeremiah) on our annual ski trip to Beaver Creek, Colorado and that was probably the hardest thing to miss out on so far. This trip is something that we all look forward to for so long so not being able to experience that with them (especially when it corresponded with my birthday) was very hard! It was still great to FaceTime though and see everyone enjoying the beautiful hotel and skiing! 

My host family plus my host dad's mom and a cousin in the red shirt. 

I realized more than ever this year how much I don't need gifts. I was able to volunteer my time and also spend quality time with friends, my host family, and with my actual family via FaceTime and that was more than enough!!

So Friday morning I got packed up and at 12:30 I met my friends at school and we took taxis to the bus station and headed to Montezuma, Costa Rica! Montezuma is on the south end of the peninsula on the west of the country. It was a six hour trek to get there, with a bus, a ferry, and then two more buses. But it went by pretty quickly and we got to watch a beautiful sunset from the ferry! Once we arrived at our hostel we were all starving so we found this delicious Italian restaurant and all ate way too much! I had a homemade Pesto Pasta that was really really good.

Saturday we got breakfast and then hit the beach! If you couldn't tell, the beach is a very popular thing to do here! With a name like Costa Rica though, I suppose that makes sense! It was beautiful of course so we spent quite a few hours there in and out of the water. After that we got gelato as our lunch and then went to find some waterfalls we'd heard about! It was a cool little hike along a river. We didn't even actually make it all the way to the large waterfall because it became rather precarious, but we had some great views along the way and found a place to stop and swim for awhile! After that we then went back to the beach to watch the sunset and got some beautiful views! Then we all showered off and got dinner at a restaurant right off the water! This morning we were up early and on the 6-hour trek back to San Jose!

So I am officially under 2 weeks until heading home! I'm still enjoying it here but am also anxious to get home too! 

Pura Vida