Getting ready to study abroad in Costa Rica?

If you're getting ready to study abroad in Costa Rica, there is some things you should know!

• Ladies, bring tampons!! They are not impossible to find but they are definitely a pain in the butt to find!
• Bring a black belt to hold up your pants! Ladies belts here are only for fashion! (For the most part, of course :)
• If you're studying during rainy season (Sept-Dec), bring an umbrella and a rain coat!!! It will pour and pour and pour (no joke). You should mentally prepare for the rain so that you don't complain the whole time!
• Bring hiking shoes!! There will be many adventures to go on and when you go into those rainy cloud forests, it's best to bring good shoes!
• Ladies, bring mascara! It's expensive here and harder to find then I thought, so bring your favorite brand :)
• Budget your money from Day 1! What I did (at a later point) was wrap money for each week in a piece of paper and wrote down the amount I could spend for that week!
• Bring school supplies (they are a bit tough to find and more on the pricey side!) I suggest white lined paper or a notebook will do :)
• By the way most things here are not cheap (don't get the wrong impression just because it's a latin country).
• If you are studying in San Jose, take the safety measures seriously (many students have been robbed), just use some common sense and don't walk alone! Take a taxi if need be...I don't know know how much more everyone here could emphasize it, but people still don't listen.

I'll keep on adding to the list when I can remember more information! Just remember to be safe, keep up with your school work, and enjoy the beauties of this country :):)

Rio de Celeste

It's been a fun and crazy time this past week in Costa Rica! Today I went with a group of 7 to Rio de Celeste! Little did we know it was going to downpour on us the entire time and we were going to get muddy and wet. We hiked for about 3.5 hours and unfortunatly the river was not blue! If you don't know anything about Rio de Celeste heres a wikipedia definition, "It is notable for its distinctive turquoise coloration, a phenomenon caused by a chemical reaction between sulfur and calcium carbonate. The Celeste River also borders several hot springs and has one large waterfall." Unfortunately when it rains the blue color turns into a muddy color!

When we got to the hot spring, we didn't even want to swim! Some of us dipped our feet in and the sensation of warm and cold was nice. We were all starving by the time we hiked back! I tripped several times and landed on my hand. It really was a tough walk and it was extremely slippery. We had a good time nevertheless and made the best out of it. Sometimes mother nature works in mysterious days and today was not our day to see the blue river!

(Left: The river on a sunny day, Right: The river on our rainy outing!)

Last Days

It's coming to the point where it's my last days in Costa Rica! I've been out every night since Thursday and I've finally made some new friends (too bad it was the last two weeks that this is all happening)! We've been dancing, having a few drinks, and just having great conversations and I'm happy each day that I get to spend with them! I am a little sad that this is the end when it feels like the beginning just started but that's how it played out. Today is the farewell dinner for my program and that's when you know this is definitely the end. I'm grateful for all that I was able to experience here and for the new memories that I have made. I'm happy that my Spanish has improved but I definitely have a lot more work to do. I am happy to be going back home to see my loved ones and be with them for the holidays! I feel like there's so many more little things I appreciate in life now.

I'll be putting a blog soon about how and what to pack to Costa Rica for study abroad students and I'll also be going to Rio de Celeste and paragliding this weekend! Plus having my first Costa Rican sleepovers!!

Until next time!!:)

Ants, Ants, Ants! (Plus a great weekend =D )

I was lucky to have Chris here for almost two weeks! The past weekend we did a day trip to Volcan Poas and La Paz Waterfall Garden. Unfortunately we were not able to see the volcano because it was way to cloudy, however we did have a nice walk through the forest.

La Paz Waterfall Gardens was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to experience it together! There were so many different animals and we even got to hold a toucan! We saw many different types of waterfalls and then had a yummy buffet. It really was a great day trip.

The past Saturday we also went to San Jose Center. We walked for about 6 hours all over the city! We shopped at the artisan market and then found outside activities that the community was doing. The event which is held every weekend is called, "Enamorate de tu ciudad". People were doing all kinds of things from playing chess, to hula hooping, beating drums, etc..etc... It was really great to see and I was fascinated by all the activities.

Sunday we spent the time having a nice lunch with my host family and just sitting around talking.

Now it's back to normal with school and being home.

But I must tell my ant story....
At the hotel in San Pedro in which we stayed the whole time, there were many ants everywhere. They were all over the bathroom, the floors...everywhere... I tried to keep calm (after all it is Costa Rica). It seemed like they would get worse everyday and they really were getting into everything. I made the mistake of bringing Chris a candy from my school and we put it on the table where the ants got into the plastic! The day we were leaving there were ants in my bookbag so again I tried to stay calm and just crushed all of them with my fingers. I hoped they were all dead and that none were coming home with me. Once I dropped of Chris to the airport and I got home, I started to clean out my bags. I saw a few more ants in my bag which confused me because I really triple checked it before I left. I started cleaning out everything and hoped for no more ants. I kept seeing some on my bedroom floor and just continued to kill them. I went about my day and went to school. I took my umbrella in case it rained. When I got home I put my bag down on my bed, had dinner as usual, and my tico family and I watched a movie. When I got back to the room I noticed ants on my bed. I was really paranoid at this point. I noticed the bag was on my bed and figured I should shake it out outside. I went outside and figured I should shake out the umbrella that was in the bag too. I opened the umbrella up and quickly dropped it and screamed!! There were TONS of ants all on the inside of my umbrella! My host dad sprayed the umbrella and we left it outside for the night! For the next three days I felt like ants were crawling on me and I would see ants that weren't there! I think I'm ok now! HAHA oh Costa Rica!

Until Next Time!

Meet Mr. Albino Squirrel

Beautiful Blue Hummingbird

Waterfall

Butterfly Garden

Jaguar pacing around

Toucan Time

My lovely week

This week I spent at the hotel with Chris. I had the opportunity to try different restaurants and learn about new places in Costa Rica. (I'm usually alone at my Tica house and I don't like to go out alone due to many robberies). Tuesday we went to the mall to eat and to go to the theatre. We ate at "La Casona del cerdo", and it was absolutely yummy!!! The meat dish was delicious! We saw the movie "Cuestión de tiempo" (About Time), and we really enjoyed it! I like the movie theaters in Costa Rica a lot and they only cost around $4!! (In the states it's like $10 where I live).

Today we walked to the artisan market which surprised me to how close downtown is from where I live here. From the hotel the walk was about ten minutes! I absolutely love souvenirs and the artisan market here. 

After that we went to lunch at Musa Confusa with my friend Jess. It was yummy as always!:) Then Jess had to go to class so Chris and I went to the mall before I had class. 

Today Chris met my host parents and we took them out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called, Ram Luna. It was Costa Rican night so they had a buffet and a live show. They also had vendors inside the restaurant at tables selling their goods. The whole experience really was great and there was so much history in the restaurant itself; it was absolutely beautiful!! 

Manuel Antonio

This past weekend I went to Manuel Antonio with my boyfriend Chris who came to visit me for 12 days!! Our bus ride went by fairly quickly. The hotel was very beautiful and had a pool and jacuzzi! We were both hungry so we walked a little bit up the street and found a restaurant that was inside an old airplane!! It was very cool but we sat outside of the airplane in a different seating area where we had a beautiful view of the water and trees! We were lucky enough to see a cute little colorful monkey. The food was ok but the place itself was absolutely beautiful. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and ate dinner at the hotels restaurant. 

The next day we had a tour booked for the national park. We were in a group of 5 (very nice people) and our tour guide (who talked way too much). We saw so many things and it really is a place to go if you want to see a lot of Costa Rica's wildlife. There were so many monkeys around the beach area trying to steal peoples bags, it was kind of funny and cute! We saw frogs, tadpoles, spiders, the biggest and smallest grasshopper, birds, butterflies, a sloth, etc! We didn't stay at any of the beaches though. 

After the park we walked around the town shops and then went for lunch and dessert across another beach area. We never brought our bathing suits outside of the hotel so we never got to swim at the beach. We went back to our hotel to relax and dip into the pool after a hot day of walking. At night we borrowed a DVD from the hotel and watched "Pineapple Express", I was laughing so hard that the lady in the next room banged on the wall.

For Sunday we booked a mangrove tour! We woke up the next day had a delicious typical Costa Rican breakfast and went on the tour. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. The tour included a Costa Rican typical casado dish and then the tour itself on a boat. Our tour guide Alex was great and super funny. We were lucky enough that it was just me and Chris. We saw more animals on the tour and just the view was amazing. My favorite part was when we stopped near the monkeys on the trees and they jumped on Chris's head! We were definitely surprised and then they jumped on mine! We were able to take pictures with them and later we even got to take pictures with a wild snake! It was a very cool tour and I definitely recommend it. 

The weekend was beautiful overall and I was so happy to share it with Chris!

Soap Bubbles

My first time getting a pedicure in Costa Rica consisted of an at home foot bath that you plug in to the wall. I was hesitant to even get the pedicure and when I decided to do it, she didn't bother cutting my nails but it went fine. 

Today was my second time getting a pedicure and I wanted one to look nice for my love whose coming tomorrow!! This time I went to a different place (a friend from school had suggested this place because she lives there and gets discounts when she brings people in so I decided to go). Well I think this probably was one of the worst mani/pedi experiences if my life and I seriouslydidn't  know whether to laugh or cry!

I went into the salon, which was very nice! The girl sat me down for a pedicure and it was a similar setup to my first one but more of a sink type basin that didn't plug in and was connected to a faucet on the ground. I thought great this should be nice. She asked me if I wanted to use exfoliant or lotion for my feet, I said exfoliant (which had a huge $6.97 price tag on it...tjmaxx maybe?). She put the exfoliant on my feet and rubbed it in, she told me to put my feet back in the basin but never really washed it off. Then she asked if I wanted my toe nails clipped I said sure, she then was about to clip them and decided the clippers were too big and decided to file them instead. Then without toe separators she proceeded to painting my nails without a base coat. After she was done with one foot she told me to put it off to the side, when she painted the second foot there was no where to put my foot so I asked where I could put it and she said "I don't know". After painting all my toe nails red she actually asked if I wanted a top coat! Finally that part was done...now on to the hands I went!

She used the same exfoliant to rub into my cuticles and then massage my hands a little bit. She filed my nails and then started to paint them!! She didn't even cut my cuticles and they are in terrible need of a cut! Again she didn't use a base coat. She painted them once and said do you want me to paint another layer or put on the top coat (there were streaks in my nails, clearly two coats were needed). I told her to put another coat and they still were awful! I really just wanted to leave. I didn't say anything because I honestly didn't know what today to her. The she tried to overcharge me and I was like no way that is not what your card said! So I paid her what was on the price list that was in the salon!

Now I wasn't going to blog about this but then it was raining outside. I had no were to dry my nails and she says oh it raining and then sees me struggling to get my umbrella out of my bag with my wet nails. Finally I got my umbrella and was dying to get out of there. It started pouring so hard my entire clothes were soaked!!! On top of that I'm walking and my flip flops wouldn't stay on I look down and there's soap suds all over my shoes and feet and on my hands! I seriously didn't know whether to laugh or cry! I finally got home soaked!