Word of the week: half -- la mitad
Percent complete: 51%
Percent complete: 51%
Taking a break from the Costa Rican Word of the Week for now. I chose la mitad for this post because yesterday, the 9th of April and Day 96, was the official halfway point of my time here in Costa Rica. It has absolutely flown by so far, and I know that they second half will be even faster. I have some mixed feelings because I do really miss everyone back home, but this has been the best experience of my life so far. Here's to an even better second half...
Okay. First off, sorry for the super tardiness of this post, but I have been quite busy in the last three weeks. Class is in full swing. I'm really glad that I have a Tuesday to Thursday schedule because that leaves Friday to Monday to study. The weeks go super fast with only having class one day a week, too, because it only feels like two days in between each one instead of six. Portuguese has just been fun so far, and we have our first Natural History field trip this Saturday. Not exactly sure where we are going, but it should be interesting. I have really enjoyed the class so far. My three Spanish classes, though, are a super tough workload because I'm obviously not a native speaker. I think it's pretty obvious too... I got to be an example of how not to write in my Written Expression class last week in front of the class, so that was encouraging. Learning experience. But really, I don't suggest going abroad in a foreign language if you are rattled easily because the extranjeros stick out like a sore thumb, and teachers don't mind using your work for a lesson for the class, ha. I do think my Spanish has gotten significantly better though, so hopefully even more so after a whole semester of intense classes. I also think that my English has gotten much worse, and often find myself searching for words in normal conversation with other people in the Grupo. It's not just me, either. I have also made up words that aren't even close to being real.. sometimes on the phone with my mom or brothers, and they sure seem to enjoy it. For example, my brother Jeff just had ACL surgery last week (part of the reason why I haven't posted is because I was waiting for some of his pictures, but he had a good excuse to be delayed), and when talking to him on the phone, I wished him a fast "recoverment". Yes, recoverment. Not sure how I even thought of that one.
We had the last week of March off for Semana Santa, or Holy Week, because nearly everyone in this country is Catholic. My family came to visit! More on that below.
It has started to rain some as well. I hadn't hardly felt a drop until the last week in March during my whole time here but we were warned that once April hit, so would the rain. Sure enough, on April 1st, we had five straight days of rain in the afternoon. It's not ever for a long time, but last Friday I didn't have an umbrella while on campus when a 20 minute monsoon came out of nowhere. Just another way to make me stick out like a sore thumb, being that American running through campus during a downpour with no umbrella while literally everyone else in sight was safely walking under their paragua. Another learning experience. I still haven't bought an umbrella though.
Another exciting thing happened during the last three weeks: my 21st birthday! Isa made the whole Grupo some cinnamon roll pancakes (pictures below) the morning of the occasion in the office. A few of us went to a bar close to campus after class and had a few beers, and then and my family made hamburgers and got a cake and ice cream for my birthday dinner. It turned out to be a great day! And even though the drinking age here is 18, that didn't stop us from going to an Irish Pub and then to a club in downtown San Jose to celebrate the following Friday night. Probably the most fun night yet. No, definitely the most fun night yet. Hopefully I can get a keg right when I get back to Lawrence at the Wheel to have a belated celebration/welcome back party with the KU crew.
Also, a few of us went to the National Theatre last weekend for a concert put on by the National Symphonic Orchestra. It was actually really good and fun to go to. I'm sure I will go to at least one more show there... It's a pretty impressive venue.
Okay, now for the eventful stuff: Semana Santa. I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to see my family! It was an incredible week with them all. My mom, dad, brothers Jeff and Brian, and their respective girlfriends Meg and Stephanie all made the trip down to visit. Unfortunately, my other brother Tom and his fiancé Mallory couldn't make the trip due to work and planning a wedding for August, but I guess that just means we will all have to come back in the future. We spent three days at La Fortuna, which is a little town right next to the Arenal Volcano (rain forest), and then three days at Tamarindo (beach). I'll just post pictures and try not to write too much in between.
Jeff had an underwater camera...
Found this dead butterfly while on another bird watching tour. It is the appropriately named Owl Butterfly, since it looks just like an owl.
Look closer though, and not only does it look like an owl, but there is a snake pattern on its wing. If you look on the bottom edge there, you can see the outline of a head and a body, an eye, two nostrils, and even a scale pattern on the "belly". Pretty impressive.
Zip-lining excursion number two for Andy, also complete with a Tarzan Swing.
The "kids" also went on a canyoning/white water rafting tour one morning and afternoon. Canyoning is basically when you follow a river, and then when you come to a waterfall, you repel down/jump off of it. The two big waterfalls we went down were 140 feet and 230 feet, I'm pretty sure. Definitely the most fun thing I've done yet! White water rafting was also great... the water was much warmer than in Colorado (the only other time I've been was in Breckenridge in July, and even then it was really cold) and the scenery was magnificent. We even saw a sloth in a tree on the river bank! It isn't the rainy season here though, so the rapids weren't super difficult. Still very fun!
We also went on a less thrill seeking, yet still equally satisfying hanging bridge tour. We were suspended hundreds of feet above the forest floor on numerous bridges during the tour, and got some great views of the canopy and animals living up high in it.
I saw my fourth of the seven species of toucans living in Costa Rica on our bird watching tour, but unfortunately didn't get a good picture because it was so far away. Here is the chestnut-mandibled toucan that we saw on the tour (which has been featured in previous posts), but the new-to-me species is called the Collared Aracari, similar to the Fiery-billed Aracari which I had already seen.
And of course, my favorite frog again, and blue jeans poison dart frog.
The next three days were filled with less activity and more relaxing. And sunburns. Somehow we didn't get a full group picture other than the last one down below (at least that I have), but it was a great three days with everyone. Below is Brian, his girlfriend Stephanie, Meg, and her boyfriend Jeff. Then some sunset pictures of course, followed by our version of the "Corona picture".
That's it for now! Hope all of you are doing well, and I will try to get posts up regularly again (homework/school/extracurriculars permitting). Que le vaya bien,
We had the last week of March off for Semana Santa, or Holy Week, because nearly everyone in this country is Catholic. My family came to visit! More on that below.
It has started to rain some as well. I hadn't hardly felt a drop until the last week in March during my whole time here but we were warned that once April hit, so would the rain. Sure enough, on April 1st, we had five straight days of rain in the afternoon. It's not ever for a long time, but last Friday I didn't have an umbrella while on campus when a 20 minute monsoon came out of nowhere. Just another way to make me stick out like a sore thumb, being that American running through campus during a downpour with no umbrella while literally everyone else in sight was safely walking under their paragua. Another learning experience. I still haven't bought an umbrella though.
Another exciting thing happened during the last three weeks: my 21st birthday! Isa made the whole Grupo some cinnamon roll pancakes (pictures below) the morning of the occasion in the office. A few of us went to a bar close to campus after class and had a few beers, and then and my family made hamburgers and got a cake and ice cream for my birthday dinner. It turned out to be a great day! And even though the drinking age here is 18, that didn't stop us from going to an Irish Pub and then to a club in downtown San Jose to celebrate the following Friday night. Probably the most fun night yet. No, definitely the most fun night yet. Hopefully I can get a keg right when I get back to Lawrence at the Wheel to have a belated celebration/welcome back party with the KU crew.
And yes, they were even better than they look.
Also, a few of us went to the National Theatre last weekend for a concert put on by the National Symphonic Orchestra. It was actually really good and fun to go to. I'm sure I will go to at least one more show there... It's a pretty impressive venue.
Okay, now for the eventful stuff: Semana Santa. I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to see my family! It was an incredible week with them all. My mom, dad, brothers Jeff and Brian, and their respective girlfriends Meg and Stephanie all made the trip down to visit. Unfortunately, my other brother Tom and his fiancé Mallory couldn't make the trip due to work and planning a wedding for August, but I guess that just means we will all have to come back in the future. We spent three days at La Fortuna, which is a little town right next to the Arenal Volcano (rain forest), and then three days at Tamarindo (beach). I'll just post pictures and try not to write too much in between.
The view from our room of the Arenal Volcano
One of the pools. There was also a hot spring (well, manmade pool but they pumped in water heated but the magma from the volcano) on the other side of the resort, complete with a bar, of course.
Jeff had an underwater camera...
Found this dead butterfly while on another bird watching tour. It is the appropriately named Owl Butterfly, since it looks just like an owl.
Look closer though, and not only does it look like an owl, but there is a snake pattern on its wing. If you look on the bottom edge there, you can see the outline of a head and a body, an eye, two nostrils, and even a scale pattern on the "belly". Pretty impressive.
Zip-lining excursion number two for Andy, also complete with a Tarzan Swing.
The "kids" also went on a canyoning/white water rafting tour one morning and afternoon. Canyoning is basically when you follow a river, and then when you come to a waterfall, you repel down/jump off of it. The two big waterfalls we went down were 140 feet and 230 feet, I'm pretty sure. Definitely the most fun thing I've done yet! White water rafting was also great... the water was much warmer than in Colorado (the only other time I've been was in Breckenridge in July, and even then it was really cold) and the scenery was magnificent. We even saw a sloth in a tree on the river bank! It isn't the rainy season here though, so the rapids weren't super difficult. Still very fun!
We also went on a less thrill seeking, yet still equally satisfying hanging bridge tour. We were suspended hundreds of feet above the forest floor on numerous bridges during the tour, and got some great views of the canopy and animals living up high in it.
I saw my fourth of the seven species of toucans living in Costa Rica on our bird watching tour, but unfortunately didn't get a good picture because it was so far away. Here is the chestnut-mandibled toucan that we saw on the tour (which has been featured in previous posts), but the new-to-me species is called the Collared Aracari, similar to the Fiery-billed Aracari which I had already seen.
And of course, my favorite frog again, and blue jeans poison dart frog.
The next three days were filled with less activity and more relaxing. And sunburns. Somehow we didn't get a full group picture other than the last one down below (at least that I have), but it was a great three days with everyone. Below is Brian, his girlfriend Stephanie, Meg, and her boyfriend Jeff. Then some sunset pictures of course, followed by our version of the "Corona picture".
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¡Pura vida!
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