More pictures!!

These are from the same batch of pics Ive taken in the last couple of days...


Another picture of the street... To give you kind of an idea of what Heredia looks like.


Some delicious fruit at a market!!!


Another church pic... The buildings are verrry pretty.


KFC!!! They also have McDonalds, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Dominos, etc. Just in case youre tired of the regular rice and beans.

Day 4...

Well, today is day 4 in my month of Costa Rica. Day 4 without cellphones, cars, or computer let alone internet in my near reach. Right now Im using a school computer which Im pretty sure you have to be studying on but its nicer than going to the internet cafe. Theres a window AC in here, for one reason.

Well, I have a lot of mixed feelings about Costa Rica. I love learning the language, I love my little Tica familia, and I love the mountains. But some things are kind of hard to deal with. For example, Im not used to having to dodge cars and motorcycles who accelerate when youre trying to cross the street. Or wear my backpack in the front so no one steals anything. Or avoid eye contact with guys who yell things like beautiful and kiss me at us girls. Before I came, I considered renting a house and living for a year here while teaching at the intercultura school. But sometimes now I dont now if I can make it for a month. Im here to learn the language, but the atmosphere is very hard for a Texas girl to get used to. And the fact that Ticos apparently hate white people is hard to take, also.

Its hard not being able to talk to my boyfriend at all times, too. Im used to him either being with me, or being able to text him. Its definitely a challenge. I miss him, but travelling and learning abroad is very important to me. I just wish he could come, too...

Today my teacher took me and my one other classmate to the capitol, San Jose. As soon as I can, Ill upload some amazing pics.. Of the presidents house, of the theatre which looks like it was picked up and brought here from Rome, and the two museums we went to today. The first one, the National Museum of Costa Rica, was pretty interesting. In class were learning about the indigenous people of Costa Rica like the bribris and some other tribe names I cant remember. Basically Costa Ricas version of the Mayans and Incans. Oh yeah, and I cant put the little quote sign. Its not that I have bad grammar.

Anyways, the National Museum of Costa Rica has a bunch of pre-colombian artifacts. Like these huge stoney spheres of all different sizes which are like the Costa Rican equivalent of the statues on Easter Island. Supposedly, the larger the perfectly round stone, the more power a tribe had. They range from HUGE stones like a couple meters in diameter to like half a meter in diameter. Sorry, Im in the Costa Rican way of measuring right now. No feet for me. Its very interesting, because its such a mystery. And the museum had its usual really really old pottery and statues with very large... ahem. I took a picture but I dont know if its general web use appropriate. Lol.

The Museum of Gold was very boring for me. Im not really interested in looking at artifacts, and the Mesuem of Gold just had stuff made out of... gold. Like little freaky statues of bats and lizards and stuff. It was kinda cool, but not 3500 colones cool. Thats about seven dollars in American. You basically just double the amount and then move the decimal to the left two places. Easist thing to do.

I bought a really cute tiny tiny purse. I really want some super light linen pants, because the weirdest thing is Ticos DO NOT wear shorts. So if you wear shorts, all the guys stare at you. Not very nice. I would like to not stick out so much. Plus the pants look pretty cool... Like Egyptian princess cool. HAHA jk. Everyone here wears jeans or pants or long capris, because its winter for them. But its HOT to me!!!

Anyways, Ill try to put some pics up soon. I have no way of uploading them unless I borrow my teachers computer which has a slot for a memory card. Hasta Luego!

Pictures!!

My teacher let me upload pics on her computer!!!

The beautiful church... Catholic I think.


My itty bitty but incredibly sufficient room.


A picture from the street... I think I was on a bus. Translation: I was going REALLY fast.

hola from COSTA RICA!!!

Hola, I have been in Costa Rica for three days now and I really like it. I have learned sooo much Spanish already. The first two days I got here, two cars I rode in broke down. I have been told that´s not the norm! Heredia is very, very, very busy and noisy and the cars have the right of way which is something new. Also, even though my phone has international, it doesn´t have service so I can´t use it. And I didn´t bring my computer. So I have to fight for the two computers that are available in the whole school of Costa Rica, or as I am doing right now, use the internet cafe for less than a dollar an hour. But there´s no AC... oh well can´t have everything.

I would LOVE to post pics up, especially since I want my picture to be on the front page of the DIWYY.com website, I currently of no way of doing so. My camera is a piece of junk, and I don´t have a USB cord. The computers don´t take memory cards as far as I know. It´s so hard to not have all of the technology you´re used to.

My tico family is super nice. I have my own room, which is small but has sufficient closet space which is what´s important anyways. The water in the shower is very cold. I got it up to lukewarm this morning, and I was very excited.

Mom seems to be enjoying herself, too. It´s going to be weird when she leaves on the 14th. I will probably miss home a lot more then.

I am very excited to be doing this, I really want to travel but most importantly LIVE abroad. That´s how you really learn a place. But I don´t think I will want to live permanently in Costa Rica. In general, the people do not seem very nice. Or at least they do not like white people. You get stares where ever you go, and they´re not nice. My teacher in the school and my family are definitely exceptions though. I wonder if this is how it feels to be a minority in Texas...

Anyways, I have a few minutes left on my hour that I paid for here. I hope to keep my blog updated but I never know when I´ll have access. Especially not on the weekends, though, because I´ll be out. This weekend we are going to Arenol Volcano, and doing the zipline and riding horses and some other crazy stuff. I don´t care about riding horses, because we have those at home. But I hear there´s a hot spring...

almost that time...

got my nails done in order to be spiffy for my month-long vacation! :)

The Renting Revolution: Chegg.com

So I was trying to sell my used textbooks at the end of this semester, and I got mad at amazon (where I usually sell them) because they took a fee of like 11 bucks out of my already very cheaply priced text book. So I tried out chegg.com, a website that buys back and rents out textbooks. I sold my astronomy textbook, a book that amazon wouldn't even list for me, for $35. Chegg paid for shipping and I just packed my book in a box, slapped the sticker on it, and put it in a UPS mailbox. They sent me a check within a week and a half. :) Yay! I love checks written to me. And now I'm going to rent my geology book for my summer class for $28 instead of purchasing it new for $178. Sweet deal. It sounds kind of fishy at first, but after I got my check I'm a believer. Buying textbooks is such a ripoff because most of the time theres a new edition out before you can sell your's. Plus I have a code, CC127417, where the buyer gets 5% off their books and $5 more on the buy-backs. And I get $5 on every order :) Sweet.

Next stop.... Costa Rica!!

It has been a looooong time since I have written in here and that's because nothing very exciting has happened since Calfornia... well we went to Orlando, Florida for my birthday/graduation but I guess I never got pics posted up on that. Just imagine me standing next to Mickey Mouse and you'll get the picture. (HA, get it, picture!)

Anyways, my next adventure's destination is COSTA RICA! This operation has been planned for months... since sometime last August I want to say. I will be studying abroad in Heredia, Costa Rica for most of the month of June and a teeny bit of July. (I'll be back in the states for the 4th, of course). My Spanish class from Grayson College will be studying at Intercultura School in Heredia and I am super psyched!! By the way, I am a Spanish major. My mom's also going for a week.

So I will keep it updated throughout my stay in Heredia, and though I won't have my lappytop there are supposedly internet cafes everywhere you look. And lizards. And I despise lizards. (No me gustan lagartos!) And yes, I will probably pepper my sentences with Spanish phrases as that is the whole point of studying in CR!