Nicaragua

Nicaragua was great. Went to Granada and Leon, two colonial towns, and Masaya which is known for its markets. Lots of walking around and relaxing. We also went to the house where Sandino was born, which is now a library, and to the Lago de Nicaragua which was really beautiful and also looks over Granada.
Two friends got food poisoning so we werent very active after that, and didnt see as much as we wanted to. But it was really nice to spend so much time with my friends before everyone leaves, and it ended up with Paul's mother putting us up in the Hilton for one night, since she felt bad that he was sick. Then, since this is Latin America, Kate and I just smiled at the young guy working there and we got a major discount and ended going back for our last night. Not exactly how we wanted to experience Nicaragua, but whatever, it was pure luxury. It was such a strange contrast though, Nica is so poor and the poverty is evident from the minute you cross the border. It's the Central America that I was used to before coming to Costa Rica, which is so much more developed. Definately a major shift. Crossing the border with all of the swine hype was also fun, and let me tell you, all of us still have verrry rumbly stomachs. Made me appreciate so much more the fact that we can drink the tap water here. But oh man...the beds at the hilton are delicious. And I took two baths. TWO. And wore a bathrobe and had a poolside pina colada at noon. Not how I travel, especially in this part of the world, but I'm not complaining. And I was so clean. It was heaven.
Had one final this morning, and our last one is tomorrow. crazy. Attempting to study but I just dont want to! One more day of work and then playtime for like 11 weeks. I'll take it :)

picture: Lago de Nicaragua

theres time to work but now its time to play

I've spent this weekend cooped up with my computer and tons of readings, completing way too many papers and a final exam. Clearly, that was too much work for me to handle, so I decided that it was just about time to get another stamp in my passport. After all, its been like 3 weeks. So i'm off to Nicaragua tomorrow.

Expecting a lovely trip, then we come back, have a few days to study for our last 2 finals...and then the program is done. I am totally not prepared to say goodbye to everyone and to Costa Rica, so I'm not really thinking about that yet.

I hope that you are all enjoying the beginning of spring and have time to enjoy the nice weather. :)

3 weeks left...but whose counting?

I cannot believe that I am so close to the end of my program. I feel like we just got here and like i've been here forever, all at the same time. It's been such a fantastic semester/vacation and I can't imagine not seeing my friends every day and not calling Costa Rica home anymore. Thank god I still have 10 extra weeks to travel, or I would really be a mess.
Speaking of my summer, my plans are finally coming together. May 19th-27th the fam comes, June 2nd-18th or so i'll be in Panama, then I'm heading to Honduras, then Nicaragua, then Peru, and then home. Should be pretty sweet. Anyone and everyone is still more than welcome to come.
This past weekend I went to Manzanillo on the Caribbean coast...small little town, just relaxed on and explored the beach. Somehow got sunburned, yet again, but at least i'll be nice and brown when my family comes.
Spending the rest of my time here working on papers, presentations, and final exams...hopefully with a quick trip to Nicaragua thrown in.
A big FELIZ CUMPLEANOS to my dad and Yana...hope youre both having a great birthday, wish we could be celebrating together.

more besos to everyone!

Buenos Aires!!

Hola everyone! I'm back in Costa Rica after a lovely spring break in Argentina. Buenos Aires is such a pretty, green, clean, beautiful city...the anti San Jose, if you will. It was so nice to see Alyssa, and we had a great time running around the city with Amy and Kate, two of her friends from school. We walked and walked all over the city, which has tons of parks and monuments and fountains and awesome architecture and flowers, etc etc. I also had the most delicious beef of my life (forget the farm post where I said I wanted to be a vegetarian...such a lie) and incredible italian, indian, and chinese food. And lots of Malbec, one of my favorite wines to bein with, but of course its extra delicious in its native country. Saw lots of tango dancing, went to a tranny club (gooood times), and went to a Jesus amusement park. There really are no words to describe the Jesus park, but suffice it to say that its called "Tierra Santa," or literally, "Holy Land," and is supposed to be set up like Jerusalem. There is a 30 foot Jesus and live shows of the creation, birth, crucifixion, and ressurection. So blasphemous. Amy and I took super inappropriate pictures. I really cant describe it though, you just need to see pictures to understand the glory. It was absolutely ridiculous and wonderful.
I also saw Evita's grave, which was cool, and read the first half of the first Harry Potter in Spanish, which made me proud. All in all, it was just a great week, and I really want to get back and go to other parts of Argentina. For now, I'll suffice by speaking like an Argentine, even if I don't want to.
There was also an evening where we had a bottle of wine before dinner, then decided to go to a Russian restaurant. The owner sent over a bottle of wine, then another, then joined us with his friends, and by 4:30am, they had opened 4 bottles of wine, didnt let us pay for dinner, and paid for our cab ride home. It was a hysterical evening which included my attempting to speak English, Russian, and Spanish all within one conversation, which made my head hurt. It also included my sister and I calling our displeased parents at 1am to tell them how much we loved them. Gotta love what 5 bottles of wine will do.
Back to reality...or at least, reality in Costa Rica. Finally realizing how litle time we have left here and how much work we have to do in the next month. A bit overwhelming, but it will all work out, i'm sure.
ALSO. IMPORTANT NEWSFLASH: my summer plans are coming along, and I officially need a travel buddy for June 18th or 19th to around July 10th to do Nicaragua and Honduras. They are cheap and wonderful countries with so much to do and see and explore. If you at all have the time or money, now is the time to let me know. I promise to keep these plans as solid as possible. Also, I would bet that at this point, my mom would secretly pay someone to keep me company. soooo think about it. and come play!! everyone tells me how jealous they are of my travels--so dont be jealous, be a part of it!
Furthermore, I am pretty much at the halfway point of my trip, and hardcore missing New York, Boston, and everyone from home. So keep sending me updates about home and keep in touch.

spring break

Happy April!!
I'm finally on spring break! And in about 8 hours, I will be on my flight, headed to Buenos Aires to visit my sister! Im so excitedddddddddddddddddd!

Happy Passover/Easter to everyone! Love and miss you all.

heaven

I had mac and cheese today for the first time since i've been abroad.

It was absolute heaven and I felt that it needed to be shared.

La Finca

This weekend we had a group field trip up towards the Carribean coast of the country. Friday morning we headed to EARTH University, which is an awesome university that focuses on agriculture, the environment, sustainable development, etc. We learned about the programs and the school...the coolest thing that they do is go into rural communities in the area and teach them how to implement all of these things into their farms and their lives, to become more sustainable and advanced and yada yada. It's an international university with students from all over the world, who then take what they have learned and usually implement the new ideas in their home communities. For example, we had dinner with a bunch of the students, who talked with us about what they do and then did traditional dances and songs and demonstrations from their home countries. I met an indigenous woman from El Salvador who is studying at EARTH so that she can go back to her farm and teach her mother how to become more sustainable for the future generations. It was really cool stuff, definately research it if youre at all iterested. It was really awesome. We also went to a banana plantation to see how they are grown, then saw how they are cleaned and packaged. We also saw how they make banana paper, since they dont want to waste anything. Its a huge and very demanding process...appreciate the bananas that you eat! The plantation we went to sends roughly 95% of their bananas to Whole Foods in the USA...so you have probably all eaten one of the bananas that I saw growing!
We stayed in their dorms for the night, then got up at 5am to eat breakfast and head to an organic farm for a few hours. I dug a trench and shoveled and planted and carried heavy bags around and fertilized soil...it was fun and exhausting, I dont know how people do it every day. After lunch we went to a chocolate plantation...i ate cacao right from the tree and sucked the chocolate beans and got eaten alive by mosquitos. The woman who runs it also made us chocolate milk which was incredibly delicious.
We then headed to local farms, to stay with the families who run them. It was such a fun experience!! I got to pet a chicken (who are super dirty and really dont like to be touched at all) and I milked a cow!!!! I also chilled with a pig who is going to be slaughtered on May 1st. I was invited back to watch the fiesta but I declined. I got to chop and whack things up with a machete and I planted a tree and fished for Talapia and then ate some of it for lunch...beforehand, I had said that I don't eat much fish but I would try it. Well, the mom didnt want me to be hungry, so when we came back from fishing, I saw her plucking feathers off of a newly killed chicken. aka my lunch. I know its the cycle of life and all of that jazz, but I secretly now want to be a vegetarian. Oh and we got up at 4:30am to see the sunrise since we were actually on the right coast this time, and walked to a river and ate eggs from the chickens running around us and stepped in tons of cow shit and got really really dirty. It was awesome.

So it was a really interesting weekend. But now i'm super tired and back to work on a paper and a presentation and study for an exam...all of this by Thursday, but then begins spring break! (although it sort of feels like i've been on vacation for 2 months now...)

:)