July 28 (Epilogue)

7/28/2012 at 5:30pm

I'm sitting on the deck with my sisters, their boyfriends, two of my cousins, and two of all of our mutual friends here at home in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  It's their graduation party and we're currently playing a card game, and all I can think about is how different everything is.  Especially after learning so much about biology and trees, I keep noticing how different the plants are, the food, the customs.  Not better or worse, but different.  I feel stressed as well because I came back to a lot of things I have to get done in the next week so that I will be able to head off to study abroad in Spain in the fall.  My house feels so big, and so quiet: I'm used to the wind blowing through the metal roof of the home I was living in while in Santa Elena.  I should be used to this by now, this going to and coming from Costa Rica, shouldn't I?  This is the third time I've had to do this (although I did spend more time there).  I am trying to be patient and understanding and trying to enjoy myself.  I've had some laughs.  And I'm sure I'll get accustomed to life in the United States again.  And then I'm off on more adventures where I'll have to readjust some more!  It's kind of scary thinking about Spain but it's also exciting.

Above all I'm just so very grateful to the Grace Groner Foundation and everyone involved there for the opportunity to have experienced all that I did while in Costa Rica, and thankful to God for having shown me so much.  I hope to be able to return in the future (my mind is thinking "as soon as possible!") to be able to continue my involvement in the community and hopefully to research and begin writing my thesis for my senior year of college!

This epilogue, then, is my last post and closes my adventures in Costa Rica this year during June and July.  It has been a wild ride, and a rewarding one, and I only hope that what I was able to contribute while there adequately measures up to what was expected of me, and that it is useful, because I have received so much from the experience that I don't even know what to do myself anymore, haha!  Pura vida y que a Dios le bendiga!

July 20 - July 27

This picture at the Mirador is from 7/21, but it was so amazing!

7/20/2012 at 10:15pm

I am super tired and we're getting up at 6am to go to the Mirador tomorrow, which will be awesome, but I'm so tired!  It's worth it though!

So after a crazy day where I walked to MVI for the last time and got my blog and other stuff all done, I translated Abby and Ryan's PowerPoint, did more of my own PowerPoint work, met with Jenny and Fran and Justin with Abby and Ryan to discuss our thoughts on the internship (and had delicious pancakes!), and then had our last packed lunch.  After, I practiced and practiced my dance for tomorrow, and also shared some fun talk with Claudia and Jenny about the fishtail braid I learned how to do and about stuff I do like skating and ballet and piano and such, glory to God.  We then met with Evelyn to do a fun exit activity (aka Storytime with Evelyn Part 2) and then I met with Justin to go over my report for ASADA.  Let's just say I have my work cut out for me tomorrow and I won't be able to go to Guillermo's finca with the other camp leaders to set up the obstacle course.  Instead, I will be heading to the Mirador, doing my report over and some of my PowerPoint, and then walking around town for one of the last times.  After my meeting I dashed over to Jossette's to pick up a dance skirt and such, then I ran into Yeiner and we talked for a while and then I dashed home, changed, searched for Abby (and gave up), and then hung around the centro until Jannelle came and picked all of us up (Matt, too).  So Abby, Ryan, Matt, Jannelle, Rick, and two other lovely people (the woman's name is Harriett and I don't remember the man's name) all had a wonderful dinner and talked a ton about our internships and our take-aways from Costa Rica and things of that nature.  We then all four of us piled into the back of a car and got dropped back off in Santa Elena, with me/Abby/Ryan walking to Abby's to see if her dad was around (negative).  I came home, showered, and here I am: exhausted, but very eager for all of the joy that tomorrow will most assuredly bring!

7/21/2012 at 11:25pm

I'm so tired yet so awake!  God is amazing!  So this morning after a wonderful and delicious breakfast made by mamá I got myself over to Abby's by 6:20am to go to the Mirador.  She eventually got her papá up (who didn't want to get up) and Ryan eventually came over and Pastor Josúe told us it was cloudy and we wouldn't be able to see anything but Abby was betting on her satellite radar we'd be okay and I could just feel in my heart God saying He's reveal Arenal to us as a gift.  So we left and drove there and by the time we got there it had indeed cleared up!  We stayed for around an hour enjoying the view from the Mirador at Hotel Vista Verde, and by the time we left the clouds already started coming in again.  And as we left we were able to catch a glimpse of an eagle, and now that I'm thinking of it I can't help but think of Isaiah 40:28-31 = "Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Our last Supercompro ice cream trip! 325 colones for the win.

When we came back we had another delicious breakfast with two of Pastor Josúe's friends, including bread with dulce de leche (wayyy too good!), and then Ryan came back over after he showered and we all did work together for a few hours (we have to redo reports/PowerPoints).  After we got sick of that we ran around town and even bumped into Matt, so we all shopped around (I got my reusable coffee filter, Lizano sauce, and VitaMaiz!) and just hung out until 4ish.  I then returned home, straightened my hair and did my makeup for tonight, dashed over to the church to block the dance, and then read and prayed over John 17 and I felt the Spirit in such a strong way speaking to my heart.  So eventually after much technical help I was able to go up and dance and I felt the Spirit so strongly and it was amazing.  I believe it honored God.  Then Zaray put me, Courtney, and Abby on the spot and we had a goodbye moment full of tears, even though it's only goodbye for now.  They had just all become my family.  Later after the service I had an awesome dinner with Zaray, Steven, the Pastor and Pastora, and Abby, and it was delicious with great company.

7/23/2012 at 11pm

The last couple of days have been jam-packed and a blur.  I didn't journal yesterday either, which is worse because now on a tired brain I have to think super hard about what happened.

Well, I remember going to church after working more on my report and PowerPoint.  I took notes on the message and met a new CR student.  Ah, and then Gaby invited me over to have lunch with nearly his entire family: him, both of his brother José and Josafat, Josa's girlfriend Jennifer, Jenny's mom, Gaby's aunt, and his mom and grandparents.  I was so nervous at first meeting everyone but Josa was so nice helping me out with my report and I love his girlfriend, and really the whole family is just really cool (though as the gringa I'm lost often when trying to figure out conversations).  We played Frisbee for a bit after lunch and then realized we needed to get to the going-away party ASAP, so Gaby and I ran to the pulpería to get a two-liter of pop and dashed over tot he party, which lasted until 6ish and was full of Uno and Frisbee and food and pictures. I was so full (and soaking wet thanks to Osvaldo and a cup of water, but it's all good) that I just went home, showered super fast, and didn't eat dinner and went over to Gaby's to go with him for a walk.  He bought an ice cream fruit dessert that we shared over at the new heladería and then after we walked way way out past a roller rink to this path with some rocks to sit on and a tree over there, and stayed and talked for like an hour.  And we trekked all the way back to home.  Then as I went to finish my report for Monday my charger stopped working and so I began panicking a bit because I still wasn't done and only had 15 minutes of battery power left and an hour of work to do.  But I couldn't do anything so I saved the file and closed the computer.

Abby and Ryan practicing their presentation in the morning.

This morning, however, with Andrea's help, I got it to charge to 50%, enough to finish everything over at MVI.  Pastor Josúe took us to the Institute and it was great.  I hasn't run through at all beforehand so basically I just got up there and talked and hoped for the best and it seemed to go fine.  Gaby walked in about 10 minutes into my presentation as well which was so cool because no other family members showed up.  Abby and Ryan had awesome presentations as well.  We all had lunch after and Sofía and Justin ate with me, Abby, Ryan, Gaby, and Jenny among others.  I said my goodbyes to all the staff and the architect students and then I met up with Abby and Ryan at CASEM with Gaby to take the bus back.  I quickly changed and let everyone at home know I was going to Las Torres with him.  They all looked at me incredulously and said it takes three hours to climb and three back down.  I had to be ready to go to dinner at six.  Well, Gaby and I (after taking a taxi to Hotel Belmar) made it up the ridiculous climb in 35 minutes and down in about 20.  We spent at least an hour up there taking pictures and exploring.  When we left, after getting back down, we walked all the way back to Santa Elena and I quickly showered and changed and we all except Eric went to dinner.  It was a tonnn of food, and I hardly knew what to say because there were so many people and I didn't want to say goodbye yet.  After we left I began packing at home and then remembered that I had left my shoes at Yerlin's so I went back for those and ended up spending an hour at the church saying goodbyes and an hour at Gaby's looking at pictures and talking and laughing with the family.  Josafat made an awesome math/matrix reference that I don't recall because he's an engineer; nerds for the win!  I laughed so much.

How do I feel?  Well, the only time a tear fell down my cheek was reading the going-away gift Gaby gave to me after the fact again later.  I guess I'm more or less at peace, thanks to God.  I would like to spend more time here, but I"m ready I guess: ready to go because God would have me go.  He prepared me well for all of this.  And my heart is about as full as my suitcase now: it probably won't close because of how full it is!  I am ever grateful for this opportunity and will cherish the memories forever and always.

Me at Las Torres; you can kind of see Santa Elena in the background!

7/24/2012 at 10:34pm

The last dinner with my family at the restaurant.

My papá left early this morning, and I cried saying bye to him.  He has taught me so much about Costa Rica and has joked with me and laughed with me about so much.  Coco and María left after and I thought they'd be coming back before I left, but Jenny came with Tony before they came back from the clinic (Luis was sick all night and this morning with a fever).  That probably made me the most sad actually, even though I didn't interact with them as much, because simply by living peacefully with me they have made an impression on me.  It was hard saying bye, then, to Auri, Eric, and Andrea, and of course Luis and mamá.  I was in that sad mood, feeling the pain, around until we maybe started leaving Ryan's house and had a hysterical moment with his dog Sam wanting to come with us.  We drove to Las Juntas and stopped for lunch, and it's so much hotter and humid than in the mountains; I want to go back to Motneverde!

When we got to Sámara we attempted to go to the beach but it started raining and lightning started striking as soon as we walked into the water.  Hooray for rainy season!  We got downpoured on as we walked around the twon and came back to use the wifi briefly before dinner.  I enjoyed everyone's company over dinner, adn really throughout the day, but I'm already missing the Motneverde atmosphere and climate and environment and people.  I did have fun swimming tonight in the pool with Abby and Ryan, playing Lemonade and reliving memories of old movies.  It's hard because I've been in Monteverde for so long that I feel like traveling to Sámara and thinking forward to going back to the States is like me adventuring to see new things and Monteverde is the norm, not that I'm returning home.  I am happy to see all my family at home again though.

7/26/2012 at 7:50am

Oh yes, I am drinking coconut water from a coconut in Nicoya.

I was again too tired to journal last night.  We had a very long beach day.  Abby and I slept through our alarm and so had breakfast at 8:30am before we all changed and went to the beach.  We wave jumped and walked all the way over to a cliff full of crabs by the time lunch came around, went and ate lunch at Princesa, then relaxed at the hotel for a while before going back out and making a ridiculous, painful, long trek over to the other side of the beach to see if we could get to the island.  The tide became too high and it was really rocky.  My feet hurt so bad that I almost wanted to cry and I kept going.  It was a long trek.  We're all sunburnt even with SPF 50 and it was too hot for my liking.  On the flip side, we have like five pounds of really cool shells and we found a brittle star that was still alive.  I picked it up and it felt so cool!  We caught (well, tried to catch) crabs that were both little and also as big as our hands, and we did tons of wave jumping in pretty strong tides.  We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then Ryan, Abby, and I watched "All Dogs Go to Heaven" off of Ryan's laptop.  It was cool because I watched it when I was little and so much went over my head that I didn't catch until now.  Abby and I then stayed up and talked until midnight, and we got up at six this morning to pack, eat breakfast, and get on the road again.  We're on our way to San José and to Cartago by bus.  Hopefully all works out and I get to see everyone and Abby/Ryan enjoy the town and my friends.

I am thankful to the Grace Groner Foundation so much for my experiences here.  The charity and legacy of one person make such an impact in the world.  And I am hugely thankful to God: for pursuing me, for protecting me, for showing me the most incredible things and helping me meet the most incredible people.  Thank You, Thank You, so much.

7/26/2012 at 11:45pm

It's the brittle star from 7/25!  So super cool!

Holy cow, what a crazy-weird yet cool day.  We traversed from Sámara to San José for half the day and then took a bus to Cartago.  On the way there, we got scammed out of like eight bucks because we stepped on the bus before it pulled up to the stop after people got off, and then Abby got pickpocketed out of four bucks or so.  I dislike San José transportation.  Not just public transport either, but also how crazy crowded the city is and how hardly any cars can move when it's daytime (in fact, at any time).  Anyways, the guy next to me on the bus was a Veritas student reading about the design of "A Nightmare Before Christmas".  Pretty cool.  It also dawned on me why God let my study abroad program in San José fall through: Besides being close to Cartago, I probably would have hated it.  I'm not a city girl at all.  I miss the wildness of Monteverde.


In Cartago, Abby, Ryan, and I ate and then spent an hour trying to figure out how to call Diego and Juanmar.  We eventually ended up using the phone of a worker in the cell shop who was super nice and I felt so bad for using so many minutes but eventually we got Juanmar's address and taxied over there and had an awesome couple of hours with him and his mom and Chico and Pancho and Prisci.  We went over to the church and saw Abraham and Aaron and Ariana Diego's sister.  It was so nostalgic being htere, even after only a year.  Finally we had to go, so Juanmar dropped us off at the bus stop and we went back to San José and taxied to Café Mundo for dinner.  We just hung out in the hotel after dinner.  I received some really great messages from friend in Monteverde on Facebook and eagerly responded while trying to push away the sad feeling of yearning to be with everyone again.


7/27/2012 at 3:45pm


I am on the airplane on the way from San José to Miami.  After a rough takeoff we finally rose above the clouds and have gotten to see some very beautiful sights.  The moon, the ocean, the islands...but today we had to say goodbye to Jenny and Tony, who were with us from the very start and always there for us.  It was kind of sad.  I know I'll see them again, but in the moment it still hurt.

I will miss you, Costa Rica!

I'm concerned that I may end up in shock.  It's been so long since I've been in the States I feel like, and it hasn't really dawned on me yet that I'm not just going on another adventure with Abby and Ryan, I'm legit going back to Crystal Lake...for a month, anyway.  Then it's off to Spain, and I've been realizing more and more how much I dislike flying, so I'm not looking forward to the flight there, even though I'll be with other students.  But Spain will be exciting.

Flying over the ocean while listening to Death Cab for Cutie's "Transatlanticism" makes me realize how huge the world is and how far away I will be from everyone I've known in the past two months, and it's overwhelming.

July 16 - July 19

7/16/2012 at 9:50pm

Librarian interns all enjoying the sun (including Matt).

What a wonderful day!  I couldn’t go to Las Torres as I believe I mentioned, and the guy I was going to translate for this morning didn’t show up, but I am translating for him tomorrow supposedly.  I got a ton of work done with programming in Excel and looking at data, and I also did my blog and sent out emails and such.  And for lunch, though I left without one, Ryan and Abby each gifted me a sandwich because they each had two, so it was cool.  Then we and Jon and Matt walked to the cheese factory only to discover they had no yogurt or brownies, so then we went to CASEM and I got some really good chocolate.  I came back, finished working, and then left early to go home since it was supposed to be the day off that I never took anyway.  I got a ride to Cerro Plano in a cuadra (4-wheeler) and then Coco picked me up in Santa Elena, so all in all I made it home in a half hour.  Pretty cool. 

I then brought leftover cheesecake to Gaby’s house for him and José and their dad (also named José), and then Gaby and I went out and played Frisbee out front for a while.  I accidentally fell and bruised/scratched up my hands and my knees, which was no biggie (even though I was kind of embarrassed because I basically did a face-plant and looked kind of stupid, but not too embarrassed), but since my hand was bleeding a bit Gaby freaked out and was like, “We need to go to the pulpería and get you a band-aid!”  And I didn’t want to because it was hardly anything at all and I just wanted to keep playing, so eventually I convinced him otherwise and we went to the plaza to continue playing.  Eventually we started playing soccer with the kids instead and even though I’m bad I had a great time and marked the coaches hard-core and just played defense the whole time. 

I went home, showered, then brought Luis to the church so he could participate in drum lessons with Gaby while I helped run the sound check.  I eventually got caught up in playing piano and singing with Jeffrey, who also taught me how to play cumbia on the piano, and eventually Gaby joined in, and then I remembered I still had Luis so I dropped him back off at home and came back and hung out at the church just playing with Jimena and being crazy and socializing.  We played some dinámicas in the beginning and did an activity with our favorite bible verse and worshiped and talked with people we didn’t know well, so I talked with Aymeth and se is a super wonderful girl.  God has great things in store for her.  We then prayed and I had the wonderful opportunity to pray for Courtney, Rosi, and María as they prayed to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.  I am so happy and my heart fills with such joy for them and really everyone there at the church and I just feel tears well up in my eyes when I think about how there’s going to be a time soon where I have to say goodbye for now.

7/17/2012 at 9pm

Little scorpion I found while cutting apart pizza boxes!
Don't worry, it was dead.  It was also much smaller than the
other one I found a while back in the kitchen.

I’m sitting here with a glass of Atol, very much exhausted to the point that I feel it in my head.  But I had a good day, good in the sense that I feel it was progress made.  I helped Abby today for 45-60 minutes this morning with translating for a local expert in trees, and I can now successfully identify three different species of Lauraceae: monteverdenses, whitei, and floribunda.  When I came back I plowed through some work for ASADA and Jenny, and after lunch I helped Jenny by facilitating the dinámicas for the leadership workshop.  Jossette was there, too, helping watch the kids.  Some things I can learn from and improve on in the way I lead and direct: I need to explain more thoroughly yet simply all the directions for the games, and I need to be sure to express safety cautions at the start and how to stay safe during these dinámicas.  We had no accidents thankfully but a woman with epilepsy did have a seizure today at the end.  It was the first time I had ever witnessed something like that and so the only thing I could do, that I knew and was supposed to do, was double-check her pulse and put her in a safer position on the floor and wait it out.  She was fine but I have no idea if it was a trigger that set her off or what.  She’s fine though.  After the workshop, Jossette and I chatted more and then I ended my workday as I started my workday: working on the choreography for a dance I hope to perform on Saturday at the church if I’m allowed.  It’s a ballet/lyrical dance to “Angels Fall Down” by Skillet, a song I absolutely love and have danced/worshiped to before (except in the privacy of my bedroom where the tears that fell down my cheeks in worship were hidden from others).  Abby and Ryan already liked it at the beginning of the day and Jossette nearly cried at the end of the day, so I think I’m getting there.  I just need to practice daily until I finally perform so that the choreography flows and I can focus more on worshiping God with this dance and expressing it to the church.

Me and the lovely Jossette hanging out after the workshop.

I feel bad because I was a little irritable with Abby and Ryan and even Coco a bit today, though I tried to keep calm and hide it by just staying silent.  I think it worked.  I’m just tired I’m sure, of course.  Speaking of Coco, he wants to build a habitación behind the house for him and María to live in.  He’s only 18 and she’s only 16.  I love them both dearly but I do not approve of this.  They’re both super young, especially for Costa Rican standards, to be living together, and my papí wants to use the wood for a house in Caveceras.  But I digress, and it’s okay.  We went after dinner to go pick up some tourists from Bajo del Tigre, which was exciting, and then when we came back abuelita came over and we all made Atol.  After doing a rough translation of “Angels Fall Down”, I began writing this, then read five more psalms with Luis (like two days ago), and now I’m planning on showering to get the Zepol and bug spray and sunscreen off of me and to hopefully smell better before tomorrow.

My presentation on Monday is at 10am and has to be about my internship as a whole, possibly all in Spanish, maybe just Anibal or someone else translate… I haven’t decided, but I need to ASAP.  I plan on doing the PowerPoint (at least most of it while I wait on data from Alberto) tomorrow, along with my Spanish final assignment that I keep forgetting about.

7/18/2012 at 7:50pm

I hope to go to bed by 8:30 tonight because Abby, Ryan, and I need to arrive at MVI at like 7:15ish give or take in order to get as much work done as possible before we head out to the preserve at 10am.  We have letters so we should get in for free.  But anyway this all means I need to sleep, so Luis hopefully will get over here to read with me before we go to sleep if he wants to do that.

Fun moth that I saw flying around and then took from the tree!

Today Giovanni gave me a ride all the way to the gas station which was great so that I didn’t have to walk the hills.  I pumped out my report for ASADA and finalized as much of my data as possible.  Now all I have to do is stick together a PowerPoint and decide which language I want to present in.  I’ll probably end up doing English for ease of translation.  At the end of my day I worked super hard on the choreography for Saturday and I just pray that this dance would be entirely for God and that He would be glorified through it, not me nor anyone else.  I ended up dehydrating myself by accident (too much coffee and physical activity) and so was really nauseous and had a headache for a while but I knew right away why I felt like that so eventually I sat down, drank water, and felt better around an hour later.

My mamá and Auri sleeping in Andrea's room.

So yeah, it was basically work all day and just trying to do as much as possible.  When I came back I went to the church to test the space but they were all working in there so I basically just said hi to Josúe, Yeiner, and the other Josúe (and then Pastor Josúe when he came in… I think one of their names probably isn’t actually Josúe) and then went home, ate dinner, said hi to María’s brother who was visiting and to Luis’s friend Josúe, and showered.  Too.  Many.  Josúes.  But anyway, dance for Saturday is a go according to Zaray and so now I need to see about possibly procuring a dress and maybe testing the space tomorrow before the service.  Friday is a dinner date with Jannelle and Rick again, and I am helping Zaray earlier in the day, and Saturday morning and afternoon I’ll be helping Evelyn over at Guillermo’s with the other leaders from the camp to do Obstacle Course Part Two.  What a busy weekend!  And party on Sunday in the church!  Yeiner wants to do a cake fight again… Oh boy.

7/19/2012 at 10pm

Abby and Ryan on the suspension bridge.

The Internet was out in various places around Monteverde yesterday and today so I was hard-pressed to be able to tend to a couple of situations that were occurring over Facebook (finding a time for dinner tomorrow night with Jannelle, going to Jossette's to possibly procure a dance skirt/dress, etc.) but it all worked out later tonight when I went to Abby's to borrow her computer.  Her little hermana Eva is so adorable and is learning so fast!

Anyway, today I put together most of my PowerPoint and then Abby, Ryan, and I walked all the way up to the Cloud Forest Preserve and hiked around for like three hours.  It was exhausting but also super duper cool because we got the opportunity to run around on a suspension bridge.  And yes, I admit that the bridge was my favorite part even though the waterfall and forest itself were cool.  It was just so cold and damp all day that I was very chilled when we finally returned, took the bus back (for the first time!), and got dropped off in Santa Elena.  But my mamá heated me up some coffee and then she made some delicious soup from chayote, potatoes, cilantro, water, and a packed of something similar to ramen, spices included.  It was delicious.  And then my papí decided to be silly and talk about his chili sauce he was using in the soup being an aphrodisiac, which I couldn't decide was more humorous or awkward when he then mentioned I should go tell my nonexistent boyfriend.  O.o

I then went to Abby's and to the church and I was going to block out my dance for Saturday but the floor was being cleaned so I didn't.  The service tonight was chock full of super text-driven teaching and I had the chance to learn so much tonight that was good to know or that I didn't know previously.  And then a couple of people, Seidy and José (not Josúe, who I thought he was by accident yesterday), commented on me leaving.  I was on the verge of tears with José when I hugged him (he's gone this weekend) because he's such a sweetheart with a servant's heart and I wish we had more time to be better friends.  Gaaah this weekend is going to be so rough.  I finally started knowing everyone, and now I have to go.

July 13 - July 15

7/13/2012 at 10:50pm

So after I sat down with Justin today to look at data again and get direction for my final presentation (Alberto was sick so he and Sonia weren't present), I basically was left with a ton of work to do.  I plowed through a great deal of it today though, which is fantastic.  I came to realize that (though the numbers are iffy) Monteverde demands a lot more water than it can readily supply from the top of the mountain.  I also got June 2012's consumption data and some rainfall data from around 2001 to today, which will be neat to look at.  At a glance, it has been pretty evident that there's less rain this year than in past years.  All around, it's just a tough situation, and Monteverde is so fragile in general (not only environmentally, but also socially).

The beautiful view of San Luis from a trail we were on
(see 7/14/2012 post...we rode horses!).

Most of the day I spent doing work like what I mentioned, number crunching and such, but I also sent out my blog update for the week and worked on Gaby's birthday gift (it's a scrapbook, but it only has like one picture, haha).  Abby, Ryan, and I at the end of the day had a crazy moment with Jenny, then we went shopping for cheesecake ingredients, and then I came home, ate, hung out with family and family-of-family (during at which point I found myself more or less like, "So many people...don't know what to do with myself!"), and worked more on the scrapbook.  I discovered every time he came in to pester me that Luis can't read cursive, and most of what I write now is in cursive, so it was an epic win because he couldn't read anything no matter how hard he tried.  He then asked me to help him write a love letter to Monica, which was adorable, and he wrote Romans 8:28 into it too, which was really cool.  He's definitely my brother: annoying at times, but I love him.

7/14/2012 at 11:10pm

Abby, the happiest girl ever because she got to finally ride.

Okay, this is going to be short because I'm exhausted.  So I went with Abby and Ryan to the Institute, made cheesecake for Gaby's birthday and Justin's early birthday, ate pizza while simultaneously working on that same scrapbook, and then went horseback riding for the first time ever in my life!  At first I was basically terrified, but then even though my butt kills now I grew to absolutely love it.  My horse took very good care of me.  We went all the way to San Luis for the fundraising fiesta and competition that Justin wanted to do, where you ride on horses and try to get rings off a clothespin on a clothesline.  Abby did it, too.  It was cool to watch.  We finally came back at 6pm, had some cheesecake with Justin, and got a taxi back to the church where I had an enjoyable time worshiping and enjoying fellowship and such.  Then since my family was asleep I put the cheesecake in the fridge and went to Abby's for a small dinner.  Then Jeffrey was kind and gave me a ride back even though I wanted to walk a bit.  It was cool.

7/15/2012 at 9:10pm

Gabriel cutting into his birthday cake from Ivannia et. al.

After an awesome service this morning at church with Abby and Luis (he went to the Escuela Dominicana this morning too, which I'm so happy about!), I spoke with Gaby briefly and he invited me to his birthday fiesta.  So I went home, ate lunch, and watched a bit of "Just My Luck" on the television before heading up to his house and enjoying a three-hour fiesta with him and other people from church (including a frosting fight with Yeiler, whose name I have an awful time pronouncing).  We had cake and ice cream and marshmallows and popcorn and played Uno like the whole time.

At the fiesta also I talked with Saray about Abby, about my family, and about what possible plans God has for my future.  I psyched myself out a little in church this morning and started second-guessing my choice of major, but God touched my heart basically and said, "I'll take care of you."  I fully believe He knows what he's doing and so I just pray that I would remain steadfast on His path and that He would bless me with the courage and strength to keep persevering and pressing forward.  I pray that I would not give in to distractions and that I would be open to whatever He has in store for me.

I got into a cake fight with this guy.  He is a worthy adversary.

Afterward, Gaby came over for dinner and it was awesome being able to sit and listen to him converse with my family and it was great laughing with all of them about Luis and his love interest.  I served the cheesecake for dessert to all of them and it turned out delicious, which I was happy about.  Then Luis was trying to get Gaby to play with him on the computer and I could kind of tell he didn't want to, so I told Luis we were going for a walk and we left and walked about halfway to the cemetery before deciding it was freezing and sitting down.  I gave him the scrapbook, which he said he enjoyed, and we just talked and enjoyed each other's company the rest of our time out.

Yeah, this is from Saturday, but I thought I'd insert it here,
because it fits with the theme that I am so grateful to the
Grace Groner Foundation and to God for this opportunity!

When I came inside tonight, I had the second highlight of my day: Luis came to me and said that for the Escuela Dominicana he has to read 15 psalms by the next Sunday and he asked me to read with him.  It was so wonderful!  I found myself smiling while reading and just thinking how I want to bring this home.  I am filled with joy at his wanting to know God more and I just pray for his growth spiritually and that I would not be a poor example of what a life in Christ looks like.  My God is a God of processes, not of instantaneous results, and so I know that He will do great things in Luis's life.

July 9 - July 12

7/9/2012 at 10:30pm

Today was more or less a relaxing day since I didn't go in to work.  I woke up a bit later, ate breakfast, then walked into town to use the wifi and also to buy toiletries.  I came back around lunchtime to eat, and then after picking up my room I stole Abby's wifi at her house on the front porch and on my way back went to the pulpería to get horchata and cas drink mixes for my family, along with vanilla maiz candies and caramel ones and a tub of passion fruit jam.  I still need to locate coffee, but will do it last thing probably.  Then i took Luis to the plaza to play Frisbee/soccer for a bit, then we came home and had dinner (including chicharrones!).  Somewhere in between lunch and dinner I decided I wanted fried plantains so my papí helped me get the wood stove going and I quickly learned how to do it.  Finally, I made my way over to the church for youth group, where we had a bonfire and marshmallows an Jeffrey convinced me to make a fool of myself singing.  All in all a good night.

7/10/2012 at 8:35pm

Today was a pretty cool day.  I made my way to MVI by myself unsure of how my day would look, and I came to discover that I had Spanish class in the morning, prep with Jenny for her community health initiative, and then I had lunch with a bunch of new Canadians.  After hearing that they were going on a night walk, I furtively asked Alan if there was any way I could tag along.  He said sure and that he'd try to get me a discounted price.  I then went with Jenny to her charla, set up the room (and ran into Nacho, which was cool), and then babysat a two- and a five-year-old the rest of the time.  For me, the older kid was no problem, but the two-year-old cousin was a bit of a handful.  He wanted to just eat all the crayons and play in the water spigot outside and hit things and people with a stick and get into everything and wouldn't listen to me and kept shouting "nooo!" when I'd try to get him to not do something (like smash a keyboard).  But at the end there was this delicious bread someone made and coffee and I met Danny's mom, which was a pretty cool turn of events.

It's a monocot! Inside of a banana plant stem/trunk.

At the night hike at Finca Santamaría, Alan managed to get me in for free by passing me off as a program coordinator.  What a cool guy!  The Canadians were pretty squeamish the whole time except for a couple of girls (especially Annabelle), but all in all it was neat and I got to see a porcupine from far away (it was high up in a tree) and a tarantula and a little scorpion that glows under UV light, as well as a variety of stick insects and grasshoppers and things of that nature.  It was cool because the whole time Alan and I just chatted about biology and mist-netting.  It was pretty cool.  I unfortunately couldn't get any photos but nevertheless it was a satisfying night hike.

My favorite part of today was probably having the opportunity over lunch to chat with Canadians about Costa Rica and their experiences and share some things with them like what I know about the culture and society and also that the toilet paper plant that grows outside the Institute has fuzzy leaves and edible flowers.  I loved seeing their reactions.  If I finish work early tomorrow, I may get to go with them all to the coffee fincas (though I've already been a few times now to fincas).

7/11/2012 at 10:10pm

Check out the camouflage on this cool moth I found!

So after waking up, eating a delicious breakfast of gallo pinto and plantains, I began walking to MVI when my friend Josúe's dad Oliviar (also my papí's friend and coworker) gave me a ride all the way up that huge, long, annoying hill to Los Pinos!  It was a pleasurable walk to the Institute after that, and I even arrived early and so got to chill with Matt and Alan and Grevin the driver for the Canadians and some of the other MVI staff.  I was even offered breakfast, which I just took some coffee and bread but was still pretty cool.  It's like I'm part staff or something, haha!  I love it.  Later I talked with Justin about my data and received some direction, and I need a rough report ready by Friday to present to Sonia and Alberto (who showed up today with water production data for 2012 until now, so I just need 2010 and 2011).  I otherwise began formatting a template in Excel and hung out with John and Alan and thereby received invitations to go to Alajuela and to mist-net for Long-Tail Manakins (a really cool bird).

Canadians being tourists in San Luis from the mirador.

Later at lunch, I nearly threw a small fit I'm ashamed to admit.  Here's what happened: I hear a random Canadian laugh about someone's food on the ground and the dog eating it.  I look over, horrified, to see the dog scarfing down a plate of spaghetti and a Canadian sitting there nonchalantly like it was funny.  I politely yet firmly ask him to not let the dog eat his food because the dog will throw up all over the Institute.  He looks at me and says, "Do I care?"  I reply, annoyed, "People who work here will have to clean it up."  He responds, "I don't care."  I seriously nearly verbally chewed him apart in that moment.  Instead though I quietly took a breath and calmed myself down and attributed it to a miscommunication (he could have mistaken me for a peer instead of an intern slash someone who deems respect here at MVI since I am working here, or maybe he didn't understand my English even though we're both fluent).  He eventually picked it up and was nicer to me the rest of the day, probably after he realized I'm not Canadian and I am an intern three years older than him here at the Institute and had the power to get him in trouble with his professors if he decided to be rude/disrespectful again.

I also got ice cream and a brownie with Alex and Alec today from the cheese factory.  Good times!

A short while later I had the opportunity (thanks again to Alan) to go to Finca la Bella and the Vargas Finca in San Luis.  Alan convinced me to translate Oldimar's tour, saying he'd do the second one, but both Eugenio and his son Marco are bilingual and so didn't need translation, which I didn't know and I know that Alan already knew this since he also lives in San Luis, so he basically tricked me into practicing my translation.  But I loved it and had a blast and it was so cool; it helped that I myself went through the tour once before with Abby and Ryan.  During the second tour I enjoyed chatting with Marco, who has very good English and, oddly, no Tico accent in his Spanish.  Then Grevin gave us a ride back to MVI and another driver (Ronald) who is the receptionist at Don Taco gave me a ride all the way back to Santa Elena.  So cool.

Canadians running around with the trapiche at the Vargas
Finca.  The one on the left is the one I had the problem with.

Later on, I had the opportunity to Skype my family for the first time, which was neat.  I was sitting on Abby's porch stealing her wifi when she and her family finally came home from vacation, which was pretty funny.  So much to do, so little time.

7/12/2012 at 9:40pm

This morning, after thankfully getting a ride to MVI from papí, Abby, Ryan, and I went with Jenny for a tour of the cheese factory and then to Granja Porcina after (a pig farm where the pigs receive the excess whey and cows feed on treated pig manure and all the water gets treated through a lagoon system, so it's all sustainable).  It smelled so bad over there though.  But the piglets were cute!  I forgot my camera at the time so no pictures, but take my word for it that it was pretty cool.  Later after lunch we went back to the cheese factory with Jenny and she bought us all milkshakes, which was cool, and since we were in the fábrica so much I got to see Alonso all morning.  While we had milkshakes, Jenny chatted with me about cultural differences here when it comes to weddings.  Usually there's no engagement like we know it in the U.S., with a ring and the guy going down on one knee and everything; people generally just decide and talk marriage and make plans.  Honeymoons are also a little unusual as are fancy weddings, unless you're upper or upper-middle class.  And there's a tradition here in Monteverde where people give the bride money as she dances!

Being goofy at the cheese factory while waiting for batidos.

In the afternoon, Jenny and I planned for her leadership workshop next week and came up with several dinámicas to help with team-building.  After that I chatted with Gaby and Abina on Facebook and discovered that I had received my housing assignment for Spain.  I sent the family an email.  I'm now excited and nervous for September and I just hope my visa goes through...haha!

Jenny was kind enough to give us a ride back into Santa Elena, then I went home, had dinner, showered (in an attempt mostly to get chancho smell off of me), and dashed over to church even though I was late (the Devil didn't want me going tonight for whatever reason but I stick it to him.  Point for Jesus!).  Pastor Josúe talked about baptism tonight and it brought back such awesome memories of when I was baptized back in January 2009.  That was one of the best moments of my life.