Last Day

There may be many little updates from today. I feel like today will be super emotional for me.


I cried yesterday saying goodbye to some friends. Crying definitely surprised me. I did not think I would feel this strongly about goodbyes. 

I saw this cover of this song a really long time ago and it is just so cute. A couple of my friends from USAC did a cover of it and I remembered how sweet this song is.

Somewhere Only We Know.

So, here I am at the end of the semester. I only have a couple of days left in Costa Rica. The first few months that I was here, I didn’t think I would feel the same as some of the students were saying they felt from the previous semester. I heard, more than once, the sentence “I never want to leave.” I thought that would not be me only because I have never felt anything close to that when leaving Flagstaff. Sure I am sad to leave friends, but I know that I will always see them the next semester.

For probably my first three months here I knew that I would be excited to go home, and hearing stories of other students going home for a visit during the semester made me extremely jealous. I even tried to look for a ticket cheap enough during our spring break, but it just wasn’t close enough.

Now here we are, the last week of school, and I feel like an emotion rollercoaster. I cannot wait to finish with these classes; the end of a semester is always a nightmare. But at the same time, being finished with these classes mean being closer to leaving Costa Rica on Friday. And at first I thought I would only be sad to leave my host family, but now it’s every one that I have had class with, living in this beautiful country and being fully immersed in this language.

Ever since last week at out USAC goodbye party, I have been so torn about leaving here. I have made such good friendships with people all over the country. I think what gets me the most is that I don’t know when I will see this country or these people again. Way to be a Debbie-Downer I know, but this is what is going through my mind.

What it comes down to is that I got an amazing experience here that I am so grateful for. Seriously I spent the semester in Costa Rica and experienced so many amazing things. And when it comes down to it, I am satisfied with what I have done while here. 

The End of a Chapter

Last Friday we had the goodbye party for all the Costa Rica USAC students (there are two other programs in other towns). While I don't know any of the students from Puntarenas or San Ramon, it was so good to be with everyone from Heredia. I always love the events when we all get together (Jaco, Nicaragua/Guanacaste, Arenal and now this). It's amazing that a group of 60 students can get along so well. There is almost never any conflicts between us. 
Any way, we were all hanging out at the party and music was playing. One of the things I will miss is hearing the silly songs that are so popular here. This is hands down one of the most popular songs here and I cannot even begin to count how many times I have heard it. And it just makes me want to laugh and dance at the same time. 

Friday was the first time that I got really sad about leaving. I will miss everyone in this program, after seeing everyone almost everyday for a semester and travelling around with them, and then not knowing when I will see them next is such a sad thought. I will miss Heredia, and seeing my gringo friends while I am out and about in a country of ticos (BTW gringo is no longer a derogatory term so don't take offense. It's totally okay to be called gringo). I will also miss Spanish everywhere, even though it is sometimes confusing. I was at a copy shop this morning trying to print something out for class and my professor showed up. The lady at the store tried to tell me something and I had no clue what it was (I am blaming it on the fact that I only had 5 hours of sleep). Thankfully my teacher was there to clarify it for me (although I am positive she was probably thinking I should have understood what was going on). I am definitely gonna miss my host family. There is no way I can express enough gratitude to them for sharing their home with me.

I won't miss my classes, or the trash, or the fear of being robbed at gunpoint. I also won't miss the lack of refrigeration of products that in the US are always refrigerated. 

The countdown is at 10 days as of tomorrow. And I am satisfied with this semester. 

Outdoor Market

Yesterday I went to the Feria with my host parents. This week is Semana Santa, Holy Week, and we went to buy fruits and veggies since most stores will be closed. The Feria is a huge outdoor market with vendors selling all of their fruits and vegetables. The line of vendors is so long and there are so many people there. Here is a picture of it. You can see how far behind me there are vendors. It was a lot of fun. There were things there that even my host mom didn't know.

Mama Tica and I at breakfast before Feria

Coffee and Saints

So let’s overlook the fact that I am way behind on this blog. The last few days/weeks have been incredibly busy and I haven’t really found time to blog. But this week is Semana Santa (Holy Week) and I don’t have classes all week long as we celebrate the week before Easter. I am definitely looking forward to this relaxing week. However, after this week we only have two more weeks of classes then the last week for finals. 

The countdown is at 25 days. 

Crazy.

So more about what I have done. A couple weeks ago a couple of us girls went to a coffee farm in San Francisco del San Isidro. We were given a tour of some of the farm and shown all of the processing that takes place for coffee. Since I work in a coffee shop back home with our own coffee farm I knew most of the information, but it was cool to see this particular farm and see everything they do. Something that is really interesting about Costa Rican coffee is that when they separate the different grades of beans, they take the highest quality and reserve that for exportation, so whatever is sold in the country is the lower quality beans. Needless to say, anything that you buy in the States with the name of Costa Rican coffee will probably be better quality than anything I can bring back from here.

Also last weekend I went to a town called Cartago with my host mom and her parents. Cartago is about an hour away from San Jose and is home to the Basilica to the patron saint of Costa Rica, Our Lady of Los Angeles. Here is a link to a short description about it: http://www.costaricapages.com/

It was really interesting to see the basilica, it was beautiful. 

So those are a couple of things I have done in the last few weeks. I hope that it won't be too long before the next update.