There's No Place Like Home

Okay everyone. I love Costa Rica. Absolutely have been having the time of my life. But I am gonna admit that I am really excited to go home and I will show you why.


http://www.konaweb.com/


This is literally ten minutes from my house. I miss it a lot. 


I also just found out about this: 

Oh home.

Whistle While you Work

So I have the cutest Lit teacher here (she is also my language track teacher and even though she sometimes intimidates me, she is still super cute), and while we were studying a certain author she starts singing this song having to do with one of the poems we are reading. Anyway long story short, she brought in the music for us to listen to and we all sometimes just start singing this song. This will definitely be something that I remember Costa Rica by.

Celia Cruz-Guantamanera

Arenal

La Fortuna

So finally I can blog about last weekend. It was such a fun trip. The last USAC trip of the semester, we went to Volcan Arenal. It was about 4 hours away from Heredia and was gorgeous. We arrived at our hotel and it was great. We could see the volcano from our room and the pool area.

Hotel Room

After we changed into our bathing suits, we went to the Baldi Resort to visit the hot springs. I am not sure how many different pools there were, but there were a lot and they all ranged in different temperatures. It was so fun to hang around the hot springs for a few hours. Later, we met with everyone and ate a buffet dinner at the resort. It was SO delicious. They definitely feed us well on these trips!

Scary Bridge

That night when we got back to the hotel, we all hung out at the pool together. For this trip the Heredia program was split in two groups on different days, and our group happened to travel with the USAC San Ramon group. San Ramon is about an hour and a half from Heredia and their program specializes in science classes. So we were able to hang out with them and get to know them which was fun.

The next day we went to these hanging bridges. There was this path that had six different bridges at different heights. I was pretty freaked out, since I don’t like heights. I never let go of the bridge while walking across, but it was definitely a lot of fun. We were hiking through the rain forest and there were a bunch of different birds and animals. Such a good trip.

View from hotel room

Nothing too exciting, but it was definitely a fun experience. The area was so gorgeous and definitely a better trip than the ones where we stay in hostels. 

Blog, blog, blog...

So this week is going to be/has been really busy. I have a final on Thursday and a bunch of stuff to do. But I am letting you know that I went to Volcan Arenal this last weekend and had a blast! An awesome blog about it will probably be posted this weekend, along with some photos.

Volcan Arenal

I am dying to write out this blog, but by the end of the night I am just too worn out from the day, so I promise that this weekend it will get done!

Does This Count as Culture?

Let me tell you something about Costa Rica. 

It is really loud. As I type, two yes t-w-o different car alarms are going off on my street. 

Wanna know why? 

Because a motorcycle drove past them.

Yes, these car alarms were set off because of a loud noise. Now, two alarms is strange, but there is one car in particular that has its alarm go off nearly every single day. Usually pretty early in the morning, and I hear it while I am getting ready for school. It is ridiculous, and it’s not like the owners try to stop it from going off. They just let it do its thing until the alarm cycle comes to an end. That is probably the most annoying part.

Dogs also are another thing. I don’t understand the role of dogs in this country (and from what I hear in every Latin American country). First of all, in regards to this noise issue, most of the dogs that are pets are the smaller dogs. You know the ones I am talking about, those small YAPPY dogs. Walking down the sidewalk is fun. It’s like a game to see which house has the small barking dog that is going to bark its head off at you. 

Now the next thing about dogs is their part in the family. My little sister told me that people here love dogs much more than cats. I asked her if that was the case, why are there so many dogs on the street. She seriously looked at me like I was talking about aliens. She said that when people don’t want their dogs anymore they leave them on the streets. I said that was very strange and told her that in the states we have places where people take their pets when they don’t want them anymore and that there are never dogs living on the streets. The idea was so strange to her, not having dogs living on the streets, I could see it in her face. It is so hard sometimes to see all of the dogs wandering around the streets. There is one black and white spotted dog that lives at the university and it is always laying out in the sun. And sometimes there are the cutest puppies too. None of the dogs are fixed either which only is going to make the problem worse.

So if you are someone that likes the quiet, Costa Rica probably isn’t the place you want to be. Between the cars, dogs and people, the only quiet you get is in the middle of the night.