Thanksgiving #1

It is every kids dream to have their favorite holiday twice a year, let me just tell you, my dream just came true. If you couldn't tell by the title of my blog I love food (come on it says Food Endeavors right there), so you can imagine my excitement when i find out Thanksgiving is coming, full force, twice this year. Tonight was (as seen in the title above) Thanksgiving number one! And it was amazing. My advisors planned the whole thing for the entire group, and they supplied the turkey and desserts and each room was to bring in a side dish. My room (I) made corn, and was delightfully surprised by my newly found corn cooking skills (not that it is a hard dish or anything but I was impressed). I cut the corn off the cob, boiled it in salt water for a little and then melted butter and garlic powder in a pan and coated the corn. It was crunchy and buttery and garlicy and delicious.  At 6:00 we all headed downstairs excited for this feast and it was more than worth the excitement. I would love to go through everything I ate but this would then turn into a novel and all that turkey is making my eyes heavy so thats not going to happen.

This amazing picture will just have to do.

Besides all of this excitement (my tummy is so happy!), today I ran a quick two miles, worked from the hotel so I got to be a little lazier, and did an aerobics class at lunch which was an interesting experience. it is already interesting enough to take workout classes in spanish, but every one else in the class seemed to be a regular and so I got a lot of questions about where my name was from, where I was from, I even got an applause for being new to the class. But the teacher worked me hard. After my class I worked more on my project and then cooked my corn, and you know where it goes from there (stuffed my face). 

Thats all she wrote for today, and man oh man am I gonna sleep good tonight!

Uvita

This past weekend we got friday off so we headed out bright and early for Uvita. The cool thing about this place is that the coast is shaped like a whale's tale. It is really hard to explain but I am going to try. Because of the shape of the coast, the beach has a place where the ocean crashes into itself. Like I said, really hard to explain, but it looks like there are two shores fighting each other. It was trippy, I felt like I was in Inception. We spent both Friday and Saturday on the beach and both days by the afternoon it started poring raining. The first day we walked back to the hotel once it started, but the second day the boys were still busy playing ultimate frisbee so we stayed through the storm. As we were sitting there we started getting cold and had the brilliant idea to warm up in the ocean. It was definitely against my intuition, but it worked. The ocean is so warm here that we played in the waves as it rained cats and dogs above us to stay warm. At the beach on Friday we met a dog that the girls named Charlie and the boys named Carlos. Charlie/Carlos followed us all the way back to our hotel (a good mile walk) and kept us company till the Saturday afternoon. Even when we woke up the Saturday morning he joined us for breakfast, he was a good little buddy with a broken tail (poor Charlie). Besides this, we stayed at this cute hotel that had lots of hammocks and cool hanging lamps and themed rooms. I stayed in the Bob Dylan room which entailed lots of posters of Bob Dylan everywhere. We ate a delicious meal of pork ribs, beans, cole slaw, and home made bread at the hotel on our last night (sooo good). And we all woke up bright and early to catch the bus home, only it was 40 minutes late, arriving at 5:40 instead of 5:00 am so a few of us may have laid down in the parking lot and fell back asleep... (I might be included in this few... face down, knocked out... maybe). It was a good trip, a whole bunch of fun and a whole lot of sun.

Rest In Peace Anthony Lee Franklin

On this day five years ago my life was forever changed. I lost a friend, a brother, a mentor, an inspiration. I gained a fire. Anthony Lee Franklin’s battle with cancer ended Monday, November 20^th 2006. He had beat it into remission twice before, but he was finally given some time to rest. At the age of 22 he had touched more people with his warm heart and bright smile than most and he did nothing less than amazing with any and all opportunities that were presented to him. If you want to learn more about him google his name and be amazed at what he managed in his time here. 

As much as I hurt from this loss, and trust me it is the most painful thing I have ever been through and I still continue to go through it everyday, I will not let the impact that Lee has had on my life go in vain. I have spent most of this day crying and wondering why he had to be taken, going over all the times that I could have used his brotherly love over the last five years. Imagining hugging him one more time, hearing him say Diva and make fun of me just one more time. But as I sit here listening to Beyonce with my sore eyes and this large knot in my throat I was pushed back into reality. Watching and listening to Beyonce sing I was here made me remember this fire one more time. I will not let Lee’s footprints on the sand of time be washed away. I will live and succeed in his memory. I will make a difference in this world as he did. I will be remembered as he is. Losing him hurt but he touched my heart and I will take the light he gave me and touch as many hearts as I can in my time here. I will continue to tell his story because his light is so bright that even in death he makes a difference in people’s lives. I am holding on to this and I am taking this fire, this passion for good, for life. I will take the perspective that Lee’s death gave me and I will share it. I can’t say enough how much I miss him everyday, so I will show him through my actions that I still feel him holding my hand on this journey. 

On that Monday five years ago I stood at the foot of his bed, watching his lifeless body, as his grandfather/best friend said to my mother, “He loved that girl”. It is my mission to show him everyday “I love you too”.

I Love You

My Cultural Essay

Hello Again! My internet was so bad last night I couldn't even get to my blog page :( .

But Anyways, I had to write a paper about my experience with the Costa Rican culture and after I wrote I figured I might as well share! So here is my paper I hope you like it.

My time in Costa Rica has been a major eye opener. It is my first time out of the US, not including Canada, and the first thing I noticed and loved was that there was very little English. Seeing the signs that say Alto instead of stop and the billboards in Spanish made me feel relief. In the US everything from our history books to our news is all about us, and it’s nice to know that there are places in the world where not everything is all about us. As I have spent more time in Costa Rica, having everything in Spanish still makes me smile, but I have also learned that my Spanish skills need a lot of work. I find it really stressful trying to communicate when shopping or simply walking around especially since people commonly mistake me for Tica and try to talk to me like I am fluent. I am working on being more confident in what little I do know and just hoping they understand that I am still learning. That is one barrier that I have found I have when trying to get to know Costa Rica better.

On the other side, on place where Costa Rica and I seem to completely agree (to the point where I may never leave) is food. The food here is absolutely amazing and I find that I can’t get enough. Everything they cook is so fresh and my addiction to avocados is easy to appease. I love trying everything that I can find and anything I am offered, even foods that I would normally say no to, I am seeing how I like them. I have decided that before I leave I need to learn how to cook at least one full Costa Rican meal. Beyond the meals I have also found a love for their beverages. I love the freshness of their juices and their té frío is delicious, my weakness specifically is the melócoton, yum.

Besides food, one part of their culture that I also adore is the way that they open their homes to people. As we were surveying the town of Torito, almost every house we went to we were invited in and told to take a seat. I could never imagine that happening in the US. If someone asked me to take a survey I would likely say no, and if I decided to take it, it would most definitely happen at my front door, on the porch. As well, our sponsor has shown us much kindness. Letting us stay in his beach house, feeding us, and making sure we were always comfortable. This even applied during our first meeting with him where he made sure that we were supplied with bottled water because we hadn’t had time to get used to the tap waster. And our sponsor’s father also treated us to a coffee break where he supplied us with books on Costa Rica, some homemade snacks, some guava juice and gave us some guayabitas to go. Their hospitality is something that I hope to learn from and carry with me.

I also quite enjoy their driving. Being a pedestrian is definitely scary but I have to say I’ve always thought our way of thinking about driving was a little backwards. It doesn’t make sense to me that pedestrians should be able to walk around carelessly when, if there is an accident between them and a car they are the ones who get hurt, its always made more sense to me that pedestrians should just watch out. And although it has been difficult to get used to, deep down it makes me happy that if you are stupid enough to get in a cars way you will get hurt. I know that sounds bad but it is the truth.

So far not only am I currently thoroughly enjoying Costa Rica, to the point where I am almost sure now that the moment I get the chance I will be out of the US for at least the next few years, but I am learning a lot about myself in the process.

Working hard or hardly workin'

Well hello again! Let me just start by saying that my arms may fall off half way through this so excuse me if my blog just stops. To explain, I started my day off with my two mile jog and an extra mile of walk/sprint/jog combination. And tonight I went to the gym again but this time did a kick boxing class, hence the reason why my arms feel like soggy noodles. Not to mention that after class I did my little arm exercises (not my brightest idea).
Now back to the rest of my day. Pretty boring, lots of work, lots of writing, and lots of eating fruit. I did buy a pretty awesome toe ring that I am excited about and that is that.

I miss my family and friends and I can't wait to see you guys soon!
xoxo

(Sorry it is not more exciting friends)

Staying on track

Today was a good day (Ice cube style lol). I was up at 6:30,  and running (or should I say a snails jog because I run like a sloth) by 6:45. Two miles thank you very much. Got back to the room around 7:something and took a nice shower. Then I did my hair. I found a girl on youtube who had a way to do naturally curly hair. Really easy, basically just put in some conditioners and heat protectant and mouse and blow dry with the diffuser thing. It took me like maybe 10 minutes and I absolutely loved my hair today! I am so happy :). I worked from 9am-5pm, which was boring. But I did pack some food and had an interesting time trying to eat my plain yogurt out of a gallon size ziplock bag. I'm silly. Today, for the first time, my group and I decided to take the bus home. First we walked up to a bus in the middle of the street that said "San Pedro Mall" (Our stop) on it and tried to enter but the guy said no and pointed ahead of him. We didn't know what that meant so we decided to try and find a different bus. After lots of wandering, we finally walked the way the man had pointed and found the bus stop, silly us. So we loaded on the bus and besides missing our stop making us walk an extra 10 minutes back to the hotel (lesson learned) everything went smooth. After work I scarfed my dinner of broccoli, brown rice and boiled eggs and headed to the gym. At the gym I worked my abs and arms and I think I might be dead when I wake up tomorrow. lol. Well that is my boring day for now!

Nighty Night!

A weekend in San José

I was supposed to go to Tamarindo with every one else but unfortunately my ticket was bought too late and they were all sold out. I am secretly thankful. All of this running around has been a bit overwhelming and I really needed some time alone to collect myself. I spent all of Saturday in bed, literally. Watching tv and being on facebook, it was a day of nothing, much much needed. And today (Sunday) I am finally catching up with everything. Had a nice run at 9:00am, cleaned my room, got my grocery list together, paid my bills, FINALLY caught up with my blog (whew). Its been a nice productive day. I plan to go grocery shopping and cook a dinner of brown rice, chicken and vegetables (nice and healthy). From now on I will be trying much harder to post something every night... We'll see! I miss you guys and I want to give a shot out to my Alpha Phis for having an amazing recruitment and getting 38 new baby phis! Yay!
xoxo ♡

Sámara

We left for Sámara on Sunday morning and I definitely under packed. Sámara was absolutely beautiful not to mention my group and I stayed at my sponsor's beach house literally right on the beach. The best hook up ever. The family cooked for us (I am officially in love with Costa Rican food) and the maid kept things nice and clean. We woke up at 5:55am to do a 6:00am run along the beach, and I swear the moment that sun rose it was hot hot hot. After running the first morning I was laying out in the sun hot as heck at 7:00am, craziness. The purpose of this trip was to gauge the communities awareness of the purpose of the estuary in the ecosystem and their everyday life and to also find out how the closest communities are affecting the estuary. In order to do this, we spent long days walking thru rural communities, trying to speak spanish and handing out surveys. I commonly was mistaken as a Tica (Costa Rican women) and people would try to talk to me in spanish and I would do my best to play it off using the spanish I know, it was an interesting experience for sure. We had one night swim during our time in Sámara. During this night swim I saw plankton glow for the first time (and was thoroughly impressed). It's soooo cool, they look like little glow in the dark sparkles I believe by exact quote was something along the lines of "I've always wanted to sparkle! My dads gonna be so jealous!" (We share a love for sparkly stuff, wish you were here Daddy). On our last day we finished our surveys early and enjoyed swimming in the ocean and horse back riding along the beach (I think I am addicted to horseback ridding now). We arrived back to San José on thursday completely exhausted and finished out the work week as quickly as possible, looking forward to a weekend in Tamarindo.

Jaco/ Hermosa Beach

Last weekend half of the group went to Puerto Viejo, but since my group and I were heading to Sámara Sunday morning we wouldn't make it back in time and we decided to plan a day trip to Jaco instead. It was easy ride there (seeing as I was sleeping the entire time), and since we heard Hermosa beach is much nicer and close by we decided to head straight into a taxi and straight to Hermosa when we got to Jaco. Our taxi driver dropped us off right on the beach and it was absolutely beautiful. Hermosa is a black sand beach, the sand was soft and the water was warm. I laid and tanned for a little (with lots of sunscreen of course) and then jumped into the water. I felt like a mermaid and I never wanted to leave. The view surrounding us was beautiful and the water felt like heaven. We left for a nice lunch on the beach and then got back in the water for about another hour. We then decided to head back to Jaco to check out some of the shops before we had to get back on the bus. There was an amazing shop that I know my mother would love (wish you were here) and some other really cool places to get trinkets among other things. We left Jaco at 5:00 and headed back to San José. This trip was definitely too short.

Week Two

Sorry these posts are so late!

This week has, like last week, been freakin crazy. Work and then Spanish class and then a bit of free time then bed time before I have to do it all again. Because the train runs literally directly next to my room in the hotel every morning I get a nice ol wake up call, I haven’t slept in past 7:30 more than once since I got here. This past Friday I graduated from Spanish class. Spanish class here was different than any other Spanish class I have taken, my teacher was really young and we joked around and talked the whole time. I learned more to have confidence in my trying to communicate than anything else, but when you get into the real world that’s what you need to be able to do. To get us to do this our teacher lied to us and told us he didn’t speak or understand English, we were pretty sure he did but he was pretty good at acting dumb, so if we didn’t know a word we would have to try and describe it to him in Spanish, it was definitely a challenge. I really enjoyed this class time, but I have to say I am really glad that its over, my day won’t be half as crazy and I can really have the time to focus on my project. Also I’ve decided I am going to use this time out of the US to get to a “better” me. I am not straightening my hair (-___-) learning to appreciate it natural, I am eating healthy (still amazing food, just healthier) and I am running and working out (Say What?!). I know, I’m impressed too. On top of this I am having some fun adventures with my challenges crossing the street, as a group we decided to take a fun little short cut from our Spanish class to the hotel. This short cut happens to be the train tracks, which even if a train does come it’s not a big deal since we can just move to the side of them. The major problem with this method of arriving home is we have to cross a very very large street (freeway-ish sized) with these “pedestrians don’t have rights” drivers, it is a crazy but possible mission. So when we see our opportunity to cross the street while the train goes across the tracks we realize we have to beat the train there. That was the first and, I am almost sure, the last time I will be running in front of a train to beat it any where, but I must say it was an adrenaline rush. Oh and yes we made it to the street first and got to cross the street with the train, lots of horn pulling from the train, but we made it. Now food time, well let me just start with Hillary is AMAZING and she made this crazy yummy avocado stuffed with tuna dish, ahhhhh so good. Besides that before my diet change we were eating a lot of not so good for you food or yummy sodium rich noodles.

And that’s how the cookie crumbles! 

Arenal

I know this is late, but better late than never! Last weekend the entire group took a trip to the Arenal Volcano. It was absolutely amazing. The place that we stayed had like little cabins for rooms laid out in this amazing tropical garden with all sorts of flowers and beautiful structures. The name of the place is Silencio del Campo. There was also a hot spring there that had a waterfall into the pool. The fresh hot water entered from the waterfall and the hot spring was surrounded by tropical plants, even a banana tree! There was also a normal pool with a fake hot tube that was really just a kiddy pool next to it (fooled me).  Besides swimming in the unbelievable hot spring we also could choose from activities like zip lining, hiking, and horseback riding. If you know me at all you know of course my choice was horse back riding and it was definitely the right choice. I haven’t been horse back riding in years, but I love it and I prefer bareback and to go fast, but usually on trail rides like this they are just walking trail rides, and I was prepared to be disappointed, but far from it. Although it was not bareback, the guides of the tour did not care about much. So me and a few other girls flew across the fields and up the trails! It was amazing; we also crossed through a river and this really steep small trail. Once we made it to our destination we parked our horsies and began our hike to the waterfall. It was less of a hike and more of a intense walk down a LOT of stairs. Once we got to the bottom we swam and took pictures, so beautiful and so much fun. After a little less than a hour swimming we headed back up the stairs (Much worse than the way down), and back to our horsies. And now that  we and our horses were acquainted there was even more amazing cantering. Besides swimming and being adventurist, there was of course eating involved. I had some delicious arroz con pollo, where the chicken was cooked into the rice with so fresh corn chips and an amazing bean sauce dip. And I also had a wonderful tico taco which is nothing like a Mexican taco but kinda like a taquito, but a little different. All in all the trip went by waayyy to fast but it was oh so good!