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Published: January 12th 2009
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turubari i had a really busy weekend so sorry i am a little behind but i have a lot to tell you all about and a lot of pictures too!im starting my second week of classes already! monday and wednesdays i have spanish grammar/conversation from 8-12 and then latin american dialect class from 1-3, tuesdays thursdays and fridays i have just spanish grammar/conversation class 8-12. my dialect class is really hard cause it is all in spanish and for those that are really advanced speakers but i just have to work harder at i suppose. there is another guy that is in my normal spanish class so we are in the same boat. friday night my roommates and a friend that was visiting my roommate and i went out to el rio to get dinner. while we were there 2 guys and their american brother that had been studying there for a year asked to join us so we sat and talked and hung out there all night.the 2 brothers spoke very little english so we spoke spanish for the entirety of the night which was really really awesome.then we went to the college bar street where the ticos (costa ricans) go.kind
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turubari of like state street in madison.i think we were the only americans on the whole street but more time to speak spanish 😊 it was my favorite night by far of the 7 i have been here haha so far. saturday we went to turubari which is a national park and we went on the zip line over the canopy and river. there were 7 lines that you got to go on the longest one being the last one which was 700 meters long it was so beautiful.on sunday we went to irazu which is a volcanoe and actually i can see it from the top window in my house here.the volcano last erupted in 1963 and the ash was still evident for 2 years after the event.the whole area was destroyed but now it is regrowing.it was an effort and a half to walk up this thing.at the highest point we were above the clouds about 11,000 feet. after this we went to the oldest church that is still active in orosi a small town in a valley.the small towns here are so cute and so different than san jose.almost all the small towns are constructed in the same
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flowers in the canopy we zip lined over manner here.there is a central plaza usually a soccer field right in the middle with little businesses and churches on the outer edge of the field and houses branching out from there the church was built in 1500. after this we ate lunch that overlooked the whole valley.we had casado which is like the main lunch/dinner meal it consists of a salad, rice, beans, a meat, friend plantians(banana like things) and picadillo (which is like potatoes and pickled vegetables--it is actually really good and i dont even like pickles).after this we went to basilica de los angeles this church hsa a lot of religious importanct to costa rica as it is the origin of their patron virgin saint "La Negrita". The story goes that there was this little indian girl that found a little statue of a woman on a rock she took it home and put it in her room. the next day when she awoke it was missing and so she went back to the rock where she found it and there it was again. she once again returnedto her room and locked it up and the same thing happened the next day.she went and told her priest
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turubari about it and gave it to him saying it was by God.needless to say, the same thing happened to the priest and then they decided to build a church there.so every year people make a pilgrimage to this church every 2nd day of august--some people get there walking on knees or barefoot to ask for a miracle from the virgin.the church is beautiful and they have the rock still there that the girl originally found the image of the virgin on and there is a fresh water spring there that people bring huge water bottles to and fill up to get this holy water, others wash their faces or hands in it. i washed my face with the water and got to touch the rock of "La Negrita".however, any time is available for people to come to ask for miracles.they get on their knees and "walk" up the center aisle to ask for a miracle whether it be to heal or help or protect.i saw two people carrying a man down the aisle who couldn't walk to ask for a miracle that this man be able to walk again. it was a really cool experience and i am really glad
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turubari i saw it.we also learned about the average costa rican income down here. minimum wage is $1/hr and many people are trying to provide for an entire family off of $3-400 a month.the cost of living is much less but still that is basically impossible to provide for a entire family with that amount of money.oh yeah and on thursday there was a 6.2 earthquake 25 milesa away but we still felt it here.the waterfalls we were supposed to go to on sunday are completely destroyed...they are called la paz waterfalls and they are beautiful look up the pictures...and now they are destroyed it just completely crumbled. i have a million pounds of hw now 😞 but at least we never get homework on weekends haha which rocks!
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Ed
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Herb.
That strange animal where he's blinded looks like that picture of the Herbacious. Rule #3 - No chasing strange animals.