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Published: June 15th 2011
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Hola todos y todas! This is my last entry that follows my semester abroad in Costa Rica so try not to be too upset that this blog FINALLY has come to an end. And thank you for reading! Anyways so i'm leaving in three days! wow. It’s really weird because while it feels like I got here just yesterday, I can't remember at what point I became so comfortable here that’s its going to be really hard to leave. And while it feels great to be done with the semester of schooling with all the exams and final projects over, I'm really going to miss the traveling and the great things about being here. I love how most people always seem to be happy and how a greeting isn't hard to come by. I love all the fresh fruit and cheap meals. I love my tico family and how sweet and great they have been this entire semester even though I can image how hard it must be for an older (late 50s to mid 60s) Costa Rican couple to relate to this 20 year-old American girl. But we have definitely bonded in some ways such as over the fútbol games
the village
and all the neat murals! and my ability to lose umbrellas or get them confiscated at games. And even though the world knows how much i love my kitties, I'm gonna miss this little scruff ball Kissy who is always so happy to see me every day! I have met some awesome people here (shout out to muh girls, you know you iz) and can't wait to see them in the ole USA. We were talking to other day about how we were a little disappointed that we didn't make more Tico friends ( I mean like close friends, not class friends) and trying to figure out what went wrong or what we did wrong. We came up with a couple possibilities. 1) Costa Rica ( and I’m not talking about the rural areas) actually sees a lot more Gringos (Americans) than other central American countries and even Mexico in a lot of places so I don't think our presence was really much of a surprise for the Ticos, especially those in the university who are relatively accustomed to seeing Gringos come in and out, for a year, semester or just a month. Thus, no real need to reach out. 2) I didn’t take any
classes without at least one other person in my group, which I probably should have but at the time I was too terrified by my lack of Spanish and that I wouldn’t have help if I missed something. Oh well, as my friend was saying we made our own little international community and I’m happy with that. Last weekend was our last before we left so we made a trip over to Tortugero on the Caribbean coast. Beautiful little remote village that you have to take an hour and a half boat ride up the canal to reach and consists of the main road which is actually just a dirt road with various little restaurants and shacks offering different tours on either side. Our cabanas were right on the black sand beach and next to the soccer field and we spent that afternoon practicing our “jump pictures”. Saturday we rented a canoe which was more like a big boat for the five of us and got admission into the park at the same price as locals with our student ID cards (success!) The various canals and rivers of the park lead through the protected forests of the park and were
really fun to navigate alone. Besides who wants to pay 10$ for a guide?? Not us! That night though we did decide to take a guided tour on the beach in search of the turtles that the little island is known for. And what do you know after 20 minutes of walking through the dark our guide takes a sharp turn and starts following a little trail up the sand which leads to this momma turtle finishing up with her hole that she was digging. And momma was huge! and tired. She was actually a green sea turtle and she didn’t even lay her eggs because the hole had too many roots. So we watched her make her long and slow journey back to ocean only to return later that night or another day. SO COOL! We just wanted to do a little cheer for her because she made it. We got back Sunday and this week has been just basically about finishing up with exams, collecting all my final grades, and packing. And guess what? I passed all my classes! Not too hard when the minimum is a 70 but you should be proud just the same. On to
la canoa
y Jake... more introverted thoughts again… I’ll never forget Costa Rica because it challenged me in every sense of the word. Physically with its tropical weather and zero air conditioning, I seriously think I haven’t stopped sweating for five straight months. Also, even though I’m so easy to please in the food department, I’m excited to go home and eat what I want when I want. I miss my cereal and soy milk!! Mentally because my mind has been translating not stop (okay so maybe not all those weekends I spent with other Americans but I mean a lot!) And I’m happy with my Spanish. Don’t want to get all sappy but I’ve missed friends and family and can’t wait to see everyone and bore them with all my study abroad stories! So I guess this is me signing out! Hasta pronto, America 😊
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
I've enjoyed reading along
You've done a nice job writing.....maybe you should continue your blog once you get back home. There are people on the web site who would like to hear about your home area.