This week is finals week, which means it's the end of the first session and almost the end of 5 weeks!!! :) We have all been studying and doing homework and finishing projects at the last minute because honestly there is no other way to do it! ;) hahaha Yesterday we got to take our last whole group trip to a place called Sarchi! It was just a little town with the biggest ox cart in the whole wide world! Unfortunately we didn't get to stop and take pictures of it because some of the group just wanted to go shopping in this really cool place! It was really decorated and pretty in this town! Everyone was very friendly too! :) Tonight we are going to some kind of dance performance with our dance teacher! I have no idea what it is, but it should be fun! Tomorrow almost all of the group leaves for the Southern Costa Rica tour, which I'm not going on. I am totally okay with that because Mommy and Alli will be here in a few days! I can hardly wait!!!! Also tomorrow is the last day for the people who are only staying 5 weeks. So it is goodbye to Julia, Amy, Stephanie, and Sarah. Sonja and Ana are moving to Puntarenas so that is sad too, but there will be four of us left here and we are getting more people for the second session so that will be good! Since everyone is leaving I will just have to entertain myself for a couple of days before my family gets here! Maybe I will go to the gym and drink more smoothies!!! ;)

Well a lot has happened since last Thursday! This past weekend some of the girls and I went to a place called Tortuguero. It was quite an adventure. There were 7 of us that went, but only 3 of us made it on the first night (Friday). That was pretty intense, but a fun experience! We took a few different buses to get to a place called Pavona, then we had to take a small passenger boat through these different rivers for about an hour to get to Tortuguero. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was so green and there were tons of different kinds of trees and animals and different villages that were so cute! When we got there we checked into this really sketchy hostel place. It was extremely hot and had cockroaches and other kinds of creepy crawly bugs. The three of us (Lizzy, Sonja, and I) just hung out and ate dinner and walked around the little town. The people we so nice and helpful! We also signed up for a morning tour! Saturday morning at 6 AM we went on a canoe tour through the national park there! It was absolutely amazing! :) We saw so many different types of animals, like birds, little crocodiles (I don't remember their name), butterflies, monkeys, poisonous frogs, iguanas, and so many trees and vegetation! I don't even know how to explain how magical it was! Then we went to the beach for part of the day and finally met up with the other girls! We all just hung out on the beach and what not. The best part of the whole trip besides the canoe tour was on Saturday night! We all got to go on a turtle tour! It's not turtle season so we didn't know if we would see any. We walked in the complete darkness on the beach for about 30 minutes and finally saw some tracks which meant there were some turtles around! about 15 minutes later we were all stopped because there was a momma turtle trying to find the right place to lay her eggs! Unfortunately she didn't like the place she picked so she didn't lay her eggs, but we all got to see a giant sea turtle! It was seriously bigger than the turtle at the Boise Zoo! It was huge and she was so sweet and I just wanted to pet her but unfortunately we couldn't. I was just excited that we got to see a turtle! That was the only thing I really wanted to see on the whole trip and I got to! :) Sunday morning we all went to the beach again for a bit before we had to travel home! It was seriously the best weekend ever before our finals! I'm glad we got to go! :)

Our homemade tortillas which were very delicious! The Cathedral of Los Angeles in Cartago!

Well nothing really exciting has happened the last few days! I've just been going to school and doing homework a lot because mi amigas y Yo want to to a place called Tortuguero this weekend! It is supposed to be a beautiful place up in the northeastern corner! I really would like to go so I am really hoping we can get it together to go! :) Other than that we have just been doing a lot of school work because as of today we only have a weeks worth of classes left so we have a lot to do in that short amount of time. Oh something really awesome...One of my assignments for my conversation class was to create a presentation about Idaho because my teacher had never been there so I did. I made this really awesome powerpoint for her with pictures and info about the coolest places in Southern Idaho and she loved it! She said that she would have to come visit Idaho in the future because it looks like such a cool place! haha How awesome is that!!? Anyway only 10 more days until I can see my momma and my sista!!! :) I am sooo excited! It will be a great and much needed break!

Well I have been a slacker for the past few days! Sorry everyone! Well let's see, what have I done these past few days..... Well Thursday afternoon for my history class we went to a museum called Museo de Cultura Popular! It was a really cool place and it used to be the home of a former president of Costa Rica and his family or something. It was a very interesting place with a lot of history! While there we got to make homemade tortillas! That was really fun, but we are definitely not tortilla professionals! Then we got to eat picadillo with our tortillas (it was basically chopped potatoes with meat and some type of sauce...delicious!) Friday I went to class then hung out at home for a while than my host sister, Dani, asked me if I wanted to go watch her do ballet! I went and it was so cute to see her do it! She has only been doing it for 5 months and is pretty good! :) Then I went to a bible study just down the road from my house and it was awesome! I understood most of what was going on because I had my English bible so that definitely helped me out a lot! Then Saturday I watched a movie with Dani and Ruben and it was an awful movie! but it was fun to hang out! Saturday night Ruben and I went to church with our bible study friends at Monte de Dios! It was a college/teenage service and it was really upbeat and fun! I enjoyed it! This morning Ruben and I went back to the same church for the morning service and it was just as upbeat and awesome as Saturday night! I like this church I think, but I definitely did not understand most of it! I will have to practice the songs or something because I could not sing in Spanish at all....but it was still fun! Tomorrow starts the beginning of week 4! That means I only have two weeks left of this session and only 14 days until my family comes to visit!!! Yay!!! :)

Ayer nosotros fuimos a Cartago! It's a place southeast of Heredia! We drove for about an hour then we stopped and ate lunch at what I thought was a Mexican restaurant! Well they had some Mexican food, but it was mostly hamburgers! I ended up having a double patty hamburger with ham and cheese in the center of them. It was quite interesting to say the least! It wasn't gross, just different! After lunch, we went to the big Catedral that's in the city! It was so gorgeous! There is a tradition with that church where every year on August 1st people from all over Costa Rica walk to Cartago to go to the church to either give thanks, ask for healing, bring offerings, etc. There are supposedly thousands and thousands of people! Carlitos said that we should get a group together and walk to Cartago together on Aug 1st. So that is a possibility for now! After we left the church we drove back to San Pedro and went to this huge mall there! Unfortunately we found this amazing shoe store that was soo cheap and nice that we all ended up buying at least one pair of shoes... It was a fabulous store! ;) We all had a good time and I enjoy our little afternoon adventures to different cities! This is definitely a beautiful country and there is so much to see! Today I finally finished my last midterm so that is good! Now I just have like 2.5 weeks left before the end of this session and only 17 days till My Mommy and Alli and possibly Scottie come to visit!! Yay!!! I cannot wait! :)

Taking summer classes is not very fun, even in Costa Rica! I am definitely not a fan of taking midterms for 3 days! :( no bueno!! Oh well! Yesterday we had our dance class and we are supposed to be learning dances of Latin America...well instead of our normal class we had a sub instructor! Well she was this really extravagant black girl who taught us how to really shake our booties! ;) it was sooo much fun, but so not the type of class you would expect for Latin American Dances! haha Anyway I'm off to study some more for my Examen de Espanol! :)

Ayer, mis amigas y yo fuimos a San Jose por un concierto! Fue muy divertido!!! :) Pero llovio todo el concierto y nosotros estaban fuera! It was really wet and cold but it was fun! I've never been to an outdoor concert in the rain before! What a new experience! After the concert we came home and put on warm dry clothes! We saw two bands: Percance y Hombres G. Percance is a local Costa Rican band and they were good! Hombres G is a band from España! They were good too! Besides being wet and cold it was a fun time! :) Today is a pretty relaxing day! Mi hermana y yo vimos una pelicula: The Last Song. It was in Ingles pero it had Español subtitles! It was good! Now off to study for mi examenes para mañana!

Well I had my first real adventurous day ayer!! :) Mis amigas y yo fuimos a San Jose solo! It was soooooo much fun! We had to find the right buses and ask for directions and everything all by ourselves! It was quite an experience! We didn't get lost and we met a new friend who was so sweet and wants to practice her English with us while we practice our Spanish! How cool! :) We went back to the hippie market and walked around San Jose and then we ended up eating Peruvian food which was pretty delicious! My friend Lizzy's family is from Peru so she exposed us to something very new! We ate these things called Cancha which is pretty much toasted corn, then for dinner we had Pollo a la brasa con papas y ensalada and Lomo saltado. The first one was chicken roasted with something with fries and salad! It was really good! The second one was meat sauteed with tomatoes and onions and soy sauce I think, mixed with fries and rice! It was interesting, but it was pretty good to! Lizzy ordered this drink called Chicha morada and it is this purple drink made from purple corn! It was the weirdest thing ever, but it tasted pretty good! Then we had Peruvian cookies which were delicious, but I don't remember what they are called! After our lovely dinner we found our way to the train station and took the train back to Heredia for the first time! That was pretty interesting I must say! Overall it was an exciting day! We are supposed to go to a concierto in San Jose tonight, but who knows if we'll go!

Yesterday was a pretty chill day! I slept in for a little bit then got ready and did some homework, went to Historia and clase de baile then came home and hung out, talked to my mommy and messed around on the computer! Today I get up and start getting ready for class then get a message that says I don't have class today! Awesome, but dang because I already got up and got ready...oh well! I guess I'll do some homework and hang out for awhile! I have no idea what I'm going to do today, but maybe I'll go exploring or something! Who knows!

Hippie Market=AWESOME Day!!!

Today we had class like normal, then right after class the USAC group went to San Jose! First we had lunch at some Thai restaurant...not my favorite, but I survived. It is supposedly the best or something, but I wouldn't know the difference! After lunch we went to el Teatro Nacional, or the National Theater! It was so beautiful! I wish I could watch plays and symphonies and all the other shows there! It was so mesmerizing! I'm sure my mommy would have loved it too! After seeing this magnificent sight we walked down to the Hippie Market! OMG is all I have to say....just kidding! It was seriously the best/coolest place we have been! I mean we have been to some of the most beautiful places ever, but this was just amazing! There was sooo much stuff and I couldn't contain my happiness! I can't wait to go back! I want to have everything, but unfortunately I cant! :/ It was a great experience though! If anyone wants anything let me know! They have pretty much anything you can think of so just let me know so when I go back I know what to get! :) After the Market we drove back to the mall in Heredia and had frozen yogurt! It was almost or maybe better than in the States! I didn't know that was possible, but it was a wonderful experience! :)