!adios nicoya!

welp, today was officially my last day in nicoya. tomorrow afternoon i am off to san jose to meet up with jherson and the conexión familia. lets be honest: from day one, i was more excited about the last 4 days of my adventure here than the entire student teaching process. i have learned so much about what it is like to teach english abroad, about school systems, and so much more, but my ultimate desire is to see what ministry is like. i have a heart and passion to build relationships with people, and i found that being more of what i was doing than teaching. its just how i was created to be. even keeping in contact with my students at watauga, i totally saw the younglife leader side of me when talking to them.

ok, moving on along. the last few days of being here have been rainy and not too exciting. we had to cancel our last beach day due to the rain, but thats ok, because we got a head start on packing and such. christy and i have just been taking things slow and soaking in a lot of lasts together.

today was an incredible last real morning here. at 530, ricardo came and picked christy and i up for a morning hike. i always knew there was a mountain that people climbed when they came here with a cross as the top, and i had been wanting to climb it the WHOLE time i was here. welp, last morning calls for drastic measures. we called ricardo last night and he said we could tag along. funny how those adventures work out. welp, for starters i guess i learned i shouldnt eat gallo pinto before hiking, but i thought i should eat something. its not as good coming back up. too much information? sorry, just sharing my experience. 2 miles straight uphill as soon as i woke up. not the best. oh well. the view was incredible at the top!

but tomorrow, christy karla and i will go our separate ways. i want to write more, but i literally cant put into words how this experience with them has been for me. absolutely incredible. love karlita and love christy.

but for now, im going to enjoy my last night in the little house, and hopefully the next post will be all about SONRISAS! ahh be praying for me friends :) IM SO EXCITEDDDD!!!!

festival of lights.

saturday in san jose was christy and i's adventure for the weekend, and we were far from disappointed. now this may sound wrong but, here in nicoya, people "hype up" all the wrong things. they tell us, ohh this festival will be awesome, and we see people chopping wood for an hour. oh this place is incredible and so beautiful, and well...you get the point. people make a big deal out of things. but they failed on this one. saturday in san jose was the festival de la luz (aka the festival of lights). no one told us anything about this event, christy just really wanted to go to the city for a day. so i tagged along, because one cannot travel alone for starters, and two we heard there was some festival going on.

we caught a ridiculously early bus saturday morning...another one of those 430 mornings. and well, we didnt exactly have seats on the bus, so on the floor we went for the first two hours. costa ricans are some crazy bus travelers. we started to arrive in the city and literally saw the streets roped off at 9am and people were taking their spots. we thought they were crazy, but yall, this festival was probably the macy's thanksgiving day parade this country. its HUGE!

we did our shopping for the fam and such in the morning and late afternoon. i was surprised i slightly knew my way around this city still since its been two years since i was here last. and lunch/dinner was glorious. subway! we do love a good sub sometimes, and 5 weeks without one, makes subway taste incredible. anywho. we checked into our hostel before we went to the parade festivities. only the polar opposite side of town from where we were after our market shopping. 40 block walk on a crowded street for exercise: check.

the hostel was a low key place, but it was good just to talk to other americans for a little bit. christy loved it, because she literally hasnt spoken to but 5 people her whole time in costa rica. language barriers are hard for her. after checking in, we lightened the loads of our backpacks and headed back on the street to try and find a place. oh man, we got SO lucky. nad by lucky, i do mean we got a front row spot on the most disgusting curb in san jose, but it was a place to sit and wait/ watch the parade. there were lights and floats and santa came too! there had to be at least 1 million people lined on the streets, and the whole thing was broadcasted all over the country. i was rather pleased with our weekend trip this week :)

this morning, we took a slow morning and drank our coffee at the hostel and such. fact: at the greenway house i have a favorite purple mug, kaity knows all about it. and here, at this same hostel, there was a matching blue twin. i loved it. made my coffee experience just that much more joyful this morning. and did i mention our hostel had a bar? well it did. so i did my quiet time with my cup of coffee at the bar this morning. i just thought that was a funny side note.

but now, we are safely back in nicoya, after another crazy bus ride back...we at least hate seats this go round, but peoples butts were standing in christy's face, for a good 2 hours. we just kept singing some bubba sparks to ourselves and were cracking up. i love giggle moods. speaking of, im in one now, because im just exhausted. not much sleep this weekend, and my bed is calling my name. sending some amor and abrazos your way!

for narrrniaaaa!

happy thursday friends! i am back from the cloud forest and ohhh boy i am in for such a rude awakening when i get back to the states. we went to monteverde for a few days and its basically a scary bus ride up the mountain and into the clouds. it was so so so cold to me. but then again, all i had were a few tshirts, shorts, 1 pair of leggings and my chacos. christy and i were super grimmy americans on this trip because we didnt want to tote too much in our backpacks.

anywho, we got their monday afternoon and explored the town, and after about an hour we realized we had booked our hotel for far too many days. but we decided to make the most of it. we checked in at this little hotel that had an incredible view of the gulf of nicoya in the distance (so across the water was nicoya...quite a few km away). a father and son run the business and they were the greatest most helpful people! the dad moved to costa rica, from germany, when he was about 5 years old, so he was expressing to me his curiosity with my name. he saw jaime, which is a spanish guys name, and then saw meier, which he knew was german. and then this crazy american girl walks in, and his face was priceless when i told him who i was checking in. needless to say, a lot of people think im strange for my name. i guess it would be like if i was in the states and introduced myself as george or bill. anywho, the hotel guys were super helpful and free breakfast was SO great!

our first full day there we did a zip line tour above all the trees and clouds. it was great to be around other americans for a while and hear all sorts of older people share their vacations stories of being in costa rica. and they were all jealous that we had 6 weeks here. zipping along is really fun. i was glad we did the one about the trees, where as yesterday we did one more inside, which christy liked a lot more. anywho, we did a night walk and saw lots of bugs, and snakes, a tarantula! and a sloth. the last two were all i wanted to see. i was a happy camper.

the next day we woke up and went on a tour of a coffee plantation. i loved this. loved it. did you know that coffee comes from a red berry? neither did i. and did you know my friend victor from the plantation has been making coffee for almost 50 years. hes an all star. and he invited us to his house for coffee and i loved sitting and talking with him. he just laughed at me. what else is new? and outside he had this old toyota truck that he loved, and of course i took a picture of the front of it for you pops, because it looked really similar to the fj.

yesterday afternoon we went on zip line number two. now as you can tell, we booked a lot of things, because we didnt realize monteverde was so small. could have done it in a day, like i said, but we made the most of it. youre only in costa rica once! wellll, maybe twice...anywho. this second zip line was a lot smaller of a company, and christy and i were the only ones with them. the guides were rather funny. i love being hit on by every guide. not. but during this tour, they were filming and taking pictures for company promotions and i do believe i will be on an advertisement. i mean they stopped me on some of the zip lines to pose me for pictures. i was cracking up. which i guess makes me look like im having fun, and more business for them. the guy said he would email me some of the best pictures, so im excited for that. and another guide took nigel for me and documented our trip. it was a grand ole time.

and this morning, we woke up at 3:15 AM to catch the bus out of narnia and then catch another one to nicoya. christy and i have been reading the chronicles of narnia, because they are the english books karla has, and every 5 seconds in monteverde we would yell "for narrrniaaa!" just because we felt like we were there. and any scary thing, we just said it was the white witch catching up to us. dont judge our imaginations. its been great.

but for now, i cant believe im down to under two weeks. actually about 11 days left in costa rica. im excited to say that christy and i had some incredible conversations this week on our trip, and i love getting to talk about jesus with her. she will flat out ask things, like what is it that you do in the mornings when youre up early, i know its religious, but what do you do, how do you know what to read, who's this paul that you talk about? i have shared a lot about my heart with her, and im just being vulnerable. its so funny though, because shes just really superstitious, so im trying to be really respectful towards her, but at the same time, show her that its just not necessary. nothing bad will happen for leaving my shoes turned over, face down. so, yall, just be praying for more open conversations.

ive been learning a lot about mission related things, and have been so confirmed with my time here, that its what im supposed to do with my life. the lord has been such an incredible provider for words and timing to speak. read matthew 10 in the message if you get a chance :) and whats also cool, is this little project of praying for the nations ive been doing. if i know im supposed to be living in another country, but dont know where, i should be praying for them all. so thats what ive been doing. i wrote down every country in central and south america and pray for one each day. and oh my heart has been pulled to a few places. but ill just keep praying through those.

anywho, im going to quite typing all this in here, because i could type for days. misssssing you all, but loving costa rica! le amo y pura vida maes!

donesies.

if i had a favorite student, this would be her. i have never taught laura at eupi, nor will i, because yall know kindergarten is not my age of choice, but shes just great. she lives next door to tio (well, karlas tio, but i claimed his as mine). and i love her because she does things like this and it makes me laugh.

i only thought it would be fun to share her with yall.

anywho. earlier when i was here, karla saw a dress of mine that she really liked, so she decided that we should make dresses. now ive never just taken fabric to a seamstress and asked for a dress. it seems difficult. and that it wouldnt work out right. boy was i wrong. karla, christy and i now all have matching dresses to a dress i got from jcrew this summer. and its an exact replica, even with POCKETS! only my favorite thing. we were triplets today for the last day of school, just for kicks and giggles.

so, needless to say, today we bought more fabric and asked for more dresses. i love dresses. who knew this could be so fun? love it.

but as for today, the students are officially on vacation. their "summer" vacations are in december and january unlike ours. so, today, they are done. and only about halfway through the day did i realize the same was for me as well. today was my last day at the school. my last day of student teaching. so technically, that means today was my last day of college. COLLEGE?! really? yes, this is true. i no longer have the responsibilities of a college student. i done did it! and mommy wow: im a big kid now! okay, not really. you know this. i still need my mom for way too much. but i love her, and pops and am really grateful for them. (fyi: if any of you ROS people read this, will someone puuhlease film dad's skit sunday night)

i just thought id throw out that little fun bit of information. im rather hyper tonight and wasnt quite ready for bed, so i figured a simple blog post would help. as for now, i need to rest up for a mini trip christy and i are taking to another teachers house about 45 minutes outside of nicoya. get ready for those stories to come!

sweet dreaming friends. time for me to settle down :)

all sorts of success.

well this past week was the most wonderful week of all in the states. most people only work 2 days, eat so much food, spend time with the fam and then some of the crazy ones do a little shopping. life in costa rica didnt quite look like that. but christy and i decided we would celebrate anyways. so thanksgiving day it was! minus the turkey, and the stuffing, and most of the good stuff. we did however have chicken, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and broccoli. best dinner ive had yet. we all sat around the table outside and two of the cousins came to dinner as well. we all shared what we were thankful for and ate wayyyyy to much food. needless to say i felt mighty sick after eating as much as i did. but its was a grand thanksgiving day.

weekend adventures brought us back to samara for a full weekend. now it was a great time, but the longer we were there, the more christy and i realized we were basically at our romantic weekend get away for 2. we named off everything we did and died laughing a lot at how "couple-y" everything was. grand time. but the beach is beautiful. i love being there.

and this weekend i checked a major to-do item off the list. thats right: surfing! now trying to get ready for this adventure christy and i told ourselves we would do push ups, and practice the jumping up, and all sorts of exercises for the week to prepare ourselves. well, that was an epic fail. buttt, its ok. we didnt need them. we took surfing lessons saturday night around sunset because thats when the waves were best for beginners. and sunday we had free rentals and such. we learned different techniques on how to get up, and which foot got the strappy thing around the ankle, how long the strappy thing should be, how to come out of the water, etc. all your basics, plus a few more things. dee-dee air was our instructor. he laughed a lot. but then again, we say a lot of crazy things. christy and i just dont mind talking to anyone and everyone. so about 30 minutes later, we were in the water.

and taaa-daaa:

ya girl got up on her very first try. (now granted this pictures are from the next day, i just wanted to show you that i could do it. first try, standing on the board, lookin like a baller.)

and as for this monday, i have tanlines!! yes, im working on my tan. and i dont know how my stomach is bruised the way it is, but ouch. i think i hurt a bone because it hurts so bad to touch up where the rib cavity or whatever you want to call it. who knows, im not the medical person in the family...thats mom and sister.

lastly, for those of you who dont have facebook, i uploaded about 85 pictures from my trip so far. so you can click here to see!

anywho, i need to relax a little. its rather hot today, and im not feeling so great! but hopefully ill post some more this week!

happy monday friends!

weekend and such.

have you ever thought of funny english words that we say and cant quite really explain? welp, im sitting here in that situation, trying to explain what words mean that i honestly never use. take, for example, the word "baller". now that was a funny conversation. i realized how much slang i use completely jokingly thanks to roommates i have and strange friends. we have our language, and we just get each other. now i know i dont use the word baller on the reg in the us, but it was just a funny comment christy and i made, that turned into a long discussion of what baller actually means. grateful for urban dictionary sometimes, just to help me out when i cant stop laughing.

this past weekend, host mom karla was sickly, so we didnt do too much, however on sunday we all had to get out of the house so we drove to the beach for the day. i stole a tourist hat from karla just for kicks and giggles. and i wore it all day long. dont hate on me.

but we enjoyed some sunshine and lots of rain and scoped out where we would do our surfing. now here thes delima...we dont know if our bodies are physically able to do so. thats where this whole idea of a week of working out has come from. pushups. updowns. crunches. lunges. you name it, christy and i are doing it. we are determined surfers. and this coming up weekend we will be in sámara all weekend (thats right friday-sunday playing at the beach). surfs up, pura vida mae.

school has been quite fun the past few days. the kids are taking exams, so some of our classes are basically done for the year. christy and i are going to teach a few slang classes for our own entertainment. now heres what im thinking... appalachian redneck. "i aint done it and i aint fixina do it." dont worry, ill take some videos.

in other news...i saw the worlds largest flying cricket thingy at school yesterday. im not kdding. it was the size of my hand. my whole hand, not my pinkie finger, my hand. thats HUGE. the pictures of his face make it seem like its under a microscope, but its just on my regular lens on nigel. i poked him with a pen and he flew away. i screamed. and later on the 10th graders asked me what was going on and were laughing at my dramatic self. this i know, i can be slightly dramatic.

but as for now, i dont have anything too over the top and crazy. just living life in costa rica. missing the fam this week since i dont get to be home for thanksgiving. but fam: dont forget, we ARE doing thanksgiving for christmas, because lets be honest, a thanksgiving turkey is way better than a christmas ham. ohh my stomach very much misses america.

ok, hasta luego familia.

enviando todo mi amor.

and so ive almost been here two weeks. only two weeks. my oh my i feel like ive been here for so much longer, but im so excited that i have more time here. this week was a full week of teaching...thats right monday through friday. but i will tell you we got out early 3 days this week. why? national soccer game against spain (the ticos tied 2-2. ballers.) because of some cleaning, and lastly because the principal had to leave early today. just really funny reasons that they get out of school early, at least i think so. i wasnt complaining though. when its 90 degrees at 1130 in the morning, all you want is to go home and take a nap. but lets be honest: i. dont. nap. i only rest a little while watching some tv. karla and christy are the extreme nappers. so that leaves me sitting here on the tile floor, writing my blog, while they are snoozing away.

this week has been roller coasters of rides. sunday night karla came home and told us that her good friend had found some spots on his lungs and did some blood work on them and it wasnt good. his trachea was moved slightly to the right which isnt normal, obviously. and he was going to san jose on monday, basically believing he was going to find out he had lung cancer. and since ricardo is a doctor himself, he did the research, and was beyond depressed, believing that he would only have about 5 more years to live.

now something in me knew this wasnt right. i was hearing the facts but my spirit really couldnt believe that his man had cancer. scripture says that we are healed. ive seen people healed of lifelong problems and diseases before my eyes. thats how awesome our god is. he literally has given us authority to speak to things and they disappear. dont believe me? google any scriptures on healings. they are real. mark 16:18, jeremiah 30:17, mark 11:24...the list goes on., and the testimonies go far beyond that. healing is apart of the finished work of grace. prayer has incredible power. so with little needing to be said, ricardo has no lung cancer, and no spots on his lungs. his lab results that he completed on himself show his old self, but in san jose he saw the finished work. yep, praise party.

i also got to sit and talk about some jesus stuff with the cafeteria lady the other day. she wanted help finding this scripture. sooo, i helped her. karla made sure to tell me that this lady was "like me." and by that i think she meant, she likes jesus and goes to church. i havent had the chance to really sit and talk with her, but its on my list.

fun fact about costa rica: doing laundry on a cloudy afternoon can be a big fail. damp weather basically reverses the process. my clothes smell bad. and enough complaining about that.

and the last thing ill blabber on about, because its amazing, is this new book i started reading. its called "radical" by david platt. talk about wanting to pick up everything and move somewhere, welp this book just further inspires me and speaks so much about the reality of the american church.

ive realized i havent done the best job of sharing events that happen here and am writing more about things im learning. cool things are happening, i just like to talk about what im learning. apologies if its not what youre wanting to read. ill share stories later.

and thats all for now. love yall!