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!

did you know...

well, did you know its perfectly legal to drive a car in costa rica without any special license if you are an america. your us license is valid for up to 3 months here. with that being said, i drove with this crazy latin american drivers this past week. multiple times actually. karla needed a ride to the bus stop so since i told her i could drive a manuel car she said i would drive to and from school for practice, then take her to the bus stop. now let me go ahead and explain the honking policy in nicoya. you honk if you see someone wanting to pull out to say, hey dont come. you honk if you are going to pass, just to give a heads up, you honk if people just do stupid things, and lastly you honk to your friends. now in the us, we do the double toot, just a honk honk, like 2 small taps. here in costa rica, its 3. so when i gave the dance instructor a ride home he kept pointing out his friends walking, so i honked at all of them, and the students walking. karla was crying laughing in the back seat and the dance teacher had no idea what to think of me. so yep, heres a picture of me in the drive way getting ready to leave the house:

karla went to san jose this weekend to see some family, so christy and i have been left on our own. its been rather uneventful, except for yesterday. theres a festival in nicoya called pica [d]e leña, that basically involved a lot of wood chopping and big oxen pulling carts full of wood. theres a long story, that i can explain another time, but christy and i went with some of karlas friends to the top of the mountain to watch people cut wood for a few hours then saw the parade later. we were really excited to go, and kind of disappointed by the end of the day, but its ok. i at least worked on the tan by being outside all day long. my backpack tan lines are almost as bad as the life jacket tan lines i had this summer. #stellar (yes i just trended in my blog.)

sunday i did something i havent exactly done before. not even in the states. i randomly went to a church without anyone with me, nor knowing anyone there. i wasnt meeting up with someone. i just walked in the doors, and started talking to someone. the pastor came right up to me and greeted me, and introduced me to almost everyone. there were about 20 or 30 people at the church, and i think i kissed everyone on the cheek. cheek kissing is cultural. dont go run and tell scott im going around kissing everyone. not true. ANYWHO. i love how the lord can speak to me in other languages. they did a prayer at the beginning of the service that seemed just like prayer at summit. people were walking around, lifting hands, and speaking all about the holy spirit. now yall, this was a methodist church. just found it a little different for them, but i LOVED it. i hadnt had a hug in over a week, and church came at just the right time. this one old lady came up to me multiple times and spoke with me and hugged me, and was the most genuine person. i want to know more about her. but one of the most exciting things was that, i understood almost the entire message. it was about carrying your cross daily, regardless or ages, and seeing how the lord can bless people at all ages of life. simple, and great, and oh i love spanish church.

and to end this blog i thought id finish by telling a few fun facts that go along with the title.

so, in costa rica, DID YOU KNOW...

- you can buy milk at the liquor store. i thought it was a long shot when we walked in there, but they had it

- a rooster can jump nearly 9ft in the air to hop on the roof after they accidentally fall into your patio

- trucks randomly decide to do parades for no reason at all...and by parade i mean tractor trailers, weaving in the streets, blowing their horns, thats all.

- cowboys can ride their horse right up to the bar and get a beer.

and now im having thinking problems, so ill quit for now, and leave you with two more pictures. one is of my morning alarm clock, and the other is of my afternoon cup of joy.

ciao mi familia.

cant stop telling.

no school today, so im sitting outside with my coffee, bible, journal, and the infamous blue book. i may be scratching a thousand bug bites, but its been the best morning so far. i love how the lord speaks to me to sweetly and faithfully when i am so far from everything familiar. and well, i read some things today that i just really wanted to share. so today was about the "ordinary". but heres a quote to start this blog off (which might be long, what else is new though).

"you enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary. something you have seen a thousand times you suddenly see as if for the first time"

so now, go ahead and grab a bible. sure why not. or use the internet. but read these two things: 2 corinthians 4:7-18, then acts 4:1-22.

"we now have this light shinning in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. this makes it clear that our great power is from god, not from ourselves." ive always heard, you have a light that the lord uses to shine to others, we all do as believers, but what a sweet way the lord chooses to reveal himself to others. he uses us as ordinary as we may come, to hold the greatest treasure (him) within us to show the world. we get to show the nations who the lord is! but the part that i love the most is that we are told to have the same faith of a psalmist who simply said: i believed in god, so i spoke. if we believe, then speaking should be am instinct. there are so many words of truth that the world needs to hear, so why wouldnt we speak. theyre true, we know they are, and words proclaim so much power. jesus simply spoke, and diseases were healed, people walked, bread was broken to feed thousands. words have power and authority. we are renewed each and everyday, so why wouldnt we use all that we have to go and speak. its so simple.

so after reading this in corinthians i read in acts about peter and john being taken in front of the sadducees (aka haters in the new testament). basically they are being told that what they were preaching was not okay, but the sadducees couldnt deny the healing of a man who was unable to walk for 40 years. so they tried to tell pete and john, hey we cant deny what happened, but just dont speak to anyone about jesus again. and they said "yea right". not quite, but really, "do you think god wants us to obey you rather than him? we cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard." i picture two guys so filled with joy that they are basically laughing in the council's face and not caring, because they know what they believe is the truth. such a joy and boldness that they could care less what other people think only that they come to know this powerful and mighty god. they spoke, and people listened.

so reading these things just really got me excited. i know the truth. i know the power the lord has, the joy he provides, and the light within me. im a 22 year old college student who probably hasnt experienced half the things the people here in costa rica have experienced. but i have it: the light, the ability, the love. and today i decided that i cant stop telling. nope. cant. there are people here that need to know the lord is here, right in this town. and i want to be used to tell them. and if the bible is true, which is is, words can be spoken from the lord to people, and their lives can be completely changed. now im not saying im going to go and speak crazy things over people, but i simply want to speak truths into their lives in ways that click. i want them to get it.

something great about my time here is theres a lot of freedom. im done with school around 130 everyday, and the rest of my afternoons are free. no lesson planning, no grading, nothing but time. i need to make friends and be intentional. so heres what im asking for: prayer. pray that there would be no language barriers, pray against spirits of inadequacy and laziness. pray for people to really see and be aware of a difference with in me. pray that i would love them in the ways they need it. just that this time would be fruitful, not that i need to see it, but that at least some seeds would be planted. im believing it.

once again, sorry this is long. i just wanted to share it with someone. but do be praying for me por favor. love you all.

just because.

anddd i just laughed out loud really hard at this. the last on is my favorite. incase you need a mid-week pick me up. enjoy.

mom and dad ate all the halloween candy.