This weekend I spent the night at my friend Alina’s vacation house in the mountians. The house has two rooms-one is a bedrrom and the other a bathroom…It is tiny and so rural and old fashioned, but…the back porch over looks the entire span of Costa Rica. You literally can se the ocean, two hours away, from that porch. Anyways it was the 15th of September and that is like the fourth of JUly here so there was a bunch of traditional celebration in Puriscal..dancing and torch running and a bunch of things that I have videos of and will try to download.I skyped Carl and my Mom , both for good long times, and I am very content. didn’t have school on MOnday so I went with all my AFS girls from here and met with friends from other parts of Costa Rica, we had been in San Jose for about an hour when my friend whispered to me that Digna, our AFS contact person of Puriscal, had called her and said we had to go back to Puriscal as fast as possible because there was an emergency, Tiphains (from France) Grandpa had died. None of us were allowed to tell Tiph anything and so at about 4 in the afternoon we took the bus home with TIphain, pretending that everything was ok. Three of us, Alina, Sana and I, went with Tiphain to Digna’s shop and Digna told Tiph that she needed to call her parents in France right away because it was an emergency. Tiph broke down sobbing because she was so scared and had no idea what was going on. We walked Tiph to the gym where her mom here works and sat with her until her mom was done working. Alina and Sana had to go home so I stayed with Tiph and we walked, in the pouring rain, to find wifi so Tiph could call her parents and find out what ahppened. We realized that it was the middle of the night on France and her parents would not answer, this of course distressed her more. I ended up spending the night at Tiphs house because she couldnt be alone. We skyped her parents at 12 our time, 7 their time and they told her what ahppened…she cried until she fell asleep and in the morning I stayed with her and talked some things through. At about 11 we walked into Puriscal and talked to Digna, we ended up taking the 2:30 bus to AFS in San Jose….Tiph talked to the therapist and explored her options. It’s looking like she is going to head home and have some closure then come back here. I cant amagine how difficult that would be. All I can do is hope she can stay strong 😦 On the happier hand we have a new girl here from France, ironicaly, and she is very sweet! I also downloaded a bunch of French songs…I love the language it is absolutly gorgeous and I am set on traveling to France and learning french…I am learning a little here from from my French friends but I can only learn so much because they don’t speak English so we can only learn through the words we know in Spanish. I had a little moment today, it was about eight and dark and rainy and i was half asleep with my cheek pressed against the foggy bus window, no lights were on in the bus and everyone was asleeo…I was listening to Ed Sheeran and Gregiore, look up the song Danse, and I was watched the lights of Costa Rica aluminate the sky and clouds as we drove through the mountians and I realized how lucky I am to have such an incredible opportunity, I get to become incredibly strong, find out how much I respect and love my family, realize who my true friends are, build personality and character….and so much more. Being here is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it is also the most amazing…It is not just six months in my life, it is my life in six months. I met some missionaries the other day, they were from Utah and have been here for eleven months and are here for eight more. They spend every single day, I mean it-they get one day off of work a week and only certain hours in that day can they leave their homes, teaching people about religion and educating in a different language. I may not have the same beliefs, but I respect their work and I think it is an incredible thing. Ok…I havn’t slept in 48 hours…I am going to bed….I started running in mornings because it isnt crazy hot and humid, but that means less sleep 😦 Ok here are a few songs that I want you to know!! If you would listen to them that would be pretty cool 🙂 BLIZZARD-FAUVE Danse-Gregoire Toi and Moi-Gregiore Je Ne Sais Pas-Joyce Jonathan
My friend Tiphaine is turning 16 this Sunday and we are having a surprise party for her, as well as going to stay at the beach next weekend just Alina, Tiphaine, Sana and I! My parents I now call Mami and Papi and they have stepped more into that role…this weekend I wanted to go to the beach with Alina and her family but my dad here didnt want me to go because he doesnt trust the family….I have no problem with actually having parents here, I was missing the rules a little bit but now I think that I have been put more into that daughter role. Also the whole family has been doing a lot more things together and, even though Mami has University now, summer is coming soon and we are planning some trips…there is a festival for a certain vegetable that we will go to in a few weekends and I am planning to teach my sisters to surf this summer. I hate school because it takes up my entire day, but lately I have been loving the days in school when I dont have classes and can just listen to music and dance with my friends and get looks from some Tico girls that wish they could dance like us ;). Oh I also had some pretty funny moment today with Alina…who, by the way, I am planning on visiting next summer for a few weeks or more in Alemania…So Alina loves to buy “Platanos Maduros”, sweet plantain chips-a healthier version of potato chips and way yummier-and so everyday we go to the little store and she buys platanos maduros. Today Lins and I were talking about how we hate the school pants, los pantalones de colegio, as we walked up to the counter, still talking, Alina casually asks for “Pantalones maduros”…lets just say the worker looked down at his pants, shook his head ans wouldnt stop laughing. Right after this incident we were walking around school trying to find a place to sit down and I spotted the top of a concrete dome…I ran over to sit and Lina kinda gave me a unny look and said “no seguro, per pienso que eso no es una buena idea” (I’m not sure, but I dont think that is a good idea)…I didnt get it until I sat of the dome and looked down….realizing that I was essentially sitting on the house of jesus because if you got to the level of the concrete dome, inside is a whole scene with a jesus and flowers and all that. So yay me for sitting on Jesus’s house. The third funny thing has a bit of a history…a few days ago Alina and I discovered that a sign of commited intamcy in our school is when a girlfriend picks her boyfriends zits….gross. gross. gross….so after trying to buy “sweet pants” and sitting on Jesus’s house…we see a girflriend going hard on her boyfriends face with her two pointer fingers saying “este es demasiado dificl mi amor” (this is way to hard my love)….YUCK. Ok….all my love. AND if anyone happens to see my best friend Ruester (Miranda-who will kill me for calling her that on the internet) PLEASE give her a huge hug and seventeen pinches and seventeen more kisses for me because September 21st is her birthday and we have been best friends for more than half our lives now and this is the first birthday I have missed-so please give her some love for me 🙂
rosiegoldberg 