Friday, July 27, 2012

TGIF :)

TGIF - I am sure all of you at home that are working are very glad that it is FRIDAY! Woo Hoo for the weekend :) I on the other hand, wish it was still the weekdays b/c I am REALLY enjoying my Spanish classes here! Its actually amazing - I have one on one tutoring every day with a native speaker (teacher) for 4 hours. I am getting SO much better at speaking and its awesome! I cannot believe how much I have progressed in just a  few days.

So I have been here since Tuesday and its been a great experience. I have totally experienced culture shock at times - especially when I first arrived. There are a lot of run down areas and its just TOTALLY different than the US. This is expected, but when you are traveling alone it is a littler harder to deal with. While I love my experience alone, I think traveling alone is FOR THE BIRDS :) especially when you are going to south american countries etc.. There is SO much to see and do and take in - why would you not want to share it w/ someone? Of course, there are people here that you can meet, but my experience this time is that there are a lot of people here w/ groups and very few solo travelers. Also, some people are staying in houses w/ other students, but I am not :( - another negative. BUT I shouldn't say I am not, I am, but here's the deal w/ that - When I arrived there were two young girls (12), their grandmother, and 1 20 something from switzerland. I didn't meet any of them when I first arrived so I had NO idea what to expect. UNTIL, I met the american girls and their grandmom - They are SO nice and thank goodness I met them b/c they showed me around and helped me get to school etc. The swiss boy- well hes another story! He is kind of arrogant and thinks that he is pretty good looking, he is not good looking and has no room to be arrogant, but all in all he is nice :) He is pretty independent and does his own thing. So its safe to say I am kind of on my own at the house. The girls are leaving tomorrow AM and Stephan is away this weekend - he went somewhere else in Costa Rica, but thank goodness for my awesome TICA FAMILY :) and some of the people that I met at school. Most of the people that I met at school are part of groups and I have been trying to tag along with where I can - there are a lot of people from Switzerland and also a few from the US, but not many. So my moto has been this - be independent! Its awesome during the day, but my nights have been a little boring. Its not safe to go out alone at night if you are a girl, so I really have not been out. But if you know me! You know that I like to go to bed early SO it kind of works out :) Moral of the story - If you don't like to be alone, don't travel alone b/c its not fun, but if you do travel alone just be annoying like me and force yourself on people! It works :)

I definately miss everyone at home especially my Corty, but I am so excited for him to get here and for us to experience this country together! It really is an amazing place and the people are very nice and friendly and the scchool is awesome and I have met some really great groups of people! I may never come home b/c its just that good, but I would only move here if I had Cort w/ me too!!!

So - On to the food we go - It has been pretty simple and I have not really been eating much, the food is good, but the meals times are different and heat is INSANE so I really don't have as much of an appetite as I do in the US. The fruit like I said last time is awesome, but the rest of the food, its pretty much one big carbohydrate - which I didn't know before b/c my mama tica has been cooking carb free meals until last night and tonight. They also don't understand the concept of vegggies - they like heavy comfort meals.

With that said, I don't have any new recipes for you w/ this posting, but I did learn something about Papaya. I don't like Papaya, but at school today the woman who  makes our snacks, made me a smoothie  - It wasn't the healthiest smoothie, but it did have some good ingredients - Milk, water, banana, and Papaya. It was very good - very creamy and filling so I didn't drink the whole thing, but it did have some nutritional value - PAPAYA and BANANA!  AND she told me papaya is very good for your stomach. SO if you are traveling or even if you are at home and want to eat something that is good for your stomach, get some Papaya and add it to your smoothies! Yum :)

Entonces, I will be back soon w/ more info about my trip and the food that I encounter and hopefully more pictures. I have been trying to take pictures w/ my phone and blog on my phone, but its so much easier to type on the computer; and since, I only brought my old Dell and I don't want to upload too many pictures onto it. Hope everyone has a great weekend !!!

Live Well xoxo

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