Thanks

Well hello there,
           There's four people who I don't think I thanked enough for giving me the cultural experience I so craved during my time in Costa Rica.  The first is Oscar (who I met in the musical group "Rondalla"--I've posted about them a couple of times), who besides being a musical genius, is a great dance partner.  He makes his dance partner look like they can dance too, which is pretty much the definition of a good male lead.  Besides almost losing a tooth and dozing off by the end of a REALLY long afternoon/night of salsa music (12 hrs!), I enjoyed every time I went out with Oscar and their tropical music band, dancing with them when they weren't playing, and watching people of all ages power across the dance floor so elegantly.
            Dani, my host sister, spoiled me by taking me places that I know so many other people don't get the chance to see.  She took me driving with Roberto, their family friend, and we'd end up places that I'd never seen, like on top of a mountain where the view at night was SPECTACULAR with all of the city lights.  Sometimes they'd force me out of the house, but I loved spending time with them when we went out, even if we didn't have a destination.
            Lastly, there's Daniela C (I met her at a Baptist church in Heredia), who took me out to play soccer on sundays with her family (her HUGELY extended family)!!!  They were so much fun to be around and loved the sport because of how it brings the family together, I was even called a granddaughter by the cutest little grandma you ever saw!  I was so lucky to be able to blend in as much as I could into their huge hispanic family and that her brother, Andrés, her parents, her cousins, uncles and her aunts treated me like family from the start (especially when I was ifsy/uncomfortable about my first Heredia host family).  I am really so blessed to have met them and to have been able to find out so soon how kind the Costa Rican people really are (and boy am I glad I eventually changed families becuase I realized the family dynamic I was missing out on).  GRACIAS DANIELA!
             So I realize there are many more people I need to thank, and that I haven't even given the people above justice for all they did for me, but I hope this little post encourages other people studying abroad to take advantage of little opportunities to go out with people from where they're staying, even if the destination is unclear, you just never know what or who you'll come across, and the time you spend together is what you'll look back on as some of the most memorable times you had abroad.

Here are some photos and brief descriptions below:

Charlie Rivera Orquestra--Oscar played saxaphone and bongos

Running into Oscar at Kentooky (KFC)

They get along I promise jaja Dani looks like she's gonna slap Roberto.

It's hard to get a great shot with my camera while driving and on a bumpy road, but this is the best I got, I kinda like it!

What a cute dog!!!  I love how people just know people in Costa Rica, we went on a 45 minute drive and stopped to talk to people Roberto and Dani know, Costa Rica's a country with huge landscape differences an hour away from each other, but it still has a small town feel!

These two (Steve and Deiby) were super intense in the entrepreneur class I took... They'll be the founders of a healthy living restaurant they call "Papaya's" some day... I can't WAIT!!! Also, Deiby (guy on the right) will probably be studying abroad in the states sometime soon!

This is my group for the entrepreneur class (Nancy, Fabiola, Sofia [exchange student from Spain], and I).  During the fair, we presented our project--the sales of natural, pure honey to young children as a healthy and educational alternative to refined sugar and other sweeteners!

My chinese teacher, Monica, was so cool!  She supported me at events on campus and taught me so much in the classroom (I was the only student who showed up to Mandarin III)... LOVE HER!

Okay, so I just realized I don't have any photos of Daniela C :( So I figured the next option is showing photos from the soccer game I went to (Alajuela vs. Heredia)

My family told me this guy is legendary in Costa Rica because of his success as a runner, I think, but in case you know who he is, this is for you.

Waaaa

I like this shot!

JAJA and this is so funny--my host mom, Flory, and host sister, Dani, are sitting in the white... they're total Saprissa fans and were bummed Alajuela won (Dani told me Alajuela eventually won the whole soccer series in the country, good thing it's the only team jersey I got--I'm wearing it below)

I got it because it's Davidson colors!

And YES, Ticos are HUGE fútbol fans, and occasionally there's a dumb brawl.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Iva

Mom's Birthday Surprise

To celebrate a big birthday year, my sister, Sarah, and I flew in on friday, the 4th of November, to surprise my mom the next morning.  We stayed at Hannah's condo which was a lot of fun b/c when I showed up (Hannah had picked me up from the airport), a couple friends of Hannah and of Ben were playing catch phrase with Sarah... I joined in and had a lot of fun... eventually we got to playing Apples to Apples, also SUPER entertaining.

So on saturday morning, the 5th of November, we showed up at the house and my mom was so confused and looked like she didn't even recognize us!  A second later she was talking in a high pitched voice, the way she does when she gets oooober excited, so CUTE.  Dad was the only person at home who knew besides my sisters... I was so glad we pulled it off!

We spent the day working together as a family (bros, sisters and all) at a booth in Mizner Park for the Wayland Living Green Festival.  My sister, Hannah, had a booth for ESP (Essential Safe Products) and we worked to sell some product and educate people on the risks of plastics and chemicals that leach into water and foods that are contained unsafely.

At night, we ate dinner as a family, my favorite part... and the next morning, on her actual birthday, my mom drove me to the airport.  I didn't have much sleep the whole weekend, but for some reason, it didn't hit me due to the high of having travelled so much in a couple of days and having had the whole day with my family and keeping busy with birthday plans.

Enjoy the photos!  Descriptions of the shots are below the photos, as always :P

The sunset was visible on the way to MIA, I realized/caught it just in time!

I love this camera and iPhoto enhancing!!!  You can see the skyscrapers and even a lil star below the cloud above Miami.

Sarah... I think Isaac took this photo.

Part of the fam.

Ben and Hani.

Almost everyone.

Birthday girl.

Wayland Living Green Festival Mural... I don't know how the mural was made... but I saw kids adding touch-ups and sea animal details.

Mom and I were waiting outside of the Starbucks bathrooms taking photos on her iphone when we realized there wasn't actually anyone in the bathrooms... by then, the line for the bathroom had gotten pretty long... how embarrassing!

Handsoooooooome.

So there was a brief summary of my SUPER quick trip home!  I'll see everyone again, si Dios quiere, by December!

Making the best of the little time I have left in Costa Rica,

Iva

Para mis familias y mis friends

Ahora que sólo tengo como 30 días que me faltan hasta que tengo que irme, estoy tratando y tratando de cumplir todas las cosas que decidí que iba a hacer aquí en Costa Rica.  La realidad es que uno se encuentra con amistades buenas y si tiene suerte como la que yo he tenido, también Dios le regala una familia maravillosa.  Me ha bendecido demasiado y es una lástima que en unas semanas, todo va a cambiar y va ser difícil acostumbrarme a la vida que tengo en los estados, aunque sé que es necesario también sé que será un cambio que me costará mucho...

Well, after that prelude, I think it's time for relaying updates...

I saw my family a little while ago and can now pick up on my grandfather's cuban accent, something I never noticed before (Zaza, ahora sí noto su acento cubano... jaja).  And everyone else in my family seems so great, I was so lucky to get to see them.  Miss yous already.

I went to a Ricky Martin concert with my host sister, Dani, and a program friend, Justine, a few weeks ago.  I knew I was a Ricky fan when I was younger when "Livin' La Vida Loca" came out, but never got into his music again, or so I thought.  At the concert I realized I knew many more songs than I could have imagined and love his new songs as well!  Yup.

My mandarin class is wonderful!  I saw a Jay Chou movie last friday called "Secret" and was super impressed... Oh and there were English subtitles along with the Chinese characters, lucky me!

I'm loving the places to go dancing that I've found with my host family and can't wait to explore more!  One night my host mom and I danced until 2am... I got lots of practice to put my dance class moves into action :)

Hey friends from back home, I really miss you!  Cate, I can't believe we're going to Peru!  Intervarsity, I really miss you!  And Nuances, no Rondalla practice here (although awesome) even compares to a capella practice back in DCPC or Sloan... I can't wait to hear recordings or see some videos of what you all have been up to lately!

Take care everyone and see you soon.
Peace out,
Ivana

Turtling

        Before Costa Rica, I only knew of one kind of "turtling."  The "I can hang out on the beach with friends until we see a turtle, watch what it does, help out if we can, and then go to my own cozy familiar house to sleep" type of turtling.  About a month ago, I went turtling in Playa Matapalo with AVSO volunteers and IFSA friends.  I would have posted about this experience earlier but it would not have been just because it's one of those trips where you need to look at from the distance to really appreciate anything from it.

        Haha so I'm sounding dramatic but it honestly was a crazy/surreal/awesome/awful experience.  We arrived friday to a house full of europeans not interested in making eye contact and ate leftovers and rice.  We learned about the project from one of the only friends we made there, a beautiful spaniard named Roberto with dry humor and a gaze that goes from looking bored to deep contemplation.  That night, we had our first shift of work, and I was called to work from about 1-3 in the hatchery where they had all of the nests protected.  We weren't allowed to wear bug spray and were to wear all black.  Justine, a girl who's actually from SoFla and not affiliated with our program, and I saw a nest hatch and had to measure the baby's and everything... and later that night I found a straggler roaming around other nests... It was so cute!  Anywho, after a night of little sleep (two nights in a row actually since we had to leave early fri morning to even get there), we woke up to leftovers for breakfast, a new batch of volunteers, house duty (my job was to clean the towels on the floor around the house and in the bathroom---yes with euroPEE and hairs present), and a beach clean-up.  A couple volunteers opened up to us and were friendly, such as Hannas from Germany and Mathias, a guy from Iceland who looks like Heath Ledger (COOL RIGHT?  I'd never actually met someone from Iceland before, nor Heath).

       Well anyways, that night my shift was from 11-12 for a walk on the beach to look for turtles laying eggs.  We didn't see any, but we did get to see some friends releasing baby turtles.  And we didn't see any turtles laying eggs, some friends from our program did see some the night before, so overall I think everyone got to have a taste of turtle action.  We even saw some poachers... who don't look like men with mustaches in safari outfits holding rifles... they're more like young women or men in beach clothes chillin' until they see a big blob walk out of the water.

Making our own turtle nests to learn how they're structured and how to locate the eggs (Thanks Tracy for the photo!)

       Oh, and let me just give you all a summary of the hostel where we stayed.  Our room had no fan the first night, we didn't have the window open for fear of getting eaten alive, which happened practically to everyone, we painfully forgot every time we sat down on the bed that the mattress was super thin so our butts got a wee bit sore, the shower had no curtain so everything got wet, and there was this beautifully terrifying spider the size of my big palms that was chillin' behind the         bathroom door.  Needless to say we didn't close the door to use the bathroom and I showed outside after the first day.  Oh, and there was a bar next door so I snuck into their bathroom when needed and every night as we tried to get an hour or so of sleep before or after our shift, we heard telenovelas, soccer games, and sweet trova and dancing music coming from outside.

       Overall, I'm very glad I went.  The beach really was a beautifully vast beach that had a lovely sunset.  Also, the volunteer work, although tough at times, showed us what volunteer work actually is.  It's volunteer work for a reason.  It's volunteer work because no one's going to get paid to do it and because if you don't do it, no one else will.  I think it was also a great bonding experience for my friends and I in the program.  We really did have to rely on each other for motivation and encouragement during the seemingly meaningless tasks and to combat the grouchy sleep-deprived and hungry monsters we became.

       So there you have it.  It was a great experience that I would never do again... not the turtling part, because that I'm all for and will continue in SoFla... but as for turtling in Costa Rica, I'm afraid once was enough.

Playa Matapalo

Hatchery - totally don't remember what it's called in Spanish

PS-sometimes I think of the couple friends we made there that said they were to live there for 6 months or so.  They didn't know exactly what they were getting themselves into, and you could tell there was a thread of regret in their voice but at the same time a glimmer of hope that at least they were doing something to help nature and were living in horrid conditions in the name of a cause larger than themselves.  So yea, I really respect them, and I hope you do too, even if you don't know them because people must be doing things like this all of the time... now that's truly amazing.

La Rondalla

I love latin music, singing in spanish, and speaking spanish... so what better group to get involved in than the UNA's (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Costa Rica's) very own RONDALLA.  I nervously asked the office of Promoción Estudiantil for information on musical groups on campus one of my first few weeks here and the musical group that seemed like the best fit also became the best decision I ever made as far as extracurriculars abroad go.  They meet once a week for three hours... people from different sorts of majors (although there seem to be a lot of computer science majors for some reason) and then there's me, who doesn't exactly have a major yet and changes it every single time someone asks.  We sing folk music from Costa Rica and some more modern (trova, salsa, ballads) music from all around Latin America while a few guys play some instruments like sax, guitar, bass, congo, and maracas.

They had a weekend outing last weekend to an island called Isla Venado between Puntarenas and Guanacaste.   The population is around 1,200 people and you get  there by walking through mud (it was low tide, photo above) to this lil' funky blue boat called a "panga" which comes with fun holes (photo below and to the right) you have to cover to avoid going under and nice little benches (more railing like) that leave your behind feeling numb by the end of the 20 minute ride.  It also smells like fish, but I must admit I loved it...

Anyways, we stayed in this cute two-story cabin on the island shore with an eating area to its left, ate the most DELICIOUS food--they gave everyone a whole fish... eyes and everything.  This tenor Deiby ate my eyes for me... thank goodness, I mean, what are friends for anyway?

There's a lady who lives next door on the right who turns her house into a bar and her patio space (the beach) into a dance floor whenever there are visitors on the island.  Also, I met the super gifted seven-year-old granddaughter of the cabin owner (photo below of Naydelin with my friend Jenny and I) and we talked all afternoon until dinner saturday night... she told stories like telenovelas, drew me a picture, taught me about how fast pumas can run, who Jesus is, and all about how plants grow.  She's probably one of the coolest people I've met in a while... and one of the sweetest (she made me a shell bracelet she had made the morning the Rondalla left the island and gave me a leaf to never forget the island....
                                    AAAAAAAwwwwwwWWW)!

After watching the sunrise sunday morning on the "panga" (photo below), we got ready to sing for the second time, this time for when we got back to the coastland (to be honest I don't even know visually on a map where we were that whole weekend)... After the second show and our way home, we stopped at a Monteverde icecream shop.  The ride home took over five hours due to traffic, but was great so that we all had more time to spend together.

That night, when I got home at around 8pm, I started to write the FIVE page essay on material I hadn't read more than a third of (oh, and it was 1.5 spacing... NOT DOUBLE, OKAYYYY) that was due the next morning, in PRINTED form (which means I had to find a copy/printer place near the U in the morning), for my 9am class... I finished the majority of the essay the morning of and turned it in on time... PURA VIDA!!!!  Now THAT'S what I call a successful weekend.  (cheezy end of post photo below)

See you at the next concert,
Ivanita

Guayaba Snatching

Just a short little story...

Today just outside of the University library, I saw one of my friends who I had actually met at a church in Heredia.  I saw her and two friends standing on the railings (of the library stairs) trying to pull some branches... So naturally, I checked to see what they were up to and to my surprise, they were reaching for yellow guayaba fruit from the higher parts of the tree.  They got me one and told me to just bite into it... Thinking "here goes nothing" (since normally I would have washed it a billion times before trying it, not to mention I would have picked off the brown spots/scars all over) and to my surprise it was DELICIOOOOSSSSSOOOOO...  Probably more so because it was free and fun to get. I saved one to go (I now know where to go for a mid-day snack) and went on with my day, entering the library to read for my literature class and prep for Mandarin that afternoon...

THANK YOU GOD FOR THAT LITTLE ADVENTURE, IT MADE MY DAY! 

Mmmmm.

Ibana

Cuando me quité las trenzas

I truly don't mean to be superficial, but this post is about my hair evolution :)  Special thanks to Daniela for helping me document this event with photos and for being so patient in helping me take out the braids which took 3.5 hours...working together. (!!!Gracias Dani por tomar las fotos y por tener tanta paciencia cuando me ayudó a quitarme las trenzas!!!)

So here goes:

I got cornrows and my hair braided and left it in for a month...

When the time came to let out the braids... I was trying to rock Sahay's hair...

...except that I forgot how much hair one loses every day, and when that adds up to a month (60x30) that's 1,800 pieces of hair and extra for all the tugging that went into getting my hair braided in the first place...  I apologize ahead of time for the gross photo below, I realize it's totally unnecessary.

 Even after I brushed out my hair, I continued to lose chunks of it for about four days after, yum.

But then it was back to normal after a thorough head/hair cleaning that was way overdue.  Here's a photo where I'm wearing my first Universidad Nacional polo, this one is for the choir in which I participate (the logos are backwards thanks to Apple's Photobooth).  Although I don't get to keep the polo, I do get to borrow it until the last performance, so I wear it whenever I can :)

Thanks for reading!  I can assure you this is my first and last post about hair.

Digging deeper,

Ivana

Sarapiquí

This weekend, IFSA-Butler took the study abroad group to Sarapiquí for a little bit of everything.  We went white-water rafting, had a chocolate (cacao) tour, bat info session, and community service trip.  I have to say that my favorite parts were the bat presentation and meeting kids at the school.

Melany, Tanya y Nigel

Abe plantin' a tree.

The roof painting crew.

A BAT!!!!!  Honestly, they're now my favorite animal... look how CUTE its ears are!

Anna y Kayley son futboliiiiissstas.

Cacao tour... I must admit I tried a little.

The whole school together with the IFSA crew.

 It's amazing how you can meet kids from a part of the country you never thought you'd pass by and  who leave the most genuine stamp on your heart.  I traded bracelets and got a letter and even got a signature from a girl who's totally going to be a future model (check out the rest of the photos on facebook when they're up).  I had a ton of similar music interests with a twelve-year-old girl named Melany (we both like Paramore and Nick Jonas)... music globalization.

Sorry for random,

Iva