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