Two-Day NYC Adventure!

Three things I noticed right away in NYC: 

The ball that drops on New Year's Eve is extremely small. 
I've been away from the cold so long that I struggled to put on gloves.
The subway system is not scary.

I tagged along with my mom and a co-worker of hers to New York City for a couple of days this week.  While they were out working during the day, I roamed NYC trying to be as cheap as possible (more to come about this later), and trying to look like I knew what I was doing... which is funny because things always worked out despite my cluelessness, so I didn't even have to know.  On the first day, I took the subway for my first time alone to the American Museum of Natural History.  I was BLOWN AWAY!  The museum was only $25 (with a student ID--which I didn't have with me but was convincing enough to be treated the same) to go to all of the exhibits, movie showings, and rooms in the muesum.  Besides the normal museum stuff, I went to the butterfly exhibit, space exhibit, observatory screening, and IMax movie.  I probably could have gone a couple more days through the museum to really see it all, but o well. 

The butterfly exhibit was the best one I have EVER been too, which is funny because the bazillion butterflies in the butterfly garden were from either Florida or Costa Rica.

The space exhibit was super fun too, but mostly because there was this thing that blew out air that smelt like the moon.

In the observatory theater, I got sore in the neck again lol (banana boat flashback) but the movie shown was very educational and well narrated by Whoopie Goldberg.

BUT my favorite part of the whole museum was the IMax movie "Born to be Wild".  It was about orangutan and elephant orphans.  It was soooo cute and inspirational!  I kept finding myself gasping and "aw"ing.  I wanted it to never end; it was incredibly well done, cinematographically, editing-wise... just all around beautifully done.

I had no time for lunch while I was at the museum, but luckily I had asked for two bags of PopCorners on the plane ride up (Thank you JETblue--always take a snack even if you're not hungry, that way you can save it for later!), had a banana from breakfast (which was "free" at the hotel), and had nuts from back home to nibble on all day.

<-- Strange pose... no clothes-->

After I left the museum, I walked along Central Park and then followed Broadway (passed through Times Square!--photo below) all the way down to Chelsea (district?) to meet up with my mom and her co-worker (they're both a lot of fun to travel with).  I got a cup of decaf tea on the way, a perfect touch to the perfect day!

On the second day, I went to the Rockefeller Plaza via subway, hoping to find something I wanted to do.  I walked past the ice-skating rink and went into 30 Rock (ohhh, so that's where the name of the show comes from) and stared at the ticket info for the building touristy things.  I noticed a girl next to me looking just as confused as I was.  Before I knew it we were in line for tickets to the Top of the Rock (to see the view from the top of the building) and NBCUniversal Studio Tours (NBC Studios is in the same building).  The girl I met and I ended up hanging out all day!  Her name's Jane and she's from New Zealand, about my age, and loves to travel too.  She was by herself because her cousin (whom she was visiting) was at work.  After the visit to the highest floors of the building to take photos, we went to the NBCUniversal Studio tour (It was AMAZING).

Then, we found out we could get standby tickets for the afternoon filming of the Dr. Oz show... first in the stand-by line, we made it in!  Dr. Oz is really cool (from what I could tell back in the audience, of course).  He's so smart without having to read off of the projector when he goes on his doctor tangents.  I learned a lot and even got a free cookbook!  I had to leave early to meet my mom outside to catch the plane, tear tear, so I said good-bye to Jane, sneaked out of the studio with an NBC Page, and went into the taxi where I couldn't stop talking about my amazing two days.



...New York City.  I'm a fan.

-Ivana

Dominican New Year

Hey everyone!

Right after Christmas (which was amazing since the whole family was home!), most of my family went to the Dominican Republic.

Well, we went to a beach resort, you know, the ones where you don't see one coin of the local currency and are surrounded by Americans, Canadians, and Europeans and the Dominican workers talk to you in English unless you respond in Spanish--that resort.

I know I know, I'm not complaining, just commenting.  So here's what we did:

1. Eat a lot of buffet food: My favorite buffet creation there was a breakfast meal that I easily replicated when I got back home... It's french toast with peanut butter and then honey on the peanut butter and then raw rolled oats all over (I didn't have any banana or coconut jam when I got back to the Florida, but honey works just as well).

2. Talk to my grandparents:  Spending new year's eve with them was great... My grandma talked to me about the stars and how thankful she is that God has given her one more year of life and shared some new year's memories with me.  My grandfather wanted to go to the party downstairs jaja--he's quite the character.  If you've met him, you know.  He says the DR smelt like Cuba, but that he remembers Cuba being more beautiful... no, he hasn't been back to Cuba in 52 years and I know I don't have to say it, but I'm sure things in Cuba aren't the same as they were half a century ago, yet, a worker at the resort says that the last time he was in Cuba a couple of years back, the beaches were still the most beautiful he'd ever seen in the world, with all types of tropical fish swimming up by the shore on the clean virgin beaches.

3. Ride on a banana boat:  Uhhhh... the first time with my mom and brothers was kinda boring, but totally fine with me.  Then the next day my brothers begged my mom to ride it again, and dumb ole me decided to ride with them and they kept yelling "RAPIDO!!!" to the boatman with a huge thumbs up... and then when we almost fell, "STOOOOOOOPPP, slower please... por fahvour DESpppaaazeeeyo"  jaja--and then we fell.

It only took a couple of days for me to get the crick out of my neck from the fall :D

4. Kayaking for an hour in Punta Cana doesn't mean kayaking for an hour... It means that from the moment you sign and pay, the clock is ticking, so run down the beach, steal some life jackets and get out on the water because they'll call you in early anyway right when another customer gets in line.  Still fun though.

5. Slide and Corn Rows: There was a huge blow-up slide next to a group of women braiding hair.  I only went on the slide once, but there was a 6-year-old that rode non-stop.  He had a lollypop in his mouth when he slid down the HUGE slide and, if you know my mom, then you can guess what happened next.  She didn't leave the slide area until the Dominican boy took the lollypops out of his mouth before riding the slide again, and hey, he listened.  I, on the other hand, couldn't leave the slide until I could convince the woman that I really didn't want to get corn rows, that I'd already had it done and it's WAY too painful to get done anytime soon (not to mention I don't think they know how heavy and thick my hair really is), so I think I did them a favor by rejecting their offer.  I can't wait to cut my hair.

6. Resort-run Shows: There was a circus--kinda boring; we went to a candelight dinner with live music and dancing--this scene somehow reminded me of Beauty and the Beast; and one night, Josh, my grandpa and I went to a Michael Jackson tribute show with a dancer that had the best impersonation of MJ moves I've ever seen.

7. Tours: Ever ridden a buggey (Had a flashback to SLC 2009 "Ever ridden a camel?"-Sean F.)?  Jumped in a cave?  Either had I until a tour company took us on this crazy adventure where we felt like cattle: "We're stopping here for a moment (literally), take a photo of the beach, now let's go to the coffee/cacao plantation," and then later, "5 minutes to jump in the cave and get out to get back in the buggey!" is what we heard as we waited in line to jump in freezing cave water that I wish I could show you a picture of because of how beautiful the shades of blue were in the seemingly clean water.  And then a few screams later (my little brother drove sometimes) and a couple more splashes of mud, we were done.

8. Practicing Spanish:  "Naiii" (like a latin slang version of the english word "nice") and "heavy" were terms a Dominican on the beach told us was commonly used in the DR... hmmm they have English origin, which reminds me of when I learned in Costa Rica that "tuanis" came from the English word "too nice" and the common door to door greeting "Upe" from "Open."

9. Read:  Persuasion by Jane Austen has taken me a full year to really get into, but I'm glad I read it because it consumed me by the last third of the book.  The Hunger Games was a cool idea for a book, but I think I'll like the movie a lot better than the book.  The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks was a quick read and a cute love story for a little beach reading, but, like The Hunger Games, I think the movie will be a bit better since they change the story around a bit with a more creative twist... but a movie only lasts a couple of hours, and the book was a full two days of enjoyment.

10. Take Sunrise Photos:  My dad kept me company (THANKS DAD!) as I took some photos of the sunrise in Punta Cana!

(I thought this shot was very... interesting.  Let me know what you think!)

-Iva

Despedida

I never posted on leaving Costa Rica, so here's a quick recap on my last week in there:

Saying bye to the musical group, Rondalla, was pretty difficult.  I love everyone in the group and found them to be incredibly welcoming from the onset of my time with them.  We went on trips together, performed in lots of places around Costa Rica, and went out as well.  The night of the Christmas concert, we went to Oscar's place with the director and everyone's friends and family and had so much fun!  There was dancing, people making tortillas with sausage (gross, I know, but apparently it's supposed to be good), and sad (and a couple drunken) goodbyes (they even put me on the spot to make a little speech... in spanish [AHHH])... I'm really going to miss them, I am so lucky to have met them, they were just SO SO SO kind.

IFSA-Butler, the program I went to Costa Rica with, had a thanksgiving good-bye party at the director, Teresita's, house.  It was the last time we'd all be together, so we made every effort to make it memorable.  A few girls and I sang the song "Call Your Girlfriend" a capella, it was really beautiful and I think everyone liked it.

My last weekend in Costa Rica, I went to Manuel Antonio with Chris and Tara.  I wish I'd gotten to know them better earlier on in the semester because I really enjoyed hanging out with them.  They're from the IFSA program and are both going to school in DC.  We went to the national park together, and I walked to the beach in Quepos and met some students from our university in Heredia that were walking around the beaches asking questions to the locals about tourism and the animal life in Manuel Antionio.  There objective was to ask them questions based on whether the growing tourism there was good or bad (based on the effects it has on the animal life).  Some guy, I honestly don't remember his name (Octavio? Celsio?), was explaining to me that the trees from high up on the hill were being taken down slowly but surely for hotels and hostels.  Also, the beach was private for tourists, excluding locals sometimes, and exploiting the monkeys that were being chased for photo opportunities (they're seriously so cute though).  Much of the wildlife couldn't move from tree to tree like they once did, so longer routes were being taken and monkeys were getting split up from the group... I'm obviously not giving this guy or this topic any justice, but that's all I remember...

Also during my last week in CR, I had a dance performance as a final demonstration of our work in my dance class.  We danced bachata and merengue, directed and choreographed by our dance teacher Adriana, and were wearing these outfits (I gave mine away after... definitely not my type of style lol) that were frilly and interesting with a lot of dangly jewelry and hair pins... and blue eyeshadow of course.  The girls were a blast to hang out with and I hope I get to see them again someday.

Last but not least, saying goodbye to my host family was a toughy.  I think I'll get to see them sometime in the near future, so I don't get sad about it, but when you're so used to waking up in a house for 3 months, leaving just feels weird.  But we said our goodbyes and cried just a tad, and off I went back to my favorite place in the whole entire world--home, the United States of America.

Dance <3

 Rondalla (most of them anyway)

Host Family

IFSA Thanksgiving Party

Justine and Shelley :)

LOVE THEM!

Manuel Antonio (This first photo reminds me that you can find God ANYWHERE)

Tara <3

Chris!!

In Manuel Antonio, we met up with Abe who was there with his family :)

And there ya go :D

Good-bye Costa Rica, twas nice to meet you.  Let's keep in touch.