I see Your face in...: 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