Wow... I am really slack at this...

EXAMS and 10km

Last week was a week of exams... it was pretty intense esp considering that i have had really no study since I got here so doing 2 or so hrs of study in a row was some what challenging...

Anyway... I survived the week pretty successfully and on weds night we celebrated with a fire on the beach... toasting marshies and making smores!!! Yum!!!

We chilled out on Fri and Sat and the on Sun I did something I never even dreamed of doing...
I ran in a 10km race...

I know!! I had been training for actually only 2 weeks... and seriously only for a week... What was I thinking???

We woke up at 3 to catch a 4 o'clock bus to San Jose (say what!!!) and started running at 9... It was pretty intense...
But I made it.. I ran the whole thing... no stopping, no walking... only running!!! My time was 1hr and 7mins!! I ran with friends which was very helpful... we even made it onto the Costa Rican news!!! I know pretty much famous...

In the avo after my morning of 'fun' we went to a mall got some lunch... well deserved fast food... saw a really cool Costa Rican movie called Gestacion... kinda a bit Junoish (but this girl had the best friends ever!!) and then... I had the best BANANA SPLIT ever... oh my it was just goodness in a bowl... so so so good... ( i think i may be addicted to Ice cream...)

Was more than ready for bed by the time we arrived home... and even had to sleep after my morning class on mon morn i was so exhausted...

I dont have any pics of this event but they are on my facebook page so if ya want proof or more pics from my panama adventure check that out :-)

I'm off on another adventure this weekend... to an active volcano... hopefully ill fill you in quicker this time...

PANAMA!!!

So i realise that I have not blogged in a while... I have just been putting it off...

So this may be a slightly large update...

On Tues the 13th of October We left on our big group trip... we got up bright and early... and travelled to San Jose by Bus...here our hungry wee bodies were feed an amazing breakfast of gallo pinto (rice and beans, I eat it everyday for breaky and i love it!!!!) and eggs... we then trooped onto the bus for the journey over to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica... We arrived at a small restaurant and loaded onto a boat and after 1 & 1/2 hrs we arrived at our hotel in Tortugero!!!

Whoop whoop it was soooooooo nice... Colleen and I shared a room... we went in and first thing we checked for was hot water!!!! Oh it was like heaven to have a hot shower.... i swear I havent felt so clean in soooo Long!!!

The lodge was amazing it had a pretty sweet swimming pool and buffet meals... was sooo cool...

on the first avo we went onto the beach as it was turtle hatching season... sadly we didnt see any baby turtles... but we saw broken egg shells and big birds swooping around waiting for their next feed of new hatchlings...

Birds just waiting for a feed

We had a pretty sweet night.. swimming... eating!!! and then Erik who studies psychology did this test thing on us with drawings... it was sooo funny... slightly scary tho, some stuff that came out of the drawings was actually true...

Day two: There was MUESLI at breakfast... it was amazing... I havent had muesli in sooo long... I was stoked!! what a way to start the morning...

We went in wee boats to explore the canals of Tortugero... saw some pretty hard core lizards such as the one below...

A relic from the dinosaur age

And also some crazy birds... and a snake!!! one of the birds looked scarily like a Kiwi.... so much so that had it not being up a tree I prob would have looked twice...

A kiwi in Costa Rica???

We went back to the lodge and in the avo went for a bush walk through some fantastic mud!! It was pretty fun squelching through the trail...

Ready to go in our gumboots...

Our muddy boots after the walk...

That night there was football game between Costa Rica and the US... Costa Rica started off so well. the were up 2-0 but then the states came back to draw the match in the last minute... I was sooooo gutted for C.R.

Day Three: We left Tortugero bright and early and had a long day of travelling down into Panama... we passed loads of Banana plantations... some men work pulling 25 bunches of Bananas along a rail from the plantation to the packing plant... each bunch has around 100-150 bananas on it.. can you imagine how heavy that would be???...

We crossed the boarder into Panama!! YES another stamp for my passport!!! The bridge we had to walk across however was not sooo exciting... it was rather run down and had holes all along the floor... not a good place to trip while holding your passport...

The rickety bridge we had to cross!!!

After a long day of busing and boating we arrived in Bocas del Toro Panama... How exciting!!!... and for tea I had Lobster!!! yum!!

On the boat on the way to Bocas...

Day four: We woke up to rain :-( very sad but shortly after breaky it started to clear up and it turned out to be a stellar day!! We snorkeled at some amazing Islands... went to the coolest Starfish beach and went to a famous beach called red frog beach... apparently some pretty famous people have visited... These places were just stunning... absolutely beautiful...

I had the best fish ever for lunch as well it was soooo good... and then squid for tea!! What a day!!

Starfish beach... there were sooooo many starfish all big and orange and stunning!!!!

Oh and at lunch I got to hold a real live sloth!!! I was very excited!!... It just clung to ya with its wee little legs...

me and the wee sloth!!!!

Day five: was another exploration and snorkeling day... we saw an amazing coral reef and then we went to one of the most beautiful places I have been... It was where they had a season of survivor... a gorgeous gorgeous Island... The water was perfectly blue and clear... the snorkeling was AMAZING and I saw a Sting ray!!!

The 'final three' on Survivor Island

We had a sweet night... eating our second absolutely amazing peanut butter and chocolate milkshake!! my goodness they were to die for!!!

Day six: Traveling home... who knew it would be such an eventful day????

After lunch we crossed the border and got onto our bus... about 3hrs into our journey we had some engine issues and waited for about 40 mins while the driver tinkered... about 2hrs later between Limon and San Jose we started to smell this burning smell... I began to yell at the driver that something was burning... the bus pulled over... we clambered out to find flames shooting out the back of the bus!!! Very scary!!!! Turns out that a towel had been left in the engine compartment during the fixing stage and this had caught on fire!!!... Now normally you would not get back on a bus that had just had a fire near its engine but as there was no reception we all just got back on and rode the same bus slowly until we got cell phone coverage and called another bus... we finally got the new bus... got dinner in San Ramon and an hr later at about 11pm we got home... straight to bed that night...

SAN JOSE!!! and the past week!!!

This week has been pretty cruisey... had some sweet relaxing days... cant actually remember doing much except chilling!!!

BUT!!! On saturday I went to San Jose ,

Nathan, Thomas, Chelsea and me on the way to San Jose

we arrived in San Jose and found a Hostel... It was called 'Tranquilo Backpackers'... So we take a while to find our dorm... turns out its in the basement... but turned out to be the best room as it was away from all the noise of the Kitchen living areas!!! Just had to go down some deadly stairs to get there...

Then we set out to explore San Jose...

How cool is the post office???

We found a cool wee market here we heard some EXTREMELY exciting news... there was a live Football World Cup qualifier on that night in San Jose... we rushed to the stadium to get tickets and after some slight confusion we were ready to go for the night... I was sooooo sooo soooo excited!!! To think our original plans were to catch a movie!!! we got back to the centre of town and explored...

Sadly in the avo it started to rain... we sought refuge in the Cathedral

The roof of the Cathedral

and then made a quick dash (via another market) to an art museum.... It was after this art museum that the rain really started to bucket down... After running and darting through the rain back and forth we finally found a place to eat tea...

Waiting at the art museum to see if the rain would stop... it didn't

After tea it was another quick dash through the rain to the hostel to get ready for the GAME!!!!!

All ready for the game... I wore the gangsta hat to try and keep my glasses dry so I could see the game!!

We kitted up in our red, white and blue and ran for a taxi... as I had not really thought it would rain so hard or get cold I hadn't brought with me to San Jose a jersey so I was in for a pretty cold and wet night... by the time we sat down on wet benches we were pretty wet... BUT SOOOOOOO PUMPED...

The game was awesome!!! We sat at the Costa Rican goal (1st half) end and every time they got the ball any where near the goal the whole crowd would get up and start jumping and shouting excitedly!!! When a Costa Rican player made a mistake... wow the crowd really let him have it!!!

The first Goal that Costa Rica got was actually an own goal (stink Trinidad and Tobago) but after that Costa Rica really got firing and got 3 more goals!!! So we won 4-0... SO SWEET!!!

The game was def a highlight of my Costa Rican experience so far!!!

So we got home... wet, cold but happy... and then just as the night could get much better... HOT SHOWERS!!! now this may seem a bit bizarre but hot showers are one of the things I have missed the most... even though the weather is hot I still crave hot water which is non existent in most homes in Puntarenas... I some times dread showering... knowing I need one but not wanting one is quite a toss up sometimes...

so HOT water was a great way to top off the night!!!

As we were warming up... wrapped up in his blanket Nathan mentioned he was feeling itchy and wondered whether his blanket may have fleas...

well after turning in for the night at about 2 am sun morn I woke up super itchy... esp my neck shoulders and chin... I figured maybe it was a dream that had stemmed from Nathan's comment and tried to sleep... well last night just as we got home I started to break out in welts and this (mon) morn I was very very welty... one side of my chin has this giant red welt on it that looks so mankey... I don't know how they got there... but I hope it wasn't fleas in my blanket...

On Sun we went for a quick walk around the area we were staying in... some of the houses were amazing... One of the many amazing homes

I guess it happens in NZ to but just with less visibility... but it really struck me once again how uneven our world is... within a few minutes in San Jose one could drive maybe even walk) from mansions into absolute poverty... I'm being really challenged lately to think about how this can be changed and what part I can play in changing it... Found this cool quote in this book I'm reading...

It goes...
"Faith is 'being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see' Hebrews 11 vs 1. We believe that poverty can end, even though it is all around us. We believe in peace even though we hear only rumours of wars. And since we are people of expectation we are so convinced that another world is coming that we start living as if it were already here. - Irresistible Revolution Shane Claiborne) READ IT!!!

So after walking through a really nice area we headed to Heredia a city really close to San Jose. We mulled around and checked out the university campus... Had a... McFLURRY!!! and i tried this fast food restaurant that is from the states called Taco Bell... pretty good...

MMMMMMMMMM McFlurry..... I'm lovin it

Ok so how weird does the chicken drumstick look by itself... just floating... and its name??? Pollo(chicken) McCrispy... just sounds so funny!!!

TACO BELL!!!

Its soo funny being away from Puntarenas and coming back... it really feels like home!!!

A sweet pic of Puntarenas overlooking the Golf of Nicoya at dusk!! HOME!!!

Tomorrow I'm heading on our mid semester trip to PANAMA!!!!!! WHOOP WHOOP am so excited!!!

Photos of Pizukki

As promised some photos of our pizukki night... really am craving another one very very soon

Mixing up the cookie dough....mmmmmmmmm chocolaty goodness!!!!



Ready to dig in... ice cream and warm soft choco chip cookie... what could get better???


May look slightly funky but the taste was absolutely DIVINE!!!!!


Dont have any photos of my bike yet... SORRY

'Camping' and more!!!

So Since posting about my new bike... I got my tire fixed SWEET!!! Then three days later it was flat again :-( so I forked out 3 whole dollars to buy a new one!!! (just the inner)... and hopefully my tires now remain inflated...
Last week was pretty casual... Went by so quickly... I'm am going to this dance class at uni for fun and a little exercise (most US kids are actually taking this prac dance class for uni credit... would you believe!!!) and so on tues we had a dance exam!! Was pretty funny being part of huge bunch of gringos (foreigners) trying to salsa it up... but i feel that my partner and I did a reasonably successful job??? I guess we will see with time... or my partner will... doesn't really matter for me!!!

WEDNESDAY oh my goodness... so it was Puntarenas day... a day where they remember the wrongful? killing of an ex president... anyway They have parades all day from about 9 in the morn to about 3 in the avo... our uni is right on the road that the parades where and so ALL day we had hardcore drumming ragging through the uni... I live very close to uni so there was no reprieve over lunch time either!! very very intense!! and when the real noise stopped my head kept 'hearing' the drums so it was a pretty intense day!!! Meet some nice ticas (costa rican girls) though so maybe some local friends???

FRIDAY... Surfing...was so flippin exhausted that it wasn't hugely successful but still was a good day...

SATURDAY... Camping!!! So Erik, Colleen, Nathan and I decided that we would go on a camping adventure with the church that we have been going to... we didn't really know where we were going (miramar) or what the deal was but we decided to go... every tico we talked to told us that Miramar was a cold place so we though it is hard for us to imagine cold at the moment we decided to play it safe and take pants and jerseys... (turns out it wasn't actually that cold and we could have really saved some bag space and not looked so ridiculous lol)... we got there and found we were camping on a farm... but tents never got set up which confused us slightly... but we have been told so many times to be 'tranquilo' (basically a way to say just chill and go with it) here in Costa Rica that we just said nothing and pretended we knew what was going on...

We went to some pools in the avo and hung out there for quite a while... the pools had a deadly slide with some crazy turns that doubled back on themselves so you went crashing into the next turn... I was very careful not to build up too much speed... but Erik is still sore from his sliding experiences...

So we get back, have a service... we have to speak in front in spanish about dreams in front of fluent speakers... then had dinner before playing a hilarious game of pictionary in spanish... My team went something like this... Someone draws something... Ruth knows what it is but only in english... so she has to act out the word for her other team mates so they can guess it in spanish... My impersonation of a vacuum cleaner was a real sight to behold!!!

Bedtime... Colleen and I got lucky and got to sleep in the farmhouse lounge... we share a single mattress so I was very careful not to toss and turn as I usually do lol... As we are waiting to sleep we notice some extremely big red ants climbing up the wall near our heads so every time the owner of the house wasn't looking we would whip out our jandels and kill as many as possible... must of worked cos they certainly stayed away at night... phew...

The boys were not as lucky and had to sleep on a porch... lots of farm noises in the night so they didn't sleep too soundly...

Sunday day we hung round the farm and swam some more before heading home... Sunday night we got a sweet tub of amazing ice cream and chilled watching a movie...

MONDAY: So in the evening my host mum fried some green platanos and they were amazing... ate a ton of them and then she made tortillas with cheese which, when eaten with beans, are pretty much my favourite food beside ice cream... so I had already eaten heaps when suddenly a whole plate of rice and meat was in front of me... my tea!!! Crickey it was hard to get it down but I didn't want to be rude so... I was extremely full afterward... so so so full... (I hope I don't get fat here... I am excercising but... sooooooooo many carbs.....)

TUESDAY: I discovered there is a group that swim daily in the sea so today i joined them for the 1st time .(got work off all that dinner)... I had to tow this red plastic thing so any boats could see me lol but it was a pretty good workout... def will be joining the crew again!!
That is pretty much my life at the moment... Next week we are off to Panama so I'm super excited about that!!!

Pizooki!!!!!!!

The best invention this world has ever seen was introduced to me this week... I did not take photos of the event but my friend did so hopefully I can pop some up shortly... But this invention is called Pizooki... a mix of the words Pizza and cookie... so i guess in NZ it would be more appropriate to say piziscut...

So this Pizooki was AMAZING!!!!!!! many of us USACers have been craving sugary goodness so in the weekend just been a group of us decided to do something about it... Erik, Colleen Nathan and I took over my host families kitchen on sat night while they were out and we whipped up some super amazing 'cookie' dough... as chocolate chips were unavailable we settled for choc bars chopped into large chunks (how terrible a swap!!)... So then instead of making biscuits we used two rather large pizza trays and made gigantic cookies... We popped them into the oven and the secret which is very important is to not cook them fully so they are still kinda soft (using baking soda instead of powder also helps with this)... we watched them like hawks and took them out and while hot and soft and just melt in your mouth good... and dumped a huge ( very very large amount) of ice cream on the top of each one!!! AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING... so delicious and just what chocolate cravings needed... we ate soooooooooo much ( i was very glad i had not eaten tea).

We also watched a hardcore movie called 'sin nombre' was very realistic and sad about Mexican gangs and a family trying to get to the US. However it was all in spanish and very hard to understand.. thank goodness for good acting!!!

After the movie we were still extremely lleno (full) and so we all had to walk... I am not kidding when i say we all had cookie baby bellys following our experience!!! But so so worth it... very excited about next pizooki night though we will either cut the recipe or invite more people!!!!

Well apart from that I have also brought a bike... It is a single speed, back pedal to break, female frame, with a basket on the front sort of bike and I love it!!!!! my friends and I went for a mammoth ride on sat and our butts really felt it afterward... I would love to put up a photo but this will have to wait as it is late at night and I haven't yet taken one... Also I went out to ride it tonight and I had a flat tire :-( I do not wish for the first images of my bike to be ones of her wounded so you will have to just wait for later!!!
My new fav thing to do is ride the streets at night... it is such an old school bike I feel like I am Mary Poppins or something when I ride it!!!!

These are the most recent exciting happenings!!! I had a few 'exams' this week which were just fantastic... I cant say I miss writing mammoth essays, and small quizzes to get tested on knowledge of the paper and mid terms sure beat essays and 60% final exams!!!

Well that is my fin de semana (weekend)... I plan to use a bit of spanglish in this blog just to help all my kiwi friends get a feel for the lingo... lol...

It has been pretty hilarious teaching some of the kiwi lingo to the unitedstatesians... they really like the words Choice and Mankey and the phrases 'spit the dummy' and 'I'm keen'... I'm slowly converting them to true english!!!

well hopefully will post some photos soon...

Oh and for pizooki I would highly recommend the Nestle Toll House Cookie recipe... MUY RICO (super Yummy)!!!!

Adios

I am a blogger

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So I really never thought I'd get a blog... not really the blog type at all... but as it turns out it seems like it may be the easiest way to keep every one up to date with my year away.... Please bear with me as I try to figure out what the higgle I'm trying to do and sorry if things don't work at all in the way they are supposed to... remember I am technologically inept.... Any way here goes....

I arrived over a month ago now and I am loving it... hot days, the beach, bit of travelling, some sweet, cruisey uni... not much to complain about really...

I am living with a host family, I have a 'mum' a 'dad' and FOUR yes FOUR younger 'sisters'... pretty different from one older brother to say the least...

I have my own sweet room and its own wee bathroom which is soooooo nice!!! Esp with 4 girls in the House!! (6 including me and the mum!!)

So took ages to upload and realised I had forgotten to flip them so you will just have to turn your heads sideways sorry, I'm not going through the upload process again... above is my bathroom...

My room... above my desk and all important surfboard... Below my bed...

And this is my house from the street...

The house is pretty extreme and it takes Four DIFFERENT keys to get inside the front door... One for the fence gate, one for the porch door, then if the padlock is on the porch door one for that and THEN the front door....... Hopefully we never have fire because it will be pretty extreme getting out of the house with all those locks in a hurry!!!!!!!

in case you dont know what four keys look like...These are all for the front entrance!!!

I live right round the corner from uni which is good as mon- wed I have 8 am classes and on thurs I start at 7am!!!!!!! No class on fri thankfully

Uni is right across from the beach... great view from the balcony...

So since I have been here I have taken up surfing which is super fun!!! The water is sooo warm which really helps with improving as you can be in it easily for 3 hrs or so...

me and my surfboard... I have named it Taniwha... as it is such a beast and it goes in the sea (its 7.2 feet)

on our first real weekned here we went on a trip and did some zip lining or a canopy tour... pretty much extreme flying foxing!!!! was Choice... Then went to see some crocs...

check out steve erwins costa rican competition!!

2 weekends ago I went over to the Caribbean coast for 3 nights... It was absolutely stunning!!! We (my friends Brittany, Nathan and I) stayed in the most hilarious cabin... the loo didnt flush so we had to use a pot of water... the sink leaked all over the floor so we had a constant flood and the shower actually was like a drip.. so we showered firstly using a cup and the sink and then once we got our flushing pot we used that and a cup!!! pretty interesting...

We did some hardcore adventuring on bicycles to this amazing town and snorkeled over this reef... The fish and coral were stunning... I felt like i was on Finding Nemo...
The second day we went to a national park... the water was soooooo blue just like the images you see when you think of the Caribbean!!!



We also saw some monkeys...



it was really funny.... these tiny wee things made enormous noises!!! Toward the end of the day we saw what I thought to be a pretty coloured worm... it was red, yellow and black, I decided to get a close up pic before it wriggled away... Nathan then recited a poem he'd learnt in school about snakes to discover it was a pretty dangerous baby coral snake...apparently they are kinda (as in very) venomous... luckily i was travelling with wised up people other wise I could have gotten a little too close!!!

The tail end of the 'pretty colourful worm'

That however was not the end of our animal adventures... That night after tea we were walking back into the room when Nathan asked...."what was that" Brittany and I had no idea we turned on the lights and Nathan looked under the wardrobe and there was the most enormous crab this world has seen poised in attack position... After a few nervous moments we managed to get it out of the room... before looking to make sure there were no more lurking in the corners of our humble abode... We still have no idea how he got in in the first place...

He was ready to attack!!!!!

We had independence day last week on the 15th of sept... On the 14th at night they have a cool parade with faroles or lanterns and the kids walk through the streets...

My younger sisters on either side (far left and far right) and friends with their faroles

Then on the 15th they have parades for a good hunk of the day... My younger sister was chosen to carry her school flag... my host mum was so proud!!!

Apart from that I have just been hanging round Puntarenas... hanging on the beach... and doing a little homework...

Last sunday I went with some friends to a church I really liked so things are looking up on the church front... hopefully it will mean some local friends...

I think I have caught you all up to date... I will do my best to keep this updated but no promises... and due to my severe dislike of waiting for photos to upload you will never again see so many in one post!!!!!!