lunes, 12 de octubre de 2009

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

domingo, 4 de octubre de 2009

'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!!!