little girl in the big city

Happy Father's Day! What a blessing to have my dad in my life: hugs and kisses for him today.

What an unexpected adventure this weekend turned out to be!! Of the last 48 hours I must have spent at least 8 on the road.

This weekend my group went to Arenal, one of the active volcanoes here in Costa Rica. I anticipated staying home and doing laundry Saturday, maybe watching a movie or two. Friday night, however, after substitute teaching for an ENGLISH class (!!! yes I had to teach class for an hour while the regular teacher taught dance class for my group!!!) I was informed that I would be accompanying my group to Arenal after all. Normally groups go with a guide and the chaperone stays behind: the guide for this weekend is new to CPI, and so I went as an "assistant." The guide did an excellent job, so there really wasn't much for me to do. My role consisted of telling the guide names, counting heads in the bus, and reminding the group to be on time (which is something they struggle with! it irritates me to no end). We stayed in Arenal Springs, which is without a doubt the most upscale hotel I have ever stayed in! I had a "sencilla," a room all to myself which was fabulous! The bathroom was HUGE and I listened to my music the whole time, and had the chance to reorganize my backpack on the second queen bed.
We went to the hot springs of Baldi, where lo and behold I encountered Jessica and her group. We both had a banano loco and relaxed for a while before going to dinner with our respective groups. It was the last time we expected to see each other, but today when we went to the La Fortuna Waterfall we saw each other all over again! I amgoing to miss Jessica a lot: more than ever I am glad we were able to spend a week together in Monteverde.
I had forgotten the powers of hot water: Baldi was really nice! The buffet style dinner hit the spot! That evening I hung out with the guide and a few of the older group members at the hotel pool laughing about "pachuco" or Tico Spanish. Sometimes though I can hardly follow what people say to each other if they are using local phrases!which tells me that I have a lot left to learn about the language and the culture here in Costa Rica... We ate a good breakfast at the hotel and left this morning for the waterfall of La Fortuna. I came two years ago as a student: but I was still taken aback by the beauty and power of the waterfall. I really love waterfalls, I could sit and listen to them all day! From there we left to go to Sarchi, an artisan town where carretas (oxcarts, a national symbol of Costa Rica, are produced and hand painted. We stopped to shop and saw the world's largest carreta. On the way to Heredia we hit some heavy traffic and it began to rain heavily: by the time we arrived in Mercedes Sur, where the families were awaiting the students, it was raining hard and there was no place to park. We ended up cramming into a garage and hurriedly getting students and thier wet luggage into the cars of Familia Ticas. I am currently in the apartments of Dona Romy, who founded CPI! (the apartments are attatched to her house, actually)Also sharing an apartment with a chaperone for the week: we aren't sure how/where we are getting breakfast tomorrow morning. Interesting...
Even San Joaquin seems overwhelming after the tranquility of Monteverde: there is a lot more traffic, more people, more noise. What a different feeling! To me this is "big city."
I have been working on being more "tranquila," adjusting to Tico time. My guide was telling me that I have to stress less: but its just part of what I do! Its part of my American personality to be anxious about time and schedule. I can see this reflected in my groups too: many of their questions are time related.
I plan to go to bed in a little bit; first upload a few pictures from this weekend. Check them out!

PURA VIDA