Good morning, world. I'm up stupidly early for me this morning of my last full day in Costa Rica. Like, seriously, I emerged from my room around 6:40, and Alex was really confused. Anyways..
It's been an adventure here. I have decided that 2 months is an awkward amount of time to live anywhere, particularly one with a language barrier. Thursday was the first time this summer that I've really felt like a part of to church family here because I could finally understand and communicate enough to participate, and it was wonderful. And I go home tomorrow.
I'm going to miss the people here. Especially Ronald, Nora, Alex, Marlene, and Genesis.
And 3 of my friends from language school aren't even going back to the states, at least not for more than 2 weeks. God has been doing some really awesome things here.
Well I've got some more things to take care of before breakfast. I'll be stateside again tomorrow!
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Oh, look! I'm 4 weeks behind! Oops...
Week 5 - I was sick most of the week. Just a head cold kind of thing (which, incidentally, is called "gripe" here - a word that we translate as the "flu"). At the end of the week, we went on a retreat with the youth group. We went to this camp site just past Grecia (about a 2 hour drive) and had the American church camp experience squeezed into less than 24-hours. Like, seriously, it basically a mezcla of every church camp I've ever been to with a little bit of Purity Retreat thrown in. It was a whole lot of fun, and I finally got to spend some quality time with some of the girls from our group.
Week 6... disappeared in handling various communication issues with my host family that I hadn't known existed. Oops? This is the week where I learned the true meaning and full implications of "non-confrontation". Oiye.
We finally got some explaining and apologizing done, and things have been fine since then. Not magically better, but continually improving.
This was also, coincidentally, the week that I fixed an American dinner for my host family (Mac 'n' Cheese and cherry cobbler).
Week 7 - Well the first part of the week was pretty mundane, but on Friday the Institute took us to a wood factory. It was pretty cool. There are so many native trees that have really pretty wood. Afterward, I came home (2 hours late) just in time to help finish dinner before the whole world came over for dinner. It was originally supposed to be me and the guys with my host family, but Travis's family is here, and they ended up receiving an invite. So all in all we had 10 people over here. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday, the 3 of us had lunch at Papa Juan and Rosita's house (a family from church), and then I went with their daughter Marilaura up to the church to wash a whole lot of lettuce. Afterward, we had a charla with the teens.... basically a devo, but I think the implication from the name is that it was more of a "talking to," and that's pretty much what it was.
Sunday, I went up to the church early to finish putting the salad together. During the announcements part of service, Travis, Wade, and I got up in front of the congregation and said a few words of thanks. After service, I helped serve lunch to the congregation. It was a holiday for the Annexation of Guanacaste, which is why we had a special lunch thing.
After lunch, we had a devo with the teens, and then I went to Heredia with Marlene for her niece's post-wedding bridal shower, which was a lot of fun. And somehow I got roped into singing? So 2 hymns and the Beatles' "Yesterday", I was kind of friends with the new husband and the sister's boyfriend. They were there as the music entertainment. They sang "Para bailar la bamba," which kind of, a little bit, made my life more complete.
....Which brings us to this week....
No school Monday for the holiday, so I went to downtown San Jose with a friend from school where I bought a chair hammock that is about 6 inches too long to fit in my suitcase. Still trying to work out plans B and C on that.
We had dinner with a family from church yesterday, and today we're supposed to have coffee with another family. 6 more days til I'm home.
For the record, I had made a Weeks 5 and 6 video, but Blogspot wouldn't let me post it for some reason. And I mentioned from the first that I dislike typing so much. Entonces, 4 weeks in one post.
God bless.
Week 6... disappeared in handling various communication issues with my host family that I hadn't known existed. Oops? This is the week where I learned the true meaning and full implications of "non-confrontation". Oiye.
We finally got some explaining and apologizing done, and things have been fine since then. Not magically better, but continually improving.
This was also, coincidentally, the week that I fixed an American dinner for my host family (Mac 'n' Cheese and cherry cobbler).
Week 7 - Well the first part of the week was pretty mundane, but on Friday the Institute took us to a wood factory. It was pretty cool. There are so many native trees that have really pretty wood. Afterward, I came home (2 hours late) just in time to help finish dinner before the whole world came over for dinner. It was originally supposed to be me and the guys with my host family, but Travis's family is here, and they ended up receiving an invite. So all in all we had 10 people over here. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday, the 3 of us had lunch at Papa Juan and Rosita's house (a family from church), and then I went with their daughter Marilaura up to the church to wash a whole lot of lettuce. Afterward, we had a charla with the teens.... basically a devo, but I think the implication from the name is that it was more of a "talking to," and that's pretty much what it was.
Sunday, I went up to the church early to finish putting the salad together. During the announcements part of service, Travis, Wade, and I got up in front of the congregation and said a few words of thanks. After service, I helped serve lunch to the congregation. It was a holiday for the Annexation of Guanacaste, which is why we had a special lunch thing.
After lunch, we had a devo with the teens, and then I went to Heredia with Marlene for her niece's post-wedding bridal shower, which was a lot of fun. And somehow I got roped into singing? So 2 hymns and the Beatles' "Yesterday", I was kind of friends with the new husband and the sister's boyfriend. They were there as the music entertainment. They sang "Para bailar la bamba," which kind of, a little bit, made my life more complete.
....Which brings us to this week....
No school Monday for the holiday, so I went to downtown San Jose with a friend from school where I bought a chair hammock that is about 6 inches too long to fit in my suitcase. Still trying to work out plans B and C on that.
We had dinner with a family from church yesterday, and today we're supposed to have coffee with another family. 6 more days til I'm home.
For the record, I had made a Weeks 5 and 6 video, but Blogspot wouldn't let me post it for some reason. And I mentioned from the first that I dislike typing so much. Entonces, 4 weeks in one post.
God bless.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Week 1
So I didn't make this video until the end of week two, due to a delayed decision to actually have a blog.
I'm not really big on discoursing in type, so videos are what you guys will get this summer.
I'll try to update about once a week, but forgive me if I fall behind on that.
I will probably never watch these videos myself. I make them, and that's enough for me.
That is all.
God bless!
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