Exciting Stuff

The other day we went to a grocery store here in San Jose that has a lot of imported goods from the U.S. John needed to pick up some groceries, so Kate and I just tagged along. Long story short, I spent close to 7 bucks on 3 things. A can of Arizona green tea, a Milky Way, and a pack of wild berry Skittles. That's right, s.e.v.e.n. d-o-l-l-a-r-s! WHAT! That typically would cost maybe $2.50 in the U.S., but since they are imported goods they are way more expensive here...apparently. Seven dollars! I still can't get over it. I'll be honest though, I think that was best 7 dollars spent in my whole life! After two weeks of rice and beans, Skittles and a Milky Way, followed by a cold Arizona green tea never tasted so good! Mmmm!

Other happenings...

-I got my Costa Rica drivers licenses the other day. Now this is something to write home about! But believe me, this sucker is strictly for identification purposes only. Heck no am I driving here. People here are loco when it comes driving. The day we actually got our license was one heck of a victorious day. It took us four attempts and many hours at the DMV, but finally we were successful! We even had to get our blood drawn (sorry mom, I forgot to tell you about this), and a medical exam done. Quite the process if you ask me, but I'm still rather shocked that we have a drivers license for Costa Rica. Woahh.

-Young Life...we have our leader retreat this weekend. So excited! And so ready for club to get started! We've been up to the school during lunch a couple times, and have been able to meet a handful of kids already. Pray that I would be able to remember names. Seriously, I can hardly pronounce some of them, and a lot of them are very similar. Mary Gloria, Mary Luisa, Mary Glory, Mary Soul, Mary Jose... I feel like every girls name is Mary_____.

-Basketball practice has been great! The team is...well, how do I say it...not good. But the three of us coaches, Anna, Kate, and myself have a huge opprotunity to love on these girls, and hopefully teach them some basketball skills while we're at it. One girl on the team, Sam, is new to Lincoln, and just moved from China. She was in China with her family for 2 years, and before that was in South Africa, and born in Holland. I can't imagine how hard of a transition that would be. She dosen't know Spanish, and as you all know neither do I! That was a bonding moment for us for sure. I'm excited to get to know Sam. Kate and I take the Lincoln activity bus home after practice with students and teachers, and Sam is on our same bus. I'm hoping to have some cool conversations with her throughout the year. Oh, and our first basketball game is in two weeks. This should be interesting. Goooooo Lincoln!

-I flushed toilet paper down the toilet again yesterday at my host families house, and then once at the Young Life office. Some habbits are just hard to break.

-I finally told my host mom that I don't like papaya. Every morning for breakfast she gives me a bowl of fruit. It's so wonderful, really. But the last couple days there has been this nasty orange fruit that I could hardly handle. I didn't know what it was at first until Kate said one morning "I had papaya this morning, and it tasted like rotten carrots." Then I realized the nasty orange fruite I didn't like was in fact papaya. You aren't supposed to leave food on your plate here because then the food is consisered dirty, and it can't be saved. So, each day when my host mom would serve papaya to me, I would eat it with my pinapple hoping the pinapple would drown out the awful taste. (p.s. sorry if papaya is your favorite fruit and I'm just straight up bashing you.) The other day though, I just couldn't handle it anymore. I didn't finish all my papaya, which lead Lisa to asking me if I liked it, and I said as nicely as possible "Uhhh...well..umm..No." Ever since then...no more papaya! Holler!

Ok, this is all for now. Thanks for reading guys, and thanks for all your prayers!
Much love.