Oh so delicious!

Ok now here is something to write home about.
THEY HAVE HONEY GRAHAM Oh'S CEREAL HERE IN COSTA RICA!!!!! Holy Cow! Oh's are by far my favorite cereal...ever! And they have them...here in the Rica! There's a grocery store here called Auto Mercado and it has a ton of imported goods from the US. The first time I was at Auto Mercado I went straight to the cereal isle in hopes that they would have my beloved cereal of choice. They didn't. Womp womp. I continued to look at other Auto Mercados- again only being disappointed in the fact that there were no Oh's. What the heck, Oh's are the best. Every country should have Oh's in their grocery stores. BUT yesterday we were cruisin' down the cereal isle I screamed with excitement at the sight of the yellow box. I was with Jessie and Kate, and I think Jessie was a little freaked out by my random screaming, and the fact that I sceamed about cereal. My bad Jessie. I was just super excited! Another little known fact about me, I love cereal. Like really really love it! Kate knows my love for Oh's so she was very excited with me! I stared up in amazement like a little kid in a toy store. They were on the top shelf, so I reached up with great joy and took the box down to stare at it even closer! I couldn't believe it. Oh's!

Wedding Bells and Trumpets

So I went to my first Costa Rican wedding this past weekend! It was pretty awesome!
Guess how long it was.
If you guessed 7 hours, you are right!! Sorry you don't win a prize or anything, but nice job for being a good guesser! And that wasn't a typo. It was for real s-e-v-e-n hours long. The ceremony was a solid two hours followed by a five hour reception. These people do not mess around! The two hour Catholic ceremony was all in Spanish, naturally, so I sat there for 2 hours and had no idea what was going on. I would laugh when people laughed, stood up when they all stood up (there was a lot of standing up and then sitting down going on) and other than that I was kind of off in my own little world...for two hours. Funny thing about the ceremony was that the Bridesmaids, Groomsmen, Bride, and Groom all sat in chairs. I don't blame them. I sure as heck woudn't want to stand for two hours. That is a looong time.

Then the party got started at the reception! The reception might I add was niiice. Beautiful table arrangements. Awesome venue. It was just all around classy... with a hint of pizzaz!

So we got there, mingled for a while at our assigned tables, had a toast with sparkling apple cider (which I forgot was so delicious) and then went through a buffet line to get food. There was salad, mashed potatoes, fish and beef. It was all so good! Like really really good! After we were done eating, we were all served cake. Then...the party really got started! Maga and Mau (the Bride and Groom) kicked it off with their slow dance. About half way through the slow dance the music so casually switched to the song "I like to Move it Move it" and they did in fact move it! It was awe-some, so hilarious, and so unexpected!

After that I got suckered into dancing. Little known fact about me. I don't really looove to dance. I mean, I like it. It's fine. It's whatever. I just don't absolutley loooove it. But like I said I got suckered into it by a 50 year old lady named Sharon from Texas who I had just met. Everyone on the dance floor was salsa dancing, and yeahI know I've been in dance class since I've been here, but I was still nervous/embarrassed and definitely didn't want to go dance. I was for real being peer pressured like woahhh by freaking Sharon. She said "You're a Gringa, you're from the U.S., you have an excuse to be bad." And oldly enough that was enough to convince me! So I made my way out to the dance floor with Uncle John and shook what my momma gave me...in a salsa dancing kind of way!

Here's the impressive part though about the reception. A little while after we had cake, there was an announcement that the chocolate fountain was open! Heck yes! Every good wedding reception needs a chocolate fountain! Am I right or am I right? After the chocolate fountain we all got served coffee. Costa Ricans love their coffee...and so do I. Then after the coffee we were served little scone type things-4 of them. AND then after the scones we were served a different kind of cake. The food just kept coming, and it was incredible! Costa Ricans really know how to do weddings. Oh and I almost forgot,...there was a surprise. A mariachi band came strollin' in...trumpet and all! A freaking mariachi band? Are you kidding me! Sweet! The dancing continued and then all of a sudden it was 5:00pm. Mind you, the wedding started at 10:00am so this was definitely a full day gig.

There you have it! That was my first Costa Rican wedding experience! Here of some pictures from the glorious occasion courtesy of Kate Loyd's camera!

All the Gringo leaders- John, Jessie, Kate, and myself. Woop Woop!

The Bride and Groom at the 2 hour ceremony. Sheesh!

The mariachi band with the Bride and Groom!
Kate and I with my Host mom. Mamma Luchy! I love her!

I wear my sunglasses at night. And during the day. And especially when it's raining!

Here is my greatest fear about living in Costa Rica.

Are you ready for it?

-Getting an eye poked out by an umbrella.

For real, legitamit fear. Yesterday when I left my house in route to the office it was clear, and then two minutes later it was a torrential downpour. Annnnd I still had a 25 minute walk to the office. Awesome. And really, I totally thought my umbrella would have offered way better protection. Nope, I was still soaked. I think I'm gonna invest in a full body poncho. I don't know why I say invest.-I don't think those suckers are very expensive, but an investment sounds mature and grown up! Hey Mom, do we still have those ones from Disney World? You know, the yellow ones with a big Mickey Mouse face on them? I mean I wouldn't stick out as a Gringa in that baby! Yeaaaah....riiiight! Oh p.s. there are two seasons here in Costa Rica...rainy season and not rainy season, also known as dry season. Yeah, it's rainy season right now. So...yesterday was the first time that I realized how freaking difficult it is to walk on a super skinny sidewalk with an umbrella when everyone else and their mom has an umbrella too. It was a challenge, and I was nervous and scared all at the same time. Scared that I would bump into somone or knock their umbrella. And nervous...well...I'm not really sure why. I was just nervous. Later that day I told John how hard it was walking to the office and he said..and I quote,"Yeah, I wear my sunglasses just to be safe. I don't wanna get an eye poked out!" I thought he was just being funny. Ohhhh no, he wasn't. He's serious...and very smart. I never thought about getting an eye poked out...until today. After John made that comment that's all I could think about while walking this afternoon. It was a pretty paranoid walk-I just kept visioning myself simply strolling along and then BAM, eyeball gone because it got poked by the little pokey part of the umbrella. Talk about a rought way to loose an eye. "Oh you know, just the standard umbrella accident, no biggie!" Noooo thank you! So there you have it...my greatest fear here in Costa Rica. I still don't like spiders, especially HUGE ones in my room, but come on umbrellas...who would have thought I would be scared of umbrellas?

Other things going on besides new phobias of mine...

-We had Young Life club last night. It was sweet! Had a handful of new kids there! Oh and then I got a random text message from Kate this afternoon that said "Oh my gosh. We might have head lice!! SHIT." Apparently some kids went home from Country Day School (the other international school) today with head lice. And one of the kids who was at club last night is one of the kids who has lice. I'll let you know if I get it. I hope I don't. I already had it once. In first grade. I should totally be exempt from ever having it again. Right?!

-We had our second basketball game yesterday. We lost, but...they scored 19 points! This is big time! The second half the girls played a ton better, and I'm excited to see this team grow. Oh and Sam, the chick who just moved here from China who has never played basketball before, is a freaking shooter! Girl had like 12 points! Holy cow! I was so excited for her!

-I feel like the Lord is teaching me a ton right now. Don't know how to really put it into words, but I feel it. And I like it! Being stripped of everything comfortable when coming somewhere new, especially a different country where everything is new (laungage, customs, ect...) has totally opened my eyes to see our Father in fresh ways. Me gusta!

-I have a TV in my room. This is a recent addition, and something I have really come to love! I usually don't watch a ton of TV, but man it's so nice to be able to come home, lay on my bed, and simply not have to think. Being around Spanish for a long period of time is ex-haus-ting, and by the end of the day it's so nice to go into my room and relax. AND...I GET TO WATCH THE DENVER NEWS! I know, it's weird and I have no idea how it works, but somehow Costa Rica gets local Denver news. Channel 9,7, and 4! I feel like I'm right at home. It's kinda weird because I'm not at home...I'm actually in a whole different country, but I love it!!!

Chicken dinner & laughter...and lots of it!

Dinner tonight was..how do I say it...awesome! The food was good like always, because Luchy is a bomb cook, but tonight we all laughed so much! Man, I love that there is no language barrier when it comes to laughter. Both dogs, Pecas (Freckles) and Bruce (Bruce Willas) each sit right next to me, hoping that the new girl will drop a crumb... or a chicken leg. Yes, a chicken leg...it's been done before. Those suckers are slippery! Anyways...I love that they sit so close to the table for two reasons. A.) They remind me of my dogs that are such beggers-always begging for "people food" and B.) I love that they sit right next to me because I can pet them when I don't know what to do/say, or whenever I feel awkward. Dinners are typically pretty silent, because there is only so much that we can all say for eachother to understand. This is why I like that the dogs sit close because I can pet them when I don't know say...which is 70% of any meal. Tonight halfway through dinner Lisa looked at Pecas and said "Bad dog Pecas!" Let me give you a little run down on the two dogs real quick. Pecas is the old, sweet, cute dalmation. And then there is Bruce, who is a huge, rambunctions Lab that is always trying to jump on me. Lisa explained how Pecas had eaten a bill a little bit earlier. She ate 10 mil, which is equivelent to a 20 dollar bill. Ok, come on, that's kinda funny. I mean, it's not, but it is. A little bit. The precious old dalmation ate a twenty dollar bill. So we talked about that for a couple minutes until we ran out of things to say. It got quiet, and we continued to eat in silence. THEN, oh man, it was so perfect, Pecas let one rip. I mean, I know dogs fart. And believe me, I've smelt these dogs fart before, but never in my whole entire life have I heard a dog fart like this one. My best friends mom, Nancy (holler atchya' Nacny!), has this Dr. Fart machine that makes the perfect fart noises. And it was like Nancy was in the room, and on cue pushed the fart button, and out came a squeeky little perfectly juicy fart...from Pecas...the dog! :) We all lost it. Laughed so hard. I speak English, and they speak Spanish, but when a dog farts like that it's something we all understand. And clearly we understood that it was freaking hilarious!



One last quick story. I've been sick for almost 3 weeks now. Yeah total bumski, but I think I'm about to kick this sickness to the curb. Helllllo healthy self! Anyways, I had a really bad cough last week. I mean nasty-it was gross. I still have a little bit of a cough, but it's not as bad, and I think it's finally the end of it. Anyways...last week at dinner I coughed, and then Luchy ran to go get the Spanish-English dictionary. She looked up the word rub, and then said something in Spanish to Lisa, who then translated to me in English. Lisa said that Luchy heard me caughing in the middle of the night last night, and that she can rub me tonight if I want. I instantly thought of Vicks vapor rub stuff, and thought that would be great to rub some of that stuff on tonight to help me not cough during the night. I said "Si, gracias" and that was kinda the end of that conversation. Fastforward a couple hours to when I was saying goodnight. I did the side of the cheek kissy thing, said "Buenas noches. Hasta mañana," and then headed to my room. I forgot all about the conversation we had at dinner about rubbing, and as as I was walking down the hallway to my room Lisa goes "Do you want my mom to rub you?" All along the Vicks vapor rub stuff really did sound good-very soothing, but in that moment I had a little freak out, I panicked. I thought to my self, what if Luchi wasn't talking about vapor rub stuff, and was just going to rub me. I mean Lisa did say "Do you want my mom to rub you?" I was flustered. "Ughhhh....ughhhh...I'll be fine tonight, maybe tomorrow night if it gets worse!" And that was that. No rubbing took place. But I did cough a lot. Better to be safe then sorry-that's how I like to play it! So tonight at dinner (I think it was after the dog farted) I coughed, and then got really nervous that Luchi was going to run over and get the Spanish-English dictionary again to tell me she can rub me. No gracias! :)

Miss O.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Let me just tell you about my day yesterday. Ahhh, it was so sweet! I GOT TO SUBSTITUTE TEACH FOR P.E. CLASSES AT LINCOLN!!! Can you tell the excitement in my voice by the all caps?!? Seriously, I love P.E. I mean...I kinda went to college for it! :) And here I am in Costa Rica, doing ministry, and at the same time getting to substitute for P.E. classes! God, thanks for knowing my heart so well! Holy freaking Cow! Kate and I did it together which was so cool. It was totally tag team, double duo, team dynomite style. And dang, talk about an awesome way to meet kids! My favorite story from yesterday is when Kate was talking to some girls and she asked them if they have ever heard of Wyld Life, and one 6th grader was like "Yeah, it's that TV show right?" Hilarious...but no! And I know I've said this before, but I looove how Lincoln allows Young Life leaders to be so present on campus. The day before John, Kate, and I all refereed an 8th and 9th grade basketball tournament. I'm not a very good ref by the way! During the games I had the whistle in my mouth the whole time to try and cover up my smiling and laughing. It was so cool to be able to be around the entire 8th and 9th grades at Lincoln. Now it's just a matter of getting them to come to Young Life and Wyld Life :)

So like I said, yesterday...it was sweet! But, it got better! After school we had basketball practice, and then afterwards Brooke Burns (who is from Texas and is on YL committee here) picked Kate and I up, along with her kids Austin and MaryBeth (who are such studs!) and we headed back to the Burns's house for dinner and a good ol' slumber party! Slumber fiesta (that's my spanglish for you!) I seriously love this family. They are so wonderful, and Brooke reminds me so much of my dear friend Allison Rhode. I love being around Brooke because I feel like I'm at home hanging out with Al. Seriously, I'm convinced that they are the same person. They're both so stinkin' sweet and so easy and fun to be around! Brooke asked me last night if my Spanish has gotten better since being here, and I think it has. The judge of this is the fact that I haven't had any more second dinners at 10:30pm, so... YES, my Spanish has gotten a lot better thank you very much! Plus, I did happen to snag the "Idiots Guide To Learning Spanish on Your Own" from their bookshelf so things are only looking up my friends, and I will be fluent in a matter of weeks...ok, maybe months!

Speaking of Spanish, here are two very important Spanish vocab words for you guys to know. Maracuyá and mamón chino. Ok, technically that's three words, but whatever. These are two of my absolute favorite things so far in Costa Rica. For real, I dream about these things... in a totally normal, non weird way. The first, Maracuýa, is passion fruit juice, and oh.my.gosh. it is delicious. SOOO SOOO good, and very refreshing might I add! The best juice I have ever had in my entire life. The little ´ guy means you have to put more stress on that letter. So it sounds like Mara-cu-JA. John had to tell me how to say it about 10 times, and then I would repeat it to him. He told me I was saying it right, but just try not to sound angry when I pronounce it. Woops, sorry waitress, I'm not angry at you when I'm ordering the most delicous drink ever, I'm just really really excited...and trying really hard to put more stress on the letter that the little ´ is on. Sorry. And last but not least, mamón chino is a crazy looking fruit that taste like candy! No joke, candy! MaryBeth Burns calls them dragon eyes because they have this funky lookin' spikey red outside skin that you have to peel. The tasty little gem is on the inside. It's slimmy kinda like a peeled grape, and there is a seed on the inside of the slimmyness. So... you bite the slimmy grape like candy deliciousness off the seed, and then you eat a million more because they are that good!
Here is what they look like.....

Crazy lookin' huh?

Alright, this is all for now!

Ohhhhhh wait, I almost totally forgot to post about dia de la independencia. Holy cow. Well, the parade got cancelled because of the dumb Swine Flu. Womp Womp. But we did have a BBQ, so that was bueno! I think the best part about the day was that I got to sleep till 10, because I didn't get woken up by the stupid egg man. The egg who? Yes, the egg man. I'm sure he's not stupid, he's probably really great, he is just stupid when he wakes me up at the butt crack of dawn selling eggs. Every morning he drives around with a microphone, a really loud annoying microphone, and sells eggs. All I hear bright and early is Huevos Huevos blah blah blah dumb dumb blah Huevos. BUT NOT ON DIA DE LA INDEPENDENCIA! He took the day off, and it was wonderful! The end.

Much love.

You wanna go to the mall? Sure!

Given the fact that it's past 10, I would typically be asleep by now (I'm kinda a grandma here and go to bed usually around um...9:45 ish), but it's Independence Day eve and I can't sleep because I'm so excited! Little known fact about me... I.LOVE.INDEPENDENCE.DAY! That's right, you heard me...I love it! I pretty much get two 4th of July's in one year...kinda, except one is in September! But you get the point. Ahhh, so excited!

Today Kate and I were leaving the Young Life office, and we on a whim decided to catch a bus to the mall. We had been to the mall this past weekend to see a movie, and were pretty sure we knew how to get back there, so we thought what the heck! And, we made it...with out the slightest little problem! I mean...we have been here for a month now, we're almost pros! So the mall...it was nice. Neither of us have any money to shop, but we did however have some dolla dolla bills for some tasty tasty food! Really you can't pass up milkshakes, Cinnabon, and carmel popcorn on a Monday afternoon. OH MY GOSH, it was delicious!

Here were some of my observations while we were at the mall...
-Barney is still cool here in Costa Rica. Go figure! Yeah, the last time I saw a Barney stuffed animal in the States was maybe in 1994? Probably the same time that I saw balloon inside ballons that had stuffed animals inside of them. Remember those? Yeah, well...those are still cool in CR too!
-We walked into this really fancy looking boutique. It was small, and did I mention fancy? And then I realized it was a Forever 21. What? XXI in Costa Rica? I'm not used to seeing small, fancy, non crowded Forever 21's. It was mind blowing, and way more expencive. No me gusta.
-While you are shopping in stores employees follow you around like a freaking hawk. Not kidding...a hawk! And then they would ask me questions, and I clearly had no idea what they were saying, so I followed up with the go to safe reply...no gracias!
-Oh this isn't an observation, just a excited fact. I found light up shoes that fit me. You know, the ones that 8 year old boys wear that light up when they walk. Yeah...those ones! Found them, and they fit! They had superhero's on them, and they.were.awesome! I had to remind myself of my needs vs. wants, so I didn't end up getting them, although I'm still kinda convinced they would be rather life changing.
-Trapper Keepers are coming back in style ladies and gentlemen! Yep, they had Roxy ones, Volcom ones, and Billabong ones! Trapper Keepers!!! Bring back the 90's!!! (Seriously, between the trapper keepers, Barney stuffed animals, and balloons inside balloons, I felt like I was reliving my childhood...except in Costa Rica!)

Alright, it's wayyyy past my bed time! I'm off to dream of dia de la Independencia! Oh believe me... you will hear all about it :)

¡buenas noches! abrazos y besos! (good night! hugs and kisses!)

A Week of Firsts!

That's right, it's been a week of firsts in many ways. This past week we had our 1st Young Life club, 1st Wyld Life club, and 1st basketball game! I have one word to sum up the week....INCREDIBLE!

Young Life and Wyld Life were so great! We did one of my favorite games at YL...the good ol'....fish goust! For those of you not familure, here's how it works. There are 4 teams. Each team consists of a guy and a girl. The guys have a pair of panty hose over their head, and inside the panty hose is a egg. The girl is on the guys back...piggy back style, and the goal is to try and smash other teams eggs. You might ask how are they supposed to do this?! Well....with a fish of course! This is hilarious. The girls are flinging around these huge raw fish trying to smash an egg on a guys head! Fish goust....it's so great!

The thing I love about the ministry of YL is that everything is so intentional. We don't just do these fun games just for the heck of it. Granted kids like things that are fun, and fish gousting is definitely F.U.N. but these games are done to break down walls, so that kids can clearly hear the gospel. Jessie spoke that night and she rocked it! She showed a clip of Susan Boyle perform on Britains Got Talent, and talked about how we have preconcieved notions about people...especially Jesus. She challenged the kids to think differently this semester, and and to come and see what He is really about.

Wyld Life was on Friday night, and holy cow. That's all I have to say. Holy Cow! The club was themed "Costa Rican Snow Storm." There were 50 crazy middle schoolers there, and the energy was so intense! You could feel Jesus's presence there that night! We of course did a lot of crazy games, sang really fun songs, and then after the talk had a "snow ball fight" with shaving cream and marshmallows! It was rediculous. Soren, who graduated high school last year, gave the talk and dude, he BROUGHT IT! Man, he freaking brought it! I'm so impressed by him. He's such a stud. Max Lucado (a Christian author) has a childrens book called "You are Special" and it's about a Wemmick named Punchinello. Wemmicks are wooden puppets made by Eli the Woodcarver. They live in Wemmicksville, not far from Eli's workshop, and they treat each other pretty much like humans treat each other. Wemmicks walk around and give other Wimmick gold stars for doing something really good, or boring grey dots if they mess up, or aren't very good at something. Punchinello is chipped and ugly, and has lots of grey dots. One day he sees another Wimmeck that has no stickers at all. Punchinello asked her how in the world she has no dots and she told him that she visits her maker, Eli, everyday and he and he removes her dots. Like I said, this was is a childrens story, but Soren did such an incredible job capitvating the kids attention. He then used scripture to tell the kids how special they are, and that God even knows how many hairs we have on our head! Ahhh, I don't think this talk could have gone any better. Middle school kids are totally looking to find their identity and to be reasured of who they are. How cool that Jesus uses us to tell them that they are His Beloved, and they are special the way they are!

Ok, and then there was the basketball game on Thursday! Oh man, I love this team! We lost, but it was a real nail bitter! The final score was 15-10. We scored 10 points! This is huge! 10 points! Oh my gosh, seeing how excited the girls were when they scored was absoulutley insane! I loved it!!! Gloriana, an 8th grader scored twice, and dude, she was soooo excited! I couldn't stop smiling for her!

Other first for the week... It was the first time I payed for my cell phone bill. It was 11 dollars, and I paid for it at a pharmacy. Crazy. It was my first time having Burger King here. Thought we would mix it up a little bit from the typical McDonalds! It was my first time watching a movie with my host mom. We watched P.S. I Love you...in her bed. Surprisingly it wasn't awkward, and surprisingly I didn't cry! It was my first time going to a movie with Wyld Life girls! We saw The Proposal, and it was so much fun! It was my first time taking a taxi to church with Kate. It was a nightmare... dude got lost, and it was just frustrating as all get out not being able to tell him where to go. And...yesterday marked my first month of being here in Costa Rica! It's gone by so fast! I'm practically a Tica now right?!¿¡?

¡Pura Vida!

Randomness but Goodness... and Funnness. Funnnes, I just made that word up!

There are 3 things I am very greatful for.....
1.) God's Grace
2.) My family
and.....
3.) The fact that I'm not a P.E. teacher right now, because I eat McDonalds twice a week here, and enjoy it.... thoroughly!

Yep, that's right. You heard me. And I know, that's gross. But at the same time, it's soooo so good! McDonalds. Who would have thought that I would love it so much? Not me, that's for sure. I eat McDonalds maybe, mayyyybe 4 times a year back in the States, and that's a stretch, but for some reason Kate and I crave it here. I think maybe because we get sick of the typical rice and beans, and want somthing you know..a little more... American! I think another reason why I love going there is that it's so easy to order. I feel so helpless walking into a restaurant and not knowing how to order in Spanish, but at McDonalds is pretty dang simple. Dos hamburguesas con queso y papas fritas por favor. Yeah, so lets just hope I can kick this bad habbit by the time I get back to the U.S, or maybe a little sooner, because I don't want to be that P.E. teacher who is teaching about fitness and health, and then is chompin' away at McDonalds twice a week. So yeah...I'm greatful I'm not a P.E. teacher right now, because for the time being I'm gonna chomp away. Don't judge :)

Other stuff going on besides being slighltly obsessed with hamburguesas con queso....

The other day Kate and I were in the YL office. Our office area is upstairs. Maga, the director of YL for Costa Rica, came upstairs with her fiancé, Mao, and started talking to Kate and myself. She was talking in Spanish, so of course I didn't understand, and then next thing you know Kate was sooo excited! "Yes, yes! Of course! That's awesome! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited!" I was clueless, had no idea what was going on...pretty typical for me here. Kate turned to me excitedly and told me that Maga and Mao wanted to invite us to their wedding at the end of the month! Then I had the same reaction as Kate, very excited....just a little delayed! And by a little, I mean like a solid 30 seconds! :)
HOLY COW, WE ARE GOING TO OUR FIRST COSTA RICAN WEDDING!!!!!!!!! HOW COOL!!! I LOVE WEDDINGS! And I'm hoping my dance classes will pay off at the reception!

Other quick story. I have loved everything about my host families house so far...until yesterday. I've never been scared, and have felt totally comfortable (awkward on the other hand...I've totally felt awkward) up until this last night. I'll paint the scene for you. I was about to go to bed, and I have these curtains in my room that my host mom, Luchi, opens up everyday. And then at night, I close them so that the light dosen't wake me up real early. I went to untie the curtain and no joke, half a foot away (which was wayyyy to close for my own comfort) was the hugest spider I have ever seen in my life. Not even kidding, this sucker was HUGE! And...hairy! And....disgusting. And did I mention HUGE? I freaked out. Usually I'm not afraid of spiders, unless they are the size of my face. I had no idea what to do, so I called Kate! I just needed some support. You know, a little guidance on how to kill the largest spider I've ever seen. She told me to get a shoe and hit it off of the curtains, and then smash it! So I tried...but not only was that sucker HUGE, it was freaking fast. I tried getting it on the ground, because I dind't want spider guts all over my host mom's perfectly clean white curtains, but the spider scurried up to the top of the curtains. At this point I really had no idea what to do since I couldn't reach the top of the curtains, and I by no means wanted to try to hit the spider and it fall on my head. So...I pulled out my Spanish/English dictionary and looked up a couple words that I would try to tell my host mom. The words were...help, kill, spider. Pretty basic, and right to the point. That's how I roll! I thought if she heard those words she could get the gist of what was going on. She was on the phone though, and I didn't want to go interupt. I heard my host brother in the bathroom taking a shower! "Oh gosh, this is perfect!" I thought. I'll just have Tacho kill the HUGE spider. He's a dude, he will find pure joy out of this, and so will I because I wont have to kill it! I was waiting on my bed, so that I could see him walk out of the bathroom door, but then Luchi came walking down the hall right towards me. She smiled, like she always does, and in panic, I just said BIG spider...in English. Yeah yeah, I had been practicing how to say help kill spider in Spanish for the last 5 minutes, but this was no time for messing around. Luchi understood me!!! Thank you Jesus, because that could have been much more dificult! She ran to go get some bug spray, and then banged on the door to get Tacho! With in 2 minutes the spider was gone. Dead! No longer existing...in my room! I really cannot express to you how happy I was. Happy dosen't do my emotions justice when I saw that HUGE, fast, hairy, HUGE spider, dead. My room was sprayed down with bug spray in a matter of seconds! Thank you Luchi and Tacho for saving my life and not letting the spider eat me in the middle of the night.

Woops!

For a second in time I thought I was catching onto this whole Spanish thing...until the other night. Kate and I, along with our new Texas friends, were walking into a restaurant for dinner, and there was a lovely fella welcoming us at the door. He so kindly said "¡Hola!" and I naturally replied "¡Gracias!" I wasn't even phased for a good couple seconds, until I finally realized how our conversation went down-he said "Hello!" and I replied "Thank you!"

Frick-I got mugged!

Yep, that's right. I freaking got mugged. I guess that's what you call it. Kate and I spent that last 4 days in Montezuma. It's this small beach town right on the ocean. Totally has a hippie vibe, and I totally loved it. Except for that one time my camera got jacked from me. I'll give you the skinny, but this is going to be the clean censored version, because during it all I was cussing...a whole lot.

The first full day Kate and I were in Montezuma we decided to go up to the Montezuma falls. It's just a short walk outside of town to the trail head, and then you have to do this pretty treterous climb up the river to the waterfalls. The river is shallow, but rocks are everywhere and those mothers are slippery. Real slippery. So we are treckin' along, scaling those rocks like it's our j.o.b. We pass a guy (a tico) who was coming from the other direction. He said hi, and so Kate asked him if we were getting close. He was totally helpful and told us it was just a little farther. Two seconds later I slip on a rock, and in I go. Gash up my knee, loose my sunglasses, and my whole body is in the river. Frick. I handed my camera to Kate, which had been slightly submerged into the water, and she dried it off for me with her t-shirt. The nice guy we just passed came back to ask if I was ok. A little embarrased I told him I was fine, and just slipped on the rock. He headed back in the opposite direction, Kate hands me my camera, and we headed for the falls once again. Thirty seconds later, I hear footsteeps behind me. As I look back the "nice" guy grabs my wrist forcefully and says "Give me your camera." I seriously couldn't believe this was happining. You're supposed to be nice dude, what the hell. Why the frick are you stealing my camera? I said firmly "NO!" But then he pulled my wrist again, this time more towards him and he demanded again that I give him my camera. He was bigger then me, and I felt real threatened. I handed him the camera with out even trying to do the standard kick him in the balls move. After I handed my beloved new nice precious camera over, he was gone. I felt so helpless. I didn't scream. I didn't punch him. I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know how to yell in spanish "Get back here you f-ing asshole!" (That's exactly what was going through my mind. And like I said, this is the clean, explicit free version...for the most part.) The crappy thing is that he didn't even know I had a camera until after I fell, and saw us drying it off. Dannngit! Hows that saying go...don't trust a wolf that looks like a sheep? Yeah, I got straight up screwd by the sheep look alike.

Looking up though, I guess I don't have to worry about getting my camera stollen now. Man, I was so bummed though, for a solid couple hours. I can't think of another word other than bummed. Just straight up BUMMED. I had no emotion what so ever. We never even made it to the waterfall. After the whole getting my camera stollen situation, we headed back to town because in my camera case I also had my debit card and 3,000 colones. I only had about 60 bucks on my debit card, which I cancelled right away, and I'm really hoping that my camera dosen't even work from water damage from falling into the river. Then the freaking bastard would only be left with 3,000 colones, which is equivelent to 6 bucks. We went to a resturaunt on the beach to get a drink. All I wanted was a smoothie (and my mom) to drown my sorrows. The smoothie was delicious, so that helped.

Like I said, other than getting my camera stollen Montezuma was really great. Here are some things that I totally loved about the trip.
-We got to met so many awesome people from all over the world. Our first night at our hostel we met a group of 4 guys from Argentina. They were so fun, and so cool. And one of them, Diego, loved Kate, which I trulley enjoyed every second watching him interact with her! :) Hilarious. We sat around a table, talked for a couple hours, and then they made us dinner-at 10 pm. We all ate family style and enjoyed each others company. It was awesome. We headed down to the beach afterwards and had a bonfire with about 20 other young adults (I guess that's what I'm considered now being a college graduate and all. Young adult...yeah!) We also met some sweet chicks from Isreal, Sigert-a 24 year old dude who is a fisherman up in Alaska, our new friends from Texas-Kelsey, Amber, Lauren, and Dan, the "Honeymooners" from ATL, Kim and Brittany from Canada, Anna from London, and a rather intreaging older couple-Lynn (he's a dude) and Karen from Costa Rica. We had lots of cool conversations with these people. And here was probably my favorite part about the town of Montezuma. It's small. There is the main street that backs right up to the ocean, there are shops, hostels, one bar, and restaurants, and that's about it. And... you see everyone... everywhere. And it's awesome! Everyone would either wave, or stop to talk. We were there for 3 full days and after day 1 it felt like we were townies, because everywhere we went we saw someone we knew. So fun!
Lets see what else...
-We went snorkeling! We took a boat over to Tortuga Island, which was freaking insanely beautiful, and went snorkeling. We snorkeld in two spots, and then had lunch on the island, and layed out...in lawn chairs!!! Kate and I have were very excited about the chairs! Kate had never been snorkeling before, and as we were about to get off the boat and into the ocean, she asked kind of confused, "So...we just bob there?" For some reason it was hilarious, but not as hilarious as when a we saw our first school of fish swim past us, and she freaked out. I was like "Dude, that's snorkeling. You watch fish swim by" but she wasn't a huge fan :) We were laughing in the water for a solid three minutes!
-We hung out with our Texas friends almost the whole time we were there! Kelsey and Amber moved from Austin 4 months ago. They are teaching English in San Jose! So we will get to hang out a lot, which is super fun! And their two friends in town from Texas, Lauren and Dan, were a blast!
-Diego, the guy who was in love with Kate, asked if she was a woman of the church. He thought she was a nun. People, come on-that.is.hilarious! A nun!
-The first night we went to go check into our hostel, and they told us they accidentally gave our room that we had reserved away. They said that they had one room left...the honeymoon suite, and we would only be charged the rate of the initial room we had booked! I know what you're thinking. Honeymoon suite...awesome! NO! More like-Honeymoon suite...shit hole! It was a joke. Every other room in that hostel was wayyy nicer then the honeymoon suite. There were lots of bugs (we had to sleep with the bug net around us) and it was just straight up nasty, and not to mention tiny. We had a queen bed to share and that was all that was in the room. There wasn't space for anything else. When we walked in there was bird poop on the bed. Vom. So, we go to check out early the next morning, on a mission to find any place better then the "honeymoon suite" and the lady was baffled that we wanted to leave. She kept saying in a funny accent "But, you don't like the honeymoon suite?" NOOOOO woman, we don't like the freaking honeymoon suite. Peace out! So we headed to Hotel Montezuma, paid 3 bucks more a night, each had our own queen bed, had a bathroom in our room, our own kitchen, air conditioning, and there were no bugs! It felt like we were staying in the freaking Ritz Carlton-for only 18 bucks a night! Don't mind if I do!
-One other quick funny story about the honeymoon suite. I woke up early that morning to something falling onto me. Good thing we had the bug net around us, or else it would have landed right on my chest. Startled, I layed up, and flicked it away fearing it was some giant spider. But as I flicked it away, I thought "Oh, it's only a Pringle." I went back to bed, and both Kate and I woke up 20 minutes later. I wasn't totally conscious yet, and I told her a Pringle had fallen on me earlier. She was confused. "A Pringle Lis?" I matter-of-factly replied yes, and leaned down to the ground to pick it up to show her. Nope. It was actually a leaf. For some reason though when I woke up startled, it didn't seem weird at all that a pringle chip had somehow mysteriously fallen from the sky and landed on my chest. A PRINGLE. What was I thinking?

It was a good long weekend, but it was nice to get back home to San Jose. Our friend Fernando, who is a layer and leads Young Life with us, offered to pick us up at the bus stop so we wouldn't have to take a taxi home. And...he had Dr. Pepper waiting for us. Seriously, he is awesome! Now I'm home and stoked beyond belief to get this week started. Young Life and Wyld Life start this week, and we have our first basketball game! Can't wait to post more and tell you all the ways God is working down here. Thanks for reading, thanks for your support, thanks for your prayers, and I love you all!

Hasta Luego!