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.