Thanksgiving, New Moon, and Christmas decorations- what more could I want?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. No, people don't typically celebrate Thanksgiving in Costa Rica, but you better believe we did! The Suwyn's had us over for a Thanksgiving feast, and it was so great. Between all the Young Life and Vida Joven staff there was probably about 25 people there, and it was a lot of people's first Thanksgiving...ever! So fun! We have so much to be thankful for!
Yesterday Kate and I went to see Luna Nueva...aka...New Moon! Ohhh Twilight, how I never thought I would like you...and then I got suckerd into it, and I kinda like you now! :) Holy crap, it was ridiculous. I don't think I've ever been to such a hyped up movie before. For reals, there was a HUGE line wrapping around the movie theater an hour and a half before the movie even started. What??? I'm pretty positive every Costa Rican girl between the age of 11-15 was there. They screamed. Literally, screamed. When the movie finally started...they screamed. When Edward and Bella kissed...they screamed. When Jacob took off his shirt to wipe blood from Bella's face...they screamed (I may or may not have let out a little yip when this happened too! Homeboy is hot) And my favorite part was the way the movie ended...and everyone screamed really loud!

My host mom is so gringa. Well, not really, she's totally tica, but she didn't start putting up her Christmas decorations until last night (after Thanksgiving even though peeps in CR don't celebrate Thanksgiving)....unlike every other Costa Rican who started decorating in September. Yes, September. You think I'm exaggerating, but seriously many people and businesses had their Christmas decorations up in September. And early September matter-of-fact. Luchy was setting up her Christmas village last night and almost wet myself I was so excited. My mom has a Christmas village too and for a second in time I felt like I was at my own house! I tried to tell Luchy and Lisa (mi host sister) about the time my Aunt Becky snuck into our house while we were all gone. She bought little cowboy and indian toys, (see picture below!) and knocked down the people in the village to make it look like cowboys and indians attacked. My whole family thought it was hilarious, but I don't think Luchy and Lisa got it. It was worth a try!

After Luch, was done setting up the village I made her stand by it, and I took a picture. Pretty sure she thought "there goes my crazy host daughter again, making me pose for awkward pictures," but whatever! I love her. I mean seriously...look at her. How could you not love this woman?

OH and Luchy told me last night when she was decorating that the most important Christmas decoration in CR is the nativity scene. I checked out the nativity scene this morning, but it looked like something was missing. Little baby Jesus...where are you? I thought maybe someone stole little baby Jesus like I used to do when I was a kid, but then I learned that they put Him in there at midnight on Christmas eve. Don't worry, no one stole little baby Jesus! Phew!

I have a confession...

I'm going to let you in on a little secret if you didn't know already- I don't know Spanish. I know shocking right. That's not the confession though. I live in Costa Rica, but I definitely don't know Spanish. I mean...I know some, but not a lot by any means. And my friend Tony, well, he knows a lot of Spanish because he's from Costa Rica. He works for Vida Joven (that's what Young Life here is called if it's not at International schools.) Anyways, he dabbles with English, and for sure knows more English then I know Spanish. After we left the office one afternoon the both of us we walking to the bus stop. We had a very simply and basic conversation in which he told me I need to speak more Spanish. I am totally aware that I should speak more Spanish, but I was thinking DUDE, I don't know Spanish. I just said "ok" though because that was way easier!

Fast forward a couple days. Tony sends me a little instant message via Facebook. I am what one would consider a resourceful person, so what do I do? Glad you asked. I went to Google Translate and translated every word he said from Spanish to English. And then I typed what I wanted to say to Tony and translated that to Spanish. Brilliant I know! So we had a full blown conversation...in SPANISH!!!! BOOYAH!!! Thank you Google Translate. I was pretty excited...until...a couple days after that. I was talking to Jessie and telling her how frustrating it is knowing such a limited amount of Spanish. She was all "but I talked to Tony the other day, and he said your Spanish is really good!" Ohhhhh mother! Frick. I knew that Facebook Google Translate convo would sooner or later catch up to me. Dannnngit! I casually avoided Tony for a good week. Not really avoiding him, just avoiding conversations with him at all costs.

BUT this afternoon Kate, Tony, and I were all at the office hanging out while Jessie was finishing up some work. Tony said "Let's have Spanish class!" as if it was some brilliant idea, but really it just made me want to cuss! HE THINKS I KNOW SPANISH...BUT I DON'T!!! CRAP! So. He kept asking us questions in Spanish. Kate was sitting across from me which was hilarious, because she knew about the Facebook convo Tony and I had had, and the fact that he think my Spanish is really good when in reality it is pretty much non existent. Tony kept asking a zillion questions, and I giggled my way through this really painful Spanish conversation one mispronounced word at a time. Dear Google Translate, I currently have a love/hate relationship with you. Love always, Lisa.

p.s. My host mom is blaring Christmas music right now as she cooks. Again, just another reason why I love this woman!

TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT LUCHY

Last night my host mom, Luchy, got back after being in Mexico City for a week visiting her sister. Frick, I really just love this lady. She could be the sweetest woman in all of Costa Rica. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. I'm totally serious. She is so great. For example...Kate and John came over this afternoon to watch the Bronco's game. Sidenote- I totally felt like a 9 year old kid asking my mom if my friends could come over and play when I asked her about it this morning. Anyways...we were watching the game and Luchy was cleaning. And then BAM out of no where she has a full blown snack tray and drinks for us. Again, I love this lady which got me thinking. There are lots of things I love about Luchy, so I decided to do a Top Ten List of things I love about my host mom...Luchy!
Here we go...
TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT LUCHY....
10) The way she says "Hola"- She says it the same way every time and it's always so cheerful!
9) She is so patient and always helping me with my Spanish.
8) She is an incredible cook!
7) When I say "gracias" she always responds with "con gusto" (which means with delight) instead of simply saying "your welcome."
6) She makes the best Cas in all of Costa Rica. (Cas is a fruit drink, and it's freaking bomb!)
5) Homegirl loves to dance...and sing!
4) She loves The Beatles.
3) She is always smiling...always!
2) She loves a good margarita.
and #1) She feeds me cake for breakfast!

Camp of Champions

Dinner conversation last night with me and my host sister....

host sister: I went to dentist yesterday. ( or at least that's what it sounded like she said!)
me: Ughhh...I have to go to the dentist when I get home to Colorado, and I think I have a cavity.
host sister: Huhh?
me: I have a cavity. You know..it's a hole in your tooth, so I have to get it fixed. I'm not excited for it, because they kind of hurt.
me: Did you just get your teeth cleaned or did you have to get a cavity fixed too?
host sister: (with a confused look on her face) Huhhh? Ohhhhh. No, I went to Denny's last night..the restaurant, not the dentist.

My bad I could have sworn she said the dentist! We laughed!

I just got back yesterday afternoon from 7th grade "Camp of Champions" with Lincoln students. Lincoln hires the Boy with a Ball (a Christian ministry here) staff to put on secular camps for each grade, and teach values. 75% of Costa Rica's presidents graduate from Lincoln. This school encompasses most of the countries leaders, and the principal wants these kids to learn values in order for them to one day have the ability to lead well. Camp was really cool. It was at La Montaña, which is where we have Wyld Life camp in April. It was an awesome platform to start building relationships with kids. These kids come from some of the wealthiest families in Costa Rica. They live in a third world country yet their parents are able to pay thousands of dollars each year for school. So they think they have it all, because materialistically they pretty much do. A lot of them even have their own personal drivers. But I was reminded that there is such an clear need for these kids to know Christ.

Oh and side note, I saw the biggest spiders I have ever seen in my entire life at camp. Seriously, baseball size, and that's not an exaggeration.

We have WyldLife tonight. Woop Woop! Happy Friday everyone!

Rain Rain Go Away

Girls weekend at the beach...yep, definitely rained the whole ENTIRE time. Literally the whole time! BUT that didn't stop us from eating ice cream and cruisin' around on bikes.

Highlights from the weekend...

-The toilet paper display at our hostel. Who wouldn't want a toilet as a present?

-Riding bikes in the POURING rain. I felt like I was in the movie 'Now and Then.' -Playing UNO and enjoying margaritas at our beloved hot spot Mojos. -Eating ice cream...twice...in one day! Maracuya both times :) -Reading while laying in hammocks.

I'm so excited for 7th grade camp this week. We leave tomorrow at 6 am, and I'm sure I'll have a lot to blog about when I get back! Hope you're having a great Monday.

Look! Un conejito!

Ohhhh the language barrier...still. Yes, I am learning some Spanish, but I'm still confused a lot of times and the whole barrier is still very present. For example...last week on our way to Young Life Boo was swerving through the pot hole steets of San Pedro. The streets here are..how do I say this...horrible. When people drive here they swirve all over the place in order to miss the huge craters in the street. Now, swerving I'm getting used to, but as we were driving Boo out of no where slammed on his brakes. He yelled something in Spanish, and as he continued to drive he poked his head out his window and was looking behind him..still yelling. So naturally I turn around and to my amazement I see a bunny rabbit in the street. A BUNNY RABBIT!!! IN THE STREET! WHAT! That's like seeing a little bunny foo foo in the middle of a street in New York City...ish. I was sooo surprised. There are probably at least a million street dogs in San Jose. They.are.everywhere. But a bunny? This is one thing I hadn't seen so far in San Jose. So...I yell "Look! A bunny!" Everyone in the car started cracking up, because what Boo said as he was yelling out the window in Spanish was "Look! A bunny!" I like where his head is at, and I'm glad we are on the same page...I'm just 30 seconds behind!

These next couple weeks are going to be super busy, and I'm so excited for everything that's going on! I literally could pee my pants. Ok, maybe not, but I'm so excited!

1. Beach tomorrow- Yes, I'm going to the beach...again! Last weekends trip was last minute/spur of the moment/fly by the seat of your pants, but Kate, Meredith, Anna and I have been planning this weekends beach trip for a couple weeks now. We will be going to Puerto Viejo again, and I can't even wait. This means Maracuya ice cream, laying in the sun, and cruisin' around on bikes (with baskets on the front of them) all weekend long. Yes please!

2. Seventh grade generation camp for Lincoln- Boy With a Ball, the organization Anna (the head basketball coach) works for, puts on generation camps for each middle school and high school grade at Lincoln. These are secular camps that teach values, but totally awesome and ran very similar to Young Life camp. We had a planning meeting this morning and dude I'm excited! Talk about awesome contact work! We will be with every 7th grader at Lincoln for 3 full days! Again, thank you Jesus for providing such cool ways for us to meet kids.

3. Thanksgiving at the Suwyn's- Kevin and Michelle Suwyn are incredible. Kevin is the boss of my boss...aka a big deal! He is the director of YL for Central America. They are both from the States but have been here working for Young Life for 10 year now. They have 3 kids- Noah, Elijah, and Samarah, and holy cow...they're awesome. All of us gringo's will be spending Thanksgiving at their house eating, hanging out, and watching football.

4. New Moon-I have a confession. Kate has gotten me into the whole Twilight saga. Don't judge me! A group of us are going to see the movie the night it comes out in Costa Rica, which is 7
days later then it comes out in the States, but that's impressive because most movies come out months later!

5. Christmas YL and WL club- It's going to be awesome. We only have one Young Life club and 2 Wyld Life clubs left for the semester. Holy smokes!

6. Malpais con amigos de Kate! Kate has 5 friends from Colorado coming out for a week and we are going to get to go to the beach with them for a couple days! We've never been to Malpais, but I've heard cool things!

7. Home! I really can't believe that I will be home in less then a month. A prayer of mine for the last month or so has been that my heart would be fully here. A couple weeks ago this was so hard, but at this point I'm really content. I'm not counting down the days till I get to be back in Colorado, but at the same time I'm very excited to go home. Does that make sense?

Alright friends, I have to go write my first card in Spanish. My host sister graduates from college tomorrow! I bought her a card from Hallmark (I think it says Congratulations or something of that sort) and now I have to figure out what to say inside it. Buen trabajo? Good job. I think that's right.

Much love.

¡Puerto Viejo!

This past weekend was so incredible and exactly what I needed. My friend Sofi (who is from Costa Rica) invited me to go to the beach with her Aunt and cousins. It was a pretty last minute trip, but I'm so glad I decided to go. The cousins spoke some English, but for the most part they spoke Spanish for the entire weekend. It's so easy to tune out and be in your own little world when everyone around you is speaking Spanish. I love having time alone and that's exactly what it felt like the entire weekend. Alone time at the beach...ahh que bueno! I had a lot of time to process what the Lord is teaching me and time just to be silent and still. It's so nice (and very necessary) to get out of San Jose sometimes. A lot of my friends back home (who I miss a ton) were up in the mountains this past weekend, and I kept thinking how weird it was that I was laying on the beach... in November. Puerto Viejo is on the Caribbean side, and it is by far my favorite place I've traveled to so far in Costa Rica. And... you hear English as often as you hear Spanish there since it's in the Caribbean. And...Reggae music overtakes Salsa which was nice for a change!

Here were some of the highlights of the weekend...
-Maracuyá ice cream. Maracuyá is my favorite fruit here and in the ice cream form..oh man, so delicious!

-Laying on the beach listening to music. I love listening to music and it's something I don't get to do a ton here.

-Live reggae music in town on Saturday night!

-Getting to order my food in English! This hasn't happend in 3 months!

Here were some funny parts of the trip...

-When we got to the beach the first day I started to lather up my SPF 50 sunscreen. Yes, SPF 50 ( just like you said Mom!) Seriously, this stuff is sooo sticky. As I was putting my sunscreen on I noticed a street dog running around on the beach. The dog kept trying to take peoples towels and then running off with them. I giggled to myself as I saw people running after the dog. Ok, maybe that's mean of me, but trust me, it was funny! Until....I had just got done putting on my super sticky sunscreen, I lay down on my beach towel, and then the dog comes less then a foot away from me and rolls around in the sand. Sand was flying everywhere and I was a sand magnet. The sand stuck to my sticky sunscreen which left the entire right side of my body covered in sand. Seriously? Seriously? Ok, it was funny!

-When I got into the water there were the two most precious little girls. One of them was decked out in arm floaties and a duck floatie that went around her waist. It.was. Awesome! They were probably 5 or 6 years old. Anyways, I was in the water and they kept coming up to me and handing me sea shells. I had a handfull of shells! And they kept talking to me in a language I have NEVER heard. They talked to me for probably 10 minutes and I just kept nodding my head. And...I don't think the little buddies had any idea that I had no clue what they were talking about. I just kept collecting the shells that they gave me, and then I would give them high 5's with my empty hand. Thank goodness for the universal high 5!

The Lincoln girls have a basketball game this afternoon and then we have YL club tonight! And check it...I will be home in a month from today. Holy cow!

Here are some pics from the weekend!

7 day forecast

Today I finally got my hands on a copy of The Tico Times! Ohhh The Tico Times. It's the English newspaper in Costa Rica. I've heard about it before, but have never actually seen it at news stands. Kate and I had to go up to Lincoln early today before basketball practice, and since we had time to waste we decided to hit up the library. And there I saw it...The Tico Times just sitting there for me to take! I was pretty excited to read about the current events going on in the country I'm living in considering sometimes I think "Huh, I have no idea what's going on in Costa Rica, and I live here!" I came to the 7 day forcast near the end of the paper and thought again to myself "Dang, I haven't seen a weather forecast since I've been here." So I decided to take a look. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the best weather forecast I have EVER seen. And by best I mean worst...but hands down most hilarious!

Friday. A thunderstorm or two.
Saturday. A couple of thunderstorms.
Sunday (here's my favorite!). A thunderstorm possible.


Really? Realllly? Is this forecast a joke? A thunderstorm possible? Really? I mean, I could have told you that, and I practically failed Meteorology class in college! There are two seasons in Costa Rica. Rainy season. and. Dry season. Right now we are still in Rainy season where it storms EVERY single day. RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. LLUVIA. LLUVIA. LLUVIA. (that means rain in Spanish :) ) It's poring rain as I type, and all the forcast says is there is a possibility there could be a thunderstorm. Really? This has to be a joke.

Other things to write home about. Today when I was walking home from basketball practice I saw what I thought was a rotten banana peel on the sidewalk, but no no it was in fact a dead rat! I thought to myself "I don't think I've ever really seen a real rat before-just ones in movies." Check that one of the life to do list. See a real (dead) rat...check!

My host Mom really liked my Lego Halloween costume. She told her entire extended family about it! There were all over here for dinner tonight and my costume was totally dinner conversation.

I just showed my host sister a picture of all the snow they got back home in Denver last week. Her mouth dropped and she said "I would die there!" I thought it was funny.

Te quiero a todos. Gracias por todo tu amor y apoyo. ¡Buenas noches mis amigos! (I love you all. Thank you for all your love and support. Good night my friends!)

Halloween!

Pretty much I'm obsessed with Halloween. For real, I love it! I think a lot of it has to do with the season fall, but I also just love dressing up for Halloween. Costa Rica doesn't really celebrate this beloved holiday, but don't worry, there was a party! Some of the younger American teachers at Lincoln had a party, which was so fun! Brooke and Allison (the two sisters who threw the party) were such fun hosts. Their apartment was decorated perfectly for a Halloween fiesta, there were prizes to be won, and even a bean bag throw contest! So fun!

I dressed up as a LEGO! I was a little nervous Saturday morning when I set out by myself to get all the materials I needed for my costume. Nervous for two reasons. A) That I wouldn't know where to find what I needed, and B) Nervous because I was very limited on what I could ask a store employee for. BUT, I made it! It was quite the success if I say so myself. I even asked a lady in the hardware store for velcro!"Tiene velcro?" I know...pretty simple, but such a feeling of accomplishment! :) After I had bought all the materials I headed back home to start my project. It took me about 2 hours, but it was such a sweet time. I love having time to be alone, and making stuff with my hands. I had my ipod playing, and I was jamming out...all by myself. Bliss.

All around it was a great weekend. Friday night we (all of us YL leaders) went out to dinner with one of Kate's donor's who was in town from Colorado. He owns a trash company down here, and he is such a cool guy. He was so encouraging, and had so many sweet stories about different ministries he's been involved in over the last 20 years. He started the Colorado Prayer Luncheon in Colorado, which is a pretty big deal. Like I said, he had sweet stories.

I'm excited for this week- we have both Young Life and Wyld Life! Every Monday morning we (John, Jessie, Boo, Kate, and I) meet together at the office where we have a little devotional time, and then pray for each other. I love this time, and I love that it's a part of my job! The last couple days have been better in terms of not missing home. I want to be fully present during this time, and am learning that the Lord wants me to take one day at a time.

Alright, peace out for now. Love you all!