Well, I went on fabulous trip this past weekend to a tour of the Finmac Tirimbina area, which had organic cacao plantations and a beautiful protected rainforest. Our program group left on the bus for the two-hour ride the same time classes begin, 7:30am; meaning, I woke up at 5:00am like I do every morning here. I'm so glad we had a comfy bus because it would have sucked if we had the buses with the hard cushioning. I had a great conversation (in Spanish of course) with a friend Heidi the whole way there about how we both were in AWANAS (a bible group) and our upraising in our religions. We got to the first stop (the organic cacao plantation) around 9:45am. Oh my goodness, it was so hot! I understand that Costa Rica in the tropical zone...but I was sweating sooo much from the humidity, it was gross! I was wearing jeans (which made the humidity almost unbearable) because they recommended us to if we didn't want to have a lot of bug bites by the end of the day. It was very interesting to see each step of the chocolate-making process, from getting the cacao from the trees to eating the liquid chocolate after the sugar and other ingredients were added by huge machines. As you can see from my facebook profile, all of us were taking many pictures because it was fascinating and we wanted to remember that day. We all ate a wonderful (but extremely large) lunch made from the women who run the packaging and design aspect of the organic cacao company. I had to take a nap afterwards because they put so much food on my plate (and my friends know that I almost never leave food on my plate because I hate wasting food with a passion) and I also had a headache from the humidity combined with cramping from my period. It was not pleasant. But after I slept and woke up like 20 min. later, I felt so much better and refreshed. We also got the chance to meet Teddy, the baby sloth in the pictures on my facebook profile and the one in this post! It was great to get on the bus because it had air-conditiong. I have always had a lot of respect for people who work manual labor, but to work in humidity like on the organic cacao plantation...oh my gosh! Later on that day, we traveled through a beautiful rainforest (you can see the pictures from my facebook profile and more to come once I upload them), where we crossed a bridge that was very high up from the ground and overlooked a wide, flowing river.
Earlier last week on Tuesday, I went to Fantasía de Tango because I want to take Tango classes during this semester. I figure it's really cheap here compared to how much I was paying in California for private lessons, and it would be a good way for me to practice my Spanish with the Ticos and have fun at the same time. I walked there with mi hermana Tica because I'm still not comfortable walking around in this area by myself. The building seems very small from the outside, but it's three floors tall; therefore, it's actually a good size for a dance studio building. As soon as mi hermana Tica and I walked in, I heard beautiful Tango music and a very handsome man my age walked up to us and asked if he could help us. After that, there were a lot of confused expressions between myself and him because my sister was letting me talk (since she won't be there to translate for me when I go for my first night tomorrow to dance). She finally had to explain to him that he needs to talk a lot slower and pronunciate his words more clearly. I can only imagine how tomorrow is going to go when I am standing there with my partner and the instructor is trying to explain (in Spanish) a technique. Oh and also, while we were talking about the cost of each night (only $10 for an hour and a half) and what night I should attend (Tuesday every week), I was looking in the window of the studio room on the first floor to my right, and there's a guy doing the splits and other breakdancing moves. He was also very handsome, as are most of the young Costa Rican men around here. I am looking forward to learning more Tango, but I can tell right now that I'm going to be in the intermediate-low class. I hope they will be patient with me, since my Spanish is greatly improving (according to my professors), but I'm still an intermediate level.
Yesterday, my family and I went to the San Pedro Catholic Church to hear my brother sing. I didn't understand practically anything any of the speakers said because of the enormous echo from the size of the enormous church, but the echo was wonderful when my brother and another male singer sang with a female guitarist. I have no idea what we are going to do this weekend, but some girls were talking about possibly white water rafting for two days! It should be lots of fun, but it's also almost $250 for the whole weekend! I will let you know what happens...miss you all!
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