Living La Pura Vida: 33% Complete

I am about 1/3 of the way done with my study abroad trip. It has gone by so fast and there are still so many things I want to do. For the next 3 weeks I will be doing my volunteer project in Pueblo Nuevo de Guacimo. I will be teaching English to a group of women who work in a chocolate co-op. It's the same group of women we bought chocolate from on our first chocolate tour a few weeks ago. I have never taught English before so it will be an interesting experience. I am a little nervous, but mostly excited. I will be living with a new family...internet will be more limited.

Last Saturday was Independence Day in Costa Rica. The day before we celebrated at ACM by eating typical Costa Rican food and learning about the national symbols of Costa Rica. That night there were lantern parades that all of the kids participate in. Saturday there were parade also. I went to the main street in San Pedro with my mom to watch the marching bands and dance groups. It reminded me a lot of 4th of July parades, especially since the flag colors here are also red, white, and blue.

Last Sunday a group of us went to La Sabana, a huge park in San Jose. We found out that there are tons of activities to do on Sundays: Soccer, basketball, baseball, Zumba, Paddle-boating, horseback riding, etc. We originally went there to watch baseball. One of my friends even asked to play catch with one of the teams and they let him practice (throw, hit, and pitch) with them before a game. It was really fun to watch. After, we paddle-boated and walked around to see what we could in the future.

National Stadium

Exercise and dance classes

Tuesday we had a cooking class. I made gallo pinto (rice and beans) and Mateo, Adam, and our professor Marco made cheese empanadas, coconut bars, strawberry juice, and tortillas with cheese and avocado. It was delicious. I can't wait to bring back some recipes to the US.