Where to begin...? I guess I will have to start with last week Sunday. I went to Laguna, which was a small town up in the mountains. My host brother had to fulfill a catechism requirement so we went to a church service in this beautiful park that overlooked the ocean and other mountains. It was so beautiful and the service was fun!

The days of the week went by very fast. I had my spanish class at night from 430 to 730 and it was crazy. Since we had class outside under lights, there were a million bugs surrounding us and then dying on our table. It was really distracting, but entertaining at first watching everyone swatting at these tiny little bugs. We all survived and still had fun. My spanish classes are so much fun...there are 2 different teachers and they both tell drastic lies about each other all the time. They are good friends and supposedly they only speak spanish. They teach in spanish and then if we dont know the words they explain until we do. But all of us students think that at the end they are going to come out and start speaking perfect english. I wouldnt be suprised that they know everything we are talking about when we speak english to each other.

This past weekend we (most of the study abroad girls) went on a weekend trip. One of our program coordinators helped us plan and reserve a hotel for an area called Arenal. This is a place with an active volcano and hot springs. When we arrived on Friday afternoon we were able to pay to get into a hotel that had 20 different hot spring pools with wet bars and slides and waterfalls. When we got to the hotel it started to downpour, but it made the time even more fun because the cold rain and the hot water evened itself out. There was one spring which was about 130 degrees and a bunch of us were able to withstand laying our bodies in the water. It was actually very relaxing. After eating at that hotel, it was dark and our private bus driver took us to the side of the volcano that was spouting lava. Seeing an active volcano was an amazing experience. I cant even describe how in awe I was...incredible.

We went back to our cabins (which were very awesome and beautiful also) and then went to bed. We woke up early the next morning and headed out to a waterfall. It was huge and amazing and indescribible. I sat in the water within 20 feet of the waterfall and took it all in- the mist and beauty of it all. Amazing. Then swam downstream for a while. After that, we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the park (oh how i miss that food)...and then took a boat across the lake that was next to the volcano. It was great fun until it started downpouring. I started to fall asleep on the boat and then I thought someone was taking a picture and I saw their flash, but NO it was lightning and shortly thereafter extremely loud thunder. It was a little scary.

This morning I woke up and was taken to the restaurant where my host dad works. It was pretty good and the people there were extra nice to me. I had some yummy food and then I went to Monteverde, which is a huge tourist area way up in the mountains. There is a cloud forest and sky walkways and a national reserve. I went with my host family and they took me to a national reserve...I saw the coolest thing. I dont remember its name, but it is an animal that looks like a monkey, but isnt and has a long snout. I saw it up in the tree and watched it climb down within 10 feet of me. It was cool. The rest of the time it was pouring rain, but it was fun. We crossed a hanging bridge and simply enjoyed the natural jungle. Then I ate pizza and it was the best ever! We then drove for forever down the mountain and ended up at an amazing ice cream parlor, which also had humongous dinosaurs made out of rock. It was pretty sweet.

I should get going...I will try to post some pictures next time... Hasta Luego!