Jaco and New Resolutions

Woke up bright and early to catch the 7am bus in San Jose. The morning was almost like a nightmare. Barely made it off the bus from El Carmen to San Jose, and literally RAN through the sketchier parts of San Jose to get to the other bus stop that we couldnt find. A man was kind enough to show us to it, but not without a price. The 7am bus already left, and the 7:30 bus was full so we decided we just wanted to get there and agreed to stand for 2.5 hours.... It was one rough ride. We went up through mountains and valleys, and was bumped around so many times that motion sickness was inevitable, especially standing. There ended up being one empty seat so Kristen and I took turns sitting in each others laps. 

We finally made it to Jaco! It was pretty, the surf looked wonderful, and the sand looked like dirt, but it was hot and we were ready to swim! We found a little path to the beach, changed into our suits in between cars, put on sun screen and went on our way. It was an all in all successful day, we both got burnt to a crisp, even with sun screen! We ended up wanting to go home early because we were already burnt, so we tried to catch the 3pm bus, but that ended up being standing only, and we didnt want to do THAT again. The next available bus for sitting was at 6pm. We wanted to be home so badly, but we bought our tickets and dozed on some benches, then agreed to walk around and look for souvenirs. It ended up being a pretty cool end to the day, Im glad we stayed. Got some pretty cool pictures of the sun setting and tiny crabs that ran around on the sand. It was a good day. 

We had a good 2-3 hour bus ride home... Full of thinking and wondering about life. I get random bouts of excitement with  the life God has be living. The work He has me doing. Life is such a wonderfully confusing thing. Finding out whats in store for us is a huge mystery, but who in their right mind doesnt want to crack that mystery? And we arent in control of it! God has an entirely too funny sense of humor sometimes.

Theres something about giving yourself over to God. To surrendering to Him fully. I am here to do Gods work, this is not my doing. It was Gods from the very start. How refreshing. Im finally at peace (I think) with being in Costa Rica. Its officially official. I am IN Costa Rica. 

One of those....

Today was a beautiful day as was yesterday, though it cooled down a lot this afternoon when the clouds covered the sun.
Today was also my first day teaching the "prepa" Kindergardeners and "kinder" Preschoolers.
I woke up 2 hours early just so I wouldnt forget to do something and to go over the materials a few times before class.
It ended in tears as I was terrified of these kids in the first place, thinking theyd see right through my act as the confident teacher. The Kindergarden class flew by, it wasnt bad at all! They were good, I didnt forget to do anything in the morning routine, it went fairly smoothly. Then came the preschoolers. They hardly speak English and are "brand new" to English so I kept hearing my name and a bunch of Spanish that I didnt understand. I knew they got frustrated with me, because I could not understand what they were saying half the time. I barely got through any sort of lesson because one of the girls kept raising her hand to say something every sentence I got through the book.
I believe God thinks I can handle this, so I can. Even though I want to quit and go back to the familiar places Im used to. Drop me anywhere in the United States, anywhere and Id know how to live. I have no idea how to live here. But I am learning, and even though I feel exhausted at the end of the day from trying to think in Spanish, God is seeing me through. All a person needs is some food, the sun, and some music and I was peachy the rest of the day.
Kristen and I are figuring out our routine, right now I wake up when she leaves at 7am and then we come back at lunchtime together, and when we are finished at school together and have a cup of coffee (its SO good here!). We come home and sit in out open kitchen for the night planning or cooking. We are trying to be cost effective here, and we are trying to get used to the money exchange to find the better prices.
I think we will make it through.
Jaco beach tomorrow for the day! Excited to be something other than white, even if it means being red. :)
Chau!

What not to do.

Today I woke up with craving some sense of familiarity. There is nothing familiar about this place at all, not even a familiar face can I turn to. I cant believe I am in a different country, never would I have imagined that this would come true. I always wanted to do something like this, but I dont think I was fully prepared to come on my own. I am a fairly independent person, I know that God has given me the ability to handle all things, so He has given me that same ability to handle this.
I went to the school today to check out my classroom and my curriculum and felt completely lost. Remember the time I said that I didnt ever want to be a teacher? That I never wanted to do that? Well.... Here I am... Doing it. I had this strange sense that I am not really qualified to be teaching these children. I have the tangible fear that I will ruin their English skills from the very start. But I also think that I need more confidence in God. I need to get my mind out of the gutter. but I cant help but be completely raw about things.

On a higher note, I was very productive today, I planned our Saturday trip (!!) to Manuel Antonio beach and finalized my finances. Which, finances worried me a bit. I have all I need for rent, but in staying here for 16 weeks, I projected that I can spend 12.75 dollars, which is about 6200 colons on food. Kristen told me she spends about $30 a week, but that was mostly on staple things. So we could really use prayer on that point.
Tonight we are going out for this guy Matts birthday, I am not sure what we are going to do, but I am very excited to meet more people! I am also very surprised at how much my Spanish has picked up in the few days Ive been here. I am still alittle afraid to speak out if I dont have to... But I listen more and more and study when I can. I am very excited to come back and be more fluent!

Day 1

Today was super surreal. Starting out with heading to Chicago and getting lost on the way to trying to find the O'Hare airport.... But making hilarious, slap happy tired memories with my sister, mom and brother in law. It was a lot of fun!
The plane ride wasnt bad, I slept most of the first plane ride just out of sheer exhaustion.. mind you this is sitting straight up with my knees to my chest because there was absolutely NO leg room whatsoever, and the person ahead of me decided to put their seat back. And I had a window seat. Window seats are also not condusive to having to go to the bathroom really badly.... Though they are nice for the view.
Some unexpected things popped up, but everything eventually went smoothly and I am sitting in my new room. I basically started out my time here with a bang, was explained the bussing system (I dont remember it at ALL), went to the grocery store and enjoyed some classic Costa Rican food (plantains are the best here!) and then came to my new home, took a shower, then Kristen and I went shopping for food for the next week. Now I sitting... and its hitting me exactly how tired I am... But the nights not over yet! Going up to the High school thats being built to visit the group that came down... And tomorrow Ill be getting up bright and early to go sit in on classes to see how theyre done... Who doesnt just throw themselves into things these days? :)

Pura Vida

I leave for beautiful Costa Rica in 2 weeks. So I already know that the start of this blog is a little premature, but as excited as I am to get to San Jose, excited I am to start writing down my thoughts on this experience.

I was just thinking the other day that the 10 year old me would be so proud of me right now. I used to pour over National Geographic magazines, research and look through travel agencies and look at all the pictures of all the places I dreamed of going. 10 year old me decided I was going to live a plain and simple life, I would get married have kids, and be nothing. I sold myself short at a young age. Here I am! About to start a new chapter in my life. Its so overwhelming and I am so incredibly excited for the struggles, the experiences, everything! God is so amazing that He set this fire in my heart to do His work, be HIS.

So I guess for starters, I should say what exactly I will be doing down there? Sounds good. Well, I am going to be teaching pre-schoolers English at the school there, and then volunteering my services at the print shop, the church, the school. Where ever else I am needed. I will be living in a small apartment accross the street from the school (everything is very closely knitted together there) with another teacher from Canada, her name is Kristen and we have already talked on skype and I was given an official tour of the apartment. All I think about it Costa Rica, it is infesting my mind as of late and I just cant wait to get there and do something worth while...

With that, the next time I post I will be in another Country, with lots more stories and pictures to be told!