Last post from Costa Rica!

I leave for home on earrrly Monday morning.... planning on spending Sunday night in the airport to save money.... should be exciting! 


Changes.........

Things I want to eat when I get home:
Pancakes with peanut butter & Mrs. Butterworth's. 
Cheese, Crackers, & Deer Bologna
Biscuits & Gravy
Haystacks
Mashed potatoes & Gravy
Toast.  The real kind that starts out as soft bread and you put it in the toaster and it comes out TOAST.  
PBJ
Homemade bread
Poptarts
MEAT, in large portions larger than 2 inches in diameter.
Ice cream
Nickles Bakery donuts
 
Food I'll miss most from Costa Rica::
Gallo Pinto
Picadillo de Chayote
Having scrambled eggs cooked in with my green beans to make them easier to get down.  :-P
Mangos
Girasoles' carrot cake. :-)
SAMUELITOS!!  (a bakery chain with the TASTIEST bread.)  Our favorite "fast food."
Churros
Coffee Coffee Coffee!  ...the smooth kind, that you drink because it tastes good. NOT that bitter, nasty, caffeine-laden stuff we have in the States!

I'm not looking forward to re-learning to flush my toilet paper.  It takes a solid month to train yourself NOT to do this.  ...and at least that long to un-train yourself.  lol 

Something I'm not sure I'll ever get used to: 

Losing electricty but still having water. 

Or losing water but still having electricity.

...when you live in the country, you always lose both at the same time! 

When the electricity went off this morning, I resisted the impulse to conserve water by not flushing the toilet.
The other week when we were without water, I sat in my room in the dark until I realized the lights still worked!

After an intense last week of school, I told my teacher my brain felt like an Etch-A-Sketch::  everything I learned felt organized and understandable, but I was afraid if I shook my head or laid down it would all be erased! ....and I'm pretty sure that's what happened, because the next day I tried to do my homework, and nothing made sense.  :-/

Fun plans this weekend with my bestestest Language School friend Lindy.... going to enjoy every minute! 
So excited about what God has been doing in my life, and what He's going to do... Had such a sweet time with Him this morning without all the electronic distractions. :-)
God is ALWAYS good!  Don't ever forget that!

For now I'm off to town to do some last souvenir shopping and pick up bus tickets to LA PLAYA tomorrow!  :-D   For those of you at home, **4 DAYS!!!!!**

Updateee.....

Okay, so I know I've done really badly with my blog - updating this time... Sorry 'bout that!
I've been jotting little tidbits down here and there, so here's a scattered version of the past several weeks:

We stayed in the SHADIEST hostel ever in Punta Uva:

Nicolas (owner of the Hostel):  (grabs the nearest piece of scrap paper)  “Hey – all of you write your full names on this piece of paper just in case anything happens to you and people come looking for you guys. “
::we look at each other skeptically::
Nicolas: “Hey, one time a guy disappeared from here and they found him three days later, floating in the ocean!  I just wanna know who you guys are in case something happens.” 
In case something happens? Like what?  Like you selling us into the slave trade? 


My widowmaker (in-line water heater for the shower) burned up last month.  Scared me to DEATH.  Flash of light, electrical POP, and here I am, standing in water.  :::shakes head:::  Good thing I was wearing rubber flip flops.  :-P 
I went 2.5 weeks without hot water in my shower, and it was TORTURE.  The water isn't just cold here, it's FRIGID!  ...pretty sure I shaved all the goosebumps off my legs. 

The worst part about going to the beach is having to leave my 501 Spanish Verbs book behind because it’s too heavy. 

I find it strange that the only news from the USA on TV the other week was of Michelle Obama doing pushups on the Ellen show. 
Really?

Guy at the airport:  So you must be, like 21?
Me: Try 8.
Guy:  What?
Me:  *28.*
Guy:  WOW!!  You look so young!!!  You must use a lot of sunscreen! 

Hahhahahahhahahhahahhahahhahhaha
Why yes, I do, thankyou!

I'm still getting rich off of Costa Rica........  I've stopped counting how many colonnes I find on the ground. :-P

High Praise:  The inlaws of my host family think I speak “Just like a tica!”   YES!!  They say I don’t have an accent, so WOOT for that!   …apparently the last girl they hosted was an Israeli/American/something, and none of them could understand her. LOL 
...and I've always been worried about being one of those people who speaks Spanish the way foreigners speak English unintelligibly.   I've worked really hard not to speak with an accent so it's encouraging to hear that it's paid off. 
God gets the glory for any ability I have with this language, though.... there are days when I just want to scream and then give up.  I think that I just can't do this, and I'll never be able to speak well. 
And I know that *I* can't do this. 
All good things come from God, and His power working in and through us!
I've also discovered that "fluent" is a very fluid term.  I've heard people who have lived here for YEARS use poor grammar.  That is so not encouraging.  :-P 

I'm currently taking 3 hours of tutoring a week, and doing some volunteer work at my church and hopefully in LaCarpio beginning next week. 
I have lots of free time right now, so pray that I use it wisely!
I've been battling some discouragement and my biggest temptation right now is just to accept that I'm as good as I'm gonna get and quit.  I want to give up, but I know I can't!   Pray that I'll have the grace to continue and not be overwhelmed.