The Details: Class, Travels, Sports, and Church

Alright, so nothing philosophical here, just an update on my where-abouts and what I've been up to.

Class: So right now I have just one class. It's four hours long and runs from 8:00-12:00 and it's all in Spanish. In two weeks this class will be over and I will start another one similar to it, just more advanced, along with a philosophy course. The whole sitting in class for 4 hours at a time totally kills me, but I suppose it will pay off in the end. We had our first real exam today, so I'll have a good idea of where I'm at come maybe Monday.

Travels: Last weekend, as those of you who read the below posts know, I went to Jaco Beach. It was beautiful. The place a few of my friends and I crashed at was a little sketch. Lots of cucarachas, but thats no biggie :). This weekend, I went to check out this coffee plantation, Café Britt. It was pretty sweet seeing how the coffee grows and is developed. Plus tasting everything was incredible. I'm including pictures from this trip in this post. What was sweet was that the bus to Heredia to the plantation was less than a dollar and there was no entrance fee to go since we had missed the tours. This weekend, I'm hoping to go camp on a beach somewhere, and the following weekend I have loose plans to go to Nicaragua. I'll keep you posted on what develops there.

Church: So, I have begun going to a Bible study on Tuesdays and some sort of service on Thursdays. The "church" I'm attending is not really a church I guess. However, they are the church. They do not consider themselves a religion, rather a group of believers. I get what they're trying to say and do by this. To me this is similar to like a nondenominational church. Anyway, it's funny because it's all in Spanish, so I catch some stuff here and there and so I get the gist of things, but it's so hard to stay focused when its all in Spanish, so sometimes I get distracted and when I come back around I'm always thinking about how they could totally be talkin smack about the gringa and I'd never know as long as they used dense vocab lol. I'm still looking to find someplace to worship Sunday mornings though. Also, this group serves meals to the homeless which is something I'm totally interested in getting involved in.

Sports: I started practicing Rugby last week which presented itself to be a challenge with the language barrier as well. I have taken a liking to the sport, however, I'm not sure once these other classes and my excursions get going if I will have time for this. And I have started to run on the occasion. Hopefully I can get myself in a routine and get back into dece shape.


Welp, I think that is beyond enough for now! Laters!

The Various Coffees I tried

A Coffee Plant

The fresh market

A couple of my friends on the bus

Dream

Dream up something greater than you can imagine comprehending and then go do it! However, don't make the mistake of just walking through it. There is more to living a dream than just being there. Always read and think, but don't let that keep you from ever committing. Love forever. There is nothing more significant that you can do in your life to change this world than to love others. Serve when the opportunity presents itself (and even when it doesn't). Often it's through your service that your love can be given form. Live enough in yourself to know who you are and enough out of yourself to know who others are, as well as who they perceive you are. Remember that the world is broken, but that it's our hands that can mend it.

Beauty

Beauty. The world will continue to be seen in dull colors and imperfect situations so long as you fail to sit and actually take a look. Our eyes and minds are seemingly naturally drawn to the imperfections of life. I sit outside my porch each morning and take a look at this city, and wonder why I don't have a bigger smile on my face. And what I discover is that I have gotten so caught up in the doing of this trip instead of actually living it. So now I choose to slow down, to soak in the beauty, to love each moment, and to serve. We can only live out of ourselves for so long before we are drawn back to who we are. It's strange to say, but if I'm not serving I'm not joyful. My goal for this week is to find a place to worship, and serve. To find someway to make a difference. I want to see beauty in everyone and everything I encounter.

So I wonder where this bus is going...but I really don't care

This morning I got a "tour" of San Jose, it's so cool to hear about the history, the reason behind each monument and such. So after getting a taste of this place, we grabbed a local dish for lunch which obviously included some beans and rice which were phenomenal. Anyway, got back to my new place with my roommates just before the afternoon rain came in. After sitting around for a little, myself and my new buddy Everette weren't about to let some water keep us from going out. So we started walking, stood over a bridge and watched this new world, and I decided we had to just catch a bus to anywhere. So we hop on the first bus we see, take it till were asked to get off, then we explore, listen to some karaoke, watch some futbol, an find our way back to meet our other roommates for dinner. Kit, if you're reeding, this is where you'll be proud; at dinner, myself and Everette get recruited to play rugby, if I can make it to practice wed, I get to play in the game on Sunday. I can't tell you how pumped I am to get involved in something athletic. But this Sunday there is a game and a social then after we deliver meals to the homeless...I can't think of anything more perfect for me. You mean I get to run and hit people, eat, socialize, then serve? Bomb, I'm in. Sold me with dirty.

Anyways, I've never been so pumped to take classes. I can't wait to start improving my Spanish, Anne learning more about anything and everything. Plaus, I am so eager after taking 3 months off, to start running again...high altitude training baby! Welp I hope that wasn't too boring of a read, I promise to be more interesting later. Be sure to check my photo album that I attached! Love ya! Pura Vida!

First night

My travels felt like they went forever. I didn't sleep at all last night so I was pretty exhausted, but nonetheless I had some awesome conversations with some locals and was even offered a part time job creating a program in java for an insurance company that needs to be able to compute individual client risk. I just wish I had taken my cs class more seriously, not too sure I'm totally qualified for this lol. Anyways had me a drink with my roommate at a local place as planned. I already love this place. It is incredibly beautiful. I knew I was heading in the right direction when I looked out the plane window and saw natural design instead of the gridded fields, streets, and lakes that fill the States. Lakes are not me ants to be rectangular lol. Anyways, I am so eager to see more and more of this place and to develop my Spanish. However, as messy as my Spanish is right now, I am pleased with how well I can still communicate and i cant wait till it's just second nature. Well guys Im thinking this is enough for now. Love ya!

Packing

Well leave it to me to be packing 2 hours before I leave for the airport :) You know it's a good sign when all your clothes fit in a small compression sack. I feel a bit like Che packing for some great adventure with 3 inhalers. It's like all I'm bringing is books and meds...and apple. Shoot well I guess I better get this finished up so I can sleep for a few minutes. Thank you to everyone who has supported me in various ways. As I like to say, with total sincerity, my gratitude goes beyond words. Dies te bediga!

Preperation

Just got my wisdom teeth out. Hope that doesn't effect my discernment while abroad. Hard to believe I'll be in Costa Rica in 11 days. The plan is to bring only a backpack. I'm going to try to pack up today some and see what that'll look like.